New Websites to Help Horse Owners

A few new websites were released recently to all involved in the equine therapy community and horse owners that help people understand EPM and WNV. These are two very important things that every horse owner should know about. 

"Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) and West Nile virus (WNV) are two diagnoses veterinarians don't want to give and horse owners dread hearing. To help horse owners in the United States stay up-to-date on the latest information regarding these diseases, Merck Animal Health has developed two new comprehensive websites: www.protazil.com and www.westnileequinevaccines.com.

EPM Resource Center
EPM is a progressive and potentially fatal infection of the central nervous system caused by the single-celled protozoal microorganism Sarcocystis neurona. Because the disease is progressive, early detection and veterinary intervention are critical to the horse's chance of recovery. Protazil.com offers a centralized location for horse owners to research EPM and learn to recognize the early onset of the disease. The website is designed to provide owners with:

• Up-to-date disease information and research;
• News and events surrounding EPM;
• Management strategies to aid in prevention of EPM; and
• Treatment options to discuss with their veterinarian.

"EPM can cause irreversible damage to the horse's brain or spinal cord and is more likely to cause permanent damage if the disease is not detected early," said Wendy Vaala, VMD, Dipl. ACVIM, senior equine technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health. "Although EPM only affects less than 1% of horses, it is critical that owners know what to do, just in case. Owners can increase their horse's chance of a full recovery by talking to their veterinarian and educating themselves through websites like Protazil.com."

WNV Information and More 
Though less evasive than EPM, WNV infection is still a threat in the United States. According to Merck, Westnileequinevaccines.com provides horse owners with many educational resources on WNV, as well as information on vaccines that aid in helping prevent this disease.

"We see cases of West Nile virus in horses every year in the United States," said Craig Barnett, DVM, senior equine technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health. "West Nile is still a threat to our horses, and it is important for owners to understand the disease and, more importantly, understand the need for prevention."

In addition to providing horse owners with information on WNV, westnileequinevaccines.com also includes information on vaccinations and other important equine diseases including:

• Eastern equine encephalomyelitis;
• Western equine encephalomyelitis;
• Rabies;
• Tetanus;
• Equine influenza; and
• Equine herpesvirus.

The site also provides information on Merck Animal Health's new WNV vaccine portfolio.

To learn more about Merck Animal Health's entire product portfolio visit www.merck-animal-health-usa.com. Veterinarians also can learn more by contacting their distributor or sales representative. Horse owners can learn more by contacting their veterinarian."

Source: http://www.thehorse.com/viewarticle.aspx?ID=19668&source=rss&utm_sour...

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Growing Equine Groups!

The Equine Therapy community is growing and this is just a perfect example of how it is. Over 1.5 million worth of grants have been given to equine groups that support horse therapy! 

"The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has announced that it awarded $1,682,352 in the form of 183 grants to support equine rescue groups in 38 states in 2011. This number represents a $600,000 increase over 2010, the first year equine grants exceeded the million dollar mark.

"With record drought and hay prices in the stratosphere, we are thrilled the ASPCA Equine Fund has been able to extend its support to so many more agencies in need," said Jacque Schultz, senior director of the ASPCA Equine Fund. "In these tough economic times, many equine organizations would not have been able to help horses without additional funding. The ASPCA remains committed to equine rescue and welfare efforts."

Twenty-seven percent of the equine grant money was distributed to 13 thoroughbred rescue organizations in 2011, the second year of the Million Dollar Rescuing Racers initiative, a program to save retired racehorses from neglect, abuse, and slaughter.

In addition, 70 equine organizations received 23% of the funds to provide emergency feed support, including funds that were distributed through the "Hay Bale-Out" program for horses impacted by the high cost and low supply of hay in drought-stricken Texas and Oklahoma.

An additional 13% of the funds were distributed to 35 equine rescues and sanctuaries for capital improvements for safety and expansion. Grants were also awarded to organizations for additional education on best practices, to conduct disaster preparedness training, rehabilitate equines rescued from cruelty and neglect, and to provide a safety net for low-income horse owners.

Texas and California each received 26 grants, more than any of the other states. Both are in the top three states for equine ownership. California has more equine rescues than any other state; Texas was hit hard last year by a record-setting heat wave and drought resulting in a tremendous need for hay transported from out of state.

The ASPCA Equine Fund provides grants to non-profit equine welfare organizations in the United States for purposes in alignment with its efforts to protect horses. The ASPCA Equine Fund grants program seeks to award equine organizations that strive to achieve best practices, including sound horse care, maintenance of up-to-date websites and robust fundraising practices."

Source: http://www.thehorse.com/viewarticle.aspx?ID=19660&source=rss&utm_sour...

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

 

Please support us by "Liking" our page at...Horse Therapy! 

Healthiest for Horse and Environment!

Taking some time to read this article relating to equine therapy and horse ownership can really give you some insight on a healthy diet for your horse and the enviorment. 

"When most caretakers develop a diet for their horses, the environmental impact of the comestibles once they're passed through the horse's body often isn't the first thing they consider. But a team of researchers recently set out to see which forage-based diet is healthiest for both the horse and the environment.

Protein, a key factor many horse owners consider when choosing a feed, is often inadvertently fed in excess of the horse’s nutritional needs. This can lead to increased nitrogen (a component of protein) in the urine, which can cause ground water contamination and poorer air quality.

The Michigan State University (MSU) research team recently completed a study comparing the protein quality of several commonly fed equine diets and the horse's utilization of the dietary protein. They aimed to determine which diet best met protein requirements without leading to excess nitrogen excretion. 

Nathalie Trottier, MS, PhD, associate professor of monogastric animal nutrition in the MSU Department of Animal Science and principle investigator of the study, explained, “In order to determine nitrogen utilization by the horse, you first need to measure the difference between the amount of nitrogen being consumed and the amount being excreted.”

In the study, researchers fed six mature Arabian geldings in moderate exercise six different diets (each of which they analyzed beforehand to determine protein content) over six 14-day time periods.

The diets included:

• Full-bloom timothy grass hay (first cutting);
• Timothy grass hay + 0.2% body weight oats;
• Timothy grass hay + 0.4% body weight oats;
• Mid-bloom alfalfa (first cutting);
• Early-bloom alfalfa (second cutting); and
• Early-bud alfalfa (third cutting).

During the last three days of each feeding period, the team collected feces and urine and analyzed samples to determine the horses’ daily nitrogen excretion. They drew blood on the final day of each feeding period to determine amino acid concentrations and assess post-gut nitrogen utilization.

Key study findings included:

• Apparent whole tract nitrogen digestibility was greater for horses fed alfalfa than those fed timothy hay diets;
• Feeding alfalfa of decreasing maturity (mid-bloom, to early bloom, to early bud) exceeded protein requirement and significantly decreased post-gut nitrogen utilization, leading to increased urine volume and urinary nitrogen excretion;
• Urinary nitrogen excretion was greater in horses fed alfalfa versus timothy hay diets; and
• Feeding oats at 0.2% or 0.4% body weight with timothy hay met protein requirement and greatly enhanced apparent nitrogen digestibility without increasing nitrogen excretion relative to feeding second and third cutting alfalfa hay.

Trottier concluded, “When good quality grass hay availability is not limiting, feeding grass hay in combination with oats (if more calories are needed), is more environmentally desirable than feeding legume hay.”

The study, “Protein Quality and Utilization of timothy, oat-supplemented timothy, and alfalfa at differing harvest maturity in exercised Arabian horses,” was published in July 2011 in Journal of Animal Science. The abstract is available online. "

Source: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=19597&src=VW

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

 

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Grants for Equine Non-Profits!

I love to post these types of articles to the horse therapy community because it really can help others expand their businesses and non-profits! 

"The USA Equestrian Trust is pleased to announce that IRS-registered equine nonprofit organizations now have two opportunities to submit grant applications. Applications for financial grants to be funded in 2012 are due May 7 or Oct. 8 at 5:00 p.m. EST. 

In 2011, the Trust's board was pleased to grant nearly $200,000 to ten applicants. Past recipients of grants include those doing equine health research, land conservation, and educational programs. The Trust welcomes applications for need-based and means-tested worthy equine projects and encourages applicants to detail those in their applications.

Funding available for grants includes approximately $70,000 reserved for hunter/jumper nonprofit programs and activities in the states of California and Nevada. Applicants for this fund should make clear their intention to apply for funds available from this specific reserve.

Among the Trust's 2011 grant recipients was the Morris Animal Foundation, which received a grant of $10,000 for researchers at the University of Massachusetts who are focusing on ways to treat equine laminitis. The grant was used to help develop more targeted therapeutic drugs that could slow and/or prevent laminar tissue damage in horses. Morris Animal Foundation CEO/President David Haworth, DVM, PhD,said, "Morris Animal Foundation is thankful for the continued support from USA Equestrian Trust. It's partnerships like this that help us work to give horses longer, healthier lives."

"The board of USA Equestrian Trust felt it was crucial during this continued time of economic instability to expand our grants program to assist the many worthy equine nonprofits in need of assistance," said Alan F. Balch, USA Equestrian Trust president. "And while no charity can make grants to every deserving group, the Trust has significantly increased its giving since 2009 and hopes to continue to do so."

All applicants must submit a proposed budget for their projects as word processing documents. Applications cannot be submitted without one. All grant applications must be submitted online or postmarked no later than May 7 and Oct. 8. No late applications will be considered. The targeted date for notifying grant recipients is within 60 days of due date. If you have any questions about applying, please e-mail grants@trusthorses.org. To learn more about USA Equestrian Trust and/or its grant program for equine nonprofits, visit www.trusthorses.org."

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

 

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Submit Your Psychotherapy Story :)

Hey Everyone! Today I wanted to share with you a small event Psych Central is doing because I know many of you involved in the horse therapy or equine therapy community will have some great stories. Here's how you can share them...

"There are a ton of good stories out there about people’s experiences with psychotherapy, and we want to feature them each week here on the World of Psychology. By shedding more light on the process of therapy, we believe it will make people more comfortable and perhaps get a better understanding of it.

So we’re putting out a call for any and all psychotherapy stories — from therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, clients and patients. If you have a story you want to tell and can do so in under 1,400 words, we’re interested.

We’re not looking (just) for salacious stories. We’re looking for stories that show the personal nature of therapy, and how it can help people.

Read on for details…

 

We are looking, first and foremost, for your psychotherapy story(or that of a loved one; or if you’re a professional, one involving your psychotherapy session with a client). We don’t want fictional stories. We also don’t want you to tell your story in public if you’re not ready to share it and have it be read by thousands of people.

We are also looking for submissions that meet our editorial guidelines. These include:

• Good English grammar.
• Simple formatting — no indenting, but please use paragraphs and spaces between your paragraphs.
• Spell-checking before you send.
• Make the details anonymous. We don’t want you to be too personal with your details, to ensure no one recognizes you (or your client) from the story.
• Taking 5 minutes to proof-read your submission before sending it to us, making sure it reads well and makes sense.

All entries will be published anonymously, unless you specify otherwise.

There may be a small stipend involved if your submission meets our editorial guidelines and is a story we end up publishing. If this is the case, we will contact you for your billing details. (We’re not guaranteeing any stipend or giving details about it, because we prefer people do this for sharing their story, not for the money.)

Submit Your Psychotherapy Story

Ready to go? So are we! So go ahead and send us your best story about psychotherapy to:

stories at psychcentral.com

(We can take any format you care to send it in.)"

 

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/02/10/submit-your-psychotherapy-st...

 

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

 

Please support us by "Liking" our page at...Horse Therapy! 

Free Horse Owner Education Seminar!

As always PegasusEct.com will bring you news relating to equine therapy and horse management, but today we have found a great FREE seminar for horse owners! We found this on TheHorse.com and thought it would be a great share to any horse owners near UC Davis! 

"The faculty members of the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital Large Animal Clinic and the Center for Equine Health invite all clients and other horse owners to the first Client Education Seminar of 2012 on Feb.25 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The meeting will take place in Room 1010 Gladys Valley Hall in the Health Sciences District of the UC Davis campus.

Meet faculty and resident veterinarians of the Equine Medicine Service who have combined forces to present important information for horse owners on:

• Newborn foal care;
• Oleander toxicity in horses;
• Equine metabolic syndrome;
• Equine herpes virus updates; and
• Outcomes in the treatment of recumbent horses.

Lunch will be provided along with a question and answer session with:

• Dominic Dawson, DVM;
• Gary Magdesian, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, Dipl. ACVECC;
• Nicola Pusterla, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM;
• Anna Renier, DVM; and
• Laramie Winfield, DVM.

This seminar is free, but reservations are requested. Interested parties are asked to respond by Feb. 13 to Lorna Robles at ldrobles@ucdavis.edu or 530/752-7024.

Donations are welcome to support the Equine Internal Medicine Service at the UC Davis Large Animal Clinic."

Source: http://www.thehorse.com/viewarticle.aspx?ID=19565&source=rss&utm_sour...

 

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :) 

Please support us by "Liking" our page at...Horse Therapy! 

25 Years of Equine Research

I would like to share a post with the horse therapy community celebrating the 25 years Maxwell Gluck Equine Research has been changing the world! 

"The Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center is celebrating 25 years as a named center focused on improving the health and well-being of the horse. The Gluck Center, within the Department of Veterinary Science in the University of Kentucky's (UK) College of Agriculture, is the only scientific institute in the United States where virtually all faculty conduct full-time research in equine health and diseases.

Six of the 10 major vaccines currently used to protect against equine infectious diseases were developed by faculty in the Department of Veterinary Science. They are among a long list of other accomplishments with an international impact on equine research.

"The Gluck Center opened its doors 25 years ago, due to the generosity of Maxwell and Muriel Gluck and the horse industry," said Mats Troedsson, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACT, ECAR, director of the Gluck Center and chair of the Department of Veterinary Science. "Landmark discoveries have been made in vaccine research and production, development of diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, drug detection in racing and performance horses, sequencing of the equine genome, identification and detection of genetic diseases and traits, parasite control and reproductive health and management."

The UK Department of Veterinary Science, established in 1915, has a long history of distinguished service. The Gluck Center capitalized on the department's strong foundation to reach major international equine research milestones including:

• Developed diagnostic serological tests for contagious equine metritis (CEM), Tyzzer's disease, equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy, strangles and equine viral arteritis;
• Developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test for drug detection;
• Demonstrated the usefulness of artificial lights and progesterone/estradiol treatments for hastening the onset of the breeding season;
• Determined the genetic basis for and developed tests for inheritance of certain color coat traits;
• Provided leadership in the sequencing of the complete genome of the horse and structural characterization of horse genes; and
• Key part of a team from the College of Agriculture that performed the definitive experiments identifying the cause of mare reproductive loss syndrome.

The Gluck Center faculty continues to conduct equine research in six targeted areas: genetics and genomics, infectious diseases and immunology, musculoskeletal science, parasitology, pharmacology/toxicology, and reproductive health.

The Gluck Center is also a World Organization for Animal Health (O.I.E)-designated reference laboratory for equine rhinopneumonitis, equine influenza, and equine viral arteritis.

"We are facing continuous and new challenges in equine health and well-being with the threats of new emerging infectious diseases, bacterial resistance to antibiotics as well as parasite resistance to dewormers, stricter regulations on medication for race and performance horses, an anticipated flow of genetic information through the sequencing of the equine genome, debilitating musculoskeletal injuries in the equine athlete, and imminent threats to equine breeding industries by reproductive diseases and abortions," Troedsson said. "The Gluck Center is well prepared for these challenges and will continue to play an important role in the horse and veterinary communities. We are looking forward to the next 25 years with confidence."

Several events are scheduled in conjunction with the 25th anniversary. The year's events kicked off in January with the inaugural UK Ag Equine Programs' UK Equine Showcase and 3rd Annual Kentucky Breeders' Short Course at the UK Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Future events include:

• Grand opening of the UK Gluck Center Equine Reproduction Facilities Feb. 2 at Maine Chance Equine Campus;
• Gluck Center rededication celebration July 12 at the Gluck Center; and
• Equine Research Hall of Fame in fall 2012.

The mission of the Gluck Center is scientific discovery, education and dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of the health and well-being of horses.

Groups or individuals wishing to tour the Gluck Center should contact Jenny Blandford at jenny.blandford@uky.edu or 859/218-1089. For more information on the Gluck Center, visit www.ca.uky.edu/gluck."

Source: http://www.thehorse.com/viewarticle.aspx?ID=19538&source=rss&utm_sour...

Pegasus is an organization that brings recovery through Horse Therapy and Equine Courses to help people achieve an addiction cure! Visit PegasusEct.com for more information! :)