Born in 1940, Stan Carruthers of Carp, Ontario, was predestined to work with Clydesdales. “My grandfather was a stallioneer in Carp, and he used to have Percherons,” explains Stan. “In 1922, he sold his Percheron and bought a Clydesdale stallion. That’s how the love affair began.”

Helping a Worried Horse - I do a wide variety of exercises with my horses to help them become calmer and braver in various situations. My goal is to have them trust what I ask of them, and be okay with it because I am asking. In other words, for me it’s not about the tarp but about Geo’s trust in me to put the tarp on his body. If he trusts me at the heart of it, then tarps, garbage cans, or stumps on a trail won’t bother him.

The idea of scheduling a massage for your horse may seem luxurious. Yet those who have experienced it will agree that massage can be a valuable tool in managing an animal’s health and well-being, along with other therapies such as chiropractic or acupressure. Senior horses present an opportunity to combine different approaches to health because each horse will have a very specific set of needs depending on their age and stage of life.

Horse owners are routinely putting rugs (blankets) on their horses all year round. However new research suggests that certain types of rug could be causing them to overheat. It has become routine (and even fashionable) for many domestic horses to be rugged all year round – in fly-sheets, all-weather turnouts, stable rugs, fleeces or perhaps even a onesie. Rugs can be useful in protecting horses from biting insects and in adverse weather conditions; however, until now there have been very few studies on rugging at all and none on the effect of different types of rugs on a horse’s body temperature.

We are delighted to present the Winners, Runners-Up and Honourable Mentions in our 27th Annual Celebration of Horses Photo Contest. Our 2018 contest welcomed the highest number of entries ever, and the quality just keeps getting better every year. Our sincere thanks go to the hundreds of horse lovers who shared their special moments and stories of beloved equines and working partners.

The goal: To safely transport my newly-purchased five-month-old colt 1,000 kilometres to his new home. Recently, I went to Alberta to pick up my next equine partner – a Quarter Horse weanling raised by my friend, Ida Newell, in Innisfail, Alberta.

When digital media and online information exploded, pundits forecasted the demise of print media. People by the millions were sourcing information online, and it’s no accident that the word “Google” shifted from being a noun to a verb.
And yet, on the bookshelf in my den is a stash of magazines that includes a collection of many and varied science publications and the almost-complete collection of Canadian Horse Journal (CHJ).

By Jec Aristotle Ballou

Trafalgar Square Books; Non-fiction; ISBN 9781570768675; 171 pages; Hardcover 

Reviewed by April D. Ray

Understanding their unique roles in equine gut health - Nutritional supplements designed to assist in digestion are becoming increasingly popular among horse owners. We’ve all heard about probiotics, but increasingly we are starting to see products claiming to be prebiotics.