Caring For Your Horse Takes More Than Just Love
It is vital for your horse's health that the two of you have a close and loving relationship. Horses need love and attention just as much as we do, and this companionship will have a positive impact on your horses health! With proper care you can achieve a special relationship with a happy and healthy horse who will be a loyal companion for a lifetime.
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. A horse can provide a rewarding experience for those involved in caring for it.
Caring For Your Horse – The Right Way.
To some extent, the particular breed of horse you have will determine just how much maintenance and exercise it will require. 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.
- Horses are large animals that require constant care and upkeep.
- Horses are herd animals - they are sociable and require attention and lots of love.
- 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.
- Your horse will need a constant supply of fresh water.
- Your horse will need to have annual vaccinations.
- Routine health check-ups including worming and dental care.
- Foot care (hoof maintenance).
- Training (obedience).
- Horses must have a large area in which to exercise that will have to be cleaned often.
If horses do not get the attention they need you may notice them trying to act out. Sometimes they even try to break out of their stall in search of adventure. Their general behaviour may change first of all. They may start to do things that you trained them not to do just because they are trying to capture your attention, a bit like kids really!
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.
A Healthy Horse Needs Plenty of Exercise.
Like us, horses like to have a bit of fun. 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 need adequate periods of rest as well. Another important factor to remember is horses can get bored very quickly, so it is important to create different types of work or exercise for horses. Change the activities or work tasks regularly to maintain your horse's interest.
Exercises to Help Maintain the Health and Strength of your Horse.
- Bending exercises, or riding in circles: using a figure of eight movement to exercise in circles. Perform this movement alternately on the left and right rein so as to maintain balance and even suppleness on both sides.
- Lateral work: this is a bit like gym for horses. 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: these exercises help train your horse to control his movements while walking with you. Your training should focus on teaching your horse how to politely speed up or slow down. For example, moving to a trot from walking.
- 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. The purpose of endurance riding, is to focus on improving the horses stamina.
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. Also make sure the area is safe, so that neither you or the horse gets hurt. 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.
Horse exercises are beneficial to the rider of the horse as well as the horse because it encourages the rider to develop a balanced and secure position on the horse. 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. How you have trained your horse - and how much of that training your horse has retained - will determine your level of "contact" with your horse. The horse will have the ability to work through his back and hindquarters if he has been well-trained. 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.
Your horse may be exercised well, yet this alone cannot guarantee good health for a lifetime. It would be nice if a happy horse was always 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.
Horse Training Tips - Simple Groundwork
Below is a brief description of just three simple groundwork exercises you can perform with your own horse or a horse you are training. These exercises will allow you and the horse to become familiar with each other and build trust. Future training success is dependant on good groundwork. The importance of safety and maintaining your personal space bubble should not be taken lightly.
Training your horse will require you to have plenty of patience, persistence and to use lots of positive reinforcement. These are the 3 P's of basic horse training that will serve you well no matter what level you are training or what you might be training for in the future.
1. Groom your horse. This is the perfect first exercise for you and your horse. Your horse will get to know you during this quality time together, and vice verse. Standing beside your horse, brush his back and neck. It is not unusual for the horse to bring his teeth around to you for a little love bite. While horses do this to each other all the time, naturally they cannot do it to humans. Just wave your hand or push the head back to straight ahead position to discourage this. Those teeth are HUGE so you must make it clear from the beginning that this is unacceptable. Use patience and keep calm. It will not take long for him to cooperate once he gets the idea. It's pointless to shout, smack or get panicky with your horse. This will only set you back with your trust levels.
2. Lead your horse. Holding the lead rope just below his chin in your right hand, walk beside your horse on his left side. Walk forward with a slow step. He should remain at your right side and never try to go ahead of you. He may try to do this and you should walk around in a circle to your left. Do this as often as you need to. Show persistence. Use the circular movement to stay just ahead of him, where you should be. If, on the other hand, your horse doesn't want to walk with you, stand slightly behind at his shoulder facing the same direction. Push forward while holding the rope close to his chin. When he takes a little step, praise and positive reinforcement is in order. When he starts to walk willingly, take your place slightly ahead of him and walk on. Remember that in order to stay safe, you should never wrap the lead rope around any part of your body. If the horse decides to bolt you'll be going along and it will not be pretty.
3. Lunge your horse.This is a great exercise used by most horse trainers and owners. It will help you to get closer to saddle work by teaching the horse many of the skills, cues and commands he will need.
In a large open area (an arena works, too, if you don't have a round enclosure) clip your horse to a lunge lead specifically for lunging. This will be a long rope - about ten metres - much longer than the rope you would use for leading. Clip the lead to the horse's left halter side and hold the lead in your left hand. To begin, hold the lunge lead while facing the horse's left side. Hold a lunge whip in your right hand which you'll use to guide him along. Now step to your right sideways toward the rear of the horse while holding the whip out behind him. The horse's natural reaction will be to step forward. Now let out the rope as you follow behind the horse to the left side, making a kissing sound as you do so. Soon that sound will come to mean "move forward" to your horse. As you're turning and the horse moves in a circle around you, hold the whip slightly behind his hindquarters. Do not use the whip to hit the horse. Simply by waving it about a little the horse should pay attention to you.
Move yourself slowly backwards to the centre as the horse is moving forwards. With the lunge lead fully extended, stand in the middle and turn as the horse walks around you in a circle. Watch your horse's hip area as he's going round.
This is the perfect time to teach your horse to understand "whoa". In a low, calm voice, say the word "whoooaa". At the same time, step toward your horse's head and repeat the word. When he stops, give him lots of praise and a little neck rub. You will help him remember what to do through this positive reinforcement.
Now you can change your lunging position to move him in the counterclockwise manner. Do this by swapping hands so that you hold the lunge whip in your left hand whilst the lead is clipped to the right side of the halter.
These few exercises are just the very basics to help you get started with training your horse. Always remember the size and sheer power of the horse. This alone should be enough to remind you to have adequate horse insurance in place should either you or your equine be injured. Safety and trust is crucial to your success in training ventures and in all future activities. As well as a loyal friend, your horse is also an investment, so remember to protect that investment against theft, accident or misadventure by making sure you compare horse insurance policies to ensure you are getting the best level of cover for both of your needs.
