Sid Gustafson
Novelist and Veterinarian
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Veterinary Clinic of Big Sky, MT: Pets and Horses, 995-2266
Open 9-5, Monday through Thursday.
Comprehensive veterinary services. Diagnosis and Therapy. Dentistry and Surgery. House and Ranch calls. Urgent Care and Treatment. Wellness and Graceful Aging. Behavior Services. Pet and Horse Nutrition and Supply Store! All animals and folk are welcome to stop by and check us out! 
Promoting willing partnerships with animals
Holistic Health, Nutrition and Enrichment Massage, Therapeutic Ultrasound, Physical Therapy Dog, Cat, and Horse Dental Care. Learn to keep your companion animal's teeth healthy. Educational Services, Teaching your dog to be a willing partner, First Aid classes and certification. Sign up now at the clinic. Horsemanship Dentistry Services. 
Premium Pet and Horse Nutrition
Equine Behavior Presentations for Horsefolk and Veterinarians
Hands on talks and presentations: Appreciating Horses: the language of horsemanship. Contact DrSid at equinevet@me.com Veterinary Behavior Services
Dr Gustafson provides Veterinary Behavior Services for the animals and animal folk locally in Big Sky, MT, as well as giving equine behavioral consultations worldwide. He creates customized training and husbandry strategies in accord with the horse's social and locomotive grazing nature to facilitate optimal growth and achieve peak mental and physical performance through adulthood. DrSid offers enrichment strategies to enhance performance as well as to improve the healing process in convalescing animals. Additionally, Dr Gustafson is the equine behaviour instructor at Equine Guelph with the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. In addition to teaching university students, he teaches the horse-loving public through his equine behavior presentations and demonstrations. DrSid's horse talks teach horsefolk how to understand and appreciate equine behavior, and subsequently better care for and train their horses. Dr Gustafson helps animal folks provide their animals with optimum care with mutual benefits to humans and domestic animals alike. Veterinary Behavior Services provides behavioral help to any and all animals in need. Pursuing his lifelong horsemanship interests, Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University in 1979 with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree to specialize in equine sports medicine. His subsequent interest in the behavioral and physical health challenges that stabling and confinement created for horses led him to the study of equine behavior.
As Equine Studies Program Coordinator for the Natural Horsemanship Program at the University of Montana Western from 2006-2008, Professor Gustafson developed a science-based equine studies curriculum that explored equine behavior and husbandry as it applied to the social development and training of horses. Sid currently lives in Bozeman and Big Sky, MT, where in addition to being a veterinarian, he is a novelist. He had the good fortune to be raised by horses in Montana just under the Medicine Line of Alberta, Rocky Mountain Front Range country he rides about horseback with the Blackfoot Indians. Dr Gustafson developed an early interest in equine behavior through his exposure to Native American horsemanship and his family’s ranching and horse breeding pursuits. Dr Sid remains witness to feral horses in natural settings on a regular basis. He has raised and trained horses all his life, and continues to do so understanding clearly there is much more to know and appreciate about horses. Behavioral health and fulfillment are critical aspects of the human animal bond. Dr Gustafson advocates socialization, enrichment, and learning and training principles that approach relationships from both the animal and human perspective. Resolution of unwelcome behaviors often involves positive changes for the animal and a restoration of natural preferences and tendencies. Appropriate fulfillment activities and proper training and teaching can help manage or eliminate many unwanted behavioral problems. People and animals thrive together when mutual communication flourishes. Fulfillment and enrichment of natural preferences and needs of animals promotes behavioral health. The prevention and management of behavior problems requires thoughtful insight into the nature of the relationships between animals and people. Socialization is a critical component of behavioral development, and needs to be accomplished during the growing stages. A behavior consult is best accomplished before behavioral problems develop. New pet and horse owners are encouraged to develop a relationship with a veterinary behaviorist to help insure their companion grows, learns, and develops in a fashion suitable to both species. PREVENTION is key to behavioral health. Adequate SOCIALIZATION of young animals both with their species and with humans is essential for normal psychological health and mental development. Appropriate training that appreciates the nature of the dog, cat, and horse is a veterinary behavior essential, as well. 
Evolution and Domestication of the Wolf
THE EVOLUTION AND DOMESTICATION OF THE WOLF Sid Gustafson Tuesdays, 2:30-4:30 p.m. • Nov. 23 to Dec. 14 • Museum of the Rockies Shared geographies, social structures, survival strategies, and communication skills facilitated the eventual pairing of wolves with prehistoric man. Dog became mankind’s earliest animal partner thousands of years ago. What characteristics of men and wolves led to their eventual partnership? What wolf behaviors do dogs retain after thousands of years of selective breeding? Join us for a study of the development of the human/canine bond through time. Class Format Lecture and discussion Sid Gustafson is a novelist, veterinarian, university educator and veterinary behaviorist. Dr. Gustafson has been submerged in animal culture all his life and has taught and practiced animal behavior. As well, he seasonally represents the health and welfare of horses at racetracks in California and New York. The Language of Horses
Dr Sid provides horse associations, universities, equine expos and horse fairs the opportunity to learn about equine behavior through his fascinating presentations and demonstrations. http://www.youtube.com/user/EquineExpo#p/a/u/2/J85rrj5J72k Equine Behaviour
Online education through EquineGuelph. http://www.open.uoguelph.ca/offerings/offering.aspx?hold=y&id=3646 Veterinary Clinic of Big Sky
Veterinary Clinic of Big Sky 48025 Gallatin Road, Big Sky, MT. 59716 406-995-2266 Horseracing in America
With the advent of permissible raceday medication in the 70s horseracing in the United States entered the saddest phase of its history. The drug-weakened integrity of the sport began with Barbaro’s Preakness breakdown, and culminated in the tragic 2008 Kentucky Derby death of Eight Belles, who fractured both front legs in the biggest race in America in front of millions of viewers. Equine Veterinarian, novelist, and journalist Sid Gustafson takes readers onto the backsides of racetracks across America to deliver the firsthand story of the racehorse culture as it evolved from the 60s into the troubled drug culture of the 21st century that resulted in alarming numbers of racetrack breakdowns. He colorfully portrays the vulnerability of horses to pharmaceutical influence to gain competitive advantage and delves into the complex phenomenon of horsemen willing to subjugate horses to potent dangerous drugs for unfair competitive advantage without due consideration for the noble creatures and their riders. In this visionary book Dr Gustafson, a seasoned racetrack practitioner, explains how horseracing came to this low point and delineates the necessary guidelines and equine breeding, husbandry, conditioning, and training practices and principles necessary to restore integrity to the Sport of Kings. 
Nina Gustafson takes flight
HORSES THEY RODE
“This is a fascinating novel.” Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall and Dalva When I started reading this fine novel, I was at first taken aback, then disturbed. After fifty pages, I realized -- or more accurately, admitted -- why: I was humbled. Sid Gustafson's understanding of Montana -- real cowboys and Indians, and the love-hate dependency that ties them, the land, and its animals together -- is bone deep, blood true, and beautifully described. Neil McMahon, author of Twice Dying, Blood Double and the forthcoming Lone Creek, HarperCollins / April 2007 -- set in and around Helena, Montana. Few novelists have a sense of place, for Americans are a rootless people. Sid’s is acute, and he tells a great story of his land and the people on it, and in it… Peter Bowen, author of Coyote Wind and the Gabriel Du Pré Montana Mysteries “Sid Gustafson writes like the language is a race horse and he is the rider, ready to go as far and fast as they both can go. He is in love with words, especially as they attach to the weather, terrain and inhabitants of Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, one of the most unforgiving and beautiful regions on the planet. He knows what he’s talking about. Listen to him.” Deidre McNamer, author of Rima in the Weeds and My Russian PRISONERS OF FLIGHT
The Great American Wilderness Novel First Aid for the Active Dog
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Hand-crafted floating, no sedatives or motorized equipment, gentle handling and training.
Dogowner training and teaching services. Haven Leavitt, BS. Dog Daycare and Training Services, Custom pet-sitting and boarding for established clients.
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Located in Big Sky Nature's Variety Pet Foods
Healing with appropriate nutrition Video: Appreciating Horses
DrSid's Principles of Equine Behavior, What Horses Require for Optimum Health, Training, Learning, and Performance 
What Horses Want
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