Latest News – The Horse

Elizabeth A. Murray, PhD, Dipl. ABFA, professor of biology at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a forensic anthropologist, headed the team that performed the three-day exhumation of champion Saddlebred Wild Eyed and Wicked that took place Feb. 2-4 In an exclusive interview with The Horse, Murray explained the grueling and painstaking process.

Wicked and

Less than a month remains before horse passport regulations go into full effect in England. Nearly a half-million passports had been issued by Jan. 31, according to the U.K.’s Department of Environment, Food, and Agriculture (Defra).

The total number of horses and ponies is estimated at between 600,000 and just under a million in Great Britain as a whole, which indicates that

The Delhi, India, polo season has been cancelled after two ponies were diagnosed as carrying equine infectious anemia (EIA), according to a Feb. 7 report from New Delhi Television Ltd. (NDTV.com).

The NDTV story reads, “To prevent the disease from spreading, the infected area has to be quarantined for 90 days and the infected horses

Kentucky racetracks could begin testing for “milkshakes” this spring under their own guidelines, officials said.

A milkshake is a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and a liquid given to a horse before it competes. Milkshakes are believed to enhance performance. The old Kentucky Racing Commission in 2001 adopted a policy that banned the practice, but it never went through the legislative

Two horses who ran at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., last summer were disqualified from their finishing positions because of positive drug tests, but Mark Shuman, who trained both horses for owner Michael Gill, will not be disciplined in the incident.

Clay’s Rocket, winner of the second race at Saratoga Aug. 8, 2004, and Kalookan Lady, who finished fourth in

The Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council set in motion major changes in the state’s medication and drug-testing policies when it voted Feb. 4 to recommend adoption of the model rules devised by the national Racing Medication and Testing Consortium.

The drug council voted 7-1 in favor of the model rules. The lone dissenter was Susan Bunning, president of the Kentucky Horsemen’s

Veterinarians swapped ideas on hot topics in the realm of equine infectious disease in the Infectious Disease Forum at the 2004 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 3-8 in Denver, Colo. Steve Conboy, DVM, a private practitioner in Lexington, Ky., and Maureen Long, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, assistant professor of large animal veterinary medicine at the University of

The Horse Slaughter Prevention Act has been reintroduced to Congress as bill H.R. 503. Congressman John Sweeney of New York is the lead sponsor of H.R. 503 and introduced the bill on Feb. 1 as “A bill to amend the Horse Protection Act to prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for

The much anticipated court-ordered exhumation of the body of champion Saddlebred Wild Eyed and Wicked began this morning under gray skies and amidst chilling temperatures at Double D Ranch near Versailles, Ky. Wicked was one of five top American Saddlebreds that were injected with an unknown necrotizing (tissue-killing) substance the weekend of June 28-29, 2003. Wicked and one of the other

“Unwanted horses” within the domestic equine population have been determined by someone to be no longer needed or useful, or their owners are no longer interested in or capable of providing care for them physically or financially. Many unwanted horses will be sent to slaughter, euthanatized, or simply abandoned and left to die. Fortunate ones find new homes or jobs when their physical

What can you tell me about Tyzzer’s disease? I’ve heard of only two cases in the last 20 years.

My 5-year-old mare has been suffering from an odd gait problem for a few weeks. She has been diagnosed with a form of tenosynovitis involving the tendon sheath of the digital deep flexor tendon in the area of the Achilles tendon above the hock.

Is there a reliable test to check the titer of immunity before we revaccinate each year for flu, rhino, etc.? Why is a tetanus shot good for five or more years in humans and only one year or less in the equine?