White Rock Stables

A teenage girl was arrested after police said she used a knife to injure three horses at a Las Vegas-area barn, leaving them unable to compete. (Photo: Adobe Stock) https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/nation-world/teen-girl-barrel-racing-horse-slashing-investigation-arrest/507-7a5e9d21-2dc0-48cd-9e98-835b12ff82ce

⚠️ ⚠️

Barn work is easier to romanticize for those who don’t do the work every day, Jessica Jackson writes. You wake up at an hour when the rest of the city is still asleep, soak hay in mid-winter mornings until you can’t feel your hands, and you’re still scraping dirt beneath your fingernails hours after the work is done. It’s even easier to romanticize being around horses all day for people who love horses, but not everyone who loves horses knows the work involved.

Riders show up, get on their horse, and compete with themselves at lesson time. I’ve known some barn owners who never stepped foot in a stall long enough to know the difference between a clean stall and a dirty one, until their usual help is gone for good. Traditionally, help is where you can find it. In a friend, in a relative, in an unfortunate soul fortunate enough to call this their job, but desperate enough to never question their pay, never defend their rights, and never seek out promotion or opportunity.

Barn labor is a thankless job, but it’s the job we signed up for. We don’t expect gratitude, but we feel grateful. We don’t look for respect because it’s never been felt, but we respect the work. Frankly, we are the unrepresented population of people in this industry responsible for keeping it afloat. We are the ones keeping your horses alive and cared for. Now, we’re starting to find our voice, and we mean to use it to speak up against exploitation in the workplace.

I did not come from money, horses, inheritance, or ribbons. The barn door was my only entrance into this world. Most of my time has been spent in and out of stalls, on the ground with the horses. Getting to know them and their quirks, taking note of anything abnormal, and reporting to my boss. All while trusting them to speak for me and for the horse, because I had not yet learned that I could speak for myself. Anything I could say would be met with a look; that “what do you know, you don’t own a horse” look.

What remains of the workforce is the resulting centuries of unchecked exploitation across many cultures and disciplines. Yet after all this time, the work and the worker remain the same.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/05/28/the-people-keeping-your-horses-alive-deserve-better/
📸 © Heather N. Photography

Equine Insulin
Brian S. Burks, DVM
Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners®
394 Fox Road
Apollo, PA 15613

(724) 727-3481
www.foxrunequine.com

Glucose, the simplest sugar molecule, is the energy currency of the body. Although horses derive free fatty acids from the forage consumed and digested in the colon, there are many cells in the body that require glucose to function, particularly brain and renal cells. Without glucose, these cells cease to function and the organ will die. This molecule requires help getting from the digestive system into the bloodstream and then into various organs and cells.

Insulin is secreted by the pancreas when glucose is ingested, ensuring that it gets into the cells; without insulin and glucose, the cells, and ultimately the body, cannot survive. If the body signals for too much insulin, things can go awry quickly. In some horses, this is a genetic trait, such as Arabians, Morgans, ponies, and some Warmbloods, that causes insulin overproduction.

Horses, like humans, that are insulin resistant continue to overproduce insulin in response to insensitivity, but in humans the pancreas eventually wears out and shuts down insulin production, which is Type 2 diabetes. Unlike humans, horses have a much greater capacity for insulin production, making diabetes rare in horses.

Horses that are overfed carbohydrates can develop laminitis. Insulin activates a cell receptor to allow glucose to enter the cell. There is similar receptor with a different function called insulin-like growth factor (IGF). There is evidence that the lamellar cells in the hoof grow too fast because this cell receptor is accidentally activated and cellular attachment is disrupted, leading to laminitis, a most devastating side effect of insulin dysregulation.

Insulin anomalies do not change equine activity levels, but excessive insulin can damage other organs and can lead to obesity. This may lead to benign fatty tumors/pedunculated limpomas that can twist around the intestine, causing strangulating incarceration and intestinal death, requiring colic surgery. Excessive weight also stresses bones and joints.

Horses with insulin dysregulation are best fed limited carbohydrate diets. Additionally, horses require exercise, medications, and endocrine testing. This typically means avoiding lush green pastures and supplemental concentrates. Severely affected horses should have their hay tested for ethanol soluble carbohydrate (ESC) and starch concentrations, which should not exceed 10% of the daily ration.

Exercise is important to improve insulin sensitivity in both horses and humans. Daily lunging or riding at a trot or canter is required, not just turn out to wander in the pasture. They need to break a sweat. Of course, horses with laminitis may not be able to exercise due to compromise of the feet.

Horses that cannot exercise often benefit from synthetic thyroxine to speed up metabolism and reduce development of fat deposits. It also improves insulin sensitivity.

Older horses are at risk for diseases such as pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID, or equine Cushing’s disease). Age and body condition will affect insulin concentrations, so an annual test would be wise in a previously diagnosed case.

Radiographs of the feet can also be quite helpful. Laminitis can be quite insidious and the horse might not be overtly lame, but radiographic changes can be significant.

Why we have barn hours

Barn staff and trainers understand your desire to want to spend as much time as possible with your horse, April Bilodeau writes. While some barns may have open hours and you may come and go as you please, others may choose to implement barn hours, and for good reason.

You may not think it makes a big difference to come to the barn a half hour earlier than its set “open” time, but consider these few points before pulling up the driveway a little early next time.

Safety: While it may be quiet and peaceful to ride outside of barn hours, a major reason for barns to have set times for riding is to make sure that someone is on property while riders are riding. If something were to happen, whether it be your horse getting loose or you take a fall, who would be able to help you?

Structured Schedules: Most farms have set feeding times, turnout times, a whole daily schedule that the horses get accustomed to. Arriving early may cause anxiety or confusion in horses that expect to be fed upon someone arriving at the barn. Leaving late may disrupt night check schedules by not providing barn management to check on horses at the appropriate time should a horse have to eat late or be cooled out late.

Privacy: Many farm owners live on property, meaning their backyard is a constant flow of people coming and going to visit their horses. It’s important to respect the privacy of the farm owner by visiting during barn hours. Just think how you would be feel about someone being in your backyard at 6am, or 8pm!

If your farm has barn hours that don’t work for your schedule, talk to your trainer, barn manager, or farm owner. Chances are, they are open to being flexible on some days to accommodate your schedule, but in this case it’s better to ask for permission than forgiveness!

📎 Save and share this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2023/05/29/respecting-the-rules-barn-hours/
📸 © Kate Selig

Phenylbutazone—nicknamed “bute”—is one of the most widely used painkillers in horses. It’s cheap, effective, and commonly given for everything from arthritis to post-competition soreness. But there’s a well-known catch: bute can potentially cause gastrointestinal ulceration, and by the time a horse shows obvious signs of stomach or gut trouble, significant damage may already have occurred. This study set out to find early warning signals in the body — measurable proteins that could flag the problem before it gets serious.

The researchers used a cutting-edge technique called proteomics, which is essentially a large-scale scan of all the proteins present in a biological sample. They compared protein expression in the blood and f***s of seven horses treated with a standard clinical dose of bute (4.4 mg/kg) against seven horses given a placebo. Think of it like running a detailed ingredient check on the body’s chemistry before and after the drug — looking for anything that changed in meaningful ways.

The results were striking in scope. The analysis identified over 5,000 proteins in blood and over 3,500 in f***l samples, ultimately finding 226 significant proteins in blood and 181 in f***l samples that were notably different between the bute-treated and control groups.

One protein stood out from the crowd: fatty acid-binding protein 6 (FABP6). This protein, found in the intestinal lining, is normally involved in absorbing fats, but it leaks into the bloodstream and stool when the gut wall is damaged. The researchers validated FABP6 as a potential biomarker using a standard lab test called an ELISA — an important step toward making any future diagnostic test practical and affordable for veterinary clinics.

Why does this matter for horse owners? Early detection of bute-induced gut injury would be useful for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of bute toxicity. Right now, vets often have to rely on scoping the stomach or watching for clinical deterioration. A simple blood or f***l test that could catch gut damage in its earliest stages would allow vets to intervene sooner — adjusting doses, switching medications, or adding gut-protecting treatments before a horse ends up seriously ill.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/05/14/can-a-blood-or-stool-protein-warn-us-when-a-common-horse-painkiller-is-damaging-the-gut/

I hadn’t seen the gelding in two years. And I hadn’t ridden him in twice as long.

He was the best horse that ever happened to me. Someone else’s heart horse, but for a stint, I got to call him mine.

He taught me how it’s supposed to feel.

How to measure a line just right, finding the perfect gap out over the oxer.

How to confidently trot into the show ring at venues I’d only dreamed about.

To win the tricolors, but to cherish the white and purple rosettes earned among the very best company.

To trust so fully that walks around the farm could be done on the buckle, watching the sun set together.

Would he still recognize me?

📎 Continue reading "Our Heart Horses" at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/05/14/our-heart-horses/