Conversations in Equine Science

This week Nancy continues with the story of Lexington and his stallion career, the effects of the civil war and how his skeleton made the journey back to his birthplace of Kentucky 160 years after his birth.
Reference:
Wickens, Kim (2023). Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America's Legendary Racehorse. Ballantine Books, New York, USA. (416 pages.)

This week Nancy goes back in history to talk about the antebellum era of racing and the impact the horse Lexington had on the nation during the turbulent pre-civil war days.
Research References/Links:
Wickens, Kim (2023). Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America's Legendary Racehorse. Ballantine Books, New York, USA. (416 pages.)

In this episode Nancy and Kate discuss a 2023 paper on equine genomics and behavior traits.
Research reference/link:
Holtby, A.R., Hall, T.J., McGivney, B.A., Han, H., Murphy, K.J., MacHugh, D.E. et al. (2023) Integrative genomics analysis highlights functionally relevant genes for equine behaviour. Animal Genetics, 54, 457–469.
Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/age.13320#:~:text=t%20p%20s%3A%20//d%20o%20i.or%20g%20/10.1111/a%20g%20e.1332%200

Today's episode is about the variability of the Equine Gut Biome. Christine Sanchez has been researching the importance of biome health in all horses.
For more information contact Christine at chrisiesanchez@gmail.com
or
Dr. Tom Schell @ secondvet.com

This week Kate and Nancy revisit the Donkey Skin Trade (ejiao) crisis and the African Union Ban of February 2024.
Research Reference/Link:
Shan Su, Ewan A. Macdonald, Nico Arcilla, Maurice Beseng, Felipe Thomaz, David W. Macdonald (2023). Characterising the links between the trade in donkey skins for traditional Chinese medicine and timber of conservation concern, Global Ecology and Conservation, Volume 46.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989423002330
Link to 2021 Donkey hide episode: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/dj6qsbfiIIb
Link to The Brooke: https://www.thebrooke.org/

This episode Nancy and Kate interview Scott Cieslar owner of MadBarn. Madbarn is a nutrition, and supplement company that also fuels equine research. Listen in and check out the website @ https://madbarn.com/ (USA) or https://madbarn.ca/ (Canada).

This week Kate and Nancy discuss using smartphone apps to help in the recognition of emotions and pain in horses.
Research Reference/Link
Corujo, Luis A., Emily Kieson, Timo Schloesser, and Peter A. Gloor. (2021). "Emotion Recognition in Horses with Convolutional Neural Networks" Future Internet 13, no. 10: 250.
https://doi.org/10.3390/fi13100250
Equine Pain and Welfare App:
Apple:
https://apps.apple.com/il/app/epwa/id1428507532 
Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.epwa&hl=en_US
Link to Training Program for EPWA:
https://training.epwa.nl/

Nancy and Kate talk about Dr. Manfredi's equine metabolic research at Michigan State University.
Reference/Link to article:
Manfredi, J. (2023). Horse health research will help humans stay healthy, too, with insights on reining in diabetes and obesity, The Conversation; Michigan State University.
https://theconversation.com/horse-health-research-will-help-humans-stay-healthy-too-with-insights-on-reining-in-diabetes-and-obesity-205185

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

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