Coree Reuter

This small college in Michigan encourages students on the riding team to value community service as much as blue ribbons.

What happens when you encourage a determined and accomplished group of collegiate-level equestrians to give back to their community? At Albion College in Albion, Mich., you get almost $1,000 raised to fight cancer during a Relay For Life event on Nov. 19.

Laura Cleveland was struggling. After spending the better part of four years slogging through community college, she knew she needed a change.

“I was kind of going nowhere,” said Cleveland, 22, who has attention deficit disorder and executive function disorder. “I was running in place. I wasn’t learning anything, and I wasn’t going anywhere, but I had my horses. I had this purpose of taking care of these animals, and that got me out of bed every morning.”

This is the eighth article in the "Fix It With Feed" series.

Once upon a time, there weren’t a lot of options when it came to feeding horses. If a horse couldn’t maintain a healthy weight on grass and hay, then adding oats was one of the only choices.

This is the seventh article in the "Fix It With Feed" series. Check back every Wednesday for more articles on nutrition and how it affects performance.

In the world of human nutrition, fat is usually a bad word. However, for horses, a high-fat diet can help solve a myriad of issues. Not only will additional fat aid with the obvious issue of weight gain, but it’s also a good source of “cool” energy, may improve skin and coat quality and can even help prevent tying up.  

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ursula K. LeGuin

This is the sixth article in the "Fix It With Feed" series. Check back every Wednesday for more articles on nutrition and how it affects performance.

When it comes to equine nutrition, we often stress about whether our horses are carrying enough flesh. However, the well-padded look that might be perfect for the show ring is often too heavy for excellent health.

When a light suddenly goes out, it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. When Alfred Patrick “Paddy” Smithwick passed away on Nov. 14, 1973, at the tender age of 46, the steeplechasing world lost one of its brightest stars.

Born in 1927, Smithwick began his career as an amateur in 1945 at the age of 19. He quickly climbed into the professional ranks in 1946, and by 1947 he finished 10th in the National Steeplechase and Hunt standings after winning seven races that year.

This is the fifth article in the "Fix It With Feed" series. Check back every Wednesday for more articles on nutrition and how it affects performance.

One morning when you go to feed your horses and turn them out for the day, you notice your gelding appears to be wheezing. He happily eats his breakfast and is otherwise normal, so you turn him out anyway. When you bring him back in that night, he seems his normal self.

Every February, millions of people gather around their televisions to watch two teams battle it out for the Super Bowl title. Some people actually watch it for the game, others for the advertising, but some of us watch it for the Budweiser Clydesdales.

This is the fourth article in the "Fix It With Feed" series. Check back every Wednesday for more articles on nutrition and how it affects performance.

While the stress of riding and competing is often to blame for the development of ulcers in horses, feed programs are another factor behind Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome.