Caring for New Arrivals:
Every horse entering a rescue/retirement facility should receive a complete physical examination upon its arrival. A health record must be established for each horse, clearly identifying the horse by name and/or number, age, gender and description.
All treatments and medication given should also be recorded in the horse’s health record. When horses require medication, it must be administered as directed by the veterinarian. Horses may be susceptible to transportation stress and disease following transport to a rescue/retirement facility.
On arrival, new horses should be isolated to prevent the possible spread of disease. Handlers should carefully monitor recently transported horses for several days after long-distance transport.
The temperature of these horses should be recorded daily for several days, and if not normal, the temperature should be recorded at least twice daily, i.e. morning and evening. If a horse’s temperature exceeds the normal range, a veterinarian should be consulted.
Monitoring Your Horses:
Frequent observation of the horses in a rescue/retirement facility is paramount to ensure they are healthy. Horses should be observed routinely, at least once every 24 hours, paying particular attention during high-risk periods (e.g., inclement weather, foaling, introduction of new animals).
The table below provides vital signs for an adult 1,200-pound (545 kg) horse at rest at 60ºF. These criteria will vary according to age, physical fitness and environmental conditions. Younger horses tend to be at the higher end of the range.
Preventive Health Care is a Necessity:
In consultation with a veterinarian, rescue/retirement facilities should develop a sound health care program, appropriate to the facilities and environment. Increased horse population density requires greater attention to disease prevention.
Parasite Control:
A parasite control program must be established in consultation with a veterinarian. In terms of management priorities, establishing an effective parasite control program is probably second only to supplying the horses with clean, plentiful water and high quality feed.
An effective program will include the administration of dewormers as well as manure and pasture management.
Vaccination:
Administering the appropriate vaccinations is the best weapon against common infectious diseases of the horse. The specific immunizations needed by a particular group of horses depends upon several factors, including environment, age, breed, sex, use, exposure risk, geographic location and general management.
A veterinarian
must be consulted to determine the most effective vaccination program for your facility’s horses.
Dental Care:
A veterinarian must examine horses’ teeth at least annually. Uneven wear and abnormalities should not be allowed to interfere with normal eating habits. Dental care will depend on age, nutrition and environment. Dental care must be performed by a veterinarian or under veterinary supervision.
Be Prepared for an Emergency:
Caregivers at rescue/retirement facilities must know how to recognize serious problems, respond promptly and take appropriate action while awaiting the arrival of the veterinarian.
Your veterinarian’s number should be kept by each phone, including how the practitioner can be reached after hours. Consult with your regular veterinarian regarding a back-up or referring veterinarian’s number in case you cannot reach your regular veterinarian quickly enough.
All rescue/retirement facilities should prepare a first aid kit and store it in a clean, dry and readily accessible place. While a first aid kit can be simple or elaborate, the following items are essential:
- Cotton roll
- Contact bandage
- Cling wrap
- Gauze pads, assorted sizes
- Gauze wrap
- Adhesive wrap and adhesive tape
- Leg wraps
- Sharp scissors
- Hemostats
- Steel cup or container
- Rectal thermometer with string and clip attached
- Surgical scrub and antiseptic solution
- Latex gloves
- Flashlight and spare batteries
- Permanent marker pen
- Pliers (to pull nails)
- 6” diameter PVC tubing, cut in half the long way (like a gutter) into
- lengths of 1 ½ to 2 feet for emergency splinting
*Materials should be sterile
Special Considerations:
The AAEP encourages the castration of all stallions entering a rescue/retirement facility. Castration and other surgical procedures must be conducted by licensed veterinarians using accepted surgical techniques in accordance with state and federal veterinary acts and regulations.
Distressed horses should be dealt with humanely, effectively and promptly to prevent suffering. Sick or injured horses must receive veterinary attention as indicated. Horses unable to rise need veterinary attention. Veterinary consultation must be sought prior to any attempt to move a downed horse.
Evidence of a reportable disease for your area, such as West Nile virus, vesicular stomatitis or rabies, must immediately be brought to the attention of a veterinarian. Any disease that appears to spread from a horse to a human should be reported.
Signs that should be discussed with your veterinarian include but are not limited to: severe, unexplained, persistent or recurrent fevers; unexplained weight loss or progressive weakness; thick vaginal discharge; abortion of unknown cause; neurological signs, e.g. uncoordination, erratic behavior, abnormal postures or hypersensitivity; severe difficulty breathing, spasmodic coughing or frothy nasal discharge; soft swelling of the face or neck; and blisters or open sores on the lips, mouth, genitalia or above the hooves.
Dead horses must be removed and disposed of in an appropriate manner, as required by municipal, state or federal regulations.
NUTRITION:
The following are basic guidelines for feeding and watering horses at rescue/ retirement facilities. Formulating a diet for a horse can be a complicated process that should take into account the horse’s current state of health, geographic location, medical history, exercise/use and individual metabolism. Special recommendations for feeding a starved horse are found at the end of this chapter. A veterinarian or equine nutritionist should be consulted to ensure current feeding programs are meeting each animal’s needs.
General Feed Requirements:
Horses should receive a daily diet that is adequate for maintaining health and function and be fed on a regular daily schedule. In its natural state, the horse eats a variety of forages (mainly grasses) to meet its nutritional needs. Due to the small size of its stomach, the horse will normally consume its daily intake over 16 to 20 hours.
Horses should be fed a forage-based diet with grain supplementation if needed. At rescue/retirement facilities, fresh forage (pasture) can seasonally provide most of the horse’s needs. Provided the stocking rate is correct, most horses can meet their energy, protein and mineral demands from an adequate supply of good-quality pasture.
If possible, unless otherwise directed by a veterinarian, horses should have daily access to pasture. When pasture is limited, however, the diet should be supplemented with hay. However, certain minerals and trace minerals may be lacking.
When horses are fed high-grain (high-energy) diets, attention should be paid to avoid nutrition-related health problems, such as grain overload, laminitis, founder or obesity. Abrupt changes in diet should be avoided. To avoid major health problems, any changes in the type and quantity of feed should be introduced gradually over a period of several days.
All feed components used in the diet should be free of spoilage, toxic insects or contaminants, dust and molds. Horses should also have access to free-choice salt and appropriate minerals.
When horses are fed in groups, adequate manger space or feeding points should be available to minimize competition for feed. All horses should have simultaneous access to feeders so that all can eat at one time. Horses that “bully” others and prevent these horses from eating must be separated to allow the less dominant horse or horses to receive adequate feed.
All feeds and supplements should be properly labeled to avoid misuse. Feeds designed for other species, particularly medicated feeds and those containing urea, are not to be used for horses. Feed troughs and buckets should be cleaned regularly.
Supplementary Feeds:
Cereal grains such as oats, corn and barley should generally be added to the diet to meet extra energy needs, such as those associated with exercise, late pregnancy, lactation, growth and sometimes maintaining proper weight, convalescence or recovery from surgery. Cereal grains should always be measured by weight rather than volume when feeding, as there are marked differences in densities, not only among types of grains, but also within different consignments of the same grain.
Oats tend to be safer to feed due to high fiber content. Crimping is considered by many to aid digestion, but the storage of crimped oats reduces their nutritional value and should be avoided. Corn and barley have a higher energy value than oats. Because of their high-energy content, they can cause laminitis and/or colic if introduced to the diet too quickly. Barley’s energy value lies between that of corn and oats. Its hard husk needs to crushed or cracked to aid digestion.
Soybean meals are often included in conditioning rations for young and growing horses and increase the protein content of the ration. They should be fed in small amounts and introduced gradually. Linseed meal is not an appropriate protein supplement for growing horses because it is low in the amino acid lysine that is essential for normal development.
Many brands of blended horse feeds are on the market. When the manufacturer’s feeding recommendations are followed (this information should be printed on the label, along with an analysis of ingredients), they provide a simple method of supplementation. Where small numbers of horses have similar supplementary feeding needs, premixed balanced feeds can save the facility work and ensure continuity of diet. When feeding commercially blended feeds, care should be taken to ensure the horse has access to its minimum daily forage requirement of 0.5 to 1 pound dry matter/100 pounds body weight.
Horse feeds are generally low in sodium. When horses are working and sweating, salt (sodium chloride) and possibly other electrolytes may need to be supplemented. Hand-fed horses should have salt supplemented daily. Advice on mineral deficiencies peculiar to any grazing area should be sought from a veterinarian or local extension nutritionist.
Calculating Horse Body weight:
Before accurate feed calculations can be made, the body weight of the horse should be estimated. Body weight assessment is also required when medicines, including dewormers, are administered. The most accurate method of determining bodyweight is the use of electronic scales. When using scales, weighing the animal just before feeding and watering will help avoid variations caused by different gut-?ll levels and will make the results of successive weighings more meaningful.
Weight tapes also can be useful in estimating a horse’s body weight. For those without scales, the Henneke Body Scoring System can help the average horseman, with practice, to establish and track changes in a horse’s body condition. See the appendix for this scoring system.
Determining Feed Requirements for Each Horse
The amount of feed required by a horse is made up of two factors:
• Maintenance needs
• Activity needs (which include rate of work, growth, lactation and pregnancy) Both requirements should be satisfied to maintain body condition and weight.
Every horse should be offered daily a sufficient and appropriate ration of feed to maintain its body condition at between 4 and 6 points on the Henneke condition score chart.
Maintenance Needs:
Maintenance feed is the amount required to maintain the horse at rest. “At rest” means that the work required of the horse is no greater in physical activity than that expected of a healthy horse grazing freely in a paddock. Maintenance can be expressed as an idle, mature horse that maintains its normal weight.
This usually includes horses being rested from their usual work, most horses at rescue/retirement facilities, learners’ horses that rarely get into a canter and pleasure horses ridden carefully at a relaxing pace for no more than one hour per day.
The average horse consumes approximately 2% of its body weight daily, as dry matter of a palatable feed, to meet daily maintenance requirements. Regular condition scoring or weighing will help establish any individual variation required from the 2% body weight guideline.
Individual horses have varying digestive capabilities that affect maintenance requirements. Periods of extremely cold weather may also increase maintenance needs by up to 30%. Temperament should also be taken into account, as nervous or highly-strung horses require more energy than do quiet horses of the same body weight.
The following table will help calculate the necessary daily ration based on level of activity.
Nutrition of the Pregnant Mare:
The non-working pregnant dry mare does not require an increase in feed above maintenance during the ?rst eight months of pregnancy. During the last three months of pregnancy, the extra energy requirement, due to fetal growth and an increase in the mare’s weight, is about 0.5% of body weight, as dry matter, so the total dry matter feed requirement becomes approximately 2.2% of body weight.
It has been estimated that a normal mare will produce milk equivalent to 3% of body weight in early lactation and 2% in late lactation. The milk production of pony mares is estimated at 4% in early lactation and 3% in late lactation.
For example, this means an 1,100-pound mare (500kg) should produce 4 gallons (15 liters) of milk per day in the first three months and 2 ½ gallons (10 liters) per day in the last three months prior to weaning.
In dry matter intake, the lactating mare’s activity needs are between 1 and 1.5% body weight above maintenance.
Nutrition of Growing Horses:
Growing horses need feeding above maintenance to supply the “building blocks” for growth. The feed required varies with the expected mature weight, growth rates, age and exercise. Young horses have a higher protein requirement than do mature horses. Their feed should contain 13 to 15% protein as weanlings. Yearlings and two-year-olds require less. Young horses need approximately 3% of their body weight as dry matter intake, depending on diet ingredients.
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