canadian horse journal - sample - april 2015

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SPECIAL FEATURES

14 Equine Lameness Evaluation

The evaluation and diagnostic procedures of one of the most common and expensive medical problems in horses.

20 Ready Your Rig for Spring Towing

A step-by-step guide to getting your truck and trailer ready for the road.

42 Defamation: When Does Gossip Cross the Line?

What consequences can result when idle chatter goes too far?

46 11 Exercises to Improve Your Riding Position

Perfect your posture and back health as you develop a strong, classical riding position.

54 An Ancient Pregnant Horse is Revealed

What we learned from a 47 million-year-old fossil.

HOLIDAYS ON HORSEBACK

28 Hoofprints Through Spatsizi

Packing horses through the grandeur and wildness of the Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park.

36 Be Prepared: Survival in the Back Country

The basic items you’ll need to survive if your backcountry ride does not go according to plan.

Departments6 Editorial, Letters

8-13 The Hoofbeat

56 Horse Council BC News Let HCBC Help Fund Your Club’s

Next Big Project!

58 To Subscribe

60 Ontario Equestrian Federation News

Youth Bursary Program Helps Young Equestrians Pursue Their Dreams

63 Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association News Volunteers – Bless ‘Em All!

63 Contest: Win Tickets to ODYSSEO

64-65 Country Homes & Acreages

68 Contest: Horse-Of-My-Heart

EquiNetwork66 Hitchin’ Post,

Horses for Sale

67 Classifieds

67 Index to Advertisers

68 Roundup

In This Issue CONTENTS • APRIL 2015

page 20

page 28

4 www.HORSEJournals.com • April 2015

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HORSE HEALTH

Equine LAMENESS Evaluation BY DR. CRYSTAL LEE, DVM, DACVS

Lameness is an indication of a structural or functional disorder,

in one or more limbs or the spine, evident while the horse is

standing or in movement. It can range from very mild

discomfort, which may only be perceived by the owner or trainer

as a decrease in level of performance, to severe pain in which

the horse is unwilling to bear weight on the limb. As one of the

most common and most expensive medical problems in horses,

lameness represents a large concern to the equine industry as

well as to individual horse owners.

With subtle lamenesses it can be difficult to tell which limb is the source of the pain.

When your horse presents to the veterinarian for lameness, we will often start with a thorough palpation of all four limbs and the spine, checking for heat, swelling, or pain on palpation. We will also check for increased fluid in each of the joints and tendon sheaths, which is referred to as effusion. A hoof tester exam is often done as well, checking for pain as pressure is applied to different regions of the sole.

Visual ExaminationA visual exam is the next step of the

lameness evaluation. The vast majority of lamenesses are easiest to perceive at the trot. The horse will often be evaluated while being trotted in hand on hard ground as well as in a circle, whether in hand or on the lunge line. Many lamenesses will manifest more strongly when evaluated in a circle. It is often helpful to watch the horse both on hard and soft ground, as the lameness may appear differently in these situations. Some horses with subtle lamenesses will also be evaluated at the canter, or while being ridden

The nature of the visual exam is very subjective. In subtle lamenesses, it may be very difficult to tell which limb is the source of the pain, especially if multiple limbs are involved. Different veterinarians will focus

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15April 2015 • Canadian Horse Journal

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on different aspects of the horse when watching a horse being trotted for lameness examination, but there are some commonalities. It is often helpful to look up at the motion of the torso and head of the horse rather than being distracted by the movement of the limbs themselves.

The majority of forelimb lamenesses are “impact” lamenesses, which means that the discomfort is occurring as the limb strikes the ground. A horse with impact lameness will not drop its head as low when this limb is on the ground as it does when the other limb is on the ground. Other forelimb lamenesses are “push-off” lamenesses, which means that the discomfort arises as the limb is pushing off the ground. A horse with push-off lameness will throw its head up as it pushes off the ground to help take the weight off the affected limb. In either case, what we perceive is the head being higher on the lame limb and lower on the sound limb (known as a “head nod”).

Subtle hindlimb lameness is often more difficult to visualize than is forelimb lameness. Many people stand behind the horse and watch the hips move on either side of the pelvis. On the side that is the source of the lameness, there will be more up and down movement of the hip. Other people watch the entire pelvis as a whole. In this case, the pelvis sinks less as the lame limb strikes the ground with an impact lameness, and rises less with a push-off lameness. Determining whether the left or right hind limb is affected is often the most difficult question to answer in the evaluation of a subtle lameness.

Because lameness evaluation by veterinary practitioners is subjective in nature, we grade the lameness on a scale from one to five in order to facilitate communication and understanding. If the lameness can only be seen intermittently at the trot, it is a grade one. If the lameness is consistently seen under certain circumstances (for example, it is visible every time the horse is circled to the right on hard ground), it is a grade two. A grade three lameness is visible consistently at the trot under all circumstances. If the lameness is visible at the walk, it is a grade four, and a grade five lameness is very severe, with the horse not bearing any weight on the limb in question. Although there are other grading scales in use, this one published by the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) is straightforward and is quite commonly used by equine veterinarians.

Further Diagnostic ProceduresAnother strategy that is useful in many

cases is to perform flexion tests. Either the lower limb or the upper limb is held in

flexion for a period of time (usually between 30 and 90 seconds), and then the horse is trotted off in a straight line. If the lameness is exacerbated by the flexion, it is an indication that the source of the lameness is in the region that was flexed. If the limb that is the source of the lameness was easily determined by the visual exam, flexion tests can be performed on this limb to isolate the region of the limb that is the source of pain. If the primary limb is still in question after the visual exam, all four limbs can be flexed to try to exacerbate the lameness enough to make a diagnosis.

Once the primary limb which is the source of lameness has been identified, the next step is usually to perform nerve blocks. This procedure involves injecting a small volume of local anesthetic (freezing) under the skin directly over the nerve that allows the horse to feel certain parts of its limb. This local anesthetic takes away the sensation to the portion of the limb below the injection. The horse is trotted away after the nerve block has taken effect. If the source of the lameness is in the region below the injection, we would expect the lameness to be improved. If this is the case, we have successfully narrowed down

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With spring just around the corner our thoughts turn to riding, riding, and more riding. While not nearly as enrapturing, save some consideration for that lonely chariot outside, which gets our beloved steeds to and from events, shows, and trails. Every trailer that has been parked or stored for the winter should undergo a methodical inspection and maintenance routine before hitting the road each year. Safety should always be of primary concern, but comfort is important as well, as every time a horse has an unpleasant trailering experience, he or she will go through that much more stress on the next trip.

If you were diligent about preparing your rig for winter, it should be clean, but may still need a bit of freshening up from all those months spent under Old Man Winter’s care. Regardless of the amount of use the trailer saw over the winter, the change in conditions is enough to warrant a thorough visual inspection of the exterior and interior of the entire unit. I use a simple

approach to the interior: If I wouldn’t want to run my bare hand over something, then I probably don’t want to load my horse in there either.

Pay particular attention to the following:

• Electrical components are particularly sensitive to moisture and corrosion over long periods of time. This often arises in the form of mysterious little gremlins who diligently prevent our lights from working, but long periods of idleness can also negatively affect trailer braking systems, often to the point of rendering them inoperable. Before loading for the first time, and once you’ve checked the unit over for road readiness, hook up and take the trailer for a short drive to ensure the brakes are working correctly. If you have any doubt, have the braking system checked by a reliable mechanic. I cannot overstress this point – the braking system on most trucks is not singularly capable of bringing a fully loaded trailer to a safe and controlled stop.

Ready Your Rig forSPRING TOWING By Kevan Garecki

above: The horse trailer can serve as your horse’s home away from home.

A safe and comfortable trailer

environment will reduce the risk of

your horse having an unpleasant

experience, which will make future trips

much more stressful.

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Thoroughly inspect your trailer’s floor. Mats should be pulled up to allow you to examine the floor from above, and the mats themselves should be scrutinized fur curls and jagged edges. With the trailer blocked to prevent movement, jack the rear of the trailer high enough to allow you to crawl underneath to carefully inspect the bottom of the floor and exposed wiring.

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After settling in Terrace in 1992, I flew into Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park to hike the plateaus and valleys where I’d heard that caribou, grizzly bears, and mountain goats roamed. As time went by, the grandeur and wildness of Spatsizi continued to beckon, but I didn’t return until 20 years later, when an opportunity to pack horses into the park arose.

In 2012, having completed a few pack trips (featured in Canadian Horse Journal as Mountains or Horses? April 2011, and Going Beyond, April 2012), I was hired as a wrangler for Collingwood Bros. who have outfitted in the park for over 40 years. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to spend up to three months at a time in the park, packing horses through this spectacular wilderness.

Spatsizi is located in a remote area of northwest BC and most non-horseback travellers (hikers and canoeists) fly in to the park by floatplane from Tatogga Lake Resort, Dease Lake, or Smithers. The main access route into the park for horses is from the Klappan Rail Grade – an untracked railway bed constructed in the early 1970s by the provincial government (and never finished) to connect processing facilities in the Fort St. James area with resources in northwest BC.

Hoofprints Through

SPATSIZI

As we trotted through snow drifts on

the frozen plateau, blowing snow and clouds

enveloped us. Occasionally a ridge was visible,

but primarily I relied on Sundance — one of our

trusty lead horses — to continue heading north.

Suddenly, the clouds cleared and an unfamiliar valley appeared.

Unsure where we were, all three riders and our 16 horses

pulled up. We dug out a compass.

“The red arrow points north, right?”

“Yup.”

“Well, we’re heading south, where we came from.”

We’d ridden a complete circle in whiteout conditions, and our

trusty horses were doing what we rely on them to do – take us

back to base camp at Laslui Lake in southern Spatsizi Plateau

Wilderness Provincial Park. But it was mid-October, and time to

leave what had been “home” for the past three months. Over

the next three days, we would ride 180 km through the park to

the trailhead, where trucks were waiting to haul the horses

back to Smithers, in northwest British Columbia.

BY TANIA MILLEN

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facing page: Riders need to be prepared for snow up on the plateaus.

above, left: Water-filled valleys and dry mountains of Spatsizi support a healthy ecosystem.

above, right: Fall colours are spectacular in the brush-filled valleys.

left: The unique plateaus of the Eaglenest Range are typical of Spatsizi.

below: Horses appreciate smudge fires that keep the bugs away.

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SURVIVAL IN THE BACK COUNTRY

BY CHRISTIAN MCEACHERN

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T hroughout my years of working in the backcountry, it has always amazed me how many people go into the

backcountry with the attitude: “It’s only a few hours, I don’t need much.” From my time with the infantry, then earning a Bachelor of Applied Ecotourism and Outdoor Leadership degree at Mount Royal University in Calgary and becoming a professional adventure guide, along with being a Wilderness and Remote First Aid/Survival instructor, a horseman, and now an Equine First Aid instructor, I’ve seen a lot of changes in the backcountry over the years.

Now more than ever there is easy road access to the outdoors for city dwellers and weekend warriors. Top-of-the-line equipment and GPS navigation is easily accessible, manuals are written for everything, and the

list goes on. The problem is that everything seems accessible and instant, but in the backcountry a very simple problem can swiftly become significant and then the dominos start to fall.

It’s a beautiful day to head out to the mountains for some playtime. You grab your horse and tack and head out in the afternoon for a quick ride to your favourite spot. It’s 28 degrees C and you don’t see a cloud in the sky. You grab a light windbreaker for “just in case,” get on your horse, and soon you’re enjoying the peaceful sights, sounds, and smells of the forest.

A few hours and some extra trails later – because you were enjoying yourself so much – you come across a mucky section of trail with lots of deadfall around you. Normally not a big deal, but today a moose comes out of nowhere on the trail in front of you. Your horse spins and bolts, knocks you off by a low overhanging branch, and gashes its front leg open on the sharp edge of a broken branch while running through the deadfall. You’ve landed on a fallen log and twisted your knee because your foot didn’t properly clear the stirrup. Your horse is gone.

The good news is that either your horse didn’t go far and he might come back, or he’s waiting for you at the trailhead if he knows where the trailer is. The bad news is that you’re about 15 km from the parking lot. For a normal person the walk of shame back to the parking lot would take almost

Be Prepared

In the backcountry a very simple problem can swiftly become significant and then the dominos start to fall.


four hours, plus you need to climb back up to the mountain pass from which you had previously been enjoying the view, so add another hour (based on Naismith’s rule of travel for humans at a walking speed of four km per hour, add one hour for every 1,000 feet elevation gain). Except the problem is that you can hardly walk, and now that the adrenaline is settling down you realize your mouth is pasted shut from thirst. Of course, you’ll double check your cell phone for service bars, which aren’t there. You grab yourself a stick and slowly start heading back to safety.

Walking in cowboy boots on a rocky/uneven trail, it doesn’t take long for your

ankles to feel like putty, and soon the blisters start forming on your feet, sending shards of sharp pain every step you take. You finally see some water, but it’s the local cattle’s summer watering hole with lots of manure visible in and around the water… so you pass and wait for a cleaner source of water. The sun is now baking your head, and your thirst is so bad you can hardly swallow, and you haven’t even started up the mountain yet. As you work your way back up to the mountain pass in the heat, a massive headache kicks in, and suddenly you feel nauseous and everything starts spinning from heat exhaustion and dehydration setting in. You find a small tree with a sliver of shade and decide to take a rest. Time passes quickly in your weakened state and the hot sun drops in behind the mountain. There may be hours of daylight left, but the chill quickly sets in as you sit there resting and realize you’re not going to make it back before dark.

There are a million variables. Your horse

The author with Charme, his 8-year-old Percheron/Thoroughbred mare who was rescued by Bear Valley Rescue at four months of age, and adopted by McEachern a month later. “While I love and have a connection with all of my eight horses, Charme is the horse I spend the most time with. She’s a gift.”

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T he “horse world” is a small community where most people know one another and gossip is common. Much of this talk is harmless, but given that many

people in the horse world trade on their professional reputations and personal integrity, when does gossip or idle chatter cross the line into defamation?

Consider, for instance, a trainer with a horse for sale whose potential buyer is also looking at a rival trainer’s sale prospect. The first trainer may casually state that the rival trainer’s horse was given performance enhancing drugs at its last horse show. Does this statement constitute defamation? What if this statement was made between two adult amateur competitors rather than professional trainers?

What is Defamation?A defamatory communication is a false statement that

lowers the reputation of the person in the community, imputes improper or disreputable conduct, or has the tendency to injure, prejudice, or disparage that person in the eyes of a reasonable person.

The law of defamation is a balance between the right to enjoy a good reputation unimpaired by false statements, and the freedom of expression. People are generally entitled to express their opinions without being sued for defamation.

Defamation takes two forms: Written, which is known as libel, and spoken, which is known as slander.

The following criteria must be met in order to prove defamation: (1) the words were published to a third party; (2) the words refer to the plaintiff; and (3) the words, in their natural and ordinary meaning, or in some extended meaning, are defamatory of the plaintiff.

Publication occurs each time the defamatory words are written, spoken, or reproduced.

The intention of the person in communicating the words is irrelevant. The plaintiff is not required to show that the defendant intended to do harm or even that the defendant was careless in making the statements. The question is what the words meant to the ordinary reader or listener, not what the writer or speaker intended them to mean.

DefamationWHEN DOES GOSSIP CROSS THE LINE?BY KAREN L. WESLOWSKI, LAWYER, MILLER THOMSON LLP, VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

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HORSE INDUSTRY


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The victim of a defamatory statement can sue the speaker or writer for monetary damage to reputation. The deadline to bring a claim is within two years of when the defamatory statement was made or published.

The law treats slander differently from libel. Because there is no written record of slander, the victim must prove damages in the form of financial loss to receive compensation. Because of this, slander cases are harder to prove and most do not go to court. There are a few exceptions to this rule, one being that slander is presumed to have caused damage where it is defamatory of the plaintiff in his or her office, profession, calling, trade, or business. With libel, because there is a permanent record of the defamation in writing, the law presumes damages.

Defences to DefamationOnce the plaintiff proves the required

elements, the onus then shifts to the defendant to raise a defence to escape liability for a defamatory statement.

The main defences to defamation are: (1) truth or justification; (2) fair comment; (3) statutory, absolute, or qualified privilege; and (4) responsible communication on matters of public interest.

The truth is an absolute defence to defamation. A defendant can maliciously publish truthful defamatory statements. The law presumes that defamatory words are false, so the defendant must prove the words are true.

The defence of fair comment applies to statements of opinion on issues of public interest. To prove a defence of fair comment, the statement must be recognizable as opinion and not fact, it must be based on facts that can be proven, and must not be made maliciously.

The three main instances of the absolute privilege defence are statements made in parliament, as evidence at a trial or in court documents, or to a quasi-judicial body such as a professional association.

Qualified privilege is a defence where remarks that may otherwise be defamatory were conveyed to a third party non-maliciously and for an honest and well-motivated reason. For example, a former barn employee of yours gave your name to a potential employer as a reference and that employer called you. You told the employer: “I found that this employee did not show any patience with the horses.” Provided you acted in good faith and without malice, and your statement was not made to more people than necessary, the defence of qualified privilege protects you if the former employee sues you for defamation. The opinion given was honest and the caller had a legitimate interest in hearing it.

The Supreme Court of Canada created a new defence to libel claims called “responsible communication on matters of public interest.”

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RIDER FITNESS

A s a new riding season begins, we hope you’ve had an opportunity to practice the exercises from our

previous article to help you gain a strong classical position when you ride. Are you able to maintain that much sought after ear-shoulder-hip-heel position when you ride? If so, congratulations! If not, just keep working on those exercises and be assured that over time they will help you establish better postural alignment.

When we exercise and condition our horses, we must consider how to better develop their lateral and longitudinal planes of muscle strength, flexibility, and motion. In the same way, we must condition our own bodies longitudinally and laterally to ensure we have an even balance of muscle strength and flexibility.

This article will look at the rider’s body from the front and back along the horizontal axis, and the deviations in rider positions. And of course, we’ll give you exercises to help rectify those anomalies.

Have you ever been told that you are leaning your upper body too much to one side of your horse? Perhaps you collapse into your waistline on one side and your ribs sink into your hips. Maybe you push your hip off to the outside or to one side of your horse’s spine or rotate at your waist or through your pelvis, causing your body to twist in one direction as you ride. These and many other deviations in position can be the direct result of

habitual patterning or one-sidedness resulting from your daily routines. Other deviations could be the result of asymmetrical patterns arising from an injury such as a fall from a horse. Sitting for extended periods of time with one leg crossed over the other, for example, or sitting too much on one seat bone, standing on one foot more than the other, or cocking one hip when you stand for extended periods can all wreak havoc on the body.

If you can dedicate short periods of time to paying attention to yourself throughout your day, you can easily make positive changes to your posture, your riding position, and your overall physical health - and you don’t need to spend a single dollar on a personal trainer. Just simply pay attention.

Here are some ideas to help you make simple but effective changes to your posture and to your life.

Try to observe yourself throughout your day. Do you sit more on one seat bone when at the computer or in your car? Do you clean your horse’s stall with the pitch fork always on the same side of your body? Minor deviations like this will, over time, cause imbalances in muscle strength, flexibility, and alignment of the spine and pelvis, which in turn affect your posture and riding position. With awareness and focus, these anomalies can be corrected in a relatively short period of time.

Why not begin your day in three-point-touch

11 EXERCISES TO

Improve Your Riding Position

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BY GINA ALLANAND BARB KOPACEK


COMING IN THE JUNE ISSUE…

Riding from your heart for your heart!!Learning about heart health, and imagery for improving your position.

position (described in Be Posture Perfect in the March issue), which can be done while eating a meal, brushing your teeth, and driving your car. Observe how you sit at your computer. Are you squarely positioned on your seat bones? Is your chin protruding? Do you slouch in the vulture pose? Do your knees wow outward or inward? Are your heels elevated causing your calf muscles to contract? Do you twist at the waist or in the pelvis when sitting or driving your car? Do you have to rotate at your computer to reach your keyboard or other piece of frequently used office equipment? Repetitive rotation in one direction will cause imbalances in the torso.

Let’s suppose you are right-handed and have a tendency to sit more on your right hip. Maybe you put five to ten percent more weight on that side of your 130 pound body. That’s seven to thirteen more pounds (the approximate weight of a bowling ball) on one side of your spine and pelvis. Now imagine doing that for four to six hours a day. The weighted side will be compressed and the muscles will be more contracted (shorter) and weaker on that side. The opposite side of the pelvis and spine will become stretched, and likely more mobile, which causes excessive wear and tear to related joints of the lumbar and sacral regions on that side, making injury highly likely. Over time this dysfunctional pattern will cause the joints to become stressed. If you find you

are crooked, correct this situation by sitting squarely as if you were seated in a canoe and attempting to keep it level. Also, ensure that your keyboard and other office equipment you use regularly are directly in front of you as you work.

If you can change patterns of imbalance, you can change and improve your riding position.

Try the following exercises at home or at your workplace. Keep in mind that sitting for more than 20 minutes at a time has been linked to type 2 Diabetes, so get up often and stretch. Try doing one-legged balance stands.

By mindfully observing your daily posture you will begin to make small but significant changes to your body and riding position. Your equine partner is sure to enjoy your new balanced position as well.

The following exercises can be practiced at home, outside, at the barn, or at your workplace. Try to do them regularly to improve your posture, back health, and that much sought-after classical position.

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Just like our horses, riders must be conditioned both laterally and longitudinally for an even balance of muscle strength and flexibility to achieve a strong, classical position.


CHEST STRETCH

Begin by standing with your back against the wall, feet about hip width apart. Ensure your balance is even be-tween your forefeet and your heels. Lift your instep slightly to put a bit of pressure on the outer parts of your feet. Your legs should be straight but not locked at the knees. From here, there are three points of contact we will be working with: the back of your head, the upper back between your shoulder blades, and your pelvis. Position your pelvis so your tailbone is pointing at the floor. Con-tract the front of your pelvis as if you’re trying to stop the flow of urine and pull your navel in towards your spine and up towards your sternum. Try to avoid tipping your pelvis by imagining it’s like a bowl of water – keep the water level in the bowl. Lift your rib cage up out of your

hips as if you are being picked up by your underarms. This will enable the back of your rib cage – an area that is all too often overlooked but plays an integral role in posture – to lift also. Broaden and lower your shoulders while keeping the lift in your torso. Place your shoulder blades against the back of your rib cage so that your upper back can lay flat against the wall. It is important to avoid scrunching up your shoulders. With your arms straight at your sides and palms facing forward, lengthen the back of your neck as if your head was being lifted like a marion-ette. This will also help you maintain the lift in your torso. Keep your chin parallel to the ground while gently draw-ing it in and touch the back of your head to the wall. Now you’ve achieved the three-point-touch.

Bring yourself from three-point-touch into a small pelvic tilt with your lower back pressing into the wall by contracting your abdominals. Ensure your palms are facing inward. Slowly, keeping your belly button pulled toward your spine and lower back pressed into the wall, lift your arms overhead. Keep your elbows relatively narrow and shoulders down. Raise your arms overhead until your thumbs and index fingers touch the wall. Press your index finger and thumb into the wall and hold for a count of 15 to 20 seconds, then gently lower your arms to your side. Repeat two or three times.

As you stand in the doorframe, lift your arms to just below shoulder height and bend your elbows so that they come to a 90-degree angle. Try to maintain good three-point-touch position as you spread your arms, keeping your wrists and hands flat to the frame. Gently press forward so that your upper body attempts to come through the doorframe and hold the stretch for 30 seconds to one minute. Repeat frequently.

THREE-POINT-TOUCH

ARMS OVERHEAD

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IN THE SHADOW OF EQUUS

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An Ancient Pregnant Horse RevealedBY MARGARET EVANS

A unique find unearthed 15 years ago finally revealed its secrets last year. The latest technology of micro x-ray analysis showed that the tiny ancient horse that had been discovered in the celebrated Messel Pit Fossil Site near Darmstadt, some 35 km southeast of Frankfurt, Germany, was in fact a pregnant mare with a fetus close to full term.

The Messel Pit Fossil Site is the richest site in the world for fossils preserved since the Eocene Epoch that lasted from 55 million years ago to 34 million years ago. This was the time of the spectacular rise of mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, and plants. It was also the time of the earliest emergence of the horse 55 million years ago.

The tiny pregnant horse known as Eurohippus messelensis lived about 47 million years ago. Not only was its fetus preserved, but parts of the uterus and surrounding tissue were still intact. The tiny

mare was about the size of a modern day fox terrier and stood some 30 centimetres (12 inches) in

height at the shoulder. The little hump-backed, ropy-tailed creature

snuffled around in tropical vege-tation. It had not yet developed hooves, but instead had four

toes on each forefoot and three toes on each hind foot.

The fetus had fully developed milk teeth and, from its size, was close to term when it died with its dam. All the bones of the fetus were still intact and in position. The fetus, though, was not in the classic birthing position but was upside down rather than right side up. Its front legs had not been extended which would have indicated imminent birth.

“Almost all of the bones of the fetus are still articulated in their original position,” said Dr. Jens Lorenz Franzen of the Senckenberg

An artist’s illustration of Eurohippus.

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The tiny pregnant horse lived 47 million years ago.


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Research Institute, lead author of the study. “Only the skull is crushed.”

The specimen was first discovered by a team from the Senckenberg Research Institute nearly 15 years ago. However, the real value of the unique find was not appreciated until technology advanced and it was studied using micro x-ray. That analysis revealed a structure recognized as the broad ligament that connects the uterus to the backbone and helps support the developing foal. Remnants of the wrinkled outer uterine wall became visible and, to the researchers’ surprise, it revealed that this ancient horse shared the same pregnancy features as modern day horses. The placenta in this specimen is only the second one that has been described for a fossil placental mammal.

The fine uterine wrinkling is normally typical at birth when the amniotic fluid escapes. Given that the fetus was assumed to be not in the birth position, it is most likely that the wrinkling occurred when the mare died, perhaps because of poisonous volcanic gases in the lake, and the fluids drained.

No oxygen was present at the bottom of the lake when the dead animal sank and became embedded in the muddy sediments. There, anaerobic bacteria immediately began to consume skin, muscles, and other soft tissue. The bacteria produced carbondioxide, which in turn precipitated iron ions present in the lake water. As a result, the bacteria petrified themselves, developing a thin bacterial “lawn” that left an exact black shadow over the original soft tissue they consumed. Those black shadows of Messel fossils are “images” of the original remains.

However, the ribs and legs were visible and microscopic images reveal the plant materials eaten by the mare. Some 60 tiny horses have been discovered at the Messel Fossil Site and detailed examination showed they ate fruit and leaves from deciduous trees.

The fossil pit is located in the Land of Hesse, an area of just 42 hectares that contains a rich bed of oil shale 190 metres thick, and the rich fossil beds. It was discovered during mining activity but the area became recognized as an invaluable snapshot of life in the middle Eocene 47 to 48 million years ago. According to UNESCO World Heritage Centre, it is the best and most productive example of the Eocene Epoch and it was declared a World Heritage Site in December, 1995.

During the middle Eocene, North America was still connected to Europe. Horses, along with other primitive grazing and browsing mammals, became prevalent species able to radiate and spread widely across the vast landmass.

The find was unveiled at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Berlin. b

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