The 2023 ASPCA Right Horse Summit in Lexington Kentucky, kicked off with a discussion about intake and assessment best practices. In addition to ensuring that the horses are up to date on vaccinations and basic veterinary care, considering soundness...
If you’re around a lot of horse owners, kissing spine may seem like the new disease du jour. It’s hard to find a barn that doesn’t have at least one owner who has had the vet utter the words...
There’s no doubt a horse with swollen legs can be worrying. However, passive fluid accumulation in the lower limbs — commonly called stocking up — is a relatively common condition in stalled horses that is not typically a cause...
We all love to see our horse enjoying a graze on delicious spring grass. But that pasture your horse eats with such gusto is not as benign as you might think—particularly for horses with metabolic disorders or genetic predispositions,...
Seeing the full picture of a horse’s body from the inside began not with a hoof, but with a woman’s hand. The accidental discovery of the radiograph in 1895 by the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen transformed the human...
Early on in her training, the mare was labeled as a hot off-track Thoroughbred, but was that really her M.O.? Underneath the young mare’s frightening antics was a kind, gentle soul. Through exams, lameness evaluations and radiographs, vets at...
My Spanish Mustang gelding, Rio, is pretty stoic; it takes a lot for him to complain. When I realized the saddle he’d been wearing for years no longer fit him properly, it was because he finally let me know....
The elderly gray Appaloosa craned her neck to watch me as I gently ran my hand over the hard swelling on her hind leg. I didn’t like the fact that the large mass was right on the outside of...
You’ve probably felt that moment of panic. Your horse comes in from the field with a squinty, red, tearing, swollen eye. Immediately, your mind races to the worst-case scenario as you dial your vet. Will your horse end up...
Besides not being able to talk, horses are flight animals and have an instinctual ability to hide pain. So, how do horses communicate pain?Obvious signs such as biting, bucking suddenly, not wanting to be saddled, reluctance to go forward...
