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Supporting Your Horse's Immune System

What does it take to optimize the equine immune response and fight off disease?

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Rhodococcus equi Pneumonia: Rethinking Treatment to Fight Resistance
Skill, Science, and Sensitivity: Unpacking Horse Training Misconceptions
Rehabilitating the Neurologic EPM Horse
Building a Balanced Diet for Your Mare and Foal
Joint Health Matters: Top Therapies for a Successful Season
The Abscess Ruptured, But My Horse is Still Lame. Now What?
Understanding Horse Aggression
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Managing Your Performance Horse’s Joints

April 9, 2025

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March 20, 2025

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Everything You Need to Know About Laminitis in Horses

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Les Sellnow

Les Sellnow was a prolific freelance writer based near Riverton, Wyoming. He specialized in articles on equine research, and operated a ranch where he raised horses and livestock. He authored several fiction and nonfiction books, including Understanding Equine Lameness and Understanding The Young Horse. He died in 2023.

Articles by: Les Sellnow

Saddle Fit

Les Sellnow May 1, 1998

Fitting a saddle correctly to a horse’s back can be confusing and frustrating, Harman says, because so many variables are involved.

Avoiding Hauling Emergencies

Les Sellnow April 1, 1998

At first blush, a discussion of trailer safety and emergencies seems quite uncomplicated and straightforward. However, it really isn’t all that simple because there are so many facets involved in traveling down the highways and byways

The Sub-Fertile Stallion

Les Sellnow March 1, 1998

When we consider that foaling rates overall range somewhere in the neighborhood of 55-60% it becomes instantly obvious that simply covering a mare and getting a foal are not a sure thing. The problem is not always with the mare.

Small Colon Impactions

Les Sellnow February 13, 1998

Disorders of the small colon make up a small percentage of the etiologies in acute abdominal crises in horses. Obstruction by fecal material, enteroliths, and meconium are the most commonly reported pathogenic conditions of the small colon in th

Sub-Fertile Mares

Les Sellnow February 1, 1998

A broodmare which fails to conceive or carry a foal to term can be an emotional and financial liability. For the backyard breeder, the liability might be primarily emotional, when that special mare you wanted to produce your next trail horse or

Estrous Cycle Primer

Les Sellnow January 1, 1998

For all things there is a time and a season. Nowhere is this more true than in equine reproduction. Nature has established a definite time and season for mares to conceive and bear foals. It is a very sensible approach on the part of

Foal Imprinting

Les Sellnow January 1, 1998

A mare goes into labor. Powerful and swift contractions expel a foal that, for a short time, lies helpless in the straw or on the grass. A handler quietly approaches the wet creature that is drawing its first breaths. This

Skin Diseases in Horses

Les Sellnow October 1, 1997

A horse’s skin is vital to the animal’s survival. It serves as its anatomical boundary and as the principal organ of communication between the horse and the environment in which it lives. As is the case with other body components, the skin of a

Holistic Medicine

Les Sellnow October 1, 1997

Change is taking place in the world of equine veterinary medicine as more and more horse owners and practitioners look to alternative or complementary forms of treatment or prevention for a wide variety of maladies. It wasn’t

Genetics Primer

Les Sellnow September 1, 1997

Progress in the field of genetics has been moving by leaps and bounds during the past few years. It wasn’t long ago that researchers discovered ways to unravel and study DNA, that elusive strand of genes that inhabits each and

Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage

Les Sellnow September 1, 1997

The debate goes on. That brief statement is about the most accurate way to open a discussion on exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) in horses. The condition has been a concern for 300 years and, during that time, has been addressed,

Homeopathy

Les Sellnow September 1, 1997

Homeopathy is the modality most difficult to describe in this series on alternative forms of medical treatment for horses. For one thing, even its most ardent advocates and learned practitioners don’t know exactly how it works. For another, ther

No Sweat: Anhidrosis

Les Sellnow July 1, 1997

Heat builds up rapidly in the body of an exercising horse and must be quickly dissipated if thermal injury is to be prevented. For the normal horse, this is not all that much of a problem. Like man, the horse cools its body by sweating, and this

Magnetic Therapy

Les Sellnow July 1, 1997

Horses are electrically charged. So are people. Sound a bit bizarre? Because of this electrical presence, the use of magnets has been a part of the therapeutical approach to treatment of injuries and other maladies since the 18th century.

Flexural Deformities

Les Sellnow March 1, 1997

It is a sad sight when it happens. The newly born foal struggles to its feet and stands there wobbling on forelimbs and/or hindlimbs that can’t seem to bear the weight. There might be a knuckling over at the pastern with the foal literally

Endophyte-Infested Fescue: Hidden Dangers

Les Sellnow March 1, 1997

Horse breeders noticed that they were having foaling problems with some mares which were grazing fescue grass or being fed fescue hay. Cattle producers reported that steers on fescue pastures or being fed fescue hay appeared to be unthrifty and that