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Rehabilitating Tendon and Ligament Injuries
No matter what sort of treatment you choose when your horse injures a tendon or a ligament, the most important treatment will be time. TRIVIA TIME! Who said, “Time Heals All Wounds.” Answer? Well,...
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10 Surprising Facts About Double H Farm’s Hunter Harrison
Show jumping fans know Hunter Harrison as the name behind the famous Double H Farm, owner of superstar horses like the two-time Olympic team gold medal winner Sapphire and FEI Jumping World Cup Final...
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A Veterinarian’s Guide to Treating Type One Wounds
They say that there are two kinds of people in life—lumpers and splitters.* Lumpers like to put everything into one box. So, to a lumper, any time that a horse opens his skin, it is just a cut, a...
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Type Two Wounds (Second Intention Healing)
You had to know that if there’s a type one wound, there’s also a type two wound. Type two wounds are the wounds that make people nuts, probably because healing of them, although generally inevitable...
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We May Ride in Different Saddles But We All Mount From the Same Side
Whether you ride with a lariat rope aiming for the steers horns, leap extraordinary heights in the jumper ring or dance across the dressage arena, we have all witnessed the diverse talents of our...
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Barefoot Trimming
There’s a curious phenomenon going on in the world. Some people assert that the horse’s hooves must be trimmed in a certain way, and the horse left without shoes. The phenomenon has firm and vocal...
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The Horse Cure
Inspired by her own childhood trauma when she spent seven days in a coma, awakened to a severely compromised body and brain, and rebuilt her life with the help of a horse, Michelle Holling-Brooks...
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6 Reasons to Embrace Your Riding Mistakes
To err is human. So is stopping out in the triple and ploughing past the halt at X. If you ride horses (or participate in any sport, for that matter), there will be mistakes—and lots of them. It’s how...
View ArticleHow to Decrease your Horse’s Risk of Colic with Nutrition Management
Horses have evolved as grazing animals, eating a wide variety of forages and living in herds. They graze at ground level and can cover distances up to nine miles in a 24-hour period. Free-ranging...
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False Precision
There’s something that you need to be aware of in the horse world. It’s called “false precision.” Precision (true precision) requires that a specific action produces pre-defined and specific results....
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Shetland Ponies Are Equal Parts Fluff and Sass
They’re the fluffy speed demons eliciting “Awwwws” and squeals in equal measure on pony steeplechase courses around the country. They’re backyard pets, cart-pulling machines and the preferred mount of...
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Why Horses Aren’t Getting Any Faster
I don’t know if you pay any attention to sports like swimming, or track and field, but if you haven’t, the fact is that people keep getting faster. Records made even a few years back routinely get...
View ArticleQ&A: Does Working for Your Horse’s Board Make You a Professional?
Q: I just received notice that someone filed a U.S. Equestrian protest questioning my amateur status after they learned that I regularly hack horses for my trainer and help out around the barn in...
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When Therapy Meets Thoroughbreds
It was over six-years-ago when the rickety trailer, jostling with rusty bolts, pulled through the driveway of the New Hampshire farm I rode at. Our stable relied on an aging dealer to supply horses...
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Help, My Mare’s in Heat
OK. You’re convinced that your mare has behavioral problems because of her heat cycle. (Not sure? Read Part 1 of this series to brush up on that.) You want to do something about it. You have lots of...
View ArticleGood Decisions Begin with Strong Values
Last Wednesday, two-time Olympic team gold medalist McLain Ward (USA) opted out of his first championship in over a decade when he withdrew his mount Contagious from the Pan American Games in Lima,...
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“Natural” Dewormers
Sometimes, you may need to deworm your horse. Happily, if you do—and you should find out if you do with a fecal egg count rather than just blindly deworming on some random schedule—there are a number...
View ArticleOMG, Did You Hear…?!
I was recently at a summer show and talking to a very experienced coach who asked me if I could do a session at the barn for her riders. “The riders get so negative the week of the event—everything...
View ArticleWhat Your Horse Might Have to Say About One-Sidedness
Have you ever noticed in training that it is often easier to do lateral work, bending, turning, and lead changes, in one direction than in the other? This may be due in part to a horse’s natural...
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Skinny Horses
For every yin, there is a yang. I wrote an article on fat horses—here’s one on skinny horses. Skinny horses are the flip side of the coin from fat horses. Skinny horses are a little bit—I emphasize, a...
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