The boss mare’s independence and leadership are what inspired a team of four powerhouse women in the equine industry to develop the nonprofit organization known as Boss Mares, Inc. The organization assists female entrepreneurs by giving them a leg-up in their careers and businesses.

The four women who founded the organization are Anna Morrison, Ph.D., co-founder and president; Kate Bradley Byars, co-founder and secretary; Patti Colbert, co-founder and treasurer; and Ellen Bell, member of board of directors. Each of these women present extensive resumes in the horse industry and connections that run deep. They came together with the same mission and goal of connecting women in agriculture.

The official kick-off of Boss Mares, Inc. took place December 1, 2023, in Weatherford, Texas.

Meet Anna Morrison

Founder Anna Morrison’s passion for horses developed during her childhood in Wisconsin. Anna pursued an education focused on horses first at Colorado State University (CSU) and later at Texas A&M University (TAMU), earning a Bachelor of Science in equine science and agricultural business, a Master of Arts in extension education, and a Ph.D. in higher education administration.

Her career path began in academics, teaching and developing curricula at CSU and TAMU. Later, Morrison served industry member organizations for the American Quarter Horse Association and the National Reined Cow Horse Association. Along the way, she received support and guidance from mentors and industry experts, which furthered her appreciation for just how important it can be to have a leg up.

“When I was going through a transition in my career, I had this feeling that there was a way we could work together to pay our experience forward to other women in the industry,” says Morrison. “Every single one of us who has been involved in the industry has had the help of other women, whether through mentorship, encouragement, or investment, and I thought there was a way we could work together to get those same opportunities to other women.”

Morrison knew who to call when the time came to present a proposal for Boss Mares, Inc. Ellen and Larry Bell have always been a part of charitable organizations, and they have started numerous businesses as well. In South Africa, they are involved with a project that empowers women to live life and provide for their families. Morrison recalls getting through just a few slides in her presentation, and the Bells were ready to kick off the organization.

“The goal is to help young women everywhere,” says Ellen. “We were involved in extreme situations in Africa, but to watch women have the opportunity to better themselves and their businesses and careers, and to learn how to do it properly, we were all in immediately.”

With the Bells’ experience with nonprofits and charitable organizations, they provided Morrison with the connections to begin forming Boss Mares, Inc.

Bringing on Kate Bradley Byars

As Morrison began thinking about who would make up the co-founders and board of directors, a few people came to mind. When Morrison asked Byars and Colbert if they would be interested in helping, they jumped at the opportunity.

Byars has a passion for telling people’s stories and making connections. Writing always came easily to her, and in college at TAMU, Byars pursued a degree in agricultural journalism. She rode through college, competing on the Texas A&M Equestrian Team and on the Quarter Horse circuit. After graduating with a Master of Science in agricultural leadership, education and communications with a focus on photography, Byars joined the Western Horseman magazine staff.

Since 2010, she’s worked extensively in the western performance horse industry as a writer and photographer. Working for western equine and lifestyle publications is Byars’ specialty, and she especially enjoys connecting with people in the industry.

“Boss Mares, Inc. is a passion project, and the mission and focus is something we all can easily get behind [to] help female business owners in the western industry,” says Byars.

Patti Colbert’s Extensive Experience

Patti Colbert’s resume in the horse industry and connection to the western lifestyle began through watching television. After moving to Texas in the mid-1970s, Colbert worked at horse barns and volunteered as a 4-H leader. She fell in love with the production of equine events.

Colbert began at the Texas Quarter Horse Association, managing the Quarter Horse racing and show industry. Her next move was to the AQHA, where she was responsible for raising millions of dollars for the American Quarter Horse Foundation’s scholarship, equine research, and preservation programs.

She then opened her own firm and worked with clients like the American Angus Association, the American Paint Horse Association, TAMU and more. She and her team took on the management of the Mustang Heritage Foundation, and in 2007 created the Extreme Mustang Makeover events, placing thousands of previously wild Bureau of Land Management Mustangs into private care.

Colbert received the 2014 American Horse Publications Innovator of the Year Award, the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame Fern Sawyer Award, and was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. Currently, she is on the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame board of directors and serves as advisory board chair for the Ride on Center for Kids.

“I know that women are the decision makers in the majority of this industry,” says Colbert. “I think more than 76 percent of the members of the AQHA are female. The reality of it is that women are the backbone of the industry in the agriculture and western lifestyles, and we need to help one another to continue to grow and be relevant and current.”

Lead the Herd Workshops

Boss Mares, Inc. focuses on five pillars: accounting and finance support, continuing education, leadership and career coaching, legal counsel, and marketing expertise. The organization will host Lead the Herd workshops to meet western women where they are already gathering. At these workshops, the keynote speakers are experts in the fields of each pillar.

The purpose of each workshop is to bring powerful expertise from both inside and outside the western industry in a setting that supports high-impact learning and open dialogue between presenters and attendees.

“We are here to provide a leg up to cowgirl entrepreneurs in the professional and agriculture industry,” says Morrison. “We do that by providing access to business resources at our workshops and by providing grants through our grant application process that help women invest in and advance their small businesses or invest in themselves and their career through continuing education.”

The first workshop was held at the Art of the Cowgirl in Arizona from January 19-20, 2024. With more workshops in the future of Boss Mares, Inc., the organization offered grants through an application on their website through March 31, 2024, for people in the agriculture industry.

“I hope that the women who have seen it now and have heard the speakers will want to be a part of it by giving financial aid or by participating in grants, whatever fits with their lifestyle,” says Ellen. “I hope they will be encouraged and say, ‘You know what, I can do this, this is something I’ve wanted to do, and I’m not going to let something get in my way because it is available to me.’ That is what’s exciting and what I hope to see in the future for us.”

This article about Boss Mares, Inc. appeared in the May 2024 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Boss Mares, Inc.: Empowering Women in the Western World appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

The board of directors of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation announced that it has authorized expenditure of $2,693,312 to fund 16 new projects and 10 continuing projects at 17 universities as well as two career development awards. The 2025 slate of research brings Grayson’s totals since 1940 to more than $44.4 million to underwrite more than 450 projects at 48 universities.

“I’m very proud of Grayson’s commitment to furthering the research and development of projects that affect all horses, no matter their breed or discipline,” said Jamie Haydon, president of Grayson. “We are equally ecstatic that we could offer our two career development awards to this year’s recipients, continuing to cultivate a future for young researchers.”

Below is an alphabetical list by school of the new projects:

Can Smartphone-Based Sensors Provide Reliable And Repeat able Lameness Data   
Melissa King, Colorado State University
This project will test the reliability and repeatability of body-mounted and smartphone IMU sensors with machine learning and computational algorithms in lame and non-lame horses.

Chimeric VP7-VP4 MVA-Vectored Equine Rotavirus Vaccines 
Mariano Carossino, Louisiana State University
In this study novel chimeric vaccinia-vectored vaccines against equine rotavirus A G3 and G14, the leading cause of foal diarrhea, will be designed and evaluated in mice (proof-of-concept) and mares.

Ex Vivo DFTS Adhesion Model To Evaluate Therapies  
Lauren Schnabel, North Carolina State University
This project will advance our understanding and treatment of adhesions that occur in the digital flexor tendon sheath of horses following injury and result in improved prognosis for performance.

Effects Of SGLT2i On Triamcinolone-Induced Equine ID
Teresa Burns, The Ohio State University
This proposal will evaluate the degree to which joint injections with triamcinolone worsen insulin dysregulation in horses with ID and if use of canagliflozin at time of injection mitigates it.

Finite Element Analysis Of SDFT Microdamage
Sushmitha Durgam, The Ohio State University
This proposal will study the multi-scale finite element models (FEM) that predict equine superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) mechanical behavior that are essential to delineate microdamage mechanisms preceding clinical injury.

A Molecular Study On Hemorrhagic Anovulatory Follicles
Eduardo Gastal, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
This study investigates gene and hormone levels in HAFs, the leading cause of ovulation failure in mares, using a novel technique (Follicle Wall Biopsy-Trinity) to collect multiple follicular samples.

Improving a VapA mRNA Vaccine For R. Equi In Foals
Noah Cohen, Texas A&M University
The aim of this study is to improve the design of a mRNA vaccine for foals to provide stronger, longer immunity against Rhodococcus equi, a leading cause of disease and death in foals worldwide.

Organoid Model For Equine Placentitis Research
Pouya Dini, University of California-Davis
This project’s aim is to develop an in vitro model of equine placentitis to advance the study of this condition, ultimately improving diagnostics, treatments, and pregnancy outcomes.

Genetics Of Cervical Spine Malformations In The Horse
Carrie Finno, University of California-Davis
This study will identify genetic causes for abnormal formation of the cervical spine in horses.

Pharmacokinetics And Efficacy Of Pregabalin In Horses
Heather Knych, University of California-Davis
The study seeks to investigate the behavior of an analgesic agent approved for use in humans for the treatment of persistent pain, as a first step in assessing the utility of this drug for pain control in horses.

Characterization Of Antibodies Against Equine IL-31
Rosanna Marsela, University of Florida
This proposal aims to develop a new treatment for equine insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) by targeting a key itch mediator, providing an alternative to steroids.

Characterization Of Laminitis Using PET
Dianne McFarlane, University of Florida
This study will validate the use of PET scans for identifying disease pathology and progression in insulin associated laminitis in horses.

Effects Of Inflammatory Cytokines On MSC Homing
John Peroni, University of Georgia
This study will investigate how mesenchymal stem cells traffic to injuries after delivery to the bloodstream to inform the best time to deliver cells relative to initial injury in future animal models.

Racehorse Stride Changes And Workload During Training
Peta Hitchens, University of Melbourne
By determining whether the workload and changes in stride characteristics associated with injury during racing are also present during training, this project may identify injuries prior to race day.

Synthetic Proteoglycan Replacement For Osteoarthritis
Kyla Ortved, University of Pennsylvania
This proposal seeks to establish a new class of injectable, cartilage-penetrating compounds made from synthetic polyelectrolytes that replace proteoglycans that are critically lost in osteoarthritis.

Wearable Biometric Sensor Development
American Association of Equine Practitioners
Provide funding for the epidemiological work associated with the data gathered through the field testing of the selected biomechanical sensors.

Career Development Awards

The Storm Cat Career Development Award, inaugurated in 2006, grants $20,000 to an individual considering a career in equine research. This year, Grayson awarded Dr. Erica Secor, Cornell University.

Dr. Secor is a class of 2013 graduate from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and is attending Cornell as a Ph.D. student. Dr. Secor is an equine surgeon whose knowledge is growing readily under the supervision of Dr. Heidi Reesink, a former Storm Cat Award winner.

The proposed study, defining the immune cell populations present in naturally occurring equine Osteoarthritis and the response to intra-articular therapeutics, expands on the limited knowledge regarding immune cell populations within equine joints with osteoarthritis.

The Elaine and Bertram Klein Career Development Award was first awarded in 2015 and grants $20,000 to a prospective equine researcher. This year’s recipient is Dr. Shannon Connard, North Carolina State University.

After Dr. Connard received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2017 from the University of Georgia, she went on to pursue an internship at Louisiana State University followed by a large animal internship and residency at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. Through this, Dr. Connard achieved board certification with the American College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2023. She is a postdoctoral fellow / Ph.D. candidate in the Comparative Medicine and Translational Research Training Program at North Carolina State University. Dr. Connard’s current research is dedicated to the advancement of regenerative therapies for equine musculoskeletal injuries.

Dr. Connard’s project, harnessing stem cells licensing to enhance tendon healing, aims to further the understanding of intralesional mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy in treating equine tendon injuries, under the supervision of Dr. Lauren Schnabel.

Details on the new projects are available at the following link here.

Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation is traditionally the nation’s leading source of private funding for equine medical research that benefits all breeds of horses. Since 1940, Grayson has provided nearly $44.4 million to underwrite more than 450 projects at 48 universities. Additional information about the foundation is available at grayson-jockeyclub.org.

— Edited Press Release

The post Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation Approves Funding for 2025 appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

A Fateful Ice Storm

While the organization had been able to meet and exceed its goals year after year, they always knew that they could do more with the right facility.

“For the first five years, we didn’t have an official facility,” says Hoch. “While the previous facility was adequate, the weather forecast for that fateful month in 2021 indicated that it would be really cold with life-threatening wind chills.”

With the predicted ice and extreme cold, there was a legitimate concern that not only would the caregivers be unable to reach the horses at Nexus Equine, but that the horses might not have the type of shelter they required to meet their needs.

“We ended up having some longtime supporters take some of the horses in,” explains Hoch. “One of them was my father, and I ended up staying out there with him for a week during the storm.”

One morning during her stay, Hoch received a call from a donor.

“The roads were bad, people were out of power, the water was frozen, and we had 17 Nexus horses at my father’s house so that they could be taken care of and have adequate shelter,” Hoch says. “When [the donor] called, she asked what I was doing. I explained to her everything that was happening. She marveled at it all and was impressed and grateful for the lengths we were going to for our horses.”

Hoch returned to her chores, but about 30 minutes later, the donor called again.

“Between the two phone calls, I had fallen in the snow and my niece had to get me up,” Hoch says. “Both of us were laughing at how crazy all of this was. We were trying to break the ice. We had to carry water buckets to the house to fill up since the water was frozen at the barn. It was a nightmare. When she called back, she said we’ve got to get you into a facility where you never have to do this again. She said I want you to be able to carry out your mission both today and tomorrow. I started crying!”

New Nexus Equine Facility and Outreach

Fast-forward to June 2021.

“We were given this beautiful opportunity to get into this property,” Hoch says. “It’s on the west side of metropolitan Oklahoma City in a small town called El Reno. It’s a 160-acre property with a beautiful barn, along with hay and equipment sheds. There’s a beautiful 3,000-square-foot home that allows for someone to be onsite 24/7, with 5½ miles of pipe and cable fencing and multiple run-in sheds. It also features an indoor covered arena and an outdoor arena. We can do anything with this facility.”

Without that phone call, the current level of organizational maturity might never have happened or, if it did, it may have taken years of fundraising to reach. Today, the anonymous donor, along with others, continues to demonstrate their support.

“Today, we can take care of any horse that we need to take care of,” Hoch says. “We can increase our capacity to help more equines.”

Beyond being able to help more horses, it’s equally important to Hoch to expand the organization’s community outreach.

“We want to create opportunities for the community to be involved,” she says. “We want them to have interactions with horses that they otherwise might not have. Since we’ve been out here, we’ve had many different organizations come out that would not have been able to if we were not at this facility. In particular, it would not have been possible for children to come out and ride and interact with horses, learn something, then go back to inner-city Oklahoma City having done something different.”

Just one example of the organization’s expanded community outreach is a partnership they have with the Oklahoma City Police Department’s Police Athletic League. This partnership allows children to come to the facility and be exposed to positive opportunities and interactions. In addition to riding and engaging with the horses, the children have an opportunity to learn about farrier care, nutrition, and other aspects of horse health.

“Any time you can show these kids—especially ones that have never been exposed to horses—that there is a whole other world of interests and opportunities they may not have been aware of before, it’s pretty incredible,” says Hoch.

As someone who knows firsthand the impact that horses can have on a life, she believes it is very important for her to create these types of opportunities for others. Another example of Hoch’s vision was hosting the Center of Family Love, a residential care facility that serves mentally and physically disabled adults, earlier in 2022.

“It brought us all to tears watching them interact with the horses,” she says. “Spending time with horses, interacting with their quiet beautiful nature, not only brings positivity to one’s life, but I believe makes us better versions of ourselves.”

Help Is Still Needed

Like many organizations, Nexus Equine was hard-hit financially by Covid. If not for their grittiness, increased costs for even the upkeep of the old facility might have been out of reach. Now, however, they look to continue to grow. Increased opportunities for youth engagement and a bigger facility mean a bigger budget. Financial contributions are always welcome through the organization’s website, nexusequine.org. The organization also has an Amazon Wish List to help meet their needs.

If you are unable to contribute financially, volunteers are always welcome, and increasing the organization’s volunteer base is at the top of Hoch’s list of goals. An application can also be found on their website.

It’s an exciting time at Nexus Equine, and everyone is welcome to take part.

This article appeared in the January/February 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Nexus Equine: Taking Horse Adoption to the Next Level appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Inside Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, the rush of the city falls away into the peaceful tranquility of wooded trails and open space. Tucked away on a dead-end road, Chamounix Equestrian Center has made its home inside the 2,000-acre municipal park. The stable is widely known for its sold-out summer camps, popular year-round lesson program and boarding opportunities, as well as a unique equestrian scholarship program called Work to Ride.

Work to Ride’s Beginning

In 1994, Lezlie Hiner was at a crossroads. She wanted to carve out a niche in the horse industry that blended her equestrian background with a degree in psychology and women’s studies. Launching the Work to Ride (WTR) program was the perfect intersection of those passions. The 501(c)(3) non-profit is a community-based prevention program that provides disadvantaged urban youth constructive activities centered on horsemanship, equine sports and education.

“We are serving low-income youth in the city by providing an opportunity to ride while also focusing on academic achievement,” Hiner says. “We tie academic activities to being on the polo team. If they want to be a part of the team, they have to keep up their grades.”

When designing WTR, Hiner looked closely at nationwide data regarding the after-school hours between 4 and 7 p.m. Research has shown that this is the prime time for kids to find opportunities to get into trouble or skip out on schoolwork. Participants enrolled in WTR are at the barn during those hours, which reduces the temptation to engage in less productive activities that can become appealing to unsupervised youth.

“All of the kids in Work to Ride are funded through scholarships,” Hiner says. “We also have academic scholarships for those who want to go to college and need help. They can apply to us and when we have funding, we help them with college tuition. One girl graduated from Cornell and is in nursing school now, and we’re covering her tuition.”

A Place for Everyone

Riders are not dismissed from the program if they are struggling in school. Instead, they receive extra tutoring and academic support to bring their grades up. However, they are not allowed to travel to competitions until their schoolwork is satisfactory. Participants get paid to maintain the horse stables and receive after-school tutoring to help maintain grades and assist with college enrollment.

“We are a little bit different in that we have a lot of boys in our program, which is fairly uncommon in a lot of other equestrian sports,” Hiner says. “Other [riding] disciplines have a hard time keeping boys after age 12, but polo is a sport that fills all the needs of teenage boys.”

The Park is connected to two of the city’s poorest communities: West and North Philadelphia. That makes it a convenient walkable distance for the nearly 60 kids who may not be able to afford transportation. Hiner estimates that Work to Ride has served hundreds of young riders since the program opened its doors 27 years ago.

From Wrong Turn to Ivy League

Shariah Harris became part of the program when she was about 8 years old. Her mom was driving in Fairmount Park and took a wrong turn onto the dead-end street and discovered the stable.

“We saw other Black children riding, and my mom wanted to figure out a way to get us involved in riding,” Harris says. “We went inside and met Lezlie, and she gave us an application. A few months later, both my brother and I were accepted into the program. My older sister soon followed our path and joined the program, too.”

Polo is the main focus of the WTR program, though some riders want to focus on jumping. Those who work hard, keep up their grades, and meet the program requirements travel across the country and around the world to play as part of the team. Harris quickly became a rising star in the sport.

As a high school senior, she was named the U.S. Polo Association’s National Interscholastic Player of the Year. Her skills earned her a spot playing high-goal polo for Postage Stamp Farm at the 2017 Silver Cup tournament. She became the first Black woman to play in high-goal polo, the top tier of polo in the United States.

In just a decade, Harris has collected a lifetime of memories. She says one of her favorites was her first trip to Nigeria to play in the Unicef Cup tournament. Her sister went too, and it was the first time they had left the United States.

“It was amazing to experience the culture in Nigeria and meet the different people,” she says. “I remember the excitement that I had to be able to go, because it was an annual trip that all of us in the program were anxious for a chance to experience.”

The team won the tournament, which made it even more special for Harris. WTR influenced Harris’s decision to attend Cornell University, where she played for the women’s varsity team.

“WTR helped me build confidence in myself that took me a bit longer to discover. It taught me to believe in myself even when I was nervous or afraid,” she says. “It also gave me an outlet and something to devote my complete attention to, which took my mind away from challenges in my life throughout the years.”

Harris credits Work to Ride with preparing her for Cornell University on a social level as much as an academic one. Training and traveling across the country and around the world taught her skills for adjusting to new or even uncomfortable situations.

“During my time in the program, we were always playing teams, and as I got older, I was the only girl playing on an all-male team, so I learned from an early stage how to adjust to these situations,” she says. “When I went to Cornell, a PWI [predominantly white institution] and being the only Black person on my team, I was already prepared in a sense for what that might entail for me. Work to Ride taught me how to adapt and how to make myself comfortable in situations where I was ‘the only one.’”

The Horses

Hiner has 33 horses in her string. Just under half of the herd are polo ponies, while the others play a key role in the barn’s lesson program. Given the locale, the horses eat a lot of hay—20 to 30 tons each month, since turnout is limited.

“We have a lot of off-track Thoroughbreds that the kids help train,” she says. “We’re very much into supporting the Thoroughbred industry and finding different uses for them. We also get polo pony donations from owners who have an older horse.”

Harris fondly remembers many of the horses who taught her to ride at WTR. However, Jordan was the one who captured her heart. He was Hiner’s personal horse, a Quarter Horse she purchased as a youngster and used in the program.

“I was drawn to his gentleness and tolerance for almost anything I did around him,” Harris says. “He was so bombproof that I always felt completely safe in his presence and riding him, even when he would misbehave. It gave me confidence to try new things.”

Philadelphia may be most well-known for the Liberty Bell, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the iconic statue of fictional boxer Rocky Balboa. But it’s programs like Work to Ride that are making the most change in the residents’ lives. The program gives children an outlet and safe haven from challenges that they might be dealing with at home, but it also exposes children to a world that they might never have known exists.

“Work to Ride has altered so many lives, and I’m glad that I stumbled upon it, because it’s changed my life in ways I never would have imagined,” Harris says.

Crossing the Line Kareem Rosser, an alumnus of the Work to Ride (WTR) program, recently released a book detailing the life-changing experience it provided for him and his siblings. In Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever, Rosser describes what it’s like to be born and raised in West Philadelphia. He worried he and his siblings would be stuck for life in “The Bottom,” a community surrounded by crime and poverty. Riding bicycles through Fairmount Park, his brothers found Chamounix Equestrian Center. Lezlie Hiner offered them an escape, and sometimes a place to stay. By working at the stable, they could earn riding lessons. That fueled a passion for polo, with the brothers committing to the sport with unmatched determination and discipline. WTR helped Rosser earn a polo scholarship to attend Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pa. After one year at a community college, he transferred to Colorado State University, where he was named the U.S. Polo Association’s Intercollegiate Player of the Year in 2015. He also became part of the first all-Black national interscholastic polo championship team. After college, Rosser moved back to Philadelphia for a career at a bank. Ironically, his boss was also a polo player. Today, he serves as the executive director of the fundraising arm, Friends of Work to Ride, where he uses his finance background to fundraise for the organization.

This article about Work to Ride’s equestrian scholarship program originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post The Work to Ride Equestrian Scholarship Program appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Equine Land Conservation Resource (ELCR) and My Horse University will co-host a free webinar, “Land Issues and Small Properties,” on October 22, 2019, at 7:00 p.m. EST. ELCR’s Denise O’Meara, Director of Education, will present, focusing on the zoning issues, opportunities and realities of horse-keeping in the back yard and on small horse properties.

Using examples from several communities around the country that allow horses to be kept on small acreage and residential properties, you’ll learn how your community’s zoning practices, prevalence of existing horse-related activities, land characteristics, building codes, tax structure, state regulations and other factors enter into the decision to keep horses at your residence. Consider questions such as: Does your community support horse activities and horse-friendly zoning? Are there places and trails already in place to ride? Am I prepared to do the work and upkeep that horses and their environments require?

O’Meara, PLA, is an experienced landscape architect, educator and presenter, with almost 20 years of experience in the equine industry and land design in conjunction with community planning and zoning regulations. Her personal interest in small property horse-keeping comes from youth experiences on Long Island, N.Y., where hundreds of horses are maintained in legally zoned, back yard stables, including in her own childhood neighborhood.

Read the original ELCR article on the topic.

Register for this free backyard horse-keeping and small horse properties webinar.

About My Horse University (MHU)

MHU was established in 2005 at Michigan State University, a land-grant university with nationally ranked programs in equine science and management. MHU was created through a partnership between MSU Extension, the MSU Department of Animal Science, and MSU Global to bring research and knowledge from world-renowned experts to online educational material available to horse enthusiasts worldwide. Visit www.MyHorseUniversity.com or call (517) 432-5131.

About Equine Land Conservation Resource

ELCR builds awareness of the loss of lands available for horse-related activities and facilitates the protection and conservation of those lands while working to ensure America’s equine heritage lives on and the emotional, physical and economic benefits of the horse-human relationship remains accessible. ELCR serves as an information resource and clearinghouse on conserving horse properties, land use planning, land stewardship/best management practices, trails, liability and equine economic impact. For more information about the ELCR, visit www.elcr.org or call (859) 455-8383.

The post Equine Land Conservation Resource and My Horse University Host Webinar on Land Issues and Small Horse Properties appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.