Management know-how
Whether you need advice about grooming, feeding, mucking out or managing land, our experts are here to help with practical, professional solutions to all your horse keeping problems.
Super supps for joints
H&R Forum experts answer back: Any suggestions for helping an older horse with stiff joints?
The new anti-ageing remedy: no 'bute required
Q: I’ve had my horse for eight years, and we have done everything – sponsored rides, Trec, eventing, JumpCross, dressage, showing and low-level endurance. He is fit and healthy, but I am aware that he is stiffening up a little and it can take quite a while when I first get on for him to loosen up. He lives out, so spends most of his time wandering about, so it’s not like I’m starting from a standstill. What can I do to help him?
Beat the flies with... Marmite?
Q: I am nervous about using fly repellents – I don’t like using chemicals, either on myself or my horse. When I’ve travelled to places where the bugs are bad, I’ve taken vitamin B tablets and garlic tablets, which apparently the bugs don’t like (nobody else does either!). Can I feed my horse something to build up his natural bug defences?
Green-eared monster!
Q: In the spring, my horse comes in from the field with green ears. I couldn’t figure out what he was doing (headstands? Somersaults?) so I turned him out and watched for a while: it turns out he was eating Hawthorne! The green was from showing his head into bushes, branches and whatever else he had to get through to get at the Hawthorn. Any idea why he is doing this, and why only in the spring? Our fields are carefully managed, so the grass is reasonably good all year round.
Coping with hard surfaces
Q: Where I live, we have to do a fair amount of work on the road. I know this isn’t ideal for his joints, how can I help his body recover and cope with the amount of work we do on hard surfaces?
Getting rid of mucus
Q: Every so often my horse coughs when we are warming up. He will cough two or three times, every five or six rides in the first 20 minutes. He had a virus over a year ago, and in all other regards has fully recovered. I soak his hay, his bedding is not dusty and he is turned out for about eight hours a day. Do you have any idea how I can help him stop coughing?
