The New Horse Checklist – How to Introduce a New Horse to Your Yard

If you are introducing a new horse to your yard, it is vital that you are properly prepared. You must get organised because if you fail to make the correct arrangements and do not check and isolate the horse, the result could be the outbreak of disease and a great deal of heartache.

Here’s our guide to successfully integrating a new horse into your yard.

Assessing the Horse

Your preparations should begin with a risk assessment of the horse before it arrives at the stables. You need to know where the horse is travelling from, when it was last wormed, whether or not it has a passport and whether its vaccinations are up to date. You can then make the appropriate arrangements to put everything in order.

• Check that the current owner’s details are on the horse’s passport before the horse is purchased. This is important because it can be difficult to track down previous owners. If it isn’t you making the purchase, encourage your client to perform the required checks.
• If the animal is microchipped, ensure that the new owner’s details are registered immediately.
• Disinfect the stable which is to house the new arrival. You should also disinfect the grooming kit to be used and designate this kit as the equipment to be utilised solely for the new horse.
• When the horse first arrives at the yard, perform a health check immediately. Examine the horse’s skin and hoof condition, general outlook, droppings and behaviour. Call in the vet if you have any concerns.
• Take the horse’s resting pulse, respirations and temperature as you may need this information to check against should the horse fall ill.
• It would also be worth performing a blood test for strangles.
• Perform a faecal egg count and worm the horse accordingly.
• Do a saliva test for tapeworms.

Helping the Horse to Settle In

The new horse will be disconcerted to find itself in strange surroundings and could feel traumatised. It is crucial to do everything you can to make the horse feel comfortable and to minimise disruption.

• Always prepare the area that the horse will go into prior to its arrival. If the horse is to be stabled, bed down the stall, and get the hay/haylage net and water ready.
• When the horse is turned out into the paddock for the first time, ensure that all fencing is in good order, that water is provided and that the intended companions are in place.
• Acquaint yourself with the horse’s previous routine if at all possible and stick to this in order to minimise the disruption to the animal.

The Isolation Period

It is vital to isolate newcomers for at least three weeks in order to protect the other animals in the yard from disease. Horses may be infected with a variety of conditions without showing any symptoms in the early stages. Isolation enables you monitor the horse whilst you are awaiting the results of any tests and allows time for any symptoms to develop.

The new horse should not come into contact with other horses. They should be kept out of the range of droplets which pass through the air when a horse coughs or snorts. Use separate equipment for grooming, feeding, watering and mucking out.

It is best if the new horse can still see other horses and if only one person cares for the new horse. Diseases can be spread via clothing and hands. If it isn’t possible to allocate a single person to the care of the horse, overalls should be cleaned, hands washed and boots disinfected before handling other horses.

You should be particularly wary of any animals which have been imported from overseas. They may be carrying diseases which are not found in the UK and which could take longer to diagnose. Other horses will have no immunity to such diseases.

Integrating the Horse

When the isolation period is complete, it is time to integrate the new horse into the yard. The integration should be carefully planned to ensure that the new arrival’s transition is as smooth as possible.

• The new horse should be integrated slowly. First move the horse to a stable close to the horses that he will be turned out with.
• When you turn the new horse out for the first time, do so with only one other horse and stay close by in case there is an incident.
• Turn out the horse with additional horses over the course of a few days.
• Register the horse with a new vet if this is your responsibility.
• If the horse’s medical history is known, note this down for future reference. If the horse belongs to you, write down what you would like to happen in case there is an emergency and you are not available. If the horse belongs to someone else, seek their instructions in this regard.
• Store the documents relating to the new horse in a safe place at the yard.
• Note when the horse last received a dental check, vaccinations and a visit from the farrier.