Training for the trailer requires time and patience.

It’s easy to lose your temper when teaching a horse to load in a trailer. Unfortunately, getting impatient is the worst thing you can do.

The late Bill Van Norman insists that you need to take your time and keep your temper when teaching your horse to trailer load.

Bill offers his valuable advice in AQHA’s FREE report, Horse Trailer Loading Tips.

To begin training your horse to trailer load, Bill suggests these tips:

• Send your horse in a circle around you directly behind the open trailer.
• Use a lead rope, not a longe line, so you can keep your horse fairly close to you.
• If your horse wants to stop and smell the trailer or look inside, encourage this behavior and recognize it as a sign that he’s trying.
• When his attention fades off the trailer, ask your horse to move out again and continue circling you.
• Circle in both directions behind the trailer to help him become comfortable with being worked from either side.

“I have a 3-year-old Quarter Horse mare named Channel, and she has always been very difficult to load and I have tried everything. But I tried what you suggested in this article and, like magic, she got right in! It is so great to not have to worry anymore about how I would get her to the vet if she got sick or injured. Last winter, during a snowstorm, she would not get in the trailer so I could take her into town for a vet check of her eye injury. It’s good to know that if something like that happens again I should be able to get that rascal in the trailer! Thank you!”

Daily reader Greg Cooper

Get the full story in Horse Trailer Loading Tips from AQHA – FREE!

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Learn how to tie your horse safely with AQHA’s Free Report.

Tie your horse’s lead rope too high, and you’re asking for trouble. Tie it too low, and your horse could end up in a big wreck.

Tie an incorrect knot, and you won’t be able to release it in an emergency.

A correctly tied lead rope is extremely important, whether you’re tying your horse in a trailer, to a stall wall, to a picket line or to a fence.

Get AQHA’s FREE report: How to Tie a Lead Rope.

In this valuable report, Dennis Moreland explains the bowline knot, which you can untie easily in an emergency. Dennis shows you step-by-step how to create a bowline knot and how to keep your tied horse safe.

He also points out things to look for in a good lead rope.

Download the How to Tie a Lead Rope report for FREE!

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“People often ask me where I learn the many tips I suggest to them. All I have to say is that I am an avid reader of Americas Horse Daily. Americas Horse Daily has proven to be a great resource for me. I especially enjoy the training and showing tips. I am one of those people who likes learning and trying new things with my horses. I love how I can print out the free reports and have a written copy to take out and use in the barn. The articles and tips are brief but detailed enough for anyone to use. This is ideal for my busy lifestyle. I often find myself sharing the free reports with my daughter and her 4-H friends at clinics and other events. The greatest reward is to place in the show ring, and I find satisfaction in knowing that I did the work all by myself, without the use of a costly professional trainer. It just goes to show that you can be successful with good information and the ambition to see it through. The difference between try and triumph is a little ‘umph!’ “

Julie Kunz
Clear Lake, MN

Learn how to develop a simple horse betting system.

AQHA’s free report, Horse Handicapping 101, gets you on track to having a great time at the races.

You’ll learn the basics of betting and different strategies for playing the odds.

This guide is divided into three sections:

• Elementary School – Getting Acquainted With Your Track covers track accommodations, types of wagers and some easy wagering options

• Middle School talks about exotic wagers that are easy for beginners

• High School familiarizes newcomers with more sophisticated methods for making selections.

Download Horse Handicapping 101 today. Share AQHA’s FREE report with your friends!

Stay safe on the trails!

Trail riding is one of the most rewarding and relaxing activities you can do with a horse. It gets you both out of the arena, experiencing new sights, and breaks up a monotonous training routine. But it is not without its dangers.

AQHA’s Trail Safety report will keep you and your animals out of harm’s way when you’re on the trail.

Experts on three different areas of trail riding offer tips and advice on how to better enjoy trail riding while keeping your horse’s health and protecting the environment in mind.

Veterinarian Rick Hill discusses how to deal with emergencies on the trail such as cuts, thrown shoes, colic and infection.

“You are not going to take the same things for a one-hour trip like you would if you were going to be gone for three or four days. It’s going to depend on how long a ride is, and how far you are going to be away, the more you are going to want to be able to handle anything you might be facing,” Hill said.

Hoof care is extremely important when you are trekking out in the open, and Doug Butler, professor of equine sciences at Colorado State University and renowned farrier, has advice to keep things moving smoothly.

“One thing all trail riders are concerned with is what to do if their horse throws a shoe while on the trail,” Butler notes.

The Trail Safety report guides you through your options for shoeing your horse so he can negotiate the trail better.

Finally, we must protect our precious wilderness areas so that future generations can enjoy them as we have. Mark DeGregorio of the Rocky Mountain National Park explains minimal impact trail riding, more commonly known as “Leave No Trace.”

“What we mean by minimal impact is you are going to try to do your best to have the least impact you can on that land,” DeGregorio said.

Learn helpful tips for leaving your favorite trails as beautiful as when you found them.

DeGregorio sums up his thoughts on minimal impact with a quote he calls the horseman’s creed, ‘When I go into the back country, I will leave only hoofprints, take only memories.”

This report is a must-have for all trail riders. Download it today!

Learn all of the approved American Quarter Horse colors and the infinite possibilities for your future foals.

Learn the difference between a buckskin and a dun, a red roan and a blue roan, a cremello and a perlino and many more. Download AQHA’s Free Coat Color Genetics report today.

This stylish, full-color report is loaded with easy-to-understand coat-color genetics information, with explanations of each of the 17 AQHA recognized colors.

This report is helpful when determining a new foal’s color, and it’s great for science projects and school reports.

Full-color photos of horses with all 17 colors will help you train your eye and become a coat-color expert.

Download your copy today!

Keep your horse safe from injury with this handy free report.

As much as we love them, our horses have a way of finding trouble.

An accident can happen in the most unlikely of situations.

So it’s important to use good judgement around horses to keep them safe and out of harm’s way.

One simple thing any horse person can do: learn how to properly tie a hay net. Learn today with AQHA’s free report.

We use hay nets all the time, in our horses’ stalls and trailers. And, if they’re tied incorrectly or too low, we’re setting our horses up for potentially serious injury.

AQHA wants to help you keep your horse safe. Get AQHA’s FREE report: Tie It Right. This full-color, downloadable report shows you exactly how to tie a hay net correctly and safely. Horseman Dennis Moreland takes you step-by-step through the process with easy-to-follow directions.

Also in the Tie It Right report, Dennis shows you how to safely tie your horse’s buckets. It’s easy to do, but it’s often overlooked.

So do your horse a favor and download the Tie It Right report today. And share this FREE resource with all your friends who care about their horses’ safety!

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Learn about a new treatment option that may help horses cope with arthritis.

Your faithful babysitter horse limps a little in the mornings, and he has a hard time getting up if he’s been laying down. You dread it, but you know the reality is that arthritis might be setting in or getting worse.

You’ve tried joint injections, and while that might have worked for a while, he’s in pain again. So now what?

In AQHA’s FREE Horse Arthritis Treatment report, you’ll learn about a new treatment option – IRAP – that is gaining results in horses with osteoarthritis.

Your first question might be, “What the heck is IRAP, anyway?” You’ll get the answer to that question and others when you download this free report.

IRAP stands for Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein, and it might be able to help decrease inflammation and pain in joints affected by arthritis.

Your FREE Horse Arthritis Treatment report will show you:

• What IRAP is

• What the treatment can do

• How IRAP is used as a treatment

• The uses of IRAP in humans

• What conditions IRAP may not be able to help

• The importance of proper diagnosis in the treatment of osteoarthritis

• The costs associated with IRAP procedures

IRAP is still a new treatment, and more extensive testing is currently underway. In horses that have been treated with an IRAP procedure, results have been promising in terms of reduction of joint pain and inflammation. In general, after treatment with IRAP, test subject horses moved with minimal lameness, if not completely soundly.

The Horse Arthritis Treatment report addresses:

• What procedures are involved in IRAP treatment

• What types of joint pain may be most responsive to treatment

• Where IRAP treatment originated

View a video about horse arthritis on America’s Horse TV!

Stem cell therapy is helping horses with tendon and ligament injuries.

New medical research and improvements in technology are giving hope to horses that suffer from bowed tendons, an injury that typically puts an end to a race horse’s career.

Find out more in the FREE Stem Cell Therapy report.

This report will explain the research from studies coming from prestigious institutions such as Cornell University and leading researchers and experts such as Dr. Linda A. Dahlgren, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech University. Also, hear from Dr. Robert Harman, the veterinarian who founded and runs Vet-Stem Inc.

This report takes you through the following topics of stem cell therapy:

• What stem cells are

• Bone marrow stem cells

• Adipose stem cells

• Treatment and recovery of stem cell therapy

• Other uses for stem cell therapy

• Future of stem cell therapy

• Other options to stem cell therapy

See for yourself, with detailed pictures, how stem cell therapy compares to traditional methods, such as saline treatments, in the healing process. Other pictures show harvesting of adipose stem cells and the injecting of stem cells into a tendon with the assistance of an ultrasound for guidance.

Get up to speed by reading the FREE Stem Cell Therapy report.

“It’s a very big misconception both in the medical community and the lay community that a stem cell just makes tissue. They recruit new cells into the area, produce growth factors and they manage the healing process in a very different manner than we thought five or 10 years ago,” Dr. Harman says.

Find out where different types of stem cell therapy are being used around the world and learn their status on becoming approved in the United States. Discover other leading companies such as VetCell Bioscience Ltd. and their contributions to this state-of-the-art medical treatment.

“It is the horse’s own tissue,” Dr. Harman says. “It is just moved around and concentrated where we want. It’s about as natural as you can get for the horse, so they usually have the opposite of a reaction to the inflamed area.”

Discover how stem cell therapy can also be applied to repairing and treating fractures, intra-articular joint therapy, arthritis and OCD (osteochondrosis dissecans).

“Rather than speeding the process, if we can just improve the healing process, we’re further ahead,” Dr. Dahlgren says. “If we can make the end product better, the tendon will be better able to hold up to the training process like a normal tendon.”

AQHA’s free Guide to Wagering on American Quarter Horse Racing will help you win at the racetrack.

It’s a brand of excitement that only America’s Fastest Athlete can deliver. Ours is an adrenaline-pumping sport, a classic confrontation of speed that you’re sure to love. These muscular, American-bred speedsters are the sprinters of the racing world.

Almost every race features a thrilling stretch run and a heart-stopping photo finish. Handicapping America’s Fastest Athlete is equally as thrilling and usually provides racing fans with a good return on their investment.

If you’re a fan of Thoroughbred racing, you won’t be disappointed with our American Quarter Horse events. The excitement is real. And if you’re experienced with handicapping the Thoroughbreds, you’ll find yourself on familiar ground here because the similarities between the two breeds greatly outnumber the differences. Class, a prime factor with Thoroughbreds, also is important in handicapping American Quarter Horses. The major difference between the two is pace.

Straightaway American Quarter Horse racing is an all-out burst of speed from the starting gate with every horse trying to put a head in front at the finish. There is no time to maneuver for position or come from behind in the final stretch run as in Thoroughbred racing. Therefore, the experienced handicapper can concentrate on speed, class, jockey/trainer combinations and track conditions without having to spend time trying to predict how the race will be run.

AQHA is proud to offer The Guide to Wagering on American Quarter Horse Racing, an information-packed, 48-page downloadable report, FREE to you! Although you may find our sections on the elements of handicapping and wagering of primary interest to you, we urge you to read through the entire guide.

We’ve included a lot of information on certain factors in American Quarter Horse racing that will influence your success at the wagering window.

The Guide to Wagering on American Quarter Horse Racing will give you a rich understanding of the exciting sport of horse racing and allow you to have even more fun at the race track.

Download this free report today, and share it with your horse racing friends!

See you at the horse races!

Visit www.aqharacing.com to find background information on various racetracks around the country as well as charts on leading trainers, jockeys and sires. Also included are articles by experts dealing specifically with the art of handicapping the American Quarter Horse.

Horse owners have many options when faced with an orphaned foal.

No one wishes for it, but many have to deal with it unexpectedly: the orphaned foal. It’s easy to be scared and overwhelmed when faced with this challenge. So the best course of action is to become educated.

AQHA offers the Orphan Foal Care free report to give you the knowledge to handle an orphaned foal situation. Download your copy today, and add it to your library of helpful horse tips.

In the Orphan Foal Care report, you’ll learn the crucial steps to take within the first hours of an orphan foal’s life. You’ll get an understanding of the unique needs of orphan foals and ways to care for the foal without breaking the bank and losing too much sleep.

Orphan Foal Care details a real-life example of an orphan foal and the steps his owners took to raise him to grow big and strong. It was an intense time commitment, but well worth the effort.

In this easy-to-understand, five-page report, you’ll learn:

• How to ensure your orphan foal receives colostrum

• Milk replacer options

• Bucket feeding advice

• Ways to incorporate a nurse mare

• How to keep your orphan foal from becoming a pet

• The pros and cons of chemically inducing lactation on an open mare

• Plus all kinds of ways to keep your orphan foal healthy and thriving

Dr. Leslie Dykstra at Oklahoma City Equine offers great advice in this report.

“If the foal is just within a few days of life, it’s best to get a nurse mare,” Dr. Dykstra says. “Not only is the foal going to get important nutrients and antibodies from the mare’s milk, but the mare has a lot to teach the foal when it comes to interaction with other horses and giving them the sense of how to be a horse.

“When you put them on a bucket or try to feed them with a bottle, some of that can be lost if they haven’t had time to just learn those important characteristics of interacting with other horses,” she adds. “If they’re a few weeks old or older, it may be easier and more economical for the owners to go ahead and put them on a bucket. We usually have good success with that.”

Do you know how much colostrum a foal needs? Dr. Kykstra explains the ideal amount and the different ways to administer it in addition to nursing directly from the mare.

Be prepared, and gain the knowledge to help if the need arises. Download your copy of Orphan Foal Care today!

Equine viral arteritis in horses is manageable.

Learn why Dr. Joe Manning of Sports Medicine Services in Weatherford, Texas, says, “EVA has significant implications from the standpoint of the breeding business,” in this FREE report from The American Quarter Horse Racing Journal library.

Although EVA is rarely lethal to horses, it can play havoc with your breeding program, as its greatest danger lies in mares aborting their pregnancies. Find out how you can protect your mares and breeding program through this report.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this great FREE report:

• What EVA is

• Symptoms of EVA

• Treatment and Prevention of EVA

• Transportation and quarantine

• Top things to remember about EVA

EVA is passed by direct horse-to-horse contact but can be transferred through indirect means such as shared equipment and handlers. Mares, geldings and sexually immature stallions will be able to shed the virus shortly after they acquire it. Sexually mature stallions can become carriers of the virus, as EVA is a testosterone-dependent virus.

Along with Dr. Manning’s professional advice, he is joined by Peter Timoney, a professor and researcher at the Gluck Equine Research Center in Lexington, Kentucky.

“EVA is the only known testosterone- or androgen-dependent carrier state that I’m aware of among mammalian viruses. That’s why it only occurs in the intact, sexually mature male,” says Timoney.

EVA is a resilient virus and can survive and still be transferred through chilled and frozen semen, making it a huge threat when shipping semen for artificial insemination.

How do you find out if your horse is EVA positive? EVA: A Manageable Problem, walks you through the different tests and scenarios of positive and elevated readings. You’ll learn how to determine whether a horse is contagious.

Take the next step and learn how to protect your horse from contracting EVA, therefore preventing any losses in your breeding program from this manageable virus. The FREE EVA: A Manageable Problem report discusses the vaccine by Fort Dodge Animal Health and proper administration practices.

International horse traffic is also discussed and options are weighted as some countries have stricter regulations regarding elevated levels of the antibodies. Be able to make an educated decision on what is best for your horses and your breeding program.

Become knowledgeable on all proper isolation and quarantine methods and when to apply them within your breeding program to prevent an EVA outbreak.

Don’t let EVA interfere with your breeding program. EVA: A Manageable Problem will bring you up to speed with what this virus is all about, how to keep it away from your horses and what to do if you do come into contact with EVA.

How to be prepared for and deal with a horse affected by HYPP.

Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis is a serious muscle deficiency in horses that causes muscle twitching, weakness and more.

Learn all about this dominant genetic disease in AQHA’s FREE HYPP Survival Guide report.

In 1996, AQHA designated HYPP a genetic defect and undesirable trait. Two years later, the Association added that all Impressive-descendent foals born after January 1, 1998, were required to be tested for the disease, with the results placed on the registration certificate. Since 2007, any horses tested as H/H are not accepted for registration with AQHA. Find out why in the HYPP Survival Guide.

Also in this detailed report,  you’ll learn:

• Definitions of HYPP’s three designations: H/H, N/H, and N/N.

• Symptoms of HYPP

• Prevention tips

• Signs of an attack and what to do to keep your horse safe

• Feeding suggestions for HYPP-positive horses

• How to test your horse for HYPP

The most-common symptoms of HYPP include muscle tremors, weakness, muscle cramping, yawning, depression, an inability to relax the muscles, sweating, prolapse of the third eyelid, noisy breathing and/or abnormal sounds or whinnies.

HYPP cases usually start with muscle weakness and prolapse of the third eyelid, sweating and minor tremors most commonly in the flank, neck and shoulders.

More severe attacks can involve severe weakness, high heart and respitory rate, staggering, dog sitting and collapse. In its most extreme form, HYPP can lead to collapse and death, usually from a heart attack or respiratory failure.

Be prepared for situations involving HYPP-positive horses by downloading the HYPP Survival Guide today. This FREE report will give you the knowledge to identify symptoms and react accordingly to a horse experiencing an attack. You’ll also learn steps to preventing HYPP attacks, such as stopping frequently on road trips to give your horses a break and reduce their stress levels.