Proper Horse Care Includes Exercise as well as Love
Having a close relationship with your horse is vital for the horse’s health. You may not think your companionship plays a big role in your horse’s health, but in actuality, it does! If you take good care of him, you can develop a long lasting bond with your horse, which in turn leads to excellent horse health, close companionship and a happy horse that should live a long life.
Treat Your Horse like He’s Family.
Most horse owners treat their horses as a part of their family, feeding them well, including exercise into lifestyle, keeping him well groomed and showering them with lots of love and attention. Owning and riding horses is a fantastic experience whether for sport, show or leisure as they are simply so beautiful and capable of infinite love and affection. Having a horse is a rewarding experience for the both owners and those in charge of caring for them.
The Correct Way to Care for your Horse.
The amount of horse care or maintenance required will vary depending on the horse’s breed. Horses are strong and loving animals with easy-going personalities, but horses just like any animal need certain things in order to keep them happy and healthy. The list below should give you an idea in just how much is required in terms of care if you want to keep a horse.
- A large animal like a horse demands a high level of upkeep and care.
- Horses are very sociable animals that need love and lots of attention.
- Horses need daily visits and companionship, and you’ll need to love and care for them like any other family member.
- Horses need daily activities to keep them from becoming bored.
- You must provide horses with a nice sized stall for them to live and sleep in.
- You must provide a healthy horse diet.
- You must provide the horse with lots of water daily.
- Annual vaccinations will be necessary.
- Routine health check-ups including worming and dental care.
- Proper foot and hoof care.
- Training (obedience).
- Horses must have a large area in which to exercise that will have to be cleaned often.
A horse will often misbehave if he thinks he is not getting enough attention. Sometimes they even try to break out of their stall in search of adventure. You may also begin to notice their general behaviour beginning to change. They may try – like children – to attract your attention by acting in a manner in which they have been trained not to behave!
Owning a horse – more so than just about any other pet – is a huge commitment, so you need to be prepared for this. Horse care can be very expensive, particularly if your horse has an accident or develops an unexpected illness and needs veterinary treatment. This is just one of many reasons for which you will need to ensure you have good horse insurance.
Exercise is Essential for a Healthy Horse.
Horses love to have fun just like you and me. There are plenty exercises you can do with your horse to keep them happy and in optimum health. You should not exercise your horse all day. Horses should rest too. Remember also that it’s important to include a variety of different work and exercises for your horse as otherwise he will get bored quickly. You need try to change of similar activities or work frequently so the horses remain interested all the time.
Some Good Exercises to Help Your Horse Maintain Health and Strength.
- Bending exercises, or riding in circles: using a figure of eight movement to exercise in circles. You should perform these circle eight movements on both reins (left and right) to maintain even suppleness and balance on both reins.
- Lateral work: Lateral work is similar to gymnastics. First you need to do groundwork exercises with your horse. You will notice that the horse’s obedience, strength and flexibility will improve over time.
- Pacing: The purpose of pacing is to improve the horses pace. Your training should focus on teaching your horse how to politely speed up or slow down. An example is walking to trotting.
- Maintaining control/Training techniques for discipline: dressage, jumping, and endurance riding are techniques for discipline. The purpose of the dressage technique is to focus on improving pacing and lateral work. Endurance riding, as the name would suggest, focuses on improving the stamina of a horse.
You can exercise your horse virtually anywhere that space and safety allows. Only exercise your horse in a secure area that he cannot escape from. Ensure the area is safe for both you and the horse to work in so as to avoid injury. You can buy horse insurance to cover you if you are riding someone else’s horse; so be safe rather than sorry, as accidents can and do happen even to the most cautious of riders.
Horse exercise works well when executed in an area where the horse can concentrate. You can use either an outdoor or indoor arena, or a fenced-off area in a farm or larger field.
It is Not Just the Horse Who Benefits from Horse Exercises – Riders Do Too.
Both horse and rider will benefit from these exercises, as a rider can practice balance and position whilst performing them. The rider’s skills can improve dramatically over a short period. The goal for a horse rider is to develop good “contact”. This term refers to how connected you feel with the horse, both through your upper body to the horse’s back and also through your hands and down the reins to his mouth. Your level of “contact” is determined by how well your horse has been trained and how much the horse has retained. A well-trained horse will have the ability to work through the back and hindquarters. Good contact has been achieved when you can feel the reins soften as your horse arches his neck and rises his back; you will also notice him no longer pulling onward, but rather thrusting himself forward using the hindquarters.
When good contact has been achieved, you can then begin to work together to improve the health and happiness of your horse by performing exercises with your new best friend.
While exercise is key to a happy horse, other things can occur which may effect the health of your horse. If only it were true that a happy horse will always be a healthy horse. Sadly there are plenty of ailments and illnesses from which horses can suffer, which is why it is important to also have good horse insurance to cover the cost of unexpected vet’s fees.
