Signs To Look For

STEVE: Signs or symptoms outwardly to look for, for lack of health or times when a horse is starting to diverge from normal health, would be the fact that maybe their coat is starting to get dull. Maybe a little bit rough and quite long instead of being slick and tight like it would be on a healthy horse. Especially here in the spring when it’s starting to warm up. That would be one of the first signs you’d want to look at, and obviously, you would look at the amount of feed that they’re procuring, what their weight is, if their weight’s normal, if they have a good-condition score, if their coat is healthy and slick.

Any divergence from this kind of thing and/or their normal patterns, if they look stressed versus relaxed, if they look uncomfortable versus basically really, really very satisfied in their environment, all these things would be signs early on that maybe you should look a little closer at a lot more detailed things.

Is their temp normal? Are they eating the right amount? Are they taking in plenty of water? Are their piles or stool…is it normal? Do they have diarrhea? Is it too dry? These are just all attention to detail topics that you really need to go and have yourself a checklist.

It’s a good thing for you do all these things just in case you got to call me. Okay, because when I come I’m going to be asking you, ‘Well, what did his pile look like? Have you taken his temperature? Have you looked in his mouth? Have you noticed that he drops feed when he eats?’ Things like this.

ALEX: Bottom line it’s really knowing your horse, every day. Some of the signs that we could see in a horse…you come to the barn and the horse isn’t acting right…maybe they’re hanging their head a little bit. They might look fine, but that could be the start of something. Let’s get the temperature. Let’s check their legs. Let’s check their feet. You know check them out completely from head to toe, and if there’s something that really sticks out, we can call Steve, have him come by, and look at the horse.

We want to know our horse every day and know everything about them. It’s extremely important.