Now that we've covered the feeding and nutritional basics for your horse; let's get into more aspects of horse ownership.

Care of your horse's hooves is a big deal. Keep urine and manure out of your horse's hooves. If clean mud from the pasture gets packed in there, it's fine as long as there isn't a rock or other debris making your horse's hoof sore. If you let your horse's hooves stay packed with clean mud and always pick them out before you turn your horse out to pasture to insure there is a regular rotation of clean mud; it also keeps urine and manure out of your horses hooves. There are a lot of small issues around the area of your horse's hooves, but basically if you keep the hooves of your horse in a natural condition, they should be fine. Check your horse's feet often as they are where a lot of lameness issues can start.

Getting your horse's teeth checked on a regular yearly schedule (more often if your horse needs it) are a must for keeping your horse's teeth maintained for healthy chewing and good digestion. Vaccinations are another must. Horses don't need a huge number of vaccinations, but they do need them to protect against encephalitis, tetanus, and rabies. If your horse is very young or very old, consider adding an influenza vaccine to the regiment.

Training your horse means using kindness and rewards. Horses respond in the most positive of ways to this type of training. There is no need to whip your horse, it will never make him respect you - he will only fear you and it's been proven time and time again that horses respond greater to trainers they have a bond with rather than a fear of.

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.