It’s Halloween. Let’s dress up in costume and eat some pumpkin.
10yr old Miniature horse stallion, Saber and 9 1/2 yr old Harlequin Great Dane, Bailey had their portrait at the Petsmart at San Bernardino, California, then went out for some Trick or Treat.
Last year Saber carved a pumpkin with his teeth for Halloween.
I’m not sure if my horses have ever seen a pumpkin. That has to change for this Halloween. Don’t throw away your Halloween carved pumpkins. They can be a great horse treat or toy. Roll a pumpkin out for your horse and see their reaction. Many zoos give pumpkins out to their animals for environmental stimulation.
To coax your horse to try a taste, slather a carved out pumpkin with molasses and stuff it with apple and carrot slices. If your horse is Insulin resistant use sugar-free syrup with timothy hay cubes inside. Even if your horse doesn’t eat the pumpkin, working for enclosed treats makes a good mental stimulation. If they don’t like raw pumpkin, then try smashing up a baked / cooked whole pumpkin including seeds and give as a warm mash. Remember: Everything in moderation! What they don’t eat can be added into the compost pile.
Priefert’s Radar is owned by Priefert Ranch Equipment
What if Radar was a police horse? He’d probably be the biggest police horse in the world.
In 2008 a Belgian gelding named “Priefert’s Radar” was the tallest horse. Radar was born in Iowa in 1998 and grew up to be listed in the Guiness World Record book from 2006 to 2009.
Radar’s even bigger than the horse in this week’s “Just for Grins” video.
Officer Lloyd Douglas, Sgt. Howard Mason, and Sgt. Chal DeCecco use a ladder as a mounting block to ride this large Belgian horse named “Hercules” at the California State Fair in 2008.
Radar’s photos aren’t on the Priefert website anymore, but I’d saved some off years ago using photos of Radar as my desktop wallpaper. Just like Hercules the Police Horse, you would need a 6 foot ladder as a mounting block for Radar.
At 6 feet 7 1/2 inches at top of withers he would just squeeze through an average door frame in height by ducking down his head. Horses are measured in a unit of measurement called a ”hand”, which is 4 inches. This made Radar measured as the tallest horse in 2008 at 19 hands 3 1/2 inches. He weighed in at 2,400 pounds.
“You don’t realize how big they are until you’re holding onto their halter.” – Charles Woods (3)
Priefert’s Radar is owned by Priefert. Radar definitely earned his keep touring the country to promote Priefert products. He travelled up to 30,000 miles a year in an air-conditioned, customized horse trailer with a canine companion called Hoss and his handlers, Guilda and Charles Woods. Every 4 – 6 weeks Radar returned to Mount Pleasant, Texas, the home of Priefert, to take a break from travelling.
Radar could eat 40 pounds of hay, 18 pounds of grain, then wash that down with 20 gallons of water each day.
“He’s our PR horse. He’s been promoted from labor to management, and he’s paid all the grain and feed he wants. It’s just like feeding two or three horses in one feeding.” – Charles Woods (1)
“Radar is really smooth to ride at the walk and slow trot, but the faster he goes, the rougher he gets. Riding him is definitely an experience.” – Guilda Woods (2)
Radar had to “go large or go home” and Priefert retired him when another horse took the World Record. Radar joined another Priefert owned former tallest horse, a black Percheron gelding named Goliath, in Mount Pleasant, Texas.
Radar was honored by Breyer Model horses in 2010 as a Limited Edition. As a horseless child I played with a the plastic Breyer horses instead of dolls, including a family of Palomino draft horses.
Priefert brought Radar out of retirement to attend BreyerFest at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky.
Radar at Breyerfest 2010 – Photo by Appaloosa on Flickr (Creative Commons License)
I’m glad that Priefert has such beautiful draft horses to promote their products. Priefert makes great horse panels. We have a set of Priefert brown 10 foot utility panels with walk-thru gate as fencing for a paddock area for our two Icelandic horses. The panels are sturdy well made safe and definitely ”worth-the-money” horse panels! I hope I can get to meet Radar someday. It would take 3 of our Icelandics to add up to the weight of Radar.
Priefert has a set of Percheron geldings called “Texas Thunder” that tours.
Photo by Drew Gardner
Reference:
(1) The Salt Lake Tribune “High horse? Radar’s the highest” by Arrin Newton Brunson published September 13, 2006
(2) Ag Weekly ‘World’s tallest horse tours Utah/Idaho’ by Susan Dudasik published July 27, 2007
(3) Rexburg Standard “The World’s Biggest Horse visits Rexburg” by Joseph Law published August 31, 2007
Luna, the Friesian filly, has fun playing in a water trough and gets an unexpected surprise. Luna comes from Herman Hills Farm in Ohio and now lives with Katie and family in MN.
This is so much fun!
Great times!
Do you think the water trough is a bit too close to the electric fence?
Video length: 1 minute 9 seconds
Uploaded by katiekelley0182 on Jul 19, 2009
A grumpy horse has a pesky hen moving in on his/her bucket of feed. I had to laugh at this inter-species interaction.
The horse warns the chicken to back off using equine lingo. The horse lays his ears back and snakes his head out towards the encroaching hen. The chicken takes no notice of the horse-speak warnings. The horse ups the ante with a threat the chicken can understand. The chicken dodges and the horse feed goes flying.
Hey chicken, this is MY food.
I said… “Get off my food!”
Video length: 1 minute 11 seconds
Uploaded by PIPPA2SHOES on Sep 16, 2010
Country: United Kingdom
Unintended consequences works out for the chicken.
Until another interloper moves in.
The video shows the hen being escorted out of the horse paddock by the 3rd species (human) of the story.
The clever and funny TV commercial advertisement titled ‘Horse Riding’ was done by Ogilvy & Mather Paris advertising agency for Vittel Water in France. It was released in December 2009. Race horses love to run, but what horse might not like to take it easy once in awhile. Jockeys drink some Vittel water before the race and horse racing takes on a whole different method.
Vittel is a French brand of bottled water sold in many countries. Since 1992 it has been owned by Nestlé Waters, Water Division of the Swiss group Nestlé.
The Vosges basin in France is home to several sources of natural mineral water. The city of Vittel , thanks to the virtues of its natural mineral water, is also a city of thermal baths. Louis Bouloumié in 1855 created a health spa in the city of Vittel, then later the natural mineral water was bottled. It belonged to the founding family, the Bouloumié, for four generations.
Video length: 32 seconds
“Pub Vittel: la course hippique” – Horse race
Uploaded by PubVittel on Sep 7, 2009
There are a series of “It Must Be the Water” ads, which are all very funny. They are on the same Youtube channel.
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Paris, France
Copywriters: Christian Foulon,, Fergus O’hare, Andrew Jolliffe
Art directors: Stephanie Surer, Ginevra Capece
Director: Lionel Goldstein
Production: Henry de Czar, Paris
Post-production company: Nozon
Editor: Manu Van Hove Agency
Producer: Caroline Petruccelli
Executive Producer: Jeanluc Bergeron
Director of Photography: Glynn Speeckaert
Sound Design: Kouz Production
Comments Off on Just for Grins – “It must be the water”
Little Amoroso, an Andalusian foal, has seen humans in the hammock. Getting up there turned out to be too difficult, but maybe it can be used for scratching? The little horse loves his hammock.
Warning: Cuteness overload!
Video length: 3 minutes 3 seconds
Uploaded by EllenOfstad on Jun 14, 2010
Die Gummibären-Bande: Three friends are having fun with ponies. Ah… youth! Meike and Till, Hannah and Zwiebel, Annka and Tomte with their friend, Laura, on camera. Meike lives in Germany.
Video length: 1 minute 7 seconds
Uploaded by ZirkusponyTill on Feb 22, 2011
This is a blind foal named Cash. Cash was born on a Quarter Horse breeding farm in northern Alabama on February 7, 2007. Cash has a very rare eye disorder called aniridia, in which the irises don’t develop. He was given a chance to live. A blind horse can have a good quality of life.
Video length: 1 minutes 3 seconds
Uploaded by rollingdogranch on May 31, 2007
Rolling Dog Farm is a non-profit sanctuary that rescues and shelters disabled animals. Every animal who arrives at the farm gets another chance to have a safe and loving home. Residents include blind dogs, blind horses, deaf dogs, blind cats, and animals with medical disabilities like muscular dystrophy. Yet every one of these animals enjoys life to the fullest!
