Table of contents for EQUUS: August 2017 in Equus

Opposition to tail blocks I just read “The Truth About Tail Blocks” (EQUUS 476). This practice is as cruel as soring. It made me sick to my stomach and so sad to know that people do such things to animals. I have two mares, and these kinds of things will never happen to them. People should respect their animals. This doesn’t mean that your animals are to be spoiled or disobedient. One just needs to spend more time training and teaching the animal what is asked of him. I know that the so-called tail set is probably not obtained by training but that it is a cosmetic thing of beauty only in the eyes of some humans. I wonder how a trainer or owner would like it if they were…

New research from the University of California– Davis suggests that surgery may be the best option for treating temporohyoid osteoarthropathy (THO), an arthritic condition of a joint at the base of the skull that can lead to severe neurological impairment. THO affects the temporohyoid joint between the skull and the hyoid apparatus, the bony structure that supports the base of the tongue. Why arthritis forms in this location is unclear, but it may be related to middle ear infections or trauma. Early signs of THO include head shaking and/or head tilt as the bony changes affect nearby nerves. If the condition becomes severe enough, the horse may develop facial or ear droop, wobbliness, loss of balance, abnormal eye movement and even the inability to swallow. Horses with THO may be…

Consistency is a good thing when it comes to equine diets. If your horse is doing well on his current feed, there’s no need to go messing with it. But there are times in a horse’s life when his diet needs to be reexamined and a change in feed may be warranted. Here are four such times: • Change of life stage. There are feeds formulated and marketed for every life stage a horse may go through, from growing weanling to mature senior. As a horse moves through these stages, his nutritional needs can change significantly, so he may benefit from switching to a feed made specifically for his new situation. As your horse reaches different age-related milestones, keep an eye on his overall condition, and be prepared to make…

“Upon the moon I fix’d my eye, All over the wide lea; With quickening pace my horse drew nigh Those paths so dear to me.” ---William Wordsworth, “Lucy” Handmade, with custom tooling and color options, the Santa Fe (suggested retail, $4,999), from Specialized Saddles, is made of Sonoma leather from the Napa Valley with multiple layers of foam for a comfortable seat. It features a new, slimmer pommel and weighs 15 pounds. Available in black, brown or mahogany, in sizes from 14 to 18 inches. Call 915-345-4130 or visit www.SpecializedSaddles.com. Ergonomically designed to help a rider maintain balance and a close-contact feel, the equitation-style 249 Horizon Nomad Trail Saddle (suggested retail, $2,416), from Tucker Trail Saddles, features a tree built to accommodate the horse’s back, with a “finger design” skirt…

Several neuromuscular disorders have been linked to vitamin E deficiency: • Equine motor neuron disease (EMND) is caused by the degeneration of the motor neurons, which control the movement of the large muscles. “This affects the motor neurons and therefore the skeletal muscles,” says Paul Siciliano, PhD, of North Carolina State University. “In a horse with this problem, you’ll see great appetite—eating very well—but these horses waste away, losing muscle mass, and may die without intervention. “I observed this problem firsthand in a group of blood donor horses maintained at a veterinary hospital,” Siciliano adds. “They were fed the leftover hay from the prior year. It was good hay, not moldy, but it had been stored a long time. Over time, the hay gradually loses the compound that has vitamin…

While genetic tests for diseases, colors and parentage can provide DNA “proof” of a condition, those looking for genes associated with performance-related traits yield less definitive information. How or whether these genes are expressed can be influenced by training, environment and other factors. For instance, performance testing, aimed primarily at Thoroughbreds, looks at multiple genes to attempt to predict a horse’s speed, stamina and overall potential for success at the racetrack. One factor these tests analyze is the myostatin gene, which controls the amount of muscle mass developed. Other components of the tests may predict a foal’s height at maturity as well as whether he will do better on dirt versus turf tracks. Gait testing identifies a mutation on the DMRT3 gene that influences a horse’s ability to perform lateral gaits.…

There is an important difference between essentials and “basics.” You will not always be practicing basics, i.e., the very first and very simplest exercises. The famous Zen story sums up the apprentice’s daily routine as “chop wood; carry water.” Forty years go by—now the apprentice is a master— and what is his daily routine? “Chop wood, carry water.” Basics become essentials when you practice them to repletion so that doing them becomes reflexive—a way of life. A master is one who practices essentials for the sheer pleasure of exploring all their myriad variations and implications and who is thus able to enjoy the everyday experience of riding upon the plateau. The patterns of the Dabbler and the Obsessive are similar, except that the Obsessive adds an attitude of grim determination.…

SURPRISING FINDINGS ABOUT TRANSPORT INJURIES A study from Australia suggests that horses may be injured during noncommercial transport more often than previously thought---and certain driver behaviors increase the risk. In a collaborative effort between several institutions, researchers surveyed 223 drivers who pulled gooseneck, bumper-pull or other types of horse trailers to 12 different competitions in southeastern Australia. About a quarter of the participating drivers---55 in all---reported having a horse sustain an injury at some time during transport. “We all hear anecdotes about bad horse [trailer] injuries, but little about the minor injuries,” says Chris Riley, BVSc, PhD, of Massey University. “The key to hazard prevention in rescue organizations such as firefighters is to also identify near misses. This is not yet part of our equestrian culture.” More than half of…

For as much as equine genetic testing has expanded over the years, one type of test isn’t available yet. “We don’t yet have a test that can tell us what breed or mix of breeds is in an individual horse,” says Kathryn Graves, PhD, of the Gluck Center at the University of Kentucky. “We would be very popular if we could offer this test, because we get requests for it several times each week.” The challenge is that many of our modern breeds descend from the same foundation stock, and researchers don’t yet have enough genetic profiles of individual horses of different breeds to be able to distinguish them. “While breed identification of purebred horses is more easily done, determination of breed contributions in crossbred horses is a far more…

For most of my life, I’ve been a fairly disturbed person, struggling with depression and substance abuse. Negativity overwhelmed every thought and action. I’ve been in therapy and on medication. Nothing helped. But I’d always loved horses and dreamed of a life with them, even as I inhabited a 400-square-foot apartment in New York City. Someday. Then, 10 years ago, my mother died suddenly. And, I realized, the number of “somedays” I had remaining were finite. I quit city life to pursue my dream. Only it wasn’t a dream at first. My first two horses almost killed me. But soon I met a mare named Cheyenne. She was a rescue, so I don’t know her age or breeding, but she made me feel worthy. Working with her, I could feel…

Research from the Netherlands suggests that hoof problems are surprisingly widespread among horses. For the study, GD Animal Health and Utrecht University researchers in cooperation with Netherlands Association of Certified Farriers monitored a group of 942 randomly selected, healthy horses during the winter and summer of 2015. During routine hoof trimming sessions, each horse’s hooves were examined by certified farriers, who looked for 12 common hoof disorders. The farriers also collected basic data on each horse’s housing and management during those visits. The information collected showed that hoof problems are widespread: At least one type of (usually mild) hoof disorder was observed in 85 percent of the horses. The most common were thrush0, superficial hoof wall cracks, growth rings (ridges that appear on the outside of hooves and are associated with…

Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) is another threatening disease caused by a virus similar to the one that causes eastern equine encephalomyelitis. VEE stems from several different subtypes of the virus, each of which produces different signs of illness. Mortality rates range from 30 to 90 percent, depending on the virulence of the strain of virus. The disease is usually found only in South America, but it can creep northward into Central America and Mexico. The good news is that VEE hasn’t appeared in the United States since an outbreak occurred in southern Texas in 1971. However, the possibility that the disease could arrive in the United States again remains a risk. One factor that would make a VEE outbreak even more alarming is that horses are not dead-end hosts for the…

Vitamin E can be provided to horses in both natural and synthetic forms. “Synthetic vitamin E is what we see added to many horse feeds and supplements because it is less expensive,” says Tania Cubitt, PhD, an equine nutritionist with Performance Horse Nutrition, a consulting firm in Middleburg, Virginia. “When you see synthetic vitamin E listed on a label, it will be ‘dl-alpha-tocopherol,’ or some variation starting with a ‘dl.’ Natural vitamin E will be listed as d-alpha-tocopherol or the tocotrienols, without the ‘l.’” There are differences in how the horse’s body absorbs the two forms. “Specific transport proteins in the liver seem to bind better to the natural form, allowing it to be transported to other tissues,” says Cubitt. “Synthetic forms are excreted faster than the natural form, and…

Although unmistakable when it appears, mastery is difficult to describe. It is not a title that one can take to oneself; it cannot be faked, it cannot be purchased and it cannot be forced. It cannot be hurried; it is an internal “movement” or development that must be allowed to mature and to unfold organically. For those desirous of putting themselves on the path to mastery, some of the best advice was penned by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart,” he said, “and try to love the questions themselves, that are like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to…

anaphylactic shock (anaphylaxis)---acute, massive, often fatal allergic reaction triggered by the introduction of an antigen into a horse who already has become hypersensitized to that antigen. ataxia---incoordination of the muscles, which results in shaky, irregular movements; may also be accompanied by weakness and loss of proprioception. body condition score (BCS)---a designation, based on a nine-point numeric scale, indicating the amount of fat on a horse’s body. A BCS is assigned after a visual and hands-on appraisal. corticosteroids---analogs of the hormone cortisol produced primarily by the adrenal glands; they may be natural or synthetically produced for injection. dopamine---one of the neurotransmitters, chemical “messengers” that aid in transmitting nerve impulses across synapses between nerve cells. equine metabolic syndrome (EMS)--- endocrine disorder characterized by increased fat deposits in specific locations of the body…