Equine and Horse Blog Pennsylvania March Archive

A team of behavioral biologists took two groups of foals, one that they chose to imprint and one to use as a control. The results actually showed that imprinting really isn't all that effective. The research actually showed that foals that had been handled soon after birth actually stayed closer to their dams and were more cautious about their surroundings. The handled foals were also less prone to play and interact with the other foals and didn't separate from their mothers well compared to the group of control foals.

This study shows that foals seem to remember for the long term what happens very soon after the birth. Whatever your stand is on this issue it is important to know that whether or not you choose to imprint your foals, positive contact with the mother is a great way to indirectly show the foal a positive horse-human interaction. No intervention can ever replace the natural post birth events between mother and foal.

In 2006, Stacy Westfall was the first woman trainer to compete. She not only competed...she WON! The horse she trained during the Road to the Horse she actually decided to buy during the show at the end of the competition where they compete with the horses they trained. She named him Popcorn.

Read more: Stacy Westfall and her horse Popcorn [click]

There are several possible causes for back pain, and many times, the back pain is actually caused by soreness in another area of the body due to compensating for that soreness. You know even for yourself that if you have pain in one leg, many times you end up with two sore legs or a sore back because of limping off the fore leg. Same principle works for horses.

If your horse's performance is hindered, you may want to have his back checked out. Have your veterinarian check them out for sore hocks or other possible causes.

You saddle should be checked ti make sure the fit is proper and the bars under the saddle are not causing the problem.

An unbalanced rider or a rider that bangs down on the horse's back may attribute to a sore back as well.

This mold is a mycotoxins which simply means a toxin produced by fungus. When horses that had injested small amounts of this mycotoxin were studied on a treadmill, results showed that weight loss was prevalent. When you have a performance horse I am pretty sure that you do not want your athlete to be losing weight or injesting mycotoxins.

So what should we do? There isn't enough research yet to say what exactly should be done or what the exact effects of the toxins are but to be proactive you can start by buying higher quality feed, hay and bedding and try to store materials that are succeptible to mold in areas of low moisture. Don't settle for the cheapest hay or grain just to save a buck or two. Also, be aware of the processes for processing grain and hay and see if the company or individual you buy from uses proper techniques and storage because if you buy bad product to begin with you are out of luck.

Researchers have tested this on mice and found that mice that were injected with the H5N1 virus that were also injected with horse serum that contained horse antibodies survived the virus. 100 percent of mice injected with only 100 microliters (about the size of the tip of a pencil) lived after being injected with the virus. As a control group, a group of infected mice were also injected with horse serum that did NOT have antibodies and within 9 hours all of those infected mice had died.

It is pretty cool to know that maybe after more research has been conducted, the serum from our own horses could potentially cure people of the nasty Bird Flu. The best thing about it is that all you have to do to get the antibodies is draw some blood from a horse. It doesn't affect or hurt the horse at all.

It really is a pretty easy task. To monitor your horse's respiration rate, watch his ribs rise and fall and count how many breaths he takes in a minute.

Read more: Learn to Read Your Horse's Vital Signs [click]

I can hardly wait to get to the barn tonight to start working on some reining patterns!

Aside from that, I just found out that Stacy and her horse Roxy are performing at the Equine Affaire in Columbus, OH, which I have already purchased tickets to see! I am doubly doubly excited now to go and see her perform at the Pfizer Fantasia show. If you want to cry like I did...you should check out the video of Stacy at the All American Quarter Horse Congress in 2006 on YouTube... it is amazing: