Horses News

December 25, 2024

Top Headlines

Secrets of Horse Genetics for Conservation, Breeding

Nov. 19, 2024 — Researchers are helping uncover new information about the Y chromosome in horses, which will help owners identify optimal lineages for breeding and help conservationists preserve breed ...

Scientists Turn to Human Skeletons to Explore Origins of Horseback Riding

Sep. 20, 2024 — A new, wide-ranging exploration of human remains casts doubt on a long-standing theory in archaeology known as the Kurgan hypothesis -- which, among other claims, suggests that humans first domesticated horses as early as the fourth millennium ...

Researchers Discover Gene Variants That Determine Speed of Graying in Horses

Sep. 19, 2024 — Scientists now understand why some gray horses turn completely white as they age, while others remain an eye-catching 'dappled' gray ...

Rein Tension May Affect Horse Behavior

Sep. 3, 2024 — High rein tension was found to be associated with trotters opening their mouths, which indicates pain or discomfort in the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:15pm EST

Trojan Horse Method Gives Malaria Parasites a Taste of Their Own Medicine

Aug. 14, 2024 — More than a quarter of Australians over the age of 50 take cholesterol-lowering drugs to prevent heart disease and strokes, but our bodies also need cholesterol to survive. Now, scientists say its ...

Bacterial Gut Diversity Improves the Athletic Performance of Racehorses

Aug. 7, 2024 — The composition of gut bacteria of Thoroughbred racehorses at one-month-old can predict their future athletic performance, according to a new study. Foals with lower bacterial diversity at 28 days ...

Horse Miscarriages Offer Clues to Causes of Early Human Pregnancy Loss

Aug. 5, 2024 — A study of horses -- which share many important similarities with humans in their chromosomes and pregnancies -- revealed that 42% of miscarriages and spontaneous abortions in the first two months of ...

Movement Sensors Show Promise in Identifying Racehorses at Injury Risk

July 11, 2024 — A small 3-ounce sensor capable of recording 2,400 data points of movement in just one second being tested and refined by researchers could be key in reducing the number of injuries to racehorses. ...

Pagan-Christian Trade Networks Supplied Horses from Overseas for the Last Horse Sacrifices in Europe

May 17, 2024 — Horses crossed the Baltic Sea in ships during the Late Viking Age and were sacrificed for funeral rituals. Studies on the remains of horses found at ...

AI Tool Recognizes Serious Ocular Disease in Horses

Apr. 24, 2024 — Researchers have developed a deep learning tool that is capable of reliably diagnosing moon blindness in horses based on ...

New Technique for Predicting Protein Dynamics May Prove Big Breakthrough for Drug Discovery

Mar. 27, 2024 — Understanding the structure of proteins is critical for demystifying their functions and developing drugs that target them. To that end, a team of ...

Tudor Era Horse Cemetery in Westminster Revealed as Likely Resting Place for Elite Imported Animals

Mar. 22, 2024 — Archaeological analysis of a near unique animal cemetery discovered in London nearly 30 years ago has revealed there was an international horse ...

Some Pre-Roman Humans Were Buried With Dogs, Horses and Other Animals

Feb. 14, 2024 — Some people from an ancient community in what is now northern Italy were interred with animals and animal parts from species such as dogs, horses and pigs. The reasons remain mysterious, but might ...

Why Animals Shrink Over Time Explained With New Evolution Theory

Jan. 18, 2024 — The new theoretical research proposes that animal size over time depends on two key ecological ...

Promoting Horse Welfare With an Intestinal Disease Screening Method

Sep. 10, 2024 — Researchers are developing a promising method to support the diagnosis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in horses. Awareness of the prevalence of IBD in both humans and animals has increased in ...

Common Equine Painkiller Disrupts Assisted Reproduction Technique Efficiency in Mares

Aug. 13, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that phenylbutazone, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) commonly prescribed in horses, can affect the ability of a mare's egg cells -- called ...

Archaeologists Unearth One of Earliest Known Frame Saddles

Dec. 12, 2023 — Recovered from looters, a new archaeological discovery from a cave in western Mongolia could change the story of the evolving relationship between humans and horses around the ...

Feral Horses and Peatland Carbon Emissions

Nov. 8, 2023 — A ground-breaking new study has found carbon emissions from Australian alpine peatlands to be much higher in areas disturbed by feral ...

Modern Horses Have Lost Their Additional Toes, Scientists Confirm

June 21, 2023 — The distant ancestors of modern horses had hooved toes instead of a single hoof, which vanished over time, according to ...

Evolution Driving Improvements in Racehorse Speed

May 30, 2023 — A new study has found that genetic improvement is underlying the increasing speed of Britain's thoroughbreds. This contrasts with earlier studies that suggested racehorses were showing no ...

New Research Could Help Breed for Less 'Spooky' Horses

May 11, 2023 — Researchers are working to identify genes that influence horses' tendency to react to perceived ...

How a Horse Whisperer Can Help Engineers Build Better Robots

Apr. 25, 2023 — New research shows us that age-old interactions between people and their horses can teach us something about building robots designed to improve our ...

Horses Living in Groups Are Better at Following Human Indications Than Horses Living in Individual Paddocks

Apr. 25, 2023 — A new study shows that horses living in big enclosures and in groups of at least three horses are better at following directional indications from humans than horses kept in individual paddocks. The ...

New, Exhaustive Study Probes Hidden History of Horses in the American West

Mar. 30, 2023 — Indigenous peoples as far north as Wyoming and Idaho may have begun to care for horses by the first half of the 17th Century, according to a new study by researchers from 15 countries and multiple ...

The World's First Horse Riders

Mar. 3, 2023 — Researchers have discovered evidence of horse riding by studying the remains of human skeletons found in burial mounds called kurgans, which were between 4500-5000 years old. The earthen burial ...

Shaping the Sport of Kings: Key Genes Linked to Successful Racehorses Identified by International Team

Dec. 13, 2022 — A critical set of genes linked to successful racehorses has been identified by an international research team. Scientists from Asia, Europe, North America compared the genomes of Thoroughbred, ...

Long-Term Relationship With Owner Reduces Horses' Stress Reactions in New Situations

Aug. 25, 2022 — A new study shows that horses can be more reluctant in new situations if they have multiple riders, have had several owners or the horse has been with its current owner only for a short period of ...

Race Performance of Thoroughbred Horses Determined by the Quality of the Male Parent Rather Than the Age of the Female, Study Finds

Aug. 25, 2022 — Research supports the belief that the most important factor affecting a thoroughbred's race performance is the quality of its sire, whereas the effect of the age of its broodmare is ...

Scientists Create a DNA Test That Identifies Lyme Disease in Horses

Aug. 17, 2022 — A Rutgers scientist aiming to help heal a sick horse created an ultra-sensitive DNA test that could have applications for difficult-to-detect illnesses in humans such as Lyme ...

Ultrasound Could Save Racehorses from Bucked Shins

Aug. 9, 2022 — When racehorses enter training at about 2 years old, they can develop tiny stress fractures and new bone formations in their legs. This condition, called bucked shin, occurs in about 70% of the ...

Oldest DNA from Domesticated American Horse Lends Credence to Shipwreck Folklore

July 27, 2022 — Feral horses have roamed freely across the island of Assateague off the coast of Maryland and Virginia for hundreds of years, but exactly how they got there has remained a mystery. In a new study, ...

Ancient DNA Clarifies the Early History of American Colonial Horses

July 27, 2022 — A newly identified 16th century horse specimen is among the oldest domestic horses from the Americas known to date, and its DNA helps clarify the history of horses in the Western Hemisphere, ...

Horses and Pigs Sense Harsh Speaking Tones

May 24, 2022 — How we speak matters to animals. Horses, pigs and wild horses can distinguish between negative and positive sounds from their fellow species and near relatives, as well as from human speech. The ...

Vaccine for Rare but Deadly Mosquito-Borne Viruses Shows Promise in Clinical Trial

May 12, 2022 — A vaccine for eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV), western equine encephalitis virus (WEEV), and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) was found to be safe, well-tolerated and induced a ...