Five Ways to Spoil Your Horse This Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love. Love can be seen in many different ways like quality time, gifts, or care. This year give your horse the gift of love. This holiday celebrates time with a special sweetheart, so be sure to give your equine valentine a gift he or she will truly appreciate.
The daily work of taking care of your horse may feel like a chore to you as well as restrict what horses can and can’t do. Horses may be limited to how much time they spend with other horses, how often and what type of food they eat, how much freedom they move about, and the activities in which they participate. However, make this Valentine’s Day one to remember by creating the best day ever for you and your horse. At EMSA, we have a few products that will lighten your horse’s mood and have them feeling brand new. Give the gift of self-care, a spa day, social time, snacks, and spend quality time together.
Self Care
Self care encourages you to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself so that you can transmit the good feelings to others. Your horse may need a little assistance on the “self” part. Like humans, horses can be anxious, stressed, irritable, or lose focus. If your horse is a working horse or always in the sun, they might also experience muscle soreness, become difficult to ride or settle down. HAPP-E-MARE is a great product for your horse. This product improves mood, promotes calmness, decreases anxiety and reduces muscle soreness. Your Mare deserves the best! HAPP-E-MARE is A tasty, all natural blend to keep your mare calm and relaxed throughout her reproductive cycles. Certified free of herbicides, pesticides, lead, drugs, toxins. It is also certified free of Salmonella, Listeria, E. Coli. Visit our website to learn more about this product.
Spa Day
Following a mental health check for your horse, maintaining their physical health is also important. Treat your horse to a spa day. A spa day probably sounds like heaven to most riders, and horses can benefit greatly from the same sort of treatment. Take the day to give your horse a fresh groom and bath. When giving your horse a bath, try using our product Map Shampoo. Map Shampoo helps to remove crusts and bacterial debris. Map Shampoo is all natural and gently aids in healing. One bottle contains several month’s worth of baths for your horse’s comfort. If your horse likes this product, it is definitely a good one to reuse. It is important to give your horse a bath two to three times a week.
Another product that is great for your horse’s skin care is QUADRABIOTIC ENZYME OINTMENT. Four medications are combined in a soothing white, water-based cream to treat infected/raw/swollen skin and combat secondary bacterial infections from active Summer Eczema cases.
To learn more about these products or purchase these products, visit our website.
Socials
Valentine's day is the perfect time to have a date night, so why not give one to your horse? Horses are highly social and generally drawn to other horses, so set your horse up on a date with an equine friend. If your horse is familiar with the friend that allows them to be turned out together in a pasture or arena to socialize to spend time mutually grooming, playing, or simply grazing side-by-side.
If the horse is going on a “blind date” unfamiliar with their equine friend, play it safe and have them greet each other over a gate or barrier. Exercise caution when first introducing any new horses, then watch their body language carefully; some horses might kick, strike out, or bite. If your horse has not been properly socialized, or if meeting-up with another horse isn’t possible, then spending quality time with a trusted human friend is the perfect backup date.
Snacks
What better way to celebrate the Feast of Saint Valentine than providing your horse with a little more treats. Most healthy horses love to eat, but kept on a narrow diet or fixed schedule. However, natural free-ranging horses consume a varied diet and will graze up to 20 hours a day! A slow-feed haynet is a gift that will stretch-out your horse’s feeding time and has lasting value.
Healthy snacks include: hay cubes cut in half, so two “cookies,” peanuts in the shell baked/roasted/salted from the grocery store, pumpkin seeds, strawberries, and a handful of hay pellets.
Spending Time
A gift anyone- human or horse- can appreciate is the gift of quality time. Spend the afternoon caring for your horse. Allow your horse to roam free: without restraint or confinement, as well as having choice about how to spend time in different activities. A Valentine’s Day gift any horse would appreciate is extra turnout time, with an at-liberty to run, romp, and roll. Working horses might be especially grateful for the gift of freedom, since certain jobs can be a source of stress. What is your horse’s favorite activity? Make sure to give your horse extra time to engage in this activity.
Something Specials
Valentine’s Day is a special holiday that allows you to open your hearts to others. It’s a day to appreciate the people, or animals, you love. Use this time to love, cherish and appreciate your horse.
If you’re already satisfied that your horse’s needs are met, why not give back on Valentine’s Day by spending time at a local equine rescue and sharing your love with horses in need?