Your Horse's Holiday List

“Dashing through the snow…” Come on, sing it with me!  “In a two-horse open sleigh…” Huh?  Two?

When I was a kid, those were my lyrics to “Jingle Bells.”  I worried that the one horse would get lonely.  Holidays and horses.  Reindeer aside, images of the horse are an iconic part of Western winter holiday traditions. From songs -- “Sleigh bells ring, are ya listening…,” to stories – Christmas pony stories were childhood favorites, to greeting cards, shaggy manes and wreathed equine necks fill holiday imagery.  Who among us didn’t ask Santa for a pony, or beg to go on a sleigh ride (preferably with a cup of marshmallow dotted hot cocoa)?

Yet, as a veterinarian, I’ve noticed through the years that horses often get the short end of the (carrot)stick around the holidays.  Equine holiday ills generally boil down to one or more of the following three factors:

1. Time
2. Weather
3. Money

Let’s take a look at each of these in turn and see how they affect our hooved friends.

• Problem #1…Time: Now, I don’t know about you, but in my house, it feels as though by mid-October I’ve finally gotten a handle on the school year.  We have a blip of Halloween costume madness, but otherwise, we manage to settle into a comfortable routine.  Then, suddenly, it’s the week before Thanksgiving, and the anxiety sets in.  Part of me knows that I have no hope of sanity until mid-January, if ever.  When I’ve owned horses (I’m between equids at the moment), this sense of overwhelmed scheduling guilt has been worse.  And, I’ve seen it throughout the years with my clients.
  • Short Days – “We feed in the dark before school/work.  We come home and feed in the dark before dinner.”  I’ve heard this story numerous times from owners trying to explain (to me and to themselves) how they managed to miss the gaping laceration along their horse’s heel bulb or the obviously chronic corneal ulcer.
  • Vacations – As we get busy visiting family, friends, and Mickey Mouse this time of year, horse owners often have to rely upon alternate caregivers (barn managers, neighbors, a friend’s nephew’s girlfriend) to feed, water, and exercise our horses.  Unfortunately, these individuals often have varying levels of equine knowledge, skill, and comfort, and even the most knowledgeable don’t know our animals the way we do.
  • Overflowing To-Do lists – Shopping, cleaning, school pageants, packing, Secret Santas, baking: the list of things to accomplish in winter seems endless.  In our rush, it’s difficult to remember to call the veterinarian or farrier for routine visits, let alone find the time for such an appointment even if we manage to pick up the phone.  We tend to skimp on barn visits, riding, turn-outs, and even stall/pen cleaning around this time of year.  (Come on, you can admit it.  We’ve all been there.)
• Problem #2…Weather: “Baby, it’s cooooold outside…”  The weather is an issue from several perspectives: the horse’s physiology, the environment, people
  • The horse – While most healthy horses are pretty cold tolerant, and personally, I’ve always been a big fan of the shaggy coat in winter (though not in spring!), cold weather can cause some health issues, especially in old or ill horses.  Many horses (particularly the senior citizens) don’t much care for cold water and often seem to feel less thirsty as the thermometer drops.  A decrease in water intake can change feed intake and can also make horses subclinically dehydrated --  potentially causing colic or increasing the risk of kidney problems for horses on certain medications such as Bute.  The latter complication makes things even more challenging for the geriatric equine since cold, damp weather seems to affect arthritic horses just as it does arthritic humans (I can vouch for the latter!).
  • The environment – Frozen waterers, broken pipes, poor footing: let’s face it; a winter wonderland has its price.  Now, I live in the Central Valley of California, and winter here is far from wondrous.  Think damp, foggy, and muddy.  When I talk about mud, I mean stick-to-your-soles, suck-your-boots-off, ohmigod-is-there-a-swamp-monster-in-here mud.  Now, for reasons passing all understanding, old, lame, and colicking horses love to pick the deepest, slickest, slimiest, muddy corner of the pasture (preferably in the corner next to the fence) to lay down and become unable to get back up.  Thick, clingy mud can also contribute to nasty pastern and lower limb dermatitis (“mud-fever”), and here, where mud comes with a healthy sprinkling of rocks, hoof abscesses punctuate the holidays like cherries in fruitcake.
  • People – Picture your ideal riding day.  I’m going to guess it involves sun, blue sky, and cotton-puff clouds.  You probably didn’t picture pelting rain, potato-soup (it isn’t green!) fog, hail, or snow.  Even though covered arenas are far more common than they were in my youth, even the most dedicated horsemen and women don’t really enjoy peeling their horse out of its mud beauty masque or the “popping” feeling of toes in danger of frostbite.  Be honest – during winter storms, most grooming, stable cleaning, and exercise routines suffer.
• Problem #3…Money: Yeah.  I know.  You weren’t going to buy the kids so much crap this year.  Especially since they only played with the empty boxes and wrapping paper tubes last year.  You were going to stay close to home, but since this may be Aunt Thelma’s last Christmas, Mom may have had a point, and before you knew it, you were buying plane tickets for the whole family at post-Thanksgiving prices.  You know that your horse is due (overdue…has it really been 3 years?) for a dental, and he’s been limping a little lately, and he hasn’t been eating that new hay very well this week, but you’re hoping to put off a visit, just until after New Years (well, maybe February).  I have 3 kids myself.  And a mother.  Trust me, I get it.  Your gelding, however, has no kids, can’t remember his mother (she hasn’t even written since he was weaned and went off to be a cutter instead of a reiner), and really would like to be able to chew his food without slicing up the insides of his mouth.  He’d also like you to know that he’s limping because you skipped his last shoeing appointment and his toes are way too long.

Every problem has a solution, right?  Well, I won’t go so far as to say that I have all of the answers, but here are some strategies and options.

• Time:  No, you can’t have a time machine.  However, you can…
  • Commit to a minimum of a once daily grooming.  This doesn’t have to be a 20 minute endeavor.  A quick all-over with a body brush will at least show you if any parts are oozing, swelling, bleeding, or missing.
  • Set up lighting in your barn/paddock area so that you can see what critter you are feeding and whether the previous meal was properly eaten.
  • Consider pasture if you don’t have time to ride/lunge your horse.  Horses are range and herd animals, and a group pasture is much closer to their natural environment than a box stall anyway.
  • Carefully select and educate your horse’s caretaker before leaving on a trip.  If at all possible, choose someone who knows which end bites and which end kicks.  Put your horse’s needs in writing: diet (amount, frequency, any restrictions), medications (same), normal/abnormal behavior, previous medical history (yes, that minor colic last spring counts), phone numbers for your farrier, regular veterinarian, and emergency veterinarian (also, inform these people that you are leaving town for a while, and give them the name of your horse-sitter.)  Make sure you walk your caretaker through the routine, and have him/her spend several days with you and your horse prior to the trip so that you can make sure all parties are comfortable.
  • Schedule recurring wellness appointments for convenient times of the year.  If December is bad for you, don’t arrange to have your horse’s teeth or vaccinations due that month.  Ditto for shoeing/trimming.  We can’t control medical emergencies, but intelligent management of the routine things can lessen the chances of an inconvenient emergency.
• Weather: No, I don’t expect you to control Mother Nature.  But you can tweak her influence just a bit.
  • Winterize your barn and pastures.  Wrap pipes in insulation, and install heaters for your water troughs if freezes are likely.  DO NOT do as I heard recently and add antifreeze to your horse’s water.  That is a BAD idea.  Check fences and barn siding for weak points that may become further damaged in a storm.  Trim branches that hang over barn roofs and fences before they become waterlogged and break.
  • Make sure your horse has some shelter (even a three-sided shed will do) to keep himself and his food out of the elements.
  • Consider fencing off low and perpetually swampy corners of the pasture.  I promise you, that is the corner your horse will pick to roll in otherwise.
  • Pick out your horse’s feet daily.  Rocks embedded with mud and manure in the hoof sulci are a perfect recipe for sole bruising and abscesses.
  • That daily grooming thing again.  Wait for mud to dry, then brush it.
  • Add salt.  Horses that don’t drink well often don’t use their salt blocks either.  Leading a horse to water takes a lot of time.  I prefer to make a horse drink by adding a tablespoon or two of loose salt to his feed.  This works very well if he’s getting any pellets, grain, or supplements already.
• Money:  No bank robberies, please!
  • Plan routine services.  As we discussed earlier, schedule your horse’s routine maintenance in advance to coincide with times of the year when time and money aren’t so tight.  Do not succumb to the temptation to skip routine wellness measures in order to “save” money.  I have seen instances of skipping vaccines, dentals, and hoofcare backfire spectacularly.
  • Create a “rainy day” fund.  Set aside a small amount of money each month into an emergency fund for your horse.  You don’t want to have to bankrupt yourself by taking out a high interest credit line in the event of an equine emergency.  Maybe your horse doesn’t need that shiny new halter, and a plastic milk jug tied to a piece of baling twine can be just as intriguing a toy to him as one of those expensive apple-thingies.  Put the money you would use for “extras” toward his actual welfare instead.
  • Set a “what-if” plan and budget in advance.  Know what medical measures you are willing to take in the event of an emergency and know what you are willing and able to spend on your horse.  Emotions run high around the holidays, and even higher when disaster strikes.  Making expensive medical decisions under the influence of emotion can be hard on the finances, marriage, and family in the long run.  (So says the woman who once sprung for colic surgery on a 28 year old horse on Christmas Eve.)

Holidays are a time for reflection, fun, and family.  Happy Holidays from my family to yours (two-legged and four!)