‘It’s a grease. It’s not used in other jumping events because those jumps are designed to give to the horse if they hit the fence. In cross country, the jumps are solid, so the horses legs are greased to help them slide off them more. How do I get rid Read more…
If your horse develops scabs, scrub the legs with warm water and a diluted antiseptic such as Hibiscrub, iodine or Malaseb (dog shampoo). Work it into a lather and then leave on for 10-15 minutes to allow contact time for the antiseptic to kill the bacteria. Sometimes you need to Read more…
Diffuse scabbing on a horse’s rump or flanks as well as his limbs is likely rainrot, a condition caused by proliferation of Dermatophilus spp. bacteria that normally live harmlessly on a horse’s skin. In wet, humid weather, the bacteria multiply, irritating hair follicles and causing a distinctive type of crusting. Read more…
Because inflammation and swelling can damage tissues and cause discomfort, your veterinarian may prescribe a “sweat” bandage as an aid in reducing fluid build-up in the legs. What does sweating a horses leg do? Sweating a leg is useful for the treatment and prevention of limb edema (stocking up), to Read more…
In 1912 horses travelled across Europe by rail and road for the Olympic games in Stockholm, which was the first to include the sorts of equestrian events seen today. These days, horses travel by aeroplane. After being coaxed into air-conditioned stables, called pallets, they are loaded onto specially configured planes. Read more…
“All Olympic horses travel in style, in 112cm wide stalls, with two horses per pallet – the human equivalent of business class,” Fédération Equestre Internationale, the governing body for the sport, said in 2016. Stallions will actually travel at the front of the plane so as not to be distracted Read more…
The genetics of gray This also means that all gray horses must have at least one gray parent. If a gray horse is homozygous (GG), meaning that it has a gray allele from both parents, it will always produce gray offspring no matter the color genetics of the other parent. Read more…
A strange aspect of the sport is that athletes are not allowed to bring their own horse for the event. Instead a lottery takes place, with each horse randomly assigned to two participants in the field. Do Showjumpers take their own horses to the Olympics? But what that also means Read more…
(b) The offending horse may be disqualified, if in the opinion of the stewards, the foul altered the finish of the race, regardless of whether the foul was accidental, willful or the result of careless riding. What happens if your horse gets disqualified? The short answer is that you lose Read more…
28-foot. Horses are able to clear wide obstacles too—think about a horse jumping a small puddle or creek in the wild. In the jumping world, we refer to the horizontal distance as “spread.” The greatest horizontal distance a horse has jumped on record was in 1975 at a whopping 28-foot Read more…