With concerns surrounding horse deaths at Santa Anita Race Track < link >, horse owners will be ready to consider veterinarian David Ramey’s four biggest problems that affect performance horses. If they can avoid these things, the battle is at least half won, he says.
- They’re overtrained
- They’re bored and annoyed
- Owners assume that performance problems are necessarily physical problems
- Owners believe that prevention comes in a syringe or in a bucket
Source: Horse Network, October 31, 2019. Link. Think of a horse’s legs like a paperclip. You can bend the clip back and forth a few times, and it’s no big deal. Keep bending and the clip weakens, and it eventually breaks.
. . . it’s the incessant, repetitive stuff that breaks paperclips (and horses) down.” – David Ramey, DVM
INSIGHTS: Ramey is realistic. Share his article to reinforce basics that help horse owners avoid performance challenges. He says the way to prevent problems for a horse is to spend time with him, let him be a horse, make sure he has regular exercise, feed him good quality food and clean water, and look after his medical, shoeing and hoof trimming needs.