by Laura Crump Anderson, an Equestrian Fitness Specialist at InForm Fitness Leesburg. She is certified as a personal trainer by the American College of Sports Medicine and specializes in working with riders of all ages and disciplines. Read more of her EN fitness columns here.

For the equestrian, I have yet to find the silver bullet or formula that computes the exact fitness required of everyone. I have concepts, frame works, guidelines, but just like horses, human athletes have variables that impact their performance. An Advanced horse and a Beginner Novice horse do not require the same level of fitness. In fact, bringing a horse down from the upper levels can be just as challenging as moving up. Warmbloods typically require additional conditioning to reach peak fitness, compared to their Thoroughbred counterparts. Add imbalance or injury into the mix and you have enough variables for a scientist to struggle to approve anything as statistically significant.

Read more: What is the Ideal Conditioning Program for an Eventer?

by Dr. Gerd Heuschmann

In this excerpt from his book Collection or Contortion? renowned veterinarian and advocate for the sport horse Dr. Gerd Heuschmann questions modern training methods that, while long known to be damaging to the horse’s body and mind, still find acceptance in arenas today.

Every rider dreams of having a horse that is easy to ride, supple, comfortable to sit on, elegant, and also meets the requirements of the preferred discipline. The horse should have a work ethic, be powerful and healthy, friendly, like to be with people, and be pleasant to get along with—in other words, a dream horse.

The fulfillment of this dream is largely in our hands. To achieve this, a long and very interesting path of development lies before us, and there will be many emotional moments along the way. There will be days of defeat and discouragement, but also many full of contentment and great joy!

The learning and development process of a rider takes many years, even decades, but finally puts him in the position to correctly train a horse. Over time, riding as many different horses as possible, as well as serious theoretical study, create an experienced, feeling rider. There are no young masters—even if you are considered a talented young rider!

Read more: Is Your Horse a Slave in a Sand Box?

by Sacha Adorno

Excitement over a first pregnancy turned to concern for owner Adel Dukes Melson when her pregnant Holsteiner began showing signs of premature foaling. Weeks before the mare’s March 13 due date, her mammary gland started to develop and secrete milk, a typical indication that her body was preparing to soon give birth.

On February 19, Owner and horse traveled two hours from their home in Bethany Beach, Delaware to Kennett Square, arriving at New Bolton Center’s Emergency & Critical Care department at 8:30 PM.

There, they met Dr. Michelle Linton, Staff Veterinarian, Neonatal Intensive Care specialist, and part of Penn Vet’s High Risk and Healthy Mare Foaling programs.

That night, Linton and her team performed a physical exam, transrectal ultrasound, and fetal heart rate test. The next morning Treasure received an abdominal ultrasound to assess the fetus, uterus, and placenta.

Linton was expecting to find placentitis, the most common reason for premature mammary gland development and a potentially life-threatening condition for mare and foals.

“Treasure came in as a likely placentitis case, and we treated her as one,” Linton said. “But her uteroplacental measurements were normal, suggesting we were maybe dealing with something more.”

Although the ultrasounds showed one fetus and one heartbeat, Linton suspected Treasure might be carrying twins, which could also explain early udder development – and which, surprisingly, can be easy to miss in prenatal exams. She admitted the mare — 317 days pregnant at this point — to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for monitoring and rest. Over the next few weeks, Treasure grew bigger and bigger but didn’t go into labor. 

Four Legs... Then Four More 

Read more: Surprise! It's Twins!

by Dr Shannon Lee BVSc, MANZCVSc Eq Dent, DICEVO

As dental surgery becomes more complicated, so too do the headaches.

For many horse owners, dentistry and dental complaints aren’t something that’s front of mind. After all, their horse looks fine, eats okay and can be ridden.

Furthermore, the assumption is often that, if there was a problem, it would be new, easily identified and quickly fixed, so things could go back to the way they had always been… Right? Wrong!

Fundamentally, this attitude simply derives from a lack of understanding. More often than not, it is also one of the reasons why if a serious issue is discovered in your horse’s mouth necessitating surgery, it may be far more challenging than you might expect. Therefore, delaying diagnosis and early treatment may be both costly and reduce the likelihood of an ideal outcome.

In plain English, this means getting the right advice as early as possible gives you and your horse the best chance of getting things back on track.

Two of the most common comments made by horse owners as they gain a better understanding of equine dental care are:

“I didn’t realise horses’ teeth went so far back!” and “I had no idea their teeth were so big!”

Contrast this with the fact that many horse owners still think tooth removal is a matter of simply ‘pulling’ a tooth; resulting in a huge gap between what’s actually required and many people’s understanding of what’s really involved - pun intended.

Surgery is surgery and so, the two main aims of any surgery will be to opt for the option that provides the best chance of success with the least chance of complication or risk. As surgeries become more challenging (read complicated), they increase the chances of a complication. For this reason, when dealing with dental surgeries, it is usually best to begin with the simplest approach and go from there.

Read more: Dental Surgery and Extractions

by Mary Jean Wall

The little guy must have felt like a foundling.

He was alone. He was confused. He’d been taken from his birth mother in late February after she kicked at him every time he tried to nurse.

Then, a most wonderful love story began unfolding. A Thoroughbred mare, Maizelle, who had lost her foal at birth two days previously was shown to the little guy’s stall at Machmer Hall Farm near Paris.

To the amazement of many, the two bonded instantly.

“She walked in and she was like, ‘Oh, you found him. Great,’” said Carrie Brogden, recounting how the substitute mother appeared to think the new foal was her own — a baby she never really saw because it died during its birth.

Her foal had died after Maizelle’s blood pressure dropped during foaling. Deprived of oxygen, the foal was undergoing seizures and not breathing when it emerged.

She’d been looking for her foal since then, nickering and wondering where it went. When she was shown the new baby she fell instantly in love.

Read more: A Rejected Foal and a Brokenhearted Mare Saved Each Other

by Kendra Gale

The benefits of interaction with horses are only just beginning to be properly explored, and with their unique small size and very curious personality, Miniature Horses are very well suited to be therapy animals.

Equine Assisted Learning and Equine Assisted Therapy

Using horses as a part of psychotherapy, or to teach life skills, is a rapidly growing modality. Julia Morgan, of Horse Powered Connections, is a certified FEEL practitioner. FEEL stands for Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning, and horses are a very active participant in the process. Using a horse-led series of exercises, equine experiential learning works with the horse’s natural sensitivity to physical movement and emotional states to help people gain self-knowledge and acquire skills leading to personal growth through positive life changes.

Julia’s focus is on children. Her journey began with her own son, who was non-verbal and diagnosed as severely autistic. He is now an outgoing, talkative, and confident little boy, a transformation that Julia credits to the horses and learning to connect with his environment more like a horse would. Julia enjoys working with children and finds a special joy in helping children face the challenges arising from ADD (attention deficit disorders), anxiety, and ASD (autism spectrum disorder). She has seen remarkable changes from children’s interactions with the horses, from a teenage girl with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) who proclaimed that her brain had never been so quiet, to a young autistic boy who was once again excited to go to school and make new friends because he’d been able to make friends with the horse.

Read more: Miniature Horse Therapy: Great Big Good Things in Small Packages

by Dan Ross

How long have humans been aware of the cruel psychological toll of war? For a clue, just turn to the Ancient Greeks, and the play Ajax, about a decorated general whose hellish recollections of battle drive him into deep depression and eventually to suicide.

For millennia then, we have recognized many of the conditions that now fall under the umbrella of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). And yet, beyond a handful of common treatments for PTSD with only so-so success rates, the medical establishment has largely ignored so called “alternative” treatments for which there’s overwhelming anecdotal evidence as to their benefits.

Until now, that is. Columbia University’s ongoing Man O’ War research project, scheduled to wrap this summer, seeks to finally confirm what has also been suspected since the heyday of Greek antiquity: that horses, whose hardwired flight instincts mirror in so many ways the human symptoms of PTSD, have the unique ability to help heal the mental wounds and scars of traumatized veterans.

“Even the best treatment currently is effective for no more than 50 to 60% of patients with PTSD,” said Yuval Neria, professor of medical psychology at Columbia and a co-director of the program. Which is why the patients involved in the Man O’ War Project are “looking for something more promising,” Neria said. “There’s a lot of room for improvement.”

The study aims to standardize the way horses can be used to help veterans with PTSD recover from the horrors of their past by producing a manual that other equine therapy programs–many of which vary in approach–can use as a blueprint to work with and from. And by standardizing and legitimizing equine therapy in this way, it could open the door much wider for more racehorses to be used in such programs once their racing careers end.

Read more: Man O’ War Project Helping the Soldiers of War Heal

by Douglas Spatz, President, EyeOn Equine Care

I had a discussion the other evening with a family member about the pros and cons of icing and was told it’s used to treat horse’s legs and is recommended by so many professionals. My response was “Ice does not reduce swelling; the lymphatic system does.” Actually, ice has been shown to reverse lymphatic drainage, causing backflow of fluid into the injured area and worsening edema . What is needed is anything that promotes circulation and movement of fluids that will help the lymphatic system do its job.

Icing damaged tissue does sometimes give temporary pain relief. However, it also delays healing, causes additional damage, increases swelling, and, perhaps most importantly, shuts off the nerve signals that alert you to which movements are harmful to your recovery process. Since “good movement” is an essential part of the healing process (and bad movement is harmful), you need (and want!) the feedback more than you need (want) a short-term distraction that ultimately makes your problem worse, not better.

Read more: Is Icing Still a Valid Treatment for Injuries?