We are at a high school rodeo this weekend. We travel often with horses and stay in many different places.
I’d like to address how to set up a stall when you are away from home.
I see many people hanging hay bags up high in the stall. They do this so that the horse can’t get tangled up in the hay bag.
However, horses are grazing animals. They should be eating off the ground.
I always hang my hay bag low or simply don’t use one at all.
Especially after a long trip in the horse trailer, where the head has been up for several hours, horses need to be able to clear their airways of mucous. The need to put their heads down.
I even hang the water buckets about chest height.
Horses are naturally grazers, eating grass from the ground, and drinking from a pond.
When we change their environment so very much, it can affect their health in negative ways.
They are already stressed from the travel and the inability to have pasture turnout. Don’t add to that stress by hanging everything high.
Encourage your horse to maintain as natural a posture as you can.
Don’t get them tangled up in things too low, but excessive height is unnecessary and can be harmful, especially to the respiratory system.
Now for some cute pics from around the farm, since I haven’t posted in a while…
Dr Vet Sonya 