Hello to All!  It looks like everyone is getting settled with the course and I love reading your introductions. This is a great opportunity for our learning community as we have people joining us from many different racing sectors, backgrounds and experience, so this will make for great discussions and learning opportunities.

Today we look at the importance of forage and water for horses and the role played in gut health and prevention of problems.  We encourage you to have discussions with your equine vet and nutritionist on any changes in the horse’s diet for forage and water, so that it can be tailored specific to the needs of your horse (relative to its stage of growth/racing/training) and your hay source.

For your assignment, I would ask that you hold off submitting it until week 3, so that you can continue to go through the learning materials and add this new knowledge to your plan.  So go through the Colic Risk Calculator when you can this week, and jot down your notes as you are learning about each of the risk factors.  Then, armed with your new knowledge, go back to the colic risk rater later in Week 2 or in Week 3 and determine your risk with new improvements to your management practices.  Complete your assignment, in particular, noting those areas where you can make improvements to reduce the risk of colic.  If you have any questions on this, do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]