Cannabidiol (CBD) has been touted to help just about everything from pain and anxiety to inflammation. But what does the drug offer older equines? No one is quite sure.
Low doses of CBD don't seem to affect lameness, body condition, or weight in senior horses – but there don't seem to be any negative effects of its use, either, reports The Horse. So while it doesn't do a lot, it also doesn't hurt.
Hemp-based CBD, which has no psychoactive effects, has gained popularity among animal owners seeking to provide their pets relief, though no studies have confirmed benefits from its use. Horse owners in particular have been using CBD in an attempt to offer their horses relief from the low-grade inflammation associated with aging, sometimes called “inflamm-aging.”
It isn't clear if inflamm-aging contributes to age-related diseases like osteoarthritis, but it may. If horse owners can regulate the inflammation by using CBD, it may help the horse.
CBD has been shown to relieve inflamm-aging in humans by reducing the pro-inflammatory cytokine production and balancing oxidative stress. Dr. Amanda Adams and Shelley Turner, with the Gluck Equine Research Center at the University of Kentucky, sought to determine whether CBD affects the immune function of senior horses.
The duo created a study to see if CBD would affect inflammatory cytokine production and antibody response after a flu vaccine, possibly negatively impacting the horse's immune response to the vaccine.
Adams and a group of other scientists created a three-month-long study using 27 healthy senior horses that lived on pasture, dividing them into two groups. Half of the horses got a dose of CBD made from hemp extract at 2 mg/kg orally. The CBD was dissolved in about 15 milliliters of soy oil. The other group received just the soy oil.
Blood samples were taken just before giving the horses their CBD and oil or oil alone on days 0, 30, 60, 90, 104 and 111. On day 90, the scientists also took blood samples 4 hours after treatment, right before all the horses were vaccinated for equine influenza.
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The only thing that changed significantly in the blood panel was an increase of albumin in horses that received CBD supplementation. Albumin plays a role in circulation. The control horses also showed an albumin increase at day 90, suggesting that an external factor is affecting albumin levels of all study horses.
CBD supplementation at this dose and over the time period did not appear to affect the liver, Adams said. Additionally, the research team found similar metabolic and inflammatory responses in both groups, indicating that CBD does not have a direct effect on lymphocyte production.
CBD did not affect the horse's antibody responses after the flu vaccine, which is good news, Adam said, as older horses often have a lower immune response to vaccinations than younger horses.
Though the CBD was detectable in the study horse's plasma, the lack of impact on treated horses may be related to the amount or timing of the dose administered in the study. Adams recommends additional research be completed to determine the best dose, time of administration, and formulation to make CBD more bioavailable to the horse.
At this point in time, it is still unclear whether CBD is helpful or harmful to horses, she concluded.
Anyone who has spent time on the backstretch of a racetrack can attest that it is its own small town. It's not just a work space for many people, but also where they live, albeit temporarily. It can also be a place where people struggle. It's no secret that backstretch work is arduous and dangerous, and that many backstretch workers may deal with food security or access to medical care.
It can also be a place where people triumph over their personal demons.
“There's a lot of addiction, a lot of trauma,” said Sally Mixon, founder of Abijah's. “It's a community, like any other community.”
Mixon has found a way to combine the needs of two worlds – Thoroughbreds retiring from the track with injuries that may preclude ridden work, and the people who cared for them. Mixon founded Abijah's on the Backside at Canterbury Park in 2020, combining her background in Thoroughbred racing with her training as a professional counselor and work as equine trainer at Acres for Life.
The organization's name is a reference to Mixon's first horse, and is also a Hebrew word which translates to “The Lord is my Father.”
Abijah's uses OTTBs to do non-mounted therapy through what's called an equine-experiential mental health model. The technique can be helpful for people who don't fit well with traditional talk therapy and are dealing with addiction, anxiety, or trauma. The client may work with a horse hands-on or simply observe the horse's behavior in a paddock and use the horse and its setting as a metaphor for their own challenges. By using the horse as a storyboard, trained therapists can help the client rewrite the story and take control of their narrative.
Mixon said it makes sense to use Thoroughbreds for this kind of work because they're so sensitive to their surroundings compared to other breeds.
“These Thoroughbreds are so intuitive,” she said. “They pick up on what's going on internally in a client, stuff we cannot see, and they play that out externally. It's crazy. I still am amazed. I feel like my job is just to bear witness to miracles, honestly, because these horses do things that blow my mind. And they're different with every single client.”
Mixon recalled one client who stepped into a paddock with several therapy horses during her session. They all looked at her and laid down.
“She had tears in her eyes and said, 'How do they know?'” said Mixon. “She said, 'I didn't want to get up today. I thought about killing myself.'
“You can't lie with [horses]. They show up in these ways where it's incredible. It would have maybe come out differently in traditional talk therapy, but she could have kept that secret.”
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Abijah's also works with first responders and former military members and their families.
“We view the horse as the best story editors,” said Mixon. “They come in at certain times and shake things up. And depending on how they show up for that client, they become a character. A parent, a spouse, self, addiction, trauma, anxiety, whatever. Then they begin to have this relationship with something they hadn't been able to have a relationship with.”
For one police officer, the horse in her therapy sessions represented her post-traumatic stress disorder. The horse would approach her and mouth her clothing, refusing to let go. On her last session, she entered the paddock and didn't see the horse…but PTSD was hiding around the corner of the run-in shed. PTSD came running around the side of the shed and galloped toward the client. The client yelled at the horse, who stopped and laid down quietly at her feet.
“That client experienced being empowered and not being taken over by PTSD,” summarized Mixon.
These metaphorical experiences can often break the cycle of trauma by exposing a person's body to a new set of stimuli. Traumatic experiences are often difficult to let go because the brain goes into hyper-recording mode, making vivid memories of what all the senses are taking in. Mixon explained that work with horses can give the brain a new set of sensory inputs to hang onto, and that can drastically shift the way a person is feeling.
Mixon has first-hand experience with the healing power of horses. She grew up a fan of racing after watching Winning Colors win the Kentucky Derby in 1988, and later became a counselor in part because of her own struggles with anorexia. Traditional talk therapy didn't work for her, but working with horses, combined with a strong sense of faith, did.
Sally Mixon, founder of Abijah's
“Horses were what saved my life,” she said.
Now, she's able to offer the service with the full support of Canterbury Park and the Minnesota HBPA. The four horses in the Abijah's program are housed in the barn of longtime trainer Bernell Rhone and initially used a paddock that was constructed in the three-and-a-half furlong chute, which was fenced off and is no longer used. The Minnesota HBPA kicked in funding to get the program going, before grant money began helping sustain it. As Canterbury continues to undergo construction, vice president of communications Jeff Maday said the facility will eventually move closer to the receiving barn on the front side, where it can be easily accessed at all times of day.
As Abijah's has trained personnel and counselors on its structure, Mixon says it's now able to offer 45 to 50 sessions per week, or 2,500 sessions per year. And it's designed to be scalable; she envisions a world where multiple racetracks keep space for a program like this one, providing more jobs for OTTBs and allowing backstretch workers to have continuous therapy resources available to them wherever they go.
Maday said he also can see the program expanding to other tracks. Finding space is the biggest difficulty from the racetrack's perspective, but the Canterbury program has only required a small paddock and a round pen in addition to the stalls with Rhone.
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“I think the buy-in from the horsemen's organization and the owners made a real difference,” he said. “It's a good chance to talk about retired racehorses, which is a topic that's very prominent right now.
“The horsemen need to believe in it too and help spread the word.”
Mixon also uses the resources at Abijah's to prepare retiring racehorses to join other therapy programs. While there are a number of Thoroughbred-centric therapy programs in the United States, Mixon believes the breed can be a valuable resource to a lot more who just aren't familiar with the racing industry. She invites personnel from other therapy groups to observe training at Canterbury and get a crash course on the needs and talents of Thoroughbreds, or can also travel to them to help them connect with their local racetrack. In this way, the Abijah's impact has already gone beyond the number of horses in its program.
As for Mixon, she admits the pressures of mental health work can be challenging, and require her to practice good self-care. For her, that means getting up before sunrise to gallop horses for trainers at Canterbury. Not only does it provide her a needed outlet, it has helped her make key alliances to launch the program.
“I started proving who I am and getting trust with the backside workers, and that opened up doors to them wanting and needing support, and that's kind of how it started,” she said. “I had to be back here and do it, and be one of them.”
Many horse owners have animals they feel are food driven: there isn't much that the horse won't do for a bit of apple, carrot or sweet snack. But are the horses truly happy when they get their treat?
Dr. Laize Carmo and researchers at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, in Curitiba, Brazil, studied the facial expressions of horses offered a food reward after entering a restraining chute. They then monitored the horse's behavior and facial movements while they were restrained.
The three-week-long study used 13 mares aged 4 to 22 years old that lived in large paddocks with access to shade and water. The horses were fed hay and grain twice each day.
During the first week, the horses were brought in and allowed to get used to the chute and study environment. The horses were divided into two groups for the remainder of the study: half of them received food rewards when they were in the chute and the other half did not.
Each time a horse in the treat group entered and remained in the chute, they were offered six food rewards by hand: two pieces each of carrot, apple and molasses treats fed one at a time in that order.
The two groups were swapped for the third week of the study, with the control group then receiving treats once they entered the chute.
Video was taken before the horse entered the chute and of the horse's posture, tail movement and facial expression once they entered the chute. Changes in facial expression were evaluated using the Equine Facial Action Coding System (EquiFACS).
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The scientists found that the horses did not change their body posture or tail movement across the different phases of the study; they were also less likely to lower their neck during the positive reinforced phase of the study. Horses in the positive reinforcement phase were more attentive and active, with their ears forward, less blinking and more nose movements once the food reward was given.
Overall, food did not create a significant behavior difference in the horses, either before or while restrained in the chute. However, the horses' facial expressions did change once the food rewards were given, possibly indicating a feed-driven emotional state.
However, the researchers were unable to conclude whether the food rewards affected the mares' emotions or only aroused them. They suggest future studies assess equine preferences and motivations for food rewards compared to other positive stimuli like verbal praise or grooming.
Many racing Quarter Horse owners focus solely on the amount of money won when deciding which stallion to cross with their mares. Researchers suggest that broadening their selection and breeding criteria to include race times could improve breeding results around the world.
Dr. Ricardo Faria noted that in Brazil specifically, the horses with the most money earned do not necessarily denote the fastest horses. This means that the fastest racehorses could be left out of the breeding pool.
Faria and a team of researchers sought to evaluate several traits through the results of heritability, genetic correlations and trends. They used information gathered from 1978 to 2015: a total of 23,482 sprint race records from 5,861 Brazilian Quarter Horses. The scientists assessed earnings, best time, and time class at distances of 988 meters to 1,319 feet.
The results showed that the best values resulted from evaluating earnings in conjunction with other important traits. They suggest that sire and dam selection should be done in two stages: first, horses with the best times and second, horses with the most money won.
The authors report that the data found between 2006 and 2015 indicate both genetic loss and genetic stagnation in racing Quarter Horses in Brazil. Sprint race records have stagnated since 2009 around the world, the scientists said.
The team doesn't suggest discounting earnings entirely – including it in selection programs with other factors may result in positive genetic trends for both Brazil and the world, they conclude.
