Since 2014, over $300,000 in contributions have been made to the USEA’s Equine Medical Research (EMR) Fund through USEA member $1 starter fees and additional donations received. These funds are then allocated to accredited research studies being conducted by trusted parties of the USEA. For 2022, the EMR recommended three studies being conducted by the Morris Animal Foundation and the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. In the August 2022 USEA Board of Governors (BOG) meeting, the following studies were presented to and approved by the BOG:
The first of those three studies, “Understanding Risk Factors for Transport-Associated Colic in Horses,” was allocated $28,100 in support from the EMR’s available funds for the year. This study, which is projected to run over the course of two years, will allow researchers the opportunity to study whether changes to gut motility in horses are associated with post-travel colic and use this new information to improve management recommendations for the care of transported horses. The research team assigned to this project will collect data pre-travel, immediately after transport, and two hours following arrival to evaluate the gut motility data necessary to make recommendations for the welfare of horses during transportation in hopes of reducing the incidence of post-travel colic. The USEA's contribution of $28,100 fully funded this study.
Morris Animal Foundation is also conducting an additional research project with funding from the EMR titled, “Studying Postoperative Ileus Associated with Colic." This two-year study is a part of North Carolina State University’s fellowship program, established to support early career scientists. The Fellow assigned to this study will research the role of signaling cells in inflammatory processes associated with postoperative ileus, a life-threatening complication of colic surgery that results in the prolonged absence of bowel movement. Researchers are studying key biological mechanisms that may decrease intestinal wall function and trigger inflammation. The EMR designated $3,005.83 to aid with this study.
The sole research project being upheld by the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation under 2022 funding is actually a continuation of a 2021 project which was targeted to take two years before completion. The study, “Predicting Exercising Arrhythmias with Resting ECGs,” is utilizing resting echocardiograms to identify horses with irregular heart rhythms at exercise that can cause sudden cardiac death, allowing for increased monitoring and improved understanding of sudden cardiac death.
For 2021, $17,000 of EMR funds were allocated to this research, with an additional $15,000 in funds approved during the 2022 year to continue the important work being studied by the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. In total, the EMR has contributed $32,000 towards the total research cost of $119,477.
For an update on studies previously selected for funding by the USEA Equine Medical Research Committee, click here. To learn more about how the Equine Medical Research Fund got started, click here. For additional information about the Fund, click here.
Has this horse quality? The answer is definitely yes. This first impression is so important. As a selector for the Goresbridge Go for Gold Event horse sale, I have an abbreviation ‘GPO’ which stands for "Good Pull Out." It means that the first look prompts the potential client the need to bring the horse out of his box for a further look.
It was a beautiful but chilly weekend in the pines at the Setters' Run Farm Carolina International. After a record-setting 19.4 in the CCI4*-S dressage, Will Coleman became the first three-time winner in the event's history when he led from start to finish on Hyperion Stud's Chin Tonic HS.
West Coast eventers experienced tremendous success in 2022. Tamie Smith recorded top-10 finishes at Badminton in England, at the FEI World Championships at Pratoni in Italy, and at the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill. Helen Alliston won the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final, and Tommy Greengard captured the USEA Intermediate Championship at the USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC), presented by Nutrena Feeds. James Alliston returned to the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event for the first time since 2017 and finished third in the CCI4*-S.
I first met Moose (JC: Plain Brown Wrap) when he was an 18-year-old lesson horse in April 2020 in Texas. I was a 40-year-old mom of four young girls who had stopped riding before my 20s but had somehow convinced my husband to buy a pony for our girls two years earlier. But once COVID hit, to get some “me” time, I started taking jump lessons at the eventing barn where we boarded our pony.