Tag: Horse Care

Pneumonia in foals is common, but if treated aggressively most foals will recover well and lead normal lives. Up to 10 percent of all foals will contract pneumonia, reports The Horse.

Pneumonia is suspected when a foal is breathing hard and fast, and has an elevated heart rate with a fever. Vets often confirm that suspicion using an ultrasound or X-ray, but a definitive diagnosis requires a transtracheal wash. If the foal has pneumonia, the wash will contain white blood cells and bacteria. 

A culture and sensitivity report will show which antibiotics are appropriate to treat the condition. A combination of antimicrobials, anti-inflammatories, antioxidants, and bronchodilators are often used. Intravenous fluids and oxygen may also be needed. 

Though most horses recover uneventfully, horses which sustain lung tissue damage from severe pneumonia may be at risk of lower airway bleeding during exercise (exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage) and recurrent infections because of the amount of mucus the horses are unable to clear. 

Information provided by the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries suggests that foals which have had pneumonia may be less likely to make it to the racetrack. However, those horses that made it to the track do not seem to have any repercussions from having pneumonia as a foal. 

Read more at The Horse.

The post Racing Soundness: Long-Term Effects Of Foal Pneumonia appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Records are there to be broken and that is what happened on a thrilling second day of dressage at the 15th FEI Eventing World Championship, at Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy.

Michael Jung, the German team anchorman, has smashed his own record with a stunning 18.8 dressage mark on FischerChipmunk FRH, which is now the second-best score in world championship history behind Bettina Hoy in 2002. It puts his team into a close second place behind Great Britain, which starts tomorrow's cross-country day with the lowest ever team score after dressage, 69.2 penalties.

The British score was already a record before world number one Oliver Townend and the hugely experienced grey Ballaghmor Class recorded 23.4 for individual sixth place to add to first-day leader Laura Collett's 19.3 and Tom McEwen and Toledo de Kerser's 25.6. Defending champion Ros Canter's good score of 26.2 as pathfinder on Lordships Gruffalo is now, remarkably, the discount score.

Meanwhile, the Land Rover U.S. Eventing Team saw its final two team combinations, as well as individual pair, complete their dressage tests before the ground jury Friday at the 2022 FEI Eventing World Championship, finishing the day on a score of 76.6. Tamie Smith and Mai Baum, shined, earning a 24.0, with Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg TSF rounding out the day, earning a 26.2 from the panel. Ariel Grald and Leamore Master Plan produced a 32.5 to sit in 48th place individually.

While attention now turns to the Giuseppe Della Chiesa (ITA)-designed track across the hills of Pratoni, Chef d'Equipe Bobby Costello was pleased with the team's performance at the conclusion of the first phase, as they currently hold third place with two days of competition remaining, as Great Britain and Germany maintain first and second overnight, with New Zealand chasing the podium in fourth.

“Obviously I'm thrilled with the last couple of days. Every single one of the riders rode up to their potential, but having said that, we have to put that out of our heads and go into cross-country like we're a few places lower than third and not feel the pressure of where we are after the dressage,” said Costello. “We need to go out there like we have nothing to lose – ride smart, ride aggressive, and this is the time to make it happen.”

Tamie Smith (Murrietta, Calif.) and Mai Baum, a stalwart combination in the dressage, rose to the occasion and overcame a bobble in their medium trot early on to receive a 24.0 from the panel, placing them in fifth individually and helping to secure the team's current podium position. Of her test, Smith was pleased with the performance from Mai Baum, a 2006 German Sport Horse gelding owned by Alex Ahearn, Ellen Ahearn, and Eric Markell, expressing her gratitude for his continued intensity and poise.

“I feel like our test was better than Badminton and he's in much better self-carriage and relaxation and most of it was all brilliant, unfortunately had that one little mistake, but you have to try and go for it and he wasn't quite strong enough to hold it, but he tried to give me everything,” said Smith. “I'm still super ecstatic and it's a 24 at a world championship, so I'll take it.”

Of the course, Smith noted that rideability will be key and that is one of Mai Baum's strengths. She explained, “I think it is a rider's type course because it's fast, but the horses also have to be rideable and he's all of those things. He's smart and brave, so I'm really looking forward to getting out there.”

As the anchor combinations, the pressure was on Martin (Cochranville, Pa.) and his longtime partner Tsetserleg TSF, cantered down their fourth championship centerline together, and were marked well by the panel to receive a 26.2. Martin took a different approach with Tsetserleg TSF before this championship, focusing on lighter training to keep the 2007 Trakehner gelding owned by Christine, Tommie, and Thomas Turner, fresh and ready to give his all for the team this week in Italy.

“He's such a trier this little horse and he's so reliable in there. He was a bit quiet and backed-off, so I wish I maybe had one less ride, but that can backfire as well at these big championships if they get too nervous, so all and all I was pleased and it could have gone better, but also could have gone worse,” said Martin of his test with Tsetserleg TSF. “I'm pretty confident about tomorrow. It's a testing course and at these championships is always a lot of pressure. I'm on a veteran and he's done bigger and longer courses, so I have some comfort knowing he's just a champion.”

As the individual combination representing the U.S. Land Rover Eventing Team, Grald and Leamore Master Plan, a 2009 Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Anne Eldridge, earned a 32.4 from the judges and are looking forward to tomorrow's gallop around the technical, yet terrain-heavy track.

“Dressage isn't always his strength because he can get very exuberant and nervous, so my main goal was to go in there and keep him with me and I think for the most part he really did that. Obviously, the competitive rider in me wants to go in there and knock it out of the park, but we are building each time and getting a little better each year,” said Grald. In her first championship, she is trying to take everything in and soak in the moment of something she's been working towards all of her life. “This is amazing. It's so easy to get laser focused and put tunnel vision on, but I'm trying to take some breaths and look around to take in where I am. I have great teammates and I am so honored to be here with all of them.”

Ride Times
Watch
Results

Learn more about the 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships at pratoni2022.it/en/.

The post FEI Eventing World Championships: Records Broken In Pratoni, U.S. Team In Third After Dressage Phase appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

On Sept. 15, 2022, the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) submitted the letter below to the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) regarding the association's permission of the use of romifidine 30 minutes before competition. 

Under the guidance of our Welfare & Public Policy Advisory Council, the AAEP has submitted a letter to the National Reining Horse Association asking the group to reconsider its new policy allowing the use of compounded romifidine for sedative effects 30 minutes before competition due to the negative impact on the health and welfare of both horse and rider.

Read the letter below:

Mr. Rick Clark
President
National Reining Horse Association
3021 West Reno Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73107

Dear President Clark and NRHA Executive Committee,

The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) is a U.S.-based professional association of more than 9,000 equine veterinarians that is committed to ensuring the health and welfare of horses. We would like to share our concerns regarding recent changes to NRHA's medications policy, specifically with regards to the addition of romifidine as an approved medication.

We applaud you for many of your policy changes; however, we wish to share our grave concerns regarding your allowance of compounded romifidine for sedative effects and its impact on the health and welfare of both horse and rider.

Romifidine is a sedative of the most common class used in horses, the α2-adrenergic receptor agonists. Unlike phenothiazine tranquilizers such as acepromazine, the α2-agonists produce significant analgesia (decreased pain perception) in addition to sedative effects, including ataxia (loss of coordination and balance). Much research has been conducted on horses receiving romifidine. These studies have demonstrated that at 30 minutes post-administration, 80 percent of horses still show signs of mild to moderate sedation, and signs of lameness are significantly decreased from a pre-administration baseline evaluation. Ataxia may still be present up to an hour after administration, and diminished response to painful stimuli and other signs of sedation may persist up to 2 hours in some horses.

Taken together, allowing a horse to enter a show ring at 30 minutes post-administration of romifidine presents a safety and welfare risk to both the horse and rider, including masking a lameness that could become worse with riding, or results in the horse tripping and injuring him/herself and the rider. The analgesic effects of this drug furthermore can be considered performance enhancing and an affront to the spirit of fair competition.

Also, as you are aware, there is no FDA-approved form of romifidine manufactured in the United States. Sedivet, previously manufactured in the U.S., is no longer available in the U.S. but is in Canada and Europe. Therefore, romifidine in any form in the U.S. can only be obtained from a compounding company.

As licensed veterinarians, our profession has strict guidelines that we must adhere to for the use of compounded medications, and administration for competitive purposes goes against these guidelines (see below). Secondly, compounding pharmacies are unregulated; as such, there can be variations in concentrations and quality of compounded preparations which has led to disastrous consequences even when there has been the best of intentions (e.g. polo pony deaths).

Legal drug compounding requires a valid Veterinary Client/Patient Relationship (VCPR). A compounded medication can only be used when there is not an equivalent FDA-approved medication available. Off label (extra label) medication is the use of an FDA-approved product for a non-equine species that is used (off label) in the horse. It should be noted that the use of compounded drugs in a highly regulated competitive environment should be discouraged due to the variability of therapeutic levels and detection times. The AAEP Guidelines for Drug Compounding are an excellent reference for the legal and ethical use of medications in horses. The AAEP also offers additional resources on compounding online here.

We note that the NRHA's Animal Welfare Position Statement embraces the values of ensuring the highest standards of safety for both horse and rider and condemns the use of performance-altering substances in competition. For the safety of the discipline's equine and human athletes, we urge NRHA members and leadership to reconsider this recent change allowing for the use of compounded romifidine. We do not believe it is in the best interest of the horse.

Thank you for your consideration of our concerns.

Sincerely,

Emma Read, DVM, MVSc, DACVS
President – 2022
American Association of Equine Practitioners

cc: Gary Carpenter, NRHA Commissioner

The post AAEP Encourages National Reining Horse Association To Reconsider Sedative Rule appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

British rider Laura Collett rode into the record books on Thursday at the FEI Eventing World Championships at Pratoni del Vivaro (ITA) with a superb display of harmony between horse and rider. She has taken the lead after a thrilling first day of dressage with the outstanding mark of 19.3 penalties on Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott's London 52, a 13-year-old Holsteiner by Landos.

It is the third best dressage score in world championship history, following Bettina Hoy (GER) and Pippa Funnell (GBR) at Jerez de la Frontera (ESP) in 2002, and the crowd knew they were seeing something special, breaking into loud cheers as the mark was announced.

“What a horse,” exclaimed Collett afterwards. “He is just such a pleasure to ride. I am one of the luckiest riders in the world to be sitting on him.”

The partnership's rise to glory began in 2019 with victory at Pau CCI5*; they were members of the gold-medal British team at the Tokyo Olympic Games and this year won Badminton CCI5*.

Collett, 33, heads an all-female top three. British individual Yasmin Ingham, riding Banzai du Loir in her first senior championships, also presented a glorious picture of balance and harmony and they are in second place on 22.0.

“When I was younger, I was watching the people I am now in a team with and I wanted to be part of that,” said Ingham, 25, who won Blenheim CCI4*L last year and was runner-up on her CCI5* debut at Kentucky in April. “I'd never expected to be at my first world championship with those people I look up to and respect.”

Monica Spencer (NZL), who is lying third on Artist, an elegant unraced Thoroughbred bay gelding, has made a fantastic impression at her first championship, especially as she had to make an 18,000km, 50-hour journey to Europe, the longest of all competitors. According to Eventing Nation, Spencer also left her 10-month old son Gus at home in New Zealand.

Spencer, who has twice won at CCI4*-L level in New Zealand, scored 25.6 at her first competition in Europe.

“It's one thing being able to do it at home, and another when you come onto a big stage like this, but my horse was a trooper,” she said. “He's a true gent, always the grooms' favorite.'”

Spencer, 35, who comes from Taupo and has never competed out of Australasia, bought Artist as a 4-year-old. He is bred in the purple, a grandson of Montjeu, the 1999 Arc de Triomphe winner, but proved too slow to make a start as a racehorse.

Per Eventing Nation: “The incredible mover caught Monica's eye at his first show in New Zealand, where he was under the re-training of Polly MacDonald. Originally bred by Windsor Park Stud in New Zealand to race but not showing enough speed for the task, he'd been sold on and had begun his new career. 'I saw him at his first show from the other side the warm up and I promptly trotted over to Polly and asked if she would sell them and I've had him ever since,' [Spencer] explained.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Monica Spencer (@monicaspencernz)

Defending world champion Ros Canter (GBR) is in fourth place on new ride Lordships Gruffalo, putting Great Britain in the lead in the team competition at this early stage, but it is an exciting international line-up, with eight nations represented in the top 12 on the individual leaderboard and Evelina Bertoli best of the home side, Italy, in 11th place.

New Zealand are a close second to Britain in the team competition, followed by the USA, France and Japan.

Germany, the 2006 and 2014 champions, are currently seventh. Sandra Auffarth's test on Viamant du Matz started promisingly with some high marks but it unravelled when the horse unexpectedly spooked at a dressage marker that blew over in the wind. Germany's fortunes are likely to change, however, when Olympic champions Julia Krajewski and Amande de B'Neville perform their test tomorrow, plus this year's Kentucky CCI5* winners Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH.

The second part of the dressage phase starts at 9.30am Friday morning.

The post FEI Eventing World Championships: New Zealand Team’s OTTB Lies Third After First Day Of Competition appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post