Tag: Horse Care

Horse owners around the country are preparing for spring vaccinations. 

While there is a guideline for which vaccinations should be administered (considered “core” vaccinations — those vaccines the American Association of Equine Practitioners consider imperative for a horse's wellbeing), there is no hard-and-fast rule on when a horse can return to work after vaccine administration. 

Horses can have a variety of reactions to vaccines, which are often delivered intramuscularly, reports EQUUS magazine. 

Most horses have no reaction to their shots. Those which do react often present with some swelling and soreness at the injection site that lasts for a few days. 

Light exercise the day of vaccination administration and the day after can assist in making sore muscles feel better. A rider may notice a bit of stiffness, but most don't notice any difference at all. 

After the first 48 hours, a horse can return to his normal work schedule. 

However, if a vaccinated horse has a significant reaction–which might include symptoms like fever, extreme swelling, or considerable stiffness–it is recommended to talk to the horse's veterinarian before it returns to work.

Dr. Melinda Feckleton of Firestar Veterinary Services recommends that after vaccinations, a rider should not increase the horse's workload, not exercise the horse if the weather is overly hot or cold, and refrain from riding if the horse is running a fever. 

Read more at EQUUS magazine.

The post Common Sense: Returning To Riding After Vaccination Administration appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Unlike most sports where men and women compete in separate divisions of the same sport, equestrian competition often features male and female riders in head-to-head competition. A study out of England sought to determine whether horses preferred to be ridden by men or women. 

Doctoral student Charlotte Schrurs and Dr. David Gardner, both with the University of Nottingham Veterinary School, used 530 Australian Thoroughbreds between the ages of 2 and 7 for their study. All horses were trained under the Ciaron Maher Racing banner. 

The horses were ridden by 103 different riders: 66 men and 37 women. Of the riders, 42 were professional jockeys. A total of 3,568 rides on sand, turf, and synthetic footing were recorded.

Each horse wore an Equimetre, a fitness tracker that recorded speed, stride length and frequency, equine heart rate and rate of recovery. The data allowed the scientists to objectively report the effect of the rider's sex on the horse's cardiovascular and biomechanical parameters during various points of the horse's exercise, from a slow canter to a gallop. 

The team determined that rider sex did not influence racehorse speed or stride length, no matter how hard the horse was working. 

However, heart-rate recovery after exercise did appear to be influenced by rider sex. This occurred only when the traditional training intensity on a grass or sand surface was reversed. This suggests an interaction between the horse's anticipation of exercise and the sex of the rider.  

The scientists suggest that male riders may anticipate the training intensity for the footing and transmit that energy to the horse, which responds with a higher heart rate. They suggest more studies be conducted to confirm these findings. 

The team next turned to horses running in competition races to determine whether they preferred male or female jockeys. Using 52,464 races, the scientists found that female jockeys in Britain had win percentages similar to male jockeys: 10.7 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively.

The researchers concluded that the sex of the jockey has minimal effect on both training and racing outcomes. 

Read more at HorseTalk. 

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Midway University's Board of Trustees has approved the addition of a new degree program within its School of Business, Equine, and Sport Studies. The new online B.S. in Equine Business and Sales will begin immediately and will be offered 100 percent online, marking the first time the University has offered an online undergraduate Equine major.

“Our Equine Studies program has been in place nearly 50 years and has focused on rigorous hands-on horsemanship skills development,” said Dr. Mark Gill, Dean of the School of Business, Equine and Sport Studies. “The current offerings have served our students well in developing strong horse-handling talents and knowledge. Former students have gone on to work in several industry segments from horse training, veterinary science, owning their own farm, equine healthcare, rehabilitation, and much more. With this new degree, we are going to build off the strengths of our in-seat program and offer an equine major focused more on the non-horse handling aspects of the profession.”

Coursework in the Equine Business and Sales degree program will cover broad topics of equine anatomy, equine healthcare management, facilities management, accounting, and marketing, including social media, public relations, and brand communications.

In addition, students will complete coursework focused on the marketing, legal, and financial aspects of buying and selling horses, regardless of breed. Students will also be introduced to concepts focused on building and developing a fan base through equine tourism.

“Our goal is to give someone working within the industry the opportunity to expand their knowledge base and skills to advance to other positions or for a student interested in joining the equine industry a means for entry” added Gill. “Adding an online degree allows us to reach students where they are and not limit our program to just those students who can attend classes on our 200-acre campus and working horse farm.”

Courses are formatted in eight-week modules, with courses starting five times a year. This allows students to take courses around their busy work and home schedules. Someone with previous college credit or an associate degree can transfer courses toward this degree.

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Trainer Ron Moquett was in his usual spot Wednesday morning at Oaklawn, preparing to watch Whitmore train following the second break to renovate the racing surface.

Of course, the scene was much different than the previous five years. Whitmore and Moquett's wife, Laura, also the gelding's regular exercise rider, weren't going to the track to prepare for a big race – they were preparing for a big day.

Saturday is “Whitmore Day” at Oaklawn, which honors the now-retired 2020 Eclipse Award winner (champion male sprinter), seven-time Oaklawn stakes winner and among the most popular horses in its 117-year history. Whitmore won Oaklawn's Hot Springs Stakes a record four consecutive years (2017-2020) and its Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) a record three times (2017, 2018 and 2020).

“I know that a lot of people like him,” said Ron Moquett, who also co-owned Whitmore throughout his racing career. “Of course, I'm close to people that do. I don't know how the average people are. All my friends are pumped about it (Whitmore Day).”

Oaklawn announced in early September that March 19 would be Whitmore Day. It renamed the Hot Springs Stakes after the gelding, with the inaugural $200,000 Whitmore Stakes (G3) for older horses at 6 furlongs headlining the March 19 card. Oaklawn also renamed the Count Fleet barn, Whitmore's longtime home in Hot Springs, after the now-9-year-old gelding.

Fans attending Saturday will receive commemorative Whitmore baseball cards as they enter, while supplies last. Free Whitmore T-shirts, while supplies last, can be redeemed on the north end of the first floor following the second race. First post Saturday is 1 p.m. (Central). Gates open at 11 a.m. Probable post time for the Whitmore Stakes, which goes as the seventh race, is 4:04 p.m.

And, if all goes as a planned, fans also will see Whitmore, who was retired after suffering a leg injury during a fifth-place finish in the $600,000 Forego Stakes (G1) Aug. 28 at Saratoga.

Whitmore returned to Oaklawn in early March and has been on the track this week as part of his continuing education for a possible transition from star horse to stable pony.

Briefly replicating his former career, Saturday's script calls for Whitmore to follow the field from the barn area to the track for the Whitmore Stakes, then head into the horseshoe-shaped hedge infield winner's circle, traditionally used for stakes, as the horses are being saddled in the paddock.

Whitmore, ridden by Laura Moquett, will then lead the post parade for the Whitmore Stakes.

“I'm running horses that day and none of them are Whitmore, but at least I get to lead him over and all that,” Ron Moquett said while sitting in the second-floor grandstand across from the finish line. “That's the thing. That's what this sport is about. I don't care if anybody knows me, but I'm so humbled that they know him.”

A chestnut son of Pleasantly Perfect, Whitmore bankrolled $4,502,350 – 88th in North American history through Thursday – after winning 15 of 43 starts, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization.

Whitmore won the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) in 2020 at Keeneland, but much of his best work came at Oaklawn, where he compiled a towering 9-6-1 record from 16 starts and earned $1,752,600. Swift Ruler, a local star during the 1960s, is the only other horse in Oaklawn history with seven career stakes victories.

Moquett said Whitmore was sent to Rebecca Maker's equine rehabilitation and breaking facility in Kentucky following the Forego. Whitmore normally decompressed there the last several years before returning to Oaklawn – his winter home at every meeting in 2016-2021 – for a new racing campaign.

Whitmore returned to Arkansas in late November, settling at Oaklawn's satellite training center about 25 miles east of Hot Springs, where Moquett also keeps horses. Laura Moquett, also her husband's assistant, has been charged with trying to re-train Whitmore for pony work, which encompasses escorting horses to and from the track during morning training hours.

Whitmore was a noted bad actor at 2 and gelded before his first start. Although he mellowed with age, Whitmore would kick his rear legs before loading into the starting gate for some races.

Moquett said Whitmore's transition to a possible new career is going well.

“Typical him – he asks a lot of questions and he demands answers,” Moquett said. “We just let him do what he wants to do and figure it all out. Laura's great with him. He's smart enough to do it. It's just whether or not we want to do it. We're going to bring him over here for the people and then from that point on we're going to let him tell us. He may want to be a jumper. He could be a stable pony all the way to being a peppermint-eating lawn ornament. He'll do something for us.”

Whitmore retired as the leading money winner in history among North American-based sprinters, bankrolling $4,098,600 in 37 starts under a mile. Moquett began targeting sprint races after Whitmore finished 19th in the 2016 Kentucky Derby.

Moquett was seated across from trainer Tom Van Berg during training hours Wednesday morning. Van Berg's father, the late Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg, won the 1987 Kentucky Derby with Alysheba, who retired the following year with a then-North American record $6,679,242 in career earnings. Alysheba was champion 3-year-old male and 1988 Horse of the Year.

“Tom's dad was a household name for horse trainers, but Alysheba is what introduced his dad's name, the family's name, to the next level,” Moquett said. “I don't give a dang if they ever know who I am, but it's pretty cool to have a horse that they know who it is.”

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