Horse at sunset - peak risk time for AHS

IMPROVED DETECTION OF AHS

How faster diagnosis protects South African horses Researchers at Onderstepoort have refined the PCR assays used to detect African Horse Sickness virus, improving diagnostic sensitivity and speed. For South African breeders and equestrians in endemic and control zones, faster confirmation of AHS status means quicker decisions about movement, treatment and herd management. African Horse Sickness remains…

BylizzieJuly 8, 20260Comments

Artistic image of rhino for ICSI breeding article with Onderstepoort.

Breeding Horse Channel

HORSE PREGNANCIES MADE BY ICSI AND WHAT IT COULD MEAN FOR RHINOS

A team at Onderstepoort, working with Hemmersbach Rhino Force, has produced South Africa’s first horse pregnancies through ICSI and frozen embryo transfer. The technique is well established overseas, but the significance lies in having the capability here in the country, and what that could do one day for the rhino population. In November 2025, researchers in…

BylizzieJuly 2, 20260Comments

Horse Health

BREWER’S YEAST – THE QUIET POWERHOUSE IN YOUR FEED ROOM

Our guide to what brewer's yeast really does for your horse, where the science is strong, and where the marketing gets ahead of the evidence. Few feed-room ingredients have travelled as far as brewer's yeast. What began as a by-product of beer fermentation has become one of the most widely used supplements in equine nutrition, quietly…

BylizzieJune 25, 20260Comments

Horse Health

YOUR HORSE’S BODY CLOCK

Why the overnight hours matter more than you think We spend a lot of time perfecting the concentrate feeds and worrying about what happens in the day when we're around the barn. For many of us, the ten or twelve hours in between, the overnight stretch, mostly look after themselves. However, new research suggests these…

BylizzieJune 24, 20260Comments

Horse Health

THE RIDDEN HORSE

Welfare and the precautionary principle A University of Guelph review argues that many long-accepted riding practices deserve closer scrutiny, even where definitive evidence of harm is still lacking. A review by Caleigh Copelin and Katrina Merkies, published in the March 2026 edition of the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, makes the case that modern equestrianism is…

BylizzieMay 14, 20260Comments

Horse Health

SCIENCE LEADS THE WAY IN TEACHING HOW TO BETTER ASSESS OUR HORSE’S EMOTIONS

It is one of the most unsettling findings to emerge from equine welfare science in recent years: most people, including experienced equestrians, are significantly worse at recognising pain in horses than they are at spotting discomfort in other humans, and in an animal whose evolutionary survival has depended on concealing vulnerability, that gap has serious…

BylizzieApril 20, 20260Comments

Ask HQ Horse Channel Horse Health

ASKHQ: TURMERIC

Q: A couple of people at my yard have started feeding turmeric. Why is this and should I be doing it too? A: Turmeric is gaining popularity for horses in South Africa at the moment, and it seems that people are adding it to their horse's feed for a variety of reasons. Interestingly, there has been…

BylizzieOctober 18, 20200Comments

Horse Channel Horse Health

IS MY HORSE/PONY OBESE AND SHOULD I BE WORRIED ABOUT IT?

ISES media release The ongoing problem of obesity in equines is not a recent one. However, the increase in the number of obese horses and ponies predominantly found in the leisure industry in some industrialised countries, has now become a globally recognised welfare concern. Carrying excess weight places increased stress on the skeletal system of…

BylizzieMay 20, 20190Comments

Horse Channel Horse Health

Facts about forage

Horses will actively seek out roughage The link between concentrates and behavioural issues – interesting recent research on equine nutrition from Shelhi Horne. Foals weaned onto concentrates have a four times higher chance of crib-biting than those weaned onto forage diets. Horses fed moderate starch levels (22% of the diet) had increased heart rates compared with…

BylizzieNovember 13, 20150Comments

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