Care, health and the stable
Feeding, feet, common ailments and the daily work of keeping a horse well.
Body condition score · BCS
A one-to-nine fatness score, assessed by hand at six places on the horse. Turns "he looks fine" into a number you can compare next month.
Coffin bone
The bone inside the hoof, suspended from the hoof wall by the laminae. When those fail, it is what moves.
Colic
Abdominal pain in a horse. Not one illness but a whole range of them, from mild to fatal, which is why it is always taken seriously.
Coronet band
The band where hair meets hoof, at the top of the hoof wall. New horn grows from here, downwards, over months.
Equine metabolic syndrome · EMS
Insulin dysregulation that raises the risk of laminitis, usually with fat pads on the neck and tailhead — though a lean version exists too.
Farrier
The tradesperson who trims and shoes hooves. Balance work rather than nail work, and the single most regular bill in horse ownership.
Floating
Rasping a horse's teeth level. Chewing wears sharp points onto the molars, and those points cause mouth ulcers, choke and odd head carriage.
Forage
Grass, hay, haylage or a substitute for them — and at least 1.5 to 2 percent of the horse's bodyweight a day in dry matter.
Founder
Laminitis that has gone as far as the coffin bone rotating or sinking inside the hoof. The chronic, structural version of the same disease.
Frog
The tough, flexible V-shaped pad in the middle of the underside of the hoof. Picked out daily, and where thrush starts.
Gastric ulcers
Erosion of the stomach lining, common enough in performance horses to be worth ruling out before blaming behaviour on temperament.
Haylage
Grass cut and wrapped wetter than hay, part-fermented instead of dried. Counts as forage, and is fed by weight rather than by armful.
Hoof abscess
Pus trapped inside the hoof, from bacteria getting in through a crack or a puncture. The commonest hoof problem, and it makes a horse very suddenly lame.
Hoof wall
The hard outer horn of the hoof, growing down from the coronet. What a shoe is nailed to, and what a trim shortens.
Laminitis
Inflammation and separation of the laminae inside the hoof. Severely lame, with a strong pulse at the fetlock, and an emergency.
Mud fever
Skin inflammation and scabbing on the lower legs, worst in wet ground. The same condition carries four or five different names depending on who is speaking.
PPID · PPID
The hormonal disorder behind the long, unshed coat of an older horse, along with muscle loss, a dropped belly and repeated infections.
Routine care
The year's fixed work: a veterinary check at least annually, vaccinations, worming, teeth, feet and grooming. More often once a horse is over twenty.
Shoeing cycle
How often the feet are done — every four to eight weeks, which is what keeps hoof and leg balance right and catches problems early.
Sole
The underside of the hoof either side of the frog. Bruises there usually come from stones or from poor shoeing.
Strangles
A highly contagious Streptococcus infection that abscesses the glands under the jaw. Fever comes first, three to fourteen days after exposure.
Thrush
An infection of the frog and sole with obvious pus and a smell you learn once. It turns up in well-kept horses too, not only dirty ones.
Turnout
Time out in a field rather than in a stable, and shelter from the weather while there. Where a horse does most of its eating and all of its moving about.
Tying up
Muscle damage from work beyond the horse's current fitness: painful, stiff, and unwilling to move. Any breed can do it.
White line
The junction between hoof wall and sole, visible as a paler line. White line disease crumbles the horn there and separates the wall from inside.
Worming
Treating for internal parasites — strongyles, ascarids, tapeworms and bots. Managing the pasture matters as much as giving the paste does.