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I'm Karl Hoopes, and I am the equine extension specialist.
And today we're going to be talking
about some basic equine practices
to keep you safe as you begin to get to know your horse
and begin to work with horses.
So we're going to be talking about approaching the horse
and how is the best way to do that.
This is Cutter, she's a pretty nice horse.
And McKenna is holding her for us.
And things we want to look at as we are looking at her.
We want to make sure she knows that we're coming.
We want her to know what we're trying to do so that she's
aware of what's happening.
So before we approach her, we want to look at her ears.
We want to see where her ears are pointing.
If her ears are not pointing at us, as right now,
she's looking over at the barn, we don't want to approach her.
So we get her attention.
First, we talk to her.
Hey.
So if she turns her head towards me,
I know that I can walk up to her.
I'm approaching her shoulder.
We want to avoid approaching the hind end.
We want to avoid coming towards her head.
Those are areas where they're vulnerable and also
dangerous to us.
So we want to first come to her shoulder.
As you notice, she brought her head over towards me
and started to sniff.
That's what they're doing, is they're getting to know us.
They will recognize certain smells.
And so we come up.
We're talking to her.
We talk in a very low, quiet voice.
Horses can get very excited with a high pitched voice.
And so we talk in a low, quiet voice.
We're talking to them.
We touch them.
We pet them.
And they get used to seeing us.
If we're looking to come up and pick her foot out,
the proper way to pick a foot up is
to reach down, run your hand down the back of her leg,
squeeze, and she's going to bring her foot up.
Then you have your hoof pick.
And, as you can see, there are a lot of different rocks
right here.
And so we want to clean the rocks out.
We want to clean all the dirt out
because if horses keep that manure and dirt in their hoof
for extended periods of time, they
can develop a fungal disease called thrush.
So we clean out the frog sulcus, make sure there's no rocks,
and get the dirt cleaned out.
If we want to do a hind leg, the same thing.
Start at the hip.
Run your hand down the back of her leg.
And you'll reach and you can pick up her foot.
She gave it to me very willingly.
You can then set that on your leg
and step back here and be able to balance.
We'll be able to pick the rocks out and the dirt.
There again, you want to make sure to get up along the frog.
Make sure that foot is clean, that there
are no foreign bodies sticking in there,
and that there are no rocks embedded in that foot.
As we're around the horse, there are certain places
that you want to stand and that you want to be in.
There are other places that are dangerous.
Horses tend to kick, as we all know.
And you want to be very careful that,
when you are in their kick zone, that you're standing as
close to the horse as possible.
You notice, I keep my hand on her hip.
That way she knows where I'm at.
As we want to walk around to the other side of this horse,
I want to stay as close to her as possible,
keeping my hand on her hip.
And so I come around behind her.
And she can still see me by looking back over her head.
Most of the time they'll bring their head to this side
as we watch and we walk up on this side.
As we talk about horses' vision, horses
have their eyes set on the side of their head, as you can see.
That gives them two different types of vision.
First of all, we have binocular vision.
That's where they're using both eyes to focus on an object.
And that generally happens at 65 degrees in front of them.
That allows them to judge distances.
It allows them to look in 3D.
We also have what we call monocular vision.
And that's where they're using one eye to focus on an object.
I can't see her other eye, and so she's only
able to see me with this left eye.
With that being said, she is able to see me
in almost 350 degrees around her body.
The areas that are considered blind spots
are those areas that are directly
behind her as well as directly in front
of and down below her head.
Those are the blind spots.
When you're in those areas, you get through those areas
as quickly as possible so that she can then pick you up
with the other eye.
But also keep your hand on her, to allow her to be
able to know where you're at.
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