Horses are complicated, yet wonderful animals that require lots of care and attention. Caring for your horse includes grooming, feeding, training, bonding, and keeping your horse in good health. Keep reading to learn how to care for your horse. A horse is a big time commitment. They can cost anywhere from $300 to $800 a month and they can live for 30 years or more. Still, horses are great companions and highly enjoyable, so make sure you're housing and feeding them properly and giving them the right care.
Make sure the horse has proper shelter at all times. Your horse needs to have access to shelter throughout the year. This means dry, safe, and comfortable protection from rain, wind, snow, as well as from heat and biting insects.
Shelter can mean anything from a windbreak, a shed, or a clean and dry run-in area of a barn.
You can also board your horse at a stable. This can cost anywhere from $100 to $500 a month depending on the type of stable (simple pasture boarding tends to be less expensive). Sometimes you can do chores around the barn in exchange for cutting down on the cost of boarding.
Provide your horse with the right food.Your horse, if they're of an average size, will consume about 20 lbs. worth of food every day. Horses have relatively small stomachs and rather delicate digestive systems, so they tend to nibble and graze through the day, rather than eat one or two specific meals.
You will want to feed them one half bale of greenish-colored hay, which will be approximately two percent of their body weight. The bale can be grass or alfalfa, or even a mix.
Supplement the half bale with grains, oats, or sweet feed twice a day. It's best to feed them around the same time each day.
Don’t feed them yellow, dusty, moldy, smelly hay or hay with fine dust, flakes or clumps of plant matter. This can cause colic and respiratory issues.
Muck out the stable daily. Mucking means cleaning. You have to remove the droppings from the bedding with a shovel and wheelbarrow and level the bedding. Make sure that the place you dump the droppings can't be smelled from the barn or stable area.
If horse is stabled you have to clean the stable at least three times a day.
Remove soiled bedding and once you’ve disinfected the floor, replace with clean, fresh bedding.
Groom your horse. If your horse is stabled you will need to groom them daily to maintain their healthy coat. You will need to disentangle their mane and tail and gently pick out any burs that might have formed.[5]
With a currycomb loosen dried mud or ground-in dirt. Start by using a stuff brush, then finish offer with a softer brush. Also be careful and use a softer grooming tool with your horse's head and the bony areas of their legs.
Give your horse a bath on a warm day. Make sure to use antifungal shampoo. Since the water repelling oils in your horse's coat are removed during bathing, you will need to bathe them when there won't be rain, or you'll have to put a waterproof blanket or sheet on them before turning them out.
Comb the mane gentle using a wide-toothed plastic comb. If there are any bad tangles make sure that you unpick them with your fingers. Using scissors will make a mess that takes months to grow out. Avoid pulling on tangles, because this will thin and shorten a horse's mane and tail.
Exercise your horse. Your horse needs to be exercised everyday. If you can't get to it, make sure that the horse has the option to walk in a field, or you have someone else come and exercise them.
A horse needs space to walk and relax in to supplement the exercise you give them when you ride them.
Thank you reading, i didn't want to add to much info or it would be very long.
