There’s one sure fire way to determine if your horse is having a hard time with heat and humidity -take his temperature. Before and after a ride. Also, check his gums frequently for signs of dehydration, his upper teeth should be slimy and slick. Sticky or dry gums are dangerous and are a sign to call your vet right away.
Ride in the shade if you can, during the coolest hours of the day, often in the morning. Take your time cooling your horse down, offering water right away and rinsing with water or a water/alcohol bath. Alcohol evaporates faster and helps speed us the cooling process.
Talk to your veterinarian if you have any questions or concerns.
BarnManager can help track temperatures, schedule ride times, and keep medical records – to sign up for a free trial click here!
Liv Gude, a former International Dressage Groom for years, founded proequinegrooms.com as a way to unite Grooms in the horse industry. The educational website also serves to entertain and inform horse owners across all disciplines about horse care, grooming, and health. Click here to check it out!
Start with a clean horse! Shampoo, condition, dry. Use a sheen product or grooming oil.
Then add wickedly sharp clipper blades. Pick a clipper blade that leaves enough hair for your taste. Most blades have a mm designation that tells you how many mm of hair are left with that blade.
If you are going for a partial clip, your horse doesn’t have to be clipped in a specific pattern. It’s much better to clip your horse’s hot spots – where he sweats.
If you clip too early in the season, you might have to do some touch ups later. That’s fine! If you clip too late, the hair will have stopped growing in and any clipper marks or “oops” will be there for a while.
Depending on your climate, you may want to do a full body clip early so you can prep your horse in the last few days of warm weather. As winter drags on, you can do a partial clip so legs stay warm but his body gets the benefits of a clip.
BarnManager can help track who needs to be clipped and who is left – to sign up for a free trial click here!
Liv Gude, a former International Dressage Groom for years, founded proequinegrooms.com as a way to unite Grooms in the horse industry. The educational website also serves to entertain and inform horse owners across all disciplines about horse care, grooming, and health. Click here to check it out!
There are two main things to know about fly control – first, know what types of flies you are targeting and second, you must attack all stages of the fly life cycle.
When you know if the flies are heat seekers, like horse flies, or smell seekers, like stable flies, you can create the best fly control program. The types of flies will also tell you about their environment. This enables you to start time turnouts and trim back scrub brush around creeks that flies like to live in.
Use fatty acid based sprays for biting flies that look for their meals with their noses. Confuse the sight oriented flies with zebra printed fly sheets.
Keep the manure picked from your horse’s area several times a day, use fans, and do your research about what types of flies you are battling.
Finally, keep notes from year to year on your management plan. BarnManager can help you do this – to sign up for a free trial click here!
Liv Gude, a former International Dressage Groom for years, founded proequinegrooms.com as a way to unite Grooms in the horse industry. The educational website also serves to entertain and inform horse owners across all disciplines about horse care, grooming, and health. Click here to check it out!
Springtime brings some beautiful flowers and we all want to be outside after the long winter. However, springtime also brings some unique dangers to keep your horses away from.
Buttercups are toxic – really toxic – but luckily they are bitter tasting and most horses won’t eat them. However, this can become a problem when your horse gets hungry from being in a sparse paddock with nothing to nibble – then the bitter taste may not matter so much.
Dandelions are not toxic – but they are very high in sugars! With springtime grasses also high in sugars, this can become a real risk for the metabolically compromised horse.
You should also watch out for cool mornings – temps below 40 degrees overnight create a spike in pasture sugars. Hot afternoons are also an issue – the same thing happens when temps warm up suddenly!
Poison ivy – another non-poisonous one that can still cause some issues. Your horse can rub on the plant and transfer the oils to you.
Leftover acorns are a problem because they are toxic AND delicious. While most oak trees shed their acorns in the fall, sometimes they can linger until spring, so watch out for those!
The solution to many of these is the keep plenty of fresh forage and clean water in front of your horse to distract them from expanding their diet into any unhealthy things. You can use BarnManager to create reminders to check on all these plants, and to get the word out to your team. To sign up for a free trial of BarnManager’s horse management software click here. Be safe out there and enjoy the warmer weather!
Liv Gude, a former International Dressage Groom for years, founded proequinegrooms.com as a way to unite Grooms in the horse industry. The educational website also serves to entertain and inform horse owners across all disciplines about horse care, grooming, and health. Click here to check it out!
The weather is finally warming up across the country, which means it’s time to open the barn windows and get out the cleaning supplies! The fresh start that spring brings is the perfect opportunity to clean and organize not only your home, but also your barn, your tack, and your horse.
Here are a few things that we recommend checking off your spring cleaning list!
Tack and equipment
Get to the bottom of your tack trunk. When was the last time that you actually took everything out of your trunk? Whether you’re coming off a winter show circuit or just gearing up for your first show of the season, the spring is a great opportunity to take everything out of your trunk, deep clean, re-organize, and maybe even re-locate that glove you thought was long lost!
Evaluate, eliminate, and replace tack as needed. As you’re going through your tack trunk, also evaluate all of your tack and equipment. If there’s something that you no longer need or want, consider donating it to a horse rescue or therapeutic program or taking it to a local equine consignment shop. Now is also the time to replace any broken or overly-used tack or equipment or stock up on new items for the summer.
Send blankets out for cleaning and repair. By the end of the winter, it’s likely that your horse’s sheets and blankets are in need of a deep cleaning! Depending on your area, some exceptional blanket cleaning services are available to clean and repair your blankets and then carefully wrap and pack them for safe keeping until cooler weather returns.
Your horse
Get spring vaccinations. Make sure that your horse is up to date on all vaccines and has a recent coggins test.
Have those teeth checked. While your vet is there for vaccinations, or if you use an equine dentist, now is the time to have them float your horse’s teeth and check for any potential dental issues.
Stock up on fly repellant products. In most parts of the country, the onset of warmer weather also means the onset of more flies! Stock up on fly sprays and any fly masks or sheets.
Around the barn
Check your fire extinguishers. If you have your own barn, your spring cleaning check list can grow immensely! Consider including things like checking your fire extinguishers or
having them serviced. Don’t have a fire extinguisher? Add getting one to your spring list, as every barn should have at least one!
Clean out gutters and downspouts. Clear out any leaves or build-up that may have accumulated over the fall and winter months.
Inspect your pastures. Walk the perimeter of all pastures to check the fencing and locate any weak or broken spots. Thoroughly clean any run-in sheds, and walk your fields and fill in any holes.
Have BarnManager help!
BarnManager makes it easy to simplify your spring cleaning and organization!
After your horse gets its spring vaccines, snap a picture of the shot records, and upload it straight to your horse’s profile in the BarnManager app!
Have a long list of spring cleaning to-dos? Make the list within BarnManager and even share it with fellow barn members, clients, or staff to assign tasks or accomplish the to-do list together!
Plan your spring and summer show schedule directly within BarnManager’s calendar for easy access by everyone within your barn!
Time to do a few things around the farm to get ready for warmer weather!
Have a professional check your electrical wiring, especially if you use fans in warmer weather.
Clean, repair, and carefully store your winter blankets.
Take your trailer in for yearly service, including tire safety and braking systems checks.
Clean out your grooming supply buckets – all of that spring shed hair loves to collect in there!
Schedule your spring vaccinations (BarnManager can be very helpful with this!)
Implement a tick control program.
Collect manure samples for a worm check from your vet’s office.
Clean and condition tack, as well as double checking stitching and buckles.
BarnManager can help you make your spring cleaning list, set due dates, and assign tasks to your team members. To try a free trial of our barn management software click here. Then go out and embrace the fact that spring is finally here! Time to celebrate riding without those huge winter jackets!
Liv Gude, a former International Dressage Groom for years, founded proequinegrooms.com as a way to unite Grooms in the horse industry. The educational website also serves to entertain and inform horse owners across all disciplines about horse care, grooming, and health. Click here to check it out!
Laminitis is not just a springtime issue – although it seems to be more common in the spring, it can happen year round! Here are some sure-fire signs your horse needs a vet – pronto!
An increased digital pulse at the fetlock. This means something is brewing in the hoof.
A reluctance to walk or turn. This is easy to see when asking your horse to step from a padded stall to a harder surface.
Heat in the hooves – again, this means something is brewing and should be looked at.
A mild colic or symptoms of a mild colic. Sometimes pain in the hooves mimics pain in the gut.
A curling or wiggling of the horse’s upper lip. Some horses show the flehmen response when in pain.
Stay ahead of the curve and check your horse for these symptoms, including heat in the hooves and a digital pulse, every single day!
BarnManager can help you catch these issues early by giving you an on-the-go way to record and track these symptoms for every horse on your phone through our mobile app. Sign up for a free trial of our horse management software here.
Liv Gude, a former International Dressage Groom for years, founded proequinegrooms.com as a way to unite Grooms in the horse industry. The educational website also serves to entertain and inform horse owners across all disciplines about horse care, grooming, and health. Click here to check it out!
Liv’s Tip of the Month
Keeping Your Horse’s Skin Healthy in Winter
It’s cold. Your fingers are numb. You just want to tack up and ride and go home – but you might be skipping some steps to help your horse’s winter skin stay healthy. Here’s what to do:
Take off blankets daily. Look for rubs. Look for sore spots. Look for pinched skin from buckles and straps. Also, inspect horses for tack rubs. On clipped horses they are easy to develop and see, and in some unclipped horses the extra hair under tack causes sores and rubs.
Groom your horse daily – you won’t be so cold after a good curry session! And you will be able to find weird new itchy places, scabs, hair loss, mites, lice, scaly skin, and dandruff – the list goes on. Anything new or weird warrants a quick text (and maybe a photo) to the Vet for further investigation.
Take sweat seriously in winter. A fuzzy horse that sweats is more likely to overheat during exercise, get skin infections from the sweat, and to take a long time to dry, possibly risking getting too cold in the process. Use coolers to help dry, feed electrolytes before you ride if your horse is sweating, and be diligent in your daily skin inspections.
Be prepared for stain accumulation. You won’t be bathing as often, so take advantage of dry shampoos and spot removers for those stains that pop up in winter.
Keep your grooming tools exclusive to your horse. Rain rot and other bacterial skin infections are easily transmitted from horse to horse with brushes, grooming gloves, blankets, and saddle pads.
BarnManager makes it super easy to jot down notes about each horse while you are grooming in our mobile app. To signup for a Free Trial of our equine management software and see how it can help you click here.
Happy grooming, and spring is coming soon!
Liv Gude, a former International Dressage Groom for years, founded proequinegrooms.com as a way to unite Grooms in the horse industry. The educational website also serves to entertain and inform horse owners across all disciplines about horse care, grooming, and health. Click here to check it out!
Liv’s Tip of the Month
Do your horse a favor in cold weather and warm his bit up for him! It’s easy and makes bridling comfortable. Depending on your barn’s tack room set up, you might have a lot of options to make this happen!
One easy way to warm the bit is to hang it in a window of the tack room. Of course, this only works if this tack room is relatively warm, but the sun through a glass window can work wonders.
You can also wear the bridle under your jacket as you do barn chores and groom. This might take a bit of practice to not get totally tangled up though!
The bit can also be warmed up by using any sort of warm compress. There are two types you can buy – some use the microwave to heat up and some need an outlet.
Dunk that bit in some hot water for a quick second! If you have hot water from the faucet you can use that, or invest in an instant hot water kettle to create super hot water quickly. Make sure to test the bit to be sure it’s not too hot.
Have a great winter ride!
Liv Gude, a former International Dressage Groom for years, founded proequinegrooms.com as a way to unite Grooms in the horse industry. The educational website also serves to entertain and inform horse owners across all disciplines about horse care, grooming, and health. Click here to check it out!
There are two main things to know about fly control – first, know what types of flies you are targeting and second, you must attack all stages of the fly life cycle.
