Within this landscape, linebreeding is often presented as a thoughtful, strategic way to reinforce excellence, while inbreeding carries a sharper, more cautionary edge of the proliferation of genetic diseases and the loss of health.

Biologically, however, the distinction is mostly semantic. Both increase homozygosity, reduce genetic diversity and concentrate not only desirable traits but also hidden vulnerabilities that may take generations to appear.

Recognizing this truth allows us to discuss breeding practices clearly and safeguard the horses that inherit our choices.

How linebreeding works

Classically, inbreeding refers to matings between very close relatives such as full siblings, half-siblings, or parents and offspring.

Linebreeding slows the rhythm, repeating the influence of a notable ancestor further back in the pedigree, such as a shared grandparent for both sire and damn.

The language is gentler and the tone more palatable, but the mechanism is the same: every repetition increases homozygosity. Over generations, linebreeding quietly concentrates latent weaknesses that only become visible when the horses themselves, not the papers, reveal the cost.

Studbooks established in the 18th and 19th centuries placed lineage at the heart of breeding culture, and modern reproductive technologies now extend that influence far beyond natural limits.

Reproductive technology amplifies problem

Global semen distribution, frozen semen and embryo transfer allow the genetics of a few high-profile sires to saturate entire populations at a pace no natural breeding system could ever sustain.

Their traits — desirable and deleterious alike — spread rapidly through the gene pool, contracting genetic diversity as predictability increases and resilience diminishes.

Used thoughtfully, these tools can preserve rare bloodlines; used uncritically, they become engines of genetic narrowing that quietly reshape the biological landscape of entire breeds.

Four categories of genetic vulnerability

Across breeds and bloodlines, four major “targets” of genetic vulnerability appear repeatedly.

First, the connective-tissue disorders — HERDA in Quarter horses, WFFS in Warmbloods, CPL in draft breeds and the broader spectrum of collagen fragilities found in Friesians.

Second are the muscle-enzyme and contractility defects such as HYPP, PSSM1, MYH1 myopathy and GBED, which cluster predominantly in heavily muscled Quarter horse lines shaped by a handful of influential sires.

Third are immune-system vulnerabilities, most famously SCID in Arabians.

Finally, intense selection for discipline-specific traits can produce horses with increasingly reactive nervous systems or sensitive temperaments, which is an inherited fragility of a different kind.

These categories represent consistent genetic bottlenecks where repeated ancestry, concentrated selection and human ambition converge to narrow resilience.

Often, the barn sees these patterns long before science names them.

Owners and practitioners notice reproductive struggles, unexplained fragilities, metabolic crashes, behavioural issues or horses that fail to “hold together” despite excellent care.

By the time a DNA test is developed, the mutation has often already threaded through celebrated pedigrees, carried forward by seemingly successful members of the breed.

Name value fallacy

Pedigree culture encourages a particular kind of logic: repeated “good” names signal quality.

Seeing an influential ancestor appear multiple times in a pedigree is often celebrated as a badge of honour. Yet the story we tell ourselves about this pattern is misleading.

Repetition is not evidence of exceptional quality; it is an early warning of decreased genetic variation. What tradition labels as linebreeding is, biologically, a form of inbreeding softened by language and commercial polish.

Concentrating ancestry does not simply “fix type” or “lock in quality.” It narrows the genetic landscape and magnifies vulnerabilities that would otherwise remain safely diluted.

What COI and ROH actually tell breeders

Modern genomic tools strip away euphemisms.

COI (coefficient of inbreeding) estimates the probability that a horse inherited two copies of the same gene from a shared ancestor. ROH (runs of homozygosity) reveal long, identical stretches of DNA, the genomic fingerprint of a bottleneck.

In Friesians, high ROH reflects a small founding population, a closed studbook and aesthetic selection.

Certain Quarter horse subpopulations — descendants of stallions such as Impressive or Poco Bueno — show similar patterns.

Together, COI and ROH reveal the truth hidden by pedigree’s traditions: repeated ancestors are indicators of increased biological risk.

Yet genetic vulnerability is not destiny.

Disease emerges where heritage meets environment: processed feed, confinement, intensive training, metabolic strain and extreme selection pressure can bring hidden weaknesses to the surface.

HYPP attacks, metabolic collapse and sudden aortic ruptures are events shaped by inheritance, management and intensive training regimes.

The deeper truth is ethical as well as biological.

When phenotype becomes fashion and sport results dictate breeding choices, the cost is paid by the horse.

Balance is not merely lost — it is bred out.

How breed associations manage risk behind closed doors

Across breed associations, genetic issues are often managed quietly, internally, long before the public is aware.

Testing requirements, restricted matings or discreet removal of certain lines occur behind closed doors. From the outside, the breed appears healthy; inside, risk continues to intensify since the general public is unaware of the risks selected pedigrees raise.

Linebreeding is simply inbreeding that the industry labels as acceptable. The euphemism protects human interests, not equine well-being.

The central question remains: are we breeding to glorify a few celebrated bloodlines or to safeguard the long-term vitality, soundness and integrity of the horse?

The answer is not in the pedigree book or the sale catalogue. It is written in the living body of the horse, carrying the legacy of our choices, one generation at a time.

By shifting from name-collecting to true genetic diversity, breeders can move beyond the façade of linebreeding toward practices that protect the health, resilience and integrity of the horse for generations to come.

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A new study has found that this belief is no myth. Its results show that horses can detect chemical signals linked to human emotions, and that these signals can influence their behaviour and physiology.

Previous research has pointed to a form of emotional contagion between humans and horses. This is a phenomenon in which the emotional state of one person or animal influences the emotional state of another. But this is the first study to find evidence horses can detect human fear using their sense of smell.

Horses rely heavily on their sense of smell to understand the world around them. Their olfactory system is far more sensitive than ours, allowing them to detect subtle chemical differences in the environment.

There is scientific evidence that horses can select the most nutritious food by smelling it. A 2016 found that horses select foods based on nutrient content (such as protein), not just flavour, and that the way their body responds after eating influences future choices they make about food.

So how can horses smell our fear? Well, human emotions come with physiological changes. When people experience fear or stress, their body, face and voice changes. Their body also releases hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, heart rate increases, and their sweat composition changes. These changes alter the chemical profile of a person’s body odour, which can carry information about their emotional state.

The scent of fear

The new study found evidence horses not only detect but also respond to human emotional odours. Horses in the study were exposed to human body odours collected via cotton pads wiped under the armpits of people.

These research participants watched either an excerpt from the 2012 horror movie Sinister (to induce fear) or clips, like the Singing in the Rain’s dance scene (to induce joy). The researchers also collected control odours with no emotional association.

The horses showed distinct behavioural and physiological changes when exposed to fear-related odours through the cotton pads, which were secured by a nylon mask on the horses’ noses. They were more alert, more reactive to sudden events and less inclined to approach humans.

And they showed increases in maximum heart rate, which indicates stress, during the exposure to the fear smell from sweat. Crucially, these responses happened without any visual or vocal cues from humans displaying fear.

This finding shows that smell alone can influence a horse’s emotional state. Horses were not reacting to tense body language, facial expressions or nervous movements – they were responding to chemical signals carried in human scent.

Previous research has shown horses seem to be sensitive to humans’ emotional states. In a May 2025 study, horses were shown videos of humans expressing fear, joy or neutral emotions in their facial expressions and voice.

Researchers measured the horses’ heart rate, behaviour and facial expressions while they watched the videos. The horses showed increased heart rates when exposed to fearful or joyful human expressions compared with neutral ones, which indicates heightened emotional arousal.

Fearful expressions depicted in the videos were associated with alert postures in the horses, like holding their head high and pointing their ears back and stress-related facial movements, like wide eyes. Joyful expressions depicted in the videos were linked to patterns associated with positive emotional states, like relaxed nostrils and ears.

Together, these findings are consistent with emotional contagion. Emotional contagion has been documented between humans and dogs, for instance, and these results suggest horses may also be affected by human emotions.

What this does – and doesn’t – mean

These studies do not suggest that horses understand fear in the same way humans do, or that they know why a person is afraid. Instead, the evidence shows horses are highly sensitive to the chemical, visual and vocal cues associated with emotional states.

Smell is probably just one part of a broader physiological system. Horses are adept at reading human posture, muscle tension, breathing patterns, heart rate and movement – all of which change when a person is anxious. These cues shape how a horse perceives and responds to a human.

Understanding how horses perceive human emotions has important implications for welfare, training and safety. Riders, handlers and therapists working with horses may unintentionally influence an animal’s emotional state through their own stress or calmness.

More broadly, the research challenges outdated assumptions about animal perception. Horses are not passive responders to human commands, as equine professionals and researchers thought until recently. They are sensitive social partners, finely tuned to the emotional signals we give off.

Horses evolved as social prey animals living in large herds on open grasslands, where survival depended on detecting danger quickly. Although humans began domesticating horses around 5,500 years ago, this is evolutionarily recent, meaning modern horses still retain highly sensitive sensory systems adapted for vigilance and social awareness.

So, when people say horses can smell fear, science now suggests they may be closer to the truth than we originally thought. And next time you are close to a horse, try to relax, and make the interaction more enjoyable for both of you.

—Roberta Blake is a professor of animal performance science at Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K.

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Public consultations on a draft Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Equines opened on Jan. 12.

The National Farm Animal Care Council launched an update to the equine code in 2023. The revision involves consultaton with veterinary and scientific experts, producer and animal welfare representatives, and provincial and federal officials.

Changes in the draft code include:

• New rules around housing, such as a requirement for a mud management plan during wet periods and mandatory bedding depth.
• An amendment to air quality requirements by reducing the acceptable concentration of ammonia to 15 parts per million (ppm) from 25 ppm.
• Elevating the need for a working relationship with a veterinarian to requirement from a recommendation — an exception is made for areas where vets are not available, in which case a health care plan is acceptable.
• Added rules that say punishment is not acceptable in handling of horses and prohibits the use of pain and fear as training methods.
• A prohibition on selling horses for slaughter, if unfit for transportation, as an alternative to euthanasia.

The public comment period ends on March 12. The revised code is projected to be released in 2027.

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While iron deficiency is a well-recognized concern in human health, dietary iron deficiency has never been documented in adult horses.

Iron carries a certain mystique in equine nutrition. Its association with blood and performance, particularly in the racing industry, has fostered the widespread belief that supplementing iron can boost energy or enhance oxygen delivery. In reality, the opposite is true for most horses. Chronic iron excess is now recognized as a silent yet pervasive disruptor of health.

Approximately 60 per cent of the body’s iron is bound within hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in red blood cells from the lungs to the tissues. Another 20 per cent resides in myoglobin within muscles, storing oxygen for movement. The remainder exists in storage and transport proteins — such as ferritin and transferrin — and within immune cells in the liver and spleen.

Iron efficiency

Horses are remarkably efficient at recycling and regulating iron.

Red blood cells live about 150 days, after which their iron is reclaimed to form new cells.

Losses are minimal, and the hormone hepcidin serves as the regulatory gatekeeper controlling iron absorption and storage. Under normal circumstances, this system ensures that horses rarely — perhaps never — require supplemental iron.

In nature, horses are surrounded by iron. It is abundant in grasses, hays, grains and even water. A typical 500 kilogram horse consuming 10 kg of timothy hay daily, containing around 250 milligrams of iron per kg, ingests more than 2,500 mg of iron, which is well above the National Research Council minimum requirement of 400 mg per day and comfortably below the upper safe limit of 5,000 mg.

Thus, a horse on a typical forage-based diet will receive sufficient iron.

Iron in feed

It’s important to recognize that all plant-based feed ingredients naturally contain iron, so most commercial feeds already supply more than enough.

If iron is specifically added to a feed product, it appears on labels as iron oxide, ferrous fumarate, ferrous sulfate or ferrous gluconate. These forms of supplemental inorganic iron are best avoided.

Additional sources can include certain salt blocks, which may appear reddish due to iron enrichment. Like fortified feeds, these sources of inorganic iron can contribute to chronic overload.

The problem with iron

The problem with high iron is not just the iron itself but how it disrupts the delicate balance of other essential minerals.

In the small intestine, iron, copper, zinc and manganese all compete for the same transport proteins. When iron levels are excessive, it can “crowd out” copper and zinc, preventing adequate absorption, even when diets appear balanced.

This mineral imbalance often develops subtly, leaving owners unaware of the underlying cause as structural and metabolic issues begin to surface.

Not all sources of dietary iron are obvious.

Pastures grown on iron-rich soil, or on soil acidified by modern agricultural practices, tend to increase the amount of iron available for plant uptake, resulting in forage with elevated iron content.

Horses grazing on such pastures may ingest far more iron than needed, particularly if copper and zinc levels are already low.

Well water containing more than 10 mg per litre of iron can further elevate total intake, and when combined with fortified feeds or multiple supplements, daily levels can easily exceed safe limits.

Collectively, these environmental and management factors make chronic iron excess a more realistic concern than deficiency in the modern horse.

Over time, this slow accumulation takes a toll.

Horses consuming iron-rich forages, feed or water or receiving unnecessary supplementation may show telltale signs such as rusty tips on dark manes, dull or reddish coats, brittle hoofs or recurring abscesses.

These subtle changes reflect underlying interference with copper, zinc and manganese absorption, minerals essential for connective tissue strength, joint health and hoof integrity. Left unchecked, the imbalance can contribute to fatigue, inflammation, weakened immunity and metabolic instability.

Emerging evidence further suggests that chronic iron overload may play a contributing role in metabolic disorders such as equine metabolic syndrome and laminitis.

Excess iron interferes with trace mineral balance and enzymatic function, disrupting insulin regulation and connective tissue health.

Horses grazing on high-iron, high-sugar pastures or consuming iron-rich concentrates may therefore be more susceptible to metabolic stress.

In this context, iron acts as an environmental factor that interacts with diet, water quality and individual metabolic resilience to potentially tip the balance toward insulin resistance and laminitic episodes.

Avoiding a problem

Horse owners can take several proactive steps to safeguard mineral balance.

Begin by testing forage and water, especially in regions with mineral-rich or acidic soils.

Evaluate trace mineral ratios, maintaining Fe:Cu:Zn between roughly 4:1:4 and 10:1:4 to offset excess iron’s effects.

Adjust feeding management as needed by offering tested hay, rotating or blending pastures and sourcing alternative water if necessary.

Under veterinary guidance, blood testing for ferritin and transferrin can help assess stored iron and detect early metabolic stress.

Iron is undeniably essential for equine health, yet for many horses, the challenge lies not in a deficiency, but in maintaining balance and avoiding excess.

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Glacier FarmMedia – The Moose Jaw Exhibition Company has been placed under quarantine, effective Dec. 22, due to a confirmed case of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) at the grounds.

Quarantine will last 21 days in accordance with standard biosecurity measures for the virus, at the direction of local veterinarian Dr. Laura Baron, who confirmed the case.

Saskatchewan Agriculture has confirmed that EHV-1 has been detected, but at this time, there is no known connection to the EHV detections in the United States or Alberta.

The province’s chief veterinary officer has been in contact with the veterinarian involved and is playing a supporting role in the case.

Second case not confirmed

The announcement of the case was made by the Moose Jaw Exhibition via a Facebook post on Sat. Dec. 20, and halted acceptance of new horses. The confirmed case was a boarding horse at the exhibition grounds, which has since died.

A second potential case has presented in a horse with strong symptoms, but it’s yet to be confirmed by the lab.

EVH-1 is one of the most common strains of equine herpesvirus in Canada, and all horses are susceptible.

According to the University of Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Centre, “the respiratory disease caused by EHV is most common in weanlings and yearlings. Pregnant mares are susceptible to abortion. The neurologic form of disease may occur more commonly in aged horses.”

The neurological disease is also named equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM).

Baron confirmed the case as the respiratory disease, although a severe case of it, despite public speculation of it being the neurological disease.

Infection vector uncertain

Concern for the situation is high, particularly with recent cases of the disease in Alberta and multiple outbreaks throughout the U.S.

Reactions to the social media post, and following posts such as the quarantine, have included questions about the situation as well as shock, disappointment and concern.

From Dec. 20 to the quarantine placement on Dec. 22, boarding tenants were able to remove their horses from the grounds.

At this time, the exhibition association and Baron are unsure how the horse in question came to be infected.

“EHV is endemic in the horse population, which means it’s kind of there all the time,” Baron said.

“And by virtue herpes viruses, lots of times you get them, and then they lay latent in the body, and then at times of stress use, the infections will kind of pop up.

“So we actually don’t know where the infection kind of came from, or who patient zero was, or where it started.”

The exhibition association and Peak Veterinary Health, the practice where Baron is employed, have been working in close contact to ensure disease protocols and guidelines are followed.

“I think it would certainly be causation for concern in the equine community,” exhibition president Mel Burns said in an email.

“Being a horse owner and having horses on the grounds myself, I too have concerns. I have tremendous empathy for everyone, especially for the horse owner.”

Focus now on biosecurity

Each horse at the exhibition grounds has its own individual pen and access to its own box stall. Stalls are solid, so there is no nose to nose contact between animals, though there is with pen fences.

Wash racks and common areas have been properly disinfected.

“Our top priority is to ensure the safety of every horse on our grounds,” added Burns.

The focus now is on biosecurity: ensuring no contact between quarantined horses, no new horses coming in, handlers thoroughly washing hands and thorough washing and disinfecting anything that horses come in contact with, including tack, water buckets and feed buckets.

“Thankfully, the virus is kind of wimpy, and so the cold will help kill it, but it can survive, up to two to five days on surfaces and up to 14 days in water,” Baron said.

Some tenants and clients were allowed to remove their horses to quarantine them at their own facilities. Baron spoke with them extensively about proper quarantine and biosecurity protocols.

Baron said he made that decision based on her knowledge and trust of the clients and their ability to diligently follow biosecurity. She knows where each of the horse went.

Owners required to monitor

Owners are required to monitor their horse’s temperature one to two times daily for spikes in fever, as well as look for clinical signs such as coughing, nasal discharge and lethargy.

“If they do note a fever, obviously they should contact their veterinarian right away,” she said.

“And then we should do nasal swabs and send away for testing. And, again, just keeping really good hygiene and keeping the biosecurity standards high.”

If horses begin to present signs, they will be isolated for 21 days following their last day of fever and other clinical signs to ensure they are done shedding the virus.

Once the virus is present, the only treatment is pain medications, NSAIDs and occasionally additional supportive measures until the virus has run its course.

Vaccinations for EVH-1 are available, though they don’t provide 100 per cent protection, much like the human flu vaccine. The vaccines do not protect against EHM.

An information session is being hosted Dec. 23 at 5:30 p.m. at the Golden Nugget Centre in Moose Jaw with Baron and Dr. Tyra Dickson, Saskatchewan’s animal health and welfare veterinarian.

There is also a Teams meeting link available for virtual attendance posted on the MJ Ex Co.’s Facebook page.

For additional support or information, horse owners should contact their local veterinarian. Baron also recommends information on the American Association of Equine Practitioners website.

The post Equine herpes case confirmed at Moose Jaw Exhibition Company appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Early in my veterinary career, I heard them speak of “soft bones” and the patience needed when starting a young horse.

Their wisdom, passed down through generations, came not from textbooks but from a lifetime of working with horses.

It took years of hands-on experience for me to connect that old-world knowledge with modern science.

“Soft bones” are what we now call open growth plates — fragile seams of cartilage where bone is still forming and strengthening. Those horsemen understood an essential truth: pushing a young horse before its skeleton is ready can cause harm that lasts a lifetime, and ultimately result in the early breakdown of these colts and fillies.

While all animals have growth plates, horses are unique among domestic species in what we ask of them at a young age.

We expect them to carry riders, jump, turn sharply and perform athletic manoeuvres before their skeletons are fully knit together.

These demands often come when their bodies are still actively developing, especially in the deepest structural parts of the skeleton.

Understanding growth plates is not an academic exercise — it is the foundation for a horse’s long-term soundness and athletic potential.

Today, many horses are started under saddle at just two years old, some as early as 18 months — long before major growth plates, particularly in the spine and pelvis, have closed.

By contrast, traditional horsemen often waited until four years or more before beginning intensive training. They may not have had scientific explanations, but they had seen the damage caused by working a young horse “while the bones were still ‘soft’.”

The modern shift toward earlier training has happened without fully considering the horse’s biological readiness, and the consequences are increasingly visible.

Growth plates are regions of cartilage within bones that enable growth and later ossify into solid bone. This cartilage forms the critical scaffolding for skeletal development but remains soft, pliable and highly vulnerable to mechanical stress — especially in large, weight-bearing animals such as horses.

Forces such as weight, torque, shear and repeated impact placed on immature growth plates can cause permanent change in bone structure.

Once a growth plate is injured, the damage is often irreversible. The bone may fuse unevenly or prematurely, compromising its strength and alignment.

This can lead to chronic pain, compensatory movement patterns, neurological issues and, in severe cases, early retirement, sometimes before the horse reaches full physical maturity.

Most attention in equine development focuses on the more accessible growth plates of the limbs.

The racing industry, for instance, commonly uses the closure of the distal radius (the “knees”) around two to 2.5 years of age as a benchmark for skeletal maturity.

However, this standard is misleading.

The reliance on radiographic evidence stems primarily from older studies focused on the distal radius closure as a sign of readiness.

However, more recent research reveals that many critical growth plates, especially those deeper within the pelvis, spine and other core structures, remain open well beyond this age, often into the horse’s fifth or sixth year and even longer in some individuals. These findings highlight a significant gap between longstanding industry practices and current scientific understanding.

The deeper, less visible growth plates located in the pelvis, sacrum, lumbar spine, hocks, and cervical vertebrae mature much later. These internal structures provide the horse’s core foundation, strength, balance and ability to carry weight efficiently, yet they remain under-studied, rarely imaged and are largely unaccounted for in training protocols and veterinary assessments.

Externally, a young horse may look mature — tall, muscled and well-proportioned — but inside, vital load-bearing structures may still be developing.

Training that seems “appropriate” based on appearance can, in fact, be overloading tissues that are not yet ready for sustained stress.

The signs of growth plate strain or injury can be subtle, nuanced and easily misinterpreted.

A horse may not limp or display obvious pain, but may instead resist certain movements, appear unwilling to go forward, show persistent tension or develop vague, shifting lameness that evade diagnosis and respond poorly to therapies.

Such signs are often misread as behavioural problems or minor physical issues, when they may be early warnings of deeper skeletal compromise.

The cost of early skeletal trauma is high. Beyond the physical toll on the horse, there is the emotional and financial burden for owners managing chronic conditions, such as paying for repeated diagnostics and treatments or facing the premature loss of a horse’s athletic career.

By understanding growth plate development in the horse, owners and trainers can make informed choices that respect the horse’s natural developmental timeline.

This means matching workloads and training intensity to the horse’s stage of skeletal maturity rather than to its physical appearance or the demands of the industry.

Growth plate education is an essential part of good stewardship, protecting a horse’s opportunity for a sound, productive and pain-free life, but true change demands more than awareness. It calls for the courage to challenge outdated practices and place the horse’s biological reality above traditional expectations.

Growth plates offer no second chances: once damaged, full skeletal integrity can never be restored. The silver lining is that this outcome is entirely preventable.

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What is often overlooked, however, is that the horse, too, becomes a kind of weekend warrior. After spending much of the week in quiet routines, the horse is suddenly asked to transition into long rides, jumping lessons or demanding events on Saturday or Sunday.

This abrupt rhythm, though common, carries profound consequences for the horse’s body, mind and long-term well-being.

Horses are creatures of consistency. Their bodies and nervous systems are designed for steady, rhythmic movement, low-intensity grazing and regular social interaction.

When their lives are limited to stalls, small paddocks or low-activity pastures during the week, their bodies adapt to that reality. Soft tissues lose elasticity, cardiovascular fitness declines, joints may stiffen and the metabolic system becomes accustomed to low demand.

Then, with the arrival of the weekend, the same horse is suddenly asked to perform as if it had been conditioned for endurance, speed or precision all along.

The contrast is striking. It is not unlike asking a sedentary office worker to run a half-marathon once a week without any training in between. Muscles fatigue quickly, tendons and ligaments strain and joints take on impacts they are not prepared to absorb.

Recovery stretches out, and with each cycle the risk of chronic injury grows. This pattern, repeated over time, quietly lays the groundwork for unsoundness and behavioural stress that owners may misinterpret as attitude rather than adaptation.

Injury risk

The physical risks of the weekend warrior lifestyle are many.

Cold, unconditioned muscles are more prone to microtears, while tendons and ligaments, which strengthen only gradually, are vulnerable to overload from sudden exertion.

Intense bursts of work such as jumping, galloping or long trotting on hard ground can inflame hoof laminae, inciting laminitis, and inflame joint cartilage, accelerating the development of arthritis.

Horses fed a steady diet throughout the week but exercised heavily only on weekends may swing between energy surplus and deficit, stressing the metabolic system and contributing to long-term imbalances.

Poor-fitting tack that might be tolerated for a short weekday ride can become a real problem during longer weekend sessions. Extended hours under ill-fitting equipment magnify pressure points and friction, turning what was once manageable into genuine soreness or injury.

The horse’s mind is no less affected.

A week of limited stimulation can lead to boredom, frustration or low-grade depression. When suddenly confronted with intense engagement, many horses respond with anxiety, tension or even explosive behaviour. What appears to be disobedience or resistance is often a reflection of unmet needs and being overwhelmed by abrupt demands.

This weekend warrior phenomenon says more about human culture than horse culture.

In past generations, horses lived within a steady rhythm of daily use.

Farm horses worked each day at consistent levels, carriage horses moved regularly and saddle horses were ridden as transportation.

Today, the pendulum has swung toward sporadic bursts of activity, dictated by competition schedules and lifestyle demands. While this shift may suit human convenience, it are horses that bear the consequences of inconsistency.

Once an owner and/or rider recognizes the risks, steps can be taken to mitigate them.

Keep them moving

The most important support a horse can receive is daily movement. Horses with access to turnout, where they can walk, graze and socialize, are far better prepared for bursts of activity than those kept in stalls or small pens.

Even 15 to 20 minutes of midweek activity — whether hand-walking, groundwork or light riding — helps keep tissues supple and the mind engaged.

Building fitness gradually is critical. Long, intense rides should follow only after a foundation of steady conditioning has been established.

Owners must also learn to listen more closely to the subtle cues horses give. A shortened stride, reluctance to bend, wringing of the tail or a “cold” back is not stubbornness but often an early warning sign of overload.

Nutrition may need to be adjusted to better match workload, and recovery time is best built into the routine after strenuous weekends.

Most importantly, riders ought to be aware that some horses may come to associate their riders with discomfort if every interaction is tied to sudden exertion and pain upon recovery. Protecting the partnership means ensuring that time together is as rewarding as it is demanding.

Horses do not choose their schedules; humans impose it upon them. Recognizing the mismatch between equine biology and human convenience is the first step toward building a healthier balance.

A horse that is kept moving, conditioned progressively and supported with patience can thrive even if the rider’s time is limited.

However, a horse asked to carry the burden of sudden, unprepared exertion risks not only its soundness but also its trust in the human who asks it.

In the end, a horse is not a weekend vehicle, but a living being whose body and spirit depend on the rhythms we create for them.

The post Weekend warrior horses at risk appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

What I uncovered instead was a murky trail of fragmented data, shifting export markets, questionable industry practices and a stunning lack of transparency.

Canada’s horse slaughter industry historically handled tens of thousands of horses a year.

At its peak, more than 100,000 horses were slaughtered annually, many imported from the United States after U.S. slaughter plants closed in 2007.

These horses, sometimes young and healthy, often unwanted or surplus, were shipped for processing with meat exported to Europe and Asia.

In addition, the pharmaceutical industry, particularly pregnant mare urine (PMU) farms, historically contributed horses to the slaughter pipeline. While the PMU industry has declined, its impact continues to shape the movement of horses.

While horse slaughter may be unfortunate, it serves a practical role: unwanted horses in Canada and the U.S. provide meat for markets in Japan, France and other parts of Asia.

Even so, necessity does not absolve the industry from responsibility. There must be accountability in the transition from companion animal to livestock, including traceability, humane handling and ethical oversight at every stage.

Recent estimates suggest that domestic slaughter has dropped dramatically. From highs of more than 80,000 to 100,000 horses annually, numbers now appear closer to 15,000 to 25,000. This shift is due largely to several converging factors.

Tens of thousands of American horses entered Canada each year for slaughter, but advocacy campaigns and stricter U.S. regulations sharply curtailed this flow. Today, the majority of U.S. horses go to Mexico for slaughter rather than Canada, though some still enter Canadian facilities.

The European Union introduced requirements for drug history and traceability, making it harder for Canadian plants to export meat without full documentation. Japan has also increased scrutiny, particularly for live exports.

The number of federally licensed slaughterhouses has dwindled, with Alberta’s Bouvry Exports and Quebec’s Viande Richelieu dominating the landscape.

These two sister companies are corporately related, and while Bouvry has feedlot capabilities, the Granum Prime Feedlot has been shut down following legal scrutiny.

It is important to note that the Fort Macleod slaughter plant remains operational under Canadian Food Inspection Agency oversight.

The 2025 fine against Bouvry addressed past violations at the Granum feedlot but did not mandate closure, allowing the Fort McLeod facility to continue processing horses at reduced capacity.

While headlines may suggest shutdowns or fines signal the end of the industry, in practice, processing continues — quietly, persistently and largely out of public view.

One of the greatest challenges in understanding the horse slaughter industry is the lack of clear, publicly accessible data.

Federal reporting on horse slaughter ceased in 2017, and while organizations and advocates attempt to fill the gaps, discrepancies and missing information persist.

This absence of disclosure, whether due to fragmented regulation, corporate practices or systemic oversight issues, makes it nearly impossible to trace horses from auction to slaughter, monitor welfare standards or fully understand the impact of related industries.

Highlighting these blind spots is essential: without transparency, accountability remains out of reach, and the true scale and conditions of the industry stay hidden from public and regulatory scrutiny.

The persistence of opaque practices in the horse slaughter industry suggests that concentrated corporate power, political influence and regulatory limitations all play a role.

Large processing companies maintain significant leverage through economic arguments — jobs, trade revenues and market stability, which can slow legislative reforms or complicate enforcement.

Regulatory agencies, reliant on industry data and expertise, face challenges in monitoring welfare and traceability, while cross-border trade adds layers of complexity that obscure oversight.

These factors together create a system where transparency is limited, accountability is difficult and ethical scrutiny is often delayed or diluted, leaving the welfare of horses vulnerable to gaps in governance and industry influence.

Live exports for slaughter remain a small fraction of total horses, but they are ethically significant.

Roughly 2,000 to 3,000 horses are shipped annually from Canada to Japan, mostly draft breeds, enduring long flights in containment shipping. Public concern has mounted over the lack of transparency and oversight.

Bill C-355, introduced in 2023, aims to prohibit the air export of live horses for slaughter. Yet progress is slow, and industry influence remains strong.

The lack of clear reporting and public access to data keeps the industry largely hidden, leaving questions about humane treatment and traceability unanswered.

Canada’s horse slaughter industry has changed dramatically, but it has not gone away. Transparency is key, both to protect the animals and to allow the public, policymakers and advocates to engage meaningfully.

Understanding this hidden system — its decline, consolidation, corporate connection and ethical challenges — is essential for anyone seeking to navigate the intersection of agriculture, animal welfare and international trade.

The lives of these horses deserve scrutiny, clarity and oversight, even in an industry where horses, once unwanted as companions, become economically valuable as livestock.

The post Canada’s slaughter horse industry lacks transparency appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

But these five 10-month-olds are the world’s first genetically edited horses: cloned copies of a prize-winning horse named Polo Pureza, or Polo Purity, with a single DNA sequence inserted using CRISPR technology with the aim of producing explosive speed.

Kheiron Biotech, the Argentine company that created the horses, says gene-editing has the potential to revolutionize horse breeding.

While cloning creates a genetically identical copy, CRISPR functions as a sort of genetic scissors to cut and customize DNA.

The company, which specializes in equine cloning, used CRISPR to reduce the expression of the myostatin gene, which limits muscle growth. The idea was to increase the muscle fibers that allow for powerful movements and so transform the horses into sprinters.

But polo isn’t letting them in so fast.

While Argentina, regarded as the global capital of polo, has long welcomed reproductive technologies – including cloning – to breed elite horses, the sport’s national body and breeding association are putting up hurdles to prevent GE horses from joining the game.

The Argentine Polo Association has banned GE horses from competition.

“I wouldn’t like them to play polo,” said Benjamin Araya, the association’s president. “This takes away the charm, this takes away the magic of breeding. I like to choose a mare, choose a stallion, cross them, and hope that it will turn out very well.”

And the Argentine Association of Polo Horse Breeders told Reuters it will monitor the horses for four or five years before making a decision on whether to register them as Argentine polo ponies.

Kheiron said it was confident the polo community would eventually come around. “The truth is that I’m not so worried about it,” Gabriel Vichera, the company’s scientific director, told Reuters. “Educating, I think that’s what we have to keep doing.”

It’s unclear how the sport’s national body would enforce a ban. Argentine regulations do not distinguish between cloned, GE and conventionally bred horses and neither does the polo association.

Some breeders said that while they appreciate how clones can help preserve the bloodlines, gene-editing goes too far and could threaten their business.

The $800,000 horse

“This ruins breeders,” said Marcos Heguy, a breeder and former professional polo player. “It’s like painting a picture with artificial intelligence. The artist is finished.”

Eduardo Ramos, who began breeding in the 70s, said that breeders had also been skeptical at first of other advances in biotech, such as embryo transplants and cloning.

“Science and technology will keep advancing,” he said. “Those who say this shouldn’t be done won’t be able to stop it.”

Polo, which originated in Central Asia, was brought to Argentina by British immigrants, who founded the first polo club in Buenos Aires in 1882. It’s somewhat like hockey on horseback, where two teams of four people each sweep long mallets to drive a ball through goal posts.

It’s expensive – players ride as many as a dozen horses per game – and in Argentina, wealthy land-owning families have traditionally dominated the sport.

The country exported about 2,400 polo horses last year, according to government data, and the Argentine polo breed dominates prestigious competitions like the Queen’s Cup in England and the Argentine Open.

The sport has long used surrogates to carry embryos of polo-playing horses. And unlike horse racing, polo allows cloned animals.

The world’s first cloned horse was born in 2003. Adolfo Cambiaso, widely considered the world’s top player, helped popularize polo clones. When a clone of Cambiaso’s prized Cuartetera sold at an auction in 2010 for $800,000, the amount caught the attention of Vichera, then a biotech doctoral student.

Vichera went on to co-found Kheiron the next year with backing from businessman Daniel Sammartino. Its first cloned horse was born in 2013.

Cloned horses weren’t an easy sell at first. To get going, Sammartino said he provided free cloning services to top breeders, who allowed him to keep some of the newborn clones in exchange. By this year, the company says it will produce 400 clones, more than half of all the cloned horses born in Argentina in 2025, according to the breeders’ association’s estimates.

The cloned foals sell for an average of $40,000, Sammartino said.

In 2017, the Kheiron lab used CRISPR genetic editing to produce nine GE horse embryos for research purposes.

That upset some prominent figures in Argentina’s polo world who visited the government’s biotech regulator, concerned about the possibility of gene-edited horses entering the sport, said Martin Lema, who headed the agency at the time.

For the next few years, Kheiron said the lab focused on other animals, producing gene-edited cows and pig embryos designed for human transplants.

Then late last year in the gaucho town of San Antonio de Areco – where farm hands still wear berets in traditional cowboy culture – Kheiron’s birthing clinic produced the five GE foals.

Plans paused

Argentina’s biotech regulator verified the DNA edit, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters. The department of agriculture, which oversees the agency, declined to comment.

About 50 breeders signed on to a letter to the breeders’ association that said the gene-edited horses were “crossing a limit” and asked not to register the horses without “a profound reflection on where we want to go.”

Although Santiago Ballester, the president of the association, said he personally has “no problem” with genetically edited horses, he acknowledged the concerns of fellow breeders about how gene-editing would affect their business, and whether countries that import Argentine polo horses would accept gene-edited ones.

The association decided to tread cautiously.

“Let’s be careful, responsible,” Ballester said. “We have to see what impact these horses will have, if they are really superior animals. If they are normal, who is going to pay money for this?”

Ted Kalbfleisch, a geneticist at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center, said that Kheiron’s insertion of a natural DNA sequence simply sped up traditional modifications, which can take several generations.

“Where things get sketchy is when you’re trying to maybe make edits you’re guessing about,” he said. But with myostatin, scientists edited “a gene that we know is present in healthy horses. When they take that and edit it into a clone, provided they do it faithfully… it ought to work.”

Although Kalbfleisch said that gene-edited horses may have an advantage in polo tournaments, it’s not necessarily an unfair one.

“This technology, the cloning and the gene editing, are pretty well democratized right now,” he said. “If you can write a check you can get it done.”

The horses still have a ways to go before they hit the polo field. At age two, they’ll start easing into a saddle. A year or two later, they’ll begin learning polo.

But Sammartino admitted that plans to commercialize their gene-editing service are on hold until the polo authorities are on board. The pause has frustrated Sammartino, who said he had been contacted by a dozen potentially interested clients in Argentina, though he declined to put Reuters in contact with them, citing privacy reasons.

Even so, Sammartino acknowledged that an element of uncertainty remains.

“Will it be a better horse? I don’t know. Time will tell.”

The post World’s first gene-edited horses are shaking up the genteel sport of polo appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Looking at their website, the animal rights group highlights animal transport under its list of causes. The page reads that federal laws and regulations applying to farmed livestock are “notoriously weak,” prioritize outcomes rather than prescriptions and, thus, do not account for animal suffering while being shipped, just that they arrive at their destination without “noticeable injury or illness.”

Of bigger issue to one Manitoba horse farm, as Glacier FarmMedia recently reported, the group is staunchly against air export of horses for the slaughter market, which their website calls a “national shame.”

The group points to federal rules around how long livestock can be in transit before getting a break for food, rest and water. That’s 24 hours without water for broiler chickens (28 hours between rest and food), 28 hours for horses and pigs and 36 hours for cattle old enough to no longer be nursing.

Animal Justice is in the process of taking that horse farm to court over a 2022 shipment they say went over those limits.

But their latest release criticized the same farm for apparently shipping the horses close to Winnipeg, offloading them at a feedlot overnight and then completing the journey to the airport. The group characterized it as a “workaround” in the rules to “reset the clock.”

Industry might bemusedly describe it as just plain following the rules. As well as maximum transport times without a break, regulations also set out how long those breaks must be. The clock can only restart after a mimimum eight consecutive hours of rest, according to Canada’s Health of Animals Regulations.

Moira Harris, an animal welfare consultant quoted by Animal Justice, noted that that loading and unloading is “the most stressful and disruptive parts of transport” whether that transport is by road or by air, and would increase “… stress and reduce their welfare, compared to an uninterrupted trip.”

That’s weirdly similar to arguments Canada’s beef sector was shouting from the rooftops five years ago, when more restrictive federal rules around food, rest and water breaks were introduced.

Prior to that, cattle could be on the road for a maximum 48 hours before a break, and those breaks only had to be five hours long.

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