Field Management Tips

Regular pasture management and animal husbandry practices will help to reduce your need for anthelminics to control your horse’s worm burden. Follow these simple guidelines to help keep your horses and their environment as healthy as possible.

• Keep your herd together as much as possible Rest and rotate your fields and try not to over crowd the grazing (a good rule of thumb, 1 x horse per acre).
• Poo-pick at least twice a week to keep parasite levels down.
• If possible graze pasture with other species eg. sheep.
• Keep new horses separate until tested and treated accordingly.
• Don’t worm and move; after worming ensure horses stay on the same pasture for a few days to help slow down resistance.
• When first starting on a targeted worm control programme all horses should be tested when worming is due or slightly overdue so as to get a more acurrate result.
• Check for resistance. If a positive result is detected, treat the horse then sample again in about 10-14 days. If the wormer has been effective the second count should be either ‘no eggs seen’ or very low