Zipper, the itchy horse, scratches those hard to reach areas.
Video length: 1 minute 1 second
Uploaded by MichelineClawson on Oct 6, 2010
Twistur had this same idea last summer. He stood over a couple of small bendable volunteer trees and would rub back and forth to scritch his belly.
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Part of optimizing my life is enjoying life’s happy moments. I get happiness watching horses and listening to music. Today is the first of a new Wednesday post feature including musical videos. Most of the videos will feature horses. I particularly enjoy watching these videos before heading to bed to leave my mind thinking of happiness and joy for sweet dreams. I hope you enjoy them too.
One of my favorite horse music videos is 8 week-old filly, Tempo, discovering the joys of being hosed down on a warm day with his first horse bath. He enjoys rolling and racing around with horsey happiness.
Video length: 4 minutes 45 seconds (of pure joy)
Music: “Suite from Forest Gump” movie by Alan Silvestri
Uploaded by Ksturg8929 on May 13, 2007
Kim and Van Sturgeon use clicker training as an extension to working with natural horsemanship methods. Van and his wife own Clarity Canine & Equine, LLC. They live at Panangelium Farm, near Charleston, SC, with their horses Shoki (Arabian gelding), Puck (QH/stock paint dun mare), and Tempo (red dun QH), and their dogs Crab and Sandy. Tempo is Puck’s foal, born March 19, 2007.
http://eqxpressionists.com/the-eqxpressionists/kim-sturgeon/
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Furbuster and Furminator are very similar products. They are de-shedding grooming tools that gently pull out hairs that are released from the skin and ready to come off. The tool does a good job of removing loose hair. They work very well in removing a shedding undercoat. How much hair is removed each stroke depends on how many hairs are shed.
The Furminator is the more expensive product version. I found a cat sized Furbuster at a local big box discount store for $13.00. The smaller size requires more strokes to cover my horse’s body, but also works well for areas around the face and legs. I also use the Furbuster on my 2 cats.
Letting my horses shed out more naturally leaves longer hair in case we have a late cold snap, as well as helping keep mosquitoes from biting through to their skin. The mosquitoes can’t get through all their hair on most of their body. I plan to clip them to shorter hair later in the Spring as temperatures increase.
My horses enjoy the scritching effect of the Furbuster on their skin. The grooming provides a good bonding time with my horses. They really love being groomed with it.
This year the plastic broke that holds in the metal part with teeth. It was easily repaired by using some duct tape. None of the metal teeth have broken and tool works just as well as when first used 2 years ago.
If you search for Furminator and Furbuster you will find many example videos of grooming of cats, dogs and horses. These are 2 videos from Spring of 2010 trying out the Furbuster on my horses. I’m not left-handed, btw.
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Filed under Horse health
Part of optimizing life is just having a smile. New Sunday post feature will be “Just for grins” and other topics that give a laugh or a smile.
This 40 second video never fails to crack me up. At this campground they aren’t worrying about bears, but they forgot about the adorable ponies. Three ponies create chaos at a campground in the New Forest in England breaking into an open tent and eating cereal.
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There is an upcoming video series featuring a student of Carolyn Resnick’s gentle horse training methods. Stina’s videos are very beautiful with relaxing music filmed on a Caribbean island (St. Vincent) where she lives with her herd of horses. The horses were originally rescued from a sad situation and quite wild and distrustful. She has been working towards the “magic ride” using Carolyn Resnick’s Waterhole Rituals under saddle. Stina was born in Norway.
Last year, Stina and two working students filmed the journey of starting three of her horses to be ridden at liberty.
She will be presenting one video every week available to watch for one week.
Stina requests a voluntary payment/ contribution to protect the
environment in St. Vincent and the Grenadines through the Climate Compliance Conference in return for watching the videos.
Go to Carolyn Resnick’s blog with Stina’s introduction as a guest blogger
This year we have had a very mild and wet winter. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this year. Mr. Groundhog may have predicted 6 more weeks of winter, but our horses think it is Spring. Our Icelandic horses’ winter coats are already shedding out, which is earlier than prior years. Loose hairs started on their faces at the end of January. On February 7th there was suddenly a release of hairs, particularly in the white areas of the coat.
What does an Icelandic horse’s hair look like in mid-winter, if not clipped? This is video from last year.
Their coats insulate so well that they collect dew. They have long feathers and chin whiskers.
Filed under Horse health, Music
We can imagine our human skeleton while doing yoga exercises to improve our flexibility, strength and balance. Working with our horses, we can imagine their equine skeleton.
Equine skeleton by Walter F. Varcoe of Articulated Equine Skeleton Specialists
Dr Christin Finn DVM, CVA in this short video has a live painted horse and discusses the horse’s skeletal mass vs soft tissue. The Painted horse shows the anatomy of the equine skeleton.
Dr. Roberta Dwyer DVM of the University of Kentucky explains the bones of the horse’s skeleton in the following video.
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Filed under Anatomy and Physiology
Over the holiday I most definitely ate way too many cookies and delicious dinners with family and friends, but I don’t regret it. Life is too short to miss eating holiday cookies with family. A few sugar coma days are okay, but perhaps it is time to bring out my former Weight Watcher member knowledge to re-group. I don’t dare weigh myself. No doubt my body is quite skilled at processing cookies into more fat.
My visiting brother isn’t a horse person, but enjoys hiking. We went out for a mid-winter hike along a nearby trail that runs beside a lake. The drought has the lake lower than we’ve ever seen it. My brother led Bangsi. I led Twistur, who was feeling spunky being out on such a beautiful Spring-like day. Twistur became a bit excited watching some other horses being cantered up a hill. I was unsure whether I could handle even that level of enthusiasm, if was up on his back. Behavior on the ground will translate to under saddle, so gently reminded Twistur that his job was staying with me. No, Twistur… we were not going running after other horses. Moved his feet (not yanking on head) by driving him around me in each direction in a few small circles. This provided a “Yes, Ma’am” thinking shift and we proceeded down our path.
We met a family with 2 kids and a dog later on the trail. When leading we will often stop and give kids the opportunity to pet a horse. Our horses seem to enjoy the attention particularly from children. They always are very gentle and stand quite still. Later met the family at the trail head before loading up and the kids really enjoyed having more time to pet the horses. Our horses are sweet and adorable after all!
The day was shirt sleeves weather. Bangsi and Twistur in their Icelandic coats were sweating, even at our leisurely pace. Bangsi wanted to go slower and slower on the return loop. My brother got Bangsi tolting along beside him (definitely not a trot) to catch back up. That was neat! We had saddled Twistur to have option to ride. The plan was that I could ride being led by my husband giving me a chance to concentrate on my balance and relaxing into the feel of movement.
I’ve taught Twistur to “sidle up” beside me when standing on a step-ladder or spot on trail for mounting. There was a large downed tree by the trail. I put on my riding helmet and managed to climb up and balance on the tree. I asked Twistur to come along side and he was quite happy to do so. He stood like a rock for me to mount ungracefully and wiggle around searching for my stirrups. He’s such a good horse! We gave him a treat for being patient.
I am not confident and don’t feel secure in riding, so I sang “Oklahoma” by Rodgers & Hammerstein to help me breathe and relax. Twistur didn’t seem to mind me being up on his back. Had a bit of unexpected “touching toes” riding exercise when my hubby failed to realize that even sitting on a 13.2 hand horse that some branches were overhanging a bit low.
Touching toes
Here is an exercise that can help you become limber. You learn to sink into your joints, keeping your balance and improving your leg position. Take the reins in your right hand. Reach down and briefly touch your toes on the left side with your left hand…
Figure 17.17 A-D– Sally Swift in “Centered Riding 2: Further Exploration”
Unlike from the yoga practice, I didn’t get sore from the riding session. That surprised me, so maybe that meant I wasn’t clinching or straining to sit in the saddle.
We’ve gotten out only twice more, but hope to get out for more horse hikes and rides.
There are over 206 bones in the typical adult human skeleton, a number which varies between individuals and with age. Human babies are born with 270 soft bones that fuse together by the age of twenty or twenty-five into the 206 hard, permanent adult bones.
Human Appendicular skeleton diagram (from Wikimedia)
Human Axial skeleton diagram (from Wikimedia)
The axial skeleton has 80 bones together and includes the skull, the spine, the ribs and the sternum (breastbone).
The appendicular skeleton has 126 bones. This includes the two limb girdles of the shoulders and the pelvis) and their attached limb bones (arms and hands, legs and feet).
Horse skeleton diagram (from Wikimedia)
Horses typically have 205 bones.
The axial skeleton contains the skull, vertebral column, sternum, and ribs. The appendicular skeleton contains the fore and hind limbs. Unlike his human rider the horse has no collarbone, plus the horse is able to lock the legs to rest and sleep standing up.
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Filed under Anatomy and Physiology
