While it’s only September, now is a good time to put together a list of things you want to do before winter rolls in. Here are a few ideas:

You may have heard or read in the news about Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) causing human deaths recently. EEE is a rare virus transmitted to people and horses by the bite of an infected mosquito. Eastern Equine Encephalitis has been detected recently in 22 mosquito samples and in three horses in the southern and eastern parts of the U.S.

Are you thinking of adding new boarders to your riding facility? To attract the kind of clients you really want, look at your barn as if YOU were going to be the new boarder. Actually go to the end of your driveway and approach your barn as if seeing it for the first time.

Your horse’s hock is anatomically similar to a human ankle. It consists of four joints and six bones. Two common hock problems are bog spavin and bone spavin. They sound similar, but are different because some of the hock joints are high motion (they rotate through a wide angle during locomotion) and some are low motion.

Horses That Heal is a non-profit organization associated with psychological counseling services using Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) based in Fayetteville/Fort Bragg, North Carolina, serving at-risk youth as well as active-duty military, retired and/or reserves.

Though show season is half over, your horse is always going to need a thorough grooming. Now is a good time to review your grooming tools and supplies. What’s missing? what’s no longer up to the job? what do you want in a new color? The experts at HorseChannel.com have created a handy list of what you need to keep your horse looking his best:

Once you select the style of barn you want, you need to decide on the type of construction. Some things to consider are climate challenges, budget and the amount of time you can wait for your new barn to be finished. For example, a modular barn can be erected in a few days, while a pole barn building can take months.

Recently we wrote a blog on protecting your horses skin from the sun, but wanted to emphasize that it’s just as important that you also protect YOUR skin from the sun. Excessive sun can not only cause dryness and burning, but is also the leading cause of skin cancer. Remember that your skin can be damaged by the sun even on cloudy days.

Just like people, stress and a poor diet can cause ulcers in horses. Symptoms can include poor appetite or fussy eating, teeth grinding or sensitivity in the girth area. Incorporate these tips in your horse care program to help prevent ulcers.

If you’ve been around horses, you’ve undoubtedly heard them snort - in their stalls, out in pasture or being ridden. And if you own a horse, you may even have had the lovely experience of being snorted on. But do horse shorts mean anything more than a horse clearing his nasal passage? Last year, a team of researchers at the University of Rennes in France conducted research to see if they could identify under what circumstances these “blowouts” in horse’s occurred.