Today we talk Environment and Insurance. How do factors like a horse’s age, previous history of colic, breed or current use impact it’s risk of colic? Look into today’s content to find out!

One of the major challenges when looking at colic risk studies is the number of interacting factors involved. It can be difficult to tease apart the effects of breed (which may also be influenced by the breeds represented in the study), feeding practices, and management. Depending how the study accounts for these, and other, interactions, a factor identified as a risk in one study may not appear significant in another.

SO WHAT DO WE DO? The most useful approach is to look for consistent trends across multiple studies. If several independent studies identify the same factor as a risk you can generally be more confident that association is reliable. Additionally, it is important to apply practical judgement, if a reported risk seems biologically unlikely, it may be related to study limitations as opposed to a true relationship.

Talking about risk brings us right into talking Insurance. Don’t forget to also check out the interview with Mike King from Acera Insurance. In the video clip he gives some great practical information about horse insurance. Some things we’ll learn today: What is horse insurance? What should we know about horse insurance and why? Policy costs? First steps to getting horse insurance?

REMEMBER: Pop any questions you might have for Mike about horse insurance into the Discussions!