Wordless Wednesday - Autumn Splendor

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 8:05 AM 12 comments

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Aerial Assault

horse fly


The aerial assault of deer and horse flies has begun in earnest here on the farm. Today the mares trotted outside from their morning feed to immerse their muzzles in the fresh water of the pasture trough, wander over to the green leafy hay I put out and then ran to the barn like the devil himself was after them. Of course he was, in the form of a biting fly. From what I’ve been told there is no good way to eliminate these blood thirsty pests from an area. The only thing that can help is using Permethrin-based sprays and keeping the horses in during the heat of the day. Seems that when its windy or a tad bit cool the buggers arnt as much of a problem. They also are not known to be as much a problem at night. So I guess I’m going to have to let the horses tell me if they would prefer to be in or out after their breakfast. This morning there was no doubt that they in no way wanted to be out there with those monsters. I’m also going to make a trip to the elevator to see about getting some Permethrin sprays to put on them for night time use. Summer is on its way here!

Further info on these pest can be found on the Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet for Horse and Deer Flies as well as The University of Kentucky Entomology sites College of Agriculture’s Horse and Deer Flies fact sheet .

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 3:41 PM 2 comments

Monday, May 28, 2007

Equine Veterans Part 4 - BLACK JACK

The last and most well known horse in the Equine Veterans Series is Black Jack.

Black Jack served in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment's Caisson Platoon. He was a coal black Morgan/Quarter Horse cross with loads of spirit. He was used as the riderless horse in over 1,000 Military Funerals, which mostly took place at the Arlington National Cemetery. Black Jack was most famous for his participation in the funeral procession of Presidents John. F. Kennedy in 1963. Black Jack died in 1976 from old age. He was cremated and laid to rest at Fort Myer, Virginia 200 feet northeast of the flagpole in the southeast corner of the parade field. He was the 2nd and last horse to ever have been buried with Full Military Honors.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 11:45 AM 2 comments

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Equine Veterans Part 3 - COMANCHE

On June 25, 1876, Comanche, a Morgan/Mustang, was rode into the Battle of Little Bighorn. Comanche was found two days after the battle, badly wounded and the only military survivor. After being transported by steamboat to Fort Lincoln where he was slowly nursed back to health. Comanche died in 1890 and he is one of only two horses to ever have been buried with Full Military Honors.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 11:05 AM 0 comments

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Equine Veterans Part 2 - OLD BALDY

Old Baldy was Union General George C. Meade's horse. He was purchased in 1861 and was named so because of the horse's bald white face. Meade became quite devoted to him and rode him in all of his battles through 1862 and the spring of 1863. Baldy was wounded at least five times during the Civil War. Only once did he refuse Meade, when he was hit in the stomach by a bullet. In 1864 Baldy was injured by a shell in the Siege of Petersburg, he was retired to Meadow Bank Farm near Philadelphia and was only used one last time for military duty in Meade's funeral in 1872. In 1882 the horse was euthanasia, his head was taken to a taxidermist and mounted on a special plaque and is still today on display in a glass case in the Meade Room of the Civil War Library in Philadelphia.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 11:46 AM 1 comments

Friday, May 25, 2007

Equine Veterans Part 1 - TRAVELLER

This Memorial Weekend is a tribute to four of the most famous equine veterans to ever serve our country.

Traveller was the famous horse of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Lee purchased him in 1862. He was a grey Kentucky Saddle horse (precursor to the American Saddlebred) and had a long black mane and tail. Traveller and Lee were together till Lee's death in 1870. Traveller passed a year later in 1871 and is currently in his final resting place outside the Lee Chapel at the University a few feet away from the Lee family crypt, where his master's body rests.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 11:36 AM 0 comments

Monday, May 21, 2007

Pampered Percherons

Since moving to the new farm last August I have been going through all the equipment and inventorying what I have and what I'm missing. How is it that you accumulate so much junk and then cant find a darn thing when you want it? Such was the case with fans last summer. I know that I had a full set of fans for the old barn and had enough in the horse trailer for shows so that I could mount the fans and leave them up in the barn all summer. Yet here I am digging some out of the horse trailer because I cant seem to find them all. Of course we added 2 horses over the winter so I knew I'd have to buy a couple for them and then again there is the issue of barn conditions being less than ideal with dirt, grain and slobber always finding its way into the inner workings. 2 or 3 years usage is about all I seem to get out of them and I had 2 old ones that happened to fit that category. So today I threw up my hands and counted all the fans I had onsite. Put the right number of ones needed for showing on the trailer and headed for Meijer to get replacements 8 in all. I knew I would need at least 4 and maybe 6 if we ended up taking the yearlings to the shows this summer but the number 8 really seems over kill. These horses better REALLY love me for all my pains in making them comfortable. The fella in the hardware department asked me what the heck I needed that many fans for and had quite a chuckle when I told him they were for my pampered Percherons. Upon returning home I schlepped the fans to the barn, all 8 of them, and begin to mount them on the stalls. The first two went up fine, got plugged in and went to work right away. Then I ran into a problem. The outlets were not spaced the same through out the barn and I couldn’t plug in 5 of my 8 fans in the end. UGHH!!!!! After digging out a couple extension cords I now have 3 fans needing an outlet in the barn. I’m now awaiting a call back from my electrician to come out and move the outlets so that I don’t have to worry about the blasted extension cords. I don’t even want to think about the cost. And all because I just had to have fans on the horses to help keep them cool as well as keep the bugs off them.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 10:33 PM 0 comments

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Future Teamster

I give you the latest edition and future teamster - Caleb.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 5:03 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Wordless Wednesday - My Photoshop Project

The End Product


The Original Photo

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 7:36 AM 18 comments

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Riding Helmets Part 2 - Finding the Right One

So now I know all about the standards and why we should make sure to always use a certified helmet when riding. Next is to actually start looking for just the right one. My first stop was Ebay, which had a wide variety of choices in new, used, certified, non-certified with sizes and colors galore and prices ranging all over the place. The online tack shops were just about the same with too many options and features that made my head spin. At least now I had an idea of the range of prices out there and what to expect so my next stop would be the local tack shops.

I also took some time to look up fitting guidelines to make sure that what ever we ended up choosing would work as it was designed to. I found that the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs had the best advise for finding just the right helmet. Some of the best suggestion they made were:

1. Put the helmet on and wear it around the tack shop for several minutes.
   It should fit snugly from front to back and from side to side, but not so tightly that it gives you a headache.


2. After wearing the helmet for about five minutes, take it off and look in a mirror. In addition to checking your hair, look for marks on your forehead. If there are marks, try the next bigger size.

With a print out in hand of the names, sizes and prices of the various helmets that I thought would work we jumped in the truck and off we went. Our goal was a schooling helmet for everyday use. We choose to look at both Troxel and the International brand helmets due to the pricing and pretty colors they carry. Finding the right fit really was a task. Sizing was all over the place and the sizes in one model varied from another model even though the same company made them. Of course that makes sense because no one person has the same size or shaped head. We really liked the International because the “dial” fit mechanism on that brand was tucked up near the nape of the neck while the same feature in the Troxel seemed to ride lower and irritate the wearers neck when she imitated the 2 point position required in jumping. We also really liked the Troxel Capriole helmet which had a different type of “dial” mechanism which was positioned much better and didn’t actually dial but rather was pinched together and was a smaller item in general and laid much flatter against the wearers head. Of course that helmet was a bit more expensive and had velveteen flocking which was something we really didn’t want so we ended up with the International Equi-Lite in bright purple.

Over all our adventure buying a helmet really was a trying experience and required us traveling to 3 different shops to find just the right one. We ended up going back to our first stop the next day to pick up the one that fit the best. My advise to you if you are in the market for a new helmet is to remember that helmets vary in size and shape, several helmets will need to be tried so plan on spending quite a bit of time. You will end up having "a bad hair day" but should be able to find a great helmet.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 3:12 PM 1 comments

Friday, May 11, 2007

Riding Helmets Part 1 - Demystifying the Standards

I’ve recently been on a helmet-buying excursion for the young lady of the house. Her old helmet no longer fit properly and she really wanted to begin to work on speed events at the 4-H meetings which require the rider to wear a ASTM/SEI certified helmet. I have heard that term floating around the last couple of years but never really took the time to know exactly just what it is, after all we mostly drive our horses and when we do ride its just trail riding at a walk because going "fast" on a 2000lb horse isnt really somthing that interests us.

So I began my search to look at the possibilities and prices from home via the trusty computer and Internet connection. I first checked out just what this certification was so that I understood just what it was that I needed. In my search I came across a number of safety websites that published facts about head related injuries in the horse industry. Some of the ones that really caught my attention were on the University of Connecticut’s Co-op extension for their college of agriculture. Did you know that horseback riding carries a higher injury rate per hour of exposure than downhill ski racing, football, hang-gliding and motorcycle racing? Researchers found that Medical Examiner reports show that 60% or more of horse-related deaths are caused by head injuries and it is believed that each year approximately 70,000 people are treated in emergency rooms because of equestrian related activities. The American Medical Equestrian Association calculates that ASTM/SEI approved helmets have reduced all riding-related head injuries by 30% and severe head injuries by 50%. The information that really caught my attention was the fact that head injuries are responsible for more than 60% of horse-related deaths and head injuries are the most common reason for horse-related hospital admissions. Those are some pretty hefty numbers coming from a reliable source.

So just what is this ASTM certification that is supposed to help us keep as safe as possible while we enjoy our horses?
ASTM stands for the American Society for Testing and Materials and it is an organization of volunteers that includes doctors, engineers and physicists. The ASTM sets standards for many types of safety equipment. The standard for horseback riding helmets is ASTM F 1163 , which was published in 1990. Basically in a nut shell the ASTM document requires that all helmets that carry the certification are made to absorb an impact thru partial destruction of the headgear like the impact absorbing bumpers we now have on our cars. So any impact that a helmet takes should in fact damage the structure of the helmet and require you to replace it.

We now know what the ASTM is but what is the SEI? The SEI, The Safety Equipment Institute, is a private, non-profit organization established to administer non-governmental, third party certification programs to test and certify a broad range of safety and protective products which is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. They were established in 1981 to administer certification programs and to test a broad range of safety equipment products. You can visit their website to see if your helmet is currently on the approved model list which is updated by them on a regular basis to make sure that it is up to date with the most current information. The most recent approved publication is ASTM F1163-04a.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 5:35 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Wordless Wednesday - A Drive in the Country

A Drive in the Country

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 9:25 AM 23 comments

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Bills Bills Bills...

Just yesterday I received the bill for the normal spring horse requirements. It was the big one for the year. 7 horses needed coggins, two needed health papers & fecals done for sending to the Saginaw Childrens Zoo and I ordered all the vaccinations necessary for getting everyone up to date on those. Out of the 8 horses here, 4 of them will be requiring boosters because they are new to us since the first of the year. At least I'm done with buying necessary things for them for the year. Well almost done, I know I'll need to get some additional scotch bottom show shoes for some of the new horses but last years show shoes will fit the ones that we had them on so at least thats a little bit of savings.

The fellas are home this weekend (hubby and step-son). They work as movers and are gone during the week 1/2 of the time and sometimes are gone on weekends too. With them home we got a good bit of spring yard work done and got to work with the very green broke 3 yr olds. One of our 4 yr olds didnt see any real work last year because she was growing so fast and just seemed to be unquardented so we gave her the year off to grow up. I'm glad we did because she grew 3 inches over the last year as a 3 yr old and is now just shy of 18 hands. She is still on the narrow side and looks to have more growing to do so it will be interesting to see how big she ends up. She is pretty green as well and needs some hours between the shafts to get with the program. Pearl is great to ride but for some reason is really worried about driving. I think time working her will get her going right.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 5:41 PM 0 comments

Friday, May 04, 2007

Starting a show foot

Well the training plates are on and my pocket is substancially lighter. We use plates that are a modified scotch bottom show, rather a hybred between a typical light horse shoe and the square toe of a scotch shoe. Our horses are barefoot for at least 4 months out of a year, during the winter, and it takes 2 complete resets for them to be ready to fill out a scotch shoe because of the length of toe necessary to fill out the corners. I think that the down time helps them to be better horses when we are working and showing them in the summer. I know that by the end of the summer I am ready for some serious down time so whey shouldnt they get some. Now the real fun begins, getting them working and fit. I really enjoy being out driving my horses. Its so peacefull but it sure is a lot of work to clean, harness and then cool off two teams of these big guys. But then again I wouldnt have it any other way.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 2:10 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Wordless Wednestay - Almost a horse

The grandaughter on Toby the Toggenburg goat

She is almost a real cowgirl. The goat was more her size and from the smile on her face I think she is well on her way to moving up to a real equine in the not so distant future. For now we will just let her go on being a goatgirl;-} Toby dosent seem to mind and she sure loves him.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 7:12 AM 13 comments