Horse Care Through the Seasons

nutritional gaps. A high performance horse is more likely to need dietary supplements to support his athletic efforts than a backyard horse with a less demanding workload.
Discuss spring grazing protocols with your vet. A horse that is susceptible to laminitis or equine metabolic syndrome EMS could be at risk. Laminitis is the second biggest killer of horses after colic which is considered the top medical cause of death in horses. The basis of EMS management is to prevent high circulating levels of insulin by avoiding the feeds that cause them and this means an EMS horse should never be grazed. 
Your feeding plan will tie in with your riding goals for the year as you start your spring conditioning and training program. Any feeding changes should be made gradually to allow time for the bacteria populations in the horses digestive tract to adapt.
Any time a horses exercise routine drops below three 45minute work sessions per week for a period longer than four weeks we consider him to have lost a majority of fitness says educator and trainer Jec Ballou. If he reaches 12 weeks working less than three times per week his fitness has zeroed out including any baseline or foundation.
For the first six weeks of your returntowork program Ballou recommends focusing on basic conditioning rather than schooling specific skills and maneuvers. Workouts should be less than 40 minutes with low to moderate cardiovascular stress and an emphasis on calisthenicstype exercises to engage the horses postural muscles. After six weeks the duration andor intensity can be increased.
When making workouts harder in any exercise program you do not increase intensity and duration of exercise simultaneously says Ballou. During a given workout you only increase one or the other. For instance you can make a workout harder by either making it longer or by adding difficult exercises to your normal session length.
Directly related to the health of the horse is maintenance of its spring and summer home the paddock and pasture. With the expectation that horses will be outside longer as weather conditions improve early spring is an important time to do a thorough pasture check. As soon as the snow has melted walk the fence lines check the strength and stability of posts and gates and make any required repairs. Look for trees and heavy branches that may have fallen on the fence and hidden hazards such as holes protruding nails