Northernhorse.com Blog

You no longer have to fill out a livestock manifest to haul your horse to the neighbours arena. Or anywhere else in Alberta unless you are transporting your horse for sale or slaughter or to an inspection site.  More info.

I see on the Wild Horse Blog there is a live internet radio program happening today about Wild horse & burro and Natural Horse Care. Some interesting speakers on natural hoof care, the history of the wild horses and what we can learn about the care of our horses from them.

Visit the Wild Horse Site

Link to Radio Show

January 15, 2009 Press Release The Humane Society of the U.S.

A large, bipartisan coalition of lawmakers has introduced legislation to stop Mexico and Canada from killing and butchering tens of thousands of healthy American horses, as well as to codify a de facto ban on the slaughter of American horses here in the United States for sale to countries in Europe and Asia. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) introduced the bill known as the Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, and its passage is a top priority for The Humane Society of the United States and other animal welfare and equine rescue organizations, veterinarians, horse industry groups.
Continue Reading »

Looking for more information about the Presmises Identification Program? The following links were recommended to us as good sources for more info. If you have any questions please feel free to let us know by clicking on the “comment” button below and posting them. We have asked some of the folks who are setting this program up to check your posts and give you the answers or we will try to track them down for you ourselves.

Gov of Alberta

Horse Welfare Alliance

Canada Introduces Restrictions on Importation of all Equines, Equine Semen, and Equine embryos from the USA
CFIA has announced the introduction of import restrictions on horses and equine semen originating from the USA as a result of the current US outbreak of Contagious Equine Metritis. Horses and other equidae (asses, mules and zebras) will not require an import permit, but will require additional declarations on the health papers certifying that they have not been on a premises where Taylorella equigenitalis has been isolated during the 60 days immediately preceding exportation to Canada or a premises currently under quarantine or investigation for CEM; and that any female(s) in the shipment have not been bred naturally to, or inseminated with, semen from a stallion positive for CEM, or a stallion resident upon a positive premises or under quarantine or investigation for CEM. Additionally, the animals must not show any signs of CEM on the day of inspection. Continue Reading »

We received this email from one of our visitors which also makes her one of your potential customers. I think the best way to deliver the message to you is to just publish her email:

I have been shopping for a horse and when I found the extensive list of horse breeder sites on your website I thought my shopping job was made so much easier. Only one problem -  on a lot of them the information on them is many months old, and actually a few of them the info is years old.

I understand that you have no control over the  content but could you perhaps when you are billing them, mention that an outdated website is useless and  frustrating to potential customers

Thanks again for your very useful web site.

If any website owners who don’t have our “Easy Forms” and cannot update their own sites need help we can certainly help. Or… maybe it is time to get your site changed over so you can update it yourself or maybe you are ready for a whole new image. We can help with that too.

Hope. A precious commodity that Mr. Obama seems to be able to inspire in us. Thank you our American friends and neighbours for electing him. Your leader has a tremendous impact not only in your country but all the world and somehow you have found a man who gives many of us hope. What incredible changes we have seen in our lifetimes that allowed this day to happen.

For those who are asking us about the new premise ID, Horse ID and transport regulations we have contaced Bill desBarres and he tells us they are waiting to get further clarification form the government. He says he was told the fifteen thousand dollar fines that were mentioned will not be enforced at this time. We will post any new news about this as soon as we receive it. If you have any questions please feel free to post a comment and we will do our best to get you the answers.

This past weekend, the horse industry gathered in Red Deer, Alberta to take in the 27th annual Horse Breeders & Owners Conference. The exhibit hall hosted over 50 sponsoring businesses and organizations and 650 people were on-site for the socializing, seminars and networking opportunities afforded by this annual, mid-winter, equine educational event. Continue Reading »

It’s all about producers reaching out to help fellow producers. The livestock care ALERT line is operated by Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC) and with the arrival of colder weather and financial challenges, AFAC ALERT coordinator Mikki Shatosky reminds livestock owners that help is available should the need arise.

We have resource team members across the province. We can send them out and they’ll have a look, or give the producer a call just to see what’s going on. Producers can call in themselves and say they need a helping hand and we’ll give them a hand dealing with their livestock. We also have an on-call vet who will come out and have a look to assure animals are being cared for,” says Shatosky.

The resource team members only participate based on the consent of the owner. A team is dispatched quickly once a call is received. There’s confidentially for both the caller and owner of the animals. Shatosky adds, “We’re there for the livestock. We really want to make sure they’re cared for.”

“A lot of calls we get are from people who don’t understand what the farmer is doing and how he cares for his livestock. They can phone in and say there’s a horse out in the field and we feel that he’s not being care for. The dispatcher will talk to them and explain how farmers care for their animals and that helps as well.

it’s also an information line. The ALERT line number to report animal welfare concerns is 1-800-506-2273.”