Hayley Randle, from Charles Sturt University, AU, presented on the results from the physical measures related to a horse’s emotion. Randle explains, “Heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV) and cortisol are the most commonly measured physiological indicators of equine emotion. Other suggested indicators include eye temperature, respiratory rate and salivary alpha amylase, but many of these lack validation in relation to association with emotional state. There were methodological problems with all of the measures we looked at, such as the lack of standardization of reporting and interpretation.”

“When we train horses, we specifically teach them to suppress their stress responses because we don’t want horses to react when they are startled or nervous. But even if they’ve learned to suppress their reaction, it doesn’t actually decrease the stress they feel,” she said.

Pyrexia, or fever, is associated with a number of underlying diseases and can result in significant negative outcomes, including dehydration, laminitis, muscle wasting, weight loss, and in some cases death. Among performance horses, fever can also lead to loss of training and competition days. There are more than eight million horses in the United States, and over one million are seen by a veterinarian for fever annually.

“As more time passed, with no response to the antibiotics, Royal’s survival rate was diminishing,” Ammeson said. “How long can a horse live on three legs before he founders, or his body gives out?”

It was not always this way for Marguerite as her initial career started out as an administrative/executive assistant for a pharmaceutical company. She was drawn to horses as a child and rode whenever she could. As a teen, the opportunity for exposure to the racing industry presented itself when her family purchased a cottage in Kincardine, which backed onto the local fairgrounds where Standardbreds trained.

The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, in collaboration with LONGMILE Veterinary Imaging, has completed the first phase of the validation of the MILE-PET, the first positron emission tomography (PET) scanner specifically designed to image the limbs of standing horses, using light sedation, eliminating the need for anesthesia.