Genetic diseases can cause significant emotional and financial stress, and the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) is committed to educating owners and breeders about inherited conditions so they can make informed breeding decisions. The American Quarter Horse Foundation (AQHF) provides funding for a wide range of research projects, having granted more than $12 million in support of equine research to date. Genetics research accounts for 20 percent of that total, with 53 projects funded at 12 universities.

1. DNA is found in the nucleus of cells. Samples submitted for genetic testing are usually hair, blood, or tissue. Hair samples must contain the “bulb,” which looks like a tiny ball at the root of the hair. This is where the DNA is located. When submitting hair samples, make sure to pull, not cut, the hairs so the bulb is present. Blood and tissue samples require additional steps, such as an anticoagulant (for blood) or freezing (for tissues). Always follow the testing laboratory’s instructions for sample submission and contact them with questions.

Horses are very proficient sweaters, making them some of the most efficient animals at cooling themselves — but they are still at risk for heat stress. There are many ways we can help them sidestep this risk as the temperatures heat up. Below, I’ll cover diminished electrolytes, groups of horses at greater risk, signs of heat stress, and tips to keep your horses safe. 

Four Symposiums Across Canada - “Riding is a lifelong learning process,” says Christoph Hess, a retired FEI 4* dressage judge and Level 3 eventing judge. “After riding one horse, you might think you’re a hero, but then you ride another and wonder whether you can ride at all.”

Everybody loves to see a donkey! With their large fuzzy ears and soulful eyes, they naturally tug at the heartstrings of horse lovers everywhere. Donkeys were first domesticated in Africa around 3000 BC. They evolved in desert areas and, consequently, developed as browsers that can adapt to poor quality feed and irregular water supplies. Their easygoing nature and hardiness made them ideal as beasts of burden in the hotter, drier parts of the world. Coming in a variety of sizes, donkeys and their hybrid offspring, mules and hinnies, range anywhere from Miniature donkeys of less than 35 inches in height all the way up to Mammoth Jack donkeys that can exceed 15 hands.

Down gravel roads in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, you can judge the changing of the seasons and the progression of time by the corn. Every July, throngs of teenagers head into the fields to detassel corn. It’s a rite of passage in Chatham-Kent — hats and gloves, thermoses full of water, corn rash, and heat stroke — all for summer wages. By August 1, Emancipation Day, the seed corn has been detasseled, and stands of sweet corn are speckled along roads and laneways to farms. A bell rings to signify the day, celebrating freedom. The rest of the corn in the area, mostly grown for silage, has reached toward the sun, and soon the harvest will come and the green of these fields will brown, marking the passage of time.

The human race has long had a love affair with coal. Coal is a fossil fuel that started forming in the Carboniferous Period 359 million to 299 million years ago during the Paleozoic Era.

A riding vacation through a place that changes you.

By Tania Millen, BSc, MJ

Receiving a diagnosis of the condition behind your horse’s health or performance problem is usually a relief, but the satisfaction of getting the diagnosis can be quickly replaced by fear and uncertainty regarding what to do about it. Questions around both the long-term prospects for your horse and the costs involved to support the horse with such a condition can be daunting. Owners of horses diagnosed with special nutritional needs often feel bewildered and frustrated as they attempt to put together an appropriate management protocol.