Day: March 5, 2011

Rabies-infected Virginia horse spurs warning

The horse’s owners near Stuarts Draft had, in January, asked Cromer to investigate why it wouldn’t eat or drink and seemed depressed. It wasn’t until the horse began to twitch and nip at him days later that the owners agreed to have it euthanized. Lab results confirmed the horse had rabies. “This was dumb rabies,” Cromer said Wednesday, differentiating the horse’s behavior from ones with “furious” rabies. “The horse was not aggressive like you see sometimes … where they’ll pace the fences and attack the animals,” he said. Whatever the symptoms, the neurological disease is fatal and

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Proposed horse slaughter ban in Canada needs careful consideration

There is a thunder storm brewing in the Canadian equine industry and the eventual decision will concern many of us. Most people have firmly set opinions on the subject: some formed strictly from the heart, some molded by daily contact. Of the two, the latter often leads to the more realistic knowledge that just because you love something, it doesn’t mean that it’s possible to keep it forever. In 2007, the U.S. banned the slaughter of horses. Now there is a movement afoot to bring the ban to Canada. At the forefront, anti-horsemeat activists who wish to

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Fossilized horse teeth hold secrets of the past

A team of paleodentists of sorts has examined fossilized horse teeth from as far as 55.5 million years ago and found a timeline of changing tooth features that matches up with the climate record. The changing climate was responsible for major changes over time in the horses’ diets, which were reflected in their teeth. Researchers were able to follow horses’ shift from eating fruit to grazing on grass in response to their shifting environment in North America. Previous studies used chemical analyses of teeth and microscopic wear to understand what the animals were eating, but because these

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AQHA is Going Digital

Beginning in April, The American Quarter Horse Journal will also be publishing a digital supplement to the print edition of the magazine. There will be more than meets the eye with the April edition of The American Quarter Horse Journal. The annual AQHA high-points edition of the Journal marks the beginning of the publication’s special digital supplement, which can be found at aqha.com. The April issue of the digital supplement will not be a complete duplicate of the April print edition. The digital supplement will include expanded information on all of the AQHA high-point award winners and their horses, as well

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