Reading Time: 3 minutes Even though the ‘two-week no-grain challenge’ may be anxiety inducing, implementing it can offer surprisingly beneficial results for both horse and human. Humans often equate food with love and unknowingly project these feelings on to their animal family — cats, dogs and horses. So this grain-free challenge, touted in some horse websites and forums, often triggers […] Read more
Taking the two-week grain-free challenge is worthwhile
Removing grain or processed feeds from your horse can be a good starting point in identifying dietary issues
Horses have many ways to stay warm during the winter
Putting on a blanket or feeding more grain can sometimes do more harm than good
Reading Time: 3 minutes The horse is remarkably adapted and adept at staying warm as the winter season arises and temperatures plunge into the double digits. In order to stay warm, the horse requires resources to do so. If its environment and circumstance do not meet the requirements needed to physiologically thermoregulate and generate internal heat, the horse may […] Read more
Forage is the key to healthy diets in horses
Forages don’t get a marketing push, but they play important roles in many areas
Reading Time: 4 minutes Horses both need forage and horses need to forage. Both aspects are equally nourishing to the horse and both aspects are necessary to fully satisfy their physical, emotional and mental contentment. Forage comes without a feed label and receives very little marketing attention compared to the enterprising sales campaigns for designer equine rations. Many of […] Read more
The nose knows: the sense of smell in horses
This often-overlooked sensory system is a major contributor to horse well-being
Reading Time: 4 minutes Despite horses being described as one of the most perceptive of all animals, research on equine sensory abilities is limited and has mainly focused on hearing and vision. Although olfaction, or the sense of smell, has only been studied sparsely, the highly developed and sophisticated anatomy of the olfactory system in the horse with its […] Read more
There’s a lot to be learned by reading a horse’s withers
This complex structure can reveal a lot about a horse’s soundness
Reading Time: 4 minutes The comfort and health of the horse’s withers is a central key to its performance and soundness. The withers are the part of the spinal column that lies in between the animal’s shoulder blades and includes the third to 11th thoracic vertebrae. Collectively these vertebra project upwards into an arch. Their uniquely prominent (tall) spinous […] Read more
Keep watch and take quick action when it’s sizzling out
You can help your horse beat the heat with a few simple steps
Reading Time: 3 minutes Extreme bouts of hot weather are particularly stressful for horses and for some, even more stressful than extreme bouts of cold weather. Thus it becomes particularly important to identify the individuals at a greater risk for heat stress and what factors can provide extra care for them when necessary. Those particularly prone to heat stress […] Read more
Preparing the horse to learn
A myriad of factors under the control of the human can affect the horse’s ability to develop
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Dorrance brothers, Bill and his younger sibling Tom, are widely known for their eloquent and effective communication with horses and are often credited as the founders of the modern-day revolution in horsemanship. The human/horse bond runs deep. Horses seek to appease or make peace with their domesticators and are willing learners. ‘Thought’ leaders and […] Read more
A healthy gut microbiome critical to horse health
Immune, neurological, and hormonal systems can all be affected by this microbial community
Reading Time: 3 minutes Although invisible to the naked eye, the horse and human cannot exist apart from the biology and ecology of their microbiome and the microbiome is being heralded as the next most important bodily system. There is emerging evidence the gut microbiome — with its complex interactions of microbial communities including bacteria, archaea, parasites, protozoa, viruses […] Read more
There are many kinds of ‘lame’
It’s a blanket term that can cover a lot of conditions
Reading Time: 4 minutes Despite their remarkable strength and resiliency, horses are highly susceptible to lameness. In fact, lameness is the most common symptom presented to the equine veterinarian. Almost every horse will experience some kind of lameness during its lifetime. Its diagnosis, treatment and collateral losses represent one of the most costly health problems for the equine industry. […] Read more
A horse’s immune system can’t be taken for granted
Our understanding of the immune system has evolved past the war-on-germs analogy
Reading Time: 3 minutes In horses, as in humans, the immune system is a powerful biological force. Most of the time, it works so effectively that its true value is often overlooked, even minimized. The traditional view of an immune system is as an army poised for the simple eradication of pathogens. While accurate, this description vastly oversimplifies immunity. […] Read more
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