April 2005

Subtle Changes May Indicate Pain

Quick checks and simple note-taking may head off a problem early.

Monitor your horse’s health with regular checkups, many of which you can do yourself.

At one time or another, nearly every horse will be lame to some degree during their lifetime. Problems that go undetected until the horse is seriously lame can be significant, and at that point the damage may not be completely reversible. Training yourself to check for early indicators can prevent that and decrease the amount of lost training time.

You should be constantly on the lookout for subtle changes that could indicate an oncoming problem. Record any small changes you see in a notebook that you keep in the feed room. Write what you saw, no matter how vague, and the day and time. If it’s nothing, all you’ve wasted…