The NARHA Equine Specialist Certification Subcommittee and the NARHA staff announced the Equine Specialist in Mental Health and Learning Certification. Equine-Facilitated Learning and Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy are rapidly growing fields, and this certification is meant to improve the experience for all involved. A lot of hard work has been done by the Equine Specialist Certification S

A Wyoming woman has asked the Speaker of the State’s House of Representatives and other officials to investigate Representative Sue Wallis on grounds that the lawmaker violated ethics laws when she sponsored legislation to allow horse processing plant development in that state. Wallis was the primary sponsor of HB 122

Authorities in Smith County, Texas, have removed 43 horses from a Lindale property. An investigator with the Smith County District Attorney’s office served a seizure warrant to the horses’ owner Dec. 14, allowing the horses to be removed the next day and placed them at a temporary holding facility. Many of the horses on site were severely emaciated and showed signs of neglect.

A team of German researchers might have pinpointed the genes responsible in part for the development of navicular syndrome as the result of a study of Hanoverian Warmbloods.

Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) has added a Masters of Science in Horse Science (MSHS) program to its curriculum. With this addition, MTSU is positioning itself to be one of the Southeast’s premier undergraduate and postgraduate educational facilities in the horse industry.

Exactly 740 readers of TheHorse.com responded to a poll asking, “What are your horse’s favorite holiday treats?”

Zenyatta’s California connections were in Versailles, Ky., on Dec. 20 to visit the great mare and watch her stretch her legs in a paddock for the first time at Lane’s End Farm. Owners Ann and Jerry Moss, trainer John Shirreffs and his wife Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs (the Mosses’ racing manager), groom Mario Espinoza, and Espinoza’s wife hotwalker Carmen Zamona made the trip. They arrived at the

University of California, Davis, doctoral candidate Carrie J. Finno, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, has received the 2010 American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Foundation Past Presidents’ Research Fellow for her contributions to advancing equine research.

Researchers have found that omega-3 fatty acids have direct anti-inflammatory actions that might be useful for the treatment of osteoarthritis and lameness in horses. Inflammation is characterized by pain, swelling, heat, redness, and loss of use. One of the most important mediators of inflammation (the substances responsible for initiating and regulating the inflammatory process) is

The Horseman’s Card donated more than $17,400 to the University of Kentucky (UK) Gluck Equine Research Center during the first three quarters of 2010. Since its inception in 1992, The Horseman’s Card Platinum Plus Visa Credit Card with WorldPoints Rewards has donated hundreds of thousands of research dollars to the Gluck Center to benefit horse health. The affinity card was created to specifically

Now in its 19th issue, the Bluegrass Equine Digest continues to provide the latest news on equine research at the University of Kentucky (UK) for the benefit of horse owners all across the country. The UK Equine Initiative (which represents all equine programs at UK) and the Gluck Equine Research Center, together with TheHorse.com and sponsor Pfizer Animal Health, have offered stories about

When a Quarter Horse colt born with a severely deformed right hind limb arrived at the University of Florida’s Large Animal Hospital last May, equine veterinarians recognized that traditional methods used for straightening abnormal legs in foals would not work. But five months, three surgeries, and one small animal surgeon later, the foal is living the good life at home in Palmetto, Fla.

A Florida man will serve five years in prison for poaching two horses and butchering them for meat. In September 2009 Miami-Dade County law enforcement authorities arrested Santiago Cabrera in connection with a July 2009 incident involving a horse discovered dead in a pasture near its stables, apparently butchered for its meat. Cabrera later confessed to taking part in a similar killing

Zenyatta finished second to Olympic gold medal-winning American skier Lindsey Vonn as The Associated Press’ 2010 Female Athlete of the Year, the second year in a row she was the runner-up for the award.

The gene responsible for causing the swaybacked appearance of many American Saddlebred horses might be playing an advanced game of “hide and go seek,” but genetic researchers at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center are one step closer to uncovering this gene and, thus, helping breeders one day avoid perpetuating the trait. Swayback, also referred to as lordosis, lowback, or

To give the everyday horse owner or manager access to a set of relatively easy-to-use budgets, the University of Kentucky departments of Agricultural Economics and Animal and Food Sciences have developed online budgeting tools available on their website.