Physical Wellness

Physical Wellness relies heavily on having a good relationship with your primary care veterinarian.  Keeping your horse up to date on vaccines, deworming, dental care, bloodwork, etc plays a major role in maintaining physical health and preventing disease. Hoof care is also important and having a great farrier to help maintain hoof health and proper hoof balance is essential.  Other important  factors related to physical wellness include regular exercise and high quality nutrition to maintain a good body condition, as well as the appropriate amount of recumbent sleep. Horses require a minimum of 30 mins per day of recumbency to achieve REM sleep and complete a full sleep cycle.  If they are unable to lie down due to environmental disturbances, stress or underlying pain, this can significantly impact a horse’s physical and mental health.

Mental Wellness

Mental Wellness can be observed through a horse’s behavior.  Are they happy to see you when you come to the stall or do they withdraw and stand in the corner?  Are they anxious, irritable, or completely uninterested in their surroundings?  A horse's behavior or changes in behavior can be an important indication of underlying issues. 

Social Wellness

Social Wellness plays an important role in that horses are by nature herd animals.  They find comfort and security in the presence of other horses.  Isolation can be very hard on horses, and can lead to many behavioral and physiologic changes as a result.

Occupational

Occupational Wellness relates to the horse's job or what they are used for.  A horse's job can significantly increase their risk of stress.  Performance horses in particular are subjected to many stress inducing factors as a result of their job including frequent trailering and competing, new environments, workload/training, disrupted schedules, etc.