Horse Care | Horse Racing Free Tips

Horses, Humans Have Similar Reactions To Allergic Dermatitis

The intense itchiness caused by allergic dermatitis can make horses scratch to the point where they harm themselves, breaking the skin as they scratch in an attempt to relieve the itching. This inflammatory disease often affects a horse's ears, face, and other hair-free areas, and it can be caused by insect or environmental allergies. Humans also experience atopic dermatitis, often called eczema.

Dr. Rosanna Marsella reviewed literature on the current understanding of atopic dermatitis in dogs, cats, horses, and people to try to improve understanding of the disease and develop new treatments. In people and horses, allergy-related disease often first shows itself as dermatitis, but respiratory disease can occur later. Some atopic horses develop heaves and some affected humans can develop food allergies, rhinitis and asthma.

Atopic dermatitis is often diagnosed by analyzing the patient's history and clinical signs, though serology testing can be done to create a definitive diagnosis. Affected horses are often given glucocorticoids and antihistamines, but controlling triggers for itchiness is crucial to the success of therapy, Marsella says.

Allergen specific immunotherapy is recommended for horses that suffer from the disease and has a success rate of between 64 and 84 percent. Most improvement is seen after the first year of treatment. Some horses require other medical interventions while receiving immunotherapy, but the amounts of these medications may decrease the longer immunotherapy is administered. Interleukin-31, which causes intense itchiness, may be a target for therapy.

Though understanding of atopic dermatitis is limited, affected horses seem to suffer similarly to humans affected by the disease. Treatment has evolved from suppressing the immune system to a more holistic restoration of the immune system, often through allergen-specific immunotherapy.

Read the review here.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

While many horses wear leg boots or wraps when working to prevent injury, recent studies report that these boots may increase the temperature leg temperature and harm the superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT), reports The Horse.

Researchers from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) created a study to determine whether different leg wraps increase the temperature of the leg during exercise. Graduate student Luke Brock explained that the equine lower limb has little muscle below the knee and hock, so it cools itself by taking the heat away from the skin's surface. Using a boot or bandage to the leg creates an insulating effect, which can harm the SDFT.

Heat dissipation depends on leg protection design and application, material permeability, heat produced during exercise, temperature and humidity outside, and rate of ambient air exchange. The MTSU research team compared six types of leg protection: a neoprene boot, perforated neoprene boots, plant-based neoprene boots, cross-country boots, elastic track bandages, and fleece polo wraps.

Each horse wore each type of boot over six exercise sessions, which involved 20 minutes of work followed by 180 minutes of standing recovery. Each horse wore one boot on a foreleg; the other leg served as a control. A special tool was used to measure limb temperature and humidity every minute the horse wore the boot.

The team discovered that the leg not wearing any boot had the lowest temperature. The fleece polo wrap caused the most heat and humidity buildup. All limbs wearing boots rose to temperatures that could harm tendon cells. None of the treated limbs returned to their baseline temperature after the recovery period.

The researchers determined the limb's cooling ability is impaired by boots and wraps, which can damage the SDFT. Before applying boots, the team recommends riders consider the intensity of the workload, the ambient temperature, boot design and material, and how the horse goes.

If a horse wears leg protection, it's best to remove it as soon as possible once the horse is done working, then cold horse the legs, they conclude.

Proposed Bill Would Reduce Rural Vet Shortage By Alleviating Student Debt

A bill in the U.S. Senate would eliminate taxes on federal programs and alleviate some student debt, encouraging more vets to practice in rural areas, sponsors say. Rural areas are notoriously underserved by veterinarians. The USDA reports that 48 states are experiencing veterinary shortages in 221 areas.

Proposed by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the bill expands the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP), which repays up to $25,000 a year in student loans in exchange for at least three years of work in an area experiencing a veterinary shortage.

Vet school typically costs between $200,000 and $275,000; the 2.6 percent increase in student debt in 2020 meant a vet school graduate carried an average of $188,000 in student loans. While the VMLRP offers veterinarians debt relief assistance, current funding is taxed by the federal government at 37 percent.

This rate limits the program benefits, the sponsors say. The proposed bill would end federal tax withholding, providing more financial assistance to new veterinarians and encouraging their involvement in communities that need their service.

Colonial Downs Planning Secretariat Fans Day On Aug. 30

As preparations continue for the third season of Thoroughbred racing at Colonial Downs under the ownership of the Colonial Downs Group, another group began initial prep work for an upcoming event at the New Kent track, and it has strong ties to Colonial's signature racing surface — the Secretariat Turf Course.

Kate Tweedy, daughter of Penny Chenery Tweedy — who owned the great Secretariat — visited the track last week from her nearby home in Ashland, Virginia to begin planning a Secretariat Fans Day at Colonial Downs on August 30. The celebration will take place the day before the Virginia Derby and include a silent auction, guest celebrities and other aspects to benefit the Secretariat Foundation.

Once her meeting prep was complete, Tweedy ventured out onto the massive turf course with a big smile on her face and inspected the plush green racing surface.

“I've always loved Virginia,” she said. “I relocated from Colorado to Ashland three years ago to develop a place where we can share Secretariat's memorabilia and history and to celebrate his legacy. To have Colonial Downs back open again with this great turf course named after him is just icing on the cake.”

The foaling shed and barns at Meadow Farm in Doswell — located several miles from Ashland — are still in place and the site is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I used to come to Virgnia as a kid and have fond memories of being at my father's farm in Doswell,” said Tweedy. “There's that emotional pull of course. And Ashland is a beautiful retirement town. Next year would have been Mom's 100th birthday and Riva Ridge's 50th anniversary of his Kentucky Derby and Belmont wins. And 2023 will be the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's Triple Crown season. I love being part of the Virginia story and coming full circle.”

Tweedy's connection to horses began as a young child growing up in the suburbs of Denver. She had a horse, belonged to pony clubs and competed in pony shows in her youth. Every August, she would visit her grandparent's house in New York and would attend races at Saratoga and Belmont. She saw her share of races long before Secretariat and Riva Ridge competed. Decades later, she is preparing to honor the legacy of both as landmark anniversaries approach. “It's a mystique that has been with me my whole life.”

Tweedy is a writer by trade, has penned two racing-oriented books to date and is working on a third. Along with co-author Leanne Meadows Ladin, “Secretariat's Meadow” and “Riva Ridge, Penny's First Champion” have already been published. She is currently working on a mother-daughter memoir.

“It's going to be Mom's story,” she said. “So many people looked up to her as a breaker of glass ceilings and an icon of determination and strength at a time when women were struggling to gain a foothold. I'm a member of the family and an appreciator of the racing history that my granddad and mom put together.

I never could have imagined that he'd still have this kind of drawing power,” said Tweedy as she spoke of Secretariat. “I think at the time we were blown away by what he did, but we also suspected the future may have something special in store. People who saw him race are aging, but the Disney movie (released in 2010) helped create a whole new group of fans. It's a legacy we were unbelievably lucky to have. His Belmont Stakes win is one of the greatest sporting events of the 20th century.”

Tweedy witnessed that special 31-length triumph in person and has a vivid recollection of the scene after Secretariat crossed the wire.

“That moment was well beyond what anyone's expectation or dream was,” she recalled. “Everybody was babbling and crying. It was so emotional. Since then, I've added up the times of each Triple Crown winner and Secretariat's is still the fastest by five seconds when you add the three together. I don't think we're ever going to see that mark fall.”

Even with that accomplishment, Tweedy recalls two of his other races she cherishes: “I just loved the Preakness. The move he made in the turn was fabulous. His sheer athletic power in that race was so impressive. And as a two-year-old in the Hopeful, his burst between horses was something I'll never forget. He was blocked by three horses on the rail and in the home stretch there was a momentary opening and he just shot through. You just never see something like that from a two-year-old.”

Tweedy is a big fan of history and since moving to Virginia, she has spent time investigating her family's history and has also reconnected with a less positive angle of it.

“Many of my ancestors were families that had plantations and slave people,” she said. “I'm working with descendants of some of the grooms who worked at The Meadow for my grandfather, who were in fact descendants of people that were enslaved at The Meadow in the previous century. We have a racial reconciliation group that wants to find a way to tell their history. We're linked in a way that I'm a descendant of people who owned The Meadow and they are descendants of people who were enslaved there.”

“It's not a legacy Secretariat descended from,” Tweedy added. “The Chenery's were not involved but the family my granddad married into was along with his great, great aunt.”

As part of the process, Tweedy is hoping to make a video from footage of taped interviews conducted in 2007 with some of the grooms that worked at the Meadow Farm.

“There are some wonderful stories they shared about taking care of Secretariat and traveling around the country in the days of segregation,” noted Tweedy.

Her group also discovered an old graveyard where the enslaved people were buried, and they hope to put a plaque there to recognize them.

This summer in New Kent, Colonial's Secretariat Turf Course will host plenty of action beginning with the July 19 opening day card which features a four-pack of $100,000 stakes — three for Virginia-Restricted horses and one for Virginia-Breds. In all, 21 of the 25 stakes scheduled will be contested on grass, including the New Kent County Virginia Derby card on August 31. The season continues through September 1 with racing every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:45 PM (EDT).

The post Colonial Downs Planning Secretariat Fans Day On Aug. 30 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post