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Horses are big strong animals that appear to not need a lot of care, but if you're familiar with horses you know that their size and strength doesn't protect them from being easily harmed. Clean stalls and clean water are critical, but most good owners and trainers know that. Some of the less obvious health threats are splintering wood fences and stalls, potholes in pastures, and I cringe when I think of this one rotten floorboards in horse trailers.

Horses are known to crib, which means they will eat wooden fences. Splinters in horse's mouths and stomachs can kill them. Out on the ranch, many years ago, we used to wrap the boards, where the horses were kept in wooden corrals, with bailing wire. I don't necessarily recommend this, it's just what we did, then. The bailing wire creates its own health hazards, so when I built my corrals, I built them out of steel pipe scrap from oil field applications. The steel had to be cleaned thoroughly, but it was cheap, and worked well.

Keeping all feed where it is not accessible to horses is absolutely imperative. Horses will eat, if they have the chance, until they will die and still be eating, so keep the feed sheds locked from their access. Keep the flies and mosquitoes to a minimum. Fly and mosquito bites can damage a horse's health, quickly. Make sure they are on proper diets, get ridden and worked out regularly, are cooled down after riding, brush and love on them frequently, they thrive on that.

Learn more about this author, Will Kester.
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