After you have made sure your horse is sound and ready for work, begin with short conditioning sessions at the walk and trot only and mostly in straight lines and soft curves or serpentines for 20 to 30 minutes per day. This will allow your horse to build up his muscles slowly while allowing all of the horse’s muscles, tendons and ligaments to stretch. Asking a horse that is not conditioned properly to perform small, tight turns will put undue stress on under-developed muscles, tendons and ligaments and could cause injury.

“Imagine learning about a rare or complex surgery as if you’re right there at the operating table,” Tayce said. “We could create virtual environments to supplement student learning. We are only scratching the surface of possibilities.”

During exercise, horses inhale more oxygen than usual to meet the demand of their muscles. Along with supporting the muscular oxygen needs, free radicals are produced and horses suffer oxidative stress. Damage by free radicals is associated with aging and various diseases.

“For optimum muscular and neurological health, dietary vitamin E is a critical component to your horse’s own antioxidant defense systems,” says Dr. Lydia Gray, SmartPak’s Staff Veterinarian/Medical Director and primary investigator. “Through this 14-day study, we were able to conclusively show that our “natural” vitamin E supplement is well-absorbed by horses, rapidly reaching recommended levels in the body.”

It’s well-known that stress, training, trailering and competition can cause occasional gut issues in performance horses. This can cause horses to be cinchy, have a rough hair coat, go off feed, and not perform to their potential.

Hosts from 38 states have planned over 350 events so far. Family days at horse shows, Girl Scout badge work, an Arabian horse breed showcase, school field trips, and pony and carriage rides are just a few examples of the creative, accessible events that event hosts have planned already. The Challenge encourages businesses to use innovative strategies to bring horses to previously uninitiated groups.

In order to provide the foal with the necessary nutrition, an Igloo cooler was retrofitted with a sheep nipple to allow for nursing. Finally, a bit of success! The filly took to nursing from the cooler quickly, allowing for one big hurdle to be overcome.