Most of us have experienced that moment when our horse turns around in his stall and we see that his beautifully groomed and carefully hand combed tail, that we have been nurturing all show season, has become a tangled mess. The skirt hairs are missing, or scrunched into a new backcomb style.

The big problem with tendon injuries is that they repair leaving scar tissue, which is less elastic than the normal collagen found in healthy tendons. This leaves them prone to further damage. By injecting plasmid DNA into the torn ligaments and tendons, the researchers were able to see that blood vessels developed within the tissue and the tissue grew back without leaving scar tissue behind.

You will buy horses for resale and not be able to recover the maintenance expense, training time, and marketing effort you put into the project. You will lose money. You’ll lose money when you buy equipment, vehicles, and saddles that don’t perform as you hoped. You will lose when you hire people who turn out to be total duds as workers.

Ticks release a toxin when they feed, which leads to a condition known as tick paralysis. Common signs of tick paralysis include difficulty walking, gurgling and choking. Dogs may not be able to bark properly.”

1. Infectious Diseases – with priority placed on research that addresses:

Rhodococcus equi
Streptococcus equi (including subspecies equi and or zooepidemicus)
Equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1)
2. Equine Wellness – with priority placed on research that addresses:

Parasite resistance
3. Equine Welfare – with priority placed on research that addresses:

Competition integrity
4. All other proposals

One of this year’s most important achievements was the validation of a dual-tracer scanning protocol, which allows for the assessment of both bone and soft tissue lesions in lame horses. This protocol has now been used on several clinical cases and has been utilized to assess complex lesions involving the foot and the suspensory ligament. (Figure 1)

Behavioral manifestations of stress in foals are best handled by management of their environment, keeping them with familiar companions, a stabilizing adult, and confined in an area with sturdy and safe fencing. However, there are still often problems with the babies going off feed.  Maintaining adequate nutrition that is without excessive calories is also an issue for mares that need to decrease milk production, but often are pregnant.

Additionally, you’ll find links to view the judges’ scorecards from the World Show event, providing you a way to compare your scores to how the judges scored the class.