Bridle Creek Veterinary Service

08/21/2026

Another interesting research project...

Another great example of practical equine research coming out of CSU Equine Sciences!

A new study by undergraduate researcher Brynne Murphy and Dr. Devan Catalano asked a simple question that comes up frequently in horse management: Does it matter whether horses are offered salt as a block or loose in a pan?

Sixteen horses were offered both loose white salt and compressed white salt blocks over four 7-day periods. While horses tended to consume more loose salt (41 g/day) than block salt (32 g/day), salt form did not significantly affect intake. What mattered much more was the individual horse - daily consumption ranged from just 2 g to 135 g.

Perhaps the most important finding for horse owners: 9 of the 16 horses did not voluntarily consume enough salt to meet their sodium requirements, even after accounting for sodium provided by their regular diet. Water intake was similarly highly individual and was not affected by whether salt was offered loose or as a block.

The takeaway? Providing free-choice salt does not necessarily mean a horse is consuming enough. Knowing your individual horse, workload, and diet is important - and for horses that do not voluntarily consume adequate salt, adding the appropriate amount directly to the daily ration may be the more reliable approach.

We are especially proud that this work was conducted by an undergraduate student, highlighting the important role undergraduate research plays within CSU Equine Sciences. Giving students the opportunity to take an applied question from study design and data collection all the way through presentation and publication is an important part of training the next generation of equine scientists.

Congratulations to the authors on a great publication and a project with information horse owners can put into practice immediately!

08/08/2026

Interesting research

07/07/2026

Great research being done on EGUS and pre-exercise feeding of hay.

If you have ever been told to make sure your horse has hay before a ride, you were given advice that makes intuitive sense and has some scientific backing but a researcher at the University of Queensland (Australia) wants to find out whether it actually works the way we think it does, and her findings could change how performance horses are managed around the world, Piper Klemm writes.

Researcher Stephanie Bond is conducting a two-year study, funded by the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, examining how different feeding routines before exercise affect acid splash inside a horse’s stomach during work. The condition at the center of her research is Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome, or EGUS, specifically a form of it called Equine Squamous Gastric Disease, which affects the upper portion of the horse’s stomach.

Here is the basic problem: the upper portion of the horse’s stomach is not built to handle acid. It lacks the natural protective lining that the lower portion has. Under normal circumstances, it maintains a relatively neutral pH. But during exercise, the physical compression of the stomach causes acidic fluid to splash upward into that unprotected upper region and if that happens repeatedly, ulcers develop. The prevalence numbers are striking: during active training, squamous disease has been reported in up to 100 percent of Thoroughbred racehorses.

The conventional wisdom has been that feeding hay before exercise creates a kind of fiber buffer inside the stomach that reduces the acid splash effect. This has been shown to work in horses at rest. What Bond’s study is designed to determine is whether it actually works during exercise, which is a meaningfully different physiological state and one where previous research methods have been unreliable.

The innovation in this study is the measurement tool. Rather than using the traditional nasogastric probe, whose position inside the stomach is uncertain and prone to shifting, Bond is using a wireless pH capsule originally developed for human medicine that attaches directly to the stomach lining and transmits continuous readings from a fixed, known location. This makes the data considerably more reliable than what previous research has been able to produce.

Horses in the study will be tested under three pre-exercise conditions: no feed, chaff, and hay, allowing direct comparison of how each protocol affects acid splash during actual work.

For every horse owner, trainer, and barn manager who has wondered whether that morning hay flake is �really making a difference before a ride, this study is working toward a science-based answer.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/07/07/what-you-feed-before-you-ride-might-be-protecting-your-horses-stomach/
📸 © The Plaid Horse

07/03/2026

01/26/2026

How I manage water troughs and freezing temperatures. This works very well.

11/22/2025

Another good article

Message to our horse community- As we review our Facebook posts and comments, we’d like to address two of the most common questions posed in our feed:

-1- Why is there lag time between cases reported by the EDCC and sick horses that I know about from my own experience/a friend’s experience/a Facebook friend’s experience?
· The EDCC’s mission is to improve the health and welfare of horses by communicating real time alerts and information to help prevent and mitigate equine infectious diseases. We take this mission- and your trust in us- very seriously, and hold ourselves to the highest possible standard for reporting. This means that we only report cases submitted by a veterinarian or state animal health official. All alerts that are posted are reviewed by our veterinary team to confirm accuracy.
· EHM is a reportable disease. This means that the disease must be reported to the state animal health official once it is confirmed. The state animal health officials then have the task of performing contact tracing and quarantining facilities to prevent spread. In many cases, state veterinarians choose to do contact tracing first before reporting to the EDCC or the public that a case has been confirmed so that a quarantine is in place first, and affected horse owners are the first to know.
· Testing takes time. Sample collection, shipping to a lab, and PCR testing can require hours to days before results are delivered. During large outbreaks, laboratory times can be slower than usual.
· Finally, some horse owners may decline testing- these cases are recorded as suspects if a veterinarian chooses to report them.

-2- What is the difference between EHV-1 and EHM?
· Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy (EHM) is a neurologic manifestation of Equine Herpesvirus infection. The majority of EHM cases are caused by EHV-1.
· While EHV-1 most commonly causes respiratory disease, some strains cause outbreaks of neurologic disease. EHV-1 causes neurologic signs as a result of inflammation of the blood vessels and activation of blood coagulation within the brain and spinal cord. Neurologic signs occur as a result of a lack of blood flow and resulting damage to the brain or spinal cord; this disease manifestation is known as Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy (EHM).
· Classic clinical signs of EHM include fever, swelling/stocking up of the limbs, hindlimb weakness, and urine dribbling. Some horses are more severely affected and display behavior changes, signs of cranial nerve dysfunction, seizures, and inability to stand. While EHM is a serious disease, the majority of cases are not fatal. In most outbreaks of EHM, 60-70% of affected horses recover with treatment and supportive care. Veterinary evaluation and isolation of exposed or affected horses is crucial.

11/21/2025

Here is some good information about EHV

What is Equine Herpesvirus (EHV)?

You've probably heard it called Rhinopneumonitis, a respiratory tract disease that results in "snotty noses," but EHV is more than that. Depending on the strain, this virus can also cause abortion in broodmares, and equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM) — the often-deadly neurologic form of the disease.

Because EHV is endemic in many equine populations, most mature horses have developed some immunity through repeated natural infection. However, they remain a source of infection for other susceptible horses, like weaned foals and yearlings, who usually display symptoms of the respiratory form of the disease in autumn and winter. Performance and show horses are also more vulnerable to the disease, as they commingle with unfamiliar equines in close quarters while under stress from travel and competition.

Proper biosecurity protocols can help reduce EHV outbreaks and other disease transmission. A variety of vaccines are also available for protection against both the respiratory and abortive form of the disease, but there is no equine licensed vaccine at this time that has a label claim for protection against the neurologic form (EHM).

Consult your primary equine veterinarian to learn more about this disease and work with them to determine the optimal vaccine protocol for your horses.

You can learn more about all three forms on the Equine Disease Communication Center's website here: https://equinediseasecc.org/infectious-diseases

08/15/2025

A good summary of Potomac Horse Fever, a disease that we do have in our area. Vaccination at least twice a year in the Spring and Fall is recommended. Bridle Creek Veterinary Service uses the stand alone vaccine to maximize effectiveness as stated in the article.

🐌 It is time to address the snail in the room! Recently, we posted about a number of positive Potomac Horse Fever (PHF) cases in our area. A few people commented that they had never heard of PHF in all of their years of horse ownership. We are here to squash the misinformation surrounding PHF. Let’s jump right in at a snail's pace.

🐌 When was PHF first identified?
Originally PHF was recognized in 1979 near the Potomac River in Maryland.

🐌 Where is PHF?
Originally it was thought that PHF was only found in the eastern United States; however, it has been identified throughout North America. And it has been described in South America and Europe too. Typically, PHF is seen in late spring through early fall.

🐌 How is it transmitted?
PHF has a complicated life cycle. It is transmitted by fresh water insects, not directly from horse to horse. Neorickettsia risticii is the bacterium causative agent. It has been identified in snails and various species of cadisflies. These aquatic insects, found near water, contain the rickettsia-infected trematodes which are ingested by the horse. The trematodes cause inflammation of the intestines often leading to an acute enterocolitis.

🐌 What are the symptoms?
Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, lethargy, colic, and laminitis. It can cause abortion in pregnant mares.

🐌 How do we test for PHF?
Submit EDTA whole blood and/or f***s to the lab for PCR testing. Per the Cornell Animal Health Diagnostic Center, they have seen a rise in positive PHF PCR tests over the years in NY state, with a higher number of cases diagnosed in Albany, Dutchess, Saratoga and Tompkins counties.

🐌 When did the PHF vaccine become commercially available? Is it effective?
In 1987, PHF vaccines were available. The monovalent PHF vaccine has been shown to provide better immunity than the PHF/rabies combination.

🐌 What can you do to protect your horse?
We recommend horses receive their first vaccination dose in late spring followed by boosters every three months through late fall. Following this schedule will give your horse continuous immunity until temperatures dip below freezing and the vector (disease-spreading) aquatic insects die for the year. While the vaccine is not 100% effective, it can decrease the severity of the illness and increase survival.

🐌 What can you do at the barn?
A simple tip is light at night attracts insects.
To help protect your horses, we advise to eliminate light sources near their drinking water. And provide clean drinking water.

🐌 While early treatment of PHF can be successful, the disease is frequently fatal.

📸: A previous patient diagnosed with PHF and survived.

06/25/2023

Update on the EHV situation at the Virginia Horse Center

    For Immediate Release: June 24, 2023 Virginia Horse Center Foundation Media Contact: Lisa Davis Engel 908.310.6248 [email protected] VHC STATUS UPDATE ON EHV-1 ANNOUNCEMENT LEXINGTON, VA— As

01/14/2023

Interesting study that shows that leg boots and wraps can be more detrimental than helpful.

A client recently asked me if they should be using boots or polos on their horse. Many horse owners have the best intention in using boots or wraps to protect their horses legs from trauma during exercise and competitions. But many don’t realize that boots can essentially insulate the distal limb and prevent heat loss during exercise leading to increased temperatures that can reach damaging levels during maximal exertion.

A study from Middle Tennessee State University measured temperature increase during a specified exercise protocol with different types of leg protection. The study found that the reduced rate of heat dissipation a boot can cause can be detrimental to the superficial digital flexor tendon. They tested six different types of boots or wraps during exercise: a traditional neoprene boot, a perforated neoprene boot, a plant-based neoprene boot made of Stomatex, a cross-country boot, an elastic track bandage, and a fleece polo wrap.

The study found that the bare limb had the lowest temperature, all treatment temperatures were greater than the bare limb across all time points. The fleece polo wrap had the highest temperature and humidity. None of the treated limbs returned to baseline temperature and humidity after the 180-minute recovery period, and all treated limbs reached temperatures that negatively affect tendon cells. The study suggests that the use of boots and wraps during exercise impairs convection cooling, causing chronic microdamage to the tendon.

Riders must weigh the pros and cons, considering boot design, application and material permeability. No matter what boot you choose, the best way to protect your horse is to remove it immediately after exercises and stand your horse in an ice bath.
Ps. (Cold hosing and ice boots aren’t even half as effective. We can chat about that about that research in a future post ;))

L. Brock, H. Spooner, 28 A comparison among equine boots and legwraps on leg surface temperature during and after exercise,
Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, Volume 100. 2021