We’re all getting a little bit older, but as with fine wine and good horses, that often means things are getting better. The Horse magazine is celebrating its 21st year in 2004 since its inception as Modern Horse Breeding. And you’ll notice a few things different this year. For one, we are sharing our love of our horses in a new column called Horse Fever. We also are re-instituting our Prospects section that features new products in the horse industry. Our series focus this year will be parasites, a topic that spurs much debate among the learned in institutions, and much confusion among horse owners. We have a committee of three distinguished parasitologists helping us bring you the best information possible.

Some of our articles this year will be disturbing to some readers. I don’t apologize. There are some areas in our horses’ lives that we need to take a closer look at as their caretakers. Our cover story this month focuses on common abuses of show horses. We aren’t pointing fingers at anyone, and, in fact, we applaud the efforts of many of the breed and discipline organizations trying to stay one step ahead of those who would “bend” the rules for their own purposes, in the process hurting their horses.

We’ll be touching on new areas of horse health, such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and re-visiting some old problems, such as shelly hooves.

The Horse will feature three special issues this year that will contain several articles centered around a main theme (much like the reproduction special issue in our December 2003 magazine). The first is our February Healthy Horse Housing special issue. We’ll bring you information about safer and better barns, arenas, and fencing that you can put to use today