Heavy Horses Research Articles

Effect of conformational aspects on the movement of the equine back.

The relationship between structure and function is important in the judgement of the horse. Twenty sound riding horses walked and trotted on a treadmill. The movement of the backs of each of the horses was measured using a commercially available movement analysis system. Morphometric, spatiotemporal and kinematic information were correlated to investigate the effect of conformation on movement. Taller and heavier horses seem to have longer thoracic and lumbar backs, and are wider at the pelvis. Horses with longer strides extended and flexed their backs in the caudal saddle region to a greater extent at the walk, but not the trot. Horses with greater angle of L5 tend to extend and flex this region of the back more. At the walk and trot, a long thoracic back results in greater lumbar lateral bending. A negative relationship was found between the curvature of mid-thoracic back and the amount of lateral bending of L1 and L3 and axial rotation of the pelvis at the trot. There are clear relationships between back conformation and movement that may be important to the orthopaedic health of the horse. Further understanding of the relationships between conformation, movement and injury may provide an objective basis for the evaluation of future performance and soundness.

Ultrasonographic measurements of accessory sex glands, ampullae, and urethra of normal stallions of various size types

For the purpose of establishing clinical reference values, this paper reports results of ultrasonographic examination and measurement of accessory sex glands, ampullae, and the pelvic urethra of 102 mature, healthy breeding stallions (2–29 years of age) of various size types (7 Miniature Horses, 27 small ponies, 53 light horses and 15 heavy horses). Examinations were done per rectum in mostly unsedated stallions using an Aloka 210 scanner with a 7.5 MHz linear veterinary transrectal transducer (Corometrics Medical Systems, Inc., North Wallingford, CT, USA). Most measures of accessory sex glands, ampullae and the urethra were larger in horses of larger sizes. Except for vesicular glands, the majority of the measures for all glands were smaller for Miniature Horses and ponies than for light horses and heavy horses ( P<0.05). For vesicular glands, measures for heavy horses were greater than for those of other groups ( P<0.05). Measures were similar for Miniature Horses and ponies, and for light horses and heavy horses. For all measures, differences between left and right paired glands were not different ( P>0.10). The lumen diameter of vesicular glands and ampullae as well as prostate lobe thickness showed the greatest asymmetry. Although there were too few representatives of various breeds for statistical comparison, among the light horse breeds Arabian stallions had the smallest mean values for the majority of the measures. Among stallions, echogenic characteristics of accessory sex glands, particularly vesicular glands, varied widely, possibly related to variation in recent sexual activity. For some stallions, echogenic character, particularly that of vesicular glands, varied remarkably from left to right gland within stallions. For ampullae, there was also wide variation in lumen contents between stallions. These data are generally consistent with previous reports with smaller numbers of stallions, as well as consistent with in vitro measures in previous studies. The results provide useful clinical guidelines for size measures of accessory sex glands in horses.

From "The Church of John F. Kennedy"

It was freezing winter north of Harper's Ferry. In Maryland, a large billboard invited you to leave the interstate and visit the nearby sacred Grotto of Lourdes, presumably the oldest in America. Assmann had already been to the original Lourdes in the Pyrenees, but because his interest in American Catholic sectarianism had recently been rekindled by reading Johannes Enzlberger's Catholische Geistlichkeit der deutschen Zunge in den Vereinigten Staaten (Milwaukee, 1892), he was briefly tempted to stop. However, he decided to drive on, just as he did a little later when he passed the bleak battlegrounds at Gettysburg. As the afternoon turned dusky, and threatening snow clouds gathered on the horizon, Wenzel still had a good seventy miles to go through Pennsylvania before he would finally cruise into the promised land of the mysterious Amish. The road on the left branched off to East Berlin, then another to Weigelstown; a right turn would take him to Hanover and Lake Marburg; between them was New Oxford, York, another Manchester, and finally Lancaster. Instead of turning left to Manheim, the Mannheim native kept to the right to turn onto Route 340 a few miles to the south. Rickety covered carriages, their fluorescent triangles lighting up in Assmann's headlights, rattled along in front of the dented Chevrolet; heavy horse teams pulled a variety of seemingly antedeluvian farm equipment into commodious barns on both sides of the road; the first candles were being lit in the windows of the large, well-painted, white farm houses. The German held his breath and, indeed, felt a little relieved when he met a long line of gasoline-powered vehicles in the snow-covered opposite lane, stuck behind a buggy just as he was. Hallelujah, he thought, slapping his steering wheel with the palm of his hand: within a few hours' drive from New York City he had come upon, if not exactly a blank spot on the map, then at any rate another black hole in the American Dream! Having decided to spend several days in the region of the socalled utopian communities, Wenzel Assmann turned between the villages of Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse (the sexual meaning was not lost on him) onto South Harvest Street toward the Orchard View Motel. The handsome inn was run by a family of lapsed Amish; that is, they were still regular Mennonites, permitted to have such intercourse with the world as managing a motel or even owning black automobiles as long as all the chrome parts, emblems of human vanity, were covered with black paint. It was just such a completely blackened Chevy Impala that was parked in the lot of the Orchard View Motel. To any regular movie fan it would have looked like the killer car in a John Carpenter film from the seventies, but the initiate recognized in the elegant design the expression of deeply felt old-German pietism. Good Night! Stauffer, the motel owner, said and shuffled back to his house; he was probably used to being in bed by eight o'clock. But Assmann, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, started unloading his car. An elderly couple from Manhattan occupied the room next to his; they were using the Christmas holidays to retrace their long-ago honeymoon trip that had taken them from the German part of Pennsylvania to the almost cosmic rumbling of Niagara Falls. Though they had chosen to stay at the out-of-the-way Orchard View Motel, they thought it was barely tolerable and certainly perverse of the Mennonite owner not to have television sets in the rooms. The second point the New Yorkers kept making, whenever Assmann carried another carton of books to his room, was that the USA was run and ruined by lawyers, an entirely plausible conspiracy theory that the German had often heard before. He, however, was not in the mood for either fluffy soap operas or solemn judicial decrees and therefore wished the Yankee couple Good Evening, got a sixpack of Yuengling from his trunk (Stauffer had already turned off his lights), and locked himself into his cell of a room. …

“My first love is heavy horses …“

“My first love is heavy horses …“

Influence of level of feeding and physiological state on diet digestibility in light and heavy breed horses

Four heavy-breed dry mares and five adult geldings of light breed were fed at maintenance level and ad libitum, successively, to determine the influence of feeding level and breed on digestibility. Five heavy-breed mares were fed the same diet ad libitum in late pregnancy (ninth-tenth months) and in early lactation (first and second month) to measure the effect of feeding level and physiological state on digestibility. The animals were fed a diet containing fixed proportions of 85% meadow hay (33.2% crude fibre, 8.0% crude protein in dry matter) and 15% concentrate based on barley (50%) and soybean meal (45%). Intake was adjusted daily for each animal. Diet digestibility was measured by analysis of total faeces collected over a 6-day period in dry heavy-breed mares and light horses fed successively at maintenance level and ad libitum. The same measurements were made in pregnant and lactating mares during the fifth week before and the fifth week after foaling. Diet digestibility was not significantly changed by increase in feeding level. However, it was significantly lower in pregnant mares than in lactating mares and in dry mares fed ad libitum, for dry matter (4.4 and 2.3 points), organic matter (5.0 and 3.5 points) and energy (4.1 and 2.0 points). The differences are due to a lower digestibility of total crude protein content (5.4 and 3.2 points) and crude fibre (3.5 and 3.0 points). Breed had no significant influence on digestibility.

Factors influencing morbidity and outcome of equine ocular squamous cell carcinoma.

A retrospective review of 41 cases of equine ocular squamous cell carcinoma with follow up information for 33 horses is presented. An apparent prevalence in heavy horse breeds was identified. Age and sex distribution were similar to those previously reported. High recurrence (42.4 per cent) and low metastasis (6 per cent) rates were seen. Initial tumour location, primary treatment used, or patient case history had no apparent influence on final outcome. The willingness of owners to pursue with continuous treatment correlated with a high degree of success.

Impacts of feral horses grazing on rangelands: An overview

The potential impacts on vegetation and watersheds in the western U.S. by feral horses are discussed. Feral horses select open habitats with relatively large amounts of grass. Horse dietsare largely grasses but shrubs are used in some areas. Utilization levels are proportional to animal numbers but equivalent numbers of horses may consume more than cattle because of differing digestive physiology. Predicted vegetation changes under heavy feral horses use may result in range dominated by unpalatable shrubs. Watershed conditions would probably not change except underheavy use by horses when soil compaction, soil disturbance and fouling of water holes could result.

Influence of Polish Arms, Armour and Militaria on Western Europe

Up to approximately the 15th century the arms and the armament of a Polish knight were very similar in style to those used in the west: heavy Armour, heavy sword, and heavy horse. However, in the face of the continuous attacks by Tartars, and later on Turks, on Polish territories, the enemy consisting of very light cavalry, on small but very quick and manageable horses, the heavy knights were of little use. Long before the 15th century the armament and the tactics had to be slowly modified and adapted to the enemy's armament and stratagems.

The reaction of imported British Shire horses to African Horse Sickness: A case report

Summary Twelve (12) heavy horses of the Shire breed imported into Nigeria in 1974 died within two months after importation. This was because of inclement weather and non-availability of AHS vaccine.

Radiographic Examination of the Equine Vertebral Column

A method is described for routine radiography of the horse's thoracolumbar (TL) spine from T2 to L3 in the standing position. Stocks were used for restraint, and the x‐ray tube, which was mounted on an overhead gantry, was linked automatically to a cassette holder on the far side of the animal. A crosshatch grid with an ultra‐fast system of screens and film was employed to provide adequate radiographic quality. An aluminum wedge filter (dodger) was used to help compensate for the marked variation in spine thickness. For radiography of the caudal lumbar spine and lumbosacral region, it was necessary to anesthetize the horse and make radiographs in the ventrodorsal position. Exposures of up to 150 kV and 400 mAs were required for heavy horses weighing up to 750 kg. Scatter radiation was kept to a minimum by using crossed high‐ratio grids and by putting additional lead on the back of the cassette to prevent back scatter.

Investigations on immunological pregnancy tests of mares

The Serotest, immunological pregnancy tests of mares, was studied on 282 sera of 196 mares and 3 stallions at Tokachi and Hidaka districts in Hokkaido, from May to September in 1967.Results obtained may be summarized as follows;1. Accuracy of tests on nonpregnant mares and stallions was 100.0 %, but on pregnant mares, it varied with gestation periods. That is, at 1 to 29, 30 to 44, 45 to 80, 81 to 120 and more than 121 days after the last service, accuracy of tests was 6.3, 51.7, 96.6, 40.0 and 40.0 % respectively.2. Positive reactions with this test were first observed at 3946 days and continued to 76126 days of gestation through long-term observations of 5 pregnant mares.3. Accuracy of tests on light horses was seemed to be higher than that of half blood or heavy horses.4. Eight mares out of 160 were suspected to have aborted through this tests and biological assays.

Striping patterns in domestic horses

1. Striping is distributed among very diverse breeds of domestic horses. It is found more frequently and more dictinctly expressed among primitive, local populations of horses than among standard breeds, due to continued selection against wild coat colors (wilddun, mouse-gray), with which striping is correlated in some way, as yet insufficiently elucidated. 2. Striping in domestic horses in most cases resembles in structure striping in all other species of the familyEquidae (zebras, asses, hemiasses, wild horses) and is by its very nature rudimentary and atavistic (Darwin). The most persistent elements of striping in domestic horses are: the spinal stripe, next horizontal zebroid stripes on the legs, then rudiments of stripes on the vertical system (shoulder stripes and spots); rarely there has been observed the development of arch-shaped stripes on the forehead (Darwin, Ewart, Krieg). 3. A study of variation in such atavistic striping in different breeds of horses throughout the world has made it possible to distinguish two chief types of striping, differing from each other in the structure and localization of the stripes of the vertical system and also in several specific features in the structure of the spinal stripe and the zebroid striping on the legs. The first type of striping (Figs. 1–5) is most clearly expressed in small local breeds of European horses (Ewart'sforest type or thenorthern group of Russian authors), but it is also encountered among horses of thesouthern group (eastern type ofFranck) and heavy western horses. The second type (Figs. 6–16) is characteristic of horses of the Mongolian group and is not found beyond the limits of the latter's influence. 4. In addition to atavistic striping in domestic horses, there occurs in very rare cases, striping of a brindling pattern (Figs. 17a, b), which does not possess the characteristic structural features of striping inEquidae and which — like brindling in cattle (Fig. 18) and dogs — must be regarded as a „new formation” of mutational origin.

CARPOMETACARPAL DISLOCATION

Cases of multiple dislocations at the carpometacarpal articulation are of sufficiently rare occurrence to warrant their being recorded for statistical reasons. A farmer, aged 40, was injured while pulling stumps. He was using a puller in which a 14 foot pole acted as a lever. The chain by which two heavy farm horses were hitched to the pole parted, releasing the pole, which struck the patient on the back of the right hand, right forearm, and right lower thorax. He was thrown violently to the ground, striking on the left hand with the arm outstretched. The injuries sustained consisted of fractures of several ribs on the right side, of the left clavicle, and of the right ulna laceration of muscles of the right forearm, laceration and contusion of the right hand, and the dislocation to be described, occurring in the right hand. On account of the marked swelling of the

RUPTURE OF INTESTINES BY KICK OF A HORSE.

<h3>History.</h3> —A. W., a stout farm hand, was kicked in the abdomen by a heavy horse at 12 m. He was thrown some distance by the blow, falling on his shoulder, and lay unconscious for several minutes. He vomited once, but presented no signs of shock. The abdomen showed only a small bruise and was not very painful, for 1/16 grain of morphin relieved the pain. He rested easily and complained more of the pain in his shoulder than of that in his abdomen, until 7 p. m., thirty hours after the accident, when he began to vomit and to present evidences of shock which rapidly increased. He died at 11 a. m., forty-seven hours after being injured. <h3>Autopsy.</h3> —No external signs of injury. Internally, a general peritonitis from a transverse laceration of the small intestine about eighteen inches from the stomach. The laceration was one third of the circumference