1. Own Property

Whether you are planning to ride your horse on your own property, on frequent trail rides, or enter the beautiful creature in horse shows, you will need many different supplies. There are a variety of companies that will customize this equipment just to fit your needs. They may also be good resources from which to seek advice if you are unsure of your exact equipment needs. For example, if you are planning to ride your horse often, you will want to be sure you have the right saddle. Your saddle should be comfortable for both you and the horse, and there are many different types from which to choose.

2. New horse owner

If you are a new horse owner, it would probably be a good idea to read as much information as you can about owning a caring for a horse, as well as riding it. You may also consider joining a local trail riders’ organization if you plan to mingle with other horse lovers. There, you will find beginners as well as advanced riders, along with people who have raised horses for a good number of years.

3. Customized Horse Equipment

If you are seeking customized horse equipment, the first place you should check in your particular area. It may be better to do this, especially at first, so that your needs can be more easily met without having to keep sending equipment back if it doesn’t meet your specifications. This also gives you an opportunity to get advice right there on the spot, and can also help those customizing your equipment to get to know you and your horse better.

4. Experienced Rider

Once you have become a more experienced rider, and know what you need in terms of equipment, there are many online companies who specialize in customized horse equipment. There, you will find an array of bits, saddles, bridals and so much more, and can easily prepare you and your horse for a horse show. You will find everything you need right at your fingertips.

1. Increased circulation-massage helps immensely with blood flow. Rich, oxygenated blood will reach every area of your horse’s body effortlessly.
2. Eliminated waste-fatigued muscles result in toxic buildup in horses bodies. Massage helps to dislodge toxins and hasten their elimination from the body.

3. Increased flexibility-massage helps remove knots from muscles which allows for greater movement

4. Muscle tone

5.  Range of motion

6. Alleviation of pain-knotted muscles that arise from running or jumping can lead to a great deal of pain. The only way to alleviate this pain is to massage the knots out of the horse’s muscles.
7. Stress relief-a horse that has tense, knotted muscles that result in pain can display changes in behavior. Massage therapy can make for a de-stressed, happier animal.

8. Loosens scar tissue

9. Stretches muscle tissue

10. Improves stamina

11. Improves overall disposition

12. Provides comfort and relaxation to muscle injuries and also promotes healing

13. Increases general range of motion

14. Improves circulation to the area being worked

15. Enhances muscle tone

16. Eases muscle spasms

17. Relieves tension

18. Increases synovial fluids

19. Increases flexibility of joints

20. Releases endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers.

21. Reduces swelling and inflammation in joints

22. Lengthens connective tissue, reducing the risk of fibrosis.

23. Stimulates the lymphatic system, which in turn removes the toxins and waste which can lead to tying up

24. Extends good health and overall life of the horse’s athletic career.

25. Balances and maintains the body in better physical condition.

Itis a complex syndrome with a multitude of symptoms, possible causes and forms of treatment. Horses with the condition frequently have degenerative joint changes elsewhere in their limbs, which may explain the poor success rate in treating this disease.

Some people believe that the lameness is caused by pain arising from the soft tissue structures of the heel, rather than the navicular bone itself.

Causes of navicular

There are three main schools of thought about navicular syndrome, whose causes probably reinforce each other.

• Concussion and trauma to the bone, bursa and ligaments, usually associated with horses with “long toe, low heel” conformation.
• Disruption of the blood supply within the navicular bone which leads to a painful degeneration (necrosis).
• Part of a more generalised arthritis.

Factors common to all three include poor conformation, foot shape and hoof/pastern axis – either collapsed or too upright – plus strenuous work combined with long periods standing in a stable.

Diagnosis and treatment

To diagnose navicular syndrome, the vet will look at the clinical signs, take X-rays and use scintigraphy. There are three main ways of treating navicular syndrome.

Reduction or abolition of pain:

• Painkilling drugs, such as ‘bute’, are commonly used, but many equestrian sporting bodies prohibit them.
• Injecting cortisone or hyaluronic acid into the navicular bursa can provide good, although temporary, pain relief. Adverse reactions may occur.
• Cutting the nerves supplying the back of the foot (a neurectomy) will improve many horses. This treatment has many potential complications.

Improving the navicular blood supply:

• Isoxsuprine: this dilates the arteries and is administered orally.
• Warfarin: this reduces blood viscosity, thereby improving the blood flow. Clotting time must be monitored continuously when using Warfarin, to reduce the risk of serious haemorrhage. It is not compatible with many other drugs, including ‘bute’.

Redefining foot balance:

This is the most essential part of any treatment programme. The aim of corrective trimming and shoeing is to re-establish and maintain a straight hoof/pastern axis, to shorten the toe where necessary and to encourage growth and expansion at the heel. It can be a long process and shoeing with heel wedges may sometimes be used in the interim.

• Egg-bar shoes are useful for collapsed heels and are often combined with rolled toes to reduce the leverage on the toe at the breakover part of the stride.
• Four-point shoes are square-toed and set back from the toe of the foot to about 1inch in front of the frog, altering the breakover point and reducing heel pressure.

Horses are very active animals and they burn a lot of energy when they move. You should be ready to give them the nutrition they need more than what grass and hay can provide. You should also understand the feeding habits. Part of his diet should be carrots because it needs its eyesight to be stable and clear. Carrots are proven to be effective diet in terms of enhancing and maintaining good eyesight even as it gets older.

Your animal should be fed three times a day. This is particularly applicable if the horses are kept in stalls and are fed commercially prepared pellets. Most likely, you will need to do this if you are in the city and you keep equestrians for racing purposes. If let lose in an open field, feeding three times a day is not necessary for as long as there is available grass and hay everytime he needs to feed. Water must be readily available at all times.

On the average, a horse consumes a total of about 4% of its body weight. This is only an average. You should ask an equine veterinarian regarding the amount of food you need to be supplying. Each horse has a different need and only a professional can determine how much it should be fed based on its age and weight.

You should also use equine supplements in the form of soluble vitamins. You can mix these in pellets or in the drinking water. You need to make sure that he does not only get adequate nutrition but also adequate vitamins. Horses are known to have very strong immune systems but they are also susceptible to other diseases such as influenza, rabies, equine herpes, and other diseases.

Below are characteristics of equine.

Characteristics of equine

Equines are medium to large mammals, with long heads, and necks with a mane. Their legs are slender and end in a single, unguligrade toe, protected by a horny hoof. They have long, slender, tails, either ending in a tuft, or entirely covered in flowing hair. They are adapted to generally open terrain, from plains and savannas, to mountains or deserts.

The pinnae (“ears”) of equines are mobile, enabling them to easily localise the origin of sounds. They have two-color, or dichromatic vision. Their eyes are set back far on the head, giving them a wide angle of view, without entirely losing binocular vision. Equines also have a vomeronasal organ, that allows males to use the flehmen, or ‘lip-curling’ response to assess the sexual state of potential mates.

Equines are social animals, living in herds or bands. Horses, along with Plains and Mountain Zebras, have permanent herds generally consisting of a single male and a band of females, with the remaining males forming small “bachelor” herds. The remaining species have temporary herds, lasting only a few months, which may be either single-sexed or mixed. In either case, there are clear hierarchies established amongst the individuals, usually with a dominant female controlling access to food and water resources and the lead male controlling mating opportunities.

Females, usually called mares in horses and zebras, or, in the case of asses and donkeys, jennys, usually bear a single foal, after a gestation period of approximately 11 months. Young equines are able to walk within an hour of birth, and are weaned after four to thirteen months (animals living in the wild naturally wean foals at a later date than those under domestication). Depending on species, living conditions and other factors, females in the wild may give birth every year or every other year.

Equines who are not in foal generally have a seasonal estrous cycle, from early spring into autumn. Most females enter an anestrus period during the winter and thus do not cycle in this period. The reproductive cycle is controlled by the photoperiod (length of the day), with estrus triggered when the days begin to lengthen. Anestrus prevents the female from conceiving in the winter months, as that would result in her foaling during the harshest part of the year, a time when it would be more difficult for the foal to survive.

However, equines who live near the equator, where there is less change in length of day from season to season, have no anestrus period, at least in theory. Further, for reasons that are not clear, about twenty percent of domestic mares in the Northern Hemisphere will cycle the year round.

I hope it will add something benefit for you.