Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from Understanding Equine First Aid by Michael A. Ball, DVM. 

The best way to prepare for emergencies is to try to prevent them. Perhaps the best approach to first aid is to minimize the risk of accidents, injuries, and disease. Sometimes we do foolish things with, and to, our horses. It’s a wonder they don’t have more disasters.

I once turned out a yearling in a paddock that another horse owner had used for many of his horses. I just assumed it must be safe for mine. Was that assumption lazy? Stupid? Costly? Yes! The yearling ran straight to the center of the field, pawed twice at an exposed drainage pipe, and severely lacerated a leg on the sharp edges of the pipe.

In my practice, I often see horses with lacerated eyelids and nostrils. Such injuries come from the nails you didn’t check for before you put your horses in their stalls at the show grounds