Green Prairie Animal Hospital · Large Animal & Equine Care · Mason County, IL
You just got your first horse. Maybe you’ve wanted one your whole life. Maybe you inherited a property with one already on it. Either way, you’re realizing fast that a horse is not a large dog — the care requirements are in a different category entirely.
Getting the basics right from the start saves you money, prevents emergencies, and keeps your horse healthy for the long haul. This guide covers what new horse owners in central Illinois need to know — feed, feet, teeth, vaccines, and when to call a vet.
Feed and Water Are the Foundation
A horse’s digestive system is built for constant movement and continuous forage intake. In the wild, horses graze 16 to 18 hours a day. That design doesn’t change because a horse lives in a pasture or a stall in Mason County.
Forage — hay or pasture grass — should make up the majority of every horse’s diet. A general starting point is roughly 1.5 to 2 percent of body weight in forage per day. For a 1,000-pound horse, that’s 15 to 20 pounds of hay daily. Quality matters. Central Illinois hay varies significantly in nutritional content — a forage analysis, where a hay sample is tested at a lab for protein, energy, and mineral content, takes the guesswork out of whether your hay is actually meeting your horse’s needs.
Grain and concentrate feeds are supplemental, not foundational. Many horses in light to moderate work do fine on quality forage alone. Overfeeding grain is one of the most common mistakes new horse owners make — it contributes to digestive problems, metabolic issues, and behavior problems. If your horse needs more than forage, your veterinarian can help you figure out what and how much.
Water is non-negotiable. Horses drink 5 to 10 gallons per day under normal conditions — more in heat or heavy work. A horse that goes off water is a horse that is heading toward colic — colic being the broad term for abdominal pain in horses, which ranges from mild discomfort to a life-threatening emergency depending on the cause. Clean, fresh water available at all times is not optional.
Hoof Care Happens Every Six to Eight Weeks
Hooves grow continuously. An unshod horse on varied terrain may wear naturally, but most horses in Illinois need regular trimming by a farrier — a trained hoof care specialist — every six to eight weeks regardless of whether they’re shod or barefoot.
Neglected hooves crack, chip, and develop imbalances that put stress on joints and tendons up the leg. Laminitis — inflammation of the sensitive laminae, the tissue that bonds the hoof wall to the underlying bone — is one of the most painful and debilitating conditions in horses, and poor hoof care combined with dietary mismanagement is a common contributing factor.
Find a farrier before you need one urgently. Good farriers in central Illinois are busy. Establishing a relationship and getting on a regular schedule from the start is far easier than scrambling to find someone when a hoof is already a problem.
Your veterinarian and farrier should communicate, especially if your horse develops any lameness — limping or uneven movement — or hoof-related issues. These two professionals working together produce better outcomes than either working in isolation.
Dental Care Is Not Optional
Horses’ teeth grow continuously throughout their lives and wear unevenly. Sharp points and hooks develop on the edges of the cheek teeth — the large grinding teeth at the back of the mouth — and cause pain, difficulty chewing, and weight loss over time.
Floating — the term for filing down sharp edges and points on equine teeth — should be performed by a veterinarian at least once a year for most adult horses. Young horses and seniors may need it more frequently. Signs that dental work is overdue include dropping feed while eating, losing weight despite adequate feed, head tilting while chewing, and resistance to the bit under saddle.
New horse owners are often surprised to learn that horses need dental care at all. A horse that hasn’t been seen by a veterinarian for teeth in a year or two is almost certainly uncomfortable — and discomfort that’s been building gradually is easy to miss until it becomes significant.
Schedule a dental exam as part of your first veterinary visit with a new horse. It’s a fast way to identify problems that may have been developing before the horse came to you.
Vaccines Protect Against Diseases That Are Still Real in Illinois
Core vaccines — the ones every horse in Illinois should receive regardless of use or location — cover Eastern and Western Equine Encephalomyelitis (EEE and WEE, viral diseases transmitted by mosquitoes that attack the nervous system), West Nile Virus (also mosquito-transmitted, also neurological), tetanus (caused by Clostridium tetani bacteria common in soil, introduced through wounds), and rabies.
These are given annually in the spring before mosquito season. Missing a year on EEE or West Nile is a real risk in central Illinois — both diseases are present in Illinois mosquito populations and both can be fatal in unvaccinated horses.
Lifestyle vaccines — those recommended based on your horse’s specific situation — include Rhinopneumonitis (equine herpesvirus, which causes respiratory illness and can trigger abortion in mares), Influenza, and Strangles (a bacterial respiratory infection caused by Streptococcus equi that spreads rapidly through groups of horses). If your horse is at shows, trail rides, or in contact with horses from other operations, these vaccines are worth discussing with your veterinarian.
Your first spring visit with a new horse is the time to establish a vaccine schedule appropriate for your situation. Bring any records from the previous owner if you have them.
Parasite Control Has Changed — Ask Your Vet Before You Deworm
The old approach to equine parasite control was simple: rotate through deworming products on a fixed schedule, every eight to twelve weeks, year-round. That approach has been largely replaced by targeted selective treatment — testing first, treating based on results.
Fecal egg counts — examining a manure sample under a microscope to count parasite eggs per gram — identify which horses actually have significant parasite burdens and which don’t. The reason this matters is anthelmintic resistance — the parasites that survive deworming treatments are passing that resistance to the next generation. Overtreating horses that don’t need it accelerates resistance in the parasite population on your property, leaving fewer effective treatment options for the horses that actually need them.
Your veterinarian will recommend a fecal egg count schedule and deworming protocol appropriate for your horse’s age, history, and results. Don’t just grab whatever dewormer is on the shelf at the farm store without knowing what you’re treating. The product that was effective ten years ago may not be the right choice today depending on your local resistance patterns.
Know the Signs of Colic — Every Horse Owner Must
Colic is the number one killer of horses. Every horse owner needs to know the signs and needs to have their veterinarian’s number saved before the first episode happens.
Signs of colic include: pawing at the ground, looking at or biting at the flank, repeatedly lying down and getting up, rolling — especially violent rolling — refusing feed, elevated heart rate, and absence of gut sounds. Gut sounds are the normal gurgles and rumblings you can hear by placing your ear or a stethoscope against the horse’s side — silence where there should be sound is a warning sign.
Mild colic sometimes resolves with hand-walking and monitoring. Severe colic does not — and the difference between the two is not always obvious from the outside in the early stages. When in doubt, call your large animal veterinarian. A horse with colic that is getting worse rather than better, or that is in obvious severe pain, needs veterinary attention the same day.
Green Prairie Animal Hospital’s San Jose Clinic Serves Mason County Horse Owners
For new horse owners in Mason County and across central Illinois, Green Prairie Animal Hospital’s San Jose location is your large animal veterinary resource. The San Jose team handles all equine care — wellness exams, vaccines, dental floating, Coggins testing, parasite management, lameness evaluation, and farm calls across Mason County.
You don’t have to haul for routine care. The San Jose team does farm calls — so if getting a horse on a trailer isn’t practical, we come to you. As an AAHA-accredited practice, the protocols behind every exam and every farm call meet the highest standards in veterinary medicine.
New to horse ownership and not sure where to start? Call our San Jose location and we’ll walk you through it. That’s what a good veterinary partner does.
Call San Jose for Equine Care in Central Illinois
Green Prairie Animal Hospital’s San Jose location is our large animal and equine center for Mason County and central Illinois. Our team handles horses, cattle, livestock, and farm animal care — and we do farm calls throughout the region.
