Horses

Black, brown, bay, chestnut, palomino - horses come in several colours. Except white. Dr Mac explains why.

Summer brings flies and diseases to your stables. Kim Dyson gives some advice on how to protect your horse against the other critters and ailments the warm weather brings.

Knowing how soft tissue injuries occur will help you alleviate your horse's pain and speed up the healing process, writes Kim Dyson.

White line disease is an infection of the hoof wall of a horse, mule or donkey, which causes it to disintegrate, writes Dr Mac.

If you have itchy red spots, beware - you might have caught them from your horse, warns Dr Mac.

Before you start these lessons, it's essential for your horse to trust you completely. He must know how to relax and give in to positive pressure. Once your horse is used to being tied, you can tie him anywhere without worrying he'll try to free himself violently, writes Dr Mac.

Bathing your horse is important. It can help desensitise a sceptical horse, making handling a lot easier. Kim Dyson shares a step-by-step routine to make bathing a positive experience.

Since more than 10 000 flies can emerge from 1kg of horse manure to terrorise your stable, some form of management is desperately needed. Dr Mac tells us how to fight this disease-carrying menace.

Last issue Kim Dyson covered the basics of feeding your horse. This week, she looks at how much to feed your equine sidekick.

After buying a horse, it's very important to know what to feed your new equine friend. Kim Dyson gives some useful feeding tips.

"We think the Appaloosa is the best multi-purpose horse around," says Rick Johnson of Sans Souci Farm in KwaZulu-Natal's Kamberg Valley.

Related to the nasal worms found in sheep, the larvae of the bot fly can cause digestive problems in horses, writes Dr Mac.