A preventative approach to equine medicine

Many horse owners will call a veterinarian when their horse presents with an issue – be it sickness or injury, problems are dealt with as and when they arrive. However, there is also a case for preventative measures, which will help avoid injury, sickness and ill health in the first place. These may be practical, such as introducing a new horse in a controlled environment before adding it to a herd so that the initial interactions can occur in a safer way (Hartmann et al, 2009), or medical, such as the widespread use of parasiticides to control worm burdens (Hedburg Alm et al, 2025). This issue of Equine covers a variety of topics which are relevant both in terms of preventative medicine and treating an established issue.

A horses diet can be adjusted to better their health in a number of instances – most obviously, a horse which is overweight can be put on a diet so that they lose weight and are therefore less susceptible to conditions such as laminitis and equine metabolic syndrome (Witherow, 2022). Horses receiving a hard feed can also have this part of their diet reduced, or made healthier. Claire Williams discusses the potential difficulties in ensuring a chosen feed is ‘low-sugar’, and what claims can legally be made when describing the properties of a feed (p110).