News.

It's always fun to share horsey news with fellow horse folks. Please send us your news, wrap up of events and clinics, comings and goings at your barn and don't forget to add a photo or two. We'll share it on our facebook page. If you'd like us to give you press coverage of an event please email us the details as far in advance as possible.

Revisions to Horse Protection Act Effective February 1, 2025

The American Horse Council (AHC) is releasing this advisory to inform the industry of important changes to the Horse Protection Act (HPA). Background on the HPA can be found at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/hpa.

As ageneral reminder, the HPA covers all equine breeds and disciplines to eliminate the practice of soring horses. The AHC and other industry stakeholders have engaged in numerous meetings with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) to obtain clarifications and details on the new revisions to the HPA Rule.

New requirements Effective February 1, 2025: Horse show and event managers will be required to:

Provide notice to APHIS at least 30 days in advance of the event via mail or email.
Provide any event updates 15 days in advance of the event
Report any violations of the horse protection act within 5 days post event

Note, the new rule defines horse show as a public display of any horses in competition except where speed is the prime factor, rodeo events, parades, or trail rides.

One of the key changes to the rule is that USDA will be responsible for training Horse Protection Inspectors which will be licensed veterinarians or individuals with extensive equine experience with a governmental agency. These will be the individuals performing inspections at events. A video of the inspection process is on the website. Historically, USDA has inspected fewer than 50 events nationally per year. Read the full article...

Brooke USA Launches Hurricane Relief Fund

Supporting Horses and People Affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton
Lexington, KY (October 9, 2024) – Hurricanes Helene and Milton have slammed into the Southeastern United States, displacing people and animals, disrupting health and veterinary systems and leaving families and their beloved equines in desperate need of services and supplies. As Americans in the storm-battered states begin to climb out of the damage, Brooke USA is rallying support efforts and partnering with Equestrian Aid Foundation, EQUUS Foundation and Fleet of Angels to provide first aid, food, clothing and other supplies to equestrian families as well as to equines in need of veterinary care as well as feed and hay. Read the full article...

Understanding Reportable Diseases

For a horse owner, receiving a positive test result from your veterinarian for an equine infectious disease can be scary and overwhelming. What is the disease? How did my horse contract it? What happens now? What is the role for state and federal animal health officials in disease control management?
Because some infectious diseases can cause significant number of sick horses and deaths and are easily spread, individual states and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) act on reportable diseases to prevent disease spread. Read the full article...

Grand Meadows Cares Series: Do Your Equine Feed Supplements Stack Up?
With Top 10 Tips To Ensure You Don’t Overpay
by Nikki Alvin-Smith

There’s lot of good reasons to jump on the auto-ship bandwagon when it comes to buying products, and equine feed supplements are no exception. The always on time auto-ship program (well, for the most part), with fresh supplies are always a welcome package to receive when you are a busy horse trainer always on the go.

It’s easy to overlook your needs for feed supplements and run out of product, and it’s also easy to forget what exactly it was you bought and from where. Cost saving discounts and free shipping add much allure to the auto-ship route too.

Buying in supplies on auto-ship also offers a budget-friendly way to spread expenses, without the need to buy larger quantities that may expire optimum use dates without you noticing. That being said, if you buy top quality products with superior ingredients formulated in the correct manner to help ensure good shelf life there are great reasons to buy the larger quantities too. Read the full article...

Unlocking the genetic secrets: New UK research project set to transform equine and animal science

A University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton CAFE professor is leading a multi-university equine study that could set a precedent for genetic research
By Jordan Strickler

Lexington, Ky.— In what could be a leap forward for equine science, a Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment researcher is helping spearhead a three-year project to map the genetic blueprints of 13 horse breeds and their relatives.

Funded by a $765,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, this initiative, entitled “Functionally Annotated Equine Pangenome with Infrastructure for an Accessible, Integrative, Community Genomics Resource," aims to further understand equine genetics. It also hopes to pave the way for advancements in health, performance and disease prevention of equine genetics. Read the full article...

THE MUSTANGS: AMERICA'S WILD HORSES

Broadcast premiere on PBS Stations beginning in July

Executive Producers Robert Redford, Patti Scialfa Springsteen and USA Olympic
Equestrian Silver Medalist Jessica Springsteen take viewers to the American West
to show how the survival of the wild horse is at stake
 
Featuring Music by Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson
and an original song written by music icon Diane Warren
and performed by Platinum-selling artist Blanco Brown
 
The Mustangs: America's Wild Horses, an award-winning feature documentary about the plight of wild horses in the West, premieres on PBS stations in July and includes a national broadcast on August 26 at 8 p.m. ET on the public television WORLD Channel.

Here's a list of airdates across the country:   facebook.com/TheMustangsFilm/posts/1047411397229290

The film is executive produced by Robert Redford, Patti Scialfa Springsteen and Jessica Springsteen.
View the trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=SSWEC0buBq0&t=3s

“America’s wild horses are fighting their last stand,” said Executive Producer Robert Redford. “Increasing competition for our natural resources threatens our wilderness areas, our wild horses and other wildlife species. Horses are interwoven into the very fabric of what is America. What threatens them threatens us all.”

There are nearly 80,000 wild horses on our public lands and more than 60,000 in government corrals.

The Mustangs: America's Wild Horses

Centered on the current controversy surrounding the preservation of these American icons, the film highlights individuals and groups across the United States who are working with wild horses, including an organization that pairs mustangs and veterans with PTSD. Other stories include photographers documenting mustangs in the wild, a group that helps manage population growth with fertility control, the legacy of a woman named “Wild Horse Annie” who mobilized a grassroots campaign with schoolchildren in the 1970s to protect wild horses with legislation that saved them from the brink of extinction and a sanctuary in California named Return to Freedom that reunites mustangs that were rounded up on the range.

The 90-minute documentary features a soundtrack with songs by American musical icons Bruce Springsteen (“Chasin’ Wild Horses”), Emmylou Harris (Leonard Cohen’s “Ballad of a Runaway Horse”), and Willie Nelson (“Ride Me Back Home”), and the original song “Never Gonna Tame You,” performed by Platinum-selling artist Blanco Brown and written by iconic songwriter Diane Warren, a 15-time Oscar® nominee and GRAMMY®, Emmy® and two-time Golden Globe® award winner whose songs have been featured in over 100 motion pictures and has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Philipps (Wild Horse Country: The History, Myth, and Future of the Mustang), who is featured in the film says, "The wild horse is so ingrained in the American imagination that even for those who have never seen one know what it stands for: fierce independence, unbridled freedom, the bedrock ideals of the nation. From car ads to high school mascots, the wild horse - popularly known as the mustang - is the enduring icon of America. But in modern times it has become entangled in controversy and bureaucracy, and now its future is in question."

“America’s wild horses represent freedom, strength and resilience,” said Emmy Award-Winning Producer and Co-Director Steven Latham. “We wanted to make people aware of the challenges the mustangs face to survive and thrive in a changing world.”

In 1900, there were two million wild horses in the West. By the 1950s, there were less than 20,000 due to their exploitation. After a federal law passed in 1971 to protect wild horses, their population started growing. Today, the Bureau of Land Management says there should be about 26,000 wild horses on public lands across 10 western states. Wild mustang numbers have risen in modern times to upwards of 80,000, and the film explores the challenges of managing an expanding population with no natural predators. The Bureau of Land Management plans on rounding up 20,000 wild horses a year.

   
The Mustangs: America's Wild Horses is Executive Produced by Robert Redford, Patti Scialfa Springsteen and Jessica Springsteen; Co-Executive Produced by Joe Bourdeau and Garry Denny; Produced by Steven Latham; Directed by Steven Latham and Conrad Stanley; Co-Produced by Diane Warren; Consulting Producer Gerry Byrne; Edited by Conrad Stanley; Director of Photography Brian Pratt; Music Supervisor Andrew Gross.

A New Approach for Treating Kissing Spine

Overriding Spinous Process, otherwise known as Kissing Spine can cause back pain and poor performance, especially when two or more vertebrae touch or overlap. Assistant Professor Dr. Nathalie Cote in the department of Large Animal Surgery at Ontario Veterinary College recently presented a new less invasive surgical approach to treat this issue that is showing great preliminary results. Read the full article...

MMP Enzymes and Laminitis
Eleanor M. Kellon, VMD

MMPs are matrix metalloproteinases – enzymes that break down connective tissue protein/collagen in the body. If you follow news releases and articles about equine laminitis, you have surely seen mention of MMP enzymes since the late 1990s. Turns out they are not the major players as was originally thought.

The basement membrane (BM) in the hoof is a thin layer of connective tissue lining the junction between the dead laminae of the hoof wall, and the live laminae of the inner hoof. This system locks the hoof wall to the tissues inside like Velcro.

In laminitis caused by things like colic/gut infections, black walnut shavings, grain, or experimental fructan overload, it was noted the basement membrane is damaged or destroyed and that the level of MMP enzymes is increased. This led to the theory that the activation of MMP is what causes laminitis. Read the full article...