By Kim J. Harmon

Need a one-stop place on the World Wide Web for all of your equine informational needs – information, that is, on stuff like breeds, nutrition, horse care, current research, organizations, and veterinarians?

Then check out Cybersteed, a web site that provides literally hundreds of links – dozens in each of the areas listed above – for any possible informational need.

Have a question on equine research? With one click, you are shown a gateway to more than 125 sites from the American Association of Equine Practitioners to the Virginia Horse Council. With one more click, you can be hooked up to Horsepower for the Heart, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching children on the proper care and handling of horses. HFTH works with blind, deaf and underprivileged children.

There are also a number of equine rescue sites, from the American Horse Protection Association to the Wild Horse Sanctuary, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing wild horses and horses that are being neglected on private land.

Need to look into new feed for your animals? Well, there are links to 33 different companies and organizations from the Armada Grain Company to Woodford Feed, a Kentucky feed and farm store that has been in business for the past 60 years.

Then what about new products from stall mats and saddlery to training items and trailers? There is a lot to look at, but also take a quick look at Epanotech, which offers a PC software package that can help you track changes in hoof conformation, or Equine Law, where the associates of Miller, Griffin & Marks have gathered information on leading court decisions involving horses.

Need information on different types of horse breeds for a research project? Links to such breeds from Akhal Tekes and the American Paint Horse all the way to Tinker Ponies and Welsh Ponies abound. There are even links to such international breeds as the Nooitgedacht Horse Breeders Society and the Kisher Felver & Gidran Association of North America.

Or are you researching some health issues? There are a number of clinics and hospitals (from the Brooke Hospital for Animals in London to the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Kentucky), resource sites (from Alternative Veterinary Medicine to the Veterinary Information Network), and organizations (from APHIN, the animal productivity and health information network, to the Waltham Nutritional website).

There are even links to veterinary schools all across the world, from Australia to Uruguay, and dozens of links to books and publications from the Syncopated Press (books for young adults from ages 9 to 15) to the Equine Marketer, an advertising and information magazine for the horseman with a monthly readership of some 30,000.

And even if Cybersteed can’t provide what you need, it also provides a number of search engines and directories so you can delve even deeper into the World Wide Web. Use such engines as iHorse, the Horseplanet, and the National Horseman’s Internet and Directory.

So, don’t do any more hunting and pecking around the Internet, searching for what you need and maybe never finding it because there are many places – like Cybersteed – which can help guide the way.