A Happy Holiday Ending for a Few Horses

Twice during the holidays I’ve read about dramatic rescues of horses.

The first occurred in England, where an 8-year old welsh-bred blue roan mare named  Steffie,  fell down a well. She was rescued three days after she disappeared and despite falling 10 feet and going without food or water during that time, she appears to have made a full recovery. Here’s a photo of her being hoisted out by three firefighter crews, RSPCA officers, a vet and a search and rescue team.

Meanwhile, in British Columbia, rescue workers spent a week successfully retrieving two horses that had been left behind by hunters. (Actually, something I’ve read since first posting is that a lawyer from Alberta was making a pack trip through the area in the summer, for whatever reason decided it wasn’t going well and left the horses while getting himself out. It is rumored that there were 3 but one died). The horses were found on December 15th by two young men looking for snowmobiles that had been abandoned by  tourists. They found the horses stuck in six feet of snow with no shelter. While they considered shooting the horses at first, thinking it the most humane thing to do, they decided the horses still had too much spirit. Over the course of a week, nearly 50 people joined the rescue effort and dug a half-mile trail escape route through the snow by hand.

What a wonderful Christmas gift for these equines. Kudos for the volunteers who spent their holidays working on behalf of these lucky horses.

A Pony Under the Tree

When I was a kid, the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a pony. I knew that it was unrealistic. After all, we lived in Manhattan so there wasn’t exactly a place to put a pony.

42 years after I got her, Goldie still can inspire a little girl’s dreams.

The Christmas I was five or six, my dream came close to coming true. That was the year I got Goldie. While she wasn’t a living breathing pony, she was the size of a real pony and I could ride her.

She came in a huge wooden box from India in six solid pieces of wood which my father assembled into a pony, held together by wooden pegs. My grandmother helped monks import hand-carved Creche scenes through her church and she had them carve Goldie for me. My father bought me a pony sized western saddle for her and with that and my imagination we were off on many adventures.

Once I grew older, I realized that the monks who had carved Goldie had probably never seen a horse before and had probably carved her after looking at a picture of a pony. She looks pretty good from the side, but from the front, her legs look suspiciously human, especially the knees. However, in my eyes, she was perfect.

For many years I had no place to keep her. It wasn’t until my husband and I bought our first house that she was able to come and live with me again. She’s always been a conversation piece. Not that many people have a life-sized pony in their living room and Goldie is certainly unique.

She may be made of wood, but she still loves to be hugged.

My son was never enamored with her, but my daughter spent many happy hours playing on her and Goldie has been a big hit with her friends. The cats love sitting on her, too.

Goldie is now 42 years old. Her saddle is long gone, as is her tail. When I was maybe nine or 10, I covered her with vegetable oil (in hopes of conditioning the wood) so for a few years she was pretty sticky. She’s picked up a fair number of scratches and bangs over the years (our cats have an annoying habit of using her as a

For the cats, she's a great perch.

scratching post), but she’s still fun to ride. Some day I’ll have her refinished and she’ll have the luster of the years without the marks of age. But every Christmas I remember the year I had a pony under the tree and celebrate one of the very best presents I ever received

Wishing all my readers and fellow bloggers a very happy holiday season.

To Have a Horse in Your Life

Thanks to Ed Dillon, Equine Dentist, for passing along this tribute to horses.

To have a horse in your life is a gift. In the matter of a few short years, a horse can teach a young girl courage, if she chooses to grab mane and hang on for dear life. Even the smallest of ponies is mightier than the tallest of girls. To conquer the fear of falling off, having one’s toes crushed, or being publicly humiliated at a horse show is an admirable feat for any child. For that, we can be grateful.

Horses teach us responsibility. Unlike a bicycle or a computer, a horse needs regular care and most of it requires that you get dirty and smelly and up off the couch. Choosing to leave your cozy kitchen to break the crust of ice off the water buckets is to choose responsibility. When our horses dip their noses and drink heartily; we know we’ve made the right choice.

Learning to care for a horse is both an art and a science. Some are easy keepers, requiring little more than regular turn-out, a flake of hay, and a trough of clean water. Others will test you – you’ll struggle to keep them from being too fat or too thin. You’ll have their feet shod regularly only to find shoes gone missing. Some are so accident-prone you’ll swear they’re intentionally finding new ways to injure themselves.

If you weren’t raised with horses, you can’t know that they have unique personalities. You’d expect this from dogs, but horses? Indeed, there are clever horses, grumpy horses, and even horses with a sense of humor. Those prone to humor will test you by finding new ways to escape from the barn when you least expect it.

Horses can be timid or brave, lazy or athletic, obstinate or willing. You will hit it off with some horses and others will elude you altogether. There are as many “types” of horses as there are people- which makes the whole partnership thing all the more interesting.

If you’ve never ridden a horse, you probably assume it’s a simple thing you can learn in a weekend. You can, in fact, learn the basics on a Sunday, but to truly ride well takes a lifetime. Working with a living being is far more complex than turning a key in the ignition and putting the car or tractor in “drive.”

In addition to listening to your instructor, your horse will have a few things to say to you as well. On a good day, he’ll be happy to go along with the program and tolerate your mistakes; on a bad day, you’ll swear he’s trying to kill you. Perhaps he’s naughty or perhaps he’ fed up with how slowly you’re learning his language. Regardless, the horse will have an opinion. He may choose to challenge you (which can ultimately make you a better rider) or he may carefully carry you over fences – if it suits him. It all depends on the partnership – and partnership is what it’s all about.

If you face your fears, swallow your pride, and are willing to work at it, you’ll learn lessons in courage, commitment, and compassion in addition to basic survival skills. You’ll discover just how hard you’re willing to work toward a goal, how little you know, and how much you have to learn.

And, while some people think the horse “does all the work”, you’ll be challenged physically as well as mentally. Your horse may humble you completely. Or, you may find that sitting on his back is the closest you’ll get to heaven.

You can choose to intimidate your horse, but do you really want to? The results may come more quickly, but will your work ever be as graceful as that gained through trust? The best partners choose to listen, as well as to tell. When it works, we experience a sweet sense of accomplishment brought about by smarts, hard work, and mutual understanding between horse and rider. These are the days when you know with absolute certainty that your horse is enjoying his work.

If we make it to adulthood with horses still in our lives, most of us have to squeeze riding into our over saturated schedules; balancing our need for things equine with those of our households and employers. There is never enough time to ride, or to ride as well as we’d like. Hours in the barn are stolen pleasures.

If it is in your blood to love horses, you share your life with them. Our horses know our secrets; we braid our tears into their manes and whisper our hopes into their ears. A barn is a sanctuary in an unsettled world, a sheltered place where life’s true priorities are clear: a warm place to sleep, someone who loves us, and the luxury of regular meals. Some of us need these reminders.

When you step back, it’s not just about horses – it’s about love, life, and learning. On any given day, a friend is celebrating the birth of a foal, a blue ribbon, or recovery from an illness. That same day, there is also loss: a broken limb, a case of colic, a decision to sustain a life or end it gently. As horse people, we share the accelerated life cycle of horses: the hurried rush of life, love, loss, and death that caring for these animals brings us. When our partners pass, it is more than a moment of sorrow.

We mark our loss with words of gratitude for the ways our lives have been blessed. Our memories are of joy, awe, and wonder. Absolute union. We honor our horses for their brave hearts, courage, and willingness to give.

To those outside our circle, it must seem strange. To see us in our muddy boots, who would guess such poetry lives in our hearts? We celebrate our companions with praise worthy of heroes. Indeed, horses have the hearts of warriors and often carry us into and out of fields of battle.

Listen to stories of that once-in-a-lifetime horse; of journeys made and challenges met. The best of horses rise to the challenges we set before them, asking little in return.

Those who know them understand how fully a horse can hold a human heart. Together, we share the pain of sudden loss and the lingering taste of long-term illness. We shoulder the burden of deciding when or whether to end the life of a true companion.

In the end, we’re not certain if God entrusts us to our horses–or our horses to us. Does it matter? We’re grateful God loaned us the horse in the first place.

Author Unknown

Feeding Horses when the Temperatures Drop

Here’s a useful article from the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources which I first read at www.thehorse.com. It seems particularly appropriate given that I just had to cross country ski to the barn today!

• Winter presents a challenge to horse owners when it comes to feeding their horses. Low temperatures, harsh winds and rain, snow, and ice all contribute to the increasing nutrient requirements a horse has to keep themselves warm and maintain their body weight.
• Here are a few feeding tips to help horse owners keep their horses happy and healthy this winter:
• Winter tends to be a time when horses lose weight, and a heavy winter coat can hide a thin horse. Make sure to check your horse’s body condition every 30 days. If your horse loses weight during the winter, try increasing his body weight prior to the winter months so that he can lose some weight during the winter without becoming thin.
• Horses require additional energy from the diet to maintain body weight when temperatures drop below 45°F. Remember that pasture grasses do not grow during the colder months. Providing good quality hay at 2% of the horse’s body weight should meet his nutrient requirements for maintenance. Feeding hay also generates heat during digestion by gut microbes, and that helps horses stay warm.
• If hay availability is limited, beet pulp can also be a beneficial source of fiber. Also, investigate “complete feeds” that have the fiber already in the bag.
• Use hay feeders during the winter. Up to 20% of hay is wasted by horses when fed on the ground.
• Horses in work or pregnant mares might require grain along with hay to maintain body weight. Avoid feeding more than 4-5 lbs of grain in one meal feeding in order to reduce the horse’s risk of colic.
• Consider adding fat to the diet in the form of oil or bran in order to increase the amount of energy in the diet. Fat packs more energy in each pound than carbohydrates.
• Improve how your horse utilizes the feed you give him during winter by having their teeth checked and floated if necessary and by deworming the horse prior to the winter months.
• Horses might decrease their consumption of cold or freezing water during the winter leading to an increased risk of colic. Make sure your horse is consuming at least 10 gallons of fresh clean water each day. Use tub and/or bucket heaters to help reduce ice formation and to keep the water lukewarm. Check all water sources and remove ice daily.
• Provide salt blocks in fields and stalls. Although salt intake is more important during the hot summer months to replace sodium and chloride lost in sweat, horses do not meet their daily salt requirements by consuming forage alone.
• Keep in mind that older horses have additional needs during the winter. Feeding a diet based on beet pulp prior to and during winter can help them maintain their weight during the winter.

To Zip or Not to Zip? Are Zippers in Tall Boots a Good Idea?

I vowed to never buy another pair of boots without zippers after I was stuck in my brand new Konig dressage boots for more than an hour. Actually, I was stuck in just one.

I had just gotten the boots and was wearing them around the house to break them in. My husband was out of town. After about an hour, I decided that the backs of my knees had suffered long enough and I decided to take them off.

The right boot came off without a hitch. The left boot was another story. It moved down my leg a few inches and then . . . my boot jack broke. There it sat: not on, not off, and not moving. As I recall, this happened about 8 p.m. so I was not in a position to go buy another boot jack. The boot was on too tight to get my boot hooks back in (to pull it on) and it was off just enough to make walking difficult. To make matters worse, my left leg now throbbed as the boot was cutting off the circulation in my calf.

I spent some time contemplating why I had thought semi-custom boots were a good idea. I wondered whether I would sleep that night given the state of my leg. I contemplated the look that would appear on my client’s face the next morning when I showed up for my scheduled meeting. It might be amusing . . . for them!

Find out how the story turned out! Read the rest on Equine Products Review.

When Horses had Toes They Didn’t Need Shoes

Horses in Wyoming are nothing new. In fact, the ancestors of the horses we know today were roaming what are now the plains 50 million years ago. Called Hyracotherium, this mammal was small, the size of a small dog or fox. But fossils of these tiny pre-equines are rare. One of the most recent finds occurred in September, 2007 when fossil hunter Jim Tynsky though he’d found the fossil of a turtle on the dried up bed of Fossil Lake near Kemmerer, Wyoming.

The Fossil Remains of Tynksy's Dawn Horse.

Tynskly was looking for fossil fish when he spied a small, pointy foot. Since Tynsky could only clearly see the foot while the rest of the horse was covered in a thin layer of rock with only a hint of the horse’s bones showing, he drove the whole slab of rock to South Dakota. He thought he’d found a prehistoric horse.

This drawing depicts how a Dawn Horse would have looked.

The animal had four toes on the front feet and three on the back feet, not three in front like a tapir, plus 44 teeth and a six-inch skull. The animal would have stood about 12 inches high. While there was originally some dispute over whether this fossil showed a horse or a tapir, finally the experts agreed it truly was an early form of the horse from the Eocene period, 45 million to 55 million years ago.

It is the most complete horse of its kind ever found since the first partial specimen was discovered about 150 years ago. It’s excellent state of preservation can likely be attributed to one of the greatest mysteries of the find: it’s location in a marine environment. The tiny prehistoric equine had probably fallen into the lake while still alive. Whether it had been swimming and drowned or dropped into the lake by a large bird, can only be guessed.

Since the fossil was found on property Tynsky leases from the Lewis Horse Ranch near Kemmerer, he said “that makes it the oldest horse ranch” of any in the world since the little horse is dated at 50 million years old.

A cast of Tynksy’s Dawn horse is on exhibit in his fossil shop. The fossil itself is too valuable to display.

The evolution of the horse.

So, how did Hyracotherium evolve from a knee high toed mammal to the horse we ride today?

The Hyracotherium were part of the order of Perissodactyla, or odd-toed ungulates. They appeared less than 10 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs and originally lived in tropical forests. Other members of this group included tapirs and rhinoceroses. These mammals had an odd number of toes on each hoof (including a larger, middle toe) and were hind gut fermentors.

Whereas tapirs and rhinoceroses continued to live in jungle-like environments, Hyracotherium adapted to live in dryer climates. According to Wikipedia:

The early ancestors of the modern horse walked on several spread-out toes, an accommodation to life spent walking on the soft, moist grounds of primeval forests. As grass species began to appear and flourish, the equids’ diets shifted from foliage to grasses, leading to larger and more durable teeth. At the same time, as the steppes began to appear, the horse’s predecessors needed to be capable of greater speeds in order to outrun predators. This was attained through the lengthening of limbs and the lifting of some toes from the ground in such a way that the weight of the body was gradually placed on one of the longest toes, the third.

The Pliohippus, which lived 12-6 million years ago marks the point when prehistoric horses started to resemble modern horses.

It wasn’t until the Pliohippus, which lived 12-6 million years ago that fossil remains start to look more like the modern horse. This was the first single-hoofed horse. It was about the size of a donkey, had a longer neck than its ancestors and eyes set more to the sides of its head, giving it the ability to see both in front and behind itself.

The Dinohippus is even closer to the modern form of Equus as it was the first to exhibit rudimentary forms of the “stay apparatus”, the system of muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the horse’s leg that work together with the suspensory apparatus to allow the horse to “lock” its lower leg joints with no muscular effort. This mechanism makes it possible for the horse to sleep while standing.

As for the genus Equus, it first appeared about 5 million years ago, the only surviving genus in the originally diverse family of horses.

References:

Horse Evolution over 55 Million Years

Wikipedia: The Evolution of the Horse

50-Million Year Old Fossil Horse Unearthed

Bridging Your Reins Gives You (and your Horse) Security

Bridging your reins gives you a steady hand and more support.

When I started eventing, way back in 1983, one of the first things my trainer explained was how to bridge my reins. She had me use the bridge when galloping: it gave me more security, gave my horse a constant, steady contact, and kept the reins from slipping through my fingers (or being pulled through by a strong horse).

Since then, I’ve found that I use the bridge a lot. It’s very useful when you’re hacking and want to hold the reins in one hand, when you want to keep your hands quiet, when you’re riding a strong horse, or when you want to keep yourself from pulling back. I still do this sometimes when I’m approaching a fence. If I bridge my reins and put my leg on, it keeps me from trying to fuss with my horse to find my spot.

Learn how to bridge your reins.

The Rapunzel of the Horse World

Summer Breeze has the longest tail of any horse, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

While some horse owners resort to hair extensions and fake tails, Summer Breeze, an 11 year old paint mare has earned the distinction of holding the World Record for the longest natural equine tail: it’s 12 feet, 5 inches long. Summer Breeze is owned by Crystal Socha and her brother Casey, owners of Hoof Print Farm in Augusta, Kansas.

Crystal, 26, combs out and shampoos the horse’s tail once every two months, a process that takes her around three hours.

It takes nearly three hours for owner, Crystal Socha, to wash it.

The tail is so long that in between washings it is braided.

Summer Breeze apparently came by her tail without extensive extra efforts by her owners. It simply kept growing. Her mane is also quite long and might also have been world-record setting except for the fact that it’s slightly chewed; she gets it in her mouth when she grazes.

Most horse owners don’t actually want a tail that’s 12 feet long, they just want a full glossy tail that comes down below their horse’s hocks. Since it takes almost seven years for a tail hair to grow from the root to the fetlocks, proper care is essential. To read about the techniques that can help you add inches to your horse’s tail, read: Tips for Growing Out your Horse’s Tail.