“I can always tell which is the front end of a horse, but beyond that, my art is not above the ordinary.” - Mark Twain
I’m constantly amazed at what seems to be a pretty good gap between how healthy horses are and how healthy people think horses really are. I suppose that some of this is understandable, particularly if you’re one of those people who think that your horse’s health is balanced precariously on the edge of an abyss filled with disease and injury, being held back from plunging in only by the fact that you blanket him every night, have a wide selection of brushes readily available, and are armed with a tack trunk full of supplements.
Punkin
The truth is that horses are remarkable feats of biological engineering. When left alone, they seem to do quite well. I mean, look at them in their normal surroundings. They eat for a total of as many as 17 hours a day, and in as many as 23 of every 24 hours in a day, a Herculean feat of appetite that is inconceivable for those of us mammals stuck with a simple stomach. Their digestive system is such that they can get or make all of the nutrients that they need from a relatively simple diet of fresh forage. They’re constantly on the move, which means that they stay in pretty good shape, unequalled by most humans who aren’t (weren’t) also Jack LaLanne (if you don’t know who Jack LaLanne was, ask your parents). Horses are also social creatures, traveling in groups across open spaces in mostly pretty parts of the world (those that can support grasses). Good food, exercise, and a nice bunch of friends – sounds like a prescription for health to me! Indeed, prior to humans coming along and building condominiums and freeways across the land, one could easily imagine that horses had it pretty good.
Of course, humans seem to be particularly bad at leaving things alone. Good
Typical feeding instructions
enough rarely is. For the horse, this has meant that he now gets fed a couple times a day, mostly with dried or processed food, exercised a few times a week, and separated from his buddies. At the same time, he’s packed into small boxes called stables. While this change in surroundings doesn’t seem to immediately jump out as a prescription for health and happiness, especially compared to how they had it before people intervened, horses still seem to get along well in spite of these roadblocks.
Even so, insofar as basic biological needs go, nothing has really changed for the horse. He’s still a big creature, who generates a lot of body heat, so he really doesn’t need to be blanketed, especially in a climate as warm as that of southern California. He still can obtain or manufacture all of his own nutritional needs from his relatively simple diet of any one of a number of hays, so under most circumstances, he really doesn’t need any additional vitamins, minerals, hoof growth promoters, digestive system improvers, etc., etc., added to his feed trough. He will almost always eat like a horse, and look forward to a handful of carrots or apples, no matter how much he’s been recently fed. Eating is what horses are supposed to do!
From a veterinary perspective, I’m not so amazed that I get to see horses that are cut, colicing or lame on a relatively frequent basis as I am amazed that I don’t see more problems, given all that people do to them. People seem to be constantly putting their horses into compromising situations, for example, throwing up obstacles for them to jump over, or trying to make them trot in place. I mean, if you put a horse in a ring full of jumps, he’s smart enough to go around them, and as for trotting, he normally does that when he wants to go somewhere, not when he wants to stand still.
Frankly, I think that much of the anxiety surrounding horse health care is generated by a combination of good intentions and heavy advertising. Naïve horse owners, anxious to take care of a good friend (and significant investment of time and money) are understandably concerned that something might go wrong. So, they’ll typically go to great – and expensive – lengths to prevent problems, real or imagined. This concern is fueled by a bewildering array of products that promise to promote, protect or improve what is, in reality, a marvelously healthy creature. In fact, it seems a bit of a paradox that in this day where “natural” seems to be the rage, taking care of the horse seems to have developed into such a complicated endeavor, about as far from “natural” as can be.
As long as you exercise your horse regularly and reasonably, and feed him well, in amounts appropriate for his health your horse is unlikely to experience serious health problems. (Here’s a hint – if your horse looks good and feels good, it’s probably because you’re mostly doing things right, even if you aren’t spending $200 a month on supplements.) Sure, there are occasional exceptions, but in most cases horses really are as healthy as, well, a horse!
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