Take Care of Your Horse

If you have a horse, or work with them, or just like them, it is a good thing to know how to take care of your horse before you get started. Horses are just like people. They want food, water, a place to live, and a place to romp around and play. If they are tired, let them rest, if they are in high spirits, don't yell at them to calm down, but calm them down yourself with a gentle hand and a soothing voice. Love them, take care of them, and get to be friends with your horse.

The first thing I do when I meet a horse is let it get to know me. I don't make any quick movements that might scare the horse. Horses seem to like gentle, quiet people who never act rough or unfairly towards their horses. Some horses are very sensitive to how they are treated. If someone acts rough with them, they get very nervous. In that state, if something startles them, they could be hard to handle.

But, if you are lazy and let the horse do all the work, he may not do what you want. Once, when I was learning how to ride, Bear kept on walking towards my teacher because I was not telling him to do anything, so he did what he wanted to. If you are firm, but not cruel, the horse will respect you and not behave as badly as often.
After riding your horse a lot, the tack (saddle, bridle, etc.) gets very dirty with sweat and dust. When the tack rubs up against the horse, it can be very uncomfortable. So clean it with a sponge every once in awhile. It is a lot of fun to do on a hot day.

Some people give their horses a lot of oats in their feed mix. This is not always such a good idea. They can get colic or founder, two rather dangerous symptoms. Colic is when food or some other foreign object block the intestines. It is sometimes very deadly, but sometimes it passes through without surgery. Founder is a dangerous inflammation in the hoof caused by overfeeding. You can give your horses oats, just not too many.

Just like people, horses like clean, tasty water. If you don't refill and empty it often enough, it will get a nasty smell and a bad taste. When your horse comes in from a hard workout, or a hot day in the sun, they deserve good, clean water with no pieces of straw, food, and dirt in it.

If you did not brush your hair or take a shower, you would get very dirty after a while. During the warm seasons, horses like to roll in the mud and when they come in, they are caked with it. You can brush them with a curry comb, a hard rubber brush, to get out most of the dirt, or a soft body brush for light grooming. If they are covered in dirt you can give them a bath if it is not to cold. It is nice to groom your horse often because if the dirt rubs up against the saddle blanket or other pieces of tack, it can get very uncomfortable for the horse. Its like walking around with your shoe full of sand.

How would you feel if you had to stay in the house all your life, and never took a step outdoors? You might get very bored after a while. Horses don't even have all the toys you have and it can get boring in the stall. Also they could begin to feel cramped. The stalls are usually rather large, but to a horse its not very big. They can't even take seven steps forward. Also they could get fat and lazy from getting no exercise. Furthermore, the barns aren't always lighted very well, so it can get very dark. Staying in the dark a lot, and then being suddenly thrust into a blistering summer afternoon, or a sparkly bright snow-covered day, can give the horse very bad eye problems.

Imagine you are a cat and you have to stand in you litter box all day and your owner never cleaned it. For one thing, it would get stinky, for another you would not want to walk around in all that you-know-what. A horse produces several pounds of manure a day, and the stall can get stinky really fast. Also the horse can get thrush from standing in wet saw dust all the time. Thrush is a fungus which develops in the hoof and makes it soft and hard for the horse to walk. It may be a nasty job, but clean the stall often, your horse will thank you.

This may seem like a lot of work, but let me tell you, the days I spent at the barn were some of my happiest. "Is it worth it?", you ask. For me, it dosen't pay half the amount I am willing to do if I can just be with the creatures. It is really special to be able to just muck out stalls, fill feed buckets, and ride the horses. By the way, give all your horse friends a pat and a carrot for me.