How to care for the basic health needs of horses
Therapeutic riding is for people of all ages with various disabilities, and it has become very popular. For horses, however, the invitation is much more re-stricted. There are specialized expectations of a horse used in therapeutic riding. If
It’s spring, yet your aging equine has failed to shed his long, shaggy, winter coat. Furthermore, he’s developed a saggy belly coupled with loss of muscle over his croup and rump. He’s gulping down far more water than he used to, and his stall i
It becomes obvious that acclimating to a new environment is a challenge for the competing horse, involving everything from wellness and altitude to circadian rhythms involving time zones. It also becomes obvious, based on research, that there is no
The foreleg of the horse is, for the most part, a model of good engineering. It is structured in such a fashion that the horse can move slowly or at speed with the concussion of each footfall minimized by a sophisticated shock absorbing system.
Well before an ocular emergency occurs, you should familiarize yourself with the easily visible outer structures of a horse’s eye. Observe the eye with the aid of a penlight or other light source. Evidence of pain is a clear symptom of most ocular
Colorado State University (CSU) researchers have found significant patterns of six different signals of damage or “biomarkers” in the serum of racehorses with certain musculoskeletal diseases.
Biomarkers are indicators of abnormal
Locomotion is at the very heart of what most domesticated horses do for a living. The way a horse moves (specifically) often is taken for granted. Locomotion is directly linked to conformation as it dictates “the way a horse moves.”
Horses treated with ACS were observed to have significantly improved lameness in osteoarthritis joints at the end of the study weeks after the last treatment compared with placebo-treated horses.
ID numbers should be in a searchable database
While microchips were helpful in reuniting horses with owners after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it was generally because owners had proof of horses’ microchip numbers. Since 1994,
“Prevention of contagious diseases is dependent on an effective vaccination program and a carefully developed and strictly enforced management program,” said Steve Conboy, DVM, a Central Kentucky equine practitioner, at the 2005 American
When your horse’s behavior changes, you wonder what caused the change–did he start kicking his stall because he is in pain, or just because he hates his new stablemate? Behavior changes can stem from physical problems, psychological ones, or a
(Edited press release)
Five equine organizations joined together this week to provide 6,500 bales of hay to nearly 800 horses in Vermilion Parish, La., that were affected by Hurricane Rita. The United States Equestrian Federatio
Scientists recently showed that the Fort Dodge Animal Health West Nile virus (WNV) DNA vaccine, which is licensed but not yet commercially available, should protect foals from the virus regardless of residual antibodies received at birth from
While horse owners worldwide want a simple answer to the question of whether foal imprinting works or not, it’s hard to give a simple answer to what really isn’t a simple question. This was the message of an imprinting research review presented
“Until recently, horses have been estimated to have average intelligence at best,” said Evelyn B. Hanggi, MS, PhD, president and, along with Jerry Ingersoll, co-founder of the Equine Research Foundation (ERF) in Aptos, Calif., during her review
The first sight of blood can prompt a frantic call to the veterinarian, but a second examination of the wound with a cool head might prove it to be less of an emergency. To help horse owners distinguish between emergencies and a wound that
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