At 80 years old, Denny Emerson is an undeniably an old dog in the horse industry, challenging us through his example to learn new tricks.…
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Added by Paige Lockton-Wilde on June 10, 2022 at 4:22pm —
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R.I.P. Mia
Last Sunday, Debbie put Mia, the bay mare in my avatar photo, down. Mia was somewhere around 40 years old and looked it. Debbie had been quibbling about putting Mia down for over a month, I said goodbye several times, then Debbie would tell me she just could not go through with putting her down. Mia might have been OLD, but turned out with the other really old horses she finally…
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Added by Jackie Cochran on June 4, 2022 at 10:42am —
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When I met William Micklem in February of 1989, I must confess that I had no idea of who he was. Forgive me, but I was only 18 years old, and the Internet hadn’t been invented yet! At the time, the only horsey news I received was the monthly Corinthian Horse Sport…
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Added by Paige Lockton-Wilde on May 21, 2022 at 2:12pm —
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People looking in from the outside of someone's life - someone in the middle of pulling off miracles of athleticism or resilience - often wonder how on earth they do it. From the outside, it can look impossible to the rest of us, like some sort of Magic! That's because we…
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Added by Paige Lockton-Wilde on May 21, 2022 at 2:02pm —
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Added by Paige Lockton-Wilde on May 21, 2022 at 1:52pm —
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Still at a Standstill
Sometimes it seems like nothing ever changes much. Since January 2020 when I got Covid-19 the pandemic has really messed up my riding life. I am not alone, I know, but I am getting FRUSTRATED even though the idea of progress with elderly Not Quite Right (NQR) horses is sort of ludicrous. I am equally frustrated by the reduction in effective physical therapy for my MS,…
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Added by Jackie Cochran on May 21, 2022 at 10:45am —
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Older Horses' Legs
As horses get older and all the shocks from hooves landing at speed accumulate horses' joints tend to get REALLY sensitive when the weather changes. This spring has been chock full of weather changes, days of really nice weather, then the Polar Vortex visits us and all the cold weather gear has to come out yet again, over and over again. Springtime is not always wonderful for…
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Added by Jackie Cochran on April 23, 2022 at 2:17pm —
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They’ve just got to be extra. They can’t help themselves. It’s who they are.
Not that it’s a bad thing.
They have big personalities, big emotions, big sensibilities.
When a horse has one single whorl placed above eye level they will be an extrovert. Extroverts are very aware of all the things going on around them. They don’t miss a single thing. That can be great if you want a cutting…
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Added by Noche Miller on April 19, 2022 at 4:30pm —
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I love Readers Digest, there is always some gem to be found in there.
In this months it was an article talking about pets and what they are trying to tell us. Included was that when a dog wags their tails to the right they are curious, interested, engaged, they are working from the left side of the brain. When dogs wag their tails to the left it shows they are worried or fearful, working from the right side of their brain.
It is along the same lines as a horse spooking and…
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Added by Noche Miller on April 11, 2022 at 12:54pm —
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Do Some Horses NEED to Toe Out?
MJ was so much better for my lesson than he was in my lesson last week.
Last week he had gotten his new shoes, with a new alignment, on. He no longer has a bar across his frog for protection, he now has a full pad across the bottom of his front hooves, and as directed by the veterinarian from…
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Added by Jackie Cochran on April 9, 2022 at 10:51am —
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The month of March was one of... winter is over... not it's not... yes, finally.... no, it's back.... now it's clear... no, still more snow...make up your mind!!
So annoying.
Eager plans to get busy training were stopped cold (yeah, pun intended) by the vagaries of weather. Kind of hard to work on a rope when confronted with freezing whiteout conditions and whipping winds. Of course, on the days I wasn't planning to train, because of my day job, the weather was warm and…
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Added by B. G. Hearns on April 4, 2022 at 12:59pm —
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Cautiously Optimistic
In between the rains, bitterly cold morning, MJ's shoeing problems and me occasionally getting sick I have not been riding much this past winter. I did not have anything much to write about this month other than being frustrated about not riding much.
Now spring is here, and I do have some progress to…
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Added by Jackie Cochran on April 2, 2022 at 12:29pm —
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Those single whorl horses. They have an amazing reputation in the horse whorld. Steady, dependable, unchanging. They are the unicorn of whorls.
Yes, this is mostly deserved. It’s entirely possible that they can be those things.That single whorl shows a lack of extremes. Extremes are good to avoid with anything in life. The middle of the road, a little of everything and not too much of anything.
Most of the time a single whorl comes with a straight profile, squared off muzzle, a…
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Added by Noche Miller on March 29, 2022 at 4:42pm —
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Added by Bricole Reincke on March 21, 2022 at 11:30pm —
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They have a bad reputation. Watch out for those double whorls. Nothing but trouble. Said to have double personalities, wildly swinging mood changes. Jekyll and Hyde temperament. Avoid them when you can.
And yet.
There are a select few of us who like our double whorls.
What is a double whorl?
For this purpose it is two whorls stacked on top of each other or next to each other. There are other whorl patterns with two whorls but they aren’t usually included in this.…
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Added by Noche Miller on March 14, 2022 at 10:30am —
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Ottawa, ON, March 9, 2022 – The Equestrian Canada (EC) Board approved a resolution today condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the breaking of the Olympic Truce, and Belarus’ support of the attacks. EC joins the International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) in banning Russian and Belarusian athletes, horses and officials from sport…
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Added by Barnmice Admin on March 9, 2022 at 8:12pm —
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Why would looking at whorls on a horses head or body be able to give us any information about the horse?
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Added by Noche Miller on March 7, 2022 at 2:00pm —
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Some whorls come with very specific ‘meanings’. The S shaped feathering is one of those.
When a horse has feathering on their forehead that twists and turns, sometimes in the shape of an S, others are just squiggly, it is said that horse will be accident prone.
While it does often hold true I think it’s important to look at what ‘accident prone’ actually means. It should be fairly obvious that the whorl doesn’t cause the horse to get hurt. Whorls are signs of what is going on…
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Added by Noche Miller on March 5, 2022 at 3:54pm —
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Babying MJ Along
This week was frustrating as far as riding goes. It had rained throughout Saturday night and it was too wet for me to ride in Shannon's grass ring on Sunday, so I was really looking forward to my lesson on Wednesday.
We got to the stable and Darryl told me that MJ was sort of lame, and Debbie said I could…
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Added by Jackie Cochran on March 5, 2022 at 11:03am —
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Winter Gloominess
Since I have not been able to ride as much as I need to (riding is physical therapy for me) I have had a lot of time to read on-line and think about horse stuff.
I think we, in North America and the rest of the Western world, have come to the end of the time in which non-wealthy people can afford to support…
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Added by Jackie Cochran on February 26, 2022 at 2:22pm —
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