Latest News – The Horse

Cash receipts from sales of horses and stud fees in Kentucky again made equines the top agriculture product in 2008, according to state agriculture commissioner Richie Farmer.

Horse sales and stud fees totaled $1.08 billion, down 4% from 2007, as Kentucky farmers reported a record $4.84 billion in farm gate cash receipts in 2008.

“Our producers keep raising the bar year after year,”

In the modern world of speed figures, tracking devices, and sheets handicapping, just about any racetracker will tell you making it into the hallowed ground of the winner’s circle might depend more on cats, birds, bugs, peanuts, popcorn, and pennies.

And those are just a few icons of a virtual pantheon of superstitions that many owners, trainers, jockeys, and fans either rely on with

Gordon Woods, DVM, MS, PhD, Dipl. ACT, who while at the University of Idaho helped create the world’s first cloned mules, died Aug. 20 at the age of 57. He was 57 and currently employed at Colorado State University.

Woods, one of the premier equine reproduction specialists in the world and a pioneer in the use of the horse as a model for exploring human health issues, died Thursday at

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the horrible destruction caused by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. (For our cover story from 2005 read “Enduring Chaos”.)

The Horse and TheHorse.com were active participants in the coverage and animal relief efforts after the

Injecting glycosaminoglycan polysulfate directly into lesions of the superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) significantly improves reorganization of the tendon’s collagen bundles during the healing process, report Brazilian veterinary researchers.

Tendon injuries are an important source of lameness and decreased performance in horses. Despite aggressive management, there is a high rate

Ericka Caslin will serve as the Director of the Unwanted Horse Coalition (UHC), the American Horse Council announced today.

Caslin is a graduate of Virginia Tech’s Animal Sciences program and has been an active member of the hunter/jumper community for more than 10 years, competing at shows throughout the country.

For the past four years, she served as the Administrative Director of

More than 600 readers of TheHorse.com responded to a poll asking, “How often do you utilize fecal egg count exams?”

The Racing Officials Accreditation Program (ROAP) has developed an On Call Stewards Program so that a designated racing official will be available during telecasts of major racing events to explain the rules of racing if an unusual event occurs in a race.

“The On Call steward will be non-judgmental, meaning he or she is not there to make a determination one way or the other on any

A necropsy report presented to the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Aug. 27 at Del Mar tends to support trainers who complain that synthetic tracks lead to more hind limb injuries.

In 2008, 19 Thoroughbreds from a total of 111 that died on synthetic tracks in the state succumbed to catastrophic hind limb injuries, according to a preliminary CHRB/University of California-Davis report.

More than 70 allegedly neglected Arabian horses seized from their owner earlier this month are now in the permanent custody of the agency directing their care.

Denton County Sheriff’s Deputies removed 77 of the horses from Renazans Arabians ranch in Pilot Point, Texas, on August 14 after a caller complained about their

Wildlife Services, a program within the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, will distribute oral rabies vaccine baits beginning on or about Aug. 28 to prevent the spread of raccoon rabies in portions of western and northern New York. Another baiting program is under way in 14 western Pennsylvania counties.

In cooperation with the New York State Department of Health and key

Common variable immunodeficiency is a rare, but serious disease in adult horses that often leads to hospitalization, said Maria Julia Bevilaqua Felippe Flaminio, DVM, MS, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, who presented research on the topic at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum, held June 3-6 in Montréal, Quebec.

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a humoral (in the

Federal Horse Protection Act (HPA) compliance inspectors will be out in force during this year’s Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, said Rachel Cezar, DVM, coordinator for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Horse Protection Program. The Horse Protection Act forbids soring, the deliberate injury to a horse’s legs to achieve an exaggerated “big lick” gait.