The influence of Doc Bar through his progeny and their offspring is carried on.

According to trainer Shorty Freeman, you can’t measure the size of a horse’s heart in hands.

By Cathy Dixon in The American Quarter Horse Journal

Unquestionably, Doc Bar was more than just another pretty horse. His conformation, passed on to his offspring, allowed them to be the performers they were and are. To view the Doc Bar future, let’s take a look at Doc O’Lena, one of his foals.

Read the rest of this entry »

The new series in The American Quarter Horse Journal will give amateurs a professional perspective on their show-ring skills.

Laura Stevens and her mare, Didya Notice Me

Amateurs who want an expert opinion on their show-ring skills sometimes wonder where to turn.

The American Quarter Horse Journal, the leading American Quarter Horse industry publication, wants to help amateurs by offering them the chance to get advice from an AQHA Professional Horseman.

The series debuted February 1, 2010, with a story in the February issue of the Journal and an accompanying video on America’s Horse TV on the How-To channel.

In the first episode, now available, amateur Laura Stevens of Canyon, Texas, is featured with her mare, Didya Notice Me, in a western pleasure class. Stevens has questions about how to ride her horse more effectively, and AQHA Professional Horseman David Dellin answers those questions. Dellin suggests exercises to help Stevens prepare her horse for the show ring and offers advice on presentation for a more competitive ride. Read the rest of this entry »

In Part 2 of the AQHA Corporate Partner Spotlight series, let’s learn more about Nutrena.

The official feed of AQHA.

Nutrena is one of the world’s largest equine nutrition companies, feeding more than one million horses per day. The company partnered with AQHA 10 years ago, and the partnership is going strong. Nutrena’s goal is Read the rest of this entry »

Property insurance protects you from unforeseen events – as long as you’ve bought the right policy.

In most cases, the insurance companies that write homeowner’s insurance do not extend their liability coverage to cover the ownership of horses.

By Carolyn Heinze in The American Quarter Horse Journal

This is the first of a two-part series.

If you’ve financed your home, chances are your bank mandated that you purchase property insurance. While this insurance protects you from unfortunate events such as fire, theft and accidents – such as someone injuring themselves on the premises and then filing a lawsuit against you – it doesn’t necessarily extend to incidents involving your horses. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve reached 50,000 fans, so everybody wins!

Thanks for helping us reach 50,000 Facebook fans! Now go shopping with promo code AQHAFAN!

There’s no question that AQHA fans are up for any challenge!

We presented a contest at the first of March: Reach 50,000 fans on AQHA’s Facebook fan page by the end of the month to win your chance at 16 awesome prizes.

Ahead of schedule, our fan base reached 50,000 by Friday, March 26.

So, as promised, every single fan gets 10 percent off Read the rest of this entry »

Some practical advice for controlling buildup on your gelding or stallion’s sheath.

Question:

I am concerned about the abnormal smegma buildup on my 17-year-old gelding’s sheath. Since we purchased him, we have noticed that when he extends, there is crusty buildup all over him. We began cleaning him and have been doing so about once a month for the past three years because within four weeks, he is crusty and dirty again. We use a particular brand of sheath cleaner about every six months and use regular Vaseline or baby oil in between because we do not want to use harsh cleaners each time and so often.

Everything I have read says that you do not clean them this much and nothing I have read tells me why this horse has this abnormal buildup. We think he may be proud cut, but could that have anything to do with it?

There is also a raised red area on the sheath. What might this be? Could it have something to do with the buildup?

Answer:

The amount of what we call normal smegma varies greatly from horse to horse. Not only does the amount vary but the quality/texture of the smegma will vary as well. Some horses will have dry and scaly smegma residue on their penis shaft while many others will have moist and sometimes offensive-smelling smegma in their prepuce and on the penis. Read the rest of this entry »

Lend a hand in conserving quality trails for future generations.

Trail conservation can provide you with a quality trail experience and is the right thing to do for future generations.

Spring weather brings warm days that are perfect for you and your horse to go trail riding. But many riders are left scratching their heads about where they can ride.

Maybe you are one of those riders, and maybe you know of a trail that, with a little work, would be perfect. If so, check out the AQHA Stewards for Trails, Education and Partnerships (STEP) program, sponsored by Tractor Supply Co.

You can submit project proposals to www.ridegreen.aqha.com to be reviewed by AQHA, Tractor Supply Co. the Equine Land Conservation Resource and the National Forest Service. Read the rest of this entry »

Ready, Set… Shoot!

Two Bits

Action shots are hard to catch, but they are priceless when you get them right. As with everything, there are tricks. It helps to understand what you’re watching.

If it’s a show ring event you’re trying to capture, the hours you spend standing there watching riders approach the jumps will you help you feel the rhythm, anticipate when the horse will arrive at a certain point, and know how he’ll be looking.

Studying horse magazines will give you an idea of typical shots and classic moments in different equine sports.

For events where an important moment is certain to take place at one particular point- a jump, a barrel, a slide area in a reining event or a letter in a dressage arena – you can pre-focus your camera. The instruction manual will tell you how.

Crazy about horses? Test your knowledge with AQHA’s Junior Master Horseman program. You can even earn certificates!

There are standard shots in action photography that work well. The trot, for instance, is best shot when the front foot nearest you reaches forward. It takes practice to see this. Watch that foot as the horse approaches, and count his hoof beats: one-two, one-two, establishing “two” as the beat which that front foot reaches forward. Click on “two,” when the horse is directly in front of you.

Now that you know all of Two Bits’ photography secrets, get out there and get to practicing!

In breeding, sometimes Mother Nature knows best.

The Lapkes think their pasture breeding program with their show stallions has actually made them better competitors.

By Jennifer Horton in The American Quarter Horse Journal

This is the second of a three-part series. Need to review Part 1?

The Lapke operation starts foaling the first of April, so the mares and stallions are turned out in the pasture around the middle of April. The stallions are pulled from the pastures around the Fourth of July. Babies are weaned on sale day, the first of August, so as not to stress them before the sale. Read the rest of this entry »

Learn the steps for preparing your mare for breeding and get the facts on receiving shipped semen.

So, you’re ready to breed your mare. What steps do you need to take to breed her at home with shipped semen?

Learn the ropes from equine veterinarian Racqhel Rodeheaver of Fort Collins, Colorado. In AQHA’s FREE Mare Care report, Racqhel explains the process of preparing your mare, targeting a breeding date, ordering semen, inducing a follicle to ovulate, receiving and evaluating semen and much more.

For instance, did you know that you should never leave a semen shipping container in the sun? Although shippers are designed to maintain a constant internal temperature through a variety of weather conditions, it’s best to keep it in a cool spot.

Did you know that you should NOT warm up the breeding dose? The semen should go straight from the shipper to the mare.

The Mare Care report is a perfect resource for beginning breeders wanting to breed their first mare.

“First things first,” Racquel says. “You’ll need a breeding soundness evaluation on the mare to understand exactly what your expectations are going to be for her reproductive health. If you can find out previous breeding history, it’s helpful just to know if she’s ever had problems becoming pregnant or how she has performed reproductively. If a history isn’t available, then that’s all the more reason to do a breeding soundness evaluation.”

Racquel offers advice for mare owners approaching their target breeding date:

“I look at breeding through a couple of different avenues,” she says. “When you’re dealing with fresh semen, the viability and longevity of the semen is longer. Therefore, your time of breeding and your time to ovulation can be a broader window. Usually, you want your time of ovulation to be within 48 horse of your time of breeding with fresh semen. With shipped, cooled semen you have to narrow that window. You want your breeding time to be within 24 hours prior to ovulation. With frozen semen, it’s even narrower. Because that window becomes narrower, and we’re having to time insemination so closely to ovulation, it requires more intensive management of the mare.

“A normal cycling mare has a three-week cycle: two weeks they’re out of heat, one week they’re in heat. When you see that mare come into heat, that’s when we want to be checking her via ultrasound. I monitor the developing follicle. I check the mare initially every other day, and then at least every day as we get nearer to the time of breeding.”

Get more helpful tips in AQHA’s FREE Mare Care report. Download it today, and share it with your friends!

When curiosity could kill the horse.

Image from Wikipedia Commons, posted by user Korall.

Zen, my 4-year-old mare that I’m bringing along, has the most amazing sense of curiosity. She’s inquisitive and eager to learn — qualities you love to find in a horse. Except for yesterday, when it could have proved disastrous.

It unfolded around lunch time, when I went to check on the barking dogs (who are penned), expecting to find a barn-cat tussle. Instead, I found a raccoon, nestled up by the water tank in the horse pasture. He didn’t run away, but just hunkered down to watch me. Human voices didn’t send him skittering away, either.  When he finally did walk off, he was slow and unsure in his movements. Of course, anything could have been wrong with him, but my mind was flashing one word: RABIES.

I called Chad, asking him to come bearing arms. As I’ve talked about here before, we hate killing anything, but a potentially rabid animal? That’s an automatic trip to raccoon heaven. I shut the two mares, Zen and Sooner, out of that section of pasture and began going over them, making sure they hadn’t tussled with the varmit. When I found the raccoon, the horses were nowhere near it — but I didn’t know how long it had been there, either.

Sooner got the first inspection. She’s such a beautiful mare, I could stare at her for hours. So I admired her feminine-but-muscular form as I walked around her, grumbled briefly about all the sorrel hair that’s shedding off in insane quantities, and then pronounced her OK. No scratches or any other signs that she might have had any contact with the ‘coon.

Meanwhile, Zen was hanging over my shoulder, wondering what was going on and why the attention wasn’t going to her. She seemed satisfied when I began running my hands over her rose-gray body, from neck to hooves to tail. All clear so far. And then she turned to look at me, and I saw It. A small dot of blood on her nose — on just exactly the spot you’d expect her to nudge a strange object with. A strange, not-wanting-to-move, furry object. That word, RABIES, that had been flashing in my mind earlier was now accompanied by lights, sirens and adrenaline.

The vet’s office was closed for lunch, so I busied myself cleaning the small wound with some diluted iodine. It really was small, and judging from the amount of blood, not very deep. Could it have been a tooth or claw? Maybe. Maybe not. I called our local game warden, a friend of ours, to get his thoughts. He said he didn’t necessarily need to get involved, and since no humans had been exposed, testing of the raccoon would not be required. We were just to dispose of the carcass so that no other animals could eat it (being careful to avoid contact with it ourselves) and get on the phone with our vet to talk about the horse.

Thankfully, the vet didn’t take his full lunch hour that day, and he answered the phone when I called. Even more thankfully, we had just given all of our horses their spring shots — including a rabies vaccine. The vet verified that Zen had previously been vaccinated for rabies (yes, every year!), and he assured me that she should be fine. “You’ve done all you can do,” he said.

Of course, as is my custom, once everything was squared away at the barn, I came inside and started Googling. Much of the information about equine rabies, I already knew, thanks to stories we’ve run in America’s Horse. But this little nugget from the American Association of Equine Practitioners jumped out at me: If an unvaccinated horse is exposed to a confirmed rabid animal … the recommendation is euthanasia. (Enter more lights and sirens here.)

We didn’t have a known exposure, nor did we have confirmation that the raccoon was rabid, but wow … it hit home to think that a chance encounter in Zen’s pasture could potentially end in euthanasia of this strong, brilliant, healthy horse. I’ve always been a believer in vaccinations, rabies in particular because I know the disease is invariably fatal. But I’ve never been more grateful to have a good immunization program in place.

Happy riding … and vaccinating!

Holly Clanahan
Editor, America's Horse magazine

New genome technology provides clues to what causes certain diseases in horses.

Breeders will be able to use this technology to produce horses that don’t carry these diseases.

By Denise Steffanus in The American Quarter Horse Journal

This is the third part in a four-part series. Need to review Part 1 or Part 2?

Dr. N. Edward Robinson, director of the equine pulmonary laboratory at Michigan State University, is using knowledge gained from the genome project to investigate airway disease.

Robinson says one of the exciting features of the technology is that the genome-wide approach often provides clues to what is causing the disease.

“Things that you may never have thought of,” he says. “We’re all focused very much in the heaves world on Read the rest of this entry »