When horses are experiencing back pain, it can often lead to poor performance; many different types of horses suffer from back problems. Early recognition of back pain is important, since damage may be cumulative. This fact sheet provides information to help horse owners and riders prevent, recognize, and pursue treatment for back pain in their horses.   

The hot summer heat should be a concern for horse owners. Horse owners need to provide extra care during hot weather to decrease stress and maintain the health and well-being of their horses. This fact sheet will describe overheating, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke in horses, and ways to protect them in times of high heat.

First recorded in 1975, near Lyme, Connecticut, Lyme disease can be troublesome. Knowing the signs, treatment, and prevention, can lead to better protection for horses from this disease.   

Whether you’re buying your first horse or your twenty-first, it is both an exciting and scary process. Dreaming of the day when you could own this horse, you want everything to be perfect. There are several things you can do to improve your chances of selecting a suitable horse for you.  

Concerns about plants found in pastures include whether they may be poisonous to horses. In general, a horse usually would need to consume a large quantity of a specific toxic species for it to be an issue. However, a few ornamental plants are toxic in small quantities, even only a couple of mouthfuls. Prevention is the best approach to dealing with plant toxicity to horses. There are some things you can do to prevent your horse from having issues.

Warmer weather often leads to thoughts of being out on the trail with your hourse, considering goals for riding, driving, showing, or trail riding this year. In a previous fact sheet, we discussed aerobic conditioning and the effects of age, genetics and nutrition on conditioning.  This fact sheet provides additional tips and best practices for the health of your horse. 

It is important to prepare prior to designing a pasture by considering the use of the pasture, land resources available, seeding (including what to seed), design, and location of sacrifice areas. A sacrifice lot will help prevent over-conditioned horses by reducing pasture intake as well as protecting land resources. The expression ‘Failing to prepare, we prepare to fail’ is never more true than when it comes to pasture management. 

It might be observed at the end of a horse show, event or trail ride. A horse is lathered, huffing and looks exhausted. Is the horse exercise-intolerant?  No, most likely it just has not been properly conditioned. Conditioning is defined as getting one’s muscles into better shape through graded exercise. Age, genetics, and nutrition play major roles in conditioning. 

Properly managing horse manure will reduce flies and dust, and prevent pollution to nearby water bodies. The best time to consider manure management is before adding horses to a property. However, there’s no time like the present to reevaluate what you are doing and determine if you can manage your manure more effectively.

Being outdoors and camping is a fun pastime for a lot of people. Many people feel there is nothing like spending time camping with your horse. This factsheet contains a few guidelines for camping with your horse. 

After a long season with little color, when Spring arrives it’s great to see the greening of the grass and blooming flowers. Horses shedding definitely is another reminder. As a horse owner, when you think of the word SPRING, it can help bring to mind some tasks to focus on. 

Equine herpesvirus infections are very common in horse populations. Familiarity with the types of equine herpesviruses, clinical signs, transmission, diagnosis, treatment and especially, ways to protect your horses from infection are the best practices in managing the disease.  In this fact sheet, we will focus on EHV-1 and EHV4, which are the two that result in serious clinical disease in the horse.