Lunging for Back Strength

6 Sep No Comments admin Equine Care

In virtually all disciplines peak performance depends on the horse’s ability to drive deeply from the hindquarters, to round and lift its back, and to move freely up front.  The key to beautiful, free movement is a properly conditioned horse with a strong back.  Several things can adversely affect a

Lameness in horses

14 Apr No Comments admin Equine Care

Just like human athletes, horses need to be conditioned properly to perform at their peak level.  In the beginning of the season, or after a long time not working, horses should be worked lightly and consistently (about 60 days) to build up their muscles, strength, and endurance. During this “legging up”

Detecting Lameness

20 Jan No Comments admin Equine Care

As I stated earlier, assessing the gaits of the equine can be challenging. It takes a lot of practice and a good eye to pick out subtle lameness. Not all lameness is obvious to the average person. First, let’s define lameness as soreness or “off” (subtle) to lame (obvious) in

Equine Biomechanics and Gait Analysis

20 Jan No Comments admin Equine Care

This article will be the first of two in a series on equine biomechanics and gait analysis. I will first talk about conformation. In order to understand a horse’s biomechanics and assess its motion and gaits, we first must take a horse’s conformation (body structure) into consideration. To evaluate a

Biomechanics of Normal Equine Gait

20 Jan No Comments admin Equine Care

Assessing the gaits of the equine can be difficult. Educating yourself on proper movement and watching multiple horses can help the average horseman to recognize proper or improper movement. The use of video is very useful as the stride is faster than the human eye can process. I want to

Shedding light on equine endeavors

18 Sep No Comments admin Equine Care

Shedding light on equine endeavors Seminar provides a variety of details on keeing your horses healthy. BY WENDY PAULY FOR THE TELEGRAPH HERALD Photo by: Wendy Pauly for the TH Christine Woodford, DVM, gives the audience tips for good horse performance last week. Woodford was the keynote speaker at a

What bloodwork tells you about your horse

18 Sep No Comments admin Equine Care

Before you can understand what blood tests are and how they can help diagnose ailments in your horse, it’s a good idea to understand some of the basics about the study of blood–hematology. Blood tests are a part of veterinary medicine known as laboratory medicine. This branch of medicine is

Chinese herbal medications

18 Sep No Comments admin Acupuncture, Canine Care, Equine Care

In the fall of 2006 a boarding stable in our equine practice lost two horses with in days of each other because of acute liver failure. Several horses on the farm were blood tested and 1 out of 4 had increased liver enzymes. The horses at the stable were voluntarily

Chiropractic Treatments

18 Sep No Comments admin Chiropractic, Equine Care, Stretching

In recent years the use of alternative therapies in equine medicine has almost doubled. Therapeutic options such as Acupuncture and chiropractic performed by properly trained individuals can complement the treatment protocol and aid in the getting the horse back to optimal health and performance. The majority of lameness issues that

Dental care for your performance horse

18 Sep No Comments admin Equine Care

An interesting experiment to try on yourself is stand with your arms straight out at your side and pick up one leg off the ground. Next, slide one piece of paper between your teeth (just 1 paper thick) and repeat standing with your arms straight out at your side and

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