Latest News – The Horse

Track to test every horse in every race 

Santa Anita Park isn’t waiting for a statewide ban to make its stand against “milkshakes.” At the meet that begins Dec. 26, the Arcadia, Calif., racetrack will test every horse in every race for excess bicarbonate in its blood. “Nothing is more important for us than maintaining the highest standards of integrity for California

According to an AP story on Bloodhorse.com, racehorse trainer Glenn Hild pleaded innocent Dec. 7 to misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty.

Hild, former owner of Broken Word Farm, near Hots Springs, Ark., is “charged in Hot Springs District Court with 17 counts, and is scheduled to go to trial Feb. 3.”

Seventeen horses were

Some feral horses and burros rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are now eligible to be sold at public auctions to the highest bidder.

The appropriations bill for 2005 (H.R. 4818) was made public law on Dec. 7. This bill had a rider attached to it on Nov. 20, 2004, by Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana that concerned the wild horse and burro adoption program funding. Sec. 142

The Virginia Equine Extravaganza announced today that it will partner with the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) to host an educational seminar series in 2005. Along with clinics and demonstrations from leading horse industry clinicians and trainers, the Virginia Equine Extravaganza will include three full days of educational seminars with some of the equine industry’s

As both human and veterinary medicine continue to advance, client expectations also increase. Clients have grown used to being able to bring their pets to veterinary specialists. Now, veterinary technicians are also starting to organize specialties so they can serve patients even better.

Veterinary technicians at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine are at

Assembly member Jerome E. Horton announced legislation Dec. 7 to combat illegal substances in California racehorses, in particular milkshakes.

The bill would require the California Horse Racing Board to adopt emergency regulations to establish policies, guidelines, and procedures to test the total carbon dioxide concentrations in the bloodstream of racehorses to determine whether an

Overworked equine veterinarians now can better juggle their dual roles of DVM and practice manager.

Intervet Inc., one of the world’s leading animal-health companies, unveiled it’s Partner’s in Practice program at the American Association of Equine Practitioners Annual Meeting in Denver, Colo., held Dec. 5-8. The program allows equine veterinarians to earn practical

Billed as the “greatest season auction of all time,” the Dec. 3 auction of stallion seasons to benefit the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) raised more than $2.2 million.

Topped by a season to Storm Cat purchased by Frederick Herterich for $370,000, the live auction of seasons in 37 Thoroughbred stallions and one jack stallion netted $2,234,500. The Storm Cat season was

According to www.equine-world.co.uk, the U.K. House of Commons on Nov. 18 used the Parliament Act to force through the a bill to ban hunting with hounds. “Following disagreement between the Commons and the Lords, the Parliament Act was invoked for only the fourth (time) since 1949 to force a Bill through,” said the article. The Britis

The British Horse Society has welcomed the recent announcement by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) minister, Alun Michael, that U.K. land grazed by horses can now benefit from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Single Payment scheme, in recognition of the important contribution horses make to the rural economy.

According to Defra, the CAP reform “will

The Dec. 5 open forum discussion of pre-purchase exams at sales covered several topics critical to consignors, buyers, and veterinarians at the 50th anniversary meeting of the American Association of Equine Practitioners in Denver, Colo. A task force headed by Dr. Criag VanBalen has created a video of endoscopic exams of throats showing what has been agreed upon as grades 1-4 relating to

Studies have recently found that people taking high-dose vitamin E supplements daily had an increased risk of dying, but equine nutritionists say we shouldn’t extrapolate that to horses.

Study lead author and internist Edgar R. Miller III, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says, “Our study shows that use of high-dose vitamin E

Researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands have documented a method to evaluate the jumping ability of horses as young as six months of age to see if their athleticism continues with them as they grow older.

While breeding plays an important role in the athletic abilities of a horse, determining the jumping ability of a foal before large amounts of time and money are

Goldfever 3 and Ludger Beerbaum of Germany–2004 Athens Olympic Games
Following a hearing held in Zurich (SUI) on Dec. 2, the FEI Judicial Committee determined that there had been a breach of FEI General Regulations Art. 146.2 at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens relating to the presence of the prohibited substance betamethasone in the horse Goldfever 3.

It had been

Horse owners will be able to prevent painful gastric ulcers in their horses with a new omeprazole product that has just been approved for equine use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The product will be available through veterinarians without a prescription, and it has been shown to effectively prevent ulcers in horses when given for 28 days during the time of stressful

At its recent meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI, the international governing body of equine sport) Bureau decided to establish a task force to reassess the policies necessary for the elimination of abusive and illegal performance enhancing drugs and to review the general medication control of horses.

The Task Force will be composed of the