“There’s huge demand in Canada’s horse industry right now for grooms and caretakers,” says Gayle Ecker, Director of Equine Guelph at the University of Guelph in Ontario.

On November 21 to 23, 2023, students in the Bachelor of Bio-Resource Management (BBRM), Equine Management program at the University of Guelph in Ontario hosted their eighth annual Equine Industry Symposium. The theme of the free virtual event was “Stable Solutions.”

We ask a lot of our four-legged friends as today’s horses compete throughout most of the year. Whatever the horse’s primary job — from dressage to trail riding and reining to show jumping, the feet are the most common source of lameness. With the advent of preventative drugs such as Legend®, Adequan®, and Pentosan EQ™ we can improve the longevity of our horses’ athletic use, but unfortunately injuries still occur.

This enchanting little book follows a bay ranch horse and his ginger feline companion as they wander through their ranch on an autumn day. Throughout their conversation, the two disagree about what is good and bad, and how they feel about different things.

Secretariat is a household name in the horse industry. The video of “Big Red” winning the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths in 1973 and cementing his Triple Crown win is jaw-dropping. But few know about the Canadian jockey who won those spectacular races — Ron Turcotte. He hails from small-town Drummond, New Brunswick, won 3,032 races over his 17-year career, and was the first of five Turcotte brothers to exchange logging and picking potatoes for the glitzy world of Thoroughbred horse racing. Cumulatively, the Turcottes won over 8,200 races and almost $60 million in purse money.

Ever wondered if ponies can interpret human emotions through facial expressions? While humans may instinctively avoid someone with a furrowed brow, how well do horses understand our feelings? A recent study by Dr. Katrina Merkies, an associate professor and researcher at the University of Guelph, set out to answer this intriguing question. Dr. Merkies and her team conducted an experiment involving 20 lesson ponies and a group of skilled actors to determine whether ponies could distinguish between happy, sad, angry, and neutral human facial expressions.

Impacts and Opportunities - Horses are pets, performance athletes and livestock. They’re kept in backyards, on farms, at boarding stables, and working ranches in Canada. The horse industry encompasses professional riders, everyday horse enthusiasts, animal care experts, and thousands of businesses in the farming, ranching, sport, agriculture, and entertainment sectors.

Canada’s farriers can now become Approved Journeyman Farriers of Canada (AJFC) through the Association of Farrier Trainers of Canada (AFTC). This means horse owners can now hire farriers that have Canadian journeyman credentials.

“Let’s take a break here,” Rob LaFrance called from behind me. It was late May, 2019 and three of us were riding a 60-kilometre stretch of the historic Collins Overland Telegraph Trail in central British Columbia, which hadn’t been ridden in its entirety in at least half a century. The trip was an opportunity to ride along a piece of history, experience the challenges of those who had traveled before us, and celebrate the reopening of the trail.