Category Archives: Science

As Kermit the frog once lamented, it’s not easy being green. But it's really not that hard, either. Taken on balance, equestrian facilities are not considered by experts to be...

At one time or another, most of us have had the experience of riding a horse that’s haunted daily by the corner of doom.  No matter how many times he...

Be they ever so humble, there’s no creature quite like the donkey. Though these hairy, hardy decedents of the Equidae family are often thought of as the horse’s slightly quirky...

Some years ago, I learned from the game show Jeopardy that Arabian horses have one less vertebra than all other horses. I thought, well, wouldn’t that make an interesting thing...

Should a horse be barefoot or shod? What is the role of science and research in shoeing horses, both now and in the future? Farrier Pat Reilly, Chief of Farrier...

When should your horse use a water treadmill or swimming pool? Water treadmills and swimming pools are growing in popularity as tools to complement training and rehabilitation. But in what...

Social Licence to Operate (SLO) is an unwritten agreement between stakeholders and the public, who approve certain practices within their respective industry. All sectors and industries are dependent on their...

A panel of experts from the sport horse community was brought together in February to identify what research projects should be undertaken to improve the health and performance of sport...

At the time of writing there have been 1,029 scientific papers published on COVID-19—two papers in 2019 and 1,027 in 2020! This illustrates how acute the emergence of this pandemic...

If you're like most riders, you've spent hours compiling data on your horse. You've recorded his daily diet and planned for the strategic introduction of supplements. You've pre-mapped his training...

I'm sure by now many of you have seen the video circulating social media about the cloning and genetic engineering of horses. Published by the World Economic Forum, the 60...

It was early in our equine education that we learned the terms for the common white markings found on the head and legs of the horse. At five it’s pretty...

Research Fellow Monamie Ringhofer and Associate Professor Shinya Yamamoto (Kobe University Graduate School of Intercultural Studies) have proved that when horses face unsolvable problems they use visual and tactile signals...

For the past few months, I've been involved in a training course to become certified as a Texas Master Naturalist. It's a program whose mission is to train a corps...

It doesn't take an expert to know that horses are fragile creatures. No matter how much time you spend with them or how many preventative measures you take, horses can still...

It's thought to be the oldest breed of riding horse, its distinctive dished nose, wide-set eyes, and large, flared nostrils—that once helped these early chariot horses dissipate heat in the desert—the...

Beware, those of you planning a trail ride along the Amazon River in South America this summer. This month, scientists have finally proven a question that has been bugging them for...

In many ways, the timeline of horse domestication is still a mystery to scientists. Previous studies have established what appears to be the starting point for domestication at 3,500 B.C....

These tiny, prehistoric ancestors not only looked different from their modern descendants, they ran differently too. The key contrast? It's all in the back, says a new study conducted by...

What can a tiny, 35,000-year-old ivory horse sculpture tell us about the relationship between prehistoric men and equines? Why did teeth and toes make all the difference in the horse's ability to...