A little girl from one of our eight-week anti-bullying curriculums had come with seven other youth from her school. All of the kids attending had been to the principal’s office several times with issues, either from being a bully or from being bullied themselves. In addition, there were considerable behavioural issues including fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder, among others.

We all want healthy horses with beautiful muscle tone, that are neither too fat nor too thin. In short, we want our horse to have the ideal body condition. But what is an ideal body condition and, especially, how does one evaluate it effectively?

Though powerful, horses are also fragile. Since we are consistently pushing their limits, performance horses are the most vulnerable of all. The saying, “Illness comes on horseback but departs on foot,” could easily be referring to the joint injuries that afflict far too many of our horses. Unfortunately, these injuries are quite difficult to treat. Our best option is to use nutrition as a simple and effective prevention strategy.