Pro Groom Liv

When to Give Your Horse Electrolytes

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 15:57:01 GMT

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When to Give Horse Electrolytes

Electrolytes, on the most basic level, are salts and minerals that help your equine partner stay hydrated. As a rule of thumb, horses need them when they sweat, and a few other times.

What are Horse Electrolytes?

The major electrolytes are minerals essential for bodily functions, such as muscle contraction, nerve impulse signaling, and maintaining proper hydration.

For equines, the most critical minerals are sodium, calcium, potassium, chloride, magnesium, and bicarbonate.

Of the key electrolytes, sodium is the primary regulator of water in the body and assists in nerve and muscle communications.

Potassium works with sodium to regulate fluid balance, blood pressure, and heart rhythm.

Calcium is required for muscles to contract and for nerves to function properly.

Chloride is the second most abundant electrolyte in horses, just behind sodium, and helps maintain blood volume at an optimal level.

Magnesium assists in muscle relaxation and many metabolic functions.

Horse Sweat and Thirst

Human sweat is mostly water, with a few electrolytes. Horses say “hold my beer” and sweat out water PLUS a vast amount of minerals.

When all is running smoothly, salt will trigger your horse to drink.

When horses sweat, the salty and mineral-y concentrations in the body also drop, as so many minerals are transported via sweat, which may tell your horse they are, in fact, not thirsty.

Chloride, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and a few other trace minerals all need replenishment in addition to your horse’s daily salt intake.

Daily Salt Requirements for Horses

Every equine needs regular salt supplementation, and may only need electrolytes as needed for illness, diarrhea, colic, or sweating.

Salt leaves the body mostly in manure, and we all know how much of that our equine friends like to give us.

To compensate, feed a daily maintenance dose of 1 tablespoon of plain salt for every 500 lbs. Most horses land in the 2 tablespoon a day range. Loose salt on their rations is best.

Salt blocks, mineral blocks, and loose salt

Loose salt on your horse’s feed delivers the required amounts daily.

Blocks leave their dose to them, making it inconsistent at best and impossible to monitor their voluntary intake of salt, not to mention that blocks are designed for livestock, not horses.

Does Your Horse Need Supplementation?

Almost every horse needs additional salt, as provided by you.

Salt is the one thing that every horse needs, and you won’t find it in most feeds.

It’s important to remember that months of training, sweating, and hot weather build up imbalances that you won’t resolve with a few days of supplementation.

Use horse electrolytes when your equine partner:

Sweats excessively, either from the weather or stress, and even on a normal day.
Exercises in humid conditions, as the moisture in the air prevents adequate cooling.
Before long trailering, especially in summer heat.
New exercise routines that are longer or more challenging.
Has diarrhea, and normal hydration is compromised.
Is sick with a virus or bacteria that impacts gut health, or sometimes even a simple colic.

When to Feed Horse Electrolytes

Sweat isn’t the only way equines lose minerals. Drool, breathing, urinating, passing manure, and sweating all provide exit routes for these essential minerals.

Your horse may produce liters of sweat, and each liter of horse sweat has approximately 10 grams of electrolytes.

Before is best

Give electrolytes before they’re needed, within a 4-hour window.

If your horse gets a dose of electrolytes in the morning and doesn’t sweat, the ingredients are quickly and easily excreted in the urine. If they do sweat, the electrolytes given will replace what is lost.

Replacing lost minerals after the fact

You can’t plan for everything, and some situations call for horse electrolytes after the fact.

Illness, diarrhea, colic, digestive problems, and dehydration for unknown reasons warrant supplementation, as they can affect electrolyte uptake.

How to Feed Electrolytes - Powder or Paste?

The goal of electrolyte supplementation is to either stimulate your horse to drink or rebalance mineral levels due to illness or other circumstances, such as sweat loss or diarrhea.

Powder supplements

It’s easy to offer your horse electrolytes in their feed by top-dressing their regular ration. Or offer your horse a few gallons of water with the dose added, alongside fresh water.

These supplements are absorbed in the small intestine and then distributed throughout the body.

Paste supplements

Another option is using a paste.

These highly concentrated tubes deliver electrolytes in a chunk to the horse’s stomach without dilution by feed or water.

Research shows that pastes can irritate the stomach and worsen any gastric ulcers.

The other trouble with pastes is the concentration. The body will send water from the bloodstream into the gut to dilute this chunk of minerals, thus making dehydration worse.

Best Protocols for Giving Horse Electrolytes

Your vet will always be the best source of advice for any particular situation.

It’s also vital to know if your horse is dehydrated or safely hydrated.

Giving electrolytes with water creates an isotonic solution that mimics the water balance in sweat and replaces water and minerals.

Giving electrolytes without water can cause fluid from the bloodstream to collect in the digestive tract, worsening dehydration.

Giving water without electrolytes to an already dehydrated horse further dilutes the minerals.

The simple answer is to check with your vet if you are concerned about dehydration and the best way to help your horse.

Monitor Hydration After Giving Electrolytes

There are two ways to check for hydration.

One is the skin tent test, where you pinch a bit of skin on the neck and see if it snaps back quickly.

The best way is to check your horse’s gums. Sticky or dry gums indicate dehydration.

Signs of Dehydration

Your horse may be dehydrated if they have:

Fatigue or lethargy.
Skin that has lost elasticity and doesn’t snap back.
Dry or sticky gums.
Trouble returning to normal heart rate and respiratory rate after work.
Darkly colored urine.
Fecal balls that are drier, smaller, and harder than usual.
Weird muscle function, as if they are cramped.

In hot weather, dehydration makes your horse more susceptible to heat stress and overheating.

Choosing the Best Horse Electrolytes

I look for ingredients that don’t contain any words ending in -ose (like dextrose), as these are fancy names for “sugar”. Metabolically challenged horses don’t need that.

However, sugars in electrolytes aid in the absorption of the ingredients, which is great for horses that don’t need to worry so much about sugars.

Keep an eye on the weather and how much your horse sweats, and remember to give electrolytes before they sweat.

Fancy terms like microencapsulation technology mean the ingredients can survive stomach acid and be digested in the small intestine, where they are best used.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the signs of electrolyte imbalance in horses?

You might see fatigue, muscle cramping or stiffness, weakness, stumbling, and slower recovery after exercise.

You may also see reduced appetite, an abnormal heart rate, or signs of dehydration, such as dry gums and darker urine.

How do I know if my horse needs electrolyte supplements?

If your equine partner is stressed, trailering, or working in heat and humidity, use electrolytes beforehand.

Always give with water and monitor gums and skin for signs of dehydration.

Are there any risks to giving my horse too many electrolytes?

Feeding too many electrolytes can irritate the stomach and worsen gastric ulcers, and create an imbalance that usually clears with excessive drinking and urination.

Consult your vet for the ideal protocols for your horse.

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Horses and Fireworks - How to Help the Stressed Horse

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 14:24:55 GMT

Everything I share here comes directly from proequinegrooms.com. Thanks for being here — your curiosity and care for horses help raise the bar for all of us in the equine community. At ProEquineGrooms.com, I believe every horse owner deserves access to accurate, trustworthy, and practical information about equine care.

Horses and fireworks are often a stressful combination. There are whizzing sounds, loud crashing bangs, and, to top it off, a light show high in the sky. This is a tricky thing to train your equine friend for, considering that fireworks typically happen once or twice a year, definitely on the Fourth of July and sometimes on New Year’s Eve. The upside is that most fireworks displays are relatively short. There are many things horse owners can do to help keep their horses safe during fireworks season.

Tips for Helping Horses During Fireworks

While you may never be able to hide the fireworks’ noise from your horse completely, you can certainly take some measures to mitigate the sights and loud noises.

Some of these tips should be implemented on an ongoing basis, while others are good ideas for the big day. Even the smaller fireworks you use at home can terrify animals.

Remembering that horses are flight animals will help you develop a plan to keep your horse safe, despite their need to flee a familiar environment if they feel like the local fireworks displays put them in harm’s way.

Horses and Fireworks – Train Early and Consistently

Horse training should include building confidence, a daily task that helps them cope with new or challenging situations. Here are some things to do year-round before the big fireworks displays light up the night.

You’ll need to distinguish between the fireworks sounds and the flashing lights – perhaps your horse is bothered by one but not the other. Then, you can focus on desensitizing and making your barn safe for any scenario.

Desensitize Your Horse Beforehand – Apps Can Help

The goal of desensitization is to acclimate your horse to new sounds and experiences so that panic reactions fade. Unfortunately, flooding is a commonly touted (and cruel) way to do this. Instead, focus on creating a link between a sound or experience and a positive reward.

Nothing gets an animal acclimated to booms and whirls better than positive reinforcement training. Desensitize your horse to the sounds of July 4th with an app, video, or game that includes fireworks sounds. There are dozens of pet-desensitizing videos on YouTube.com that you could play for your doggos and equine buddies long before the big holidays and reward them greatly as you do.

Baby steps and focus on the positive relationship

Start small. Let your horse hear the fireworks for a few seconds, and reward greatly. If you do this for 10 seconds a day over several weeks, you can gradually increase the exposure time.

Don’t force your horse to deal with the sounds. Instead, work on building the relationship between the sound and a reward, such as a scratch, a treat, or another kind gesture. The goal is to train your equine buddy to think, “Oh boy, oh boy, a treat for me; nothing is wrong; these booms mean rewards, and I’m so happy about it.”

This YouTube video has an hour of sounds to work with.

Calming Supplements

Many equine calming products contain magnesium, tryptophan, thiamine (B1), and herbs that may help your horse chill.

Because there are so many, with various ingredient lists, it’s best to try them out months in advance.

You need to know how long it takes for them to take effect and how well they work. Calming supplements may not be the only solution to the holiday shenanigans, but they are part of a larger plan.

Discuss with your veterinarian any supplements you plan to use, as they may interact with prescription medications.

Prescription medications from your vet

Your veterinarian can help you find the best medications and sedation to safely keep your horse calm without becoming another potential reason for injury. The dosage may vary, too, depending on how they react. Additionally, more is not always better.

Ensure that you and your veterinarian have clear instructions regarding prescriptions, supplements, and emergency contact information. The noise of the fireworks means vets are extra busy.

If possible and advised by your vet, add your supplement and sedation plan into your normal routine as a test drive. Be aware that the firework sounds can alter their stress levels, but you want to ensure the sedation isn’t too excessive.

Better living through chemistry, as they say, and this goes double for horses and fireworks.

As July 4th Approaches

Now it’s time to get more specific about preparing your barn for the holiday festivities. There are several things you can do with your neighbors during the fireworks season to plan.

Check pastures, stalls, and fencing

If your horse will be in the barn, pasture, or both, make things as safe as possible. Check fencing boards, gates, gate latches, and posts for safety. For stalls, ensure that no boards are loose, there are no tripping hazards with mats, and the walls are free of protruding objects. Pastures need an inspection to verify that no holes or obstacles could trip your horse.

Some horses may choose to jump out of the window. Have a plan for this. It may be safer to close stall doors and windows to minimize exposure to bright flashes.

Keep your horse’s ground and bedding clear

We know it’s best to feed and water on ground level, but for one night, make sure everything is off the ground. Instead of water troughs, hang buckets. Slow feeders should be higher. The goal is to remove anything that could cause your horse to get stuck. Move any treat balls to an area that isn’t facing the firework displays.

Know the festivities schedule for your area

Spend a few minutes finding out what public fireworks displays will be happening. You can map them to get a rough idea of where the sights and sounds are coming from and block views.

Also, know your local fireworks laws! Many areas ban fireworks. Find out who to call to report unruly hooligans. Upsetting a jerky neighbor is much better than paying a vet bill.

Talk to your neighbors

Neighborly goodwill goes a long way. Do your neighbors have horses, too? Can you share ideas that have worked in the past? Or ask that their celebrations be held farther away from your horses?

What equine vets will be on call?

It’s terrible to think about, but ice storms and July 4th are busy vet days, especially after hours. Does your vet’s office have backup plans in case they’re too busy? Is there an equine hospital that can take your horse if need be?

Have the trailer and first aid kit ready

Go into this day with a solid plan to minimize risks for everyone. If there’s the slimmest chance you’ll need to move your horse, have your trailer ready with bedding and hay. Then you can load up and go in case of emergencies.

It’s also an excellent opportunity to double-check that your vet kit contains clean wound care items, such as wraps, cotton, diapers, wound cleaner, and pain medications. Check expiration dates, too, and ensure all your meds are within the safe temperature zone.

This article has tips on what to put in your first aid kit.

Change the routine for your horse early, and fireworks are not such a huge deal

The most important thing to remember about horses and fireworks is to maintain your horse’s routine as much as possible, while also taking some safety measures into account. If your horse usually is out at night but does better in a stall for scary events, introduce the stall during their regular turnout times about a week in advance so they won’t be surprised. They can always go back out after a few hours.

The idea is to “test-drive” a safe routine before implementing it for real. Do the training to desensitize.

Horses and Fireworks on the Big Day

Get your horse ready as if the booms, loud bangs, and whizzes don’t even exist. Also, if you choose to leave a halter on your horse, it must be a breakaway. If you don’t have one, you can pick up an inexpensive leather crown piece to modify an existing halter.

Exercise your horse beforehand

Horses chill out after a wonderful day of turnout, playing with friends, and a nice ride or lunge. Let your horse get their ya-ya’s out during the day to make settling down easier later. Riding during the big show is not a great idea!

Ensure that your interactions are positive. Your horse should feel confident in you after a ride or hack.

Identify your horse with permanent markings

Often, horses do best in the field rather than in the barn. In that case, you may have a horse pop the fence and take a joy ride around the area. Mark your horse with your and your vet’s contact information.

You can do this with a luggage tag in their mane or tail. You can also write that info on their hooves in permanent marker. BUT! Those methods are only good if someone can catch your horse.

Alternatively, use grooming sprays like Show Touch Up to write your phone number in massive print across your horse’s body. Now, it’s safer for everyone, and a loose horse’s info can be seen without the need to catch them. Hopefully, their herd animal instincts keep escapees close.

Some fly bonnets have padding over the ears to muffle sounds.

Use earplugs

Pop some fuzzy pom-poms or fluffy horse earplugs into your horse’s satellite dish ears. Secure this setup with a fly bonnet under a breakaway halter. You can skip the poms and use a fly bonnet with built-in noise canceling if your horse is weird about things in their ears.

Again, test this out well in advance of when you need the sound dampening. July 3rd is not the day.

Close windows and doors in the barn

Closing up the barn accomplishes a few things. You can block some noise, block some views, and also prevent escapes. A panicked horse through the window is not unheard of, so be prepared for this. I don’t have statistics on this, but it’s rare. But still! Horses!

If you think your horse settles better when able to see the show, leave the windows open but put a few stall chains across them so there is a sight line, and jumping out is less likely.

Keep the lights on

The barn lights make the outside world less clear, making the lights and sights fuzzy and less dramatic.

Barn lights also provide better visibility for checking on the horses. If that doesn’t work for your setup, have some light sources readily available to check on everyone, but make sure your horse is familiar with what flashlights look like in the dark.

Use slow feeders

Nothing says relaxation more than a giant hay play bag filled to the brim with delicious, distracting snacks. You may need to test out the best location so your horse can keep an eye on things, or whether the hay bag should lure your horse into a less visually stimulating spot. It will depend on what your horse finds soothing.

If your horse is in the field, you can offer hay if their pasture is sparse.

Play music

Many horses don’t mind music around them, while others are highly sensitive to it. Try mellow classical music or talk radio to drown out the booms and loud noises. Do you know what your horse likes? Folk music? Polka? The possibilities are endless.

Be present

If your horse loves hanging out with you, be with your horse during worrying times. I don’t suggest holding your equine buddy for two reasons: they may run over you, and you are denying them the opportunity to find a safe place for themselves.

However, being there often provides reassurance, as long as your heart rate isn’t signaling panic.

Yes, occupy your horse with food, but don’t leave nets or tubs on the ground. Maybe.

Is Your Barn in Danger From a Fire?

It’s unlikely that a rogue firework from a show miles away could cause a barn fire, but it’s worth having fire safety precautions in place. It’s more likely stray sparks from a human or embers from bonfire nights would be to blame. Keep these things in mind:

Cameras in the barn to monitor from a distance are one place to start.

Are there current, working fire extinguishers inside and outside the structures? Rogue fires won’t pick a spot that makes an extinguisher handy, so plan accordingly with lots of locations.

Do you have a barn fire evacuation plan? With a safe place to transport horses?

Thanks for reading — and for being the kind of horse owner who values learning and doing better. There’s so much more to explore at ProEquineGrooms.com, where every article is written to make quality horse care accessible to all.

Understanding Ration Balancers for Horses: A Guide

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:44:28 GMT

Part of understanding the complexities of an equine diet is knowing the options available. Horse owners must consider forages, grains, supplements, and all manner of bagged, commercial feeds. It’s enough to make us hire an equine nutritionist (which is the best idea ever) to help sort it out. In an effort to simplify the equine diet, ration balancers provide a way to add nutrients without too many added calories.

Key Highlights

A ration balancer is a concentrated feed designed to supplement forage-based horse diets.
It provides essential protein, amino acids, vitamins, and trace minerals without excess calories.
This tool for equine nutrition is ideal for equines that maintain weight easily or don’t need a full grain serving.
The feeding rate for a ration balancer is low, typically around 1-2 pounds per day.
It helps fill nutritional gaps that are common in hay or pasture.
Ration balancers are a flexible and efficient way to ensure your horse’s diet is complete.

What Are Ration Balancers for Horses?

Ration balancers are bagged commercial feeds that provide a powerful punch of protein, vitamins, and minerals without extra calories. They complete the nutrition profile of a forage-based diet without the threat of added weight gain. They are a multi-vitamin instead of lunch.

Core components and nutrient profile – protein, vitamins, and minerals

A primary component of ration balancers for horses is protein. While crude protein levels can range from 10-35%, many are over 25%. Amino acids and proteins are vital for muscle development and overall health. Lysine and methionine are especially important for this.

Many hay forages try their hardest to retain the nutritional power of grass pasture, but drying eliminates many of these, such as Vitamin E. The soil in which the hay grows also influences the nutritional values. For example, selenium is present in the soil, and therefore the hay, in some areas, but not others.

The minerals copper and zinc, which help with hair growth and pigment production, are also often missing from forages.

The main benefits of the dense nutrient profile ration balancer for horses are:

Fills Forage Gaps: It perfectly complements a forage-only diet by supplying what’s missing.
Supports Overall Health: Provides the building blocks for strong hooves, a healthy coat, and proper immune function.
Concentrated Nutrition: Delivers a wide range of nutrients in a small, low-calorie serving.

Typical grains vs. ration balancers for horses

The primary differences between grains and balancers are their purposes and feeding rates. Balancers provide nutrients without calories and require fewer pounds of product per day. Grains and complete feeds provide calories, nutrients, and energy in much larger volumes.

Typical commercial feeds offer a few more things, namely calories, volume, and energy. Traditional feeds, such as complete feeds or performance grains, are formulated to be a significant energy source and are fed in larger quantities.

In contrast, a ration balancer, also known as a forage balancer, is not designed to be a primary calorie source. Its job is to meet nutrient requirements for protein, vitamins, and minerals. While a complete feed might require you to feed 5-7 pounds per day to get the necessary fortification, a ration balancer provides those same nutrients in just 1-2 pounds. A ration balancer is all about supplementing a forage-based diet with minimal calories and the nutrients that hay lacks.

Sugars and starches

Generally, complete feeds and other formulations tend to have higher non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) values. NSC is a measure of the sugars and starches in feeds and should not be above 10-12% for horses with metabolic disorders, overweight horses, those with heaves, or similar medical conditions.

Sticking with a low-NSC value balancer is best for many situations.

Allowing horses to share feeds won’t guarantee that each receives the proper nutrients.

When Should Horse Owners Use Ration Balancers?

This often depends on your horse’s caloric needs. Forage analysis shows what your hay is lacking in nutrients, so it’s easy to supplement there.

Use a ration balancer for horses if they need more calories or less sugar in their diet.

Use a calorie-dense bagged feed for nutrients and energy if calories don’t stick.

To decide which is best, a forage analysis can be very helpful, as it shows what your hay is lacking. If your forage provides enough calories but is low in protein or minerals, a ration balancer is a perfect fit. If they need more calories for work or to gain weight, and your forage isn’t enough, a traditional feed is more appropriate.

Types of horses that benefit

There are a few equine types that benefit from balancers:

The “easy keeper” or “air fern” that blinks at feed and gains weight.
Horses needing a low NSC diet.
Equines with forage-based diets that provide plenty of energy without supplementation.

Consider the season

Pasture-kept horses can thrive in the summer and have most of their nutrition directly from the grass. However, as the grass life cycle changes, dormancy and overgrazing alter the nutritional profile and, in some cases, availability. Supplementation with hay is common in these situations, which may also require a ration balancer in the off months to make up for the poor pasture.

The All-Important Omega-3 Fatty Acids

We know that horses require more Omega-3 fatty acids than Omega-6 fatty acids, but equine diets rarely allow for this. Most horses need an Omega-3 boost in the form of flax, chia, fish oil, or other healthy sources.

Some ration balancers for horses contain added Omega-3s, while some do not. It’s easy to add delicious, stabilized flax to any horse’s nutritional plan.

Omega-3s are easy to store and feed.

The Role of the Equine Nutritionist

Your farrier, vet, saddle fitter, and tack shop owner are all experts in their respective fields, so it only stands to reason to work with an expert in nutrition. A doctor of equine nutrition will analyze your horse’s health, age, weight, training plan, current diet, metabolic issues, skin condition, and more to formulate diets to keep your horse in good health. Reputable nutritionists are independent, affordable, and support your horse’s health and wellbeing as much as you do.

A forage-only diet is unlikely to be best for most horses, as forage availability, season, and type vary from region to region and do not account for individual horse needs. Using ration balancers for horses to supplement a forages provides fuel for muscle development and overall health with proteins, vitamins, minerals, and sometimes Omega-3 fatty acids.

The Best Horse Grooming Tools for Summer

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 20:40:41 GMT

The Greatest Horse Grooming Tools for Summer

It’s hot. You’re hot. Your horse is hot. Sometimes you feel like all you are doing is smearing sweaty hair all over your horse. The best horse grooming tools for summer are simple, versatile, and suitable for every season. The summer months can usually make a shiny coat bloom in the sun, with appropriate elbow grease and the right grooming tools.

Feed the Shine

There’s no use in buying all of the brushes and sprays if your horse’s diet is junk. The bloom that appears on a healthy coat is the result of diet, elbow grease, and products.

When designing an equine diet, it is easy to overlap ingredients and supplements, sometimes to the detriment of your horse. It’s also easy to keep things too simple and ignore crucial ingredients that support horse health. Perhaps the most affordable way to create a balanced diet that accounts for age, health, diseases, hoof quality, metabolic status, training plan, and more is to consult an equine nutritionist.

The basics of equine nutrition

Start with forage. Then consider water, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and energy.

Hay and sometimes pasture should be the basis of your horse’s diet. Then you can layer on necessary supplements and bagged feeds to round out the diet.

Calories, vitamins, minerals, and fats may be missing from a plain hay and pasture diet. What’s missing, or in excess, varies depending on the soil the hay and pasture sprout from, as well as your horse’s age, weight, lifestyle, and other variables.

You may need to add hoof supplements for shelly feet, vitamin E if there is no pasture, Omega-3 fatty acids to boost skin and coat health, daily salt for electrolyte maintenance, protein for hard-working dams or athletes, or vitamins and minerals to complete the profile if hay and pasture are lacking.

Omega-3s for shine

When it comes to skin and hair, the minerals zinc, copper, and Omega-3 fatty acids are the most important. Zinc and copper help maintain hair color and prevent sun bleaching. Omega-3s should vastly outnumber Omega-6s to promote sebum, the natural oil that creates waterproofing and shine.

Chia and flax are two easy ways to deliver Omega-3s.

Learn more about Omegas and skin health here.

Brushes and Tools When Your Horse is Dry

There are very few substitutes for elbow grease. Lifting dirt and spreading sebum create shine and help protect the hair from future stains.

Great for bathing and daily curry action.

Grooming gloves

Keep your nails clean (mostly) as you curry your way to a clean horse. Aside from the convenience of wearing your curry comb, grooming gloves give you more feedback from your horse, allowing you to vary the pressure and easily work on tricky areas like ears and legs.

Grooming gloves are also fantastic for shedding excess hair year-round and for bathing.

Finishing gloves

Once you have curried and brushed, you can add a layer of shine with or without product attached. Jute gloves help smooth the hair and spread the sebum around. They essentially buff the coat into a gloss.

If you need to use a shine spray, fly spray, or any other grooming product, applying it with finishing gloves ensures a smooth, streak-free application.

Dandy, hard, and soft brushes

Many of us learn to use the hard or dandy brush first, then follow it up with a soft brush. It’s best to throw this notion out the window and use the brush that your horse finds the most comfortable. Some like a deep scratch provided by a stiffer dandy brush, while others only want a feather touch with the softest brush imaginable. Use the one your horse prefers. You can always follow up with a cloth if there are loose hairs.

Cactus cloth

The cactus cloth is also handy, like a finishing glove, to buff in some shine. The stiffer texture of the cactus cloth also makes sweat mark removal easy, and you can use it in the wash rack for bathing.

Because it’s a little stiffer than a washcloth or jute, some horses may not love the feeling on bellies, faces, or other sensitive areas.

No-rinse shampoo or spot remover spray

While no-rinse shampoo sprays are amazing in winter, they are also quite handy in summer if you need to lift the last layer of dirt from the coat.

These spot removers are also super for touching up stains and chrome at horse shows, and for removing smells from horses and dogs alike.

Rubbing alcohol

I also keep a spray bottle of alcohol and water on hand. I use one of those empty spray bottles that you can fill with whatever you like. Rubbing alcohol evaporates much faster than water, so if you or your horse needs an extra hand cooling off, spritz some of the mix and get thee to some wind. Horses with anhidrosis will need all the help they can get cooling off, so stash some of these bottles around the ring so you can spray your horse as you ride.

A cactus cloth has many uses.

Hoof Care in Summer

For most horses, hoof growth speeds up a little in summer. This can be great if there are cracks that need to grow out. You may also find that more frequent bathing or muddy conditions necessitate some extra hoof care.

Hoof pick

The best hoof picks can get into tiny grooves and remove rocks. Having a hoof brush attached to a pick, or as a separate tool, lets you deep clean year-round.

The brush is especially handy before applying polish for the show ring.

Hoof conditioner

It’s satisfying to use a hoof product to add luster and shine, but are they necessary? In some cases, hoof conditioners, hardeners, or other goop can cause damage to an already-compromised hoof.

However, you may want to add a layer of hoof conditioner before turning out into mud or bathing to help mitigate the wet-dry cycle that can create thrush and cracks.

This article explains more about hoof dressings and hoof health.

Shine spray for horse shows

It’s always nice to add a little bit of extra shine for the show ring. A simple sheen spray adds luster, or go for a shine-boosting spray to add a mega-watt, mirror-like shine to your horse.

Shine products enhance your horse’s natural shine, help set quarter marks, and can detangle manes and tails.

I’ll never use a stiff green hose again!

Horse Grooming Tools for Summer Bathing

While it’s tempting to bathe all day, every day, you shouldn’t need to. If your horse’s nutrition is balanced and your elbows are likely to fall off soon, your regular grooming routine should only require shampoo every once in a while.

Shampoo

Choosing the best shampoo helps your horse’s coat stay healthy. Choose a mild formulation for added shine. Use a whitening formula for spots that need extra stain removal oomph. Color-depositing variations are ideal for combating bleached coats. Specialty formulas with sensitive skin ingredients help soothe the skin.

Sweat scraper

It’s not always best to sweat-scrape your horse in hot weather. Science tells us that leaving the water on your horse benefits them more than removing it. However! Many horses dislike the feeling of excess water dripping. In which case, scrape away.

You can also use a sweat scraper to save water while bathing. Scrape away suds before rinsing to minimize water use.

The styles with the flexible rubber edge are best for sensitive horses. Other styles combine a shedding blade on one side with a sweat scraper on the other.

Flexi hose and nozzle

Never roll a hose again! Flexible hoses are ideal for keeping a wash rack area tidy. Pair that with an adjustable nozzle for an easy bath time. The FAN setting is great for rinsing legs. Aim the fan down and squeegee all the way to the hoof. Tails are rinsed easily with this method, too.

Health Care Tools

All items in your horse’s grooming box support their health. This holds for body brushes and every grooming implement that you own, as well as specific health items – like thermometers.

Clippers

Trimmers are super for light clipping and tidying up, like ear edges, bridle paths, and wayward hairs. Body clippers and shears are best for trace clips and a full body clip. While it’s great fun to say “hair is natural, why would you shave it,” the reality is that some horses can’t have comfort and skin health without clipping.

Thermometer and stethoscope

If you were only allowed to know six things about your horse, they should be their temperature, pulse, respirations, digital pulses, gut sounds, and gums. These vital signs are just that – vital tidbits of knowledge about your horse’s health that can alert you to laminitis, colic, fever, and injury long before their mannerisms give it away.

Tick picker tool

There is no reality in which ticks should be handled without an easy way to pluck them off. A simple tick picker tool will save you much time and hassle trying to wrangle these parasites from your horse.

Fly spray and sheets

Speaking of parasites, flies of all varieties have no good business bothering your horse. A good fly spray and a fly sheet do wonders for your horse’s comfort. For maximum protection, add a fly mask and fly boots to minimize stomping and other harmful impacts.

The summer months can usually make a shiny coat bloom in the sun, with appropriate elbow grease and the right grooming tools.

Understanding Pasture-Associated Laminitis in Horses

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Mon, 18 May 2026 15:28:24 GMT

How to hopefully avoid the dreaded spring grass founder.

Pasture-associate laminitis (PAL) in horses is not something new, but instead a new name for what many of us understand is the direct path between spring (or fall) grass and laminitis. How this mechanism works is understood more and more every day, and we know that horses with metabolic disorders are at a higher risk of laminitis and possibly founder, too.

Key Highlights

Here are the key takeaways about pasture-associated laminitis:

This painful condition is often caused by eating too much grass high in nonstructural carbohydrates (sugars and starches).

Horses with equine metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance are at a higher risk.

Early signs of laminitis include reluctance to move, heat in the hooves, and an increased digital pulse.

Preventive measures include managing body condition, using a grazing muzzle, and limiting time on lush pastures.

If the condition worsens, it can lead to founder, which is the displacement of the coffin bone within the hoof capsule.

How Laminitis Develops in Horses

The development of laminitis is a complex event that affects the whole body, not just the hooves. It often begins with a systemic inflammatory response issue that disrupts normal body functions, such as a fever. Other types of laminitis develop from short- or long-term work on hard ground, as a secondary development of healthy limbs after an injury to one, or from exposure to black walnut trees or shavings. All types deal with reduced blood flow to the hooves and inflammation of the laminae, regardless of the cause of laminitis.

Laminitis is characterized by reduced blood flow to the feet, swelling and weakening of the internal laminae of the hoof, and intense pain. Many horses also develop equine founder, in which the damaged hooves can no longer support the bones within the hoof. The coffin bone will sink or rotate in the hoof.

Laminae and Related Structures of the Horse Hoof

The coffin bone is attached to the hoof wall by the laminae inside the hoof.

The laminar layer is where finger-like projections from the coffin bone meet matching projections on the inner surface of the hoof wall. These structures interlock almost like a handshake, helping hold the bone securely in place while still allowing the hoof wall a little natural movement.

The inner surface of the hoof wall contains the primary epidermal layer. This layer resembles rows of tiny fingers and is made of many layers of keratinized cells.

The secondary dermal layer begins along the outer surface of the coffin bone. It also has finger-like projections, but there are more of them, and they are longer than those in the primary epidermal layer. The cells here are more similar to skin cells. They help deliver nutrients through blood flow, provide structural support for both the hoof and the leg, and absorb shock each time the horse moves.

During laminitis, the laminae become weakened and inflamed, which causes significant pain. As the damage progresses, the laminae may no longer be able to hold the coffin bone in place, allowing it to rotate or sink.

While we mainly notice trouble in the front hooves, it can happen to all feet.

How Equine Founder Happens

When the laminae weaken and die, the bond holding the coffin bone in place begins to fail. The horse’s body weight, combined with the pull of the deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT) attached to the coffin bone, puts immense pressure on this already compromised structure.

The DDFT helps a horse walk by pulling the hoof up and behind the horse to propel them forward. As laminitis weakens the attachment inside the hoof, the constant tension in the DDFT pulls at that attachment, thus moving the coffin bone away from the hoof wall.

Rotation occurs when the pull of the DDFT causes the tip of the coffin bone to rotate downward toward the sole of the hoof. Sinking, a more severe outcome, occurs when the entire laminar connection fails, causing the coffin bone to drop further within the hoof capsule. The bone can pop through the sole of the hoof. You may see the outline of the bone on the sole before this happens.

In desperate situations, a surgical procedure is performed to sever the DDFT. This scientific article summary suggests that it can be helpful in some cases.

The Role of Insulin and Metabolism

Metabolism plays a huge role in many laminitis cases. Conditions like pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID, formerly called Cushing’s disease), equine metabolic syndrome (EMS), and insulin resistance (IR) can make a horse much more susceptible. These horses have difficulty regulating insulin levels in response to dietary sugar. This response is known as insulin dysregulation.

A horse’s body and start to ignore insulin’s response to blood glucose levels during insulin resistance. In response, more insulin releases, creating hyperinsulinemia (high levels of insulin) in the blood.

High insulin levels are a direct trigger of laminitis, as they affect the blood supply to the hooves and can alter the laminar cells, weakening the connection between the wall of the hoof and the coffin bone.

This scientific article details the possible mechanisms for PAL in horses.

Overview of Pasture-Associated Laminitis in Horses

Pasture-associated laminitis is directly related to diet and can result from eating grass pasture or other high-sugar, high-starch feeds, especially in large volumes. Because it involves elevated insulin levels, it’s termed endocrinopathic because insulin is an endocrine hormone.

Previous understanding of this process focused on fructan overload, but it’s now understood that insulin is the primary cause of PAL. Pasture-associated laminitis is a form of endocrinopathic laminitis because it involves elevated levels of insulin, which is an endocrine hormone.

Any horse, of any breed, can develop pasture-associated laminitis. This includes fit performance horses and pasture ornaments. But a horse with PPID, EMS, or IR has elevated insulin already, and sugar and starch initiate even more insulin, which puts these horses at a higher risk of PAL.

This study reveals that almost 90% of laminitic horses in the study group had underlying metabolic disorders without showing any outward signs with excessive hair growth.

This study examines risk factors for recurrent endocrinopathic laminitis.

Why Horses Are at Risk on Pasture

Grasses have fluctuating levels of sugars and starches, with stressful conditions causing those levels to rise to safeguard the plant’s health and growth. In some places, pasture is thick, easily grown, and not like the scrubby, low-sugar plants that wild horses safely forage on.

The horse’s digestive system also works against them here. Their delicate constitutions do best with fibrous, low-nutrient forage that’s eaten slowly and consistently. Pasture is often low in fiber but packs a punch in the delicious sugar department.

Pasture can, just like a feed bag busted open by a horse, flood their digestive systems with insulin-stimulating ingredients.

Causes of Pasture-Associated Laminitis

The main culprit is the high level of nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) found in certain types of grass, especially during periods of rapid growth.

Structural carbohydrates

These plant ingredients are in cell walls and outer coverings of grains. Simply put, they are the fiber that gives the plant structure. You may see them referred to as cellulose and hemicellulose.

Horses by themselves can’t digest this fiber. Instead, they rely on gut microbes in the hindgut to digest the fiber, providing energy and heat.

Non-structural carbohydrates

NSC’s are starches, sugars, and fructans stored inside the plant cells. The inside portions of grains also store them. Plants use these energy reservoirs for growth and survival during stressful periods, like frosty mornings.

They are easily digested by horses, primarily in the small intestine, but microbes in the hindgut also contribute to their breakdown. The hindgut and its microbes are where laminitis can start to brew.

Nonstructural Carbohydrates (NSCs) in Grasses

As an energy source for plants, NSCs are required for plant survival, but may be dangerous for horses when consumed in large quantities, especially for horses with metabolic disorders. Unfortunately, NSC levels fluctuate, so laminitis risk does too.

Times when sugars in grasses are the highest

Sudden growth spurts, such as the spring and fall. The rapid growth creates plants low in fiber and high in tasty carbs.

During the day, especially in late afternoon, the sun stimulates grass to photosynthesize. Sunny days create more NSCs than cloudy days.

During frosty or chilly mornings. The part of the day matters!

After the pasture is mowed.

Overgrazed pastures. This not only stresses the plant but also exposes the bottom inches of the grass to grazing, where most of the sugars hang out, regardless of how tall the grass is.

As grass goes to seed. It takes a lot of energy to reproduce!

Bacterial Imbalances and Digestive Factors

The horse’s hindgut is home to many microbes, primarily to digest fiber. Some also feed on sugars and starches.

The horse’s digestive tract processes many NSCs in the small intestine before the hindgut. However, lush pasture or grain binging with excess NSCs means some sugars and starches pass undigested into the hindgut.

Now this is when it gets messy. In the hindgut, that overflow of NSCs will trigger a frenzy among the microbes, leading to rapid fermentation, a shift in pH balance, and a major die-off of the fiber-loving bacteria. All of this produces endotoxins that easily enter the bloodstream, triggering whole-body inflammation and subsequent laminitis.

Insulin and Pasture-Associated Laminitis

There is also the relationship between glucose and insulin to consider. NSCs in pasture grass, grains, or hays will trigger the release of insulin.

We know that insulin can affect blood flow by vasodilating blood vessels. However, with insulin-resistant metabolic disorders, vasoconstrictive factors are abundant, specifically endothelin-1.

The cells lining the blood vessels in the hoof produce the protein endothelin-1; when insulin resistance increases, this protein causes the vessels in the hoof to constrict, increasing the risk of laminitis.

IR also interferes with nitric oxide, a regulatory agent that mediates blood and oxygen flow to tissues. When nitric oxide levels decline, normal circulation is impaired.

This is why the already high insulin levels in PPID or EMS horses increase the risk of severe hoof damage. Adding sugary grass or feed increases that risk.

Signs of Pasture-Associated Laminitis

There are well-documented, obvious signs of laminitis, including hesitancy or refusal to walk or turn, bounding digital pulses, and hot hooves. And it might be that PAL comes on like a surprise thunderstorm, or you may only get the slightest hints of trouble.

Prevention and early intervention are the best ways to help your horse avoid a terrible fate.

What you may see

Many horses will come in from grazing acting a little tender-footed. This may also happen after a farrier visit. This soreness, even mild, is your first clue that something is brewing.

You may also see:

Short, stiff stride
Heat in the hooves
Strong digital pulse
Reluctance to move
Shifting weight from foot to foot or not shifting at all
Obvious lameness
Standing with front feet stretched out or rocking back onto the heels
Difficulty turning
Increased heart rate
Increased respiratory rate
Strong digital pulses
Lying down more than normal
A stretched white line

Stages of laminitis progression

Laminitis progresses through several stages, and the outcome depends heavily on how quickly it’s addressed. Laminitis onset begins during the developmental stage, which occurs after the horse is exposed to a trigger. During this time, there are no visible symptoms, but damage is beginning inside the hoof.

The next phase is acute laminitis, which is when the classic signs of pain, heat, and lameness appear. This is a critical window for intervention. If the inflammation can be controlled quickly, there is hope for healing and recovery.

Prolonged damage inside the hoof can lead to founder when the coffin bone moves. Recovery and healing from this stage is long and arduous.

When to contact a veterinarian

The unfortunate aspect of hoof trouble is that most conditions look the same. You may hope for an abscess, but it’s a bruise or hidden street nail. You could be thinking bruise, but it’s a quarter crack starting. All of these can also look exactly like laminitis, and all deserve prompt pain relief and a proper diagnosis.

Call your veterinarian immediately. Time is of the essence, and there is not a vet on the planet who will mind a quick phone call from you. Equine laminitis is highly painful, and good outcomes are possible with early veterinary care.

Your veterinarian will assess the situation, confirm the diagnosis, and develop a treatment plan. X-rays give your vet and farrier a place to start when discussing special shoes or trimming. Your farrier is crucial to helping your horse have proper foot support.

Risk Factors for Pasture-Associated Laminitis

While any horse can get pasture-associated laminitis, certain risk factors make some individuals much more vulnerable. The majority of laminitis cases today are considered endocrinopathic, meaning they are linked to a hormonal or metabolic disorder.

Genetics and breed

Breeds like Welsh ponies, Shetland ponies, Icelandic horses, Norwegian Fjords, and Morgans have a higher risk. Their genetics likely helped their ancestors survive in harsh environments with scarce food, making them very efficient at storing fat.

Any other horse that has become an air fern or easy keeper is prone to metabolic disorders, too.

Age, weight, and body condition

A horse’s age and weight are also important risk factors. Laminitis is most common in horses between the ages of 8 and 18, but older horses are also at increased risk, partly because conditions like PPID become more prevalent with age.

Excess weight is a major contributor. Obesity puts extra mechanical strain on the laminae and is closely linked to insulin resistance. Horses with a high body condition score or abnormal fat deposits, like a cresty neck, are at high risk, too.

Metabolic disorders such as PPID and EMS

Two specific health conditions dramatically increase a horse’s risk for laminitis: Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID) and Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS).

PPID, often called Cushing’s disease, is common in older horses. The pituitary gland malfunctions and starts a hormonal cascade, including ACTH and cortisol, which trickle down to increase insulin, too. While PPID can often create muscle wasting and topline loss that looks like weight loss, insulin resistance is possible with PPID.

EMS is a condition characterized by obesity, abnormal fat deposits, and insulin resistance. Many horses with EMS develop laminitis, which then alerts the owner to potential problems.

It is easy for your vet to help determine your horse’s metabolic status. Simple exams and routine bloodwork will signal these conditions before obvious signs (like laminitis) are staring you down. Any small investment in a vet visit is worth the opportunity to prevent heartache and vet bills from full-blown pasture-associated laminitis.

Management Strategies to Prevent Laminitis

The good news is that pasture-associated laminitis is largely preventable. The goal is to control their intake of sugar-rich grass and, by extension, high-sugar and high-starch grains and hay.

These prevention strategies all focus on lifestyle and diet changes to lower your horse’s risk.

Pasture access and grazing muzzles

Controlling your horse’s access to pasture is the most direct way to prevent laminitis. This doesn’t necessarily mean they can never go out on grass again, but it does require careful planning.

One of the most effective tools is a grazing muzzle. A muzzle can reduce a horse’s grass intake by 30 to 80%, depending on the style, while still allowing them the benefits of turnout, movement, slow feeding, and social interaction.

Alternatives for extremely high-risk horses include a dry lot or a track system, especially during high-risk times of day and season.

Timing is also crucial. Since grass sugar levels are lowest in the early morning in the summer, turning horses out from about 3 a.m. to 10 a.m. is the safest time of day.

Give them plenty of hay before turning out on grass. You want them to have a traffic flow of forage to help any speedy sugars from going too fast.

Feeding Practices and Nutrition Tips

Nutritional risk factors can be relatively simple to change. In many cases, the overwhelming number of bagged feeds and supplements quickly narrows down when it comes to sugar content.

Even when not grazing, your horse’s overall diet should be low-NSC. This includes hay, grains, feeds, and supplements. Ideally, the NSC value of everything stays below 10-12%.

Stick to lower NSC value hays, like Teff, Bermuda/Coastal, or stemmy Orchard or Timothy. Generally speaking, the stemmier and less leafy a hay, the lower the sugar and higher the fiber content is.

Alfalfa is also lower NSC, but has more calories and may not be the best for an already overweight horse, although it’s often beneficial to mix hay types in a diet.

Use slow feeders for everything – muzzles for pasture, hay nets or other slow feeders for hay, and specialty feeders for grains and pellets.

This detailed scientific article outlines feeding methods.

Soaking hay

The simple process of soaking hay before feeding can reduce the NSC value. In warmer weather, it may get rancid quickly, so stay alert for that as you soak and after you feed.

Hay steamers are another option, but they will not reduce the NSC content as much as soaking. Estimate 30% lower NSC values after soaking, but only 3-15% after steaming.

Other tips for preventing PAL

Track your horse’s weight. Noticing trends in weight gain or loss can alert you to overall health concerns, including metabolic disorders.

Take your horse’s vital signs daily, including their digital pulse on all four legs.

Keep your horse moving often and eating slowly.

Work with an equine nutritionist to create a low-NSC value diet that may also include specific supplements for metabolic disorders and easy keepers.

Rotate pastures before they become over-grazed. Mow pastures before they go to seed.

Be flexible in your turnout schedule, opting for grazing when the temps and sunshine are not ideal for photosynthesis. This will vary by season, too.

Treatment Options for Horses with Pasture-Associated Laminitis

If your horse develops PAL, a swift and aggressive treatment plan is essential to manage pain and prevent further damage. The primary goals are to reduce inflammation, manage pain, and support damaged structures within the hoof to prevent founder.

Immediate care

At the first hint of trouble, call your veterinarian for a diagnosis and plan. This gives your horse the best chance for pain relief and a swift recovery with minimal damage.

Ice the hooves. Not only does this reduce inflammation, but it also reduces pain. Many vets may also suggest icing the lower legs to cool the blood going into the hooves.

Have your vet do radiographs. X-rays help with diagnosis, provide your farrier with as much information as possible, and give a baseline from which to compare future radiographs to track healing.

Any horse with suspected laminitis should not eat food with high NSC levels. Make immediate changes, such as removing grains, grass, and supplements, while working on a long-term, low-NSC diet.

Find the best supportive care that your vet and farrier recommend. Aside from possible trims or specialty shoes, supportive boots can give much-needed comfort. Ultra squishy boots can boost comfort.

Implementing effective management strategies, such as controlled grazing, nutritional adjustments, and regular veterinary check-ups to monitor horse health, can significantly reduce the likelihood of PAL. Also, memorizing your horse’s body, vital signs, and behaviors can alert you to possible medical issues. While the causes of laminitis are many, most cases involve food and metabolism. And working with your vet to understand the horse’s diet, risk factors, and metabolic health goes a long way to preventing laminitis.

Biosecurity at Horse Shows

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Fri, 15 May 2026 17:23:40 GMT

The official definition of biosecurity at horse shows is preventing the spread of contagious diseases on show grounds and back to home barns. Think of biosecurity as an invisible bubble wrap around your horse so they don’t get sick or make other horses sick. Part of this is having a plan to prevent disease transmission, and the other part is monitoring your horse’s health and isolating them if you see signs of illness.

Horse Diseases Spread Like Wildfire at Horse Shows

If you are anything like me, your social media is filled with horse stories and news. More often than not, there’s an outbreak of vesicular stomatitis, EHV-1, or some other disease that is making its rounds through barns.

Sometimes the disease du jour is not life-threatening, sometimes it is. Just think of the chaos and tragedy if all 500 horses at a show or event carried a dangerous and highly contagious virus or bacteria back to their home barns.

Signs of Infectious Diseases at Horse Shows

The most common signals your horse sends you about incoming vet bills are:

Fever

Respiratory symptoms like coughing, nasal discharge, or trouble breathing, and sometimes you can spot abnormally runny eyes.

Neurological signs such as weakness, tripping, tail paralysis, or wobbling.

Digestive troubles like sudden weight loss, diarrhea or other abnormal manure, colic, and generally feeling puny.

Other things you may see include swollen throat-latch areas, lethargy, and loss of appetite.

Equine Diseases You May See in the News

It doesn’t take a large horse show to become the epicenter of an outbreak, as many communicable diseases only need horses to come into contact with other horses, human hands, or insects. New horses coming into the barn may facilitate the spread of disease, too, as much as horses returning from shows can. You may hear about any of these conditions that warrant immediate attention:

EIA

Donkeys, horses, and other equids are susceptible to swamp fever, also known as equine infectious anemia (EIA). An RNA virus in the Lentivirus genus of the Retroviridae family causes EIA, which can be serious or fatal, and infected horses may carry the virus for life. Many don’t show signs of illness, but this can change with stress.

EIA spreads mainly through blood, most often when biting flies transmit infected blood from one horse to another. Humans are likely carriers, too, by using contaminated needles, syringes, and other equipment between horses.

Signs and symptoms to watch for include fever, depression, weakness, anemia, weight loss, swelling in the legs or lower abdomen, jaundice, and tiny bleeding spots on the gums or other mucous membranes. Some horses show no obvious signs at first, so a positive test can be the only warning.

Positive horses must be permanently isolated hundreds of yards from other horses or euthanized, regardless of their health. A Coggins test identifies horses with EIA, and it is required for most horse shows and travel.

EHV-1

A very common DNA virus in the Herpesviridae family, equine herpesvirus‑1 (EHV‑1), also known as equid alphaherpesvirus‑1, causes respiratory disease, abortion, and sometimes severe neurologic illness in horses and other equids. Most horses are exposed to EHV‑1 early in life and may remain latent carriers, able to reactivate the virus when stressed by transport, competition, or illness.

Sometimes this virus causes respiratory infections, but it may also morph into Equine Herpes Myeloencephalopathy (or Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy). It is the neurologic form of disease caused by equine herpesvirus‑1 (EHV‑1). EHM damages the spinal cord and brain, leading to incoordination, weakness, and sometimes paralysis or death.

Signs and symptoms to watch for include fever, nasal discharge, cough, lethargy, and enlarged lymph nodes in the lower jaw. Pregnant mares may abort or deliver stillborn or weak foals. In neurologic cases, horses can develop wobbly, uncoordinated walking, hindquarter muscle weakness, urine dribbling, and difficulty standing or rising, which can progress rapidly and become life‑threatening.

EHV‑1 spreads mainly through direct contact with infected nasal secretions, airborne droplets, and contaminated hands, equipment, tack, and trailers, and can move across a farm before any horse shows clear signs. In many outbreaks, affected horses are isolated, movement‑restricted, or sometimes euthanized because of the disease’s contagiousness and welfare concerns.

The tragic nature of EHM reinforces the necessity for strict biosecurity at horse shows.

Read the AAEP’s documentation on EHV-1 protocols here.

Strangles

Strangles is a very contagious bacterial disease in horses caused by Streptococcus equi. It mainly affects the lymph nodes of the head and neck, often forming painful abscesses that can make breathing or swallowing difficult.

Watch for fever, nasal discharge, lethargy, loss of appetite, and swollen, soft lumps under the jaw or throat that may later drain pus. You may also see infected horses dropping food. Strangles spreads through direct contact, shared water, tack, grooming brushes, and people. Interacting with a contagious horse can rapidly spread this infection through barns. Some horses clear strangles quickly, while others become silent carriers and can infect new horses for weeks without any signs of trouble.

EIV

The horse flu is a highly contagious RNA virus in the Orthomyxoviridae family. EIV stands for Equine Influenza Virus, the cause of “horse flu.” Most adult horses experience only mild to moderate illness, but outbreaks can spread very quickly through barns, shows, and transport events.

Signs to watch for include sudden fever, dry, harsh cough, clear or crusted nasal discharge, lethargy, and reduced appetite. Unhealthy, young, or senior horses may show more severe signs. The virus spreads mainly through coughing, aerosolized droplets, and contact with contaminated people, gear, and surfaces, and an infected horse can shed virus for several days to a couple of weeks, often requiring quarantine and rest to prevent secondary pneumonia or long‑term respiratory issues.

Vesticular stomatis

Vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease caused by vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), a rhabdovirus that mainly affects horses, cattle, and other livestock. It is most common in the warmer months and occurs in regions of the western United States and the Americas.

Signs to watch for include painful blisters (vesicles) on the lips, tongue, nose, and inside the mouth that break open into raw, sore ulcers, along with drooling, reluctance to eat or drink, and sometimes lesions on the feet, udder, or sheath that can cause lameness.

The infection usually resolves on its own in 10–14 days, but it is reportable. It can spread rapidly via biting flies, direct contact with lesion fluid, and contaminated equipment, so affected horses must be isolated, and biosecurity must be taken seriously.

This article has more information about vascular stomatitis.

Equine infectious disease outbreaks involve humans

Humans greatly facilitate the spreading of germs and viruses around the barns. Humans are ultimately responsible for the biosecurity at horse shows and home barns.

I’ve been at several shows where I was chatting to a spectator in the barn, and they mentioned that they were just in another barn petting some of those horses, and as we chatted, they proceeded to start petting the horses around me. Of course, I politely stopped her. Who needs air to carry a virus when it has human hands?

It’s human hands, but it’s also:

feed and water buckets
syringes and medical supplies
grooming brushes
tack
your clothing
common areas that you use, like wash racks
and any other item that travels around the showgrounds

Some horse shows allow spectators to mingle down the barn aisles.

Guidelines for Biosecurity at Horse Shows and Racetracks

Make sure your horse is healthy, up to date on vaccinations, and fit for travel and competition before you even enter the show. This protocol starts at home, long before the show.

Clean and disinfect the stall(s) you will use at the show. Leftover manure, shavings, and dirty walls are potential hazards. Remove all bedding remnants, then let soap and water work on the walls. For added measure, you can rinse with a 1:10 or 1:15 bleach-to-water ratio.

What are the essential biosecurity measures at horse shows?

Take responsibility for your horse and be their advocate. It’s perfectly fine to ask someone not to touch your area. Respect your fellow competitors and owners as well by not smooching or scratching their horses.

It’s easy to make a sign for your area that says “DO NOT TOUCH, I BITE.” Which can be a bald-faced lie, but it may deter some nosy folks from touching your horse.

Monitor your horse’s temperature. Most equines with fevers act and eat normally until the fever reaches its tipping point. Take their temperature twice daily at shows. Continue the twice-daily routine for a bit after a show and travel. If horses are quarantined near you or return to your barn after quarantine, resume the twice-daily temperature checks.

Don’t share anything. I know this is contrary to every Sesame Street episode, but diseases are contagious! It’s a hard pass on sharing brushes, tack, buckets, hoses, really anything that you or your horse touches or exists around.

If possible, arrange occupied stalls next to a tack room or row end to minimize interactions with neighboring horses.

If your horse is the most social creature on the planet, it’s going to be a rude awakening when you explain to them that nose-to-nose contact is off the menu.

Don’t share trailers with other horses or use commercial haulers. This may be impossible, but work with your vet to understand risks before you schedule transport.

United States Equestrian Federation guidelines

The USEF has a series of documents that show organizers must create and submit, like isolation plans. They also suggest the following:

Restricting contact with other animals, humans, and equipment.
Cleaning and disinfecting equipment and common areas.
Isolating and removing sick horses.

You can read the full list of protocols here.

It may not be possible to remove horses from the showgrounds. Maybe the sick horses travel to hospitals or home, and the remaining horses must follow veterinarian-guided procedures once cleared to return home. Each outbreak will be managed by state and local health officials.

A recent show in 2026 saw a case of EHM in which one horse was euthanized, and competitors were isolated and then returned home with strict guidelines of isolation and daily health monitoring for signs of disease.

Read the press release here.

Precautions After Suspected Exposure

The motto of this particular situation is “better safe than sorry.”

How do quarantine protocols work at horse shows?

As there are many show organizations, the exact protocols vary. Local and state officials, as well as veterinarians, will also weigh in on each situation to ensure the best possible outcome.

For horse owners, the most important thing you can do is take your horse’s temperature twice daily, as well as the rest of their vital signs. Then, ensure your gear, tack, and supplies are not shared with any other horse or person. You will have to remove human transmission from the equation.

What steps do you take if your horse gets sick at a horse show?

Tell the show management, talk to the show veterinarian, and talk to your own veterinarian. Alerting officials to potential problems will reduce the likelihood of a major outbreak and help save many horses from suffering and from spreading a contagious disease.

The Equine Disease Communication Center (EDCC) is an online resource and tracking website that can also provide information on which diseases have been noted and where. This can certainly help your show planning.

Biosecurity Measures at the Home Barn

There are a few primary situations when you need to implement safety measures, either by establishing biosecurity at horse shows or home barns. One is a sick horse, and the other is when horses come onto the property. Either they are new and moving in, or they have been to a show.

Development of an isolation plan

Think of an isolation plan as creating two barns instead of the usual one. The physical isolation barn should have:

Distance from other equines, preferably 200+ feet of distance. If that’s not possible, don’t allow any nose-to-nose contact within the barn or fields. Keep an empty stall as a buffer, or add a solid wall barrier between stalls.

It’s own set of hoses, buckets, troughs, rakes, manure forks, feed room, and hay storage area.

A place to change into PPE or add PPE to your outfit to prevent contamination between the two areas of horses. Ideally, your clothing and your hands never touch either area. Coveralls, disposable gloves, and different boots let you have an outfit for each barn.

It’s own trash and muck tubs or wheelbarrows.

A routine that allows you to visit one barn and then the other, instead of going back and forth.

Also have:

A routine that includes taking vital signs of ALL horses, in both areas, at least twice daily. Prevention and early intervention are the backbone of biosecurity at horse shows.

Signage to indicate an off-limits area.

A clear list of instructions on what to do if you see any unusual behaviors or record any abnormal vital signs. This may include what vet to call, the owner’s information, and any instructions about alerting the barn owners and manager.

Know Your Horse’s Vital Signs

You will only be able to detect a change in your horse’s vital signs – heart rate, respirations, digital pulse, and temperature – when you know your horse’s normals. It’s no good if you don’t have that baseline value to compare with.

During and after shows, check your horse’s vitals twice daily. A fever will show up long before your horse starts to act sick. Early detection also gives the OTHER horses in the barn a fighting chance to avoid infections.

Biosecurity at horse shows should encompass the entire showgrounds, with everyone playing a role.

The normal vital sign values of horses

You can easily take your horse’s vital signs in a few minutes. You really only need a thermometer, though a stethoscope is handy for both gut sounds and heart rate.

Temperature – 99.5 to 101.5

For foals, up to 102 is normal.

Pulse (Heart Rate) – 24 to 40 beats per minute, although most are between 32 and 36.

For newborn foals, 80 to 100 is normal, and for older foals, 60 to 80 is normal.

Respiration – 8 to 12 breaths per minute

For foals, 60-80 breaths per minute

Capillary Refill – approximately 2 seconds, gums should be pink

The Signs of Laminitis in Horses

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Mon, 11 May 2026 15:40:31 GMT

There is one reason that the phrase “no hoof, no horse” exists: laminitis. This heartbreaking condition often comes on suddenly and can mimic other hoof problems. The best way to treat this debilitating disease is to prevent it, and know the warning signs of laminitis so you and your vet can react accordingly.

X-rays can help diagnostics and monitoring of hoof health.

Laminitis in horses

It’s quite common to use the words laminitis, laminitic, foundered, and foundering interchangeably, despite there being a distinction between laminitis (swelling of the laminae) and founder (displacement of the bones).

What is laminitis in horses?

Inside the hoof are laminae. This tissue resembles folded fabric and contains blood vessels for nourishment. The laminar tissue holds the coffin bone (also known as the distal phalanx or the pedal bone) to the hoof wall. Laminitis is the inflammation of these tissues inside the hoof capsule.

This process in horses can lead to founder. When the supporting laminae have a restricted blood supply and swelling, they lose their ability to support the bones of the hoof properly. This gives the coffin bone the chance to shift, rotate, or drop, creating equine founder.

Laminitis tidbits

Laminitis is most common in both front feet, and current research tells us the hind feet are also affected. and can happen in the hind feet as well.

Metabolic disease is the most common cause.

Before your horse shows obvious signs of laminitis, damage has been done.

In extreme cases of founder, the coffin bone will push through the sole of the hoof.

The typical sawhorse stance, where the front feet extend and weight shifts back, is not that typical. Not all horses stand this way.

Subclinical cases happen invisibly as the laminae change over time without presenting any outwards signs.

Acute cases pop up suddenly and are new and fresh. Chronic laminitis can drag on for months and even years, with your horse’s hooves constantly changing.

Chronic cases are susceptible to a lifetime of frequent hoof abscesses, obvious growth rings on the hoof, questionable soundness, and flares of laminitic episodes.

This article provides more information about the subclinical form of hoof disease.

Checking for heat and a strong digital pulse takes seconds a day to do.

Here are the Signs of Laminitis in Horses

There is almost a sliding scale of what you will notice, from the near-invisible early signs of laminitis to the glaring red flag that founder is around the corner.

Early warning signs of laminitis

Metabolic diseases like equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) and pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID, formerly called Cushing’s disease) that increase a horse’s insulin levels may trigger hoof changes.

Seedy toe often goes hand-in-hand with major hoof problems, and some horses may show a widening or pinking of the white line as changes occur in the hoof.

Your horse is tender or sore after being shod. They may need a few days to get back to normal, and this could result from a too-close trim or from a sub-clinical case.

Sub-clinical conditions in horses may also include soreness after eating, especially on pasture. Sensitivity to grass may increase during the spring and fall as sugars rise in lush pasture. And while the pasture grass in fall may not look “lush,” the grass is actively hoarding sugars to prepare for winter. Cooler mornings can lead to more dangerous sugar levels, too.

The hooves are warm or hot. Heat signals inflammation, and inflammation causes pain. The swelling in the rigid hoof wall is trapped, worsening the situation. This increase in hoof wall surface temperature (HWST) is a huge warning sign of an underlying condition, which may be laminitis or something else.

An increased pulse rate. If your horse has a consistent resting heart rate, but you notice that it’s increased at rest, there’s likely some discomfort.

Hoof rings. When injured, hoof growth may show up weeks later as a distinct ring around the hoof wall. This will grow out over time, but serves as a reminder that there was some event inside the hooves.

This article has more about the early signs.

More obvious signals of hoof trouble

Walking is uncomfortable, and your horse may hesitate as if they’re walking on eggshells. Transitioning from a soft ground to a hard ground creates hesitation and painful steps.

They may not want to turn in small spaces. Instead, they may pirouette or pivot by shifting weight onto the hind end. Shorter steps and limping during a turn can also be seen.

Mild colic symptoms may also be an early indicator of laminitis. Sometimes the pain shows itself as a colic situation. You may see weight shifting to find comfort, which can look like digestive issues.

Postural changes. Are they standing differently? Some horses look as if their front feet splay out in front of them. That typical stance of a horse leaning dramatically backward is actually not as common as once thought! A fascinating study revealed that about 10% of horses will develop laminitis, and only a few presented this way. Read the study here.

Horses may stand with one front leg stretched outward, shift side to side more, or perhaps remain perfectly still.

The digital pulse is strong or bounding. Typically, a non-existent or faint digital pulse indicates no major disturbances to the hoof. However, as swelling impairs blood flow, the pulse becomes stronger.

The most evident signs of laminitis

Clearly lame horses that appear to hop along with great pain may be laminitic.

You may also see the hair around the coronary band start to stand out or upwards. As the coffin bone sinks, the skin redirects upwards.

There may be an outline of a half-moon on the sole, indicating the outline of the coffin bone as it presses into the sole.

Increased sweating, respirations, and pulse. These are all signs of pain.

Refusal to move. Sometimes, even softer ground offers no reprieve from this painful condition.

Refusal to get up. Staying recumbent to avoid putting weight on the hooves.

Inspect and monitor the hooves

Checking for heat and a strong digital pulse takes only a few seconds a day.

Overlapping clinical signs of many hoof problems

Do some of these signs look like bruising, severe abscesses, or injuries to the sole of the foot? YES! Hoof problems can also produce those colic-like signs that confuse everything.

Sometimes, hoof issues like bruises and abscesses can progress to more serious problems, such as laminitis and founder.

Any suspected hoof pain in a horse is a medical emergency. Your horse will thank you and your equine vet for quick action and pain relief.

What Causes Laminitis?

There are plenty of reasons horses develop laminitis. Sometimes this is sudden, while in other cases it is a slow burn. Clinical signs may lie under the surface for weeks, months, or years. We also know that a horse’s metabolic health and laminitis risk are related.

Metabolic issues – equine metabolic syndrome

Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) is a condition characterized by Insulin Resistance (IR), obesity, and a history of laminitic episodes. Many overweight horses will develop IR, which interferes with insulin regulation. As a horse becomes less sensitive to insulin in their body, sugar levels creep up. More insulin is needed to regulate those sugars, and insulin levels rise accordingly.

There is overwhelming evidence that too much insulin directly affects the laminae in your horse’s hooves. Insulin may alter blood flow to the foot, eventually leading to laminar swelling. More insulin is directly linked to a horse’s high risk of developing this disease. In research and clinical settings, insulin IV drips trigger this condition for study.

Weight loss can often mitigate EMS and can reduce the associated higher risk of laminitis.

It’s easy for your vet to monitor your horse’s insulin and sugar levels.

Cushing’s in horses

Another metabolic disorder is equine Cushing’s disease, also known as Pituitary Pars Intermedia dysfunction (PPID). While this does not fall under the umbrella of equine metabolic syndrome, some horses will also develop insulin resistance.

Equine Cushing’s disease stems from a pituitary gland issue in the brain, releasing hormones to create a cascade of chemical reactions in your horse. Eventually, a horse’s insulin levels rise, creating that risk factor for developing laminitis.

Metabolic disorders are thought to be the most common cause of laminitis.

There are blood tests to identify underlying endocrine diseases long before the cresty top of the neck or hair growth and shedding problems associated with Cushing’s.

A stronger digital pulse tells you there’s trouble inside the hoof. For details on finding and checking the digital pulse, this article has more info.

Supporting limb laminitis

When a horse has a painful, injured leg, they may shift weight to the partner leg. The excessive weight on the standing legs directly impacts hoof health and can not properly support your horse’s body for prolonged periods.

Stress on the uninjured legs can cause supporting-limb laminitis.

Fractures, street nails, and even cellulitis and lymphangitis are situations in which a horse is at high risk of inflammation. This process is usually a slowly developing situation.

Road founder and repetitive trauma

Road founder occurs when a horse repeatedly pounds its legs on hard surfaces. This could be an isolated incident, such as the loose horse galloping on asphalt or packed earth. In other cases, long-term concussion on hard surfaces such as rock-solid arenas, roads, and tracks can also cause problems.

Disease, fever, and black walnut

Systemic illness in your horse’s body can trigger laminitic damage. Colitis, colic, pneumonia, and retained placenta in mares can cause laminitis. Even fevers of known (or unknown) origin can trigger laminitis.

A horse that gorges on grain also triggers an inflammatory disease process that can progress to colic and laminitis. Grains, concentrates, and feeds zip through the stomach and small intestine quickly! When they land in the hindgut, they are quickly gobbled up by sugar-loving microbes. Those microbes then produce by-products that change the gut’s pH. Large amounts of gas can develop, and other types of microbes die and poison the bloodstream. This lands in the hooves, creating swelling.

Black walnut shavings create acute laminitis within hours of touching your horse’s body. Standing in shavings with even a small percentage of black walnut will cause damage. Interestingly enough, the lower legs typically swell too, something that’s not usually seen with other triggers.

Ice can help.

Treatment of Laminitis

The most important thing when you suspect any hoof or colic issue is to talk to your vet. Farriers are well-versed and experts on hooves, but can’t diagnose, take X-rays, or prescribe medications. Farriers, however, can play a vital role in stabilizing, balancing, and protecting the hoof during and after this disease process. Call your vet first.

This article has more about the diagnostic process.

First steps

Get those hooves into ice water or pack them with ice packs. For tips on icing hooves, read this! For a long time. Icing reduces inflammation and also provides some pain relief.

Your vet will likely take radiographs to check the coffin bone. Periodic X-rays also track your horse’s progress and help your farrier provide support with corrective trimming, wedges, special shoes, or whatever your horse needs.

Taking video and pictures of your horse’s hooves along the way also tracks progress and can record growth rings on the hoof wall.

Your vet will likely prescribe anti-inflammatory medications like Bananime and give you a schedule for follow-up visits. There are many supplements and other medications to support the healing process.

Change your horse’s lifestyle

Feeding the laminitic horse a low-sugar diet. Most grains, grasses, and feeds need to be eliminated, changed, or reduced. For chronic laminitis cases, long-term dietary changes can help your horse reduce their risk factors.

Opt for hays and feeds with low NSC values. This number is a measure of the sugar and starch content of grass, grains, and other feed ingredients.

There are many supplements available for the laminitic horse. Many support the treatment of metabolic disorders, and most are available over the counter. Your vet may have some specialized supplements, too.

Your vet and farrier may also suggest adding more shavings and using cushy stall mats.

There are dozens of wonderful boots on the market for extended wear.

Your job is to track your horse’s progress, monitor for increased digital pulses, and support your vet’s pain and inflammation management plan.

If you are at all uncertain about anything – call your veterinarian. Better safe than sorry. Even a tiny delay in veterinary care can have staggering implications for the outcome of this disease. Do not delay! Any problems within the hoof can indicate different things. Laminitis may look like bruising, abscesses, or other lamenesses.

There are lots of ways to cool the hoof, providing relief! These laminitis boots keep the hooves icy cold for hours.

More resources for horse owners and caretakers

One of my favorite resources is Fran Jurga’s Hoof Blog. You can also read more about laminitis here:

First aid for laminitis

Laminitis myths

Acute and chronic laminitis

Help prevent laminitis

Risk factors for laminitis

Fall is risky for laminitis

Subtle signs your horse is lame

Slow Feeding Horses

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Fri, 08 May 2026 14:46:34 GMT

A day rarely goes by that you don’t hear the word “natural” regarding horses. We aim to nurture their feral instincts by providing space, herds, and safe horse management practices, including the methods we use to feed them. So much about horsemanship revolves around their need to chew as much as possible. When it comes to feed and forage, the goal is to mimic the needs of your horse’s mind and body by providing the best nutrition, forage, and supplements most naturally. And that means feeding them in a way that slows them down, like with a hay net.

Slow feeding mimics grazing

Why Slow Feeding Horses is Important

Their entire digestive system functions optimally when the amount of feed is small, allowing them to chew and digest throughout most of the day. Free-choice hay given 24/7 is best. However, it doesn’t mean they spend all those hours eating; they engage in other non-eating activities for a couple of hours each day. For most equines, 17 hours of eating is plenty and allows for rest and play, too, and seems to be the norm for most horses. All of this chewing creates a healthy horse in many ways.

Mental Stimulation

There’s a common denominator between horse vices and training issues – boredom. When horses eat more significant, less frequent “meals” that often include commercial feeds, there are long spurts where they have nothing going on – hence the likelihood of wood chewing, cribbing, weaving, or any other vice your horse can invent. When combined with stall life, the chances of a vice developing increase.

For the horse that loves to chew wood, researchers believe this is due to a lack of chew time instead of a self-soothing vice. Either way, it’s a problem for horses and your fencing. Some horses will also be quick to chew down the barn or sheds.

When grazing in pasture or on dry lots, ensure there is plenty of forage available and sufficient water to help your horse’s gut properly digest feed. Water is life, and the average horse drinks about 10 gallons of water a day. The amount of water varies, so always provide much more than they need. It should also be clean and fresh. Most equines prefer to drink cold water, although they will drink MORE warm water. If given a choice, they prefer cold.

Supplementing sparse pasture and dry lots with legume or grass hay helps your horse’s body and mind move and chew more efficiently. It’s easy to use slow feeders with large bales or round bales of supplemental hay.

These openings are about 2 inches – and work well with this type of timothy blend hay.

Digestion and Health Benefits of Slow Feeding Horses

Our equine friends need to continue eating due to the delicate nature of their digestive tracts. Their bodies continually produce digestive enzymes and acids, which require a near-constant supply of forage to prevent damage to the stomach.

The horse’s diet must also feed the myriad of microbes that digest sugars, starches, and fiber in the hindgut. Digestive disturbances often happen when those microbes receive a larger volume of sugars and starches.

There are several significant concerns that can arise from feeding horses improperly. Ulcers, hindgut acidosis, laminitis, and colic are the biggies.

Read this for the big picture of your horse’s digestive system

Read about the equine stomach here.

Gastric ulcers

As equines eat, digestion starts in the mouth and ends on your manure fork.

The mouth, esophagus, and stomach start to process forage and feed at the beginning of the digestive process. Saliva and chewing help soften and digest food, while the esophagus transports it to the stomach.

Fun fact: horses can’t throw up. This fun horse trivia has its issues, especially when their bellies are full of gas.

Onto the stomach! Here, digestive acids secrete enzymes around the clock. Their job is to break down the horse’s feed further, and when food is present, that acid is occupied. When the stomach is empty, those acids and enzymes are still there, wanting to do their job, but the only thing to act upon is the stomach itself.

Read more about why horses can’t vomit

The problem with stomach acid

The stomach’s lower section, the glandular mucosa, can handle the digestive acids. Specialized glands there secrete mucus and bicarbonates to buffer acidity and keep the lower stomach lining from eroding.

The upper portion of the stomach, known as the squamous region, lacks such glands. Therefore, there is no protection from acidic digestive juices. If a horse isn’t chewing enough, the stomach’s acids are lonely and will start to “eat” the upper area of the stomach. This is how gastric ulcers happen.

During exercise, if the stomach is empty, those digestive fluids will splash about into the upper areas of the stomach. Feeding long-stem, cubed, or pelleted hay before riding helps protect the stomach from developing gastric ulcers.

Slow feeding your horse gives the stomach something to do and a job for those digestive acids, reducing their likelihood of touching the sensitive areas of your horse’s stomach.

Read all you could ever want to know about ulcers.

Hindgut acidosis

The small intestine is responsible for digesting sugars and starches. However, if there is too much sugary feed in the digestive system, it will pass into the hindgut, specifically the cecum. This is where fermentation happens to digest the forage. Hindgut fermentation is usually a boring process. However, when horses rapidly ingest starches and sugars, this fermentation can go awry and create numerous problems. Horses can overeat in a few ways – eating more than a few pounds of concentrate, lush spring grass, stressed grass, or overeating hay.

When that abundance of starches and sugars enters the cecum, those microbes in the hindgut will feast upon this bounty and, in the process, create lactic acid. The overall pH of the hindgut then starts to drop and become more acidic, hence the name hindgut acidosis.

Now, you have a situation where the hindgut is out of whack; microbes die due to the pH changes, and endotoxins are released from the dying bacteria. Endotoxins are a component of the cell wall of certain microbes and can be particularly hazardous to horses. OH, and there’s an increase in gas, too. This is hindgut acidosis.

More information about hindgut ulcers can be found here, and details on gorging on foods can be found here.

Laminitis

Let’s take this pH scenario one step further.

Suppose the volume of sugars and starches is large enough for the partying microbes to make a mess. In that case, the resulting change in pH will also increase the permeability of the intestinal lining, allowing those endotoxins to enter the bloodstream. This triggers laminitis.

The laminitis risk is why slow-feeding horses is so important. Small meals usually won’t upset the digestive system to the point of creating laminitis and founder. But larger volumes or faster eating do.

Aside from being wildly painful, laminitis can lead to founder when the hoof bones shift and sink.

Colic

When the pH changes, another consequence is gas production, which triggers colic. This gas is, unfortunately, exacerbated by the horse’s inability to vomit as well.

Gas colics may resolve quickly with your veterinarian’s help, but they can be painful and may lead to a twisted gut.

Many horses exhibit signs of colic when they have laminitis, and vice versa.

Whenever your horse shows signs of pain, call your veterinarian. Finding the proper diagnosis quickly reduces your horse’s pain, making a swift recovery more likely.

Feeding steamed hay can benefit some horses with respiratory problems. You can use slow feeders for steamed hay, but be careful in warm temps; you don’t want the middle parts to ferment.

Guidelines for Slow Feeding Horses

These basic feeding rules keep your horse happy, healthy, and busy.

Feed forage first, before commercial feeds, and definitely before exercise.

Feed often and in small quantities for grain meals.

Feed according to your horse’s body weight and body condition. Your horse’s calorie needs depend on their body condition score, exercise levels, medical issues, and other factors. Start by feeding about 1.5% of your horse’s body weight in forage.

Keep feeding to a rough schedule. Horses love routine, but should be flexible. Also, if you keep your horse on a reliable slow feeding system, a regular schedule to the minute matters less.

Slowly introduce new food, including hay, supplements, and concentrated commercial feeds. It takes about two weeks to introduce new forages and feeds safely.

Fresh water is a must. Make it readily available, too!

Add water to your horse’s feed. You can soak or steam your horse’s hay for metabolic issues and reduce dust. For grains and pellets, adding water accomplishes several things. You help your horse’s hydration and slow down the eating of grains when wet. Additionally, you can find slow feeders and horse toys designed for use with pelleted and grain products.

Avoid extreme exercise immediately after eating. Additionally, avoid exercising on an empty stomach. Forage is best to fill the stomach and create a “hay hat” that protects the stomach from acid splashing.

Monitor your horse’s weight regularly, approximately every few weeks. It’s easy to use a weight tape to track gains and losses.

Maintain pastures and mow if necessary. The goal is to reduce weeds and prevent grass from seeding, as this increases the sugars and starches in pasture grass.

Minimizing concentrates and maximizing forage

Ideally, every equine and farm animal has the perfect pasture all year, without needing supplements. HA! The reality is that it’s not possible. Even the most ideal pasture will likely lack some vitamins or minerals.

To minimize concentrated horse feeds:

Use ration balancers to add nutrients without calories.

Use specific supplements instead of commercial feeds. You can easily mix them with hay pellets and water. This may also be more affordable!

If they need calories, add fats. You can also add a higher-calorie hay.

Some other things to consider about your horses’ nutrition:

It’s possible only to supplement seasonally. A safe and healthy pasture in the warmer months can fulfill your horse’s dietary requirements. BUT! When grass is under snow, dormant in the winter, or overgrazed, your horse will need you to fill in the blanks.

The Order of Feeding Matters

There is no picture-perfect way to feed horses except to maximize slow feeding. And that has to happen within budgets, schedules, facilities, and availability to pasture. Some simple feeding practices help your routine and your horse’s health.

Roughage

Feed hay first. Hay is a convenient way to slow your horse’s digestion before bagged feeds and pasture. Also, your horse’s appetite is sated, so there’s a negligible risk of inhaling the high-sugar stuff and causing digestive upset.

Pellets, bagged feeds, and rations

Split any supplements and bagged feeds into multiple daily feedings: the more feedings, the merrier.

You can also use slow feeders designed for pellets and grains to slow things down. Some horse owners will sprinkle rations on top of their hay to have a similar effect.

Pasture grazing

While pasture is the most “natural” forage for horses, it’s not always the best. The grass may not be available year-round, and in some areas, it grows so profusely that 24/7 turnout can turn horses into laminitis-prone animals. Many horses with metabolic issues have an even higher risk of developing laminitis when grazing on pasture.

Luckily, your horse can wear a slow feeder on his gorgeous face. Grazing muzzles are hay nets your horse wears, making the pasture safer and less likely to create an overweight horse.

If your horse needs to wear a hay net all year long, they can!

The Best Slow Feeders for Horses for Stalls and Outside

The best slow feeder is one that your horse can use. The material of one type of drum slow feeder smells funny, or the color is wrong for your horse’s eyes, or they can’t figure it out.

Equines with arthritis in their necks may also need to try several types of feeders to find the most comfortable one. Alternatively, there may be another injury that complicates feeding.

Things to consider when you are choosing a slow feeder:

Portability. If you show often, how convenient would it be to bring your drum or slow feeder?

Safety. Are corners and edges smooth? Can they get stuck? Will teeth and hooves be safe? Can your herd share their feeders safely, and the boss mare (or gelding) doesn’t restrict access to others?

How much can it hold? A small hanging hay net is excellent if you are at the barn 17 times a day to check on hay and water. If you need to keep your horse chewing for hours, consider getting one that holds several flakes or a bale.

Hay nets and Hayplay bags can hold a few flakes, half a bale, or an entire bale. Knowing how many lbs of hay per day they need helps you choose the best feeder.

Then, consider factors such as price, durability, and ease of cleaning.

This barn uses hay nets secured into tubs as slow feeders.

Dangers of Slow Feeders for Horses

While the use of slow feeders is typically the best thing for horses, there are some concerns to be wary of.

Equine teeth

Openings that are minuscule or made of hard plastic or metal may wear down the front surfaces of teeth. Observe your horse as they eat, and always check their teeth when grooming.

If you and your vet find questionable dental wear, it’s time to change slow feeders. Don’t eliminate slow feeders without increasing the likelihood of ulcers, colic, laminitis, boredom, or vices.

Size of the openings

Aside from teeth, the ease with which your horse can eat matters. Consider the openings paired with what type of hay you feed. Long, stemmy hay is frustrating to pull from tight spaces.

Horseshoes, hooves, and legs

The most natural grazing position for slow feeding horses is the ground. But protect the slow-feeder net from hooves and legs that can get stuck. Some horse toys and hay bags are safe for ground eating.

If your horse does well with a slow feed hay net or hanging HayPlay bag, lash it inside a large feed tub or trough. The benefits of slow-feeding horses and the risk of getting stuck are reduced.

How to tell if your horse eats too slow or too fast

Change styles if the feeder is too slow or your horse has trouble eating because of dental or health issues. Conversely, double up on nets or try another slow feeder if nothing seems to slow them down.

Your slow-feeding system may cause your equine buddy to eat too slowly if you notice:

Weight loss.
Too much hay is trapped in the feeder when you fill it up.
Quidding – this is when your horse can’t correctly chew and will spit out chunks of chewed-up bits, sometimes as big as your palm.
Lethargy, acting funny, feeling colicky, cranky, or not acting like themselves.

Your horse is eating too fast if you notice no hay left over, your horse is without anything to eat for hours, or your barn and fences are getting chewed. If your horse is in a herd, you may think they are eating too quickly, but they are pushed aside. It’s always best to monitor the whole herd.

Adjusting feeds and feeding practices for older equines

Feeding senior horses varies in a few ways. Adjust the feeders, schedule, vitamin and mineral needs, and calorie requirements concerning health problems and activity levels. Here are some things to think about:

Dental health – make your horse’s hay and feeds easier to chew. Switch brands, add water, or try a different enrichment toy.

Caloric needs may change as your horse ages. They could become a hard keeper, requiring more calories, or an easy keeper with metabolic issues such as PPID or EMS.

Movement – keep your older guy moving! Turnout is best, and many slow feeding options should be placed around the paddocks and pastures to encourage walking about.

Laminitis and colic risk – with less movement and metabolic disorders comes the increased risk of colic and founder. Be vigilant about checking your horse’s vital signs, weight, and overall condition daily to stay ahead of health risks.

Routine care for equine teeth

Have your veterinarian examine your horse’s teeth every six months. Many equines require dental floating every other year, some every year, while others need it every six months. Even though horses slow down tooth growth as they age, dental issues still crop up.

In between vet visits, you can notice the following while they are eating:

Dropping food – this is easy to spot when eating pellets or grains
Quid – when the teeth can’t adequately chew forage, it forms clumps that fall out
Taking too long to eat – slow eaters may have dental issues
Get picky about feeds
Have weight issues – either too heavy or too thin
Have a funny mouth smell (dental abscesses absolutely STINK)
Fuss with the bit during a ride
Have a change in attitude about being handled around the face – new headshyness
Have any broken, chipped, or cracked teeth you can see when checking gums

These are horse quids dropped from a senior horse with dental issues.

This article about senior horse care has more great stuff.

Read this for more information about estimating your horse’s weight.

An introduction to equine nutrition is here.

Once again, we have proof that equine ownership is one big experiment. While we understand the anatomy and science behind slow feeding horses, sometimes individual and facility factors force us to try various methods to feed our equine friends more naturally.

If designing your horse’s diet seems overwhelming, it is! There are many moving parts, but an equine nutritionist can help you create the perfect plan for slow feeding horses that considers their caloric and nutritional needs.

Spring Clipping Your Horse - FAQs Answered

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Mon, 04 May 2026 12:50:50 GMT

FAQs: Spring Clipping Your Horse

There are many myths about trace or body clipping during the winter months and into spring, especially during the spring shedding season. Clipping is not just about appearance. It plays an important role in managing excess hair, supporting your horse’s skin, and adapting to changing daylight hours. Every age, breed, and situation requires an individual approach. The decision about spring clipping your horse always comes down to your horse’s comfort and skin health.

Can you clip your horse in the spring?

Absolutely. In fact, for many horse owners, spring clipping your horse is a great way to help them transition out of a thick coat more comfortably and manage the excessive sweating that comes along with warmer days.

Managing shedding

For horses struggling to shed a thick winter coat, especially those with pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), formally known as Cushing’s disease, clipping can make a significant difference. These horses often struggle to shed properly and may retain long hair well into warmer weather, leading to heat stress and discomfort.

Clipping removes excess hair and helps them regulate body temperature. It also allows the horse’s body to adjust more naturally to rising temperatures. You may also find that longer hair and added sweat create sores or rubs where the tack sits, as the friction can be abrasive to the skin. You will usually see this around the girth or ears.

Skin health and moisture control

Wet, muddy environments increase the risk of equine pastern dermatitis, rain rot, and other bacterial or fungal infections. Longer hair will trap microbes, mud, and sweat against the skin, creating the perfect environment for delicate skin to develop rain rot (equine pastern dermatitis), most commonly mud fever. A horse with shorter hair allows for better visibility of skin problems and more effective treatment. It’s quite difficult to treat scratches through layers of a winter coat.

Shorter hair also dries faster and helps maintain a dry coat. Grooming becomes more efficient and takes less time.

Performance and appearance benefits

For horses in regular work or preparing for shows, clipping provides both practical and aesthetic benefits. Performance horses are often in training routines that continue regardless of warming weather, and a full or trace clip allows for more comfortable exercise and cooling out as temperatures increase.

If timed well, a complete body clip a few weeks ahead of an event allows the hair to smooth out and for natural oils to return, adding shine.

Is a trace or full body clip better for spring clipping your horse?

The best type of clip depends on your horse’s workload, the weather, and how rapidly shedding is creating a storm of hair around the barn.

Choosing the right type of clip

Any type of trace clip or blanket clip is ideal for horses in light to moderate work. These styles remove hair from high-sweat areas, such as the underside of the neck and the belly. They provide additional protection for the back and legs in cold weather. For horses in heavier work or warmer climates, a full clip may be the right choice. Think about where your horse sweats, and where they would need blanketing.

Customizing for your horse’s needs

You can also toss out any standardized clipping pattern and instead create a design based on your horse’s specific needs. You can clip away specific areas, such as uneven hair, persistent sweat zones, or extra-muddy areas like the lower legs.

In many cases, spring clipping your horse can be adjusted throughout the season as needed. You can clip early to help with shedding and leave longer hair on the legs, belly, and neck if it still gets cold enough for blankets.

Later in the season, you can do a complete body clip, which will really be more like a tune-up, to even out the entire coat.

The clippers (and blades) you choose matters. You can leave more or less hair as needed.

Can clipping help with issues like mud fever?

Yes, clipping can significantly improve the management of skin conditions like equine pastern dermatitis.

Reducing moisture and bacteria buildup

Mud fever and rain rot thrive in damp and dirty environments. A thick coat traps moisture, bacteria, and sweat against the horse’s skin. This increases irritation and infection risk.

Removing excess hair allows air to circulate more freely, helping the coat dry faster and reducing conditions where bacteria thrive.

Improving treatment effectiveness

With less hair in the way, medicated shampoos, sprays, and topical treatments can reach affected areas more effectively. Spring clipping your horse makes treatment more efficient and effective.

It also becomes much easier to spot early signs of trouble. These include pink skin, scabbing, or irritation before they become more serious.

It’s true that feathers protect the lower legs, but modern horsekeeping often scoffs at this. Sometimes the best course of action is to individualize care rather than sticking to an old rule about never doing this or that.

Which clipper blades are best for springtime clipping?

The tools you use play a major role in achieving a smooth, safe result, and the clippers and blades can make the difference between a smooth finish and a trip to the hall of fame for failed clip jobs.

Blade selection and hair length

A #10 blade is commonly used as the gold standard in blade selection. It leaves about 1.5 mm of hair and works well for horses needing generic hair removal.

If you want to leave more hair length for warmth and protection, a #7F blade leaves around 4 mm of hair. This option offers a balance for unpredictable spring weather.

Clipper combs are another useful option. They create more space between the blade and the horse, which leaves more hair for a more natural finish. Because clipper combs vary in size, you can use a single #10 blade to create many options for how much hair remains.

Most clippers come with a few combs, and you can also buy them to fit either your trimmers or body clippers.

Equipment care and efficiency

Always use clean, sharp blades with proper clipper oil, applying it every 5 minutes as you clip. This routine prevents pulling on the skin and reduces irritation. Starting with a squeaky-clean horse also makes gliding through the coat easier.

When you start with a clean horse and sharp, oiled blades, the finished result is less likely to have lines and uneven patches. It’s also faster and more comfortable for your horse.

Clipper combs for the win if you want to leave more hair.

Will a spring clip ruin the summer coat?

This is a common concern, but it’s a myth. A horse clip is simply a haircut!

Understanding coat growth cycles

A horse’s coat is constantly growing and shedding as part of the hair life cycle. If you clip a patch into a summer or winter coat, you can watch the hair gradually even out. Clipping in spring may trim some of the emerging summer coat, but it only trims the ends. It will continue to shed and regrow all summer, eventually evening out.

Timing your clip

If you clip earlier, you remove more of the thick winter coat. This is fantastic if you live in warmer climates. Waiting longer increases the chance of cutting summer’s natural coat. If your horse’s hair coat is needed through the end of spring, you are more likely to trim those new hairs.

It’s always a good idea to make spring clipping your horse about comfort and health, not about the future coat of what time of year it is.

What’s the biggest mistake about spring body clipping?

Poor clipper and blade maintenance is one of the most common and avoidable mistakes in horse clipping.

Avoiding common clipping problems

Dirty, dull, or rusty blades will also overheat faster, in addition to tugging and leaving lines and uneven patches. Ideally, we all pack up our supplies in the fall after cleaning, disinfecting, and oiling, but we may forget or use too little oil.

Test out your clippers before you plan to clip to ensure the blades are functional, sharp, and ready to turn your hairy pasture pet into a gleaming show horse, even if you never go to a show. Give yourself enough time to sharpen existing blades or buy new ones before you need them.

Don’t forget to charge your cordless clippers, too!

Timing a spring clip also means planning for surprise weather.

How do I safely clip my horse for the first time in spring?

It’s ideal if your horse could essentially clip themselves, but for horses unsure about the process, start months or weeks ahead of time to gently desensitize them to the sights, sounds, and feelings of the clippers. This means thoughtfully introducing them and helping your horse establish a connection between the equipment and a reward. Then you can move on to turning them on and eventually clipping.

You’ll also need a comfortable space, preferably with supportive footing for both of you. Let your horse have a hay net and views of other horses to maximize relaxation. You always want interactions to be positive experiences, and situational comfort plays a role in that.

Read this to learn more details about the step-by-step desensitization to clippers.

How do I care for my horse’s skin after a spring clip?

You have a few things to consider: their natural oils, fly and UV protection, and sheets or blankets if the weather calls for them.
Immediately after a body or trace clip, your horse may be itchy and dusty, with a coat coated in tiny stray hairs. You can give them a thorough grooming to help the itching, loosen any remaining dirt, and help bring up their natural oil, the sebum.
A rinse is also a great idea, weather depending, or you could add a color-enhancing shampoo if you notice your horse’s coat is lackluster.
You’ll also want to treat any skin issues you uncover, from scratches to rain rot to dandruff.

Read this for more about equine pastern dermatitis (mud fever).

Whether you choose a hunter clip, blanket clip, or full clip, the goal remains the same. You want to support your horse’s comfort, protect the skin, and make thoughtful decisions based on individual needs. The benefits of spring clipping your horse are many, but only if needed.

The Science of Twitching Horses

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Fri, 01 May 2026 18:45:23 GMT

My goal for this article is not to create controversy but to outline the reasons for using a twitch (or not) and what types of twitches are appropriate. Twitching horses is not abuse when done correctly with a horse nose twitch. Sometimes, they will keep a horse safer for the short term. However, there are limitations to the effectiveness of the twitch and how long it lasts. And yes, there’s science about this!

What is a Horse Twitch?

A twitch is a mechanical way of subduing your equine buddy. There are nose twitch techniques, ear twitch techniques, and even the skin of the neck twitch technique. Nose twitching is the most common and easy to do.

The Horse Nose Twitch

The nose twitch is usually a section of rope, approximately 10 inches long, looped and tied to a long pole. The rope should be wide-ish and soft, and a traditional lead rope is usually too thick.

First, place your hand through the loop, then hold the upper lip. Slide the loop over your hand and onto the lip, then tighten.

Some folks use a more cursory twitch, a loop of baling twine, and a double-ended snap. The twine twists around the horse’s upper lip. The twine is thin and may remove skin, too. I would only use this in extreme emergencies when nothing else is around, and restraint is the safest way to help.

With this type of twitch, there is NO WAY to safely remove the twitch if attached to the halter and the horse “comes to” and panics. If you must use this type of twitch in an extreme emergency, please do not attach the snap to the halter or metal ring connected to your horse. You won’t be able to undo it if your horse panics.

You can also use a twitch that is part nutcracker and part very smooth pincher thing. (See option in the shopping section, down below.)

A standard lip loop and wooden dowel.

The horse ear twitch

This method is a particularly barbaric way of subduing a horse. Essentially, an ear is twisted and pulled. Many horses will become head-shy and sour after this experience, and there’s preliminary science to support the negative nature of this specific twitching practice.

The skin twitch

Also known as a shoulder roll, this method often helps a horse that is hesitant about injections in their neck. You can grab a specific spot on your horse’s neck, near the shoulder, and gently roll it. Stay on the same side of your horse that the vet is working on if possible. For example, if your vet is on the left side, ideally, you can twitch the left shoulder.

How do twitches work?

Is it like sedation? The broad answer to this question is that they create endorphins, the feel-good natural chemicals their bodies produce. Think “runner’s high,” but for equines.

But it’s a bit more complicated. Once a twitch is applied, the horse’s body needs about three to five minutes to ramp up the endorphins. During this time, you might notice some horses become ticked off or agitated.

As the endorphins kick in, they might “check out” and show signs of relaxation. Eyes may glaze over, and the head and lower lip may drop. This is similar to sedation, but without drugs, and waking up is much faster.

The endorphins only last for about 10 minutes. If a horse decides to “check back in” while the twitch is on, you may have a feisty ball of flying legs.

This abstract likens the twitch to acupuncture.

I can’t emphasize this enough for nose and skin twitching: Have your vet show you how to do this properly. Don’t just watch a video or read step-by-step instructions; opt for hands-on training instead.

When would you twitch a horse?

Twitches are typically used during veterinary procedures when a horse needs to be chill for a few minutes but can’t have sedation. During a lameness exam, they can’t be sedated, but if they need to have a quick nerve block during the exam, a twitch is an option. This nerve block procedure stings a bit more than a traditional injection, and accuracy from the vet is vital. The twitch induces euphoria, making the nerve block safer and less painful.

Other times to twitch might be during an emergency. If a horse is injured and can’t stand calmly for the injection of pain relief and sedation, using a twitch can keep them from hurting themself more. It is extremely dangerous to give medications when there is panic, pain, and thrashing going on. Twitching can give you a window to make it happen.

Twitching horses provides a small window during which your horse is chilled and relaxed. Yes – relaxed. But only with the non-ear type of restraint! Let’s dive into that part now.

Read this guide to equine emergencies and first aid.

This is one type of nose or lip twitch. I only recommend these if it’s a dire situation. Ideally, the twine or string would be much thicker and softer.

The Science of Twitching Horses

A few years ago, 12 horses were studied using ear and lip twitches. This sample size is small, but we already know that researchers working with horses often need help finding large groups of horses to participate in. It’s what we have so far, so let’s go with it.

Measuring HR and HRV

We also know that heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and cortisol levels are indicators of stress. Cortisol can be measured from blood or, in this case, from saliva. Increased levels of HR and cortisol indicate stress.

HRV examines the variations in time between each heartbeat. When horses are stressed, their bodies are primed for the “fight or flight” response. You may be familiar with this during a spook. The HRV during this time is low. A more relaxed horse will have a high HRV.

OK – back to the study. Some of the horses were twitched on the lip. HR and cortisol levels decreased, while HRV levels increased. They were relaxed!

However, using the lip twitch for more than five minutes caused the HR levels to rise and the HRV levels to drop, indicating stress.

The ear twitch used on the other horses produced the opposite effect. No horses showed signs of relaxation, and their saliva and heart rate measurements confirmed this. Weeks later, some of those horses struggled with having their ears handled. Moral of this story: there is zippo relaxation with an ear twitch.

Read the study here.

Twitching horses for conditioned pain modulation

Conditioned Pain Modulation (CPM) is when one painful stimulus makes another, separate pain feel less intense. In other words, it’s the idea that “pain can block pain,” which occurs through complex signaling between the brain and spinal cord.

Some clever researchers studied using twitches for CPM, and the results in:

In conclusion, based on the current findings, the question of whether lip twitching should be utilized as a conditioning method in CPM studies appears debatable. On one hand, if conditioning is to effectively induce pain, aversive behavioural signs must be inherently tolerated to some extent; on the other, it is imperative to establish stringent cut-off criteria to prevent exposing sensitive individuals to elevated stress and excluding them from testing. Similar considerations should apply to the general use of the lip twitch as a restrain technique in horses.

This research also details the history of twitching horses, dating back to Greek and Roman times, as well as in many other instances. It also mentions that some horses become sensitized to the horse nose twitch, while others don’t tolerate it at all.

Read the study here.

Can you see different horse behaviors while twitched?

Another endeavor examined how horses respond to twitching and what we can observe, and how those indicators relate to their personalities.
In summary:

The simultaneous reduction of forward ear positioning during twitching suggests a withdrawal of attention from the environment and a shift towards a negative emotional state, and a certain degree of discomfort could reasonably be assumed to occur during the procedure. In addition, our study revealed reductions in voluntary behaviors, such as ear movements and natural head position during twitching. We also observed a significant decrease in resting of the forelimbs during and after twitching, further suggesting a disruption of relaxed postures typically associated with low arousal states. Similarly, pawing behavior, typically associated with moderate agitation or frustration, was significantly reduced during the Twitch interval, indicating a generalized suppression of active behaviors during restraint. Reduced voluntary behaviors such as decreased ear movements, natural head position and pawing during twitching may be indicative of either temporary coping mechanisms or behavioral inhibitions in response to the restraint.
As initially hypothesized, the present study showed that the lip twitch induced observable behavioral changes consistent with mild stress in the horses (ten out of twelve) that completed the procedure. In contrast, a high level of stress and aversion to the twitch application was observed in the two horses that were excluded.

Read this research here.

Helpful hints about twitching horses.

Be trained by your veterinarian before attempting this method.

Never twist an ear.

Some horses will never accept a twitch. Don’t keep fighting for it.

Never stand in front of or behind a horse while using a twitch. Many horses strike and kick before and/or after the endorphins. You have no reason to end up with a new black and blue tattoo – or worse.

Use twitches only in veterinary circumstances when your horse needs to relax for a few minutes. They are absolutely NOT a training method to be incorporated into an exercise program.

Remove it before the endorphins wear off. Most horses have that five-minute window.

Please keep it safe folks!

This chill horse is wearing a twitch to facilitate numbing a wound before being sutured. The twitch was removed once the numbing meds were in – super fast!

Training as an alternative to twitching horses

It wouldn’t be surprising to learn that some horses require positive reinforcement training to become comfortable in certain situations.

Positive reinforcement horse training utilizes rewards to encourage desired behaviors without the need for restraint. When practiced over time, your equine partner will learn that even scary or uncomfortable situations earn rewards, which could be treats. This method of horse training is easy, builds trust, and instills confidence.

The perfect example is training a horse to stand quietly for the clippers or an injection.

Chestnuts and Ergots - Truths and Lore

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 20:33:55 GMT

Horse chestnuts are a few things – actual nuts that people eat, and those crusty formations on the inside of the horse’s leg. Ergots, on the other hoof, are on the underside of the fetlock joint. Both of these unique structures are the source of myth and perhaps annoyance and, for the most part, don’t require attention. Ergots and chestnuts on horses rarely need attention, unless there’s a reason.

The Lore About Ergots and Chestnuts on Horses

Chestnuts are sometimes called “night eyes,” which is a bit creepy. It was believed horses could see well at night because of their chestnuts. I can’t pinpoint when this rumor started, but it’s likely before modern ophthalmology. This is also quite the fun fact about a horse’s leg.

In the land of horse tale folklore, some believe chestnuts and ergots on horses are vestigial scent glands. This theory of chestnuts as scent glands stems from the wives’ tale and old cowboy trick that you carry the chestnut peelings of another horse into a paddock, and the horses there will come up to you to investigate, thus making catching easier.

Are Chestnuts on Horses Really Extra Toes?

Many believe that chestnuts are remnants of toes that have migrated, sometimes called vestigial toes. There’s conflicting information about this thought. At some point, ancient horses had three, four, or five toes. Did some of those toes become the splint bones alongside the cannon bones and the chestnuts?

Recent evidence suggests that these extra toes, which started as five total, actually exist in the incredibly early stages of a foal’s development in the uterus to this day. As the foal grows, the toes combine to create a hoof that we know and love. This process is called digit reduction – instead of toes becoming other parts of a horse’s anatomy, the five toes become one hoof. More information on this topic can be found here.

At any rate, it’s still commonly believed, by horse owners and experts alike, that chestnuts on horses are vestigial.

Here’s a link to the original New York Times article about chestnuts and toes.

Do all Horses Have Chestnuts?

Most modern-day horses have chestnuts on all four legs. On the front legs, they are above the knee, and on the back legs, they are below the hock. Some breeds of horses, namely Icelandic and Caspian ponies, may be missing the hind leg chestnuts. Many horse relatives, like the zebra, don’t have hind leg chestnuts.

These chestnuts are bananas.

How to Care for Your Equine Partner’s Chestnuts

Many of us like to keep chestnuts flat and tidy; otherwise, they can be a little lumpy and sometimes really pokey and long. The easiest way to keep them tidy is to peel them when they are wet. Peeling after a shampoo bath and rinse may be the best time to address them.

Alternatively, you can keep them oiled with baby oil or moisturizer and peel them when they are nice and soft. Some folks use petroleum jelly to do this.

I prefer not to use a blade or razor to remove them. In my hands, this is a recipe for disaster, cutting too deep or having a wiggling horse dance into a blade.

Some farriers can trim up chestnuts for you with their hoof knife.

On show day, you can spiff up your horse’s chestnuts with a coat of grooming oil or do nothing and carry on.

This horse lost their chestnut and had a nice fat leg because of it.

What’s “under “a horse chestnut?

I never thought about this until I learned that a friend’s horse came in from the pasture with a big, fat leg. Cause of this? A suddenly missing chestnut. There’s no bleeding, but you can see from the photo below that there is skin-like tissue below the chestnut.

It grew back to normal after several weeks.

Fascinating Science About Horse Chestnuts

Some clever scientists looked at a small group of horses to see if laminitic changes to the hoof also show up in the chestnuts. Both structures have epithelial cells and proteins, among other things.

They found that the cytokeratin cells (a type of epithelial tissue) in the hooves and chestnuts change during laminitis, and this change is not related to weight bearing. This suggests that changes to the hoof can affect the horse in other areas.

This summary provides additional information about the laminitis study.

Other enterprising scientists examined the relationship between chestnut size, limb length, and breed. They found that size matters, at least when looking at chestnuts and breeds.

All About Ergots on Horses

Ergots have a similar texture to chestnuts but grow endlessly at the back of the fetlock. For this reason, I despise ergots and find them to be all sorts of annoying and strange.

And who named them ergots? This silly word is a variation of the French word for “rooster spur, “which, TBH, is pretty spot on.

It’s a bit more interesting to think about where ergots “came from.“ The horse’s living relatives of the order Perissodactyla are the tapir and the rhino. Creatures of the order Perissodactyla are odd-toed ungulates, meaning they have hooves with an odd number of toes.

These creatures also have hoof pads or the remains of a hoof pad. It’s just as it sounds, like a built-in squishy pad that the hoof rests on. The theory is that the horse’s ergot is the remains of the hoof pad.

Most horses have ergots, but some don’t.

Ergots range in size from little nubs to this kickstand.

Caring for Horse Ergots

Ergots are also easily removed in the wash rack after shampooing and rinsing, or even just a rinse. Much like chestnuts, you don’t have to do anything with them if you don’t want to!

Small ergots that don’t extend or grow much feel like calluses or scabs.

Use your fingernails to peel away the outer layers gently. Your farrier might also be able to trim them for you. Using a blade might be dangerous for your horse and your hands.

Please don’t twist off the ergots. Many nerves and soft tissue structures meet at the back of the fetlock, where the ergot sprouts. Keep everything where it’s supposed to be, and don’t twist the ergot.

One more note about ergots. Please don’t let them turn into gigantic kickstands, or I will hunt you down, peel them off, and then smack you with them. Gently.

Antacids for Horses - Are They Worth It?

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:42:19 GMT

Do Antacids for Horses Help Ulcers?

Many horses, across all breeds, disciplines, and lifestyles, suffer from gastric ulcers. Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS) results from stomach acids corroding sores in the horse’s stomach and esophagus, usually as a result of too little hay in the belly. Logically, horses could eat antacids, but for horses, it doesn’t work like that. It’s never as simple as using antacids for horses.

What are Antacids?

There are many types of antacids, of varying chemical structures, that work to neutralize stomach acids. A common ingredient is calcium carbonate, similar to that found in TUMS and Rolaids.

Antacids for horses are actually antacids for humans, and they work by reducing the acidity of stomach acid, thereby lowering the potential for irritation. These tablets or liquids only provide temporary relief.

When fed, they may reduce signs of ulcers, but they won’t fix the primary cause. In fact, current science suggests that they may not have much effect at all.

Types of antacids

Before you hit the pharmacy or grocery store to shop for your horse’s antacids, read this whole article and then talk to your vet. There is some science about antacids for horses, and there are SO MANY types and brand names that things get confusing.

Generic and brand names:

Calcium carbonate is Tums or Rolaids.
Magnesium hydroxide is Milk of Magnesia.
Aluminium hydroxide is AtgernaGEL and Amphojel
Aluminium and magnesium hydroxide are Maalox and Alamag
Simethicone-based antacids are Mylanta, Almacone, and Gelusil
Alginic acid is Gaviscon

How They Work

Most antacids neutralize stomach acids. The dilemma with equines is that they are continuously producing acids.

Some antacids, like simethicone, help reduce gas.

Others, like alginic acid, create a foam hat on top of the stomach contents to help prevent gas from splashing around and hitting the upper portion of the stomach.

But can antacids for horses help with ulcers? Maybe?

Overview of Equine Ulcers

Ulcers are ubiquitous in the horse world, and depending on what study or factoid you read, anywhere from 20 to 90% of all equines have gastric ulcers, regardless of their age, breed, discipline, or lifestyle. The prevalence of these sores speaks to the challenges of keeping equines in domestic situations where they are not eating consistent, small amounts.

There are two types of ulcers in horses: the gastric ulcers in the stomach and the hindgut ulcers further along the digestive system.

Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS) refers to ulcers in the esophagus, stomach, and the first part of the intestines, known as the duodenum.

If the upper stomach area is affected, the ulcers and other diseases are included in the term Equine Squamous Gastric Disease (ESGD), also known as Equine Squamous Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (ESGUS).

Even though equines can’t burp or vomit, they can still have stomach acid enter the esophagus via gastroesophageal reflux.

Ulcers are graded on a scale of zero to four when visualized with a scope. Zero is the absence of ulcers, and four is severe ulcers.

For the lower part of the stomach, ulcers are associated with Equine Glandular Gastric Disease (EGGD), also known as Equine Glandular Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGGUS). These lesions are difficult to detect and, therefore, lack a grading system.

Gastric ulcers interfere with protein digestion, create pain, and the excess acid contributes to poor body condition.

Read this for some lovely photos of stomach ulcers.

Keeping hay moving through your horse is KEY to avoiding ulcers.

Causes of gastric ulcers in horses

The primary reason for gastric ulcers is the upper part of the stomach getting splashed with stomach acids. The upper portion is covered in squamous cells, which do not protect against acids. Compare that to the lower portion, which does have a layer of cells that secrete mucous to safeguard against those acids.

When horses have forage in their stomachs, the acids are working on digestion, and the food creates a physical barrier between the acids and the upper, unprotected area.

When the stomach does not have food, which is quite often for domesticated horses, the acids are free to splash around, especially when the horse is active, like during exercise.

Gastric ulcers in the horse’s stomach happen because the horse is consistently producing stomach acid! All the dang time! Horses need to eat constantly. Most horses don’t have this type of lifestyle, even with six feedings a day or more. For part of the day, your horse’s stomach fills with acid – without food. Hence, the acid gets frisky and does other things that it shouldn’t – like create ulcers.

Contrary to human gastric ulcers, which have a bacterial component, there is no bacterial link to gastric ulcers in horses.

For ulcers in the protected area of the stomach, due to EGGUS, it’s suspected that NSAID use alters the stomach lining, and the usually protective mucus layer is less effective, creating an increased risk of lesions.

Diagnosis from a veterinarian

While there are many signs your horse has ulcers, the only definitive diagnostics include gastroscopy or endoscopy, where your vet will sedate your horse and inspect the esophagus and stomach for ulcers. Then it’s on to medications and lifestyle changes to heal those sores.

Treatments for equine gastric ulcers – omeprazole

Omeprazole PASTE is the gold standard for treating horses with ulcers. There is varying effectiveness of powdered and/or compounded omeprazole as it’s not as effective at surviving the stomach to enter the bloodstream and do its job of shutting down the acid-producing pumps.

Results of a preliminary study comparing GastroGard (GG) omeprazole paste with Gastrozol (GZ), an enteric-coated omeprazole formulation, show that both help alleviate ulcers. However, GG is more effective at entering the bloodstream. This study did not look at compounded omeprazole.

QUOTE In conclusion, both omeprazole formulations used in this study, administered at the recommended oral doses of 4 mg/kg (GG) and 1 mg/kg (GZ) once daily and combined with appropriate changes in management and feeding, promote healing of mild‐to‐moderate gastric ulcers in horses. However, plasma omeprazole concentrations and AUC are significantly higher after GG administration.

Read the study here.

Omeprazole and rebound acid in horses

Yes, horses can develop that surge of acid when omeprazole treatment stops abruptly. To combat this, taper the dose slowly with your vet’s help.

Because omeprazole heals ulcers, it’s vastly different from antacids for horses, which simply change the pH. And because we don’t know the best dose and dosing interval, much less how long antacids should be fed, there are too many unknowns and opportunities for antacids to create complications.

It’s only a best estimate that antacids work for about 4 hours, which leaves the overnight hours empty unless you can set up automatic feeding. With omeprazole, you can manage the rebound effects by tapering the dosage.

Hindgut ulcers

Ulcers in the colon are hindgut ulcers. And while gastric ulcers involve intense training and empty stomachs, hindgut ulcers are associated with long-term NSAID use, like bute and Banamine®.

Other causes of hindgut ulceration include excessive intake of grain or sugar, such as from feeds and sugary grass. The hindgut microbes feast, and the resulting pH changes and buildup of lactic acid eliminate the healthy bacteria, causing hindgut acidosis.

Stress is another factor contributing to hindgut ulcers, as are parasites that prefer to reside and reproduce in the hindgut of the digestive tract.

Antacids vs. Hindgut buffers

Both antacids for horses and hindgut buffers work to neutralize acids in a horse’s digestive system, but antacids work in the stomach, and hindgut buffers work in the colon.

For hindgut ulcers, treatment involves dietary changes, such as using slow feeders, a low-NSC diet, and grazing muzzles for pasture turnout. There are also prescription medications, such as sucralfate.

Evaluating the Efficacy of Antacid Supplements for Horses

The thought behind using antacid tablets or liquids is that stomach acid changes the pH to a more comfortable level, thereby preventing or minimizing the exacerbation of ulcers. It’s largely anecdotal in terms of dosage, with many horse owners offering tablets before riding or exercising.

What does science tell us about antacids for horses? Lots of things, including the obvious need for more research.

There are also several questions, such as:

What’s the dose for horse antacid tablets?
How long do they last?
Do they heal or prevent ulcers? Or neither?
What about the rebound effect? This documented effect happens after you stop using antacids. After using an antacid, the stomach will produce more acid to counteract the neutralized acid, making the situation worse.

Scientific Evidence About Antacid Use in Horses

Let’s examine several studies involving horses and antacids.

Famotidine, ranitidine, and magnesium hydroxide and aluminium hydroxide for horses

This study examined the use of famotidine (Pepcid, Zantac 230) and ranitidine (Zantac) in combination with antacids. Famotidine and ranitidine are histamine blockers that reduce the amount of stomach acid. Famotidine and ranitidine address excessive stomach acid production, and not the acidity of the acid.

Researchers found that the effects of famotidine and ranitidine in altering stomach acid pH were greater and longer-lasting than those of antacids.

The increase in gastric fluid pH was significantly greater for ranitidine (P<0.001) and famotidine (P<0.02) than for antacid. The duration of the effect was significantly longer for ranitidine doses (P<0.001) and nearly so for famotidine doses (P<0.055) than for antacid.

Read this study summary here.

Neigh-Lox for horses

Kentucky Equine Research, a supplement company, published this paper detailing their research behind the Neigh-Lox antacid. They found that Neigh-Lox can be an effective antacid for equines.

Since its development, Neigh-Lox has been field tested in hundreds of horses. Many horses that displayed signs of gastric irritation such as poor appetite, chronic colic, and sour disposition have shown immediate improvement after receiving only a few doses of Neigh-Lox. Since there are no studies to show that Neigh-Lox heals ulcers, it is recommended only as adjunctive therapy to acid suppressive drugs in horses that have been positively diagnosed with gastric ulcers.

Read the paper here.

A small study about aluminum and magnesium hydroxide

A small study of five horses revealed that antacids will alter the pH of stomach acid, but only for a short time. The implication (which needs to be studied further) is that this would require regular feeding every few hours for maximum effectiveness. But you still have the potential for the rebound effect should the dosing change or falter.

Oral administration of 30 g of aluminum hydroxide/15 g of magnesium hydroxide to adult horses should result in a mean hourly gastric pH ≥ 4.0 for at least 2 hours.

Read this brief here.

Antacids and cribbing

Can you give your horse antacids to reduce cribbing? You can, but it may be a long-term project with limited results. Researchers studied this possibility and found that:

Although 21 d of antacid therapy significantly increased gastric pH in adult cribbing equines, it did not effectively reduce cribbing behavior in these horses. However, the significant carryover effect in the number of crib bites per day between periods indicates that a longer period of antacid therapy may be necessary to influence cribbing behavior in the adult horse.

Read the study here.

Therapies for ulcers

This research indicates that antacids for horses must be administered (at an unknown dose, as this has not been determined yet) approximately every four hours, around the clock. That’s not great from a management standpoint.

This paper also highlights the risk of rebound and notes that the use of antacids may interfere with the absorption of other medications.

Read this paper here.

Are TUMS for horses a good idea?

TUMS may sound like a good idea, but it doesn’t work for preventing or treating ulcers. An effective dose is unknown. However, we do know that you need to dose every 4 hours, and that stopping dosing leads to rebounding acid production, often making things worse.

Instead, rely on proven treatments to heal ulcers, and implement simple lifestyle and diet changes to help your horse.

Alternatives to Antacids for Horses

The easiest thing you can do before a ride is to feed your horse forage. A “snack” of hay right before a ride creates that physical barrier in the stomach, preventing the splashing that sends acid from the lower portion of the stomach to the upper area that’s vulnerable to ulcer formation.

Don’t rely on the flake you gave a few hours ago. The stomach is quick to send food along to the small intestine, which is why constant eating keeps the glandular region of the stomach busy digesting instead of ulcerating things.

The most crucial treatment is changing the diet to a low NSC value, forage-first diet, and using slow feeders for all commercial, bagged feeds and hay products. You can find all manner of hay toys and feeders for pellets, cubes, and long-stem hay. There are also slow-feeding options for grains and pellets.

Slow feed, slow feed, slow feed.

How to feed instead of using antacids for horses

Here are some dietary tips to help prevent the formation of new ulcers:

Keep your horse chewing forage. A mix of alfalfa, with its acid-neutralizing calcium, mixed with other hays, is best.

Pasture is great, too, if they can eat small volumes of grass slowly. Grazing muzzles help with this.

Feed a low-starch and low-sugar diet. Don’t feed supplements with molasses or added sugars, and look for NSC values below 10-12% in hay and bagged feeds.

Offer grains and concentrated feeds many times a day. Small meals are safer than one or two large ones.

Consult with your veterinarian and equine nutritionist about your horse’s risk of ulcers.

Make dietary changes over two weeks.

Talk to your vet about your horse’s ulcer risk and hire an equine nutritionist to help you design a low-risk diet. Medications are not the only way to help your horse.

While antacids are one option to help your horse, there are more reliable and proven options. Your horse’s diet and lifestyle can have a significantly more profound impact on their digestive health than antacids for horses. If it’s the pre-ride buffer you are looking for, let your horse eat hay before a ride to create that floating hay hat in their stomach, and add alfalfa to their diet. Your veterinarian can help you with all of these changes.

Ringbone in Horses

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:38:35 GMT

While we all adore our horses for being overachievers in some aspects, it’s not great when they overachieve in bone growth and end up with ringbone. The extra bone growth created may lead to pain, lameness, and interference with tendons and ligaments in the area. Ringbone in horses is a complicated condition with many treatment options.

What is Equine Ringbone?

Think of ringbone as extra bone growth around an area, as if the bone has jumped out of its original shape to spread.

Ringbone happens when your horse’s body creates more bone than it needs. Typically, there is an injury or swelling around the pastern, where the extra bone growth usually occurs.

Ringbone can happen in the joint, called articular ringbone, or on the side of the pastern bone. The extra calcification and bony proliferations can have zero consequences or be quite dangerous and debilitating.

Where Ringbone Affects Horses

Ringbone typically occurs around the pastern and fetlock areas. It’s a form of osteoarthritis, a chronic condition in which the articular cartilage breaks down, causing problems with joint mobility. This degenerative joint disease puts additional stress on your horse’s physical and mental well-being.

Equine anatomy refresher

The bones

The last bone in the horse’s lower limbs is the P3, also called the coffin bone or distal phalanx. Just above that sit the P2, also known as the short pastern bone, and P1, also referred to as the long pastern bone.

In between the P3 and P2 is the navicular bone, seated at the back of the hoof.

The joints

Above all of the P’s is the fetlock joint.

The P3 coffin bone sits inside the hoof. Where the P3 and P2 meet is the coffin joint.

Where the P2 and P1 meet is the pastern joint, which is also called the proximal interphalangeal joint.

The Types of Ringbone

High ringbone

Ringbone is a type of arthritis that commonly affects the pastern joint, known as high ringbone. This joint has tons of movement and, therefore, can be painful and problematic if extra bone growth occurs. This is the most common type of ringbone, and the arthritic pain can create long-term lameness.

Low ringbone

If ringbone interferes with the coffin joint, it’s called low ringbone. This happens just inside the hoof. There’s less movement here than in the pastern joint, but this joint holds your horse’s weight. This situation is also quite painful, as the associated swelling and inflammation have nowhere to go – the hoof capsule contains it all. The coffin joint is prone to degeneration in the face of damage.

The bottom bone here (the P3 Coffin bone) can be seen. This horse’s ringbone was high, affecting the P2 and P1.

Articular ringbone

If the bony growth occurs on the joint surface, it’s called articular ringbone. This type is more painful and likely to cause severe lameness.

When the outer layer of bone, the periosteum, is pulled and torn by the soft tissues around a joint, bony growth happens on the joint surfaces.

Bulky horses with short patterns that tend to weigh more often develop articular ringbone. Their job doesn’t need to be speed-related for this to happen.

Non-articular ringbone

When the bone grows outside the joint and into surrounding tissues, it’s called non-articular or periarticular ringbone. It’s usually related to high ringbone cases, and lamenesses are not as severe.

Ringbone Causes – Swelling, Osteoarthritis, Infection, Injury

Horses, like humans, will try to heal themselves and prevent further damage to their bodies. If a horse’s joint starts to experience stress, the surrounding soft tissues also get involved. The tendons and ligaments become inflamed, which can quickly spiral out of control.

If there’s too much tension in an area, your horse’s body says, “Do something – make it stable again!” Sometimes, stability happens by laying down more BONE. Then, the bone gets in the way of movement.

It’s a cyclical process – more damage, more bone, more damage, more bone.

Icing a horse’s legs after work can help!

So much ice. So much goodness.

Risk Factors for Ringbone in Horses

As with all things horses, there’s a lot of genetics, conformation, and a horse’s job that come into play. The development of ringbone doesn’t have a single exact cause.

The shape of your horse’s legs and hoof plays a significant role here. Poor conformation, with upright pasterns and horses that are toed in, is likely to develop ringbone with degenerative changes.

Horses subjected to a lot of concussion, like the jumpers, polo ponies, and even some horses in the western disciplines like reining, are more likely to develop ringbone. All of these horse jobs have one thing in common – repetitive stress. It’s wear and tear.

Footing matters, too. Repeated work on hard ground, especially with young horses, can lead to ringbone. Older horses can also develop ringbone after a lifetime of wear and tear on the limb joints.

A sudden injury in the pastern region is also a predisposing factor for ringbone. A damaged joint can trigger inflammation that escalates into excessive bone growth.

Overweight horses are more likely to develop metabolic disorders, like PPID and EMS, and therefore increase laminitis risk. Added weight also strains muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, and hooves.

Signs of Ringbone

You may have seen photos of horses with ringbone. You can see the damage and the extra bone that changes the shape of the pastern area. By the time this happens, significant damage and considerable pain will have occurred.

Like all things horse, signs of ringbone are subtle. It might start with a lameness or a different way of going, which should always be checked out. Early intervention is key. Even mild or moderate lameness may be linked to ringbone.

You may also notice that your horse’s pastern area is swollen or warm. Or your horse is flinching when you inspect the coronary bands.

You or your vet may be able to feel changes during palpation of the pastern. Abnormal bone development in that area is a source of pain that can be palpated and sometimes visualized.

Under saddle, you may find your horse’s gait choppy, different, or tight. A horse in pain often loses forwardness and may become unwilling to turn or jump.

The signs of ringbone are subtle, so keep a close eye on the situation and notice any trends over time.

The early stages of ringbone can be vague and resemble many other conditions, so it’s vital to involve your vet early on.

This fascinating thesis, published decades ago, remains a valuable source of information about ringbone in young, growing horses.

Your vet will need X-rays for a diagnosis.

How a Veterinarian Makes a Diagnosis

A lameness exam is the first step in uncovering the cause of severe lameness or chronic lameness, which is subtle and mysterious. Any acute trauma to the area from an accident also warrants a thorough exam.

A lameness evaluation usually begins with flexion tests. Your vet will flex and hold a joint and then watch as they trot away.

To help pinpoint specific areas and joints, your vet may perform nerve blocks. Starting low in the leg, the area is numbed, and the flexions are repeated. That area is likely involved if the numbing changes how your horse responds to the flexion test.

The diagnosis of ringbone typically involves X-rays and, in some cases, ultrasound. Several imaging techniques can help your vet narrow down causes and a treatment plan when evaluating joint health.

You can physically see the bony changes that ringbone can create. Ringbone is a degeneration of the area and does not have a cure.

What’s the Prognosis?

While there is no cure for ringbone, many horses find comfort depending on the severity of the condition.

Try different therapies, like shockwave therapy, to find the best fit for your horse.

Because this is a degenerative condition, the stiffness, mobility, and pain will change over time. The progression of the disease is not kind to some horses.

Corrective shoeing can be helpful.

Shoeing and Hoof Care with Your Vet and Farrier

One place to begin helping your horse is by adjusting trimming and shoeing. If there are recent radiographs, these can help your farrier and vet come up with a hoof care treatment plan that mirrors their exact anatomy.

Your farrier can adjust the breakover point so that the hoof lifts off the ground more quickly than usual.

For the heels, supportive shoeing can help reduce pain. Pads, pour-ins, bar shoes, and other horseshoe variations support the heel better than plain shoes or barefoot trimming.

Ringbone can happen in any leg.

Nutraceuticals, Supplements, and Medications for Inflammation

There are plenty of joint supplements available to support joint and bone health.

Hyaluronic acid

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a natural substance that works to grease and cushion joints. There are oral forms and injectables, which directly target the specific joint.

It’s found in the synovial fluid surrounding joints and helps reduce inflammation. When injected, it also prompts the joint cartilage to make more HA.

Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM)

This inexpensive supplement has many functions. First, it may help alleviate joint swelling, especially when associated with arthritis rather than an injury.
Range of motion and recovery after exercise may also improve.

MSM may also stimulate the production of cartilage cells, act as an antioxidant, and support a healthy immune system.

Stabilized or cold-milled flax is delicious and so easy to feed.

Omega-3 fatty acids

Omega-3 fatty acids help your horse make prostaglandins, which are anti-inflammatory compounds. These acids also help support cartilage and other soft tissues, such as tendons and ligaments.

The horse’s body needs Omega-3s and Omega-6s, but a healthy ratio is generally at least 4:1. A horse’s diet often lacks enough 3s to make this happen. Look for flax, chia, and fish oils to supply Omega-3s. Like MSM, it’s affordable and plentiful.

Snake oil or valuable supplement?

The nutraceutical industry is not regulated in the same way as the pharmaceutical industry. The FDA regulates companies, and supplements are treated as a subset of food, not medicine.

Supplements only have to be safe to consume, nothing else.

For horse owners, we need to differentiate between testimonials and science and ignore fancy marketing.

Many nutraceutical companies back their products with objective science, and it’s easy to find on a manufacturer’s website if you are looking for studies. Ideally, you can also find information about a specific product in a scholarly article.

Prescription Medications for Ringbone in Horses

Anti-inflammatory meds

Bute, Banamine, and firocoxib are the big three pain medications for horses. These work on your horse’s entire body and are generally not intended for long-term use. Each has a different mechanism in the body and may exacerbate ulcers.

Bisphosphonates

Bisphosphonate drugs interfere with bone remodeling. You may have heard of these to treat navicular diseases. For horses with ringbone, these help relieve pain and strengthen the bones.

Injections

Aside from intra-articular injections of HA, your vet can use steroids in the joints. Direct injection is a powerful way to deliver more benefit to the exact location. However, not all horses are candidates for steroid injections.

Joint injections made from your horse’s blood are another option. Cells taken from your horse’s blood are spun down and multiplied before re-injection into an area. Two methods are interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein (IRAP) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP). A new IRAP/PRP combo product called Pro-Stride may also be an option for your horse.

Many good things come in bottles.

Surgical Options for Ringbone in Horses

Non-surgical joint fusion

Fusion occurs naturally when the cartilage degenerates and the bone surfaces join together.

Your vet can inject the joint with medications to hasten this process, which triggers your horse to fuse their joint.

While this is less expensive than surgery, it’s not as accurate and may be unsuccessful.

Surgical joint fusion

When it comes to surgical fusion, the procedure is best done in high ringbone situations. A fused coffin joint is best for horses that will be pasture ornaments.

The surgeon will physically remove the cartilage in the joint. Plates and screws join the bones together. Recovery is a long process, and outcomes are uncertain. For low-impact horse jobs, like light trail riding, return to work is more likely than if a big-time show jumper came back to work.

This older science has some great photos of ringbone surgery.

This horse had surgery to fuse the pastern joint. You can see one of the three screws here, going from P1 into P2.

Ringbone in horses does take time to develop. Working closely with your vet over time is a great place to start. Do try to avoid the denial that something is ever so slightly wrong with your horse and that he will “work out of it” in time. Be the best advocate for your horse and seek veterinary care early. Effective management of ringbone relies on early detection and prompt treatment.

Spring Vaccines and Wellness Exam for Horses

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:10:04 GMT

A Guide to Spring Vaccines for Horses

Spring is a critical period for horse owners to update their horse’s vaccines and prepare for the months ahead. A well-planned spring vaccination schedule helps protect your equine companion from potentially serious diseases. The established guidelines for spring vaccines for horses cover both core and risk-based vaccinations to keep your equine partner healthy and happy. Most equine veterinarians pair vaccinations with a wellness exam, a Coggins test, and sometimes a lameness exam.

Key Highlights

Spring vaccination is essential for immune system health before the peak season for infectious diseases.
The core vaccines recommended for all horses in spring protect against West Nile Virus, Tetanus, Rabies, and Eastern/Western Equine Encephalomyelitis.
Risk-based vaccination is determined by factors such as travel schedule, geographic location, and potential exposure to sick equines.
Integrating spring vaccination with an annual wellness exam allows your veterinarian to conduct a comprehensive health assessment.
While vaccines are safe, be aware of potential minor side effects, such as soreness or a mild fever, and know when to contact your vet.
Always consult official vaccination guidelines from sources like the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) to create a tailored plan.

Importance of Spring Vaccines for Horses

Summer is peak season for many infectious diseases, many of which are transmitted by mosquitoes, and vaccinating in spring gives their immune systems time to build protection. This also builds your horse’s immune system before shows and other potential sources of disease exposure.

As stewards of our equine partner’s health, vaccines are one way to keep the individual and herd safe.

Common Core Vaccines Horses Need in Spring

Core vaccines are considered essential for every horse, regardless of their age, breed, or lifestyle. The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) considers these necessary because they protect against viral diseases common to a region, highly contagious, or of public health significance, such as rabies. These diseases can cause severe illness or even death, making vaccination a critical preventative measure.

These vaccines have a high degree of safety and effectiveness, providing significant benefits with a low level of risk.

Protection Against Major Equine Diseases

The most devastating equine diseases have vaccines that help prevent tragedy and possible infection across a herd. Mosquitoes and wildlife are key transmission vectors, and protection against many conditions they cause is vital in the springtime.

Your horse needs protection from:
West Nile Virus (WNV): A mosquito-borne virus that can cause severe and often deadly neurologic disease.
Eastern/Western Equine Encephalomyelitis (EEE/WEE): Mosquito-borne viruses that cause inflammation of the brain and spinal cord and are frequently fatal.
Tetanus: Caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani, which enters the body through wounds and produces a potent neurotoxin.
Rabies: A fatal neurological disease transmitted by the bite of an infected animal, such as a skunk or raccoon. A veterinarian must administer the rabies vaccine. Rabies is also zoonotic, meaning it can be transmitted to humans. Once symptoms appear in any warm-blooded animal, there is no hope of recovery, and death is certain.

While not always considered a core vaccine, protection against equine influenza and equine herpesvirus is also common, especially for horses that travel or interact with others.

Risk-Based Spring Vaccines for Horses

In addition to the core vaccines, risk-based vaccines rely on your horse’s lifestyle, geographic location, and potential risk of exposure to specific conditions to determine necessity.

There is no definitive plan for risk-based vaccines. A horse that lives in a pasture and never leaves the property has a very different risk profile than a show horse that travels frequently. An individualized approach to spring vaccines for horses is key to providing appropriate protection.

Risk-based vaccines

These conditions and the necessity for vaccination will vary. Your vet can assess the risks and give you a comprehensive plan.

Equine influenza

Equine influenza is a highly contagious viral respiratory disease that spreads quickly through coughing, sneezing, and close contact. It usually causes fever, a dry cough, nasal discharge, and fatigue, and horses can continue shedding the virus for a week or more after infection.

Location Matters for Risk-Based Spring Vaccines for Horses

Geography: Certain diseases are more prevalent in specific regions. For example, Potomac Horse Fever is common near waterways in the Mid-Atlantic states, while Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis (VEE) is a concern in areas bordering South America.

Tick-borne diseases may also vary by location. While there is no Lyme vaccine for equines (yet), many vets will administer the canine Lyme vaccine off-label to horses to provide some protection against tick-related illnesses.

Travel: Horses that travel to shows, competitions, or new boarding facilities come into contact with many other horses, increasing their exposure to respiratory diseases like equine influenza and strangles (Streptococcus equi).

Exposure to other horses: Even at home, introducing new horses to the herd without proper quarantine increases the risk of disease transmission.

Age and Health Considerations for Risk-Based Vaccines

Age and overall health status are critical factors when creating a vaccination plan. The needs of young foals, pregnant mares, and senior adultscan differ significantly. An individual horse’s immune system and potential for exposure change throughout its life, requiring adjustments to its vaccination protocol.

Your veterinarian will consider these life stages to minimize risk and maximize protection, especially given the severity of the disease in vulnerable populations.

Young Foals: Foals receive initial antibodies from their mother’s colostrum, which can interfere with vaccines. Their vaccination series typically begins at 4-6 months of age, once these maternal antibodies have faded.

Pregnant Mares: Vaccinating pregnant mares 4-6 weeks before they give birth boosts the antibodies in their colostrum, providing crucial passive immunity to their newborn foals. Specific vaccines, like those for rotavirus and equine herpesvirus, are timed during gestation to prevent abortion or illness in the foal.

Senior horse considerations

Senior horses or those with compromised immune systems may also require a modified schedule to ensure they are adequately protected without unnecessary stress. It’s not uncommon to spread out vaccinations, especially if there have been previous reactions.

It was believed that seniors had stronger immune systems after years of vaccinations, but we now know that the opposite is true. Senior equines have fading immunity, and thus still need regular vaccines.

Spring Wellness Exam and Horse Vaccination

Pairing your horse’s spring vaccinations with a comprehensive wellness exam is a smart and proactive approach to equine health. This annual visit is the perfect opportunity for your veterinarian to conduct routine health check-ups and administer vaccines in a single appointment. It allows for a thorough evaluation of your horse’s overall condition, ensuring they are healthy enough for vaccination.

What to expect for an equine wellness exam

Your vet will likely examine your horse, noting these things, in the spring:
Vital signs
Digital pulses in the legs
Gut sounds
Gum health
Eye, ear, and nose exam
Dental exam
Your vet may also want to dig deeper, with these:
Metabolic testing for PPID (Cushings) and equine metabolic syndrome
Fecal egg count to estimate parasite load
Body condition score/Weight estimation
Lameness exam
Teeth floating
Sheath or udder cleaning, including bean removal

Coggins Testing and Equine Infectious Anemia

A yearly Coggins test is required at many barns, especially at show barns, and for horses that travel or attend horse shows.

This simple blood test screens for Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA), a devastating and incurable viral disease. Since there is no vaccine for EIA, testing is the only way to identify infected horses and prevent its spread. Those infected can be carriers for life, posing a risk to every other horse they come into contact with, even if no symptoms or signs of EIA are present.

Horses testing positive but asymptomatic are required to be completely isolated from other equines, which makes for a cruel existence. Others do become ill, and in both cases, euthanasia is the kindest outcome.

Risks, Side Effects, and Monitoring After Spring Vaccines

While spring vaccines for horses are very safe and effective, it’s important to be aware of potential risks and side effects. Most adverse reactions are mild and indicate that the immune system is responding to the vaccine. These effects typically resolve on their own within a day or two.

When your veterinarian administers vaccines, they can treat any adverse reactions promptly, which is best for horses with a history of reactions. Your vet can also give medications before vaccinations to reduce side effects for sensitive horses.

Typical side effects to expect

Some mild reactions that you may notice include:
Soreness around the injection site
Muscle stiffness
Fever
Decreased appetite
Lethargic or not feeling like themselves

You may also see severe reactions, including:

Hives
Colic
Diarrhea
Trouble breathing (a sign of anaphylaxis)

If you notice any of these, call your vet. Anaphylaxis is deadly, and any signs of trouble breathing are an emergency.

Steps for monitoring your horse post-vaccination

For several hours, monitor your horse’s breathing and overall attitude. They should eat and drink like usual.

For the next few days, take their temperature twice daily to monitor for fevers. For stiff or sore areas, a handwalk or turnout can help.

Always check on the vaccination sites for heat, swelling, discharge, or a painful reaction when touched. Localized infections are possible.

Get in touch with your vet if you notice any reaction, and they can offer tips on how to make your horse more comfortable.

Help your horse get ready for tick, mosquito, and show season with spring vaccines for horses. Your vet can also help your horse’s metabolic and dental health stay on track. It’s always nice to check off several boxes at once!

Does Your Horse Need Sedation for Clipping?

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:31:12 GMT

Even if you never plan to body clip or trace clip your horse, it’s still important for them to learn that clippers are harmless and not something to fear. For many horses, getting comfortable with the sights, sounds, and vibrations of clippers can take weeks or even months. A nervous horse should never be forced into compliance, especially when clipping is necessary for their health or comfort. In these cases, sedation for clipping may be the safest and most compassionate approach.

You May Never Plan on Body Clipping

When a horse’s coat matches the weather, and excessive sweating and skin infections are kept at bay, there’s no reason to body clip or trace clip. Sometimes you may want to clip for a horse show or clinic, but for the most part, fall and winter give your horse the perfect coat for their lifestyle.

And just like trailer loading, clipping is an equine event, if you will, that may never happen, but every horse should be prepared for.

Whether you’re treating wounds, managing mud fever or mites, addressing skin infections, or preparing for clipping, a clean, hair-free area is essential. Sometimes, a horse that’s moved from a cooler climate to a warmer one will keep its heavy coat, or a metabolic condition may cause thick hair growth even in summer.

If they already fear clippers, using force will only deepen that fear and put both horse and handler at risk. In these situations, sedation for clipping can make the process safer and less stressful for everyone.

Sedation as The Safe Alternative

The primary reason to sedate before any procedure is to keep you safe and help the anxious horse. Nervous horses are more likely to hurt you or themselves, and any negative experience will reinforce their fears, making future sessions more challenging.

Boosting relaxation with sedation for clipping has many benefits:

The whole safety factor
You have a non-wiggling horse that makes clipping fast and easy
You can focus on the task at hand instead of monitoring your horse’s behaviors and reactions
There is no additional clipper trauma
Future clipper desensitization is easier

Sedation vs. Anti-Anxiety Medications

There are potential risks with any medications for your horse, and discussing these with your vet is always best.

Equine sedation means your horse will lose awareness, become sleepy, and physically relax. Some examples are xylazine and detomidine. These meds are common for veterinary procedures. In many cases, an equine veterinarian will combine a sedative with pain medications.

Common sedation medications allow for standing procedures, like dental work, wound treatment, and some surgical procedures. General anesthesia carries greater risks and doesn’t allow the horse to remain standing for medical procedures.

Anti-anxiety medications reduce fear, usually without drowsiness. Most equestrians know acepromazine. Horses can still respond to their environments and experiences with ace, as the underlying fight-or-flight reactions of prey animals remain.

Some medications, like benzodiazepines, are considered part of the anesthesia protocol for adult horses but sedatives for foals. These meds increase the effect of GABA in the brain, and these neurotransmitters produce a calming effect.

Meds for clipping

For clipping, it’s often best to work on a sedated horse as this offers them the least traumatic experience. Anti-anxiety medications are best to support ongoing positive reinforcement training techniques to help reduce the initial fears while allowing for good experiences.

Your horse may need a combo of fast sedation for clipping, with some touch-up anti-anxiety meds during the step-by-step positive reinforcement training. You will find (hopefully soon) that your horse’s response to positive reinforcement negates the need for long term use of medications.

You can also look into the calming effects of supplements, which have merit but won’t work nearly as well as the use of sedatives or prescription medications.

Common types of allergic reactions and other risks

Any food, environmental factor, medication, or topical treatment can become an allergen. With sedatives or anti-anxiety medications, you may see any of the following:

Hives (urticaria)
Swelling
Wheezing from tightening airways
Spastic movements, muscle tremors, and frantic behaviors
Swaying or stumbling (ataxia)
Lowered heart rate or other cardiovascular problems
There’s a risk of priapism (constant erectile condition) in stallions and sometimes geldings with the use of acepromazine.

Current recommendations indicate that vets, not the horse owners, administer sedation in case of a reaction. They will be close by should an adverse reaction occur, and time matters in cases of horse health.

The risks surrounding injectables

Intravenous sedation (IV) involves medications delivered directly to the jugular vein. If this vein is missed, those meds can go on a carotid artery travel itinerary directly to the brain and cause irreparable damage.

For these reasons, it’s safest for your vet to administer sedation.

Game plan with your veterinarian

Here are some things to consider when talking with your veterinarian about what sedation is best. Keep in mind that some medications will require your vet to be there. Others can be prescriptions that you administer.

Are tablets or injectables best? Sometimes oral sedation is best if there’s a needle phobia, too.
What’s the dose of the different options?
What’s the intensity, and how long will the muscle relaxation and drowsiness last?
Can you give more if needed, and if so, when?
How long does it take to “kick in?”
Do you feed before? What about after?
What are some side effects or reactions you may see?
How long will it take your horse to awaken fully, and when is it safe to turnout?

Clippers are a must for any grooming box and first aid kit.

The goal – clip without sedation

Eventually, the goal becomes your horse and the clippers being besties. They should see the clippers and want to take them from your hands because it’s such a good experience. But you need to work through some baby steps to get there.

The first is to identify what your horse is afraid of. Could it be:

The sound
Vibrations from the clippers
The cord
Your clipping technique

What are they afraid of? Desensitize to that.

Work on desensitizing your horse for future clipping sessions

It’s quite simple to desensitize your equine partner kindly. But first, a few “rules.”

Work on this for a few minutes a day over weeks, or longer.

Pair actions with kindness and a reward – a treat, a scratch, whatever they like.

Work in steps. Go back to the previous steps if training stops or goes backward. The point is to build confidence and teach your horse that clippers = reward. It’s that simple.

The first step is to keep the clippers nearby and reward your horse for noticing them. Keep at it until the sight of clippers means, “Ah yes, snacks are coming.”

Next, flip the switch. Let them hear that buzzing sound, reward generously, and repeat until they realize the noise doesn’t signal impending doom.

Then, touch your horse with the off clippers over a big muscle area—shoulder, hindquarters, wherever there’s room to spare. Reward and repeat until they stay relaxed.

Now turn them on and let the vibrations run across your horse’s body. Reward (again), repeat (again), and continue until they decide clippers are basically a spa massage with snacks.

And finally—clip away!

Sedation for clipping may be necessary for safety and peace of mind, and in the meantime, work on kindly desensitizing and making the clippers a positive experience.

The Best Horse Shedding Tools

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:55:25 GMT

The time has come – wearing lip balm at the barn is no longer safe. It’s time to help your equine partner shed. The best horse shedding tools make your life easier, and there are lots of options for horse owners and lovers alike. The bonus is that winter’s loose dirt and fine dust may finally have less to hold onto.

What Triggers Shedding Season in Horses?

The deshedding season comes in earnest twice a year. Obviously, the woolly winter coat shedding cycle is much more dramatic and leaves lots of loose hair for spring birds to use for nest building. Your horse’s summer coat will also shed in the fall; it’s just not as noticeable.

There’s a popular myth that equines grow and shed a coat because of temperatures or how hairy horses get over the winter. The shedding process is triggered as daylight hours increase. Decreasing daylight tells your horse’s brain to shed the summer coat and grow a winter coat in the fall. In the late winter and spring, your horse’s winter coat sheds as the day length increases. And this has nothing to do with the time change – horses only tell time when the feed wagon is overdue.

The density and length of a horse’s coat are genetically determined and have little to do with colder temperatures. Long hair and overall hair growth cycles vary from horse to horse.

Horse Shedding Tools Options

The best tools to help your horse shed are definitely worth their weight in gold, as long as the elbow they are attached to is ready to work. Call it the “deshedding horse workout.”

The bonus for all of these brushes and gadgets is that the skin massage will help add a nice shine as you smear the sebum over your horse. Excess dirt has fewer hiding spots, and your horse’s body will love the attention.

For horses with sensitive skin, or when using a particular tool for the first time, avoid ticklish areas and be aware of how much pressure you apply. Sensitive areas like bellies may need more or less pressure, and a horse’s legs may need a different tool altogether to work around the bones and tendons.

The rubber curry comb for deshedding and massage

This essential grooming tool works well for most grooming, but can quickly become overwhelmed during the shedding season. A curry comb that is deeper than the usual one is often better.

Curry combs also come in varying degrees of stiffness. A squishy and soft curry comb won’t be as effective as a hard curry horse shedding tool. Consider finding a curry comb with longer teeth, too, if there’s a dense undercoat.

Little shed flowers are smaller, curry accessories in flower shapes that are typically inflexible. Many horses adore this feeling, while others don’t like it at all. Luckily, curry comb options come in different sizes and styles to find the perfect match for your horse.

The metal curry comb

These come in two basic sizes: the circle and the loop. Both are good for grabbing hair, but are they also damaging the sleek summer coat coming in? I’m not sure.

The circular metal curry can also double as a sweat scraper after a shower. I’m not a fan of using metal tools on bony parts like shoulders, hips, legs, and faces. It’s not comfortable for many equines, and many other horse-shedding tools are more forgiving.

While not ideal for a thin-skinned, quite sensitive horse, the metal combs can benefit some.

Equigroomers, furminators, and other scrapers

I feel the same way about shedding blades and furminators as I do about metal curry combs. A shedding blade is a long, straight blade that you can use to rake your horse. Many are like hacksaw blades squished in between wooden blocks. Do they work? Sure! But they are not the best idea for all horses or all parts of horses.

Be careful when using these blades near manes, as you may accidentally dig into the hair.

Grooming oils

Using Shapley’s No. 1 Light Oil (or No. 2 Heavy Oil, your pick) can pull out the hairs that you can’t grab after a thorough grooming session. Spritz a washcloth with your grooming oil and wipe the hair.

The oil will pick up any remaining hair, lay down some conditioner, and add some shine. Grooming oils are especially helpful in promoting coat health with their conditioning properties.

The horse vacuum

These lovely machines save you from flicking all of the loose hair into the air. Let the vacuum help you while giving you less hair to sweep. And don’t forget to change the vacuum bag.

The vacuum is a great tool to use if your horse needs a bath, but it’s too cold. You can get that deep clean.

Clippers are great for dense undercoats and woolly beasts

It’s totally legit to clip the shedding horse! Of course, there will still be shedding, but at least they will be more comfortable, and the hair they do shed will be much shorter.

When considering clipping, account for the weather and your horse’s coat. If hair and temps don’t match, clipping can provide comfort and promote skin health.

More on clipping a horse in the spring here.

The grooming block

These guys work similarly to the metal curry combs and blades. The blocks wear down over time and are reasonably good at getting into smaller areas.

An easy grooming block will also remove bot fly eggs from legs and necks.

Tiger tongue

This handy shedding tool is part sponge, part grooming block, and part flexible curry comb. The block’s texture is great for use as a curry comb on all areas of your horse, including sensitive spots. Many folks with sensitive horses use these gentle groomers to help their horses shed more easily.

You can swirl these around on your horse like a curry, use them in the wash rack as a sponge, or wipe your horse after currying to sweep away the dust. Many horses prefer this instead of a stiff body brush.

The Striphair groomer

This flexible device, for lack of a better term, is a bit like a softer metal shedding blade. You wipe it on your horse’s coat to help your horse shed, and it’s great for legs and faces.

I also love horse shedding tools that are easy to clean!

Grooming gloves to use for shedding and as a scrubber

These are wonderful tools for working around all parts of your horse, including bony bits, legs, and faces. And when it’s time for bathing? YES, please! Gloves make bath time go fast.

In terms of efficiency, grooming gloves are the best tool for creating a deep shine on your horse.

How often should you use shedding tools on a horse?

Regular grooming with shedding tools for horses should be done daily, or more often, during shedding season to help remove loose hair and promote a healthy coat. Adjust the frequency based on the shedding pattern and individual needs.

The different types of brushes will also work differently depending on hair length and where it is. Consider wildly furry legs vs. a clipped rump. Gloves are great for legs (and rumps), but a blade like the Sleek EZ would be for rumps only.

Tips for Deshedding Horses

Keep your horse’s skin and coat as the top priority

Many factors influence skin health, including diet, weather, grooming habits and routine, genetics, and even how much your horse sweats.

Your horse’s coat grows from the skin. Prioritizing skin health will also promote a healthy coat during shedding season!

Nutrition is a long-term horse shedding tool that won’t kick in right away. But the sooner you start with balanced nutrition, the sooner you’ll see amazing shine.

Don’t skip on elbow grease and vigorous grooming

There are no shortcuts to good grooming habits. Proper currying helps distribute sebum, aka smearing around those natural oils, and it also acts like a nice massage.

When the hair is long, the traditional circular motion of currying may not be best. Raking the hair in one direction may be more efficient and tidier.

Use clean tools! Your horse’s coat will stay cleaner and shinier if your grooming brushes and curry combs are clean. For metal shedding tools and blades, keep them oiled to prevent rust.

Stabilized flax and fish oil make great sources of Omega-3 fatty acids. Corn oil is too high in Omega-6 fatty acids.

Omega 3 fattys acids as shedding tools for horses

While there’s no magic supplement or feed ingredient to promote quick shedding, balanced equine nutrition is critical to your horse’s healthy skin.

Many supplements for hoof quality contain biotin, a crucial nutrient for your horse’s skin. Supplements with Omega-3 fatty acids and essential amino acids will help create a nice coat and promote your horse’s natural oils.

One of the easiest ways to deliver these nutrients is with a stabilized or cold-pressed flaxseed supplement. They are economical, nutritious, and delicious.

An equine nutritionist or your veterinarian can help you find the best supplements to add to your horse’s diet. This is a complicated task because many products share ingredients.

Clipping

It does not matter what time of year you clip. Or how many times you clip. If your horse would benefit from clipping, go for it. Clipping a shedding horse will not stop the shedding process. Your horse will release smaller bits of hair!

A full body clip keeps your horse comfortable as the weather warms up. Use your horse’s sweating patterns and mud as a guide. Clip the areas where mud and sweat influence the skin’s health.

Anytime a horse is clipped, be prepared to supplement with blankets as needed.

Choosing the best clippers and blades matters

Shears work wonders on late-shedding and thick-coated yaks. Body trimmers are best for general trimming, trace clipping, and full body-clipping. Trimmers are for wispy touch-ups, bridle paths, and rump designs.

The blade you choose matters, too. The #10 blade is the standard for body clipping, but you can opt for a #7F or #9 if you want more hair remaining.

Read the complete guide to clipping here.

Talk to your vet if your horse’s shedding cycle is askew.

Many horses with Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID), also known as Cushing’s, do not shed completely and have longer and thicker summer coats. A few blood tests can confirm this metabolic disorder.

But PPID isn’t the only reason horses are slow to shed. Visually impaired horses don’t register the increasing amounts of daylight as other horses do. Dark stalls with little natural light may also interfere with the signals that trigger shedding.

The best horse shedding tools are those that your horse enjoys. There’s no use in spending big bucks on the “Best Brush” if your horse doesn’t tolerate it. I’ll bet your favorite tools are the ones that work perfectly on all coats, no matter the time of year. Happy spring!

Shop my amazon list for these items, and I thank you in advance for any commissions I may receive on these items as part of their affiliate program. This helps me keep proequinegrooms floating along!

Essential Horse Hoof Care for Muddy Conditions

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 15:59:10 GMT

Some seasons bring rain, mud, and sloppy ground, which can be tough on your horse’s hooves. While you can’t control the weather, you can adjust your hoof care routine to protect your horse from the challenges of muddy conditions. With a few proactive steps, you can prevent common issues and ensure your horse’s feet stay strong and healthy all season long.

Understanding Muddy Challenges for Hoof Health

Muddy conditions present a significant challenge for hoof health. There are two primary factors to consider: moisture and microbes. Sometimes these two work together, which can affect the sole, the frog, and the wall. Let’s not forget about the chance of skin infections around the hoof, too, that are less likely in dry conditions.

How Mud and Moisture Impact Horse Hooves

Constant exposure to mud and wetness can seriously compromise the structure of your horse’s feet. The tough, resilient hoof wall can become soft and pliable when it remains damp for too long.

Hoof anatomy and muddy conditions

Horse anatomy gives us some insights into how mud and moisture impact the equine foot. The wall is a tightly packed array of horse tubules, made of keratin and arranged vertically. Hydrogen bonds connect and secure the tubules to each other, and are strongest when dry.

When living in environments that are Goldilocks perfect of wet and dry, but not too wet or too dry, the sole cups, the wall is strong, and everything acts like a shock absorber.

When there is too much water or mud, hydrogen bonds weaken, making the tubules more flexible. This results in increased softness and weakness of the hoof. The sole can flatten, shock absorption is reduced, and walking or exercising on harder ground may become painful.

This process invites bruising and lameness.

The excess moisture also makes the wall more porous, creating the perfect environment for bacteria and fungi to invade. This process is easier because soft feet develop cracks, and the soles have more contact with the earth.

This chain of events leads to thrush, white line disease, or abscesses.

The wet-dry cycle in the hooves

When we move our horses from wet pastures to dry lots or stalls, those hydrogen bonds expand and contract, which certainly doesn’t help the feet stay strong in an excessive moisture situation. It’s more of a chicken-and-egg scenario, ultimately resulting in more damage as cracks form.

Common Hoof Issues Arising in Wet Conditions

One of the most frequent foot problems in wet conditions is thrush. But moisture and mud don’t stop there! You may also find other annoying conditions that require veterinary attention and are sometimes emergencies.

Thrush

This sometimes superficial infection starts in the central sulcus of the frog and spreads from there. It’s an anaerobic bacterial infection, meaning the microbes require no oxygen. The first sign of infection is a foul odor and some sticky, black goo in the grooves.

Once thought of as a condition associated only with poor living conditions, we now know that even pristine environments can cause thrush. It’s also related to movement and hoof shape. As horses walk, their soles and frogs flex and bend, allowing oxygen into those deep grooves and helping stave off thrush infections.

Read some dry science about thrush here.

White line disease

This often unseen condition creates a separation in the wall. Most often, microbes invade those tiny cracks you see along the hoof edge. It is presumed that bacteria and fungi join forces to eat the wall’s horn material, typically without annoying any other tissues. These microbes can create pockets in the inner hoof wall from the sole to the coronet.

Obviously, this is bad, but the challenge with white line disease is determining its extent. Keeping cracks open and medicated with thrush medications or specific white-line treatments and soaks helps, as does X-rays to assess the extent of the damage. Severe removal of the wall, called resection, is sometimes needed.

Here’s more dry science information about white line.

Abscesses

When bacteria are trapped inside the capsule, near sensitive tissues and bones, they can multiply into a painful abscess. They are pockets of infection that cause intense pain, and severe cases can lead to lameness. There are many ways to create an abscess, and wet, muddy conditions can contribute to them.

These infections are caused by small punctures, bruises, the wet-dry cycle, thin soles, metabolic disorders, laminitis, horseshoe nails too close to soft tissues, or any other opening. Horses with a history of laminitis are at higher risk of developing abscesses due to the damaged laminar structures.

Missing horseshoes

Muddy conditions create the perfect storm of conditions for losing and tweaking horseshoes. Softer feet and looser nails not only create openings for infections, but they also loosen them and ungraciously assist in their removal.

Street nails

Mud works on the equine foot to soften it, but it also tosses the earth about, almost spitting up long-buried items. Your horse’s movement and rain contribute to paddock surprises.

Abscesses warrant a call to your vet for urgent pain relief and care, and street nails are a definite emergency. These foreign objects don’t have to be a nail. Even a sharp stick or stone can puncture the sole or coronary band.

The tragic part of a foreign body puncture is the risk of damage to soft tissues, like laminae, tendons, and ligaments, in addition to severe infection and sometimes standing-limb laminitis in the other supporting legs.

A handy tool to have on hand is a magnetic sweeper, like roofers use, to pick up stray metal in paddocks and around the barn.

Daily Hoof Care for Muddy Conditions

Consistency is your best defense against mud-related problems. As horse owners, establishing a routine for regular hoof care during wet weather is crucial for keeping your horse’s feet in top shape. The goal is to keep hooves as clean as possible, although a totally clean environment is impossible. You might not be able to do much about the drying situation, but working on keeping them clean and inspected, and catching issues such as thrush early, goes a long way toward overall hoof health.

Effective Hoof Cleaning and Inspection Routines

Start by using a hoof pick to thoroughly remove all mud and debris from your horse’s feet. Pay special attention to the frog area and the crevices alongside it, as this is where bacteria love to hide. For a truly deep clean, follow up with a stiff brush to get the sole and wall super clean.

If you know, you are already battling the beginnings of thrush or a white line infection that needs medication. It’s best to get your horse into the wash rack, set your nozzle to jet, and spray out the hoof so you can remove all debris before you apply any topical medication.

After cleaning or spraying, dry the hoof as much as you can. Use a towel to absorb as much moisture as possible before your horse goes into a stall with clean, dry bedding. This step prevents the area from remaining waterlogged. Regular cleaning also gives you the perfect opportunity to inspect the hoof for any signs of trouble.

Here’s a simple routine to follow:

Pick out hooves daily, focusing on the frog area, and don’t forget around the area where the sole meets the horseshoe.
Use a stiff brush to remove any remaining dirt.
Apply topical medications to fight bacterial infections, or soak the hooves in a special-formulated mix to treat white line disease.
Look for crumbly areas, new cracks, and other changes.
Check all nail holes and wiggle all horseshoes to make sure they are nice and firm.
Inspect the pasterns and fetlocks for signs of scratches, mud, fever, or any swelling.

Choosing the right hoof products for rainy conditions and mud

Selecting the right hoof products can make a huge difference in protecting your horse’s hooves from moisture. These protective treatments create a barrier that helps repel water and maintain the hoof’s natural strength. For example, a quality hoof oil can act as a sealant, preventing the hoof from becoming overly soft.

For horses with particularly soft soles, a hoof hardener like Venice turpentine can be beneficial. It helps toughen up the sole and has antiseptic properties. If you notice early signs of thrush, mild thrush treatments are available to stop the infection from progressing. A popular option is a thrush buster, which is easy to apply.

Talk to your vet and farrier. There is some evidence that some products make matters worse, and others may not work at all. Your horse’s overall hoof health will help your vet and farrier give you suggestions.

Preventing and Managing Hoof Problems in Mud

Preventing problems is always better than treating them. Beyond daily cleaning, a proactive approach to hoof health in wet conditions involves managing your horse’s environment and supporting their hoof growth from the inside out. Providing a dry environment is just as important as your regular hoof care routine.

These horse care tips focus on long-term management strategies. By strengthening the feet and improving your horse’s living conditions, you can significantly reduce the risk of common muddy hoof issues. Think marathon, not sprint. Diet, pasture management, and excellent foot care over time will help your horse.

This includes keeping dry footing available when they aren’t out in the elements!

Nutrition for healthy hooves

Strong, healthy hooves are less susceptible to damage from wet conditions. You can support foot strength from the inside out by ensuring your horse’s diet is balanced. It’s important to work with an equine nutritionist to ensure the diet isn’t deficient or excessive in nutrients, as both can have adverse effects.

When it comes to supplements, biotin, zinc, and methionine matter a great deal. These nutrients are the building blocks for strong hoof tissue. Most hoof supplements have the bonus of creating a gorgeous shine on your horse, too. These vitamins, minerals, and biotin matter, but don’t expect overnight success. It can take months to develop strong growth.

Improving pasture drainage and mud management

Managing your horse’s environment is critical for preventing moisture-related hoof issues. If possible, improve your pasture drainage to reduce standing water and deep mud. Digging simple channels to divert water away from high-traffic areas can make a big difference.

Feed your horse on mats or under sheds that resist too much mud. The point is to give your horse solid, not muddy, ground, where they like to congregate.

The same goes for gates and paths. You can use gravel in these high-traffic areas, or you could use specialized landscape and driveway materials that are like these giant solid grids, which allow you to backfill with stone or stone dust and help prevent mud.

I’ve also heard that using old carpeting or rugs in these areas turned upside down is great. They will eventually get covered in dirt and mud, but for short-term use, these might be a great option for busy areas in the paddocks.

Also, alternating turnout areas and rotating pastures is great because if the grass is overeaten, it just creates more mud.

Hoof care tips

Talk to your farrier about your horse’s farrier schedule. Summer creates faster-growing feet, and if that is your muddy season, you might need to shorten the interval between farrier visits.

If your horse typically wears pads or inserts, they might need to be removed during extra-muddy seasons to give the soles added airflow. It’s a fine line between protecting the soul and helping to prevent bacterial infections. If thin souls are an issue, then maybe the pads need to stay on.

Find a hoof pick with a narrow, pointy tip to really get deep in the grooves and along the junction between the horseshoe and the sole. Having a stiff brush or a toothbrush handy is also great to clean out grooves, as is having a hose nozzle with multiple settings, including a very powerful jet setting.

And keep some thrush treatment handy so you can treat any potential infections as soon as you start smelling that strong thrush odor. Avoid using bleach, as thrush can create wounds, and you definitely don’t want to put bleach into a wound.

Take pictures of your horse’s hoof at farrier visits and then compare as that hoof grows out to notice any changes over time. Started addressing tiny cracks with some hoof thrush medication, and if a tiny crack starts becoming a much bigger crack, definitely call your farrier and vet for advice.

Hoof care for muddy conditions often involves staying ahead of the curve. Feed your horse well, know their hooves and their habits, groom your horse daily, attend to their hooves multiple times a day if you can, and rely on the experts in your area and your horse’s team to help prevent bad skin or hoof infections.

How to Spot Metabolic Changes in Horses

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:32:51 GMT

We take care of horses for the long haul. We know their itchy spots, attitude, language, likes, demands, and their habits. We also know what’s normal and what’s not. Every morning during our routine grooming and health care checklist, we know if anything has changed. We also need to be aware of the long-term metabolic changes that our horses may exhibit. You will not suddenly notice these things – they occur over time, and it’s our job to notice them.

Metabolic Conditions in Horses

Metabolic issues, such as Cushing’s and Insulin Resistance, have major health implications for your horse in addition to increasing the chance of laminitis. These conditions slowly creep into your horse, making instant recognition difficult. It’s also critical to remember that your horse’s outward signs of health issues will come much later than what their bloodwork reveals.

Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID), formally known as Equine Cushing’s Disease

The term pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction refers to the location of the problem. The middle lobe of the pituitary gland (pars intermedia) becomes overactive, enlarged, or develops a tumor. This area begins to secrete excessive hormones, especially adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).

This pituitary hormone signals the adrenal glands to produce cortisol and related steroids as part of the body’s stress and metabolic regulation system. With PPID, this action is overactive, which, in turn, leads to increased levels of other steroids and hormones, such as insulin, influencing the body.

PPID and related hormone changes are the most common endocrine disease in older horses, ponies, and donkeys, affecting roughly 15–30% of horses aged 15 or older.

Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) and insulin resistance (IR)

Equine metabolic syndrome is a collection of conditions affecting metabolic health in horses. This endocrinopathy dictates that a horse can’t handle insulin properly and will lose insulin sensitivity. This process increases insulin levels despite normal blood glucose levels.

Horses release insulin to help process blood sugars. Over time, the body becomes insulin-resistant, prompting the pancreas to produce more insulin to lower blood sugar levels. Insulin becomes a background noise to your horse’s body, increasing levels until they are “heard,” even if blood glucose levels are normal.

EMS is especially common in “easy keeper” types such as ponies, donkeys, Morgans, Arabians, and mustangs, and is often compared to Type 2 diabetes in humans. While younger horses are less likely to develop PPID, they can still develop EMS, and these metabolic changes are especially likely with higher body weight.

A diagnosis of EMS is not permanent, as smart dietary management and exercise to improve the body condition score can reduce the high risk of laminitis and push the condition away.

Many horses with PPID also develop IR, but not all horses with IR have PPID.

This fuzzy coat (in August) is a sign of a metabolic issue. A fuzzy coat is not the only indicator – and just because your horse is NOT fuzzy doesn’t mean they don’t have a metabolic disorder.

The Risks of Laminitis with PPID and EMS

PPID and EMS account for the majority of laminitis cases. In clinical studies, insulin is a trigger of laminitis in otherwise healthy horses and ponies. Horses with PPID are around 4 to 5 times more likely to have laminitis than their counterparts.

PPID itself is a pituitary disease, but many PPID horses also develop insulin dysregulation; when PPID and hyperinsulinemia coexist, laminitis risk and lamellar lesions increase sharply.

High insulin levels directly affect the laminae in the hoof. Hyperinsulinemia alters lamellar cell signaling and structure, eventually weakening the laminae and thereby affecting the attachments between the hoof wall and the coffin bone.

This creates hyperinsulinemia-associated laminitis (HAL).

Laminitis occurs in EMS and PPID horses even without other factors, like grain overload, road founder, fevers, supporting limb issues, or other causes of laminitis.

For deep dives into metabolic disorders in horses, read these works of art about Cushing’s and Insulin Resistance (IR).

How does EMS affect overall health and body condition?

EMS horses often become overweight with cresty necks and fatty pads, develop poor fitness, and are highly prone to recurrent, sometimes severe laminitis. Chronic pain, reduced performance, and management challenges can significantly compromise welfare and long‑term usability.

Detecting Metabolic Disorders in Horses

You have two primary ways to monitor your horse’s metabolic health. One is by daily handling and grooming, and the other is partnering with your veterinarian for bloodwork and health screenings. By the time you see the obvious red flags, which are often laminitis, these diseases have taken hold.

Luckily, a blood test or two can be easily performed, and the management of such conditions is straightforward.

Diet, diligence, and some medications can help your horse and lessen the risk of laminitis, which is clearly linked to metabolic issues.

Some PPID horses with normal insulin levels may not have markedly increased laminitis risk, which is why guidelines emphasize always checking insulin, not just ACTH.

A simple blood draw and lab testing can give you loads of information. Not all horses with metabolic disorders look or act like they have a problem. Do the bloodwork!

Clinical Signs of Metabolic Changes in Horses

You may see clues to a changing metabolic status. It’s worth noting that these signs of metabolic changes are not set in stone, and the absence of them does not mean your horse is in the clear.

Changes in the hair coat

Does your horse have longer or curlier hair than you remember from a few years ago? Is shedding difficult? Do you think your horse could benefit from clipping in the heat of summer? Not all hair horses have PPID, and not all with PPID have hair growing and shedding issues.

A cresty neck

Thicker necks along the topline can indicate fat deposits or extra muscling.

Fat deposits in odd places

Around the tail, the shoulder blades, and the flank, you may find squishy fat deposits. These don’t appear overnight, and are worth investigating. These fat pads are subcutaneous fat, meaning they are just under the skin and easy to feel.

A hay belly

If your horse is looking like a puppy full of worms with a pendulous belly, it may be a metabolic disease.

Shrinking muscles

Very often, horses will gain fat while losing muscle mass. A typical PPID horse loses topline and may show weight loss, while a typical EMS horse gains weight. These traits often overlap! It’s vital to track both muscle mass loss and fat gain.

Soreness after shoeing or grazing

There is subclinical laminitis that presents as sore hooves, especially after a farrier visit or grazing. The sugars in grains and grasses can trigger a low-grade laminitis episode that may or may not fade away.

You may also see growth rings on the hooves, indicating past trauma or episodes of laminitis.

An overall change of attitude and energy levels

It’s so tricky to discern between aging, fitness, and overall energy levels. This vague sign could mean anything!

Becoming an air fern or easy keeper

When your horse can glance sideways at food and gain weight, you know something isn’t right.

Laminitis

Because laminitis is most closely associated with metabolic changes, an episode is likely directly linked to insulin levels. Ideally, this never happens, but it can.

The big picture

Working with your veterinarian to assess your horse’s hidden health status is the most important thing you can do. Knowing their insulin concentration, ACTH, and glucose values long before you see signs of trouble will help your horse never experience devastating laminitis.

Testing for Metabolic Changes in Horses

Spend a few dollars to have your horse tested for Insulin Resistance and Cushing’s Disease. By the time you see signs (like laminitis), the metabolic disorder is well underway.

One method is the oral sugar test (OST). Your horse will fast for 12 hours, then receive a dose of corn syrup. About an hour later, blood is drawn to measure insulin responses. The sugar content in the corn syrup triggers insulin, and the fasted horse has the cleanest test, as they will react only to that corn syrup.

Other blood tests measure insulin concentrations without the corn syrup and may involve diagnostic tests with dexamethasone, a steroid, instead.

The time of year also plays a role in testing for elevated insulin and ACTH levels.

Monitor Your Horse’s Weight

There is overwhelming research about the detrimental side effects of overweight horses. A recent study found that obese horses have DOUBLE the chance of developing laminitis. Use a weight tape regularly to monitor your horse’s status.

Check their weight every few weeks. Take note of the season, too, as it’s natural in fall for ACTH levels to rise and for horses to gain weight ahead of winter.

Have your vet perform a body composition analysis regularly to track changes in muscle and fat over time.

Slow feeders help all horses eat and digest better.

Lifestyle Changes Benefit Metabolic Changes in Horses

Managing chronic diseases requires broad strokes and overall barn management changes. The goal is to reduce the overall risk of laminitis, maintain a healthy body size, and steady hormone levels to keep your horse comfortable. This isn’t done through severe calorie restriction, but rather through a healthy diet and regular exercise to support healthy aging.

As PPID and EMS slow metabolism, the goal is to prevent muscle loss with appropriate exercise for cardiovascular health and to shrink fat tissue. You and your vet should create a fair and gradual fitness plan to build muscle tissue, reduce visceral fat, and support overall healthy weight management.

Appropriate dietary ingredients play an important role in supporting healthy metabolic function and preventing muscle loss. Reduce dietary sugars and starches, adjust protein levels, and supplement with appropriate ingredients that help metabolic processes.

Use slow-feeding methods like hay nets or bags and grazing muzzles to promote a healthier eating pattern. This can help prevent ulcers, prevent excessive weight gain, and reduce laminitis risk by reducing the amount of sugar entering the hindgut.

Remember, any change in your horse is a sign of something! Talk to your veterinarian to determine why, and find out how to help your horse thrive again. And keep being a diligent, observant horse owner as you take amazing care of your horses.

Creative Winter Enrichment for Horses

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 23:28:01 GMT

The cold weather and short days of winter can be challenging for equestrians. Horses and owners alike can get bored and restless, but it’s also an opportunity to try new training and treats. Winter enrichment for horses doesn’t have to be a nuisance, and in many cases can be a positive way to strengthen your relationship with your equine partner. You’ll want to focus your efforts on their brains and bodies, oftentimes these ideas support both. Equine care in winter doesn’t have to be a full-time job. Simply add in some of these ideas.

Horse Training Ideas and Exercises

Training isn’t only from the saddle or the lunge line. Every interaction with your horse is an opportunity to provide positive feedback and strengthen your bond. You may also find your horse has increased confidence, trust, and mental stimulation when working with you out of the tack.

“Clicker Training” to Engage Your Horse

Positive reinforcement, often referred to as R+, is a fantastic way to teach your horse a new language, using a clicker as a reinforcing bridge between an action and the reward. The premise allows you to teach your horse a few basics and eventually build on them to tackle more complex scenarios.

It’s common to teach your horse to target something, such as a ball or a buoy on a stick. When they touch the object, you click and reward. This teaches them to touch something with their nose, learn a new word, and be rewarded for this. Then you can place the object in different scenarios to improve behavior. The perfect example for this is trailer loading. Your horse can associate the trailer and loading with something they know, the target, and a reward.

None of this happens overnight. The baby steps of clicker training eventually build into scenarios where you can ditch the target and the clicker to teach your horse anything with your voice and hand signals if you like. You can teach them to move, stand still, turn, back up, bow, make faces, and even practical things like taking medications.

There are many books about this (see the links below) that walk you through every single step.

Groundwork Exercises and In-Hand Training for Horse Enrichment

Groundwork is one of the most valuable things you can do with your horse, especially when you’re not riding as much. You can lead your horse through patterns, circles, and figure eights, asking for halts and back-ups to keep them mentally engaged. Then you can do it in reverse.

You have the option of leading your horse or working on the lunge line. This choice will depend on how much your horse can keep their hooves near the earth and not the sky. If you are so inclined, do some pole work at different gaits to improve hoof placement.

In-hand exercises allow you and your horse to concentrate on your body language and hand signals. You can do the same exercises by long lining as you would by lungeing.

Use this time to focus on practical applications – such as opening and closing gates, sidepassing, backing up, turning on the haunches and the forehand, loading into the trailer, standing quietly, square halts, jogging for the vet, and anything else your horse needs.

When you pair these exercises with positive reinforcement, your training becomes more rewarding for everyone.

Whatever games and exercises you choose, make sure the ground outside is safe if you don’t have an indoor arena.

Stretching Exercises

Less movement means stiff muscles and joints for many horses (and their people). Carrot stretches can help relieve stiffness and are a fantastic way to deliver treats and turn your horse’s focus to you.

Let your horse tell you what their limits are. They don’t have to pretzel themselves for a carrot – going halfway is fine. The goal is to encourage flexibility without causing discomfort or injury.

Your vet is a great resource for learning stretches suited to your horse and their ailments.

Safe Horse Toys for Indoor and Outdoor Play

There comes a point in the cold wind and yucky weather when horses need to burn off some steam with play. For some horses, a good roll and buck in a safe round pen, paddock, or pasture does a world of good.

Providing safe toys can prevent boredom and keep your horse entertained, especially if turnout areas or time are limited. Enrichment toys encourage natural behaviors and problem-solving skills.

Many horses enjoy physical play toys they can push, chase, or shake. A giant yoga ball is a perfect option for winter play, allowing your horse to kick and roll it around. You can even teach your horse to fetch or roll the ball back to you, which is a great way to bond and easy with positive reinforcement training.

Rotate toys to keep interest up.
When choosing enrichment toys, there are many options!

Treat balls that dispense food as a nose pushes them.
Hanging jolly balls designed for horses. Stuffies work well, too, for some horses.
Slow feeders that can roll around on the ground.
Use pool noodles to create obstacles or visual interest.

Food-Based Winter Enrichment for Horses

Horses are natural foragers, and providing opportunities for them to search for food is incredibly enriching. Food-based enrichment and forage puzzles engage their minds while satisfying their instincts, while keeping their digestive systems happy. You need them to clear manure from rooter to tooter and not end up with an impaction colic.

Keep the Hay Available

You can use various tools like slow feeders, hay balls, or treat balls. Slow feeders are the norm at many barns, which is great, but you can change things up.

Double-net your slow feeders to allow slow feeding, but a little more challenging.

Put many slow feeders around the turnout areas to encourage movement.

Use a hay slow feeder mat on the ground that horses can share in a herd setting. These are like feed bags with holes, only more durable.

Try hay bags that roll around for movement and winter enrichment for horses.

Treat Toys

A healthy winter routine can include treats, too! If your horse requires a low-sugar and low-starch diet, using hay cubes or pellets instead of treats is safe and more affordable than fruits or traditional horse treats.

Rolling treat toys are great because they encourage movement and problem-solving, and are ideal for pellets, cubes, and cut-up fruits or veggies.

Hanging treats often disappear quickly, but some horses can stretch them out longer.

Bring R+ training into treat dispensing. You could teach your horse to touch a shape for a specific treat reward. Or you could ask them to identify a bucket or a brush among a few objects to earn a treat.

Give Your Horse a Water Buffet

Now is the best time to find out what entices your horse to drink. You can set up a watering station to experiment with different flavors.

Gather a few buckets and fill each with water. Leave one “plain,” so your horse has that choice, too. Then add a few glugs or sprinkles of some treats to each bucket. You could try:

Apple juice
Gatorade
Powder electrolytes
A handful of flaxseed
A handful of your horse’s “grain”
Some chopped-up carrot or apple, but this can get messy
A handful of hay

This experiment can help you anytime your horse needs to drink more.

Winter Enrichment for Horses – Stabling and Paddocks

Your horse’s environment plays a huge role in their well-being, especially during the winter months when they may spend more time in an enclosed area. Even small changes to their stall or paddock can reduce stress and support natural behaviors, transforming their living space into a more engaging place.

Visual Stimulation in the Barn

Let your horse see the world! If the weather keeps your horse in the barn, ensure lots of sight options. Open windows are a plus for ventilation and visual stimulation. Using stall guards or yoked stall doors also adds visual interest.

You can also add novel objects to their environment. Hanging things like colorful pool noodles, squeaky chickens, stuffed animals, or even different brushes with various textures can provide new things to look at and investigate. The key is to introduce new, safe items to keep their surroundings interesting and engaging.

Some horses may enjoy a mirror in their stall. A shatter-proof one, of course.

Turnout Strategies for Mental Stimulation

Turnout is the best exercise for a horse’s mind and body, but winter can make it tricky. You may not be able to rotate paddocks to give them new places to hang out, but you could add hay bales and a buddy. You will also find that horses turned out for longer periods and more consistently often don’t have the wild zoomies and bucking fits that some stalled horses exhibit as soon as they are turned out.

Keep your horse warm for turnout. Use blankets if needed. There’s nothing wrong with helping your horse stay warm and conserve calories.

Check your turnout area for hazards, including ice patches and frozen ground, especially rocky frozen ground. There are plenty of horses who become masters of the hoof bruise on frozen ground.

You may find that bigger paddocks are not always best, especially if there is steep terrain, gravel stones, and slippery areas. More space means more speed.

Turnout can be a fantastic winter exercise, especially in the snow. Lifting legs to walk in deeper snow is exhausting! And do check on them to ensure they can get up after rolling.

Keep your horse healthy and happy in the fresh air of winter by engaging their minds and bodies. Spend the extra time to make their turnout and environment inviting and interesting. Explore different training techniques like R+ that rely on clear body language, create a fun challenge course, and give you ample horse time even if your riding gear takes a vacation. Winter is the perfect time to help your horse reach some new training landmarks.

How to Avoid Winter Colic in Horses

Pro Equine Groom Liv — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 14:23:05 GMT

As usual, everything I share here comes directly from proequinegrooms.com. Thanks for being here — your curiosity and care for horses help raise the bar for all of us in the equine community. At ProEquineGrooms.com, I believe every horse owner deserves access to accurate, trustworthy, and practical information about equine care.

Colic in horses is always cause for concern. In winter, horses may be more likely to develop this digestive disturbance due to weather, reduced hydration, and reduced movement, among other factors. Colder temperatures inevitably mean their lifestyle and routines change, and it’s up to horse owners to take precautions to prevent colic. To avoid winter colic in horses, there are a few key things you can do.

Understanding Winter Colic in Horses

Colic is the broad term for digestive upset in horses and has many causes. Weather changes, both sudden and gradual, affect equine health and may increase the risk of colic. As with emergencies in any season, signs of digestive pain can range from subtle to severe and should all be taken seriously. The first step is to call your vet for guidance.

Impaction colics are common in winter because dehydration reduces the water required for the proper formation and passage of fecal balls, leading to impacted material in the gut. There are other types of colic, such as spasmodic colic or gas colic, caused by excessive gas.

Signs of Colic in Winter

You may see your horse:

Pawing or stomping
Sweating without an apparent reason
Not eating
Kicking at their belly
Becoming restless – fidgeting, circling, repeatedly rolling
Standing strangely – only a small percentage of colicky horses will park themselves out
Strange or missing gut sounds
Becoming lethargic
Frequent urination, especially in small amounts
Flicking their tails
Changing their urination and pooping habits, you may also see changes to their manure

Check your horse’s vital signs. These invisible markers can also give you and your vet clues:

Increased pulse and respiratory rates signal pain
Increased digital pulses indicate hoof trouble, which can look like colic
Changes to gum color
Dry or sticky gums, indicating dehydration

Because these symptoms can also signal dozens of other conditions, it’s always a good idea to consult your veterinarian.

The Basics of Horse Colic Treatment

Managing colic first requires a call to your vet. Depending on the circumstances, your horse will need:

Medications – for pain relief, cramping, bloating, etc.
Nasogastric tube – to deliver electrolytes, water, mineral oil, or Epsom salts and to check for reflux
Rectal exam – to feel for twists and impactions
Intravenous fluids – to rehydrate
Hospitilization – for constant care, surgery, or both

There is no way to correlate your horse’s behavior with the severity of colic. Surgical cases do not always thrash around, and mild cases may. The type of colic often determines the type of treatment and doesn’t always make sense with the severity of pain.

Key Factors Contributing to Winter Colic

Three primary factors directly affect digestion in winter: hydration, movement, and consistent forage chewing. When winter weather affects how your horse eats, drinks, and moves, there’s an increase in risk factors.

Hydration in winter

The most commonly cited method for preventing winter colic in horses is to maintain hydration. Cold weather means many equines don’t drink enough, which slows digestion and contributes to impaction colics by not forming soft fecal balls.

Horses prefer cold water but may not drink enough. While they typically drink more warm water, it’s not always feasible to provide warm water at all times. It’s also hard to offer soaked hay in cold weather, as it may freeze before your horse can eat it all.

Reduced movement

In many places, pasture grazing, turnouts, and access to safe footing in bad weather may limit the exercise, play, and physical activity grazing horses receive. When their bodies slow down, so does their digestive tract. Sometimes we require them to spend more time in the barn than usual, which also affects their bodies and reduces gut motility.

Winter feeding practices

Winter inevitably means that pasture is less available or buried by snow. Sometimes this means our horses are not chewing regularly, and their diets shift from free access to meals. Not only is this a dietary change, but it can also influence gastric ulcers if the stomach isn’t constantly digesting forage.

To address reduced pasture availability, increasing forage intake is beneficial. However, it’s drier than pasture, and your horse may require even more water.

For hard keepers and senior horses, keeping weight on is difficult, and it’s tempting to increase calories by feeding more commercial feeds. While these can be great, feed many times a day in small amounts to avoid digestive issues.

Preventative Measures to Avoid Winter Colic in Horses

This is where you come in!

Ensuring adequate water intake

Try these things to encourage your horse to drink more water:

Offer warm water whenever possible. Thru heaters, bucket insulating wraps, and heated buckets are effective and prevent freezing.

Add hot water to your horse’s commercial feeds and supplements. Making a mush is ideal for any dry feed, at any time of year.

Provide electrolytes to stimulate thirst.

Weather permitting, you can soak hay. This also reduces dust.

Find your horse’s favorite water additive to create gourmet water. Use some grain, ground flax, Gatorade, apple juice, or other tasty treat to flavor buckets of warm water. Always keep fresh, unflavored water available as well.

Adjusting feeding routines

You’ll need to ensure your horse has access to forage around the clock. This means:

Slow feeders, and possibly more trips to reload them.

Adding supplements to replace any found in pasture, like vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids. Make changes to their supplement plan over the course of a week or two.

Use electrolytes.

Feed bagged feed and supplements several times daily in small portions. It’s best to feed them after forage. This ensures the stomach is full and slows digestion, thereby protecting your horse’s metabolism and hindgut.

Feed more forage overnight than you usually would to boost chewing time, provide an internal heat source, and keep their brains busy.

Importance of regular exercise and turnout

Even if your horse’s training routine goes on hiatus, movement is key to happy brains and happy hindguts.

Turnout when it’s safe. Most horses will do just fine in bad, cold weather, provided they have forage, shelter, rain protection in case the shelter sits empty, and non-icy footing.

Use slow feeders distributed across the turnout areas to encourage movement from one feeding spot to another.

Engage your horse’s brain and body with groundwork, clicker training, lungeing, or any other activity that keeps their legs going. You would be amazed at how much training you can do from the ground.

Hand walks are another way to keep you and your horse moving in winter. You’ll stay warmer, too.

Managing Equine Health to Prevent Cold Weather Colic

Know what to look for to avoid winter colic in horses. You should know your horse’s resting vital signs (pulse, temperature, respirations, gums, and digital pulses) so you can assess your horse before they show signs of abdominal pain.

This also means you need to know their urine and manure habits – and can monitor their fecal balls. It’s a warning if they are pooping less, the fecal balls are smaller, or the manure is drier than usual.

Recognizing early signs of distress

Here are a horse’s typical vital signs at rest:
Temperature – 99.5 to 101.5
For foals, up to 102 is normal.
Pulse (Heart Rate) – 24 to 40 beats per minute, although most horses are between 32 and 36.
For newborn foals, 80 to 100 is normal, and 60 to 80 is normal for older foals.
Respiration – 8 to 12 breaths per minute
For foals, 60-80 breaths per minute

Capillary Refill – approximately 2 seconds

Gums should be pale pink and slippery. Dry or sticky gums are a sign of dehydration.

Digital pulses should be faint or non-existent. Stronger digital pulses indicate a hoof problem and become more noticeable or downright bounding when the blood flow to the hoof is compromised.

Your objective to avoid winter colic in horses is to monitor their vital signs and observe changes in behavior, appetite, and manure. Make lifestyle changes slowly, experiment with your equine buddy’s favorite flavor of water, keep them moving, and insist upon hay 24/7.

Key Highlights

Winter colic can be prevented by adjusting feeding routines and ensuring adequate water intake.
Cold weather and reduced movement can increase the risk of colic during the winter months.
Recognizing early signs of distress and monitoring horse health are crucial for preventing colic.
Special care should be given to high-risk horses, including senior horses and those with a history of colic.
Regular exercise, appropriate feeding, and veterinary care are key to maintaining gut health and preventing colic in horses.