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Monitoring the health of your horse

Is your horse healthy? Can you tell? With a little diligence and time you can easily learn how to monitor your horse for signs of good health as well as be able to pick up on any changes that may indicate trouble is brewing.

Is your horse healthy? Can you tell? With a little diligence and time you can easily learn how to monitor your horse for signs of good health as well as be able to pick up on any changes that may indicate trouble is brewing.

The most important part of assessing your horse’s health is getting to know what’s normal for your particular horse. I mean really getting to know absolutely every inch of your horse, from top to bottom and head to tail.

Get to know the lumps and bumps and scars on your horse, are his ankles tight or do they always have a little puffy bulge on each side? Is it more or less obvious as the day goes by?

Spend time with your horse, learn every reaction, his likes and dislikes, how he eats, everything about how he lives.

Does he wolf down all his food as soon as it’s fed to him? Does he get angry if another horse looks at his food? Does he like to have a nap after he’s eaten? Does he stand or lie down to nap?

This knowledge of your horse will help you determine when something is wrong, even if there are no other symptoms.

Learning your horse’s normal, resting temperature, pulse and respiration are very important in being able to monitor your horse for health.

These vital statistics vary from horse to horse, so using the averages is not going to help you if your horse does not fall in these ranges normally. You should take these readings daily for a week, at the same time and record them. Take them every few weeks to compare and see if there are any changes. Horses, like people, will change their resting TPR as their fitness improves and therefore this needs to be kept in mind An average horse’s pulse is 36-42 heart beats per minute.

Your veterinarian will normally take it with a stethoscope behind his left elbow. You can take it manually by feeling near the front of the inside of the left jaw bone; you will feel a large artery that bulges out along the bone. Press firmly along the artery with your forefinger (not your thumb or you’ll be taking your own pulse) and count the number of pulses in 15 seconds. Multiple that number by four to get your reading per minute. There are great photographs on the Internet that can help your see exactly where to feel.

The pulse of young horses will be considerably higher, foals can easily be over 100, yearlings around 50-70 and 2 years olds are closer to the average horse just slightly higher.

Increases in your horses pulse indicate that he is excited, stressed, recovering from work or in pain. If your horse’s behaviour seems slightly “off” in character and you find his pulse is elevated, this may be a symptom that something is wrong, maybe an early signs of colic.

Counting your horse’s respiration is easy to do. Watch his ribcage for one minute as it expands and then falls, each cycle counts as one breath. On average the horse’s respiration will fall between 8 and 15 breaths per minute.

The inhale and exhale portion of the breath should be equal in time and the horse should not be showing any signs of effort on either. Respiration increases when the weather is hot, during and after exercise, and when the horse is stressed or in pain. Frequent coughing is not normal and could indicate allergies or other respiratory ailment.

The final vital statistic to learn is your horse’s temperature. Do not expect your horse to open his mouth and hold the thermometer under his tongue! We need to venture to the other end of our horse to take this reading, rectally.

I have found that a cheap, plastic, digital thermometer is easiest to use, mine beeps when it has taken the reading. I tape a shoelace to the end and attach a hairclip to the end of the string for security.

Lubricate the thermometer with Vaseline and standing to the side of the horse, gently insert the thermometer into the rectum of the horse. Either hold the shoelace or wrap it around the tail and fasten the clip to the hair, you don’t want your horse to suck the thermometer in!

The first time you temp your horse, it is a good idea to have someone with you in case you have difficulties, distracting the horse with carrots or other treats has helped me with unco-operative equines!

The average temperature for a horse is 38 C or 100.5 F. This reading varies from horse to horse generally not more than a degree either way. Generally, a rise above 39C or 102F means there is something wrong and that you should contact your veterinarian. Temperature increases with exercise, heat, excitement and pain.

There are many signs that help to determine the health of your horse; again I’ve run out of room, so next time we’ll finish up with the indications of good health. Until next time, happy horse keeping!

Shelly Graham is a local rider, trainer, horse breeder and Equine Canada certified coach.