Horse Stretching Benefits, Approaches Detailed
Christa Lesté-Lasserre, MA
March 31, 2010
Horses are athletes, too, and according to research, they need that stretching as much as humans do.
Horses are athletes, too, and according to research, they need that stretching as much as humans do.
Abnormalities in the throats of yearling racehorses will negatively impact the horses’ athletic potential, making careful evaluation of these structures an important part of the prepurchase examination.
“Veterinarians routin
Most people wouldn’t think of getting up from a desk job and heading off into the mountains or hill country for long hikes without first getting into condition. The same should be true for your horse.
The time to pull out the thermometer and stethoscope to check your horse’s temperature, pulse (heart rate), and respiration (TPR) for the first time is not when he’s looking a little puny and you and the veterinarian are on the phone trying to decide whether it’s an emergency. Instead, these baseline measurements should be part of a horse’s routine care.
Lin Xie, a student at Louisiana State University, discusses conditioning horses with degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis. (2:42)
Many horses are trained athletes that are bred and conditioned for a specific sport such as racing, jumping, western performance or dressage. While these sports are relatively safe, just like a human athlete, there is always a possibility of injury and in most cases with horses the injury tends to be lameness.
Grey Parks, a graduate student working with Laurie Lawrence, PhD, at the University of Kentucky, conducted a study to determine if feeding endophyte-infected fescue would affect exercising horses, particularly their ability to recover from exercise in the heat.
An inaugural study has found that a sodium acetate electrolyte solution given orally with a typical hay and grain meal following exercise enhanced skeletal muscle metabolism to restore depleted glycogen (energy) sources.
More than 1,150 readers of TheHorse.com responded to a poll asking, “During peak riding times in your region, how often do you ride or exercise your horses?”
Preliminary results from research suggest you can strengthen your horse’s core muscles to help him be healthier, no matter his job in life.
Austrian researchers have reported that the stability of a rider?s seat affects the forces acting on a horse?s back. Using an electronic pressure mat placed under a dressage saddle, scientists with the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna?s
Endurance rides are often held in wilderness areas without good road access, posing a challenge when trying to reach a horse in distress. A Treatment Veterinarian should be equipped with sufficient horsepower (vehicle, ATV, or horse) to reach a horse
Most horse show emergencies are able to be cared for on-site, but if a crisis develops, the horse should be stabilized and transported to a full-care facility, according to Rick Mitchell, DVM, of Fairfield Equine Associates in Newtown, Conn.
Despite the fact that 20% of racehorses in the southern United States are affected by anhidrosis–the inability or decreased ability to sweat–the underlying causes of this medical condition remain unknown.
Sweating is the primary mean
A recent human study has found that tart cherry juice blend (TCJB) had beneficial effects on exercising muscle. The objective was to determine if TCJB can lessen exercise-induced muscle damage in horses, as measured by serum enzymatic markers.
Winter weather has driven 37-year-old competitive trail horse Elmer Bandit and his owner and rider Mary Anna Wood inside for dressage lessons.
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