| Horse Hock Health |
August/2009 |
The hock is one of the most complex and hardest-worked joints in the horse's body, so it must be strong and sturdy to avoid injury. Much of what we ask our horses to do, whether high-performance dressage, reining, jumping, or simply going up and down hills on trail rides, requires strong and well-functioning hocks. In this article we'll examine hock conformation, injury, ways to counteract joint stress, and how to treat injuries.
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| Hock Problems and Age |
July/2009 |
Horses can suffer hock problems at any age. Scott McClure, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVS, an assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at Iowa State University, points out that some horses develop juvenile spavin as foals. "This may have to do with how mature the bones were when the horse was born," he explains.
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| Pilates for Horses? |
June/2009 |
Preliminary results from research suggest you can strengthen your horse's core muscles to help him be healthier, no matter his job in life.
"One of the things we know from human medical research is that when people get back pain, the deep stabilizer muscles turn off. When the back pain goes away, these muscles don't turn on again.
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| Managing Joint Health |
January/2009 |
Tips for year-round joint health and management.
No Joint, No Horse. Should this be the new motto for 21st century horses? Joint injury, joint disease secondary to trauma or injury, and osteoarthritis (OA) are major causes of attrition and loss of function in horses. As a result, joint health in pleasure and athletic horses is an omnipresent topic.
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| Shipping and Showing |
October/2008 |
Monitor and optimize your horse's training, diet, general health, and shipping experience in order to help him perform his best.
For some, nothing compares to the excitement of a horse show. The anticipation of months of hard work finally paying off with the faultless jump, the perfect pirouette, or the impeccable sliding stop, and the chance of winning a trophy or ribbon as a memento of a goal accomplished or cash to help pay the horsekeeping bills.
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| Reconditioning After Layup |
August/2008 |
Whether your horse has downtime for an injury or just a much-needed vacation, how you bring him back can dictate his eventual competitive success.
After any layup, an athletic horse needs to be brought back to peak condition gradually. If time off was simply a vacation over winter, you can start the horse back into work at a lower level and increase the length and intensity of workouts.
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| 10 Principles of Exercise Physiology |
June/2008 |
Basic principles you can apply to your everyday training to boost your horse’s performance.
Elite athletes are always looking for an edge over their competitors, and many times they find that edge by applying the science of exercise physiology to their training. From energy metabolism to the kinetics of joint movement, exercise physiology is geared toward optimizing performance, shortening recovery time, and improving fitness.
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| Strength and Flexibility |
October/2007 |
There are a variety of ways to help your horse be stronger and less stiff.
For an avid horse person, little takes the breath away like watching an athletic horse performing his job in the best of style: The dressage horse suspended in perfect piaffe, the cutting horse hunkered low as he turns a calf, the reining horse spinning and sprinting with fluid ease, the jumping horse in perfect form as he launches his half-ton mass to fly through the air. For an athletic horse to execute a thrilling performance, he must feel comfortable in body and impart strength to his efforts.
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| A New Breed of Bridle (Bitless) |
August/2007 |
Going "bitless" has its pros and cons; is it right for you and your horse?
You've seen the ads and followed the debates on Internet equine lists, but you're still a little confused: What is the difference between The Bitless Bridle and other cross-under bitless bridles (CBBs) versus the traditional type of bit-free bridles such as the hackamore? Even more importantly, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the CBBs versus bridles with bits?
Anatomy of a Bridle
To review: A traditional hackamore is a bridle without a bit, and it consists of a bosal, a noseband that's usually made of stiff rope or braided rawhide that is knotted beneath the chin; the knot applies pressure to the sensitive nerve endings of the nose and chin. Attached to the bosal is a mecate, an 18- to 22-foot rope woven from mane or tail hair.
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| Gait Analysis for Horses |
April/2007 |
There has been a long journey over a relatively short span of time in the world of equine gait analysis. The first studies utilized high-speed cameras and a treadmill and took place at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences some 35 years ago, with Sune Persson, DVM, PhD, as one of the guiding lights. Today, that rudimentary science has evolved at an ever-increasing rate to the point where miniature computerized sensors are capable of recording and analyzing equine movement.
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| Warming Up to the Idea |
February/2007 |
Riders understand the importance of warming up as a way to ready the horse's mind and body for the challenges ahead, but there is more to a warm-up than simple preparation. Correctly done, prior exercise substantially benefits physical performance and helps prevent injuries.
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| Equine Sports Massage 101 |
October/2006 |
Your horse is yawning profusely, licking, chewing, and gradually lowering her head. Her eyes slowly glaze over, as her lower lip becomes slack. Is this the effect of drugs? No, this apparent sedation is the effect of skilled bodywork. It's a result of the relaxation response induced by nothing more invasive than the human hand.
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| Overactive and Underweight |
August/2006 |
Sometimes it's challenging to keep weight on a horse. A hyperactive horse might burn off too many calories to stay in optimum body condition, while an old broodmare with digestive inefficiency can lose weight during the stress of lactation.
In this article we'll look at ways to help get weight back on these problem horses.
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| A Stick in Time |
June/2006 |
Your reining horse isn't sinking as deeply into his hocks as he used to. Your hunter refuses jumps that should be no big deal. Your dressage horse isn't bending properly. Your endurance horse flinches when he's saddled up.
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| Failure to Sweat |
April/2006 |
A horse in motion is a striking image: Vigorous, powerful, animated. In your mind's eye you can imagine his ears pricked forward, nostrils flared, limbs strumming the ground, streaks of sweat punctuating his rippling muscles. To create locomotion, a horse converts food substrates into energy fuel to drive the muscles, and in the process, he releases heat as a by-product of this metabolic conversion.
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| Growing Problems |
February/2006 |
Horse breeders have long known that problems can develop in the bones of young horses as they grow. The term developmental orthopedic disease (DOD) was coined in 1986 to encompass all orthopedic problems seen in the growing foal and has become a generally accepted term, says Wayne McIlwraith, BVSc, PhD, DSc, FRCVS, Dipl. ACVS, director of orthopedic research at Colorado State University.
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| Biomechanical Efficiency |
October/2005 |
The horse is an amazing athlete, with great speed and endurance considering his body size and weight. For the past 20 years, researchers have evaluated what makes the equine locomotive system so efficient for racing and other strenuous performance activities. But why are some horses better, more efficient movers than others?
Hilary Clayton, BVMS, PhD, Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Michigan State University, has done extensive research evaluating equine locomotion.
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| Conditioning the Competitive Trail Horse |
August/2005 |
Those of us who have trail ridden and packed into the mountains are very apt to proffer this advice to the beginner or novice who wants to do likewise: Don't take the mountains lightly, because they can be unforgiving. Know what you are doing and be well prepared before you go.
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| Untimely End |
June/2005 |
The young man's name was Hank Gathers, and he was 23 years of age. He was a basketball star at Loyola Marymount University in California. The year was 1990, and Gathers the year before had become only the second player in Division 1 history to lead the nation in both scoring and rebounding in the same season. He was on his way to another landmark season.
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| Pain in the Mouth |
February/2005 |
The bit is a tool of communication, not of punishment. That, says Dwight Bennett, DVM, PhD, professor emeritus at Colorado State University, is the most important thing any horse owner can understand about bits. If a bit is causing pain or discomfort, communication breaks down and your horse's performance, as well as his mouth, suffers.
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| Growing Pains--Physitis |
January/2005 |
Some of you might recognize this syndrome as the disease formerly known as epiphysitis. This disease--or more correctly disturbance of growth--is most commonly recognized as that problem when foals get the enlarged, often painful areas just above their knees (carpi) or hocks. But as my clients have been asking me: What is it, and what does it mean for my foal?
Physitis is simply defined as inflammation of the growth plate (physis = growth plate, itis = inflammation).
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| With Every Fiber of Their Being |
December/2004 |
With the recent Athens Olympics as our inspiration, we might all be pondering what it takes to go "faster, higher, and stronger." Whether you're a human, a hamster, or a horse, the answer, at least in part, is muscle fibers--each of which holds within it a certain potential for athletic performance.
When muscle fibers work together, they can provide the impetus for explosive forward or upward motion, steady exertion over long periods, or more commonly some combination of all of these types of movement.
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| Keep Them Moving |
August/2004 |
Like keeping the pistons of an engine lubricated for smooth, easy movement, the tendon sheaths of a horse function similarly by providing a friction-free environment in which tendons can move. But if the lubricant becomes fouled, engine malfunction follows.
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| What's Wobbler Syndrome? |
April/2004 |
One day you notice something amiss in your horse--a little clumsiness in his gaits, a subtle lack of coordination. He's not lame, but something's not right. You suspect equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), the leading diagnosed cause of neurologic problems in North American horses.
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| Healing Under Pressure |
February/2004 |
Oxygen is one of the most crucial components of the energy production process that fuels body tissues. It sustains life and enables injured tissues to heal. In recent years, a very effective procedure for helping heal many ailments has developed from the idea that for optimum healing, more oxygen than is normally contained in and surrounding our bodies can be beneficial.
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| Mending With Marrow |
December/2003 |
Suspensory ligament injury is a common problem in athletic horses, and it is often slow to heal, with a high recurrence rate when a horse returns to work. Douglas Herthel, DVM, of Alamo Pintado Equine Clinic in Los Olivos, Calif.
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| Winning With Air |
November/2003 |
As the filly surged forward to hold off the challenger from behind, the jockey noticed she started making a funny noise, like she was choking, then she just "ran out of steam." She dropped from first place to fourth place in two strides.
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| A Pain in the Hock |
October/2003 |
The hock is a complex joint of the rear limb situated between the stifle and the ankle that consists of six bones and four joints. Similar to the human ankle--but elevated and bending backward--the hock works in concert with the stifle, flexing and extending together with the stifle to achieve rear end propulsion. As the pivotal hind limb joint, the hock receives considerable forces.
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| Roaring Down the Stretch |
September/2003 |
Most people who have been around horses long enough have heard a few make abnormal respiratory noises while exercising. These horses usually draw attention to themselves by the sheer volume of noise they create as they go around the show jumping course or trot and canter around the show ring. Other times, the noise is more subtle and the rider will complain about a horse which just runs out of energy and tends to stop.
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| The Art of R&R |
August/2003 |
It has taken months of preparation for this moment. You've done the roadwork, marched your horse up and down hills, put in miles on the training track, added the speed and agility sessions, plugged in that heart rate monitor, and assessed your horse's growing fitness by the numbers and by feel. And the hard work and dedication you've put into it have paid off--your horse just successfully completed the big event you'd been aiming him for all those months, and he has come out of it with four good legs and nary a scratch elsewhere.
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| Arthritis Under Control |
June/2003 |
Although not usually life-threatening, arthritis causes your horse pain and can be career-ending. In fact, a research report from Michigan State University's McPhail Equine Performance Center calls degenerative joint disease the single most common cause of early retirement for sport horses.
Scientists are working hard on several studies that might eventually present realistic solutions for actually reversing the arthritis process--regenerating cartilage and synovial fluid through modern miracles such as gene therapy.
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| Physical Therapy for Healing and Health |
May/2003 |
Call it what you will--equine physical therapy, equine therapy, physiotherapy, rehabilitation therapy, equine sports therapy, or even alternative therapy. The treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention of movement dysfunctions, orthopedic ailments (soft tissue, joint, and bone problems), and neurologic disorders through manual therapies, electrical therapies, and exercise has become increasingly utilized and recognized as a valuable, non-invasive means of promoting healing and maintaining soundness in the horse.
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| When to Feed Your Athlete |
April/2003 |
What is the best feeding practice for horses before competition exercise or a hard training session? There is no real consensus on this issue and, similar to the field of human performance nutrition, there are many opinions on what is best. Some trainers will withhold all feed, some will decrease the amount of hay fed, and others will increase the amount of grain or other high-energy feed provided.
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| A Movable Framework |
March/2003 |
Chiropractic care is being applied to many horses today, and a growing number of veterinarians are learning about the modality and becoming certified in its use. New ground was broken in 2001 when Colorado State University (CSU) offered a special short course that could lead to certification in the field of veterinary manual therapy, which includes both chiropractic and osteopathic approaches.
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| Equine Exercise Physiology Research |
January/2003 |
While the term sports medicine is of modern extraction, exercise physiology in humans and horses has been around for more than 100 years. During the decline of the use of work horses in the early to mid-20th Century, not much research was done. With the emergence and gaining popularity of horses as sport, recreation, and companion animals has come a resurgence of research into their abilities--and disabilities--as athletes.
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| Is His Heart In It? |
December/2002 |
Do you know why a Thoroughbred can deliver that great burst of speed to eat up a mile in 1 1/2 minutes, or how an endurance horse can maintain the strength and stamina to cover long distances at steady speeds? Of course you do: Conditioning. Conditioning builds sturdy bones, develops strong muscles, and maximizes efficiency in the cardiovascular system.
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| Understanding Back Pain |
November/2002 |
Since the beginning of his involvement with man, the horse has been used to either pull heavy loads or carry a rider or packs upon his back. Prior to the advent of the gasoline engine, a great many horses were bred for pulling strength and power. That all changed with mechanization.
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| Diagnosing Breathing Problems |
October/2002 |
Many of you are familiar with the respiratory condition known as "heaves," also termed recurrent airway obstruction (RAO). Primarily caused by chronic exposure to dusts and molds in hay and bedding, heaves can cripple the function of a horse's lungs, making it difficult for him to breathe at rest, let alone during physical exertion. In horses with severe heaves, the breathing rate is much higher than normal, the nostrils flare with each breath, there is noticeable chest movement during breathing (inspiration and expiration), and there often is a persistent cough.
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| Racing Toward Injury |
September/2002 |
There seems to be little doubt that musculoskeletal injury--including injury to bones, joints, tendons, and ligaments--is a major problem for Thoroughbred racehorses. This impression has been borne out by studies of "wastage" in the racing industry, where wastage describes the losses that occur during the training and racing of a horse.
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| Carbohydrates for Energy |
August/2002 |
In human nutrition, carbohydrates or "carbs" have a bit of a bad name these days. A quick trip through the local book store or over the Internet leads us to believe that dietary carbohydrates are the source of all evil. When weight loss is the goal, the basis for current fad diets such as "Sugarbusters" and the "Carbohydrate Addict's Diet" is a severe restriction in carbohydrate intake, especially starchy foods.
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| Are Your Horse's Bones Tough Enough? |
July/2002 |
Skeletal injuries--those involving bones and joints--are a major concern for all athletic horses. The usual outcome of these injuries is a lameness problem that hampers a horse's training and competition program or, in some cases, is so severe that the horse can no longer be used for any athletic purpose. In fact, by a wide margin, musculoskeletal injuries are the most common cause of poor performance and wastage (where wastage refers to a loss of training days, either temporary or permanent) in the equine industry.
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| Recharge Your Horse's Batteries |
June/2002 |
For horses engaged in regular conditioning and competition, an important consideration for overall health and fitness is the speed of recovery following hard workouts and competition exercise. A bout of exercise burns body fuel, results in loss of water and electrolytes, and strains supporting structures such as bones, tendons, and ligaments.
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| Investigating Poor Performance |
May/2002 |
For a horse to perform well as an athlete, all body systems must be in good working order. When one or more systems "breaks down," the horse is no longer able to perform up to his potential and the owner, rider, and trainer will likely notice a decline in performance during training and competition.
In some cases, the reason for the loss of performance is quite obvious--the horse is lame with a swollen joint, he developed exertional rhabdomyolysis (tying-up) during a recent workout, or there is an abnormal discharge from both nostrils, suggesting a respiratory problem.
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| Is Your Horse Fit for the Task? |
April/2002 |
Regardless of whether your horse is used for high-level competition or weekend trail riding, it's important that he be fit for the task. "Fitness" is a rather vague expression, but in general terms it can be defined as the ability to complete the required amount of physical activity without fatigue, stress, or injury. A tired horse is more likely to take false steps or stumble, and thus is more prone to injuring tendons, ligaments, or joints.
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| Priming Equine Energy Systems |
March/2002 |
Last month, this column covered some of the basics in developing a physical conditioning program (see "Getting Your Horse in Shape" in the February 2002 issue of The Horse, article Quick Find #3263 at www.TheHorse.
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| Getting Your Horse in Shape |
February/2002 |
As spring approaches, visions of green grass, budding trees, and active wildlife might seem just around the corner for some. But for many of us, spring is but a dream, for we must endure a few more weeks of cold, snow, and ice-covered terrain. Still, regardless of geographic location, we all look forward to the stirrings of spring and a new season of pleasure riding or competing.
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| Get A Handle on Your Footing |
January/2002 |
Good footing is important for optimizing performance and reducing the risk of lameness. The main reason why sport horses retire early is due to osteoarthritis from constant wear and tear of the joints, sometimes from long-term schooling on bad footing.
The main symptom of bad footing is decreased performance.
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| Matching Diet to Activity Level |
December/2001 |
When it comes to extracting the maximum effort out of your performance horse, there is no doubting the importance of a sound feeding program. He needs a balanced diet to replenish fuel reserves, repair tissue, and provide a foundation for training and competing successfully. All too often there is a tendency for us to focus on the latest and greatest supplement that has been touted to work wonders in terms of athletic performance, while ignoring the most important dietary consideration for athletic horses -- energy intake.
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| EIPH: Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage |
November/2001 |
Perhaps the most widely recognized of all disorders affecting racehorses is "bleeding," or exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH). We now know that most racehorses bleed at some time during their careers. In fact, many horses might bleed every time they undertake intense exercise, such as breezing and racing.
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| NSAIDs: Pain Relief or Pain in the Gut? |
October/2001 |
The demands of athletic activity can (and often do) take their toll on the horse's body, particularly the joints, ligaments, tendons, bones, and muscles. Sole bruising, tendon strains, sprained suspensory ligaments, arthritic joints, and sore backs, to name but a few, are common injuries in athletic horses.
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| Exercise For Geriatric Horses |
October/2001 |
During the past century, the human life span has more than doubled. Living to an old age has come to mean surviving well into the 80s, 90s, and even past 100 years. Our increased longevity is attributable to better nutrition and medical advances, as well as to increased knowledge of how to keep ourselves in good mental and physical health.
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| Feeding the Endurance Horse |
September/2001 |
The nutritional needs of the endurance horse are somewhat unique compared to horses used for other athletic disciplines. The metabolic demands of endurance racing (including competitive trail riding and ride and tie events) are high, requiring the horse to draw heavily upon his energy reserves to fuel muscle contraction and other body functions during exercise. As well, very large sweat fluid losses mandate aggressive replacement strategies to keep the horse hydrated during this extended exercise.
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| Cross-Training For Horses |
August/2001 |
To add variety to conditioning programs, human athletes often undertake exercise sessions that are not specific to their athletic disciplines. For example, long-distance runners might cycle on a stationary bike once or twice a week, swim, or "run" in a swimming pool. This practice, termed "cross-training," has two main goals.
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| Chilling Out After Exercise |
July/2001 |
The mid-summer heat brings added challenges in managing the athletic horse. Regardless of whether your horse is competing in a show, trail ride, or high-level three-day event, hot weather places additional demands on his body. You need to be aware of these demands and take steps to ensure that he does not overheat.
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| Gastric Ulcers: A Pain in the Gut |
June/2001 |
Over the last 10-12 years, veterinarians and researchers have documented an alarmingly high prevalence of gastric ulcers in horses. Worse, the prevalence seems to be even higher in horses in training, particularly racehorses. Of course, the rise in prominence of this condition has a lot to do with advancements in diagnostic technology--ante-mortem (before death) diagnosis of gastric ulceration only became possible with the advent of endoscopes long enough to see the stomach of an adult horse.
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| Sales Prepping Yearlings |
May/2001 |
As spring moves into summer, the primary focus of activity on many breeding farms is preparation of yearlings for sale. There isn't much scientific research on exercising horses at that young age, yet many farms are using forced exercise to make these youngsters look like little athletes rather than the gangly teenagers they are. While it is good that the industry is going away from the "fat is fit" look, the potential problems of overstressing immature joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments are very real.
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| Warming Up to the Task |
April/2001 |
In human athletics, undertaking some type of preliminary exercise or warm-up before vigorous exercise generally is regarded as being a beneficial and important part of the overall preparation for training and competition. Although there is often considerable debate regarding the best type of warm-up protocol for different activities, it is widely held that some kind of preliminary exercise can improve subsequent athletic performance and reduce the risk of joint and muscle injury.
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| Conditioning the Older Horse |
March/2001 |
What are the effects of advancing years on athletic performance? Are there special considerations in the conditioning and general care of older horses? Is regular exercise beneficial for older horses or, conversely, does the extra wear and tear on joints, tendons, and ligaments only hasten development of crippling lameness problems? Nowadays, these questions and others are asked frequently. In part, this is a reflection of the ever-changing role of horses in society.
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| Shaping Up Your Overweight Horse |
February/2001 |
When preparing a horse for athletic events and sporting activities, whatever the discipline or level of difficulty, an important consideration is finding the horse's "ideal" body weight. This concept is well recognized in human athletics.
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| Starting 'Em Young (Young Horses in Training) |
January/2001 |
Everyone involved in the racing industry knows that one of the major problems in training horses is keeping them free from injury. Bones, joints, tendons, and ligaments are placed under considerable strain during training and racing, and it seems inevitable that, at one time or another, all horses will suffer some kind of musculoskeletal injury. "Wastage" is a term used in the industry to describe losses that occur during the training and racing of a horse.
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| Tying-Up in Horses: Causes and Management |
January/2001 |
Perhaps the most frustrating of all problems that affect the athletic horse is the syndrome known as tying-up. Tying-up is a broad term that frequently is used to describe a wide variety of muscle disorders that affect the performance horse. Other names given to this syndrome include exertional rhabdomyolysis, Monday morning disease, and azoturia.
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| Blood Builders (Hematinics) |
December/2000 |
Administration of hematinics (also known as "blood builders") to horses, either in the form of dietary supplements or as injectable compounds, is commonly practiced by owners, trainers, and veterinarians. The general objective in using these compounds is to increase a horse's supply of nutrients essential for the synthesis of hemoglobin and red blood cells (RBCs) and, in doing so, "build the blood" by increasing the number of RBCs.
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| Fat Burning |
November/2000 |
For the most part, the word "fat" has bad connotations in our society today--fat often is used to describe an overweight or obese state. When we think of dietary fat and the proportion of calories in our diet that is derived from various sources of fat, we typically are admonished to reduce fat intake, particularly intake of foods high in saturated fats and cholesterol. Of course, a major concern is the relationship between a diet high in fat and cholesterol and the development of coronary heart disease (when deposits of fat and cholesterol cause a narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart, resulting in damage to the heart muscle).
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| Stress Testing |
October/2000 |
For a horse to perform well as an athlete, all body systems must be in good working order. When one or more system "breaks down," the horse is no longer able to perform to its potential, and the owner, rider, and trainer will notice a decline in performance during training and competition. In some cases, the reason for the loss of performance is quite obvious--the horse is lame with a swollen joint; he developed exertional rhabdomyolysis (tying-up); or there is an abnormal discharge from both nostrils, suggesting a respiratory problem.
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| What Causes Poor Exercise Performance? |
September/2000 |
A huge amount of time, effort, and money often are invested in the preparation of horses for various athletic events, including Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing, three-day eventing, steeplechasing, dressage, hunter-jumper events, reining, cutting, and endurance racing, to mention but a few. Regardless of discipline, we expect that a well-trained and properly schooled horse will be competitive.
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| Performance Boosters |
August/2000 |
They purport to "Increase power." "Delay fatigue." "Increase stamina." "Build muscle." "Reduce recovery time." "Extensive research has proven..." Doubtless, most of you have seen and read advertisements for nutritional supplements in which the manufacturers make these and other similar claims. In the past decade or so, there has been a tremendous increase in the array of nutritional supplements marketed for use in horses, as evidenced by the huge number of small buckets, tubs, and tubes that line the shelves of tack shops and feed stores.
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| Pre-Exercise Feeding |
May/2000 |
When and what should I feed my horse before exercise? This question is very familiar to equine nutritionists, and generally sparks considerable debate about feeding management of horses prior to competition. While it generally is agreed that feeding practices before competition exercise have an important bearing on performance, there is little consensus as to what is most beneficial.
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| Fluids And Electrolytes |
April/2000 |
With the summer months approaching, it is time for a refresher on the impact of the warmer environmental conditions on your horse. Warmer temperatures and high relative humidity place added stress on horses during exercise because of their increased reliance on sweating for control of body temperature. A major consequence of sweating is the loss of large quantities of water and electrolytes.
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| Peak Fitness |
March/2000 |
In the thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=226">last issue we considered some of the adaptations that occur in horses during training. To recap, we know that improvements in cardiovascular and muscle function occur quite quickly after the onset of training. In fact, maximum aerobic capacity (VO2max) can increase by up to 10% after as little as two weeks of a regular exercise program.
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| Spring Tuning (Athletic Conditioning) |
February/2000 |
Most will agree that thorough preparation of a horse is key to success in athletic competition. With spring hopefully just around the corner, this is an opportune time to discuss conditioning. Of course, the nature of a conditioning program will vary greatly, depending on the goal in mind and the length of lay-up prior to the start of training.
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| Body Fuel |
January/2000 |
Regardless of the discipline, attaining peak performance is the number one goal for all involved in the preparation of the equine athlete. This Sports Medicine column aims to provide the reader with a greater understanding of how the horse's body works during exercise. In this first article, the fundamental relationship between nutrition and exercise performance is emphasized.
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| Indoor Exercise In Winter |
December/1998 |
Training programs often are affected by cold, rainy weather or deep snow during the winter, but the primary concern when planning a wintertime workout is the footing that your horse will encounter. Although winter weather brings the environmental challenges of wind, cold rain, and cold temperatures, it is not these conditions that often prevent a scheduled workout, but the frozen or icy surface on which you must ride.
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| Therapeutic Ultrasound |
November/1998 |
The use of ultrasonic sound for diagnosis and treatment in human and equine medicine is not new, and in fact is becoming commonplace. Most horse breeders, for example, are familiar with the use of diagnostic ultrasound to detect and monitor reproductive problems and pregnancy. Sport horse owners in large numbers have seen ultrasound employed in diagnosing ligament and tendon injuries.
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| Massage While You Groom |
September/1998 |
How much time per day do you spend grooming your horse? It probably varies between a minimum of five minutes to sometimes as long as 30 minutes, depending on what needs to be done. Over the months and years, this time adds up to a significant amount.
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| Stretching for the Horse |
August/1998 |
Editor's Note: The following is part of a series to help horse owners understand certain modalities and their purported uses. Horse owners always should seek the advice of their veterinarian before starting any treatments.
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| Using Heat Therapy |
June/1998 |
Every athlete has faced injury at some time. Soft tissue disorders, such as bruises, tendonitis, bursitis, and fibrositis, can result from overuse, wear and tear, or from a sudden trauma. Sudden trauma results in an acute injury, defined as a situation of short duration.
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| Hands-On Therapies for the Horse |
May/1998 |
Perhaps no other modality of equine therapy has grown as rapidly as the "hands on" therapies have in the past five years. This growth is patterned after human physical therapy, where the use of the hands to relieve soft tissue discomfort and joint movement restrictions has expanded over the last 20 years. The many techniques of massage, acupressure, and joint mobilizations always have been used, but only lately studied scientifically and refined.
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| Avoiding Travel Fatigue |
April/1998 |
The competitive season is in full swing and a lot of horses are on the move. Travel can be like any other experience we have one that is positive and beneficial or one that produces health-threatening stressors and fatigue depending on the choices we make.
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| Photo Therapy: AKA Therapeutic Laser |
March/1998 |
Over the past decade, physical therapy tools have gained a place of respect in the management of equine injuries. As we move toward the 21st Century, a medical philosophy is blossoming based on advice from Hippocrates, a physician who lived in 400 BC. Although he is known for his admonition to doctors to "First, do no harm," Hippocrates also is quoted as having said, "Honor the healing power of nature.
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| Warming Up In Winter |
February/1998 |
Before the summer Olympic Games were held in Atlanta, Ga., considerable research effort went into studying how the horse is affected by heat and humidity. As a result of this research, veterinarians at the Olympics were well prepared to help the competing horses cope with heat stress.
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| How to Utilize Your Equine Physical Therapist |
January/1998 |
Prior to the 1980s, physical therapy was thought to be effective only in human medical care. The parallels between human athletes and equine athletes had not yet been drawn to the extent that they are today. As trainers came to recognize that horses were not merely running machines, but athletes which would respond to appropriate conditioning programs, use was made of the growing body of knowledge coming from human sports medicine.
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