Horses | The Mules

How to care a horse broken leg?

In the past a broken leg for a horse was a near-automatic death sentence and even today it is one of the most common reasons for horses to be put to sleep, either because vets are uninformed of new treatment options, or those treatments may cost entirely too much money for many people. Barbaro suffered a leg fracture, and the owners of this horse spared no expense, and tried everything they could to help the horse - however laminitis developed. Treatments for a broken leg are complicated, and usually unsuccessful if the leg is broken in more than one place - a horse cannot be immobilized like a human since they are unable to bear weight on just three legs. Dogs, cats, and other smaller mammals are able to because they weigh less and the makeup of their limbs evolved different - for a horse three legs is suicide. It takes a very long time for a fracture to heal in a horse, and most of the problems involved are compounded by the horses own behavior. When a horse breaks a leg at a competition and gets carted off 99/100 times it is being taken to a quiet place to be euthanized or shot.

Slings can be used to help support a horses weight, however it will cause quite a bit of stress upon the injured animal, and could in turn make it more likely develop other complications from the broken leg unrelated to the actual leg. Recovery from even a limited fracture is highly unlikely, unless your horse can bare the stress of recoveries, of surgeries, of constant care, and of being on a sling to help keep its weigh off that quarter of the body. Prosthetic legs are are virtually limited use only, as a horse’s sense of sure footedness is destroyed by amputation, however some medical breakthroughs that leave the original leg are possible with devices that screw on and bear the wight, leaving the bone with a chance to heal. However, successfully treating a broken leg is always at best a shot in the dark. The least you can do is make your horse comfortable and have it chemically euthanized, however if you have the time, money, and willpower to save your horse from death, then by all means try.

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How were horses domesticated?

No one really knows any actually proven theories, but there are a few good and likely ones that are common sense. It is believed that by 2,000 BC horses were domesticated - however there is evidence that predates this by two thousand years and perhaps even further. Today there are no Wild Horses left except the never-domesticated Przewalski’s Horse, which is not an ancestor to today’s modern horse. The wild horse is long gone, and the only horses you will find in the wild today are descendants of domesticated horses, and they are called Feral Horses. never confuse a Wild Horse with a Feral Horse - the rule of thumb is that the Wild Horse went extinct about the end of the last ice age - however the Tarpan went extinct in 1917 with the death of the last one in a zoo. It was the last true wild horse, while another subspecies still survives today.

The method of early domestication was likely through the finding of foals and raising them by human hands, which is easy to do considering foals need nurturing emotional attachments and will bond with humans and other domestic animals quickly at a very young age. Early horses were probably slaughtered for food, with their foals being raised, bred, and slaughtered after becoming accustomed to humans. When they began to be used for travel, and were bred in captivity successfully would be around 2-4,000 BC. When we began domestication was probably much earlier as the genetic variance of the codes are much more significant. Wild Horses have 66 Chromosomes, Domesticated Horses have 64 (and donkeys have 62).

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What are Stable Vices?

Stable Vices are a way of saying “the horse has a very bad habit” although the vice may be nothing more than trivial in nature and easy to cure with more exercise. However, many of them can become deeply psychologically scarring if not corrected early. Stable Vices arise from insufficient exercise and being confined, something a horse is not naturally adapted to. Vices can and will develop out of boredom, hunger, excess energy, isolation (loneliness), and sometimes can be learned by watching other horses or equines around them. There can be dire health consequences for a horse if they are not addressed. Most stable vices occur in horses who are kept in box stalls full time, whereas pasture horses rarely - if ever - develop bad habits on their own. Horses who have vices may not be cured by having more room or pasture time, even if it is full time, and may need to be rehabilitated. Vices can also return if a horse is put back in box stables.

The vices that cause the most problems are wood chewing, which can be from hunger or boredom, and may result in a further detrimental vice if left untreated or rehabilitated - cribbing. Cribbing is when a horse grabs something with its teeth, arches its neck, and suck in air violently, needless to say this is harmful for the mouth and teeth and can also lead to colic and subsequent death. When a horse is rocking back and forth in a repetitive fashion it is called Weaving, and happens to nervous horses or horses that don’t get out enough, and can lead to lameness eventually - along with the counterpart habit called circling, where a horse walks around in a circle and causes the same bad wear and tear on the hooves. Some horses can get violent, and resort to wall kicking to relieve boredom - this can hurt the horse and damage the barn, and other horses can learn it from a horse who has this stable vice. Biting is also one of the more dangerous habits, as the horse may bite people who pass by. Finally the horse may try to dig or paw with its front feet, and this is called pawing, it can lead to severe degradation of the hooves, lameness, and injury to tendons.

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How often should I run my Horse?

Well, it depends on the horse, what it is used for, the lifestyle it has, and how much excess energy it seems to have (often easily measured by how restless the horse actually is and how much time it spends pacing around and seeming discontent). Exercise is an important part of keeping your horse healthy, active, strong, and free from physical ailments such as being overweight (which can cause joint problems). Regular exercise builds endurance, and that builds strength, making your horse healthier and stronger, it is also great for their hearts and lungs to get a good work out (but don’t overdo it - as sometimes a horse can bleed internally if they exert too much energy at once). If you have a younger horse it is important they get plenty of exercise and play time for bone development, in fact it is key to their healthy bone development. In a young adult horse it should receive enough exercise to tire it, but not exhaust it.

To find out how many times you can run your horse a week start off slow in the ring, first with walking, then trotting, bump the trotting up after several minutes to catering. Remember to ease into it and watch for any sings of tiring or quickly becoming overwhelmed - when you think it has reached the point it should slow the horse down to a trot, and then to a walk for about fifteen more minutes. Gradually increase the amount of work each day by only a few minutes. Once your horse is fit and in shape consider letting it run for short amounts of time by going from the canter (if you are in a large enough area) to a slow to medium gallop - but don’t let him/her canter or gallop too long as a horse will tire VERY quickly at these gaits.

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What is an Onager?

Onagers are a mammal belonging to the Equus genus, and the Asinus subgenus. They are known by the scientific name Equus Hemionus, and are found in Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel, and Tibet. They belong to the horse family and are sometimes called the Asian Wild Ass. The Onager is a grazing animal and its range has sharply declined through the direct and indirect actions of homosapien sapiens (us), with less wildlife and less forage to naturally find. There are size subspecies of Onager, and one is now extinct. The Onager is larger than the donkey and are slightly more horse-like in appearance. They have a history of domestication for kings and chariot pulling in Sumer dating back to 2600 BC, and 2000 BC respectively. The subspecies of the Onager that are still living are the Mongolian Wild Ass, the Gobi Kulan (or Dziggetai), the Turkmenian Kulan, the Persian Onager, and the Indian Wild Ass (or Khur). The extinct species is the Syrian Wild Ass, the very last one died in 1928 in a zoo.

The Mongolian subspecies of the Onager has been recently listed as Vulnerable since the 1990s saw a massive decline in their numbers. The population is failing because of direct human actions, like poaching and competition from grazing livestock, since 1953 the Mongolian Wild Ass has been fully protected in Mongolia, and it is listed in the CITES in appendix I and II. Even with full protection poaching for meat is on the rise as it is a cheap alternative to domesticated animal meat. One of the other Onagers is the Indian Wild Ass, or khur, and it is vanishing in parts of India. At one point the population may have dipped below one thousand, but recent conservation efforts have helped bring them back from being close to the brink.

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How to care a horse broken leg?

How were horses domesticated?

What are Stable Vices?

How often should I run my Horse?

What is an Onager?

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