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Bedford, NY - An exciting new educational program called the "Young Breeders Sport Horse Educational Program" is intended to educate the Young Breeders of America in theory, judging of confirmation, judging of free jumping and presenting a horse.

One of the goals for this program is to bring young breeders together across breeding associations, countries, and languages. To create a network among these participants that will help exchange ideas and information to assist them in creating the ideal Sport Horse of tomorrow.

Dressage4Kids (D4K) has organized an Weekend Equestrian Educational Program (WEP), for January 29th and 30th at Nonnewaug Regional School in Woodbury, CT.  This year’s D4K Weekend Educational Program will include a day-long session on judging conformation and showing horses in hand. Among the many speakers are clinicians Britta Johnson and Phil Silva who will be on hand to supply you with more information about this program as well as future clinics. And, for the first time, the 2011 Youth Dressage Festival includes a Sport Horse Handling and Judging competition. Ages 10 and up are accepted. In addition to the Festival, you can expect to see several classes added at select Breed Shows throughout the season..

Upcoming Clinics:

February 5th, 2011, with Britta Johnston and Phil Silva,  at 351 Deephole Road, Calverton, NY 11933, 9am-3pm.  Contact Marie Banks at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

February 18 -21, 2011, with Dr. Christian Schacht and Phil Silva, at Ten Broeck Farm, 49 Prescott Street, Pepperell, MA 01463 Contact Phi Silva (978) 877-6635 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

These clinics will be a great learning experience to evaluate the suitability of sport horses of all different breeds. It is a good opportunity for the riders to learn to judge the horses’ potential from the ground. They will learn about the horses’ conformation, and how to evaluate the horses’ strong and weak points. They will learn how to present the horses in-hand, evaluating free-jumping, and theory. The competition consists of 3 parts, a written quiz on knowledge, presenting a horse on the triangle, and judging. The judging consists of 3 parts, judging mares in hand, evaluating free movements of the horse, and evaluating horses over jumps.

This new Young Breeders Program is spearheaded by Lendon Gray’s Dressage4Kids (D4K). The program was formulated with the hopes of putting together a team to represent the United States in the International Young Breeders World Championships. "The WBFSH World Championships for Young Breeders” are held on a 2 year cycle. Six people may be selected to represent the United States at the championships to be held July 22th-24th 2011 in Chazey sur Ain, France. There will be two age groups in the international competition: 16 to 19 and 20 to 25.

D4K Mission Statement: To encourage riders under 21 to become true horsemen with correct position, competitive skills, and knowledge of all aspects of riding and horse care; to offer scholarships to enable competitors to further their education; to have fun and develop good sportsmanship throughout. For more on D4K, visit www.dressage4kids.com

January 18, 2011

 by

Cara McNamee, DVM

Horses’ hooves are strong, made up of tough layers of keratin, the same material in our fingernails.  However, the hooves also protects crucial structures such as the navicular bursa, deep digital flexor tendon, coffin bone, and also synvia structures like the coffin joit and the navicular bursa.  When there is a penetrating injury to the foot, injury to these structures can be career-ending or even life-threatening.  Early recognition and treatment is therefore imperative to the best possible outcome.

The most common injury to the sole of the foot usually involves stepping on a sharp object, such as a nail.  They frequently cause significant lameness, even if no deeper structures have been affected.  Non-weight bearing lameness is not uncommon, with increased digital pulses present in the foot as well as possible swelling in the distal limb.  If the object is still present embedded in the foot, DO NOT REMOVE IT, and call your veterinarian immediately!  It is necessary for your veterinarian to see the object’s location as well as take radiographs with it in place to determine the depth of the wound and use his anatomical knowledge to determine the structures at risk.

Your vet will clean the foot thoroughly and examine the wound thoroughly with a probe in order to determine the depth of the tract.  The wound may be dissected sharply with a hoof knife or bone curette to examine the tract for foreign material and establish drainage. If none of the synovial structures is affected, local debridement and cleaning of the wound, and antibiotics, along with wrapping the foot for a few days will likely take care of it.

If the foreign body is at risk of having penetrated any of the vital structures, he ill likely be referred to a hospital. Your horse should be vaccinated against tetatnus yearly, and a booster may be indicated because the organism tends to be found in dirt and rust. He will likely be started on antibiotics as well.

Either at the hospital or at the farm, the veterinarian will evaluate all the synovial structures: the coffin joint, navicular bursa, and tendon sheath should be tapped and the fluid tested for presence of bacteria or increased cell count, indicative of inflammation.

If it is the case, surgery and aggressive antibiotic therapy (Intravenous antibiotics, regional limb perfusions, intrasynovial antibiotic delivery) will be needed as this kind of injury is life threatening.

In closing, if your horse comes in from the field lame and you suspect injury to the sole, call your veterinarian immediately.  Do not remove any foreign object from the sole.  Puncture wounds to the foot can threaten your horse’s career, so the earlier you seek treatment, the better. 

Please contact your veterinarian or any of the veterinarians at New England Equine Medical & Surgical Center if you have any questions.

     (By Dr Rachel Roemer and Dr Omar Maher)

Nuclear scintigraphy, also known as a bone scan, can be a useful diagnostic tool in many difficult lameness cases. Nuclear scintigraphy helps identify areas of inflammation and changes in physiologic bone activity. This is particularly useful in cases when the lameness cannot be adequately localized with local nerve blocks or seems to be caused by pain high in the limbs or in the neck or spine. It can also be helpful when there may be more than one area of inflammation or if there are radiographic changes that may or may not be the cause of the lameness. 
 
Nuclear scintigraphy units are located at many veterinary schools and private referral practices. The bone scan process is an inpatient procedure and the horse is kept in the hospital at least overnight. An intravenous catheter is placed in the horse’s neck and a radioactive isotope, technetium-99m (99mTc), bound to a molecule with a high affinity for bone, is injected into the horse. The 99mTc emits gamma-rays, which are picked up by a specialized sensor to produce an image of the 99mTc uptake in the body. The more 99mTc that is located in a single area, the more gamma-rays will be emitted from that location. Within the first 1-2 minutes after injection the 99mTc remains within the vessels (known as the vascular phase) and images to compare blood flow to the distal limbs can be obtained. At about 3-10 minutes post-injection blood flow to soft tissues can be evaluated (soft tissue phase). Increased uptake during the soft tissue phase is indicative of edema or inflammation. Several hours later, the 99mTc distributes to bone (bone phase), particularly to areas of active boney turnover where bone is being broken down and replaced or where boney inflammation is present. If a horse has active bone disease, such as degenerative joint disease, boney sclerosis (increased bone density), septic arthritis, etc., the affected area will “light up” on the image. Typically, only the soft tissue and bone phases are imaged, unless there is a suspicion of compromised blood flow.
 
Nuclear scintigraphy is quite safe for the horse as 99mTc has a relatively short half-life of about 6 hours, so it breaks down quite quickly. About half of the radioactive material is excreted in urine within hours of injection. During the bone scan process the technicians working with the horse and obtaining the images wear protective clothing similar to that warn when taking radiographs (x-rays). The horse must be kept isolated for at least 24 hours after the bone scan when it is excreting radioactive urine. Radioactivity levels are monitored using a Geiger counter and once the levels are back within a safe range the horse is allowed to be handled and transported as needed. Bone scans also allow veterinarians to collect important information without having to anesthetize the horse, which eliminates a host of potential risks. Bone scans cannot replace the lameness exam, diagnostic nerve blocks, or radiographs. However, in certain cases nuclear scintigraphy is extremely useful finally identifying the specific cause of lameness.

Bone bruising, fractures that are not obvious on radiographs (including stress fractures on race horses, pelvic fractures), back issues and sacro-iliac disease, cervical pathology (neck arthritis), pedal osteitis.