When it comes to shoeing and Farrier talks one of the least understood topics is the discussion of hoof balance. Ask half dozen different Farriers the meaning of hoof balance and you’re likely to have half dozen different answers. While hoof balance is so misunderstood it’s also most crucial to avoiding permanent lameness to horses. Put those two ingredients together and you have a recipe for disaster. Until hoof balance is completely understood there’s a 98% chance a horse will remain at serious risk. Let’s discuss balance and reduce the risk.

Broken colored horses are associated in the popular imagination with the old American west. In particular, they are associated with Native Americans, with whom they were a popular choice, as the pattern of broken colors made the horses hard to see, either during a hunt or during war.

Broken colored horses - also known as pintos - continue to be popular today, both in the American west and around the world. However, even though “pinto” is the Spanish word for “paint”, pinto horses are not quite the same thing as paint horses.

Insurance of all kinds has become endemic in our society today; car insurance, home owners insurance, health insurance, and everything in between. The role of insurance in our lives is the protection of our assets. And when it comes to horse insurance, the goals are the same. For those who own one or more horses, horse insurance provides them with the same peace of mind as any other insurance policy.

If you rely on your horses for income, you are going to have to have good marketing skills just like any other business. That’s right, horses don’t sell themselves! If you are a breeder, riding instructor, trainer, boarding facility, or horse dealer, you are going to need to reach and impress your potential customers in order to sell them your products and services. How do you do that? Just follow the steps illustrated below and you’ll be well on your way to enjoying a successful horse-related business!

How do you keep those nasty parasites at bay? A regular deworming process is necessary to rid your horses of dangerous, and sometimes deadly nasties such as large strongyles, small strongyles, ascarids, bots, pinworms, intestinal threadworms, and summer sores.

Of course, sometimes deworming is easier said than done! It’s one thing to come up with a regular deworming schedule, and quite another to put it into practice. First of all, your deworming schedule should be unique to your circumstances. What agent you use, and how often, will depend upon things such as geography, time of year, how many horses you have, size and type of pasture, amount of turn-out time, etc. It can be complicated! To add insult to injury, once you come up with a schedule you’ll have to get your horses to accept the deworming process. While some horses have no issues with deworming, others can make it quite difficult on you!

Farriers can have it very tough. The occupation is very physically demanding and there are risks of injury. Being kicked by a horse is not to be taken lightly, I personally know of Farriers who have died from kicks and others having broken bones. Nails in horse’s feet will rip through the farriers flesh as easy as a hot knife through butter. Horses jerk legs while working on them and sit and lean and try everything sometimes in an effort to dislodge the Farrier from his work.

Aches, pains and fevers are often a part of life. They are for people and they are for horses as well. Just as we have medication in our medicine cabinet for our relief for these discomforts relief for horses often comes in the form of bute. Phenylbutazone, more commonly known as bute, is an anti-inflammatory and analgesic, or pain relieving drug for horses. It is sometimes called NSAID which stands for non steroidal anti inflammatory drug. Aspirin and ibuprofen are also NSAIDs. Bute is often a favorite choice because it is less expensive than other anti inflammatory drugs. It is convenient to give to horses because it is only given once or twice a day. Bute is available as one gram tablets that must be ground and made into a powder to administer orally, in a tube (like a dewormer) ready to give orally. Both are ways an individual may give the horse themselves. Bute is also available as a drug your veterinarian can inject.