Congratulations-You have a new horse! If you're a new horse owner there are just a few things you need to know to make sure your horse is as healthy and happy in his new home as possible.

You need to arrange to exercise your horse on a very regular basis. Exercise is important to both keep your horse healthy and allow you to bond and train your horse. Horses are social creatures and need companionship, if not from other horses -from you. On the average, ride your horse three to four times per week and offer your horse pasture at least an hour every day, adjust this time to more pasture time if you are doing less riding.

In the wild, it's not uncommon for horses to cover about 25 miles of ground per day. They spend most of the day walking, foraging and moving. As you can see, exercise is crucial to a domesticated horse's physical and emotional well being.

Feeding and nutrition is where a lot of new horse owners get into trouble. You can make your horse very ill by feeding him an improper diet. Feed your horse as much grass and hay as possible as this is good roughage and keep the amount of sweet grass and alfalfa down. A horse that overeats on this type of feed can cause your horse to have founder - a painful disease that takes some time to cure and once it happens can reoccur at any time. Go light on the grain in your horse's feed too. But the majority of your horse's daily calories should come from good quality hay.

That's right, not all hay is equally nutritious. Depending on the soil it was grown in, the nutrition levels will vary. Alfalfa has levels of vitamins, minerals and proteins that will be greater than grass hay as the majority of grass hay produced won't have been grown in soil that was high in mineral content. If you feel your hay is of a lower quality or your horse has trouble keeping his weight up, add a nutritional supplement to his diet and you should be fine.