Working horses need a traffic light system, says a leading equine expert.
Trish Dowling, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s college of veterinary medicine, told producers during the recent Stock Person’s School in Saskatoon that they should develop horse health check systems with three categories of signals: green means go; yellow indicates there are worrisome signs of exhaustion and lameness and red means pull over and find help for the animal.
Perhaps the best indication of a horse’s health is whether they are eating, drinking and defecating as frequently as usual, she said during the day-long event organized by the Farm Animal Council of Saskatchewan. If they are, then that is a green light.
Read Also
VIDEO: How to check your feed mixer’s efficiency
Dwayne Summach, livestock and feed extension specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, showed visitors at Ag in Motion 2025 how to use the Penn State Particle Size Separator to check the efficiency and performance of your total mixed ration feed mixers.
“As long as your horse is doing these things on a fairly regular basis, things are normal.”
If, however, the horse stops at a patch of fresh grass and shows no interest in grazing, that’s a sign something isn’t quite right, or a yellow light.
And if the animal appears depressed or lies down and refuses to eat or drink, that’s a red light situation; time to call a veterinarian.
Dowling devised a traffic light checklist for her lecture containing 15 parameters, ranging from attitude to anal tone. Most of them had to do with diagnosing signs of dehydration.
A cow horse ridden at a pace of 16 kilometres per hour will lose 12.5 litres of sweat per hour and generate enough heat in its large leg muscles to boil 114 litres of water.
“They are big popsicles on stick legs,” Dowling said.
An old cowboy adage is that you should never feed and water a hot horse, but Dowling’s experience as a veterinarian and endurance racing enthusiast has taught her a horse will take in more water if you let it drink right away rather than allowing the animal to cool off.
“As far as I’m concerned, if they want to drink, go ahead and let them.”
Another good gauge of a horse’s well being is its mucous membrane. If pulling up its lips reveals moist, pink gums and saliva the consistency of water, that’s a green light. Pale gums combined with tacky or ropey saliva are a yellow light. If the gums are dry and purple, that’s a red light.
Riders should also pinch the skin on the neck or shoulder of a horse that has been worked hard. If it snaps back within a second, everything is normal. A two to three second response time is worrisome. Four seconds or longer is a red flag.
At the end of one endurance race, Dowling performed the skin test on a horse that looked fatigued. The response rate was so slow she had time to walk back to her camp to get her camera and still capture a photo of the bunched-up skin five minutes after she had pinched it. The horse came around after a healthy dose of water.
Dehydrated horses need more than water. They also lose valuable electrolytes when they sweat. In fact, they lose two times the chloride and “a tonne more” potassium than humans do, which is why their sweat is saltier.
An animal that has severely depleted its electrolyte reserves may have a prolapsed penis or dilated anus, sure signs that it requires immediate treatment.
Another signal of a horse’s overall health is its ticker. A horse has a resting heart rate of 40 beats per minute, which is about half that of a human.
Ten minutes after exercising, its heart rate should be less than 68 BPM. If it is still at 68 BPM 10 to 30 minutes after exercise, there could be a problem. Anything higher than 68 BPM after 30 minutes is red light time.
Dowling emphasized most of her list is general guidelines that will differ for each animal depending on type and age.
The important thing is to know the normal signs for individual horses that can be identified when something is wrong.
“The best thing you guys can do is know your own horse,” she said.
Keith Young, manager of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration’s Wellington pasture in southeastern Saskatchewan, said Dowling’s talk helped dispel the myths circulating in the cowboy community.
“Some of this stuff that has been told over the years is just rumour, an old wive’s tale. It’s nice to get the true facts on some of this stuff.”
Glen Elford, PFRA pasture manager in Caledonia, also in southeastern Saskatchewan, agreed. Over the years many old-timers advised him to keep a tied-up or colicky horse moving, but Dowling said it is imperative to seek treatment before encouraging activity.
He was also taken aback by her comments about not hesitating to water a hot horse.
“I’d always give them a sip but I wouldn’t turn them loose on it,” Elford said.
