It’s that time again, when the American Horse Publications group announces their finalists for the Equine Media Awards, for work published in 2022. And, once again, I am proud to have been named a finalist for two articles that I entered in four different categories:

“Sweat It Out” was a horse health article published in the July/August 2022 issue of The Equine Chronicle. I shared new research from the Universit of Florida and Dr. Samantha Brooks that is starting to cue in on genetic testing for anhidrosis. (Anhidrosis is a condition where the horse cannot sweat, no matter how hot the temperature is or how much the horse is worked.)

“Can you imagine living in a climate that’s constantly hot with high humidity, working outside daily, or even just standing out in a pasture with the sun beating down on your back? Your body is burning up, but you have no way of cooling yourself. That’s the misery many horses experience when living in Southern climates like Florida or even during a Northeastern summer. That’s why researchers at the University of Florida felt it was imperative to look deeper into anhidrosis, or the inability to sweat normally.”

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“Easing the Perils of the Wild Horse” was one of those articles that was spurred by previous research that I did for another article a few years ago. One researcher has been working on a new drug-free contraceptive for mares that he hopes will be most beneficial for easing the over-population of wild horses. His mention of the fertility control program made me want to look deeper into what was being done to help America’s wild horses. This was published in the May 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated.

“The big issue between passionate supporters of the wild horses and supporters of the BLM is what seems to be dwindling acreage making it difficult for the wild horses to find enough to eat and drink. However, according to the BLM, the acreage isn’t shrinking—the population is outgrowing the land they have.
“The difficult position for the wild horses is that the size of their habitat has not grown with time. The 1921 Wild Horse and Burro Act says that the BLM can only manage wild horses and burros where they are found when that act was passed. This means that the land inhabited by wild horses in 1921 is the same range they can inhabit 101 years later.”

The best of the equine media industry will converge in Tempe, Arizona, the last weekend of June. Since I, unfortunately, missed the celebration in Lexington in 2022, I’m looking forward to reuniting with everyone and learning more to help not only my writing but learn tools I can use to help my clients.