Found It!

http://www.offthemark.com

Endangered wild horses born at Calgary Zoo

They have the head of a Norwegian Fjord, and the rear end of an Arabian. The mane of a zebra (although these manes - and tails- shed once a year... how weird!) Close-coupled and energy-efficient, these little animals are the oldest living breed of of Equid on our planet.
If you've never seen this type of horse, take a look. They are really cool, and there are only about 1800 in the whole world!

CBC News - Calgary - Endangered wild horses born at Calgary Zoo

Lend a Helping HAIR?!

This was just forwarded by a friend and is the first I've heard of this technique, though admittedly, my heart breaks when hearing the horrid news pertaining to our country's latest contribution to World Destruction, so I've had to limit my news consumption. Anyway, if any of you are grooming a pet this holiday weekend, Sweep it Up and Send it Out!! ~J

PRESS RELEASE/URGENT~ 5/23/10

HAIR NEEDED TO MOP OIL IN GULF REGION

Rein-Aid wants hair to ship to the gulf ASAP. We have identified a wonderful not-for-profit organization that has set up emergency warehouses all along the gulf coast. They stuff nylon stockings with hair to create booms that mop up the oil.

Send us your horse hair if you need to clip for a show, pull a mane or trim a tail. If you groom or clip a dog, send us that. Ask you hair salon to give you their daily take of cut hair or ask them to contact us directly.

Any type of hair will work, but it must not contain debris or manure that could harm the volunteers stuffing the hair into the stockings.

Ladies we need your old nylons, any color and ladders are no problem.

No amount of hair is too small as we will bundle all we get and ship it together.

Please mail your hair to:
Rein-Aid, Attn. Kim Keppick
P.O. Box 1268, Middleburg, VA 20118.

If you prefer to use UPS/Fedex ship to:
Rein-Aid, Attn. Kim Keppick
3064 Lost Corner Rd, Rectortown, VA 20140.

If you are local to Middleburg and want to drop off your hair or have it picked up then
please e-mail reinaid@earthlink.net or call 540 364 3668 ask for Kim.

Horses and humans

Horses and humans

More Views of the Tiniest Horse!

Fun video clips and pics of the little guy who's put Barnstead, NH on the map!

A Horse "Healer" with remarkable Abilities!

http://www.disaboom.com/spinal-cord-injury-sci/quadriplegic-horse-gentler-healer-tames-inner-fears

The Horse | Belgian and Car Collide: Car Loses

The Horse | Belgian and Car Collide: Car Loses

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Mini Horse In Barnstead Could Claim World Record - Family News Story - WMUR Manchester

Mini Horse In Barnstead Could Claim World Record - Family News Story - WMUR Manchester

Itsy-bitsy stallion | Concord Monitor

Itsy-bitsy stallion | Concord Monitor

Great Site for Horsey Bookworms!

Much Ado About Horses  Your source for new and used equestrian books on all breeds and disciplines, but specializing in the Arabian Horse. We carry many rare, hard to find and out of print books.

Local Farriers Prepare for Calgary World Championship Competition

DOVER, NH — Four New Hampshire men spent their Saturday stoking a coal fire and hammering hot steel into horseshoes at the Dover Police Mounted Patrol Stable. 
Their work was part of their weekly training routine for the World Championship Blacksmith's Competition at the Calgary Stampede, which is the so-called "Olympics of Blacksmithing."

Fosters.com - Dover NH, Rochester NH, Portsmouth NH, Laconia NH, Sanford ME

The Horse | Morgans Make Bid for U. S. Driving Team

The Horse | Morgans Make Bid for U. S. Driving Team

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The Desert Independent

The Desert Independent

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/press-releases/322-pigeon-fever-outbreak-uncovered-as-blm-continues-closed-door-policy-4110

Sad news... that NEEDS to be passed on and NOT IGNORED! This is tragic and should not happen in a "humane" society!

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/press-releases/322-pigeon-fever-outbreak-uncovered-as-blm-continues-closed-door-policy-4110

Fran Jurga`s Hoof Blog: Up-to-the Minute News from Hoofcare & Lameness Journal: Next Stop on the Pub (Art) Crawl: Au Petit Fer a Cheval in Paris

A Horse Person's Guide to Paris - Great fun to read!
Fran Jurga`s Hoof Blog: Up-to-the Minute News from Hoofcare & Lameness Journal: Next Stop on the Pub (Art) Crawl: Au Petit Fer a Cheval in Paris

Lessons From Lady

Lady was my first horse.

She wasn’t really mine… she belonged to the people at the dairy farm across the street from our house. The girls at the farm had gotten older, and sick of taking care of her, so she just lived out in a huge field with the “dry” cows.

Lady was a chocolate brown color, with huge brown eyes, a shaggy gold and brown mane, and a zig-zaggy white stripe down the middle of her face. I loved her, in spite of the fact that she was a cantankerous old pony, who seemed to only love being left alone.

The deal was; if I could catch her, I could ride her.

Lady was not overly fond of that deal. She’d grown very fond of her “Wild Pony of the Moors” existence, and hauling little kids around was NOT on her current To Do list.

Most days with Lady went like this:

I would rush off the school bus and change into my barn clothes, and hurry across the street. I would gather up lady’s dingy, ill-fitting bridle, her ancient Western saddle made of cracking, moldy leather, a saddle blanket stiff with sweat from rides past, and would head to the field where she and the cattle stayed. I was told that was the way the other girls had always done it.

The cattle in this field were too young to have given birth, or were waiting to have their next calf, so they had no milking schedule, or any schedule at all for that matter. Lady liked that routine.  Sometimes the herd would be close to the barns, sunning themselves in the worn, dry dirt patches or drinking from the huge water troughs kept full at one end of their field. Sometimes they would be in the tall grass out near the highway, a good mile from the barns, hanging out on the other side of the fence from their buddies in the milking herd.

Cows are fairly lazy, and these were all used to people checking on them and feeding them regularly, so they didn’t care if a 10-yr old kid wandered among them. Lucky for Lady, cows are easily led, or driven, when a quick getaway or a diversion is needed. When I first tried to go get Lady, she wanted nothing to do with kids or riding, which made catching her absolutely impossible. She would start by simply wandering through the herd, carefully keeping a cow or two between us at all times. If I was persistent, she would eventually start moving the cows off, darting here and there to get them started, and then the whole group would thunder past me toward the highway, or off to the bluffs on the other side of the stream, far away on the border of the neighboring farm. I would wander through the field after them, crying and calling, dragging the heavy saddle and fittings behind me.

Sometimes I would give up and go home sobbing. But other times, after an hour or so of leading me all over the field, Lady would probably take pity on me, and condescend to being caught. I was never mad at her, just ecstatic to finally be able to pet her, and would empty my pockets of carrots and cookies and sugar, and rub her face and tell her she was beautiful. Many times I would end up just feeding and petting her and letting her go, as I’d be too tired to ride by that point. Eventually, I stopped bringing all of the tack into the field, and would just bring treats and brushes.

Unconsciously, that is how I won my way into Lady’s trust. When I had no saddle in tow, she would come over much more quickly. Horses do love treats, so there was also the bribery card in play. But there came a time when, even after the treats were gone, lady would stay with me, and let me brush her and pick the burrs out of her mane until it began to grow dark.

     By this time, I had cleaned up an old rope halter, and washed it until it was soft and smelled nice. Lady did not mind at all when I’d put that on her head. I decided that old saddle was to stiff and heavy for either of us to carry, so I found an old piece of fleece from a dog’s bed, and got help sewing a makeshift belly band onto it. It had no stirrups, so to climb on to her back, I would have to lead lady to a rock or a stump. I wasn’t very good at getting on initially, and would slide under the horse as many times as I’d make it up to her back. Some times when I’d tumble, she’d run a little way off to eat grass. Some times she’d stay there and let me make another attempt. She never, once, stepped on me, for all the time I spent underneath her.

By the end of summer I could sit on her for hours as she moved around the field eating grass. Where we went was always her idea, but that was fine by me. From the ground, I could now lead her almost anywhere, so would sometimes take her out of the cow field and over to my back yard. I had brought her horrible tack home, and cleaned and softened it to the point where I could tie her to the picnic table, put her things on, and give my little brother and sisters rides around our yard.

Today there is a popular psychology tool called EFEL; Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning. Lady was clearly a pioneer in this field, and I am grateful for the lessons I learned from her.

I learned that: you don’t force a 1000 pound being to do anything.

I learned to figure out what she liked, and to adapt my desires to hers… to find a compromise.

Most importantly, I learned that... Chasing something rarely works, but Quiet patience and persistence sometimes does pay off.

Large Blue Horses

Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses) 

Franz Marc 1911 ~ oil on canvas  

At the turn of the century, Franz Marc was part of an avant-garde circle of Russian and German painters known as Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). With fellow members Wassily Kandinsky, August Macke, and others, Marc explored the psychological effects of color and line in daring abstract compositions. Following a doctrine of "inner necessity," The Blue Rider ceased representing the "real" world and, instead, painted visions derived from the "inner mind." Marc's The Large Blue Horses is an excellent example of The Blue Rider's use of color and line to symbolize universal principles. Marc chose animals as his subject because he believed in their "purer, more sublime relationship with the world," and he used abstract color (a brilliant blue) and line (the curving of the horses' necks) to communicate their spiritual harmony with nature.
The Large Blue Horses occupies a special place in the Walker Art Center's history as the first major modernist work to enter the collection. The painting was purchased in 1942 through the Gilbert M. Walker Memorial Fund, which had been established in the early 1940s to encourage a shift in the museum's collecting practices toward the contemporary and modern. Between 1942 and 1948, 60 works of art were purchased using this fund. In the years since, the Walker's permanent collection has continued to serve as a strong representation of 20th-century art practices.

The Horse | Horses Needed for Equine Metabolic Syndrome Research Project

The Horse | Horses Needed for Equine Metabolic Syndrome Research Project

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Ode to the Great Horse Mystery Author; DICK FRANCIS

A brilliant, beloved author and horseman passed away on February 14, 2010, at the age of 89. I cannot remember when I read my first Dick Francis novel, but I know that for decades, his clever, spellbinding tales have been enjoyable escapes in my preciously few “leisure moments.” 

As a former steeplechase jockey who rode horses for Queen Elizabeth, Francis wrote with authority of all things related to the world of horse racing. His intensely descriptive style allowed readers to feel the cool mist on their faces as his protagonists returned from the downs on a clammy Newmarket morning. His tales are unorthodox, but wholly believable, and keep the reader guessing until nearly the last page every time. His plots are twisty and involved, but not overly technical or dry (I’ve heard that even non-horse people enjoy them too). As a matter of fact, in some of his novels, his main character is not even directly involved in racing, but somewhere on the periphery, and creatively dragged into the world of breeding, betting, training, etc. – and the dark sides of human nature brought on in nearly every pursuit when greed or over-ambition take the reins. 

One of the hallmarks of any Dick Francis novel is the unerring details of any profession, business, town, or racecourse mentioned in his books. I recently picked up Dead Heat, one of his later works, published in 2007. The protagonist here is a chef, and Francis accurately describes the preparation of many complex dishes throughout the book. As usual, he also brings into play some pretty detailed equine physiology, as well as the ins-and-outs of international horse trafficking. And, in the end, we are left in awe of another simple, brilliant title with loads of innuendo (the other hallmark of this man’s 40+ bestsellers). 

I was pleased to learn that in later years, Francis’ son Felix became his business manager, researcher, and then co-author (after his own successful career as a top-level Physics instructor… obviously brilliance does run in the family). Felix inspired the lead character in Twice Shy (1981). The other Francis son, Merrick, ended up in the horse transport business, upon which the 1992 novel, Driving Force, was based.

Dick Francis novels are easy to stumble upon… as many date back to the ‘80s and ‘90s. They are a great vacation read, or sick-day pastime, and they are perfect for sharing and gifting to all of your horsey friends. Long live the memory of the man who has given us so much pleasure and insight into the romantic, mysterious, and sometimes sinister world of horse racing. -JP

the A, B, Cs of a Horse Addict’s Vocabulary:

These words may have other meaning elsewhere, but amongst horsemen, we all know what we’re really talking about!
Aid- attempts to communicate with the horse with any body part available
Bit- a steering mechanism
Curry- the thing that breaks up the mud-encrusted spring coat
Dandy- the thing that sometimes gets some of said mud out from in between the hairs
Engaged- when you and your horse are finally going in the same direction at relatively the same speed
Filly- a female horse under four years old
Girth- what holds the saddle on
Hand- a linear measurement equaling 4 inches (10cm) used to measure horses from the ground to the top of their withers
Irons- what you put your feet in… and having absolutely nothing to do with laundry!
Jog- a short-paced trot
Keeper- what keeps the long ends of an ill-fitting bridle from flapping all over
Lunge – to move a horse in a circle on a long rein (or for the horse to move you in a circle, if you’re not that good at it)
Mane- the last thing to grab at before hitting the ground
Nicker- a sound of contentment or recognition
Off- not sound… exhibiting an uneven gait
Piaffe- trotting in one place
Quitter- runs just fast enough to tease the trainer, but not long enough to ever win
Rear- for a horse to rise up on its hind legs
Shy- to freak out… run sideways or backward with no notice
Tack- the stuff you put on a horse (also the stuff you spend a good part of all your money on)
Unseated –no longer on top of the horse
Volte- a horse’s pirouette
Withers- the highest part of a horse’s back (hopefully)
X- the one who’s given up on ever competing with your horse for affection
Y ... because we can’t help it
Zebra- the one in stripes, but not 'cause he's in trouble

Haywire Trendsetters!

Today's "Word of the Day" was HAYWIRE. I tend to think of the term in reference to unruly computers, but the term actually has origins to back in the early days of baling hay! 

According to Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/):
"The wire used in baling hay — haywire — is often used in makeshift repairs. This hurried and temporary use of haywire gave rise to the adjective "haywire." When the adjective was first used in the early 20th century, it was primarily found in the phrase "haywire outfit," which originally denoted a poorly equipped group of loggers and then anything that was flimsy or patched together. This led to a "hastily patched-up" sense, which, in turn, gave us the more commonly used meaning, "being out of order or having gone wrong." The "crazy" sense of "haywire" may have been suggested by the difficulty of handling the springy wire, its tendency to get tangled around legs, or the disorderly appearance of the temporary repair jobs for which it was used. "

OK... how many of us are guilty of Haywire Outfits?? 
( ... horse people?... who run to the grocery store in hay-laden fleece and mud-caked Wellies? -never!)

Of Quiet Nights and Peaceful Choices

A barn at night is one of the most peaceful places on earth. I think of it more when the wind is howling outside, and the rafters in the hayloft softly creak in protest. When the chores are finished and the lights are out, the sound of contentment; teeth methodically grinding hay, is the most calming, rewarding sound on earth.

Why do horses inspire us? Why do many of us devote a large portion of our waking hours to keeping them? In this day and age, when so many people live in such crowded conditions, those of us who keep horses at home are in the minority. And some of our friends, colleagues, and even family members find this occasionally inconvenient devotion hard to understand.

We all know that keeping a horse at home limits some of our activities, or at least makes us circle back round to “home base” at regular intervals, if only to replenish hay and water. We tend to take fewer exotic vacations, and don’t spend three out of four weekends in a condo at the slopes or on the beach. So, is caring for horses a way of hiding from “modern life,” or of seeking a simpler, quieter way of life?

In years gone by, nearly everyone had a stable. Horses weren’t merely hobbies; they were an integral part of daily life. Today, for many, a stable is a remote fantasy, or at best a yearly vacation destination.

Keeping a horse is certainly different from having other pets. A dog sits beside you, eats where you eat, sleeps where you sleep, and requires only a small outdoor spot to go to the bathroom a few times a day. For the most part, he is able to adapt to your choice of lifestyle; be it a city flat, a country estate, a yurt on a mountainside, or a Winnebago at the beach. A horse, on the other hand, requires you to adapt to its lifestyle.

I’ll never forget the search for my first house. It took a while to train the Realtor. He was at first of the opinion that any “outbuilding” would suffice as horse housing, and that any type of acreage (swamp, 90 degree slope, etc.) would do for turnout. We finally located a vacant, bank-owned property buried under 4 feet of snow. The ramshackle barn was the closest building to the road, so we shoveled our way into it first. The inside was dry and cozy, the floors were level stone dust, with soft light creeping through the dusty windows, and not a bit of snow had blown into the properly situated run-in doors. My ecstatic Realtor said, “Do we have to get to the house, or do you just want to go back and sign papers?” He finally understood.

For you fellow fanatics, determined to do your own stalls, come hell or high water, who are feeling outnumbered and questioning your sanity, take heart! You are not alone, and you are not (entirely) crazy!

One can do yoga, or one can methodically pick stalls, or quietly brush one’s horse. Those cavernous lungs have perfected the art of deep breathing, and their quiet wisdom overrides the chaos of the day and imparts a calm, peaceful spirit to those that take the time to listen.