Conversations in Equine Science

Bell Mares...a look back in history.

This week Nancy takes a look at the use of Bell Mares during the 1800s up to WWII.
Research References:
L. Proops et al (2012).Social relations in a mixed group of mules, ponies and donkeys reflect differences in equid type, Behavioral Processes.
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376635712000654
Górecka-Bruzda A, Jastrzębska E, Drewka M, Nadolna Z, Becker K, Lansade L (2022) Female Horses are more socially dependent than geldings kept in riding clubs. Appl Anim Behav Sci 254:105714. 
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105714

Equine Assisted Services

This episode Kate and Nancy discuss a listeners' recently published research. This research is a 2024 update to our past episodes on Equine Assisted Therapy.
Research Reference:
Seery, Rita, and Deborah Wells. 2024. "An Exploratory Study into the Backgrounds and Perspectives of Equine-Assisted Service Practitioners" Animals 14, no. 2: 347.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14020347

The Impact of Weather on Equine Activity

This week Nancy and Kate discuss a listeners' email request via a recently published paper on the effects of weather on pastured horses.
Research Reference and Link (not open access-snippets available.):
Keller, G.A.; Nielsen, B.D.; Vergara-Hernandez, F.B.; Robison, C.I. Tracking the Impact of Weather on Equine Activity While Pastured. J. Equine Vet. Sci. 2022, 116, 104052.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0737080622001903

Using the Equine Brief Pain Inventory (EBPI) to assess osteoarthritis in horses.

Kate and Nancy discuss using the EBPI to manage osteoarthritis in horses.
References and Link:
Howard DL, Lancaster B, de Grauw J. Development and Preliminary Validation of an Equine Brief Pain Inventory for Owner Assessment of Chronic Pain Due to Osteoarthritis in Horses. Animals. 2024; 14(2):181.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani1402018

A look back at the equine flu epidemic of 1872

Nancy and Kate discuss the horses role in 1872 and how an equine flu epidemic shut down the US economy, but also led to improved horse welfare.
Research Reference/Link:
Freeberg, Ernest (2020). How a flu virus shut down the US economy in 1872 – by infecting horses. The Conversation US, Boston, MA. December Issue.
https://theconversation.com/how-a-flu-virus-shut-down-the-us-economy-in-1872-by-infecting-horses-150052

Year End Review for Episodes of 2023

Nancy and Kate review their favorite episodes and then reveal the favorite episodes of the listeners.
Welcome Everyone to 2024 - Season 5

The Influence of Podcasting on Equine Welfare

Kate and Nancy discuss their recently published research paper on the preliminary results of their Conversations in Equine Science listener survey.
Reference and Link: Acton, K., McLean, N. & MacKay, J.R.D. (2023) Preliminary evidence supporting the use of equine science podcasts to bridge the gap between scientists and horse enthusiasts to improve horse welfare. Equine Veterinary Education, 00, 1–11. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/eve.13926

Horses as teachers for human-robot interactions.

This week Nancy and Kate discuss how horses are once again helping humans navigate the new frontier of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Research Reference and Link:
Eakta Jain and Christina Gardner-McCune. 2023. Horse as Teacher: How human-horse interaction informs human-robot interaction. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 536, pp. 1–13.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3544548.3581245

What do rider’s want from an arena surface?

This week Nancy discusses two peer reviewed papers on how to assess arena surface safety and usefulness.
Research References and Links:
Holt, D., Northrop, A., Martin, J., Daggett, A. and Hobbs, S. (2014), What do Riders Want from an Arena Surface?. Equine Vet J, 46: 41-42. 
https://doi.org/10.1111/evj.12267_126
Northrop, A., Martin, J., Blundell, E., Owen, A. and Hobbs, S. (2014), Development of the Equestrian Arena Surfaces for the 2012 Olympic Games. Equine Vet J, 46: 45-46. 
https://doi.org/10.1111/evj.12267_137

Results of the massage trial.

This week Nancy gives a summary of her results with replicating the hind-end massage study using her own horses.
Research Reference/Link:
Mabbutt, C., Yarnell, K., and Ferro de Godoy, R. (2022). Comparative Exercise Physiology Vol. 18 (5), pp. 419-426
https://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/epdf/10.3920/CEP220022?role=tab