All Blog Posts (4,791)

TOMMY - Latest bulletin - 15.35pm, Monday, 19th Oct.

Just spoken to Marrakech - he has 'un grand amelioration' - ie he's much better - even sucking milk all on his own now (that's a terrific step forward).

Though apparently, with all this energy, he's making a real nuisance of himself, bouncing around and getting into mischief all over the place - knocking over the vet's trays while they're trying to work on other animals. But of course everyone has fallen for him - especially the two girl volunteers. But with ears like that, who… Continue

Added by SPANA on October 19, 2009 at 10:34am — 1 Comment

Paige Presents: This Week in Horse History - October 19th through October 25th

October 19th through October 25th

October 22, 1883 – The first National Horse Show was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The event lasted for four days and featured over three hundred show, work, and race horses. The National Horse Show is America’s largest indoor horse show. It now offers one of the highest levels of equestrian competition. More information about the show can be found at its official website, www.nhs.org…

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Added by Paige Cerulli on October 19, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Dressage Two-Step

Dressage is often compared to dancing with your horse. I soon learned that with a young horse, the choreography involves two steps forward, and one step back, if you're very lucky.

My dance with Sammie had us tripping over our feet a bit at first, but we soon established a rhythm. As I mentioned at the end of my last post, once I adopted a more confidant attitude (even if I had to fake it), we started making progress. Lisa was very happy with my improved longeing skills, and… Continue

Added by saddlebroke on October 18, 2009 at 7:30pm — 8 Comments

CELEBRATION DAY! MANDIBA 2nd AT FAIR HILL CCI*** WITH KAREN O'CONNOR

Our homebred star Mandiba and Karen O'Connor stormed back to form today to be 2nd at the *** CCI International at Fair Hill in the USA, despite Karen breaking her scapula and ribs only weeks ago in a motorbike accident, and despite terrible weather. The pair showed their class and courage to lead after the dressage and go clear across country.

"My shoulder was getting sore so I slowed down towards the end of the track," said…

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Added by William Micklem on October 18, 2009 at 3:30pm — 3 Comments

The Forward Seat Position for Fast Equitation

The Forward Seat position for fast equitation is quite similar to the Forward Seat position for slow equitation. There is a logical progression in learning position in this system since riding forward seat requires physical strength, and it takes time for the rider's muscles to develop and get strong. Though the differences between the slow equitation seat and the fast equitation seat are few, they are important to develop a secure jumping position. I am quoting the same books…

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Added by Jackie Cochran on October 18, 2009 at 10:00am — 3 Comments

Wonderful new book: satire of modern dressage with hilarious illustrations

Wanted to let everyone know about a book a friend of mine just published. Its called SuperPrix and it is a vitriolic and humorous expose of competitive dressage in 2060. The illustrations alone are worth getting it!…

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Added by Karoline on October 17, 2009 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Equine Science: Weekly News and Trivia Question - October 16, 2009

Caterpillars are one of the features of this week’s Equine Science Blog, but first I’ll be talking about news of strangles in the UK, Swedish nutrition research and why British weather may be contributing to laminitis.

Every owner knows how serious strangles can be. A highly contagious disease, it’s usually recognised by abscesses under the horse’s jaw as well as nasal discharge and general lethargy.

Caused by the Streptococcus equi bacterium which gains… Continue

Added by Chloé Sharrocks on October 16, 2009 at 3:14pm — No Comments

Conformation Catastrophe!

How many times have you heard "what do you think of my horse's conformation?". If you know llittle about judging conformation, you likley will click the "back" button on your browser. Well that is why I am here with this blog post today!

I was NOT a conformation expert before, but I had some freinds tell me about this lady that had written books and really dug deep into the myths and facts of equine functional conformation. Her name is Judy Wardrope. She is located in the Edmonton,… Continue

Added by Rachel G on October 16, 2009 at 2:16pm — 2 Comments

Moving in 3 Days!

Yes all is well. We are going to be at the house on time. No delays (as my other post mentioned). We will be moving in this coming Friday. Hopefuly Saturday I can go and check out the local barn that I will be working at. I really want to try one of the horses she has for sale there as soon as possible. I'm planning on doing a lease to buy, since I really want to get to know the horse before we buy it. We really want to make this time a good buy. Last time we bought horses, we kinda jumped into… Continue

Added by Rachel G on October 16, 2009 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Ride Your Horse Proactively with "The Valium Exercise" To Reduce Shying

Horses shy from tension so there's lots you can do to ride proactively to help them relax. I call one of my favorite exercises "The Valium Exercise" because it's so effective at relaxing a tense horse.

Let's say your horse likes to shy at a particular corner of the ring. Start the Valium exercise well before you get to the corner.

Here are the aids for the "Valium exercise".

THE ACTIVE AIDS

1. The Inside Rein:

• The action of the inside…

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Added by Jane Savoie on October 16, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Explaining Rein Aids

Dear Julie,

Please explain to me the rein aids for English and Western. I would like to know which ones to use for each discipline and what is the difference. For example, direct and direct opposition, indirect and indirect opposition? And how do you use these in riding?

Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth,

Thanks for the excellent questions. I find this is an area that is vaguely understood, at best, by the average horse person. First of all, as far as the…

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Added by Julie Goodnight on October 16, 2009 at 7:30am — No Comments

Tommy Pics

Firstly, thanks for all your messages of support for the team in Marrakech who are helping Tommy pull through.

Tommy is making huge progress, as you can see from the photos - he's still not sucking, hence the bandage round his nose holding the nasal-gastric tube in place - saves having to do the risky process of inserting/removing the tube every two hours. Alex (the girl in the photos) is a veterinary graduate from Cambridge - she's one of the volunteers getting very little sleep… Continue

Added by SPANA on October 16, 2009 at 6:00am — 1 Comment

Happy Girthday!

Calgary stampede... here we come! 'The Squirt' has experienced a girth for the first time... and it triggered a brief display of a hidden talent (that I hope stays hidden)!

We would like to start teaching him to ground drive/ long line, and so we decided that it was time to introduce him to a lungeing surcingle. He flinched a bit when it first went over his back... but after a few twitches and head tosses, he settled down. Then we did up the girth... we flinched... but he just gave a… Continue

Added by Ferrous on October 15, 2009 at 8:30pm — 2 Comments

Choosing the right Horse Transport company

We've all heard some horror stories associated with shipping horses. Shipping companies who won't hesitate to sell your stall at the last minute, companies that push back your departure date by a week after you're all set to go, companies that hire drivers with absolutely no horse experience, companies that just never call you back and the worst in my opinion...companies that just don't show up. When we started this company, we vowed to make sure that we would be a different kind of horse… Continue

Added by South Point Equine Transport on October 15, 2009 at 1:50pm — No Comments

The Truth About Withers Clearance

One of the biggest misconceptions in saddle fitting is that two-three fingers withers clearance means that the saddle fits. When I check saddle fit there are actually 36 points to consider, and withers clearance is only one of them.

The withers are a very sensitive area of the horse with different interacting muscles and bones. Obviously you do not want the pommel of the saddle pushing down on the wither bone of our horse which would cause sores.

This is the area…

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Added by Jochen Schleese on October 15, 2009 at 9:00am — 7 Comments

Forward Motion

Forward movement, in equestrian lingo, is something to strive for.

Forward movement, in mental thoughts, .... something to think about.

What do you think about this Henry David Thoreau quote, "Never look back unless you are planning to go that way."

Click here to download and print the newest quote/painting/to-do list from my October 15… Continue

Added by Karen Brenner on October 15, 2009 at 7:40am — No Comments

LATEST BULLETIN ON TOMMY ,direct from the'horses mouth' in Marrakech 10.30 am ,15th Oct

Hurrah, hurrah, he's doing well. The temperature/pneumonia worry is always there, but touch wood, he's fine at the moment. Still being fed by nasal-gastric tube, every two hours, day and night, but he's getting stronger every day.

They hope that soon he will develop a proper sucking reflex, but of course nobody knows just how premature he might be. Sucking is much better for the digestion than a stomach tube - all the wee scrap's 'systems' will work better.

But he is… Continue

Added by SPANA on October 15, 2009 at 5:45am — 1 Comment

They Grow Up So Fast!

'The Squirt' was in a remarkably good mood recently, so we decided to try introducing him to a few new things. He won't be backed for awhile yet, but we figured that it was time to introduce him to the concept of tack. We slipped a nice light synthetic endurance saddle onto his back... nary a flinch. We cooed what a good boy he was and he just looked at us quizzically, wondering why we were making such a fuss about him. I'm sure once we try it with a girth, it will be a quite different story.… Continue

Added by Ferrous on October 14, 2009 at 8:00pm — 1 Comment

Hello

Added by O.B on October 14, 2009 at 7:30am — 3 Comments

Freeway, the Hawk

On my last load yesterday, I had just turned north onto Highway #99, one of the local freeways in western half of the Fraser Valley. Going only a short distance I noticed what at first appeared to be some sort of stuffed animal left alongside the freeway. As I passed I realized it was not stuffed, but real! I braked as much as I could without upsetting the horse I had on board, and ran back to find a full grown red-tailed hawk sitting thoroughly dazed on the shoulder of the road. He made no… Continue

Added by Kevan on October 13, 2009 at 4:57pm — 3 Comments