Noise and exercise intolerance…those are the usual signs of an upper airway disorder. Many things can go wrong with a horse’s breathing mechanisms that don’t involve the lungs. The diagnoses aren’t always accurate, and treatments aren’t totally effective, but researchers are finding new ways to handle these complicated problems.

Diseases of the upper airway can occur in the hard or sof

Call it what you will–equine physical therapy, equine therapy, physiotherapy, rehabilitation therapy, equine sports therapy, or even alternative therapy. The treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention of movement dysfunctions, orthopedic ailments (soft tissue, joint, and bone problems), and neurologic disorders through manual therapies, electrical therapies, and exercise has become

Amber is a 30-year-old Arabian mare which was slowly starving to death because her owners had run out of money to care for her. Because of her age and lack of potential and worth, Amber’s owners allowed her to be pushed out of food and veterinary care in their herd of 35 horses. The husband finally decided to give Amber to a nearby therapeutic riding center, which promptly contacted the Hoove

We used to call it the “creeping crud”–a colorful, youthful label applicable to any gross-out skin disease the horse happened to have (and not to be confused with the cold-and-flu-like symptoms in humans that earned the same appellation). Besides the crud, there were also those weird little bumps that could show up now and then on the horse–not quite as disgusting, but unpleasant

Pain. The Merriam-Webster electronic dictionary defines pain as 1: punishment; 2: usually localized physical suffering associated with bodily disorder (as a disease or an injury); also, a basic bodily sensation induced by a noxious stimulus, received by naked nerve endings, characterized by physical discomfort (as pricking, throbbing, or aching), and typically leading to

These days, research protocols are a little more sophisticated and complicated, although the basic premise for testing a vaccine is pretty much the same: The researcher vaccinates the animal against the infection or disease using some sort of disease component originally isolated from affected animals and, by one means or another, determines whether the vaccine is safe and effective.

It’s a disturbing and distressing sight: You’re backing your horse when one hind leg jerks forward and upward, nearly clipping his abdomen. It’s the same every time you back your horse–this strange movement where his leg snaps up toward his belly. There’s no mistaking it: Your horse has stringhalt.

A neurologic disorder, stringhalt is an involuntary, exaggerated flexion of the hock that