Climate change is increasingly affecting horses, horse properties, and their owners across Canada. In recent surveys, nearly 90 percent of Canadians reported noticing the impacts of climate change in their communities. Horses are facing rising health risks, including respiratory diseases from wildfire smoke and dust, skin conditions and hoof damage caused by unpredictable weather, and new parasites and diseases. Horse owners are also dealing with higher hay costs, unexpected veterinary expenses, and challenges related to weather disruptions, such as riding limitations. Meanwhile, owners of horse properties are working to repair damage from severe storms, flooding, droughts, and high winds.

Flies are a familiar seasonal frustration, but for horses, they’re more than just a nuisance—they can lead to constant tail swishing, foot stomping, head tossing, and skin twitching. Beyond being irritating, flying insects such as gnats, midges, mosquitoes, horse flies, deer flies, black flies, face flies, and stable flies pose real threats to equine health by causing skin conditions and transmitting serious diseases.

Protecting Horses and Humans - The COVID-19 pandemic showed how alarmingly quickly a virus can spread across countries and continents and created an understandable reaction to protect against infection from any and all viruses and pathogens. By extension, it is also essential that there is a level of biosecurity on your farm or acreage to protect horses against agents of disease.

When planning to renovate a horse pasture, the first thing you should do is walk the pasture and determine what plant species currently exist and make an assessment of the overall condition of the pasture. If the pasture consists primarily of grass and\or legume species, but is being considered for renovation due to low productivity, changes in pasture management may be more effective, and more economical, than a complete renovation.