Dr. Robert Miller's Articles

I was the first veterinarian to reside and to practice in the Conejo Valley of Southern California. Sparsely populated by people, it had an enormous animal population. Thousands of beef cattle grazed the valley back then. The ranchers, of course, had...

A task which should be regularly performed upon geldings (twice a year or more), but which many horse owners refer to their veterinarian to do, or simply ignore until the situation becomes critical, is cleaning of the prepuce (the sheath of the penis...

In 1947 I was a freshman student at the University of Arizona, majoring in Animal Husbandry under the G.I. Bill. One of our required courses was Introductory Veterinary Science, taught by Dr. William Pistor. During the second week of the course Dr...

I was twenty-nine years of age and a senior at Colorado A&M School of Veterinary Medicine. A classmate, student Resnick and I were surveying the minority of female students in the school cafeteria. There were not too many bachelors in our post-war...

I never started a colt under saddle until the summer of 1947. I was working for a ranch in Cochise County, Arizona. They had half a dozen colts to “break”, most of them four year olds, so they hired a “colt breaker”, also known...

In the spring of 1958, one year after I opened my practice in California, one of my new clients, the cow boss on the extensive Crummer Ranch told me that because of the torrential winter rains and the resulting waist high grass growth, that they were...

We are all aware that we communicate with our own species verbally and non-verbally. But when trying to communicate with another species, I have observed, during my veterinary career, that many people simple use language and voice tone to communicate...

In 1988 I was invited to speak at the American Quarter Horse Annual Congress in Columbus, Ohio. One of the subjects I discussed was the increasing trend in the Pleasure Horse classes for the poll to be carried far below the level of the withers. Somebody...

Several times, during my long career as a veterinarian, I have had clients call me because, they said, their horse was over-reacting to stable flies by violently shaking their heads. I remember asking why other horses in the stable were not displaying...

Wild equines such as zebra, American mustangs, Mongolian Wild Horses, wild donkeys or Burros, etc., live in grasslands, also known as prairies, steppes, etc. They spend much of every day grazing the plant life, which is green part of the year, and dry...

An Israeli organization is offering a technology called Faception, which identifies human behavior based on facial features. Reported in The Week magazine, June 17, 2016, the company is already working with a U.S. Homeland security agency. Eighty percent...

When I developed Imprint Training of the newborn foal in 1959, because I was a veterinarian I included desensitization of all body openings (eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, anus, vagina in the female, etc.) because I know from experience that many mature...

I recently saw a video of a group of donkeys grieving over the death of a herd member. It was so touching to hear the group braying, inspecting the body and very visibly displaying their concern and grief. The intelligence and awareness of this long...

Thank you Charles Darwin for helping us to understand Evolution. Without our respect and our acknowledgement for the evolutionary process, we could not comprehend the qualities each species has required to cope with its ever-changing environment. If any...

The modern horse, and its evolutionary cousins, originated in North America as Eohippus, a multi-toed mammal about the size of a lamb. Domestication occurred in several parts of the world and, once domesticated, the equine species had a profound effect...

I wrote this on the last day of the Cowboy Dressage World Finals Show, at the Rancho Murieta Equestrian Center, an immense facility out in the middle of nowhere (sprawling, rolling grasslands). I love this event for several reasons. It is a competitive...

Some species, including Homo Sapiens (That is US!) can, if the individual is healthy, tolerate sudden changes in diet without problems. But, other species, especially the herbivores (grazing animals) can suffer if the diet is changed abruptly. The...

When I was young, starting previously unhandled colts on summer jobs for cattle ranches in several states, the term “colt” usually referred to 4 or 5 year old horses. Occasionally, one was older, maybe 6 or 7, or, rarely a 3 year old. The...

I opened my practice in rural California in 1958, hoping to establish a group practice. By the end of the first decade I had two practice partners, Dr. Bob Kind and Dr. Larry Dresher, both Kansas State University graduates. It was July, and I was on...

It is March 28, 2020. There is never a time without problems. That’s life. However, some of our primary problems are unique. Certainly the Corona Virus has created a national emergency, and our responses to that emergency are unlike those our nation...

Recently there has been increased interest in the injuries, including fractures that occur at our racetracks. This has agitated many people and caused some to campaign against the sport. Those who are concerned about the problem, and frankly, all persons...

During my practice career I treated countless hundreds, perhaps thousands of horses for colic (acute gastric or intestinal pain). Most survived, but many died. A majority was due to human error. The caretakers made avoidable mistakes. Similar errors...

The largest group of horse owners in the U.S.A. ride purely for recreation. For pleasure. For the relationship with the horse. To enjoy the out of doors activity. The people involved in the competitive riding disciplines (Western, English, Dressage...

I heard you ring, come in my friend! I was watching TV news, The price of gold, the rioting, and politicians' views. There's been another murder, a plane crash, an earthquake, too. Come in and watch this rocket launch, It's been long since...

Fred Stone, the world’s foremost painter of horses, has been a client, neighbor and friend for half a century. Fred’s paintings, mostly, but not exclusively, are of Thoroughbred racehorses. Living in a modest rural home as long as I have...