Too many people ride “mindlessly,” that is, they don’t pay attention to their hands or hand movement, or what their horse is doing underneath them. I’ve told my amateur and youth riders, for years, that the best riders don’t ride along bumping their horse’s face and talking to their friends, unless they can talk and really pay attention to their hands and horse.

“Dividing antigens into concurrent, separate injections may help increase the horse’s immune response to West Nile.” said Kevin Hankins, DVM, senior veterinarian, Equine Technical Services, Zoetis. “While big one-shot combination vaccines may offer convenience, when developing vaccine programs for West Nile virus protection, veterinarians and horse owners should consider the implications of lower West Nile virus antibody responses in horses vaccinated with a West Nile virus combination vaccine. Though combination vaccines may provide some convenience, optimization of West Nile virus immune response could likely pose a substantial criterion for vaccine selection.”