Effective pasture management and targeted parasite control are essential for equine welfare, with strategic worming practices replacing blanket treatment to preserve drug efficacy.
Horse parasite welfare is a hidden but significant concern - horses with high parasite burdens suffer weight loss, diarrhoea, colic, poor coat condition and reduced wellbeing. Larval cyathostominosis causes acute, severe and often fatal illness. The challenge is that effective long-term parasite control requires collective pasture management, resistance monitoring, and targeted treatment - more complex than simply worming all horses on a calendar basis. Owners who use blanket worming are not just wasting money and contributing to resistance; they are also potentially giving unnecessary medication to horses with low burdens while undertreating those with genuinely high levels. Faecal egg counts empower evidence-based decisions.