The model for training veterinarians is broken. Horse owners complain about the cost and the outcome of advanced procedures and diagnostics. Young veterinary graduates quickly become disillusioned, experience declining morale, and elect to leave the profession. The veterinary crisis is real and is occurring mostly in the horse and food animal care. As horse owners, the decline is affecting all but the elite horse centers; rural horse owners are either struggling to choose or decline expensive care options, facing ineffective or nonexistent care providers, or losing their horse prematurely.

This podcast looks at the December, 2025 Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Supplemental Edition, which focuses exclusively on a new concept in veterinary medicine: Scope of Care (SOC). Veterinary colleges are incorporating into their pedagogy (the art, science, and profession of teaching students) the idea of offering a broad selection of care, including different costs and outcomes. This approach effectively removes the time-honored tradition of providing the "Gold Standard" of care as the only option for horse owners.

While on the surface, the offer of less costly care for horses by veterinarians appears to be a win for horse owners, it masks the fact that horse practices are failing. Declining morale among young veterinarians and owners' loss of confidence in these vets is a double punch; the result is fewer horse veterinarians charging more for diagnostics and procedures that are not scientifically compared to other, more traditional treatments.

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Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.

The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.

The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.

Please give a thumbs-up or a 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

As science advances, new ideas about our existence develop that challenge our beliefs. As 2026 begins, more and more credible scientists, with irrefutable credentials, are now willing to address ideas that, only a few years ago, would have been dismissed. Luckily, those of you who have been following me over the years will notice my hinting that there is something "out there" that connects us to horses (and each other).

In my 2010 book, "The Ten Irrefutable Laws Of Horsemanship," I suggested in Law Nine that "Energy Is Everything." Now, 16 years later, science is finding the facts behind this law.

This podcast discusses the findings of a Columbia Professor of Mitochondrial Psychobiology, Dr Martin Picard. This new field describes the transformation of energy within the mitochondria of cells, from food, water, and air into thoughts, emotions, behavior, action, and health. The findings align well with the thoughts of a Harvard Professor and psychiatrist, Dr Christopher Palmer, who hypothesizes that all brain diseases are a lack of energy within the brain. Can a lack of energy in some organs (the brain, the heart, the connective tissue, the skin, the hooves), due to the allocation of a set amount of total energy to gut inflammation and environmental stress in horses, be the root cause of disease, lameness, and behavioral issues?

Dr Martin Picard - https://www.picardlab.org

Dr Christopher Palmer - https://brainenergy.com

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Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.

The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.

The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.

Please give a thumbs-up or a 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

The information about care for our horses is overwhelming and often conflicting. The reason is simple: accurate science with horses is impossible due to the expense.

The rule for scientific study follows a simple roadmap. First, suggest a hypothesis, which is a supposition based on observation but not on facts or evidence. Then, scientists work hard to disprove the hypothesis. If they can't prove it wrong, then it must be right, and, therefore, the hypothesis becomes a theory based on fact.

Several problems arise in collecting facts, such as ensuring there are enough subjects in the study and that they represent all subjects in the world. Studying engineering or mathematical questions can be done anywhere in the world, countless times, and with standard variables. However, in living things like you and your horses, too many variables exist to make the facts rock-solid in their validity. Studies on our horses require large numbers of horses to be examined over long periods, and the expense of doing so prevents good, accurate science.

The results are sophistry, or smoke and mirrors. Facts are twisted to shape the theory, leading to conflicting, confusing information for the horse owner. There are only two ways for horse owners to resolve this dilemma:

- Return our care for horses to a time before human intervention, when evolution shaped their needs.

- Ask this question: Is what is being done today to our horses in their best interest, and does it support or distract from how they developed?

This podcast starts and shapes the discussion about horse care for all horse owners, whether novice or seasoned professional. The theme is this: just because we can, should we? The hypothesis is this: Is what we do to horses in their best interest? As owners, we need to look at the "facts" that marketing geniuses say lead to their conclusions and prove whether they are true or just smoke and mirrors.

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Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.

The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.

The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.

Please give a thumbs-up or a 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

More dramatic stories from horse people about how tooth extractions were recommended by veterinarians, with one causing weight loss and permanent diet changes, and the other averted by a second opinion. What was common to both stories was that no horse had a chewing, eating, or weight problem before the recommendation.

I discuss the common practice of "comlexication," in which experts, professionals, and agenda-driven companies impose their unproven theories on the care of our horses. Theories require rigorous scientific examination; however, all horse studies can barely prove causation. Rather, they depend on correlation, which allows for opinions rather than verified facts. The result is that horse owners hear an abundance of opinions and follow those that "sound good." Does this allow them to "do the best for their horses?"

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Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.

The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.

The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.

Please give a thumbs-up or a 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

I remember when I started my veterinary career: someone told me that, although I was skilled and had just graduated from vet school, the older local veterinarian had more experience. I responded that just because he was old doesn't mean he was aware of the new techniques and knowledge I had just learned. This dynamic remains unchanged, and it seems just as misguided now as it did back then.

I now realize that, while horses haven't changed much over the thousands of years they have coexisted with humans, our approach to their care has evolved significantly. I often turn to the wisdom of my elders to deepen my understanding of modern horse veterinary care. One of my key mentors in this area is my friend, Dr. James Belden. He returns for the third time to share his invaluable insights from decades of work with horses.

Just because Dr. Belden has been a veterinarian for over 65 years doesn't mean he isn't up to date with today's research. He is truly brilliant and will impress you with his current knowledge on many horse-related topics.

I am grateful for this Thanksgiving holiday tradition of spending time with Dr. Belden. I'm thankful you're carving out a spot in your busy lives to listen to this replay.

2 minutes 11 seconds - [Deep Digital Flexor Tendon injury and diarrhea] I would love a fresh perspective on rehabbing a DDFT injury. It has been almost 3 years since the injury occurred. I have had PRP and shockwave done, and 4 rounds of stem cells. One distal perfusion and 3 subcutaneous injections spaced out over a year. "How hard do you push," and can pain cause stomach upset, i.e., diarrhea?

16 minutes 57 seconds - [Equine Herpes Virus - 1 neurologic form outbreak, prevention] Thoughts on the EHV-1 outbreak. When traveling with our horses, what precautions should we consider when they are in stalls at an event? I think next time I may spray the stall walls with a bleach solution. Ideas? Of course, I always bring my own buckets, etc.

26 minutes 35 seconds - [Skin condition with severe itching, mites] I continue to struggle with MITES… with the cold weather, my horse has become itchier and has dandruff in the mane, tail, neck, head, and ears…E S! He is itching his ear nonstop. It has dandruff and sores at the base. Ivermectin has resolved some of the problems. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

44 minutes 10 seconds - Various topics and stories with Dr. Belden.

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Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.

The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.

The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.

Please give a thumbs-up or a 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

I will be a member of a roundtable discussion on equine dentistry in December, along with a dozen or so other equine dentists. The goal, according to the manager of this discussion, is to table everyone's ideas and to hear everyone's opinion. We have all been asked not to denigrate contributors because equine dentists are siloed into their beliefs and are contentious in defending their beliefs as fact.

Facts, however, are facts, and with them, theories can be proven. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia) famously said this: "I never guess. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly, one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Unfortunately, scientists, veterinarians, and equine dentists have twisted facts to fit theories. Therefore, theories are defended with passion because there are no facts to support them, and all that is left is the emotion of being important.

Countering unproven theories are data collected over 84,000 horses that I have floated. With large numbers, patterns develop. This kind of accumulation of observations is called an observational study. They are not anecdotal, which means they are not based on fact. Rather, observational studies are conducted over time with large numbers to identify patterns. They may also be called wisdom or experience and can be supported by evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). However, with limited funding, RCTs will never be conducted.

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Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.

The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.

The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.

Please give a thumbs-up or a 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

I have returned to podcasting after a 7-month hiatus. There are two reasons:

1. I have been working on a new place where all horse owners can find unbiased, safe, private, and convenient information about their horses. Go to Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com to see how easy it is to get the information you want.
2. Too many recent events have involved incompetent care for horses.

I discuss the effect of relying only on what we know to draw conclusions about the care of horses; the term silo (siloed, siloing) is commonly used.

A silo is a long, vertical tube standing on end, about 15 to 40 feet (4.5 to 12 meters) in diameter and 50 to 150 feet (15 to 46 meters) tall. Originally used to store grains on farms, they now have multiple uses and configurations, including underground missile storage.

The term, silo, is also used to describe keeping ideas, processes, and departments isolated from all others. It is how I use it in this podcast: horse caregivers only use what they know, don't ask questions outside their silo to determine the cause of the problem, and instead focus only on the solution to fix the problem.

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Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place for learning about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.

The Equine Practice, Inc. is a website that discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.

The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.

Please give a thumbs up or 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

There are two reasons for horses to become obese. The first reason is that they eat more calories daily than they use. The intake of calories is in the form of excess starch from hay and grains and excess fat from the digestion of cellulose in the hindgut.

The second reason is often misunderstood. There must be a demand for the fat stored in the body fat; otherwise, it will remain or even increase body fat. The demand is created when muscle cells are used to the point of exhaustion, which, in terms of metabolism, means the lactate and glycogen are nearly all consumed within the muscle cells. This exhaustion of glucose and lactate forces the cell to use the fat stored within the cell, thus creating a demand for replacement of cell fat from body fat stores.

Horses with limited exercise ability (lameness, age) should still be encouraged to move, but they will need less food. However, remember that calorie restriction signals the horse to maintain or increase body fat because it will believe there is little food available, so it needs to conserve energy. Increasing exercise allows for adequate calorie consumption due to its effect of lowering hunger.

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TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a website for learning about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its membership side allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and gain a deeper understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide working with horses.

HorsemanshipDentistry.com is a website that discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. TheEquinePractice.com/appointment

HorsemanshipDentistrySchool.com is a website for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses. There are eight spots a year for interested students PLUS, there is a separate online course for those wanting to learn how to do this but can never get to South Florida for hands-on training.

Show support for The Horse's Advocate by wearing a hat or shirt or drinking from a cup, all with the official logo. For our swag, go to this link: (https://the-horses-advocate.creator-spring.com/).

Please give a thumbs up or 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."