Amado Equine Hacienda

06/05/2026

Reata Veterinary Hospital is hosting a free equine education and community night:
Beat the Heat

📅 Friday, June 19
📍 Reata Veterinary Hospital - 9517 E Old Vail Rd. Tucson, AZ 85747
🕕 6:00 PM – Meet our Equine Team & Connect with Fellow Horse Owners
🕡 6:30 PM – Equine Heat Safety Presentation by Dr. Krause

RSVP to 520-749-1446.

Expert Veterinary Care for Dogs, Cats, & Horses in Tucson and the greater Southern Arizona Community. 🐶🐱🐴 Where our Family Takes Care of Yours. ❤️Call 520-749-1446 to schedule today!

06/04/2026

Update on the screwworm.

⚠️Veterinary Health Alert from Dr. Henrichs!

As you may have heard, over recent months the harmful New World Screwworm has been moving even closer to our southern border. Over 26,000 cases have been reported in Mexico since the outbreak began there in late 2024. Yesterday, June 3rd, the USDA confirmed the first case in the United States in a three-week-old calf in southern Texas, 40 miles inside the US border. This may be a long way from southern Arizona, but this is a landmark event in US veterinary medicine and public health, and something all of us near the border should be aware of. New World Screwworm was eradicated from the United States in 1966, and with the exception of a small outbreak in wildlife in the Florida Keys in 2017, has been confined to Central and South America due to dedicated international cooperation between US and Central American governments, especially Panama (https://www.copeg.org/en/). New World Screwworm is unique in that these fly larvae feed on living flesh, rather than dead tissue like other maggots, causing potentially lethal tissue destruction and creating an immense public health threat. All warm-blooded animals including horses, livestock, household pets, wildlife and humans can be affected (over 2,000 cases have been reported in humans in Central America). Horses and livestock are at highest risk because they live outdoors and frequently sustain abrasions and wounds. The adult stage of the New World Screwworm can be difficult to distinguish from other species of flies.
Read more info and updates here: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animals/animal-health/livestock-and-poultry-disease/stop-screwworm

Read more very interesting biology and identification information here:
https://extension.psu.edu/understanding-the-new-world-screwworm-biology-identification-and-prevention

Thanks, Dr.Henrichs 🦟

06/02/2026

Clipping the crossties

05/30/2026

Develop the feel for your diagonals.

Checking the diagonal by looking down is one of those habits that starts as a reasonable beginner strategy and becomes a deeply ingrained problem that follows riders for years if nobody addresses it properly. The head drops, the balance shifts, the horse falls out of rhythm while the rider hunts for visual confirmation of something their body should eventually be able to feel without any visual input at all. The ultimate goal is not a rider who checks their diagonal correctly but a rider who does not need to check at all. Here is how to get there...

1. First make sure they understand what they are actually feeling for

A lot of riders check their diagonal without fully understanding what the diagonal is or why it matters. Before you work on feel, make sure the concept is solid. At the rising trot, the rider should be rising with the outside shoulder of the horse coming forward which means their seat is in the saddle when the outside hind and inside fore hit the ground together. That is the correct diagonal and it matters because posting with the correct diagonal helps the horse balance through corners and turns and distributes the rider's weight more effectively. A student who understands why it matters has more reason to develop the feel for it than one who is just following a rule.

2. Teach them what correct feels like before you ask them to identify it

Put your student on the correct diagonal and tell them that is what correct feels like right now. Ask them to close their eyes and feel it for thirty seconds, on a lunge if need be. You can do this both at the posting and sitting trot. Do it several times in both directions. The feel becomes more recognizable every time they practice distinguishing it.

3. Use the rising rhythm to develop feel.

Ask your student to slow their posting down slightly and feel the moment their seat contacts the saddle. Which shoulder is coming forward when they sit? Is it the inside or the outside? Start with the question before you start with the answer. A rider who is actively asking themselves that question every few strides is developing feel while a rider who is looking down every few strides is developing nothing except a habit that will limit their balance and their horse's way of going indefinitely.

4. Verbal shoulder exercise

Stand at the rail and call out outside as the horse moves past, matching your call to the outside shoulder coming forward at that moment. After a few laps, ask your student to call it back to you from the saddle before looking down. It forces them to feel and identify rather than look and confirm. When they get it right consistently without looking the feel is developing. When they consistently get it wrong in one direction you have found their weaker side.

5. Teach them to correct without looking

Once a student can feel the diagonal, the next step is teaching them to correct it without breaking rhythm or looking down. Sitting for two beats instead of one changes the diagonal cleanly without disrupting the trot. A rider who can feel the wrong diagonal and correct it smoothly with a bounce while keeping their eyes up and their rhythm consistent has genuinely mastered the skill. That is the standard worth working toward.

6. Make it a non event

One of the reasons diagonal checking persists is that instructors make a big deal of it, calling it out every time it is wrong and drilling it repeatedly in a way that makes the student anxious about it. A rider who is anxious about their diagonal looks down more not less. Correct it matter of factly, give them the feel exercise, and move on. The less drama attached to it the faster it resolves.

7. Rider still not getting it? Try the knee tap

Tap the student's outside knee with a dressage whip every time the horse's outside shoulder comes forward. This will require you to jog alongside the horse and rider but the external physical cue bypasses the visual hunting and gives the body something concrete to feel for. After several laps remove the tap and ask the student to remember the feeling it was marking. Works particularly well for tactile learners who struggle with purely verbal or visual instruction.

The correct diagonal is not something your student will feel on their first try or their tenth. It is a feel that develops gradually through repeated attention to sensation rather than visual confirmation. Build that attention deliberately and the looking down takes care of itself because they no longer need the visual when the feel is reliable.

How do you teach your students to feel their diagonal rather than check it visually?

05/30/2026

Join our free live webinar to explore what your horse’s manure reveals about digestion, diet, and GI health. Learn science-backed strategies to support a healthier, more stable digestive system.

05/26/2026

June focuses on the Fascial Front Line to strengthen your core. Working the front line helps you: • Activate Horse's Abs: Use supportive aids to encourage the horse's abdominal engagement and topline. • Strengthen Core: Gain deep pelvic stability for a neutral, suspended seat. • Improve Balanc...

05/23/2026

05/21/2026

Get equine vet's emergency framework plus action steps & practical tools to become more confident & capable in helping your horse when they're sick or injured

05/02/2026

This is interesting on a treatment for laminitis.

Botulinum toxin inoculation into the deep digital flexor muscle may be useful in acute laminitis cases to help prevent palmar rotation of the distal phalanx. 🐎

Open access article: jav.ma/ddf

11/23/2025