#equine science

[er-cryptid]

American Bashkir Curly Horse

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[theworldofjo]

My dearest mother, who has met and spent over an hour with probably less than 3 horses in her entire life, after reading a list of Olympic casualties that included horses has become so fixated on the fact they must be put down after breaking a leg. She first developed this fixation on the first day of the Winter Olympics, however as you can see, it has not gone away. It doesn’t help her daughter is an animal science student.

(I did answer her question, do not fear) (in the simplest way possible: by sending her a picture of a flamingo standing on one leg and asking how many horses she sees just resting casually and supporting themselves on less than four feet)

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Really important presentation from some of the biggest names in equine science (very proud to see the university I graduated from participating in this too!)

Dressage horses are in pain. The evidence is clear.

[fly-tempest]

Horses found able to use symbols to convey their desire for a blanket

A team of researchers at Norwegian University of Life Sciences has found that horses are capable of reading symbols on a sign and using them

"Horses chose to stay without a blanket in nice weather, and they chose to have a blanket on when the weather was wet, windy and cold (χ2 = 36.67, P < 0.005). This indicates that horses both had an understanding of the consequence of their choice on own thermal comfort, and that they successfully had learned to communicate their preference by using the symbols. The method represents a novel tool for studying preferences in horses."

[thescienceofequus]

Return of rare Ojibwe horse lifts spirits — but still needs help

A small farm outside River Falls, Wis., is raising a herd of rare and endangered Ojibwe horses, part of a grassroots effort to revive the ra

mprnews.org | 23 August, 2022

Loerzel has taken that teaching to heart. Earlier this year, the 28-year-old graduate student in social welfare at the University of Washington raised money to rescue six of the horses from a Canada rancher who could no longer afford to keep them.

She brought them to a farm owned by a friend outside River Falls, where Loerzel moved last year with her husband. And she started a nonprofit called The Humble Horse, to raise awareness about the breed–which is also known as the Lac La Croix pony, and to help revive it. Only about 180 Ojibwe horses remain, mostly in Canada.

...

Thousands of Ojibwe horses once lived near Ojibwe communities on both sides of the border. They would roam free part of the year, but at other times were gathered to help with labor.

But their population dwindled in the first part of the 20th century. Many were killed and used to make dog food, even glue.

By 1977 there were only four left, on the Lac La Croix First Nation in Ontario, just north of the U.S.-Canada border.

Word spread that the Canadian government planned to exterminate them. So four men from the Bois Forte Reservation in Minnesota planned a rescue mission.

"They piled in a pickup truck, hooked up a horse trailer, drove across like beaver dams and portages and frozen ice in the middle of February, said Heather O'Connor, a Canadian author and journalist who spent five years researching Ojibwe horses.

It was dubbed the “Heist across the Ice.”

(Read the full article at the above link.)

[is-the-horse-vid-cute]

hey there, ive heard from a lot of people that horses shouldnt be ridden as its supposedly been proven it can cause health issues with their back in the long term, like nerve damage. do you know if this true or not, and if it is if there anything that is done to prevent that from happening?

Short answer: riding can indeed cause myofascial damage and nerve damage, unfortunately.

Long answer: This question lead me down quite the research rabbit hole. The weight and fit of a saddle and rider combined applies far higher pressures than I thought on the tissues of the horse’s back. Their spines are strong enough to carry a rider, but the pinching, bouncing, and slamming pressures from poor tack fit and/or poor riding can do a lot of damage. Muscle atrophy, nerve impingement, kissing spine (when the spinous processes of the vertebrae touch) and chronic pain can all be caused by poor riding and tacking. 

The proper way to prevent this is to condition the horse for riding by teaching them to carry their bodies properly, build up the muscles required to hold that form, and physically condition them so their bodies are more prepared to handle the stresses and physical hardships of riding. Unfortunately, many do not practice this or even know this. Ensuring tack is properly fitted is critical as well - I see so many people try to justify it by saying ,”I can’t afford a properly fitted saddle, so this will have to do.” If you can’t afford to do the minimum of fitting a saddle to the horse, you can’t afford to ride. 

Proper riding is also very important. A good rider will move in tandem with the horse and their weight will be balanced and gentle on its back. 

To wrap this all up: many of the studies I read did not entirely disprove that even properly fitted tack and good riding can still cause some damage, though much more mild. Equine studies have really taken off in the past few decades so I imagine modern technology will eventually allow us to know the full story of what horses experience under saddle.

[black-thoroughbred]

Behavior Test Reveals Owners Miss Signs of Lameness – The Horse

A study led by Dr. Sue Dyson found signs of lameness in 73% of horses riders identified as sound. Also, nearly 50% of the horses' saddles sh

Although all the riders in the study had reported that their horses were sound, the lameness evaluations revealed that 73% of them were lame in one or more limbs, Dyson said. The lameness was subtle—up to a score of 2 on a 1-to-8 scale—and wasn’t necessarily constant, but it was present and reflective of the horse’s discomfort, she explained. Additionally, nearly half the horses showed some sort of gait abnormality, such as bunny-hopping or “moving short” at the canter.

[psychotrauma]

i can promise, with nearly 100% certainty, if the arabian and quarter horse (and by extension american paint and appaloosa) stud books introduced live cover only accepted for registration, the breed would be cleaned up by AT LEAST 75% within a decade. no more backyard bred shoddy quarter horses being passed off for some distant reining or cutting ancestor and halter breeders (of both quarter horse and arabian) would be taking a bigger look at their bloodstock, especially in their dual usefulness (halter AND rideability).

there should still be leniency for artificial breeding methods but you should have to apply for them, for example, if a mare has a career ending injury that would be negatively impacted by a live cover but doesn't impact her ability to carry a foal, nor is it based in a genetic defect or deficiency. they should be allowed for artificial insemination or potentially the use of embryo transfer to surrogate mare, with the foal being eligible for registration because they went through background checks and medically vetted the parental contributors before breeding.

this could also be used rare tail lines in both QH and arabians, especially with cloning. making sure the clone of an individual with replicated DNA (whether mare or stallion) can function and prove itself should be an option to keep lines from dying out. if the animal can prove itself and its genetics, whether it's a clone or not, it should be allowed to breed (with the help of artificial technologies, in the instance of the clone, especially for individuals that are geldings and the last of a tail line).