Old maiden mares are considered special mares with the possibility of reduced fertility. An old maiden mare is a mare that is older than eight or nine and has never had a foal. However, there are other mares that are in the same category; mares that are bred at the age of two, foal when they are three, and then go into a show career and are not bred again until they are 12 or older behave very similarly. Not all are the same, but they are all at a higher risk of being a problem.

If you’ve ever yearned for the freedom, fun, and romance of saddling up for a horse packing trip into the wilderness, grab Pack Em Up, Ride Em Out by Tania Millen and devour every word of it.

Equine weight loss is simply a result of more calories being used by the body than are being consumed. There are several potential causes of chronic weight loss in horses. These causes include poor quality or limited feed supply, health and disease problems, as well as social interaction and competition among horses. Chronic equine weight loss can also be the result of starvation. Equine starvation can be caused by intentional neglect, ignorance, economic hardship of owner, disease, dentition, pecking order, parasites, or seasonal variation in availability of pasture. Remarkably, horses can survive chronic weight loss.

Few things in nature are more inspiring than new foals frolicking around their mothers on a crisp spring morning. The fact that a foal can be up and running within a few short hours after birth is but one in a long series of miracles. Conception is miraculous in itself. Development in utero, or in the womb, begins with the formation of all of the organ systems and is followed by their maturation. During the entire process, the foal is completely dependent on the mother’s blood supply for eating, breathing, and eliminating metabolic waste products.

In 2013, a scandal broke out in Europe and the United Kingdom when horsemeat was discovered in a number of beef burger products. Very quickly, horsemeat was detected in a variety of other meat products, leading to the destruction of food worth millions of dollars after it was removed from supermarket shelves.

Sophie is a twelve-year-old seven-eighths Hanoverian mare whose main job is dressage. She is also hacked out for an hour or two a couple of times a week. She is fit and robust, but she has recurring bouts of problems with her stifles. Immediately after being shod, she has no issues. But as she gets further along in her shoeing interval her rider notices that her stifles keep catching.

Horse insurance initially began as protection against horse theft. Today, it has evolved into a service that offers horse owners a variety of choices from basic mortality policies to loss-of-use packages for high-end athletes. With all these options, choosing a policy that is right for you and your horse can be challenging, says Manning.

Many horses have some level of separation anxiety. If the anxiety is mild, it may only be annoying or a minor inconvenience. But, if your horse is so herd-bound that her behaviour makes you feel anxious, it may be endangering your and your horse’s safety.

“How do I know when my horse’s feet need to be trimmed?” This question has been posed to everyone who trims the feet of horses. As a service provider, I can attest that there are a number of answers to that question – and all of them are correct.