Latest Horse Articles & News

The International Equitation Science Conference, with the theme of ‘Bringing Science to the Stable’, kicked off on Sunday 18th August with two pre-conference workshops. The first was ‘Lost in Translation’ presented by two members of the ISES Council, Cristina Wilkins of Horses and People Magazine, and Kate Fenner of Kandoo Equine. Using their media background and experience, they discussed ways to improve the communication of science in equestrian communities.

New research by scientists at Ireland’s University College Dublin and the equine science company Plusvital has established that genes associated with behavior may play a big a role in whether a Thoroughbred horse races or not.

Previous studies have shown that less than half of Thoroughbred foals born actually race, with durability or the ability of the horse to withstand the rigors of a training regime seen as a critical factor.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in a horse's environment may play a role in the development of equine metabolic syndrome (EMS). This finding, made by Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers at The University of Minnesota, could explain some of the variability in EMS severity that can't be explained by other commonly measured factors, such as diet, exercise and season. The study was published in Chemosphere.

Avian influenza viruses infect horses in Mongolia but do not cause large outbreaks of disease because they failed to acquire key genetic changes to enable greater cross-species transmissibility, according to a study published February 7 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Pablo Murcia of the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, and colleagues.