The increasing dominance of purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea in heathland ecosystems in the UK is of growing concern due to its detrimental impact on plant and animal diversity on sites of nature conservation interest. The use of free-ranging ponies to reduce Molinia dominance was investigated...

A 9-year-old Dartmoor cross-gelding was referred for investigation and treatment of exercise intolerance, cough and abnormal respiratory noise. Endoscopic examination revealed the presence of left 90-degree rotation and dorsoventral collapse of the entire cervical trachea. Although the tracheal...

Insulin resistance is a prevalent disorder among horses and is associated with abnormal adiposity, laminitis, equine metabolic syndrome, and pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction. The processes leading to equine insulin resistance and associated conditions remain subject for study. MicroRNAs...

A 12-year-old Thoroughbred cross Dartmoor mare was referred to the clinic with marked lameness and swelling involving the left stifle region. There was poor initial response to medical management and arthroscopic examination of the stifle joint was performed under general anaesthesia. Following...

The UK and Ireland have many native pony breeds with historical and cultural importance as well as being a source of uncharacterized genetic diversity. However, there is a lack of comprehensive research investigating their genetic diversity and phylogenetic interrelationships. Many studies contain...

Recent systematic reviews have highlighted the lack of quality information with respect to the epidemiology of equine laminitis. The objectives of this study were to identify in Denmark, the risk factors for new (i.e., not believed to have suffered from laminitis previously) cases of laminitis (NL) ...

This chapter describes the characteristics and draught performances of some native horse breeds, crossbred horses, donkeys and mules in the UK.

The hides of 223 privately owned horses and ponies and of 35 semi-feral Dartmoor ponies in the UK were examined at a licensed horse abattoir from October 2002 to February 2003. Hides minus the head were examined for the presence of lice immediately following their removal. Visual inspection of the...

The behaviour of humans around horses is thought to have a substantial impact on how people are perceived in subsequent interactions and many horse trainers give detailed advice on how handlers should behave when initially approaching a loose horse. Here we report on three studies designed to...

This study described a scoring system for the assessment of apparent neck adiposity and evaluated morphometric measurements for assessment of neck and overall adiposity. Twenty-one barren Thoroughbred mares, 13 Arabian geldings and 75 Welsh, Dartmoor, or crossbred pony mares, were clinically...