He stood there. Distant. Detached. From the centre of the ring, his blue eyes cruised the riders in the equitation hunter class as he called for them to change gait. Yesterday, I would have assessed the gaze of this horse show judge as critically observant of the skills and presentation of the riders.

Early summer is a great time to do a variety of maintenance tasks around your barn and horse property. The time and energy invested now will keep your horses safe and your property looking its best, providing you with year-round peace
of mind and enjoyment.

Born in Uxbridge, Ontario in 1983, Jessica Phoenix is a veteran Olympic, World Equestrian and Pan American Games competitor. She was named 2011 Equestrian of the Year by Equine Canada following a historic individual gold-medal finish at the 2011 Pan American Games in Mexico. “Probably my most successful off-the-track Thoroughbred was Exponential,” she says. “I rode him at the World Equestrian Games in 2010 and the Summer Olympics in London in 2012. I’m trying to retire him because he’s 19 years old. But he’s such an incredible athlete that he prefers to be kept in some sort of work. He was seventh at Rolex at the Horse Fair in 2011 and he also went to Burghley (UK) and finished in the top 25.”

According to research over the past six years, at least one in five and potentially one in two pleasure horses are overweight or obese, leading to conditions such as laminitis, equine metabolic syndrome, chronic inflammation, arthritis, heart issues, heat stress, and bone, tendon, and joint problems.

In the July/August 2017 issue of Canadian Horse Journal, we celebrated Canada’s 150th anniversary with stories of 20 exceptional horses that have reflected our values and fired our national pride. One of those horses was Cam Fella. Cam Fella, the brown stallion by Most Happy Fella out of Nan Cam was bred by W.R. Cameron and foaled May 14, 1979 in Lexington, Kentucky. He was sold as a yearling at the 1980 Tattersall’s sale for $19,000 and just a year later in 1981 was sold for $140,000.

Three-year-old Daisy had done relatively well at Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, BC. She had won her first race that season, and had placed in many others. When she came home that fall, we decided to breed her. She would have some downtime before going off to the stud farm in early spring. But over the winter, I realized our smart, high-strung filly would need some retraining to reinforce basic manners not only for safe handling, but for her future as a pleasure riding horse.

What exactly is regenerative medicine? It’s been a buzz phrase for a while now, yet it remains somewhat of a mystery to many horse owners as an application in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries suffered by performance horses in particular.

A Veteran Looks At Life Through His Horse’s Ears - “I joined the PPCLI cadet corps at the age of 12 and soon realized that a career in the army was what I wanted to do,” says McEachern. “At 17 I enlisted in the reserves and did my first tour overseas as a peacekeeper in Croatia (former republic of Yugoslavia) with 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. After the tour I transferred to the regular force with the same battalion I served with overseas. In 1995 I was sent to Central Africa with the Disaster Assistance Relief team as security for the medics, headquarters, etc.

It is common knowledge that a horse must achieve optimal physical fitness in order to deliver a peak performance, but what kind of impact does psychological condition have on equine performance? In a competition environment, equine athletes in any discipline may show symptoms of stress, but to what degree does the expression of that stress affect the quality of a jumping round, dressage test, reining pattern, etc.?