HEALTH & EDUCATION

Health & Education

We all want the best care possible for our horses. The Heath & Education section covers both Learning Institutions, Organizations as well as many sources for equine assistance including Veterinarians and Farriers.

For those who want a to formally study horses, the Education section includes College Riding, Equine Studies, and Veterinary Schools. Learn about the wide variety of horses in the Horse Breeds section. Supplements and Treatments Therapy are also included in the section.

Everyone can learn from Fine Art and there are some specialty Museums that might surprise you.

Horses as a therapy partner enrich the lives of the disabled. These facilities are listed in our Therapeutic Riding section. To help children and young adults build confidence and grow emotionally, please see the resources available on the Youth Outreach page.

Looking for a place to keep your horse? You can find it in the Horse Boarding section. Traveling? Find a Shipping company or Horse Sitting service if your horse is staying home!

Want to stay up to date with the latest training clinics or professional conferences? Take a look at our Calendar of Events for Health & Education for the dates and locations of upcoming events.

Do we need to add more? Please use the useful feedback link and let us know!

Nashville, Tennessee — Today Animal Wellness Action (AWA), the Animal Wellness Foundation (AWF), the Center for a Humane Economy, Horses for Life Foundation, American Horse Protection Society, and key stakeholders in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry announced a historic effort that seeks to end soring, protect the Tennessee Walking Horse and the breed, and preserve a show horse that the public will applaud. These key players have agreed to support legislation to ban action devices and tail braces, to dramatically reduce the size of the shoe, and to establish additional penalties for horse soring.

The Horse Protection Act (HPA) of 1970 authored by the late U.S. Senators Joe Tydings, D-MD, and Howard Baker, R-Tenn., was enacted to stamp out soring but left loopholes that have allowed the practice to persist. Over the past eight years more than 20 pieces of legislation and amendments to the HPA have been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate geared at combating the painful practices of soring – the intentional infliction of pain to horses’ feet to achieve an unnatural high-step that trainers utilize to cheat and avert proper training practices. Not a single measure has been enacted, leaving a 50-year-old statute to govern management of regulated horse shows.

The U.S. Senator Joseph D. Tydings Memorial Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act, H.R. 693/ S. 1007 (named only Prevent All Soring Tactics in the Senate) passed the U.S. House in July 2019 but is stalled in the U.S. Senate, with no reasonable prospects of that circumstance changing. This is the ninth rendition of the bill since 2012, and the Senate has never taken up the bill on the floor. The Horse Protection Amendments Act, H.R. 1157/S. 1455, introduced on seven occasions in either the House or Senate, and supported by the Tennessee Walking Horse industry, has also not advanced. Even attempts to finalize regulations to end soring have long-failed at every turn.

“Bitter political adversaries have come together to break the logjam in Congress and put the nation on a path to end horse soring,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, and the Center for a Humane Economy. “If enacted, this deal will end the political stalemate in Congress and take the pain out of Walking horse shows throughout the South.”

When the winds are up and temperatures drop we want our horses to be comfortable and protected. Nestling into a cozy stable may seem like a good solution but there are health risks lurking in a tightly closed up barn.

That cozy barn may not be best for lung health.

Horses actually breathe easier in cold, dry air. However, this winter advantage is lost when horses are confined to a poorly ventilated barn where humidity and particulate matter in the air is high.

A variety of airborne substances have been implicated in causing lung irritation. Ammonia from bacterial breakdown of urea in urine is a well documented lung irritant in a variety of species. "Organic dust" is also an offender. This includes microscopic particulate matter from mites, plant material (e.g. beta-glucans), feces, bacteria and their products (endotoxin) and fungal spores.

Keeping stalls clean and the building well ventilated are the first steps in reducing exposure. Using wood chips or synthetic bedding (e.g. paper based) reduces plant and fungal matter but must be used in all the stalls. Horses are also exposed when hay or straw are stored in the same building, even in a loft. Horses with signs of respiratory tract irritation should have their hay and bucket fed meals thoroughly wet down. Always strive to remove horses from the barn when stalls are being cleaned and aisles swept.

Practice Preparedness and Prevention - Resources on Barn Fire Prevention

Waiting until the wildfire approaches dangerously close is no time to draw up a disaster preparedness plan. Learning the hazards of storing hay is too late after the barn is reduced to ashes and all is lost. It is not a scenario that one fathoms will ever happen to them, until it does.

Returning expert guest speaker Rebecca Gimenez-Husted will be available all week to provide insight and answer all your burning questions. Gimenez has travelled the world providing training in Technical Large Animal Rescue Techniques (TLAER website) and has published numerous critiques, techniques and journal articles on the topic. Rebecca edited the only textbook available to the fire service and veterinarians on technical rescue of large animals.

As a volunteer firefighter in Gray, GA, Rebecca is doing R&D work with University of Edinburgh (UK), EKU (KY) and several veterinary schools. A past Logistics Officer for FEMA’s Veterinary Medical Assistance Team (VMAT -2), decorated combat veteran and a Major in the US Army Reserves (retired); Rebecca offers a wealth of information and is active in various organizations related to disaster preparedness.

Yes, it's what you think it is! Receiving fecal material from a healthy donor is in the news for people these days. [click on "download PDF" to get the complete article]. It has been approved by the FDA as a method to help restore normal gut flora in situations where there is an overgrowth of harmful organisms like Clostridia.

There is now a company offering fecal transplants for dogs and cats - AnimalBiome. In humans, the prepared fecal transplant is usually deposited directly into the colon to avoid inactivation in the stomach. For the pets, enteric coated capsules are used to dose orally. This is easy to administer to a dog or cat by hiding the capsule inside a bite of meat or butter because these animals will swallow whole without chewing.

As with humans, donors are screened for general and digestive health. Their feces are also tested for harmful bacteria and parasites.

Oral delivery dates back to 4th Century China in people and 17th Century Italy in animals. Transplantation of rumen contents is a well established practice in bovine medicine. It has also been used sporadically in horses. I remember straining fluid from the contents of the cecum of recently deceased horses for administration by stomach tube to horses.

What to do when happily ever after… isn’t.

by Horse Rookie

A healthy horse and rider partnership is a thing of beauty. Mutual respect, trust, and affection abound. Each partner brings complementary skills to the arena and feels safe and valued.

On the flip side, few things are harder to watch (or experience) than someone trying to “make it work” with the wrong horse. Frustration, hurt feelings, and anxiety abound. Each partner senses something is “off” and is unable to meet the needs of the other in a productive way.

Life isn’t like Equine Tinder — we can’t simply “swipe left” and move onto the next candidate.

You may own or lease the horse in question, or you may be limited to a certain lesson horse. Maybe it’s the only horse you could afford, or perhaps it was perfect for you… five years ago.

If you’re stuck in the wrong (equine) relationship, you can make things better for you and your horse. (After all, chances are your horse has also wondered “Do I have the wrong person?”)

What Kinda Wrong

No two riders or horses are the same, and there are countless factors that might be contributing to your woes.

I’m reminded of the Chris Cagle song What Kinda Gone. It’s important to identify “what kinda wrong we’re talkin’ ‘bout’ here” before deciding what to do next.

Childhood as it Should Be

by Lindsey Rains

The apartment is quiet. All around me I see spare water glasses, cereal bowls, hair ties, and half-completed coloring pages. I’m tired, but I feel full. This week has been different than most weeks because our life was pleasantly interrupted by two eleven-year-old Peruvian girls.

Full of sparkle, hugs and insight, the girls filled our lives with laughter and sweet company.

I work at a non-profit that finds sponsors for children who are orphaned or living in terribly adverse situations. Every year, upwards of twenty children from various countries around the world are chosen to come to the United States. They perform in a choir that raises awareness and sponsorship for other children in similar situations.

For several weeks out of every year, my husband and I host some of these visiting children at our home.

Of course, I’m always chomping at the bit to take any willing child to the barn. Most have never even been around horses, much less sat on one. This time was no different. My husband and I picked up the girls and headed straight to the barn. They were tired from a long day of practicing for their performance, but the kids insisted they weren’t too tired for horses!

When we arrived at the barn, Chip was in his sleepy post-dinner stupor. But he meandered out of his stall to enjoy all the pets and cookies the excited girls bestowed upon him.

Kentucky Equine Research is proud to debut an improved version of EO-3™, its popular marine-derived omega-3 supplement, featuring a new flavor.

The benefits of omega-3 supplementation include anti-inflammatory effects as well as support of skin and coat health, and reproductive health for mares and stallions. Studies at the Kentucky Equine Research Performance Center in Ocala have also demonstrated changes to indicators of post-exercise recovery following supplementation with EO-3.

“EO-3 is one of our proven products for athletic and breeding horses,” explains Matthew T. Butler, vice president of sales. “With a dedicated customer base worldwide, it’s a top product in the line.”

One factor that limited the use of EO-3, however, was its palatability. While many horses consumed it without objection, others were turned off by its odor and flavor, particularly after it had been stored for long periods of time. Therefore, the research team launched a series of studies to understand and improve its appeal to horses.

by Dr. Eleanor Kellon, DVM

Your horse's health, happiness and performance depend on normal functioning of the nervous system and muscles. All nutrients have a role to play but some are particularly important.

The complexity within a single nerve cell is staggering but the horse's very life depends on the nervous system receiving proper nutrients to maintain its health.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant which becomes incorporated directly into the membranes surrounding cells and also structures within the cells. These membranes are made of phospholipids which are very vulnerable to attack by free radicals generated from toxic minerals or during immune system activity.

The nervous system is known to be particularly sensitive to oxidative damage from free radical attacks. The muscles are also at high risk even in good health because of the huge amount of free radicals generated during the production of energy.

by Bob Burdekin

As I started to work with horses that had a large amount of stress that had been retained within their bodies I started to realize that there were other controlling factors that needed to be considered and addressed.

This is where the factor of PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome) was first considered and researched; before I could start to help a horse that might be suffering from PTSD I had to understand what PTSD was, what caused it to occur and look at where it might have come from. Upon seeing some of the basic research that had been done with people I did realize that it was based within the workings of the brain and certain aspects or even a specific occurrence in an individual's life opened the door to PTSD. It was at this point that in order to fully understand how it might affect the horse I felt that I needed to look to a comparison between the human brain and the brain of the horse. What I found in that comparison was quite amazing; what I learned showed me that both brains are just a similar as they are different.

Initially, I discovered that the brain of the horse has an average size similar to a large grapefruit; while the human brain occupies most of the space that is available within the human skull. The next point of interest that was discovered was that any species ability to think through any specific problem (their cognitive skills) is directly related to the ratio of the size of the brain to the size of the body that it is contained within. The human brain is close to 1/50th of the total body weight and size, where the brain of the horse is 1/650th of their body size and weight.

The next logical step was to look to how the brain of the horse functioned and it was here that I discovered how and why horses think and respond the way that they do. Let's start at the very beginning when a horse is born that have to have to be equipped to survive from the moment they are born, I have heard this referred to as "ready for life". What I understand that to mean is that new-born foals are up on their feet and totally operational within the first hour of their life. Consequently, at this point in their life, all of their actions are controlled by their "brain stem", which is an integrated part of their "reptilian" part of their brain. This becomes very important since it is the reptilian part of the brain that becomes the storehouse for additional information as the foal grows and progresses. It is during this time of development that the main areas of importance are the aspects of controlling balance along with developing better use of both eye and head movements.