Sterilizing stallions temporarily can help with feral population control, equine venereal disease management, behavior issues, and more.
Researchers know the modern domestic horse is the result of thousands of years of selective breeding. But they’re still striving to understand how and when equine breeding programs got started and evolved.
A high-fat, high-fiber “museli” mix appeared to supply sports ponies with enough energy to perform well and maintain body condition while reducing blood glucose levels after meals, potentially reducing their risk of metabolic disorders.
While some species develop a local immune response, sending special protective cells to the uterus itself, mares don’t, researchers learned recently. Rather, they appear to send those cells elsewhere as soon as semen enters the uterus. Where they go, nobody knows (yet).
The garments—depicting bones, muscle groups, and more—can help veterinary students, chiropractors, and even owners and riders better understand the structures hidden under horses’ skin, researchers said.
Cranial nuchal bursitis occurs when nuchal ligament (located near the horse’s poll) bursae become inflamed and sometimes infected. It generally causes pain, limited head and neck flexion, and poor performance.
Researchers identified a 90% pregnancy rate in mares impregnated using the Wilsher embryo transfer technique and a 70% pregnancy rate in mares treated using traditional embryo transfer protocols.
Decisions the FEI makes don’t just affect the welfare of high-level horses. Impacts can trickle down to competitions at all levels. Here’s what you need to know.
The theory is that when the polyurethane pour-in packing absorbs the shock from the hoof impacting the ground, it prevents it from traveling further up the musculoskeletal system, where it could cause wear and tear injuries.
An old adage says a good horse doesn’t come in a bad color. But recent study results might rewrite that saying. Researchers have uncovered a possible link between coat color and harness racing performance.
Tendons and ligaments are meant stretch and flex. So it must be bad news when hard material forms within them, right? Not necessarily, researchers say.
Researchers determined that horses with preclinical PPID (that is, blood values suggestive of PPID but aren’t yet showing clinical signs of disease) did not have higher fecal egg counts than healthy horses.
Researchers say these differing views have a lot to do with peoples’ personal beliefs and experiences. This indicates that horse welfare is still very subjective, which is why there’s a real need for reliable welfare evaluation tools with objective scoring, they said.
Rising on the “correct” diagonal on a circle or curve helps counterbalance the horse’s movement asymmetry created by the curve itself. And if the horse is lame, the wrong diagonal could enhance that lameness and the right diagonal could mask it.
Surgical site infection risk had little to do with the amount or kind of bacteria present at the incision before, during, or after surgery, researchers found.
Researchers determined that the equestrian community has still not reached a point where it can objectively—or even subjectively—compare arena surfaces in a reliable manner, especially for certain qualities like responsiveness and uniformity.
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