Preparing for the Worst: COVID-19 Edition

As we all try to navigate these uncharted waters ahead of us, I wanted to offer some suggestions in preparing for a worst case scenario and helping your local horse communities. Horse show and events are canceled for the foreseeable future, but make sure you are out there exercising and riding when you can--this will be good for your mental, physical and emotional health as you are asked to change your normal lifestyle.

If your employment status hasn't changed (still getting paid, working from home, etc), you still want to prepare for a worst case situation. The most expensive part of your horse is usually the feed bill. Find out how much it actually costs to feed your horse. The tips below come from an article I found on The Horse: https://thehorse.com/186173/horse-owner-help-during-covid-19/

• Know exactly what it costs to feed your horses. If you don’t have a budget already, create one (find a form to use here and an article about tips and tricks here). Figure out how far your emergency fund will get you in the event of a financial crisis. If you don’t have an emergency fund, begin setting aside money now. Know where you can easily trim your horse budget so you can keep meeting your horse’s nutrient requirements (find some suggestions here). It will also help you know your specific needs if you end up seeking help later.
• Help other horse owners who might be struggling right now. Support funds like KHC’s Equine Safety Net or Maryland’s Fund for Horses. You can donate to The American Association of Equine Practitioners’ Foundation for The Horse—health disasters are included in its “Disaster Relief” description.
• Support local horse welfare organizations that might be having to take on more horses because of job losses. There are too many to name, but just check to be sure the organization is reputable and will use your donation responsibly (here are some best practices reputable rescues follow). Some organizations will also accept donations in kind—so, if you have extra hay and want to share.
• Connect with your local horse community virtually. Put your heads together—at a safe social distance on Facebook and other platforms—to help each other.

Horse Pasture Weeds

             (Photo courtesy of NCSU Turffiles)

Last spring, did you have beautiful yellow flowers covering your pastures?  Although these flowers, commonly known as buttercup, are pretty to look at, they have no nutritional value and can take important nutrients from the plants you are trying to grow in your pasture.  This weed, which is a winter annual, should be sprayed in late winter or early spring (late February – early March) for the best kill.  So, now is a great time to scout for those weeds.  With the warm temperatures this winter, you may be able to see small rosettes of this weed poking through the grass.  If you wait until they are blooming to spray, you will be wasting your time and money.  Also, it is important to wait until you’ve had 3-4 warm days (50-55 degrees) to spray.  Your control will be very poor if you spray when the air temperature is too cold.  It may take 2-3 years of spraying to control the weed.  Many broadleaf herbicides will do a good job killing this weed.  The key is to kill it before it has a chance to bloom and set seed for new plants next year.  Call the Extension Office for recommendations of what and how much to spray on these weeds. 

There are many different weeds that could be present in your horse pasture.  They typically fall into 2 categories: broadleaf and grass weeds.  Grass weed control is limited (see paragraph below).  There are several options available to control broadleaf weeds - the buttercup mentioned above is just one such example of a broadleaf weed.  Call your local Extension office for assistance identifying weeds and determining the best and most cost effective herbicide to use.  

Due to label changes, there is now an option for controlling some annual grass weeds in perennial grass pasture.  Prowl H20 has been around awhile and was labeled for use in Bermuda grass pastures and hay fields.  A supplemental label is now available that allows for annual grass control in perennial cool season grasses like fescue and orchard grass.  It’s not a cheap herbicide so you will have to weigh whether the amount of weed present is worth the cost of the herbicide.  But it is certainly an option that may be useful in some situations. It is a pre-emergent herbicide; therefore, application should be made prior to germination.  Some grasses controlled include foxtails, goosegrass, shattercane, and signalgrass.  Here are some tips when using Prowl H20 in cool season grasses: 1) Temperature doesn’t matter, at least not as much as what we typically think.  So, February and March are good times to use this herbicide.  2) It breaks down quickly in anaerobic (no oxygen present) conditions.  So, don’t spray right after rain as the soil is saturated with water and there is no oxygen present in the soil.  Wait for the soil to dry out and then spray.  3) Use the high rate to get a good control.  This means about 4 quarts to the acre for best control.  This rate drives up the cost of application.  Finally, there are other herbicides with the same active ingredient but may have differing percentages.  According the labels, Prowl H20 is the only pendimethalin product that is labeled for use in cool season grass pastures and hay fields.  There are no harvest or grazing restrictions.  Temporary crop injury can occur, and application in extremely cold temperatures (and other conditions) may make crop injury more likely or more severe. 

Remember:  Always read and follow the label directions prior to using any chemicals.

Loading Your Horse

North Carolina has seen its fair share of hurricanes, flooding and fires in the last few years.  Owning horses may mean needing to quickly evacuate in an emergency.  We have talked about preparedness in other blogs, but making a plan is the first step and will help you think things through if you do face an emergency.  During Hurricane Florence, horse owners had to make decisions if they were going to shelter in place or evacuate.  Due to the overwhelming amount of rain and the following floods, some people who had previously been ok during other hurricanes had to make quick decisions on what to do.  

An important factor in evacuating is can your horse load and unload in a timely manner.  A horse that won’t load is very stressful on everyone.  Loading is not a normal horse behavior and must be trained.  The younger you train your horse the better.  It is a job that requires lots of patience on your part and understanding horse behavior.  Train horses to load in different types of trailers, to load on different sides and in the front or rear of a trailer.  The more the horse has the chance to vary its riding position, the easier it will be to load and ride in any trailer.  Sometimes horses need to be untrained from bad hauling habits which may be extremely difficult to overcome.  The horse could have multiple reasons to not want to load and you have to figure out how to overcome those problems.  Also give the horse time to learn to load and unload and not expect too much too quick.  Positive experiences will decrease problems in the future.

Make sure your horse is wearing a properly fitting halter. Lead your horse onto the trailer using a lead rope and never wrap the rope around your hand – keep it loose. When the horse is in the trailer, secure your horse with a quick release snap tie or slip knot.  It is critical that you can release a horse quickly if there is an emergency.  After loaded, make sure all partitions are closed including the butt bar.  Also practice unloading your horse, so they can calmly back out of the trailer

Other things to consider for emergencies, do you have enough trailer space to evacuate all your equine friends?  Will it take multiple loads?  Can you borrow a trailer?  Where are you going to evacuate to? 

ExtensionHorses has a 9 part video series from experts at Purdue University on safely loading and unloading a horse from a trailer.  

Video from the Eyes of the Horse

 Video on Loading you Buddy

Dental Care for Horses

Horses' teeth are very different compared to other types of livestock and animals, making routine dental care essential. Routine maintenance includes periodic examinations and floating. In North Carolina, it is required to have a licensed veterinarian to perform any dental work. 

Horses are grazing animals and have teeth that are suited for that, with front incisors for tearing forage and premolars and molars, or cheek teeth, for grinding feed before swallowing. They have two sets of teeth, baby teeth or deciduous teeth and adult or permanent teeth. A foal should have all their baby teeth by the time they are 8 months old and adult teeth by the time they are five years old. Adult stallions and geldings will have 40 teeth while mares will have between 36 and 40 because they are less likely to have canine teeth. Horses are often aged based on different characteristics their teeth take on as the animal ages. 

When horses chew they do so in a sideways motion and their bottom rows of cheek teeth are closer together than the upper rows. This creates sharp points on the outside of the upper molars and the inside of the lower molars. If these points are left unattended it can cause lacerations on the cheeks and tongue making it extremely painful for the horse to chew. Other dental problems include broken teeth, abnormal or uneven bite planes, excessively worn teeth or long teeth, misalignment due to congenital defects or injury, and lost teeth. 

If a horse is suffering from a dental problem, they may show obvious signs but signs may also go unnoticed. This is one reason why periodic dental examinations are essential. Some indicators that your horse is having a dental issue includes dropping feed while eating, difficulty chewing, loss of body condition, large feed particles in manure, and unwillingness to accept the bit while riding. Floating is the term used for routine maintenance on a horse's teeth. During this process, the sharp edges on the teeth created when the horse chews are removed.

The frequency of required dental work depends on the age of the horse. Foals should be examined to determine if there are any congenital abnormalities. These can develop over the first year so periodic checks may be required to diagnose and correct any issues. Baby teeth tend to be softer than permanent teeth, therefore yearlings up to horses five years old may require more frequent dental exams and floatings than older horses. Horses aged 6 to late teens should be checked at least annually to maintain correct dental alignment and identify problems as soon as possible. Senior horses are at increased risk of developing dental issues. 

Having your veterinarian perform periodic dental examinations on your horse will help catch any problems early. The longer an issue goes undiagnosed and untreated the more difficult it can be when trying to correct the condition. 

Horse Nutritional Requirements

With so many feed, supplement, and hay options in stores and on the market it can be overwhelming to decide what is needed and not needed to keep your horse healthy. Feed tags are a good place to start when trying to understand what you’re feeding your horse; but some horse owners do not know what they are reading when looking over a feed tag. So many numbers, names, and percentages; it can all be a little intimidating. This article is going to touch on the basic nutritional requirements of a horse.

Horses have six basic nutrient needs: carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water. Feed companies manage the first five nutritional needs in formulated feeds but it important that horse owners remember water. A healthy horse can consume anywhere from 5 to 15+ gallons of water a day depending on the temperature and it’s activity level. Clean water should always be available for the horse to freely drink when its thirsty. Horses that don’t drink enough water are vulnerable to dehydration, intestinal impactions and other forms of colic.

The rest of the horse’s diet should be based on its requirement for each of the other five nutrients. These requirements are different from horse to horse and are influenced by the horse’s weight, age, and workload. It is a very useful skill to be able to look at a feed tag and determine if that feed is going to meet your horse’s nutritional needs.

Carbohydrates is likely the largest part of a horse’s diet. Carbohydrates can be split into two different groups: structural (fiber) and non-structural (sugars and starches). Structural carbohydrates are found in the roughage that the horse eats. Structural carbohydrates are the most abundant form of carbohydrates and are digested due to the design of the horse’s intestinal tract. Following digestion in the stomach and small intestine, the horse’s digestive material enters the large intestine or hindgut, which in the horse consists of the cecum and colon. The cecum and colon contain microorganisms that are capable of breaking structural carbohydrates down into an energy source that the horse can absorb. This is why horses get so much nutritional value from grass and hay.

Horses can easily digest nonstructural carbohydrates, mostly in the small intestine. These sugars and starches are primarily found in grains such as corn. Nonstructural carbohydrates provide a more concentrated form of energy than structural carbohydrates. It is important to know if that the horse’s digestive system is developed enough to process a roughage-based diet, and concentrates should be used only to supplement the forage program and meet nutritional requirements that cannot be met by forage alone. Horses should be fed 2% of their body weight in forage. Feeding 1% or less forage can lead to health issues such as colic and ulcers.

Fat is an excellent and easily digestible source of energy. Commercial feeds that are not supplemented with additional fats contain around 2% - 4% fat. Many commercial feeds are now supplemented with fat in the form of some type of stabilized oil and can have fat percentages anywhere from 6% - 12%. When adding fat to a feed increases its energy concentration the horse will require less feed so it is important to be sure that all the other nutrients are being met.

Proteins are broken down in the small intestine into amino acids that are then combined to make proteins that make up muscle, hair and hoof. It is often times thought in the horse industry that high protein is associated with high energy in horses; but truthfully, proteins are the most difficult energy source for the horse to digest and convert to usable energy. Protein requirements for growth and maintenance vary depending on age and workload of the horse. Growing horses need a higher percentage of protein than mature horses. A growing horse needs between 12% - 18% crude protein for proper development and growth. Mature horses will do fine on a lower protein percentage of 8% - 12%, depending on their workload. Horses that are in intense training need more protein than the maintenance horse of about 12% protein feed. Feeding horses higher levels of protein than they need is a waste, the extra protein not used by the horse is excreted in the urine.

Vitamins and minerals are extremely important and often times overlooked. They must be available in the body to ensure important reactions take place that allow the horse to live and function. Vitamins are divided into two categories: the water-soluble group made up of the B-complex vitamins such as B₁, B₂ and the fat-soluble group is made up of vitamins A, E, D and K. The horse is able to synthesizes many of the vitamins it needs and does not typically need dietary supplementation of all vitamins. These vitamins include vitamin C, B-vitamins and vitamin K. Because the horse is able to synthesize these vitamins you will not see these vitamins on commercial horse feed tags. Excesses vitamins are not needed, especially the fat-soluble vitamins. Additional water-soluble vitamins are generally excreted in the urine. Fat-soluble vitamins are stored readily in the horse’s fat tissue and can build up to high levels if fed in excessive amounts. Excessively high levels of vitamins can lead to toxicity, it is important to use good judgment when feeding nutritional supplements that are high in particular vitamins. Minerals are another item that can be found in supplements and feeds. It is important to understand that mineral needs change depending on your horse’s age, lifestyle, and workload. Most commercial feed companies balance their feed to meet the mineral requirements of different classifications of horses. Forage will also provide minerals. In some cases, additional supplementation of some minerals may be beneficial; for example, biotin, zinc and copper supplemented in amounts above normal have been shown to improve hoof strength. Owners show also know that excessive amounts of minerals can also cause toxicities, lead to serious health conditions or interfere with absorption of other minerals.

            Taking all this in mind when looking at feed tags will cut down on some confusion. If there are still questions that need to be answered, calling your vet or asking your local livestock agent is the next best thing. If you are not sure about a feed then don’t feed it to your horse till you find out more about your horse’s needs are and if the feed meets all requirements.