Vibrant Life Beyond 20 - Recently, I spent time with a horse named Sparky who is estimated to be over 40 years old. Understandably, you may be visualizing a tottering shell of a being, held together by medication and hay cubes, but this could not be further from the truth. Sparky is a sound, vital, cheeky, engaged fellow and the leader of the pack, although his teeth no longer work well for chewing hay. Out of curiosity, I studied his lifestyle, diet, way of being, and exercise routine with hopes of gleaning some insight to help me support my more “mature” equine clients as well as my own mare Diva, who turned 22 years old this past May.

In England, the Romans were the first to build canals as irrigation or land drainage waterways. They used mules to haul boats loaded with cargo along those canals and it became a highly effective and economical way to transport goods. A horse towing a boat with a rope from a towpath could pull 50 times as much cargo as it could pull in a wagon on the road.

Part of the solution for a commitment to equine welfare in Canada - The philosophy of our modern day society is often described as impermanence. Instant gratification through acquisition of “things” is a common theme in life for many and accompanying this is the reality that things which are no longer useful are readily disposed of.

Horses have an extraordinarily large digestive system — compared to humans they have more than double the length if you were to place them side-by-side, start to finish! This long path for food digestion is packed with twists and turns (and the inability to vomit), so it’s easy to see how digestive upsets can occur in our equine partners. Below is a quick overview to give you a better understanding of how we can feed to our horses’ needs while keeping in mind how they evolved.

A recent study has concluded that standing flank laparotomy may be a suitable option for surgical treatment of some cases of equine colic. The standard surgical approach for colic is through an incision in the ventral midline, with the horse under general anaesthesia. General anaesthesia poses additional risks over and above those of the surgery itself, and the personnel and equipment required increase the cost.

The horse industry is changing. Horse welfare has become an everyday concern; veterinary medicine has advanced substantially; and the costs of horse ownership have risen. So, it’s time for the horse insurance industry to change, too.

Purpose and performance of a foundational exercise - Certain exercises in a horse’s athletic development serve as a foundational skill set and a remedial tool later on. Leg-yield is exactly this kind of exercise. It offers valuable physiological benefits that improve a novice horse’s balance while also resolving specific impediments to an advanced horse’s quality of movement. It is the kind of tool that tunes up a number of shortcomings in how a horse is carrying himself.

Develop an exercise therapy program that gives your horse the best chance of recovery - Subtle lameness or signs of pain that do not lead to a clear veterinary diagnosis can be extremely frustrating, costly, and time-consuming. Unfortunately, they are also quite common, leaving many owners feeling helpless to plot a path forward. In this article I will offer guiding principles for tackling these scenarios along with specific examples of how I implemented them with Remy, a mare that came to me with bucking behaviours and signs of back pain but with no clear diagnosis.