Here, we look at what causes sweet itch, how to spot the signs that your horse might be gnat food and offer tips on how you can protect him from these miniscule, mighty-mouthed foes. Plus, we look at a study that confirmed horses can inherit a susceptibility to sweet itch.

Sweet Itch: At A Glance

Definition: Technically known as equine insect hypersensitivity (EIH), sweet itch is an allergic reaction to the saliva of biting insects, most often the Culicoides species of midges and gnats.

Signs: Intense itchiness, wheals and swelling, primarily on the neck (under the mane), face, shoulders, withers, belly and rump (over the tail). The skin may be rubbed until it is crusty, weepy, raw and hairless. Location of the lesions may depend on the specific species of gnat; most prefer to bite on the neck and along the topline, but some target the chest, belly, tail and groin.

Diagnosis: Skin scrapings and cultures may be needed to distinguish EIH from other causes of itchy dermatitis, such as mites, lice and fungal infections.

Treatment: Antihistamines or corticosteroids may help ease the itch and inflammation, providing relief to the itchy horse; antibiotics or antimicrobial shampoos can help prevent secondary infections. Pentoxifylline can be used to decrease skin reactivity, and in some cases allergy serum is worth trying.

Of Note: The condition is usually at its worst during the spring and summer when insects are most active, and it may subside during the winter. Less than 10 percent of horses in the United States develop sweet itch. Most horses won’t begin to show signs until they are 2 to 4 years old, and the condition is more common among Shires, Welsh Ponies and horses imported from Iceland, but it can occur in any breed.

Protect Your Horse

Research is underway to develop a reliable immunotherapy treatment for sweet itch. In the meantime, veterinarians may prescribe antihistamines and corticosteroids to help relieve the signs of the condition. But steroids carry a low but real risk of serious side effects, including laminitis. So, if your horse is susceptible to sweet itch, you’ll want to reduce his exposure to the insects that cause it. Here are steps you can take:

1. Stable your horse during peak biting hours. Culicoides spp. are most active at dusk and dawn, so bring your horse into a stall during those hours. For additional protection, install ultrafine screens in stall windows and set up fans to provide a continuous breeze over stabled horses. Gnats are weak flyers and even a slight breeze will keep them away. You might also consider applying a spray repellent designed for use on stall walls and other surfaces inside the barn.

2. Keep your horse covered. One way to reduce bites is to keep a fly sheet on your horse during insect season. Made of fine mesh and equipped with closures to keep out bugs, clothing designed specifically for horses with sweet itch has extensions to cover the neck, belly and tail, the areas where Culicoides spp. are most likely to bite. A fine-mesh mask may also be needed to protect the horse’s face and ears.

3. Use fly-control products. The most potent products combine repellents with pesticides. Look for ones labeled for use against gnats and midges. You’ll need to be diligent about applying the sprays and wipes as often as the manufacturers’ instructions allow.

4. Restrict your herd’s access to marshy areas. Gnats breed in marshy, shady ground with rotting vegetation. If possible, move your horse to a pasture in a drier, more exposed location away from boggy terrain. Around your barn, clear up standing water in ditches and gutters and keep them free of leaves and other debris. Place manure and compost piles as far away from the horses as is feasible.

5. Try over-the-counter products. You’ll find a number of products for horses with sweet itch, from feed supplements formulated to reduce inflammation, to topical preparations meant to soothe itchy, inflamed skin. Thick, oily or sticky ointments are messier but may keep gnats from landing on the horse’s skin. They may also help keep bugs from getting to the skin to bite. Anecdotal evidence suggests that these products offer some relief, at least in some horses. When trying a new topical product, start by applying it to a small area to make sure it will not further irritate sensitive skin. Be careful with tea tree oil, lavender and other herbals—they are soothing to some horses but can irritate the skin in others.

More Tips & Tricks

Here are a few home remedies recommended by riders to help prevent or reduce your horse’s exposure to the gnats that cause sweet itch:

• Apply Avon’s Skin So Soft bath oil to the most vulnerable areas.
• Add apple cider vinegar and/or garlic powder to your horse’s feed to make his sweat’s smell less attractive to gnats. (There are also supplements available that contain both apple cider vinegar and garlic.)
• Apply menthol products like Vick’s VapoRub to susceptible parts of your horse’s body.
• Rub a scented dryer sheet over his body.
• Apply baby oil to the roots of your horse’s mane and tail head; gnats can’t seem to get a grip on the skin to feed.

Genetic Connection for Sweet Itch?

A long-term study from the Czech Republic confirms that horses can inherit a susceptibility to the allergic skin condition known as “sweet itch,” which is technically known as insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH). The study focused on Old Grey Kladruber horses, a native warmblood breed, at the National Stud in Kladruby and 10 private breeding facilities.

The same person visually inspected the horses over a period of 13 years, from 1996 to 2009, scoring the severity of any signs of IBH at each observation. A total of 1,209 observations were entered in a database, along with information about each horse, including location, age and pedigree.

In statistics, the degree of a trait’s heritability is expressed on a 0 to 1 scale, with 0 meaning that none of the variability of the trait among individuals is the result of genetics and 1 meaning that genes are responsible for all the variability. The Czech researchers found the heritability of sweet itch susceptibility among the study horses ranged from 0.305 to 0.626, depending on the factors considered in the calculations. These numbers, the researchers say, indicate the heritability of sweet itch is “medium to high, so there is a possibility to reduce the prevalence of IBH by selection.”

Reference: “Genetic parameters of insect bite hypersensitivity in the Old Grey Kladruber horse,” Journal of Animal Science, January 2017

For More:

• For more tips on how to protect your horse from pesky and disease-carrying insects this summer and for our shopping guide on protective fly gear—including fly sheets designed specifically for sweet-itch protection—click here.
• Learn how to avoid the top-three summer equine health issues here.

One day there was a menacing blue manure bucket in the corner that Rio was sure contained a variety of monsters. Another time, two geese outside the arena got into a honking contest, and the gelding ran for the hills. Most offensive, however, was a lesson following a Halloween-themed show. The three straw bales and small scarecrows that comprised a jump were more than Rio could handle and resulted in a snorting, pawing bucking hissy fit.

To ensure there weren’t any underlying health issues going on, including his eyesight, Neth had her veterinarian out, who gave Rio a clean bill of health. Occasionally, she and her trainer tried giving him a calming paste, but didn’t see much of a difference, so after hearing about cannabidiol (CBD) products for horses, she decided to give it a try.

While the results weren’t instantaneous, Neth said within a few weeks, she did start to see a noticeable difference in her gelding. Every once in awhile, something out of the ordinary still startled him, but overall Rio seemed much happier and more chill about situations that would normally have set him off.

You’ve probably heard about the benefits of CBD for humans and dogs, but in recent years a number of companies have focused their research on CBD in horses. As a result, it’s gained popularity as an alternative or complementary treatment for a variety of equine issues, particularly those involving pain, inflammation and anxiety. Researchers, however, are still working to fully understand how CBD works in equines.

To help you determine whether a CBD-based product might be beneficial for your equine partner, we’ll explain how it affects horses’ physiology, the best modes of administration and the various types of products on the market.

Cannabis Connection: What Is CBD Exactly?

Holistic veterinarian Joyce Harman, DVM, a leading authority on equine acupuncture and alternative medicine, explains that CBD is derived from cannabis plants, a genus cultivated around the world for thousands of years. Archeological evidence suggests that cannabis plants, which originated in Asia, were used by humans as early as 2800 BCE.

There are two main species of cannabis, and many strains within those related species. Hemp-type cannabis includes varieties traditionally cultivated for their fiber (rope, twine, etc.), seeds (for food) and oils. Other types of cannabis, classified as marijuana strains, have been used for centuries for ritual, medicinal and recreational purposes.

The active ingredients in all these plants are chemicals called phytocannabinoids. The marijuana strains of cannabis plants are cultivated to produce high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive (mind-altering) phytocannabinoid. By contrast, the hemp strains, which contain cannabidiol (CBD), are not considered psychoactive. Studies in people and animals suggest that cannabidiol can relieve anxiety, reduce inflammation and provide pain relief. It’s also prescribed to treat some types of epilepsy.

“The difference between hemp and a marijuana plant is the amount of THC,” Harman said. “The plants we want for our animals are hemp plants. They have been selected and cultivated for high CBD and little to no THC.” 

After the 2018 Agriculture Improvement Act removed industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act, hemp was legally separated from its psychoactive cousin and new uses of the plant became economically feasible. Nonetheless, regulations governing CBD are constantly changing, with states taking different approaches to the sale of CBD products, so be sure to stay up to date on your state and local laws.

Benefits of CBD for Horses

Calming Effects:

One of the primary claims made about CBD centers on its calming effects. But unlike the psychoactive “high” produced by THC in marijuana, CBD is believed to soothe stress or anxiety. “Many horse owners and veterinarians have seen positive responses with CBD in animals that have been through stressful periods,” Harman said. “It helps with mental equilibrium.”

CBD interacts with the body’s endocannabinoid system, which regulates many physiological functions, including appetite, mood, pain sensation and immune response. By binding to certain receptors in the endocannabinoid system, CBD can help modulate these functions.

“CBD doesn’t make horses ‘stoned’ like THC would. The brain is still functioning normally,” Harman explained. “The horse is calm but if there is cause to be alert, the horse is still capable of being alert.”

It’s important to note, however, that these calming effects have not been proven in clinical studies, but Harman believes horses are excellent candidates for CBD trial therapies because modern equine management practices tend to put horses at risk of chronic stress. As we know, horses are designed to roam and constantly graze, but unfortunately many horse owners don’t have that option. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 6,000 acres of the country’s open land are lost every day due to the increasing demand for urban and suburban development, which translates into real-world hardships for many equestrians and horse owners.

“Equine athletes are sometimes confined in small spaces, separated from their social groups and asked to do things that don’t come naturally to them,” Harman noted. “Many horses are on edge all the time. When we get on them, they spook at everything. CBD can help them stay calm and ‘forgive and forget.’”

Inflammation and Pain:

CBD also shows promise for treating chronic pain in horses. Harman says it may be beneficial for helping with laminitis, insulin resistance, musculoskeletal pain, skin disease, chronic ulcers, uveitis and even Lyme disease.

“Cannabinoids have action in both acute and chronic pain by modulating pain signals in the central and peripheral nervous systems and acting similarly to an anti-inflammatory,” Harman wrote in her 2020 Innovative Veterinary Care Journal article. “CBD can also act as an antioxidant and support immune function.”

While CBD is rarely the only treatment a horse receives, it may offer pain relief without the potential side effects of long-term use of conventional anti-inflammatory drugs like phenylbutazone (bute). CBD’s effectiveness against chronic pain has yet to be scientifically proven and it appears to vary greatly among individual horses. But Harman advocates trying CBD, particularly when traditional treatments have failed to alleviate pain.

Types of CBD for Horses

CBD products for horses are available in pellets, powders and oils. Powders and pellets can easily be distributed in your horse’s grain rations. For powders, Harman advises selecting a product that is 100% hemp with nothing else added; while pellets often contain alfalfa or added mold inhibitors.

CBD oils are extracted from the hemp plant and then mixed with an oil base. “Any type of safe, healthy oil is fine to dilute it in—usually hemp seed oil or MCT oil from coconuts—to get an amount you can measure in a dropper for feeding,” she said.

While some people claim that rubbing the CBD-infused oil into a horse’s gums is the fastest delivery method to get cannabidiol into his system, Harman says it’s often more practical to add CBD to his feed, especially as recent studies suggest that it’s better absorbed when administered with food.

CBD Dosage for Horses

The amount of CBD needed to achieve the desired effects in horses varies, as individuals responds differently to the compound. However, it’s always important to follow the specific manufacturers’ feeding directions.

Fortunately, Harman notes that CBD has a relatively solid safety record in many species and also seems to be well tolerated by horses in preliminary studies. “One thing we know about CBD is that the parts of the brain it works on will not be adversely affected by overdose,” she said.

Still, it’s wise to be cautious about giving your horse too much CBD. Research has shown that higher doses of CBD can change liver enzyme levels in people and animals—although this may not be a problem, according to recent studies. But again, be aware that there aren’t specific studies in horses.

Harman advises to establish the smallest effective amount of CBD for your horse and stick with that. “I recommend starting at about 25 milligrams for about a week or 10 days. If you aren’t seeing improvement in the condition you’re trying to help, then double the amount (50 milligrams) for a while,” she said. “If that’s still not working, you can go higher until you find the level that works in that particular horse. But it’s always best to follow the manufacturer’s instructions as the quality or concentration can vary considerably.”

When administering CBD to combat inflammation and discomfort, Harman says a large loading (initial) dose might be helpful. “You might start at 50 milligrams for a week and increase it if necessary—on up to 200, if need be, and stay there for a few weeks or a month,” she noted. “If the horse becomes sound and is no longer in pain, you could back down until you find a comfortable level.”

If maximum doses of different CBD products don’t produce the desired results in your horse, it’s time to look for other alternatives. Regardless of the hype, Harman stresses that CBD isn’t a cure-all, and it won’t help every horse.

Potential Downsides

The potential benefits of CBD are clear. But there are also possible downsides. One of those concern comes from the fact that rules and regulations governing CBD products are often unclear and still evolving. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a CBD prescription medication for treatment of certain types of seizures, the agency has declined to issue rules for other CBD products.

“It’s not apparent how CBD products could meet safety standards for dietary supplements or food additives,” said FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock in a statement explaining the decision. “The use of CBD raises various safety concerns, especially with long-term use. Studies have shown the potential for harm to the liver, interactions with certain medications and possible harm to the male reproductive system. CBD exposure is also concerning when it comes to certain vulnerable populations such as children and those who are pregnant.”

The FDA is calling on Congress to establish a regulatory structure to ensure the safety and efficacy of CBD products.

Regulatory Gaps

Until those regulatory gaps are bridged, Harman advises sticking with CBD products offered by well-established companies that are transparent about their ingredients and production standards. “When you see inexpensive CBD products, consider that there is often a reason they are so inexpensive,” she warned.

And especially if you compete with your horse, keep in mind that most equine sports’ organizations prohibit anything that might alter or enhance performance, including CBD. That means horses may be tested for CBD along with other prohibited substances.

To stay in compliance with competition rules, Harman suggests administering CBD between events. “We don’t know yet what a safe withholding time would be for all horses,” she noted. While it’s generally recommended to withdraw a horse from CBD seven days prior to competition, it can vary by individual.

Horses who compete less often, as well as those in rehab or on a break from competition, may benefit from CBD administered during down periods. “Then, if your horse is functioning in a calmer way, you may have improved the condition of his endocannabinoid system,” Harman said.

CBD Shopping Tips

As with any supplement, it’s best to purchase CBD supplements only from well-regarded manufacturers. “Reputable companies use organically grown hemp for their CBD products, but certification of organic status has only recently been granted to the hemp industry,” Harman pointed out. “Some products are grown responsibly, using organic methods, but are not certified as organic yet because the process is expensive and can take several years for a farm to obtain.”

Certificate of Analysis

A reputable company selling CBD products will also publish a certificate of analysis (COA) for each product on its website, verifying that it has paid to have these products tested. The COA lists everything in the product: the cannabinoids, any terpenes (other beneficial plant compounds), any solvent contamination, heavy metals, other chemical residues and microbiology—as well as any molds or bacteria.

It’s also smart to consider how a product was processed. “CBD can be safely extracted using carbon dioxide (CO2) or high-quality, organic ethanol,” Harman explained. “The cheap way is to use nasty chemicals like benzene. Your local gas station or convenience store might sell CBD, but you may be getting other chemicals along with it.” The COA will tell you whether there are residues left over from processing and whether the plants were grown in soils free of heavy metals or other contaminants. It will also tell you the strength (actual amount) of CBD in  the product.

THC Content

In addition, you want to verify that the product contains little to no THC, which can occasionally be present in trace amounts. The legal amount of THC to be in a CBD product is 0.3% and that amount will have no psychoactive effect. While Harman says that THC might be helpful in horses with cancer, dogs are highly sensitive to it, and researchers don’t know enough about THC to recommend its use in otherwise healthy horses.

For More:

SmartPak Equine commissioned a study on the safe use of their CBD ingredient at Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine that was published in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, a  peer-reviewed scientific journal. You can read more about it, here. 

About Joyce Harman, DVM

Joyce Harman, DVM, has more than 30 years of experience in holistic veterinary medicine. She is the founder and owner of Harmany Equine Clinic in Flint Hill, Virginia. After receiving her veterinary degree from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 1984, Harman decided to explore alternative approaches to animal health. Over the years, she has incorporated a variety of holistic modalities into her practice, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy, CBD and chiropractic care. Her website contains educational material, and she is currently working on an online nutrition and holistic health course. Harman is the author of The Horse’s Pain-Free Back and Saddle-Fit Book and is a sought-after speaker on veterinary topics around the world.

We asked three experienced horse keepers to share their views on the pros and cons of keeping horses in stalls or out in the field. Spoiler alert—although their programs vary, they all want their horses outside as much as possible, even in weather that would keep you indoors. Here, they explain why and offer some tips on finding the right balance of barn time and field time for your horse.

Turn Him Loose

“Stabling is more a human thing than a horse thing,” says Karyn Malinowski, PhD, professor of animal sciences and founding director of the Rutgers Equine Science Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey. “Too often horses work and then spend the rest of their time in a stall. The schedule is really for the convenience of owners, trainers and riders.”

The Rutgers center’s research horses live outdoors year-round in fields and paddocks with run-in sheds. “They are outside unless they are brought in for a reason,” Malinowski says. “Being outside helps them stay happy and healthy.” That makes sense—after all, horses evolved living in groups and constantly roaming over wide areas, often traveling 10 miles or more a day to graze.

But round-the-clock turnout may not suit every situation in today’s horse world. Camie Heleski, senior lecturer with the University of Kentucky’s Equine Science and Management program, currently has her own two horses pastured 24/7. “I think their mental well-being is perhaps the best it’s ever been,” she says. “But they are a little overweight, their coats are sun-faded and they have slightly chipped hooves.” Because it’s hard to keep horses in perfect body and coat condition when they live out all the time, she acknowledges, that may not be the best option for show horses.

In the past, when Heleski showed her horses, they were in the pasture 12 hours a day and in box stalls the other 12. “During winter, they stayed in at night and in the warm months they stayed in during the day,” she says. “For night turnout, I used a fly spray designed to deal with mosquitoes as well as flies.” The split schedule also allowed the horses to get roughly half their diet on an individual basis and made it easier to administer supplements or medications.

At John and Beth Manning’s lesson and boarding barn, Biscuit Hill Farm in Shelburne, Massachusetts, horses are out all day and stalled for the night. “We don’t think living out all the time is good,” Beth says. “We empty the barn in the morning every day of the year except Christmas and New Year’s Day, and the horses come back in for dinner.” They also implement savvy fly-control measures and the horses wear fly masks in summer and waterproof turnouts in wet or cold weather.

The daily schedule provides a built-in opportunity to inspect each horse. “When horses live out all the time, it’s easy to miss health problems. When you lead a horse in, you will look at him and notice if something’s not right,” Beth says. Because the farm (true to its name) is on a hill, she says the horses build fitness as they move around their paddocks. All-day turnout also helps older horses stay limber, countering the effects of chronic arthritis, and it promotes hoof health. “Nearly all our school horses can go barefoot because they’re out so much,” she says, “and because our horses are not cooped up, we have few behavior problems.”

But What About …

Research supports the positive effects of extensive turnout. Various studies link pasture time to benefits ranging from stronger bones, better respiratory health and reduced colic risk to lower stress levels and improved trainability. Are there downsides? No question—but in most cases, they’re manageable. These are the main worries:

Risk of injury: Horses can get hurt frolicking in the pasture, but the experts we talked to say horses that are out consistently generally learn to take care of themselves. For one thing, they’re less likely to explode with pent-up energy than are horses who are stalled most of the time. Making sure that turnout areas are safely and securely fenced and free of debris, holes and other hazards will go a long way to minimizing injury risks. Barefoot horses are less likely to slip on snow-covered or frozen ground, Heleski says; otherwise, horses need winter shoes with studs or borium for grip in those conditions.

Weather: You may think it’s too cold or too wet to be outside, but your horse can deal with a much wider range of weather conditions than you can. “There’s no normal weather condition in which a horse needs to be inside,” Malinowski says. At Biscuit Hill, horses go out in rain, snow and every kind of weather except lightning and extreme conditions like a blizzard. “In the hottest weather we may shorten the time out and bring the horses in early,” Heleski says. Individual horses may need special consideration, of course. “If horses are very young, very old, unhealthy, very thin, with very little hair coat–all those factors influence their ability to handle cold weather,” she adds.

A little effort can overcome other less serious turnout concerns. Among them:

Lost shoes: A horse is much more likely to throw a shoe in the field than in his stall. But staying on top of his shoeing schedule can help keep shoes on. So can bell boots. (The problem is solved, of course, if the horse can go barefoot.)

Pesky insects: Fly masks, fly sprays and good farm management can help keep biting bugs at bay, although a horse with a bona fide insect allergy may still need to stay in during hours when the pests are most active.

Inconvenience: Your horse won’t be waiting in the barn when you show up to ride, but whether that’s a bad thing may depend on your point of view. “My horses’ pasture is about 40 acres, so it’s often a long walk to get them—good exercise for me,” Heleski says.

Beth says the benefits of turning horses out far outweigh the risks. “Yes, the horses get dirty. But I will take a dirty, happy horse over one that’s clean but cooped up every time,” she says.

Alone or With His Buddies?

Research suggests that horses benefit most from being outside when they go out in groups. That’s largely because group turnout gives horses a chance to fill their need for social contact with others of their kind, explains Heleski. “Enhanced social interaction [including the opportunity for mutual grooming] is a highly valued, highly motivated behavior for horses,” she says. “Horses out in groups are likely to exercise more than horses in individual turnout. A few studies have shown these horses to be easier to train and handle.” Stereotypic behaviors such as weaving and stall-walking are less common among these horses, too.

There are caveats. “Horses love to be out with buddies, but there’s a risk of aggression when they’re first put together,” Malinowski notes. “You have to watch when introducing new horses to a group. Use common sense and turn out in groups that are compatible in age, sex and activity levels.” Cross-fencing (dividing a large pasture into smaller sections) allows horses to graze individually or in compatible groups. It also allows horses that are sick, injured or disabled to be separated from the larger group and it eases the introduction of new horses.

While most of the Biscuit Hill horses go out in groups, Beth says she will not turn a horse with hind shoes out with others because of the risk of serious kick injuries. But like the other experts we talked to, she says that horses usually settle the pecking order quickly when they’re put together. Once that happens there are few problems, but horses that continue to harass each other should be separated.

Established group dynamics sometimes change with time, Malinowski notes. She says that Lord Nelson, the former Rutgers campus patrol horse and resident equine personality who died in 2015 at age 42, happily shared a paddock for years with a mare. “They were best buddies, but as he became weaker with age she became more aggressive,” she says. The two had to be separated.

Horses that rank low in the group may lose condition if dominant individuals push them away from food, water and shelter in the field. Providing multiple hay racks and water sources can help prevent this, but horses may need to be separated at feeding time to make sure they all get their fair share. Low rank can have other repercussions, Heleski notes. She had a mare who was submissive to most of the other horses in her group and would not lie down in the pasture apparently because of that. “If she was out 24/7 she seemed to get crabby and I always assumed it was because she had no opportunity for deep sleep,” she says. The mare had to come in to a stall to rest.

“Anecdotally, people will say that individual turnout is safer for the horses, with less chance of injury,” Heleski says, “and certainly if the group housing involves frequent changes in population, that is likely true.” Horses that live out in groups can also become herd-bound—anxious about being separated from their pals—to the point that taking just one horse on a trail ride or to a show becomes difficult, she says. Individual turnout avoids that problem.

Time Indoors

Sometimes it’s necessary to keep a horse in. Maybe he’s stabled for weeks at a show venue where there’s little or no chance for turnout or maybe he’s grounded by illness or lameness. For example, a tendon injury will likely call for a period of stall rest followed by strictly limited exercise. While a day in won’t bother most horses, weeks or months with little or no turnout are something else.

“Horses get used to being in, but there are health risks,” says Malinowski. You may worry about turnout injuries, but a barn can be a hazardous place for a horse. Dust and poor ventilation contribute to airway disease, and research shows that confinement in a stall reduces gut motility, increasing colic risk. In addition, stall life can be isolating and stressful for herd animals like horses. That stress contributes to stall-walking, weaving, repetitive pawing and other stable vices as well as a range of health problems. If your horse must stay in, take steps to minimize the risks:

• Put him in a stall where he can see, hear and, if possible, touch noses with compatible horses. “Horses need to see each other,” Malinowski says.
• Get him out and moving daily or, better, several times a day. Unless he has a health condition that prevents it, exercise is a must.
• Provide plenty of hay and stall toys (if he’ll use them) to keep him occupied. If he’s on the chubby side, you can put the hay in a slow-feeding net that makes him work a little harder to get it.
• Keep the dust down. Open barn windows for ventilation, don’t use straw for bedding (it’s dusty) and store hay in a separate building. Soaking or steaming hay before feeding will further reduce dust.

A horse that’s been stabled for much of his time may be stressed by turnout at first. “Novelty of any kind is stressful to horses,” Malinowski says. Horses laid up from the racetrack, she notes, may take a month or more to fully relax outside and drop their heads to graze for extended periods. It’s a good idea to gradually ease horses like this into turnout and to keep an eye on them at first. “In the long run, they are happier and healthier out,” she says.  

Essentials for Outdoor Living

To stay happy and healthy out in the field, your horse needs these basics:

Water. “Access to water is essential, so we have automatic waterers,” Beth says. If your property has a stream that flows year-round (and isn’t polluted) that may suffice; otherwise, you’ll need to provide and maintain stock tanks or waterers in each field and paddock.

Shelter. Horses need access to shelter—protection from rain, winter wind and summer sun—but it doesn’t have to be fancy, Malinowski says. Run-in sheds are great, but a line of trees can break the wind, provide shade and also shelter from showers. Horses sometimes use shelter less than you might think, she adds: “Our research horses will stand out in the rain even though they could go in the sheds if they chose.”

Munchies. Horses are grazers, and they need forage to chew on pretty much all the time. Forage helps their digestive systems function properly and it staves off boredom and restlessness.

Maintenance. “The more horses are out, the more it’s important to rotate pastures, monitor for parasite risks and stay on top of other management chores,” Beth says. Pastures need to be mowed, dragged and occasionally reseeded. Manure needs to be scooped from paddocks. To make up for that, you’ll have less stall cleaning.

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of Practical Horseman. 

If your horse respects your space, he’s not going to knock into you, rub on you, nip you, etc. Way too often, horse owners ascribe human emotions to these behaviors and consider them fun, playful signs of affection from their horses. 

Although there may be affection involved, a horse that does any of those behaviors actually considers himself the boss and the leader, or at least an equal, to his human. With that hierarchy in the relationship, the stage is set for physical danger to the handler and for confusing messages between horse and human.

There’s nothing wrong with me loving on my horse, so long as I do that by stepping into his space. It’s not good for the horse to come into mine. If I let him do that, I give up my role as the leader.

Once a horse starts to treat you as an equal or a follower, it’s a slippery slope. One day he nips at you, and you think he’s playing. Then he rubs you, and you think he’s still playing. Then he comes up and knocks you in the chest or head. Where does it end? One day, you’re going to get hurt, and then it’s not OK. 

Or at home you let him “play” on you, but on a show day in your clean white breeches, it’s suddenly not OK for him to rub on you and you get mad. Is the horse supposed to figure out that one day it’s perfectly fine to do and the next day it isn’t? As Confucius said, “That’s very confusing!”

Many people think they’re being “nice” to their horses by letting them invade their space. The nicest thing you can do for your horse is to be consistently black and white in your communication with him and have clear intent.

For information on how I think horses should be rewarded for good manners, see below.

What is a Reward?

Australian horseman Ian Francis was a big influence on me when I started. He emphasized that you are the boss and the horse is not. From there, I had my own experiences and learned a lot from how horses naturally act when they are with other horses on their own. 

If we want the best from our horses, we need to parallel that with our own best effort to learn to communicate effectively with them. Everything else we want them to do is unnatural, so learning what they do naturally is a big help in getting the best from them.

Training ground manners doesn’t happen overnight and there is no such thing as a perfect horse. This is true even when well-established ground manners are a lifelong work in progress. In a herd, horses are always testing the pecking order. They’ll test their leader every day to see if he or she is worthy of their respect. It’s the same with their human leaders. They will test you every day: It’s not personal.

Another thing to learn from herd behavior is that food is not a reward in the horse’s world. That’s more to make the human feel good. The release of pressure is the reward for acceptable behavior in the horse’s natural world, and it remains so in effective ground manners training. I have a problem with hand-feeding treats because they encourage nipping and can lead to situations where a horse can get mad if he doesn’t get a treat. 

Expecting treats is a bad habit that can be “managed” but not cured. Even when you establish the release of pressure as a reward, the treat is always in their minds. If you’re starting a horse from scratch, skip the treats.

Also, treats overemphasize the role of rewards in training. The ultimate goal is that your horse does something because he thinks it’s a good idea, not because he’s going to get a reward.

Claim Your Space

Ideally, ground manners training begins shortly after birth. But given that most people don’t have the luxury of starting with a newborn, we’ll focus these tips on what I see much more frequently: horses that consider themselves the leader and need to be re-educated. 

Getting the horse out of my space is the first step. When a new horse comes to me, I may spend a whole lesson on this. After that, I typically deal with it when I’m working with the horse—from when I’m catching the horse and leading him to the cross-ties or if I’m standing still somewhere. With a stallion I once worked with, for example, every time I went into his pen to catch him, I would make him take a couple of steps back away from me. It was asserting that he would submit to me and respect me. 

If I’m consistent, he’ll learn the boundaries. 

A horse will read your body language long before he will ever listen to your voice. Make coming into your space really uncomfortable for him so that he doesn’t want to be there. Standing far enough away from your horse that you can’t touch him, lean your body in toward him and cluck. Always start by asking nicely. As with riding, the lightest you ask the first time is the lightest he’ll ever respond to. Ramp it up from there as needed until he knows to back off. For instance, raise your arms up in the air, toward his eyes. That’s a huge dose of body language that says, “Get out of my space.” 

If he doesn’t back off, shake the lead rope in his direction or tap him on the chest with a whip. And I mean “rhythmically tapping” and not “hitting.” The only time I would do what I call hitting is if a horse bites or kicks me. Those are two behaviors that they simply don’t need to do and that are totally unacceptable.

When your horse moves out of your space, the reward is to stop all of that “pressure” and make sure there’s no tension on the lead rope. Getting away from the pressure and, essentially, being left alone, is what the horse understands as his greatest reward.

From there, give your horse the choice to invade your space again. You want it to be his choice, and he needs to figure out that it’s a good idea to stay out of your space. When he stands in his space, it’s fine for me to step into that and give him a hug or a rub. But don’t slap him on the neck and think you are praising him. Horses flinch when a fly lands on them, so you’re not praising them when you hit them hard enough with an open palm to make a sound. In nature, they rub on each other. 

Be very consistent in maintaining your own space as you work with your horse every day.

The Right Lead

Step Forward: The goal is for horses to follow you. You stop, they stop. You turn right, they turn right, and so on. Easy trailer loading, by the way, is usually an added benefit of training your horse to lead properly. I believe that the majority of trailer loading problems are really leading problems.

To start, stand abreast of your horse’s head, facing in the direction you want to go. Give a cluck to tell the horse something is going to happen and he should pay attention. Ideally, he will walk forward, but that’s not often the reality. 

If he doesn’t walk forward from the cluck, take hold of the lead rope about one foot below the halter and with no slack in it, and give the rope a forward bump. If that doesn’t prompt a walk, make a more forceful bump—but never a pull. Pulling never works if the horse doesn’t want to come forward. Whenever you make it a battle of strength, you’ll lose.

Control the Feet: If he doesn’t respond by moving forward, the next level of pressure uses the idea that whoever controls the horse’s feet controls the horse. This is another training tool taken from herd behavior.

Position yourself so you can move his legs, either by moving his hip over or bringing his nose toward you. Do either to the extent that it requires him to move his feet. When that happens, give another forward bump on the lead rope. 

“The Hustle:” If that doesn’t work, it’s time for what I call “the hustle.” You can think of it as mini-longeing. Rhythmically flick or twirl the whip or the other end of the lead rope at his hindquarters and get him to move around you with his neck bent toward you. You need to be in a position to make something happen and keep at it until he submits to you. Pretty soon, he’ll tire of having to move his hips or pull his head around. At that point, he’ll finally give up and decide he might as well walk.

Walk With You: Once you’ve got him walking forward, the next step is getting him to walk with you, not dragging behind you or trying to run out in front. 

If he’s going too slow, I’ll flick the whip behind me, at his hindquarters. If that doesn’t do it, I’ll hustle him again with the mini-longeing in both directions. A horse may prefer to give minimal effort, so when you make the hustling more work than walking beside you, he’ll eventually do the latter. 

Not Too Fast

If the horse is walking too fast and out ahead of you, the hustle doesn’t work because the horse already has too much energy. Here, as you face forward, you want to stop and make him back up and change direction. Changing his focus that way takes the forward out of him.

• Ask Him to Stop: I train my horses to stop by stopping myself and, if needed, stamping my foot. To get to that point, first stop your own feet and say “Woo.” (Or, whatever vocal cue you decide on. More on voice commands later.) If they don’t stop, then bump the lead rope backward. You may need to bump it more than once until you get what you want. 
• Ask Him to Back: To get the backward steps, start by clucking as you step backward yourself. If that doesn’t do it, tap him on the chest with your hand or the end of the lead rope, add a more aggressive vocal cue and bump the halter more aggressively. 
  
  A choice for enforcing the back-up cue is to face the horse head on and walk into him while clucking. That’s body language that conveys I’m mad at him and he better get out of my way. 

An alternative to getting the halt and back-up is to walk into his head and neck, moving him into a turn on the haunches. That breaks his desire to drive forward. I describe it as walking through the horse rather than walking around him. It’s another opportunity to move your horse’s feet. Here you can cluck first and put your hand up to say, “I’m the boss, and I’m telling you to move your front end and head.” Remember, whoever moves his or her feet first loses, or, in this case, is the follower, not the leader.

Turning

These same principles apply to turning your horse. 

Turning right: Assuming that you are leading your horse from his left side and turning him to the right, you’ll need to “walk through” his neck again. 

First, raise your arms up toward his eye. Next bump the lead rope back once to stop the forward motion and/or add a vocal cue as needed to remind him to move out of your space as you move toward him. Additionally, you might need to add a second lead-rope bump, this time in the direction you want to go, but do not turn this into a pulling match.

Turning left: Make your turn. If he resists following you, return to the progression used to get him moving forward from the standstill. First the cluck. Second, the forward lead-rope bump. Finally, if needed, the hustle to get his back feet moving. 

Once you’ve gotten your horse to do what you ask, it’s important to assume the best the next time you ask. Assume that there will be no problem, ask with your lightest cues and give the horse a chance to make a mistake. If that happens, then you have another chance to correct it. That is the path to making the horse think that what you want is his idea and it’s a good one! 

Voice Commands and Body Language

I mentioned earlier that horses will respond to your body language before they respond to your voice, but voice cues are an important training tool if used correctly. 

If you’re just yelling at the horse, you are probably also jumping up and down in your body language. That just adds anxiety to the situation. You should use your voice only when you can back it up with action if needed. If your horse is pawing in the cross-ties 20 feet away from you and you yell at him to stop, he might stop long enough to look at you. But he will just resume pawing again, so there was no sense in telling him to stop pawing in the first place. That’s teaching him to ignore you because you cannot physically back up your command.

If you regularly use a voice aid when you can back it up with a physical correction, then you can create a conditioned response that will eventually work from a distance. Just as with your other aids, a voice cue needs to be assertive. You have to mean it, not be hoping or praying. 

When I use “woo,” it’s a serious word. The horse needs to think that if he takes one more step, he’s going to fall off the end of the earth. I create that with my tone of voice and the body language that tone naturally creates. If my voice is going up an octave when I say “woo,” that’s a suggestion. If my tone of my voice goes down, that’s a command. When your tone goes down, your body language assumes a crouch position, which is an assertive position. 

The same concept applies from the saddle. Too many clucks can just become noise. One or two quick clucks are more assertive than many repeated clucks because that creates more assertive body language. Conversely, a light kiss is my cue for the horse to lightly step into the canter. If I cluck my horse into the canter, he’ll run into it rather than step into it really lightly.

Common Mistakes

Common mistakes in these basic ground manners exercises include conflicting cues, giving up ground to the horse by stepping backward and being tentative in making demands of the horse.

People tend to hit their horse to move forward and pull on the lead rope at the same time, which is contradictory. (Funny how this happens from the saddle, too!) Be careful to allow horses to do what you ask of them. 

Nine of 10 people step backward when trying to establish their own space, instead of moving the horse away from them to create it. When you are communicating with your horse, you either mean it or you don’t. It actually doesn’t take much to get a positive response if you mean it. Once horses believe that you are worthy of their respect, they become very comfortable and they are more than happy to listen to you.

Don’t give up too soon. Sometimes the process is easy and sometimes it can be a bit ugly. The effort and persistence are definitely worth it in the form of a submissive, responsive, relaxed horse that is safer to work.  

About Craig Stanley

Bred by Craig Stanley and his wife Brenda Linman, DVM, Habanero CWS is by Idocus STB Crown and out of Stanley’s mare, Caliente DG Elite. Habanero won the 2016 Markel/USEF 4-Year-Old National Championship, was third in the 5-Year-Old National Championship and won the 6-Year-Old Championship. Stanley, a member of the U.S. Dressage Federation’s Sport Horse Development Program committee, is working Habanero toward Intermediaire II. 

Thanks to DG Bar Ranch in Hanford, California, where these photos were taken.

By nature, equestrians ride on the basis of human assumptions, imagining—if we ponder it at all—that the horse visualizes depth and color the same way we do. We also assume that other equine senses are subordinate to vision, as ours are. Because of misinformation concerning night vision and our own inexperience with it, we presume that horses see details in the dark with superhero sensitivity. The reality is quite different. Doubling down on these discrepancies between human and equine sight explains many common problems within the horse-and-human team. Here we take a look at the horse’s depth perception.

This article was adapted from “Horse Brain, Human Brain” by Janet L. Jones, PhD  and is available at HorseandRiderBooks.com.

Eyes admit physical views, but it takes a brain to compute visual distance. When staring straight ahead, humans take in two views of a given sight—one from each eye. To see this for yourself, hold your finger in front of your nose at arm’s length. Close one eye and line your finger up with something vertical in the distance—a door frame or a fence post, whatever. Now open that eye and close the other. Your finger will appear to jump back and forth as you alternate eyes. Those are the two views that your right and left eyes send to your brain. The brain calculates the difference between them, and as if by magic, you become aware of depth. Using this automatic computation, you can look at a field of horses and note that the cute roan is farther from you than the pretty paint.

Human depth perception is extremely precise because our eyes are so close together. They are also yoked, moving in concert with each other for precise tracking. With this design, the average person can distinguish ¹⁄8 of an inch in depth from a distance of 16½ feet. In other words, if you were standing one long stride away from the takeoff to a double-rail vertical, your brain could tell you whether one of the rails was set ¹⁄8-inch behind the other one. That’s depth perception on steroids!

By contrast, the smallest amount of depth a horse can detect when standing the same distance away from something is 9 inches. Human stereoacuity is 72 times sharper than that.

Horses’ ability to see depth is limited because their eyes are set so far apart. From most angles, horses cannot get a left-eye and right-eye view of the same object in one glance. We hominids can see an outstretched finger with both eyes simultaneously. But even in a rearing position, Twinkletoes would have to be a contortionist to get his hoof in front of both eyes at the same time. As prey animals, horses are built for peripheral motion detection at the expense of depth perception. As predators, we’re built in reverse.

For horses in disciplines like dressage, reining or pleasure, depth perception is not so critical. But consider cutting, barrel racing or jumping. A horse needs to know how far away relevant objects are and how fast those distances are changing as he moves. A horse can improve depth perception by raising his head, dropping his withers, or lifting his nose, but this often complicates his task. In cutting, for instance, horses need to keep their eyes down on the cow and their heads low to make quick turns. In jumping, they need impulsion from their hindquarters to power off the ground and abdominal tuck to lift their legs. The physics of such movements require horses to maintain a round back for core strength, which often precludes the position of a high head.

The distinction between hunters and jumpers is also important here. Top jumpers are judged by the clearance and speed of their rounds over high, wide fences—fences that are often approached off sharp turns from short distances. Such horses are often selected as jumpers because their necks are set high on the withers, with head position proportionately higher. Those without that conformation are encouraged to approach jumps with their heads raised. If you watch a jumper approaching a fence, you’ll see his head lift in the last stride or two. This natural form provides both eyes with a brief view of the jump, so that the equine brain can determine its height and width. But the view is indeed brief—fractions of a second—and it’s late.

Occasionally, we hear that jumpers are aided in depth perception by wagging their heads back and forth on approach, to allow each eye a view of the jump. This suggestion does not hold up in terms of brain science. To compute distance, the brain requires a simultaneous view of the object with both eyes. Wiggling the head back and forth only interferes with centering the horse. It probably also prevents him from concentrating on other cues from the rider that are much more important.

Depth perception is easier for hunters. These horses are judged on the quiet beauty of their jumping form and are taught to maintain a long frame with hindquarters engaged, necks arched long, heads low and faces nearer the vertical to form a strong topline. This position can be preserved over fences because hunters are given a long approach with which to see relatively low jumps without raising their heads. Good hunter riders encourage horses to look at a fence while rounding a distant corner. This supplies the horse with a better side view, a longer front view, and more time for the two eyes to send images of the jump to the brain. It’s still a good idea, of course, to allow any jumping horse some freedom in moving his head to improve his view.

In terms of width, only about half the area visible to two human eyes at the same time is visible to a horse’s two eyes at the same time (see image above). Stand about 30 feet back from an arena fence. Roughly 5 feet of that fence is clear and sharp to both of your eyes as you hold them still. From the same position, only half of that—about 2½ feet—is clear to both the horse’s eyes. And it is only that small portion visible to both eyes for which a brain can calculate depth by stereoacuity.

When you’re aiming a horse toward a fence, center him on the narrow middle portion that he can see with both eyes. Many early jumping errors occur when a rider does not steer the horse to the center of a jump. These problems are frequently blamed on the horse—he ran out, he refused, he chipped, he jumped in bad form. Well, that’s not because he’s a bad horse; it’s because the rider didn’t let him see the fence!

This article was adapted from “Horse Brain, Human Brain” by Janet L. Jones, PhD and is available at HorseandRiderBooks.com.

Your horse schools perfectly at home but turns anxious and spooky at the showgrounds. Or maybe you’re that horse and rider on the trail—jigging, bolting, and spinning while everyone else is enjoying a leisurely ride. As prey animals, horses are hardwired to react first and think later, but sometimes, that evolutionary mechanism can get in the way of your safety and enjoyment.

Though veterinarian-prescribed sedatives can be necessary when a horse’s anxiety becomes dangerous, it’s usually not necessary to resort to drugs. If medical, training, and management issues have been ruled out as the source of your horse’s anxiety, calming supplements could make a noticeable difference in his or her attitude and focus.

Could my horse benefit from calming supplements?

There are multiple circumstances in which calming supplements could be appropriate for your horse. Horses have different personalities, and even with ideal management and training, some horses are simply more inclined to be excitable and nervous. Other horses are only situationally reactive, becoming overly excited during a vet or farrier visit, in a new environment, or while traveling.

Calming supplements could be helpful in “taking the edge off” if your horse tends to get stressed during:

• Trailering
• Schooling
• Showing
• Trail riding
• Being exposed to new environments/objects
• Separation
• Stall rest
• Hand-walking after stall confinement
• Health care procedures
• Farrier visits
• Estrus

How do calming supplements work?

Calming supplements use specialized formulas of nutrients and/or herbs that help encourage focus and relaxation in your horse.

Nutrient-based supplements

Nutrient-based supplements, like Total Calm & Focus Paste and Perfect Prep EQ Training Day, deliver amino acids, vitamins, and minerals that support healthy nervous system function and cortisol levels. Ingredients to look for in nutrient-based supplements include magnesium; vitamin B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B6 (pyridoxine), and B12 (cobalamin); inositol; tryptophan; and folic acid.

Deficiency in these core nutrients can manifest as nervousness and excess anxiety, so a calming supplement that brings your horse’s nutrient levels back to an ideal range can help balance their moods.

Herbal supplements

Herbal supplements utilize botanicals that are known for their calming properties. Ingredients to look for in herbal calming supplements include valerian, chamomile, vervain, passionflower, hops, and St. Johns Wort. Some herbal supplements are formulated specifically for mares. The herbs in these supplements support hormone balance. Ingredients to look for include raspberry, cramp bark, and vitex agnus castus (chaste berry).

Are calming supplements legal?

If you compete in rated shows, you’ll want to use nutrient-based supplements instead of herbal supplements because many herbs are banned by competitive organizations. Nutrient-based supplements, however, do not generally contain prohibited substances. If you have any questions about the legality of the ingredients in a calming supplement, reach out to the association you are showing with.

If you are actively managing behavioral issues with your horse, we encourage you to work with a veterinarian and trusted trainer. This information is not intended to diagnose or treat health problems; it is purely informational.

Q. My horse is turned out with seven other horses. Sometimes when I go to bring him in, the other horses are all gathered around the gate. It makes me nervous to walk him past them and try to get him out of the field without letting other horses out by mistake or, even worse, getting kicked or knocked over. Do you have any suggestions for doing this safely?

CAMIE HELESKI, PhD

A. This is one of the most dangerous situations horse people face, because horse-to-horse interactions can be so unpredictable. Horses rarely hurt humans intentionally, but they don’t understand how much smaller and more vulnerable we are than them. So when they interact with one another, we can easily get caught in the crossfire—with potentially serious consequences. In this gate scenario, not only are you at risk of getting kicked or trampled, but you could also suffer from rope burns or an arm injury if your horse suddenly pulls away from you to avoid another horse lunging at him.

Several factors make the gate area particularly dangerous. Horses see humans as a resource, so when we enter a pasture they tend to gather around to see if we have grain or treats—or just to beg for a scratch on the neck. Grain is an especially big motivator. If someone feeds horses grain in the pasture one day, they’ll expect it the next day, too. How interested they are in you also depends on the pasture size and quality. If they’re in a relatively small paddock with very little grass and less to do, they’ll probably pay more attention to you than they would in a large field with lush grass.

Another major factor is herd dynamics. Horses compete with one another for resources with varying degrees of aggressiveness. If your horse tends to be submissive toward others—if, for example, they frequently push him away from hay, grain, shelter, etc.—he’s going to be far more nervous walking past them with you. No matter how well-mannered he is on the lead line, he’ll be less worried about you than about being bitten or kicked by the other horses. On the other hand, if your horse is one of the more dominant ones in the crowd, he’ll be much calmer in these circumstances, knowing that the others will likely leave him alone.

Either way, there are several things you can do to minimize the danger. First, make it an absolute rule to not feed other horses in the pasture, so they never associate you with food. If your horse is hard to catch, it’s OK to feed him treats—just try to do it in a subtle way that doesn’t attract the other horses’ attention.

Second, if at all possible, ask an experienced horse person to help you through the process for a while, until you grow more confident. Have her shoo the other horses away and stand guard in front of them while you take the time to negotiate the gate carefully with your horse. Never rush him through the gate. Doing so can make him even more nervous and difficult to manage, especially if you accidentally bop him on the rump with the gate once or twice.

If you don’t have the luxury of a helper, use a shooing gesture with your free arm to disperse the herd as you approach the gate. Avoid raising your voice, as this could upset your own horse. Carry a crop or dressage whip and be prepared to tap any harassers on the chest if they crowd you. (Normally I don’t advocate punishing horses with whips, but your safety is paramount in these moments and a well-timed tap can be highly effective.)

Keep a close eye on all of the horses around you. More often than not, dominant horses will threaten submissive horses with bites rather than kicks. To stay on the safe side, though, if any horse turns his tail toward you, immediately back your horse away and approach the gate from a different direction.

If there is one particularly difficult horse in the herd, another solution is to remove that horse from the pasture first and put him in an empty paddock or stall temporarily while you retrieve your horse. Although time-consuming, this can alleviate much of the danger and stress at the gate.

If leading your horse out of the pasture continues to be challenging, consider asking the barn owner if she might be open to adding a second gate elsewhere along the fence line, away from where the horses tend to congregate. Another solution is to build a “catch pen”—a small pen attached to the entrance of the pasture, which can safely contain any horses who sneak through the gate. This makes the process safer and less nerve-wracking for everyone involved.

Equine program instructor Dr. Camie Heleski taught at Michigan State University for 25 years before accepting her current role as a senior lecturer at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Her research focuses primarily on equine welfare and behavior. She is also the president of the International Society for Equitation Science, which encourages “ethical equitation” by promoting scientific research designed to study the most humane ways to train and care for horses. (For more information on this organization and to read its position statements on various issues, go to equitationscience.com.) A lifelong rider, Camie has shown Arabians, hunt seat, Western and saddle seat and now enjoys practicing lower-level dressage.

Life is all memory, except for the one present moment,” the playwright Tennessee Williams wrote. It’s true. Even when we’re not thinking about the past, we’re mining memory for information and guidance that will help us navigate life.

What about your horse? What role does his memory play, and how does it affect your interactions with him? The Magic 8 Ball would have to say, “Reply hazy.” Memory just hasn’t been studied in horses as much as in people or other animals. But some research has been done and new information is emerging.

Equine behavior experts Sue McDonnell, PhD, founding head of the equine behavior program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center, and Leanne Proops, PhD, a comparative psychologist and ethologist at the University of Portsmouth in England, shared their insights. Evolution shaped the way horses form, retain and use memories, they say, so equine memory differs from human memory in key ways. Understanding how it works can help you train and care for your horse.

Making Memories

Some basic ideas about memory seem to apply across species, the experts agree. One thought is that memories come in two basic types:

• Implicit memories guide actions and responses behind the scenes, in ways you’re unaware of. If you’ve been riding long enough, for example, you don’t consciously remember how to get on a horse—you just do it.
• Explicit memories are those you consciously recall. If you trip on a certain path, say, you remember and watch the footing more closely the next time you go that way.

When most people talk about memory, they’re referring to the explicit type. Horses build these memories the same way you do—by forging connections between brain cells called neurons.

The brain has billions of neurons, constantly signaling to each other. Hold out a carrot to your horse, and you trigger neurons dedicated to sight and smell. They fire, releasing chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) across junctions (synapses) between cells. The neurotransmitters attach to receptors on the next neuron, prompting it to fire and pass the message on. In a flash, the brain shoots back a call to action: Get the carrot.

The first time a horse sees a carrot, he may hesitate before taking it. Next time he’ll take it faster. That’s because, as a basic principle of neurology states, “neurons that fire together wire together.” The chemical messages form links between neurons, and repeated firing strengthens the links. These links are the basis of memories.

How he’s different: You remember not only your experiences but also knowledge you glean secondhand, from media, school, friends, family and other sources. So far as we know, horses don’t swap stories around the water trough or pass on ancient horse lore late at night in the barn. Their memories are based on experience alone.

But horses may outshine people in associative memory, the ability to forge and retain links between apparently unrelated things. Associative memories form when groups of brain cells that are active at the same time sync up, so that activity in one group facilitates activity in the other.

“Horses are good at forming these memories because they evolved as open plains-grazing animals. Linking experiences to circumstances—physical surroundings, sounds, scents, everything—helped them survive,” says Dr. McDonnell. A horse would remember where a lion attack occurred and steer clear of the place. Today, she says, horses still have “almost photographic memory of the circumstances surrounding negative experiences. They remember what veterinarians wear and what they smell like, and they remember the sounds of the farrier’s truck.

“Horses on the plains also developed complex positive memories, for example, of places where water and food were found,” she adds. “The horses that could form these associations were the ones that survived.”

Research in other species suggests that body chemistry helps etch some experiences in memory. Stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine, released during painful and stressful events, may strengthen neural connections. Brain chemicals associated with pleasure may help strengthen positive memories.

Good to know: “People often fail to understand how quickly horses form these memories and how strong they are,” Dr. McDonnell says. “Horses display what psychologists call single-trial aversion learning, which means that one bad experience on a trailer may leave a horse permanently unwilling to load.” Case in point: Temple Grandin, PhD, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and author of Animals in Translation (Scribner, 2005) and other books, describes a horse that had once been abused by someone wearing a black cowboy hat and remained terrified of black cowboy hats ever after.

It’s easier to prevent negative associations than to erase them, Dr. McDonnell says. You can do this through acclimation, gradually introducing anything potentially scary so the horse can get used to it.

“We’ve found that the process is easiest when the horse feels in control of the situation,” she says. “When you introduce clippers, for example, start with the clippers off and let him explore them. When he touches them with his nose, reward him with a treat. He’ll quickly learn to reach out and touch the clippers for his reward. Then repeat the exercise with the clippers on. When he touches them, turn them off and give a treat.” The horse comes to associate clippers with treats rather than learning to fear them.

Keeping Memories

Horses seem to share our ability to form long-term memories that persist for hours, days, weeks or years, says Dr. Proops. She points to several studies done in the early 2000s by Evelyn Hanggi, PhD, co-director at the Equine Research Foundation in Aptos, California. “In one, horses learned to associate specific symbols and objects with a reward. They were presented with these prompts six years later and still remembered them.”

No one knows if there’s a limit to how long horses retain memories. Cognitive scientists say the longevity of human memories hangs on how strongly they’re encoded, and that depends on several factors:

• Repetition. Links between neurons strengthen when they’re used and weaken when they’re not, so repeatedly activating neural networks involved in a particular memory makes that memory stronger.
• Importance. You’re more likely to remember something if it’s important to you, and the same is true for your horse.
• Perception. How acutely the brain initially perceives the subject of a memory affects how strongly the memory is encoded.

How he’s different: Your horse doesn’t share your priorities. For him, the most important (and memorable) things are related to survival—getting food and avoiding predators. And while you may both be in the same place at the same time, he probably perceives the surroundings differently. He notes and remembers every granular detail, Dr. Proops says, because even a subtle change in the environment may represent a danger to prey animals like horses.

Good to know: Understanding how long-term memories are strengthened can help you in training. Repetition is an essential training tool, for example. A good trainer may get a young horse to pick up the correct canter lead in one session, but she won’t expect the horse to take his leads reliably without many repetitions over many, many days. Once the horse learns, though, he’ll remember after months or years without being drilled.

Positive or negative reinforcements can make the behavior more important to the horse. Dr. McDonnell says, “In most cases the trainer prompts the desired behavior by guiding the horse with pressure (a negative) and rewards the behavior by releasing pressure. But if the behavior is evoked with something positive, the horse learns faster and remembers better. There’s no question that positive training methods are more efficient.” That’s the theory behind reward-based systems like clicker training. The horse learns to associate a click with a food reward, so the trainer can instantly reward behavior using a quick click as a stand-in for the food.

Survival-driven hyperawareness helps explain why a horse may spook at something you don’t even notice, like a trash can moved to a new spot outside the barn. He’s not being willful—he knows it wasn’t there before, so to him it’s a potential threat.

But why, after the horse gets over his shock at seeing the can on his right as he exits the barn, does he spook again when he passes it on his left as he returns? “Having a ‘split brain,’ an explanation I’ve heard for this behavior, isn’t correct—information does cross over from one side of the horse’s brain to the other,” Dr. Proops says. “The response is probably simply because the potential threat is seen in a different context.”

Contexts and Concepts

Humans stand apart in their advanced ability to generalize—to form broad concepts from specific facts by identifying common properties and to apply those concepts in new contexts. But there’s plenty of evidence that horses can do this, too, if to a lesser degree.

In one study, Dr. Hanggi taught horses to discriminate between paired pictures of shapes (circles, triangles and others) with either open or solid black centers. The horses got a food reward for picking the open-center shape in each pair. When they were consistently passing the test, they were presented with paired pictures of new shapes, also with solid or open centers. They immediately picked the open-center pictures.

In other studies horses showed that they understood the concept of relative size, learning to choose the largest or smallest image or object in a group. Dr. McDonnell’s team has done some similar work, so far unpublished.

“Eye position makes it difficult for horses to analyze a two-dimensional object directly ahead, so for our work we used 3-D objects,” she says. “And because horses are excellent at determining the firmness of the ground, we tested the concept of relative density of objects.”

The team placed blocks of different densities on the ground and rewarded horses for selecting the one with the “right” firmness. For half of the horses the correct choice was the softer of the two blocks, and for others it was the firmer. “Once they were choosing their correct response of those two blocks, we presented blocks of a wide variation of densities in pairs. Their task was to touch each and then select either the softer or the firmer of that pair,” Dr. McDonnell says. “In a series of 20 presentations, all the horses achieved accuracy above what would be expected by chance, most choosing correctly on every presentation.”

The results of these studies show that horses can form, remember and apply concepts, including relative concepts like size and density. Horses also show what cognitive scientists call object permanence, the ability to recognize a three-dimensional object when they see it in a different position.

How he’s different: Anatomy helps explain your ability to outperform your horse in concept formation. Positron emission tomography scans, which track brain activity, show that a structure called the hippocampus is critical to memory and highly active when people form concepts. It passes information to the prefrontal cortex, an area that’s sometimes called the brain’s chief executive for its role in decision-making and other high-level operations.

Your horse also has these structures. It’s likely that they’re similarly involved in memory and concept formation, although no one has done a PET scan to prove it. But your prefrontal cortex is larger and far more developed than your horse’s, enabling you to carry out complex mental tasks. This difference gives you an edge in applying concepts to make sense of the world.

For horses, Dr. Proops says, “How easily a learned behavior is generalized will partly depend on the nature of the behavior.” Behaviors with positive associations, such as touching an object to get a food reward, may be more easily generalized than behaviors learned in the context of fear, such as staying relaxed in the face of a flapping flag. “It doesn’t make adaptive sense to generalize widely regarded potential threats—you may overlook a real threat and get eaten!” she says. So, a horse may learn to ignore a flag he sees routinely at home but still react to a flag in another context.

Good to know: “To overcome a particular fear, the horse must first become relaxed in one context,” Dr. Proops says. “Then you can slightly change the context until the horse is relaxed there, and then change the context again.” As the horse gets more used to killer flags or whatever triggers his fear, the new contexts can become more varied. But, she says, “At the outset, they should be quite similar to the context the horse has already learned is safe. The closer the new context is to the learned context, the easier generalization will be.”

Behaviorists call this approach systematic desensitization. Another useful approach is counterconditioning, teaching a new behavior to replace an unwanted one. “If a horse feels threatened and throws his head up when you handle his ears, for example, use rewards to teach him to target the ground instead,” Dr. McDonnell suggests. That way you link ear handling to a positive association in place of a negative one.

The burned-in nature of fear-based memories means that unwanted behaviors can resurface long after you think they’re gone for good. But you stand the best chance of success with patience and a positive approach. “It helps to take as many negatives as you can out of the experience,” Dr. McDonnell notes. “We don’t always realize what the horse perceives as negative. Restraint or confinement, for example, can contribute to panic.”

Class Reunion, Horse Style

When former stablemates are reunited after a long time apart, they may nicker greetings or, just as likely, seem completely indifferent to each other. Do they recognize each other?

“That’s hard to establish scientifically. How do you determine recognition? But I have no doubt that they do,” Sue McDonnell, PhD, says. “The ponies we study clearly know their families within the herd. If a pony escapes, it will run straight back to its family when it is returned, even when the herd has moved to a different field.”

Like wild horses, these ponies live together for years and form long-lasting relationships. Most sport horses lead a different life—shipped to different barns and competitions, stalled and perhaps turned out alone, with a rotating cast of stablemates. Their “bands” are constantly changing. How well these horses recall a long-lost buddy may depend on how much time the two horses spent together. And how they react when reunited may depend on the relationship they had previously—something Dr. McDonnell says isn’t always easy for people to judge.

“Horses stabled or turned out together can become closely bonded and even call for each other when separated. That doesn’t always mean they are especially fond of each other,” she says. “Separated and put with other companions, they quickly form new bonds. When the original buddies are reunited in a new group, they may prefer other pals to each other.”

Will He Remember You?

You remember every horse that’s been part of your life. But would those horses still remember you?

“I am convinced that horses are every bit as smart as dogs, which do recognize people from the past,” Sue McDonnell, PhD, says. “Horses also make associations, good and bad, with people and they can read honest expressions of emotions.”

Leanne Proops, PhD, has done research that backs up that belief. In her study, horses were shown photos of an unknown person wearing an expression of either anger or happiness. Hours later, they met the model in person, now wearing a neutral expression. Their reactions (as indicated by behavior and heart rate) depended on the expression the model had shown in the photo: They were warier if they’d seen the angry photo and more relaxed if they’d seen the happy one. Models didn’t know which expression the horses had seen, so they couldn’t unintentionally influence the reaction.

“Our research shows that horses can remember previously unknown individuals for at least several hours based on a short presentation of their photographs,” Dr. Proops says, adding, “I don’t know of any research that has looked at the maximal amount of time horses remember their previous owners. I would expect this to be a very long time, however, given what we know about their long-term memory and anecdotal reports.”

This article was originally published in the November 2018 issue of Practical Horseman. 

KATHERINE HOUPT, VMD, PhD, DACVB, weighs in on the subject: 

You’re right, cribbing collars are usually uncomfortable for horses, particularly ones that use a headstall. To decide if you should use one on your horse, evaluate the risk associated with cribbing and weigh it against his comfort. Fifteen years ago I might have said, “Let him crib,” but now we know cribbing is a risk factor for colic, particularly epiploic foramen entrapment, a type of colic that requires surgery and has low recovery rates.

When a horse cribs, he sucks, or aspirates, air into his esophagus. If he does not eat anything for a few minutes after that, the air will diffuse out of his mouth. But if he eats, the food will push the air down his esophagus and into his stomach. Over the course of a day, he might repeat this many, many times, trapping quarts of air in his intestines. This can make the intestines move—and almost float—in the abdomen. As a result, sections of the intestines can get trapped, especially in the epiploic foramen, a narrow passage between two parts of the abdomen.

Most of the time, cribbing cannot be fully stopped, but changing your management practices can reduce its frequency. I have been able to fully stop cribbing only in horses who have just begun the habit. A change in diet can be beneficial, especially eliminating sweet feed. Its sugary taste releases opiates in the brain, which cause the horse to crib. Plain oats have a far lower sugar content and, as a result, are the grain least likely to stimulate cribbing, especially when given with plenty of hay. Plain oats and hay are a healthy diet for a horse who is not exercising routinely. If your horse requires more calories, supplement his hay with a low-sugar/low-starch grain or corn oil.

Housing your horse outside can also help to prevent cribbing if he has just begun the habit, or it can reduce cribbing frequency if he has an established habit. Overall, the more time spent outside eating grass or hay seems to decrease time spent cribbing.

Anti-cribbing collars or straps work by preventing the horse from flexing his neck. He can still latch onto a horizontal surface, but if he can’t flex his neck, he can’t suck air into his esophagus. Adjusted snugly around the horse’s neck and poll, just behind his jaw, these collars are either wide enough to stop the horse from flexing or use a jointed metal piece that closes on the throatlatch with a nutcracker-like action—or a sharp piece of leather that pokes him—when he tries to flex his neck. Although cribbing collars are generally very effective and don’t cause stress (which we know because horses’ blood cortisol levels do not rise when they are wearing cribbing collars), they must be tight to be effective and thus can cause abrasions on the skin beneath them. So if you use one, check that area frequently for signs of irritation.

A cribbing muzzle is another option. Cribbing muzzles appear similar to grazing muzzles, but most use metal bars across the bottom to allow the horse full access to eating and drinking while stopping him from biting onto a horizontal surface to crib. These muzzles don’t seem to cause any discomfort, but they appear to be more frustrating to horses wearing them than cribbing collars.

Awful-tasting sprays applied to where the horse cribs rarely help. When horses crib, they are not actually tasting the horizontal surface they’re biting, just resting their incisors on it. Therefore, application of some noxious substance is typically ineffective. However, it will reduce wood chewing.

The million-dollar question is: Why would a horse start cribbing in the first place? There is a hereditary component to it, but the gene that causes it has not been identified. A change of diet, especially from pasture to grain, seems to be the most common stimulus. So your best strategy for reducing your horse’s cribbing rate is to give him a lower-sugar grain (and/or less grain altogether, if possible), less stall time and more pasture time. If he has had gas colic already, he definitely should wear a cribbing collar.—Veronica Green-Gott

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Katherine Houpt went on to receive her doctorate in behavioral psychology from UPenn as well and to become board-certified in veterinary behavior. She currently works as an equine behaviorist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She has a clinical interest in domestic animal welfare and in the physiological basis of equine ingestive and maternal behavior. Dr. Houpt is especially passionate about improving the welfare of horses being used for sport and recreation and has written many publications on the topic.

This article was originally published in the October 2018 issue of Practical Horseman. 

“Stress is always about management and consistency. Compare what a horse would be doing in the wild. It would be in a herd, walking and grazing, and it would be slim pickings—no buckets of concentrated horse feed,” says Ted Wright, DVM, of Cedar Ridge Animal Hospital & Equine Services. “Everything we do with them is a little unnatural. The closest we can get to natural has the potential to decrease the stress we’ve imposed on them.”

Stress is not simply a feeling or a response to the environment. There is a process happening inside the body that can lead to chronic problems if left unchecked. When a horse is stressed, the body releases the hormone cortisol. Often referred to as “the stress hormone,” cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands and found in saliva and blood. Cortisol receptors are located in most cells and function to receive cortisol and use it in various positive ways, such as regulating metabolism, maintaining electrolyte balance and reducing inflammation. Cortisol is important for the healthy function of many of the body’s metabolic and immunologic processes, but an unbalanced level of cortisol can lead to serious health issues.

“[Too much] cortisol weakens the body’s natural defenses. It suppresses the immune system, so stressed horses are more prone to catch something from a neighboring horse or succumb to commensal [bacterial] diseases like rain rot and thrush,” Dr. Wright says. “You can’t always see outward signs, but internally this is what’s happening. That’s why some stressed horses fail to thrive. Any way we can restore comfort in them at a more consistent environment or schedule will reduce stress and make them more healthy.”

Signs of Stress

Horses will show signs of stress in various ways. Short-term (acute) effects of stress that go untreated may lead to more serious long-term (chronic) problems. Here are just a few of the many signs of stress. Every animal will display stress differently. Know what is normal for your horse so you can identify sudden changes in personality, behavior and habits.

Acute Signs of Stress: 

• Trembling
• Vocalizing
• Increased Heart Rate
• High Respiration
• Tense Muscles
• Sweating
• Shying
• Running
• Flared Nostrils
• High Head/Neck Carriage
• Worried Expression
• Tightly Pricked Ears
• Tail-Swishing
• Pacing
• Refusing Food

Chronic Signs of Stress: 

• Stall-Walking or Weaving
• Change in Attitude
• Depression
• Aggression
• Gastric Ulcers
• Teeth-Grinding
• Skin Infections
• Colic
• Dull Coat
• Bolting Food
• Anorexia
• Immune System Deficiencies
• Decreased Performance

Similar to people who internalize their emotions, some horses may feel stress but do not show outward signs until chronic effects are evident. This is frustrating for owners who see no indication of a problem but are suddenly faced with health issues.

Even if your horse seems healthy, you want to do everything possible to ensure that he is so he can better cope with stressful situations as they occur. That means having “a good preventive health-care program that includes annual dentistry, fecal exams and vaccines,” Dr. Wright says. “Be proactive, especially if you know you’re going to put a horse in a stressful situation.”

To avoid compromising your horse’s health, you want to identify factors that cause stress and reduce, avoid or eliminate them from his daily life. Here are seven common stressors that may cause your horse anxiety and how you can minimize them.

Stressor 1: Changes In Routine

Horses thrive on consistency, and suddenly switching their routine is a surefire way to cause stress. Try to feed grain around the same time every day and keep horses on a regular turnout schedule. Occasional, short-term changes aren’t usually a big stressor for most horses, but stay as close to their normal schedule as possible. If a major change in a horse’s routine is unavoidable, try to make it gradually.

Courtney Carson is a professional groom and barn manager for Doug Payne Equestrian in Aiken, South Carolina. With both eventing and show-jumping horses of all ages and experience levels in her care, she has to keep a consistent schedule not only to complete chores with efficiency but also to make sure the equines in her charge stay healthy.

“[In my experience] the number-one cause of stress is a major change in routine, like if all of a sudden they go from night turnout to only going out for a couple of hours during the day or if the barn goes from being quiet to having a ton of activity,” Courtney says.

The nature of Doug’s training and sales business means that horses are moving in and out of his program frequently. Any time a new horse comes into the barn Courtney’s priority is making sure he stays hydrated, “even if it’s only coming from an hour down the road” to decrease the risk of colic as a result of dehydration.

“Horses going from well water to city water and vice versa might think the new water smells or tastes different, but you can get water into them when they eat,” Courtney says. A new horse’s first several meals will include a mash of wheat bran mixed with plenty of hot water for easy digestion and additional water intake. Typically, this process takes two to three days. For example, the first two meals will be all bran mash, the next two meals will be half bran mash and half grain followed by one more meal with almost the full amount of grain and just a little bit of bran mash. Finally, the horse will receive his normal grain meal without bran.

Courtney also will introduce new horses to the stable’s turnout and training system gradually. Starting with limited supervised turnout with a quiet equine companion gives her an idea of how the new horse behaves in the field. After a couple days, Doug may ride the new horse quietly for only 15 or 20 minutes and slowly increase the workload to assimilate him into his training program.

Stressor 2: Stall Rest

No matter how careful you are, injuries cannot always be prevented. In some cases, a horse may be prescribed stall rest during recovery that can cause significant stress and anxiety due to boredom, loneliness, pain or discomfort from the injury and lack of exercise.

When confined to a stall for an extended period of time, a horse needs to be kept hydrated and on a consistent feeding schedule. Dehydration can cause impaction colic and an inconsistent feeding schedule may upset the intestinal flora that aids in digestion, leading to an increased risk of colic or other digestive problems. A veterinarian may recommend administering a gastric supplement during long periods of stall rest to avoid the development of gastric ulcers.

Stall rest can be frustrating for normally active horses. Preventing boredom can help keep them from developing vices such as pacing and weaving in the stall or becoming depressed or aggressive. Toys such as Jolly Balls are a great way to keep a horse occupied while on stall rest. If you are crafty, you may also make homemade toys for your horse. Fill an empty plastic jug with grain or treats, remove or poke holes in the lid and hang it in the stall with a hay string. He will have fun trying to get the goodies out of the container.

“When we have a horse on stall rest, we try to keep him in a high-activity area of the barn where people are always walking by and can say ‘hi.’ It keeps him interactive. We will also put him where he can see another horse or is next to another horse so he never feels isolated or alone,” Courtney says.

Stressor 3: Vet and Farrier Care

The vet, whose regular visits are necessary to ensure the health and well-being of a horse, isn’t always a welcome visitor. Being poked and prodded during examinations can be intrusive and some horses will come to recognize a vet and have a negative response to her arrival. Similarly, horses may dislike having their feet handled by a farrier for long intervals or the hammering noise and sometimes the smell of hot shoeing while being shod.

Horses who associate stress with vet and farrier visits should be worked with calmly and patiently. “They build on good experiences,” Dr. Wright says.

On the morning of an appointment, Dr. Wright wants to keep the horse’s routine as close to normal as possible. Feed and turn out around the same time and bring your horse in only within the hour of the scheduled appointment.

“If I know they’re going to be stressed by me, I’ll take them into an open area and have my tech handle them for a while before I even come up to them,” Dr. Wright says. Sometimes distracting the horse by offering treats while vaccinating or administering treatment also helps.

Often if an owner has had a bad vet or farrier experience and is anticipating a negative response from the horse, her stress will project onto the animal and make things worse. Sometimes it is productive for the owner to step away altogether and observe from a distance.

Despite appropriate preparation and calm interactions, some horses will still find the vet or farrier to be too much to handle that day. “If it starts going bad, I stop,” Dr. Wright says. “There is nothing that we’re usually doing on those routine appointments that can’t wait.”

Stressor 4: Riding and Training

Studies show regular exercise may reduce a horse’s cortisol levels. However, the high-intensity training and competition schedule of a performance horse or a situation where a horse is working with discomfort may cause the opposite response. Frequent signs of stress while being ridden are chomping or grinding the bit, tail-swishing, excessive sweating and the inability to relax. Over time, this may lead to decreased performance, difficulty with training and the development of gastric ulcers.

All riders want their horses to be happy, compliant partners with a good work ethic, an interest in learning and a successful career. However, it may not be the work itself creating your horse’s stress. An underlying problem could cause discomfort during riding. If your horse seems to be stressed under saddle, here’s a checklist to identify the source.

• Inspect your tack to make sure the saddle and bridle fit correctly and are not causing soreness.
• Have a veterinarian perform a physical exam to check for lameness or discomfort in his body. Consider a massage or soothing liniment bath to relieve sore muscles.
• Check that your horse’s teeth aren’t causing mouth pain.
• Ask your farrier to look for an abscess, ill-placed nail or foot soreness. Were there recent changes in the way the horse was shod? Is your barefoot horse ready for shoes?

If your horse’s physical health checks out and his shoes and tack fit properly, talk to your trainer about what you as a rider can do to reduce stress. Maybe your horse is especially worried when hacking out alone or is tired of working in the confined space of the arena. Could it be that the questions being asked of him are too difficult for his current fitness level?

Stressor 5: Travel

Traveling is one of the most stressful situations for horses. They are not only going to an unfamiliar location, they are usually experiencing a significant change in routine. Depending on your horse’s stress triggers, take steps to ease the anxiety of travel as much as possible.

• Make sure your horse stays well hydrated. Powder or paste electrolytes administered orally encourage him to drink. A bran mash or watered-down meals will also increase fluid intake.
• Give him plenty of access to hay throughout the trip to keep him occupied and keep the gut functioning properly.
• If your horse is accustomed to regular turnout but there is none available, take him for frequent hand-walks to keep him out of his stall as much as possible.
• Talk to your vet about administering a preventive dose of omeprazole prior to traveling. This will reduce stomach acid caused by elevated levels of cortisol and ward off gastric ulcers.

Stressor 6: Weather

Not every stressor is imposed upon horses by humans. Weather is a natural occurrence that can cause stress responses.

From the rise and fall of the thermometer’s mercury reading to a dramatic shift in barometric pressure accompanying incoming severe storms, changes in weather patterns affect some horses. A sudden variation in weather may alter drinking, grazing or exercise habits, leading to gastric distress, dehydration or mild colic.

Horses may have trouble adjusting to fluctuating temperatures (20 to 30 degrees or more) in the course of a single day or week. Keeping an eye on the forecast and planning ahead makes a big difference in preventing weather-related stress.

When it comes to weather, Courtney will add bran mash to the horses’ regular meals. This is not a complete diet change but it does invite them to eat and continue getting water. “I’ll give them bran for three meals a day during a major temperature swing or once a day if the weather is going to be weird all week. Then I try to always keep fresh water and hay in front of them,” Courtney says.

Varying weather patterns are not the only concern. A horse who is too hot or cold is also susceptible to illness. Watch that your horse doesn’t have too much or too little hair for the climate and be careful not to over- or under-blanket in winter.

Stressor 7: Reproduction/Pregnancy

A mare in estrus, or heat, may experience physical discomfort due to the development of a follicle on an ovary or frequent urination—one indication to other horses that she is ready to be bred. Behavioral estrus symptoms also include decreased performance under saddle, difficulty being handled and colic-like symptoms. Consider a treatment such as altrenogest (Regu-Mate) which stops a mare from coming into heat or consult your veterinarian about other available options to reduce estrus symptoms. (Read “To Ease the Stress of Estrus” in the April 2018 issue of Practical Horseman for more about managing your mare’s heat cycle.)

A pregnant mare will experience stress during labor due to the pain of contractions and the birth itself. She may paw, pace, sweat, lay down and get back up many times or bite at her belly in response to discomfort. If she continues to exhibit these signs after foaling, your veterinarian may recommend administering medication for pain relief such as phenylbutazone or Banamine.

Depending on a horse’s personality, environment and routine, he may find many reasons to be stressed. However, good management practices, such as keeping as many aspects of his life as regular and consistent as possible and avoiding sudden changes in routine or diet, will help reduce stress and promote physical and mental health. Dr. Wright concludes, “Make changes and have good experiences compound on each other.” 

Stress and Gastric Ulcers

Gastric ulcers are a common result of chronic stress and cause a large amount of anxiety for owners. Unfortunately, ulcers often go undiagnosed until the effects become serious. Cortisol, a hormone released by the adrenal glands during stress, reduces the production of the hormone prostaglandin, which then lowers the pH (increases the acidity) of the stomach. In turn, the stomach’s protective mucous lining is less effective and susceptible to damage. The development of lesions (open sores or wounds) on the stomach lining may cause abdominal pain, reduced appetite, colic and poor body condition.

The only way to definitively diagnose gastric ulcers is by passing an endoscope (a flexible tube that allows a veterinarian to see inside the body) through the nose to the stomach. Gastrogard and Ulcergard, whose active ingredient is omeprazole, are the only FDA-approved medications for treatment and prevention of gastric ulcers and work to inhibit the production of excess stomach acid. In addition to medical care, it is also important to attempt to identify the cause of ulcers to avoid recurrence.

With a veterinarian’s recommendation, horses prone to developing ulcers may receive preventive doses of omeprazole prior to exposure to stressful conditions. There are also many daily supplements on the market that claim to reduce stomach acid or act as stomach buffers, coating and protecting the delicate stomach lining. Feed supplements are not subject to FDA testing, therefore, before using one, check with your veterinarian or select a supplement that has peer-reviewed research available to back up its claims.

Stress or Emergency?

Many signs of stress are similar to signs of an emergency situation, including colic-like symptoms, diarrhea or going off his feed. How do you know what is normal stress and what warrants a call to your veterinarian?

According to Ted Wright, DVM, of Cedar Ridge Animal Hospital & Equine Services, a horse with diarrhea should always have his body temperature taken. A combination of runny manure and a fever (101°F or higher for an adult equine) could indicate a serious problem. A horse refusing grain meals or experiencing overt signs of colic should always be reported to a vet.

“Our number-one emergency as horse vets and the leading cause of death is colic. Any signs of colic, such as pawing, looking at the flank, excessive yawning or mouth movements merit a call.”

This article was originally published in the June 2018 issue of Practical Horseman.