How can you tell when a horse is feeling stressed? It’s all in the eyes and the way their eyelids twitch, University of Guelph researchers have discovered.

A horse will blink less and twitch its eyelids more when it’s under mild stress, the research team found – a new finding that could offer handlers a simple, easy-to-spot sign their animal is becoming agitated.

The study, published in the journal Animals , is thought to be the first to reveal the significance of eyelid twitches as an indicator of stress, says Prof. Katrina Merkies, the study’s lead author.

“With humans, we already know our blinking changes when we are under pressure. Some studies have shown we blink more when agitated while others found we blink less. We wanted to see if horses blink rates change too,” said Merkies, a professor in the Department of Animal Biosciences at the Ontario Agricultural College.

Although many horse handlers can tell when their animals are agitated, it can sometimes be hard to get a good read on a horse’s mood — particularly if the animal has been well trained.

Read more: Horses Blink Less, Twitch Eyelids More When Stressed, U of G Researchers Find

Implement these safety best practices to help celebrate New Year's Eve with the greatest display of all – a safe, injury-free horse.

How does your horse react to fireworks?

In a recent horse owner survey, which examined the effects fireworks can have on horses, 99 percent of respondents indicated their horse exhibited fireworks-related anxiety – such as galloping, sweating, trembling and damaging fences – and 26 percent of horse owners reported their horse sustaining injuries due to such anxiety from fireworks.¹ While multiple injuries were reported, the most common included cuts, sprains and broken limbs.

Maintain your horse’s health and safety. Before celebrating, ask your veterinarian about prescribing a tube of Dormosedan Gel® (detomidine hydrochloride) for your horse.

Read more: Maintain Your Horse’s Safety This New Year's Eve

by Kendra Gale

It is recommended to closely monitor your horse’s body condition so you can catch any required changes to your feeding program early and make adjustments before your horse becomes too fat or too thin. Miniature Horses present their owner with a unique challenge—as compared to their larger counterparts—and that is their winter hair.

Miniatures grow a very impressive winter coat, and they grow it early and keep it late, often even in climates where such a thick coat isn’t necessary for warmth. This “fur” is a great asset for keeping them warm, but it can hide a multitude of “sins,” so it is important during the winter months to actually put your hands on your horse on a regular basis to monitor his body condition. If you rely on a visual assessment, you might miss some serious issues that will need attention.

Weanlings, especially, grow a very thick wooly coat, and they are among the most vulnerable to losing weight during their first winter. Elderly horses, as well, should be carefully monitored, but any horse can have a health or dental issue and suddenly lose weight, so feeling routinely for fat cover over ribs, hips, and backbone is very important for the winter health of your horse.

Read more: Caring for “Winter Woolies”

by Jo Ann Holt

Several equestrian programs that benefit veterans and their families will be held in December.

Equest’s Hooves for Heroes hosts a free program, Horsemanship 101 (H101) for veterans, active duty military members, and their families. The Dec. 8 program is from 1 to 4 p.m. at Texas Horse Park. Their address is 811 Pemberton Hill Road in Dallas. Registration for the free program is required at equest.org/events.

Horsemanship 101 allows participants to sample different programs that Equest offers. Several stations will focus on different areas, like Equine Facilitated Counseling through herd behavior observation. Other programs are horsemanship, Equine Assisted Learning through grooming, and more.

The program empowers veterans and military families to take charge of their civilian transitions. These veteran program services are offered at no cost to active duty service personnel. Also free to Guard or Reserve members, or any veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces and their immediate family members. To learn more about Hooves for Heroes, visit equest.org/veterans.

Read more: Equestrian Programs Benefit Veterans

Scientific Reports, a Nature Research publication, publishes new research identifying new allergens associated with severe equine asthma.

It is common knowledge that the inhalation of stable ‘dust’ in predisposed horses results in SEA (previously known as recurrent airway obstruction/heaves/COPD). “We know this ‘dust’ contains bacteria, fungi, pollen and arthropods (e.g. mites), but what we wanted to establish was the precise allergen that elicit this prevalent and debilitating condition” said researcher Samuel White, who conducted the study under the supervision of Professor Meriel Moore-Colyer of the Royal Agricultural University and Professors Duncan Hannant and Marcos Alcocer of the University of Nottingham.

Using advances in computational and robotic technologies, White developed a novel method which enabled the simultaneous assessment of almost 400 potential allergen in over 130 SEA-affected and healthy horses. This was the widest-scale allergen assessment in SEA horses to date and revealed many similarities with human allergic asthma. The results confirmed allergen previously identified in hay (e.g. Aspergillus fumigatus), as well as revealing a plethora of unidentified bacteria, fungi and arthropod. Previous research by Moore-Colyer et al (2016)* has proven high temperature steaming of hay with a Haygain removes the airborne dust from the breathing zone of the horse, and is thus effective against these allergens. White’s work also identified pollen allergens, which had not previously been associated with SEA.

“The most significant and surprising allergens associated with SEA were from natural rubber latex,” White said. “Latex is historically associated with the equine environment in the form of artificial surfaces on arenas and racetracks.” The high level of respirable dust associated with training on these surfaces has already been linked with chronic bronchitis, inflammation and oxidative stress in riding instructors, and latex has long been associated with a variety of respiratory conditions in the human. These results indicate that exposure to latex may be detrimental to the respiratory health of the horse.

Read more: New Allergens Associated with Severe Equine Asthma

by Genevieve Rajewski, Tufts University

Pixie, a thirteen-year-old Shetland pony, is only about one-fifth the size of most horses seen for asthma at Tufts Equine Center. That doesn't make his breathing problems any less significant, though.

In the year and a half since Pixie was adopted, his asthma attacks—in which his sides heave from desperately trying to draw each breath—have become more common and severe. "It's awful," said owner Sara Smith, whose three-year-old daughter loves being led around on the gentle gelding's back. "Once the heaves start, it's just so uncontrollable."

Cummings School veterinarian Melissa Mazan, V93—who is caring for Pixie as part of a clinical trial evaluating a possible new treatment for equine asthma—stroked the sorrel pony's nose and nodded sympathetically. She has been working on the challenging condition of equine asthma for her entire professional career, and knows how hard it hits the horses and their owners.

"We have learned a lot about how to diagnose equine asthma and its molecular mechanisms, but we treat this condition almost exactly like we did when I started out more than twenty years ago," Mazan said. "And anyone trying to treat an asthmatic horse often ends up stuck between a rock and a hard place."

Read more: Testing a New Therapy for Horses Struggling to Breathe

by Eleanor M. Kellon, VMD

Minerals have direct and indirect involvement in virtually every action in the body, and have important effects on Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) or its consequences. EMS is different in the horse than Insulin Resistance (IR) in the human, but the same basic principles apply. There is evidence of activated antioxidant defenses in the tissues of EMS horses.

Building the horse’s own antioxidant basic defenses is most effective. This includes the superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase enzyme systems, as well as the antioxidants glutathione, CoQ10, carotenoids and vitamin A, flavanoids, vitamins E and C. Glutathione is particularly widely distributed.

Read more: Minerals and the EMS Equine

By Jessica Duffy - USEA Staff

“To understand why we do dentistry and what the aims are, you need to understand about anatomy – how the teeth are set up – and how horses chew,” began Dr. James Brown, Clinical Associate Professor of Equine Surgery at Virginia Tech’s Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia. “They chew on a side-to-side motion versus an up-and-down motion, the way we chew. So, it’s important that they have that range of motion.”

Horses spend an average of 10 hours a day eating and erupt anywhere from 2-6 millimeters of tooth per year, so making sure that your horse’s teeth are taken care of is crucial to their overall health and wellbeing. Furthermore, issues with a horse’s teeth can translate into issues while they are under saddle, as the bit and bridle can become uncomfortable if the horse’s teeth aren’t properly cared for.

Read more: Straight From the Horse’s Mouth: Equine Dentistry Basics