Spring is Springing: Time To Get Moving

With the short days, cold, snow, icy roads, break from show season and busy holiday season, many of us put our equine activities on the back burner during the winter. But despite the fact that it snowed in my area this morning the tulips and daffodils are popping up and it is time to start getting back into the swing of things. There is a great deal of cleaning and prevention to be done but here's where I'll start:

1. Tackle the shedding and muddy horses. Time to find the shedding blade, jelly scrubbers and flick brush that migrated to the bottom of my tack trunk since last fall. The Grooming Challenge That Is Mud for my thoughts on how to start tackling that.
2. Clean out the tack trunk and tack room. While I'm rummaging to find that second jelly scrubber I might as well get to the bottom of the tack trunk. While I'm doing that I might as well pull the trunk away from the wall and give the tack room a good sweeping. I'll put away what I need, create a pile to be donated/tossed, and a pile that needs washing or repairs.
3. Check the veterinary and grooming supplies. Invariably at least one thing is almost gone, past its expiration date, or has disappeared. Time to restock all my staples before I am in need of them.
   
4. Get the wash and repair pile taken care of. Finally getting around to cleaning and conditioning neglected tack and boots is one of my spring cleaning chores. I tend to be horribly lazy about it, but I figure if they only see a rag once a year it might as well be in the spring. The laundry may have to wait for late spring so that I can make one trip to the laundromat to wash all the blankets, saddle pads, and wraps.
5. Spring clean the stalls. Feeders and waterers scrubbed, floor stripped, leveled and deoderized, hardware replaced/repaired/adjusted/lubricated. We're good to go for another year.
6. Prevent hoof cracks, thrush and scratches. Mud this time of year creates the perfect enviroment for three generally mild but extremely annoying horse ailments. One is thrush, another is heel scratches and the last is hoof cracks. Some horses are more prone than others, but ideally a daily routine of picking out feet, hosing mud off legs and hooves, throughly towel drying legs and hooves and applying hoof dressing to the coronary band only, powder or barrier ointment to the legs, and if thrush is detected a thrush remedy to the hooves will help eliminate the problem.
7. Start early on summer bug control. Now is the time to get that manure pile off the property, and start hanging up traps or releasing fly parasites. From personal experience I can tell you that you will never catch up if you wait until you already have a big fly problem.
8. Schedule vaccines and fecal egg counts with your veterinarian. Summer brings bugs, shows, and trail rides, all of which can expose your horse to pathogens. Time to make sure he's vaccinated and prepared. Deworming is also a good idea right now, but because of all the resistance being built up by the worms it is not a good idea to deworm without a high fecal egg count. A fecal egg count is a test that determines how heavily infested with internal parasites your horse is. If your horse has a low count, he doesn't need to be dewormed, if he does have a high count, he should be dewormed.
9. Return to exercise slowly. If you or your horse haven't been exercising as much as you'd like over the winter, be careful as you return to it in the summer. It is easy to get overly enthusiastic and do more than you should. You and your horse both need time to rebuild strength and endurance. If you push it the results can be injury for both you and your horse, so please be safe and go slowly.
10. Mind the lush grass and early hay. We all know this one, but it bears repeating. Your horse wants the lush grass, you want to watch him enjoy it, but be careful because the high carbohydrate content of early spring grass, or hay made from it for that matter (first cutting) can trigger founder or colic in sensitive horses, so make all dietary changes slowly.