I needed a laugh today — so thought I’d share this.
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In Memory of the Soldiers and their Horses
The War Horse Memorial in Chipilly, France is one of the many monuments that honors both the men who fought in wars and the horses who served beside them. The monument depicts an artilleryman cradling the head of his wounded horse. It is the work of French sculptor Henri Désiré Gauquié (1858-1927) whose native village of Flers was occupied by the Germans and liberated by the British army in October 1918.
2012 International Helmet Awareness Day
Riders4Helmets has teamed up with leading helmet manufacturers to host International Helmet Awareness Day 2012 on June 9. Building on the success of National Helmet Awareness Day 2010 and International Helmet Awareness Day 2011, participating retailers all over the world will be offering discounts on helmets to equestrians on this day.
“We are delighted to be in our third year of hosting and organizing International Helmet Awareness Day,” said Lyndsey White of Riders4Helmets. “The campaign was founded two years ago as a direct result of Olympian Courtney King-Dye’s accident with the aim of educating equestrians on the benefits of wearing a properly fitting, secured and certified helmet. We are proud to dedicate this years’ event to Courtney.”
International Helmet Awareness Day will include an opportunity for equestrians to become more educated on helmets and traumatic brain injuries. Riders4Helmets will be live streaming “Get Educated” webinars, via Riders4Helmets.com, on June 9, during which viewers will be able to ask a variety of experts real-time questions. The webinars will feature a number of contributors such as:
- Traumatic brain injury and concussion experts;
- Psychologists (to discuss why equestrians choose not to wear a helmet);
- Neurophysiotherapists;
- Helmet manufacturers;
- Traumatic brain injury survivors;
- Leading equestrians; and
- Helmet Testing Agencies.
The confirmed line-up of participants will be announced on prior to June 9. Some retailers across the country have also made plans to offer educational events in store on International Helmet Awareness Day.
Helmet brands that have committed involvement in International Helmet Awareness Day 2012 to date include Samshield, Troxel, Charles Owen (United States and U.K.), GPA, Aegis (Devon-Aire), Pegasus, Tipperary, Ovation, IRH, One K, KEP Italia, Champion Hats, Gatehouse and LAS have all signed up.
“We are grateful to the helmet manufacturers for their continued support of this important event,” said Chad Mendell of Riders4Helmets. “The Riders4Helmets campaign has continued to grow on a global level, as we hope will International Helmet Awareness Day.”
Retailers who wish to participate in the event may register by visiting riders4helmets.com/ihad/retailer-information/. Retailers are encouraged to register prior to May 28 to ensure that they receive educational materials in time for the event, however registrations will be accepted through June 8.
Interested parties can visit riders4helmets.com/ihad/ to learn more about International Helmet Awareness Day and to search for participating retailers by name or geographic location.
Is Lasix jinxing the Triple Crown?
Affirmed won the last Triple Crown back in 1979.
The use of Lasix (furosemide) has come under scrutiny in the racing industry with some analysts arguing that the use of the drug is one of the reasons why we’ve gone so long without a Triple Crown winner.
Lasix is injected to prevent bleeding – Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhaging. The argument is that almost all horses bleed at some point and that Lasix can help prevent it by lowering a horse’s blood pressure. According to a post on Bits n’Bunny:
In every horse’s lungs, there are blood vessels that end in air-sacs called alveoli. The alveolus are enclosed by capillaries, a tiny group of blood vessels about one percent of the thickness of a human hair. On average, one horse alone has approximately three hundred billion capillaries. When these capillaries burst under pressure, bleeding in the lungs ensues.
Although racing officials in the US don’t consider it to be a performance-enhancing drug, the US and Canada are the only two major racing countries where race-day injections of Lasix are legal.
And the use of Lasix is ubiquitous. According to this article in the Courier-Journal:
The last horse to win the Derby without Lasix was Grindstone in 1996. From that Derby through last year, only 13 of 292 Derby starters raced without Lasix, or roughly 4 percent.
The downside to Lasix is that it dehydrates horses. For horses that are already stressed by prepping for the Derby and then the Preakness, the added dehydration may make it almost impossible for a horse to run well in three big races over five weeks.
In the 1970s there were three Triple Crown winners: Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1978) and Affirmed (1979). Lasix was first introduced in the mid-70s and since then, there have been no winners. Coincidence? Sportswriter Bill Finely believes that Lasix is an obstacle to winning the Triple Crown.
Some vets believe that Lasix is a short cut taken by trainers who don’t condition properly:
“Bleeding in a race is reflective of inadequate care and preparation, of miscalculations and untoward medication practices. Lasix perpetuates substandard horsemanship, artificially suppressing the untoward result (bleeding) of inadequate preparation of the thoroughbred,” says Vet Sid Gustafson in an article in the Paulick Report.
What do you think?
An hommage to Snaffles
This collage is an hommage to Charles “Snaffles” Johnson Payne (1884–1967), an English painter who specialized in equestrian scenes.
Hunting for foxes
These elephant ears are right before the bridge leaving the farm.
On Sunday morning Freedom and I went hunting for foxes. Not foxhunting. Nope, I’d heard there were fox cubs in a den that I’d seen a few years back, so I saddled up and rode out to find them in the quiet of the early morning.
It was an amazingly beautiful out with so many flowering shrubs in their full glory and the grass in the meadows so tall that it brushed my feet. In places you could barely see the path. I think the first cutting hay will be magnificent.
We didn’t find the cubs but near the den we saw one of the healthiest, handsomest foxes! He or she had a huge, bushy tail that was tinged with black. Although the fox didn’t seem too worried about me, I wasn’t able to get close enough to snap a picture. My only complaint about the iPhone is that it’s difficult to ride AND operate the zoom function on the camera. I followed the fox for about five minutes until it went into someone’s yard. Obviously, it was out hunting
This hay field is just so inviting!
for the cubs. I hope I see them soon. When there were cubs there a few years ago they were so curious and playful; it was hard sometimes to remember that they were wild animals and shouldn’t be coaxed over for a pat.
Our Fledgling has flown
This little guy spent about a week in the corner of Curly’s stall until he got strong enough to fly away.
Last week we had another mouth to feed at the barn. A fledgling fell out of his next and took up residence in the corner of Curly’s stall.
Like most barns, we have a lot of birds. There are a ton of nests and the cacophony of chirping is quite deafening in the spring when the nests are full of babies. This youngster was the most mature of them; rather than just falling out of the nest, he (or she) was old enough that its predicament was most likely a failed attempt at flight.
Living with a 1300 pound horse might seem like living on the edge but this little bird was smart (he/she stayed safely in the corner) and had some attitude. Get too close to him/her and you got the deadly evil eye.
When our visitor first landed, it was tempting to try to help. Luckily, our resident vet set us straight: leave him alone and don’t touch him! It seems that when fledglings fall out of the nest they are not abandoned by their parents — they bring them food on the ground. And it proved true. Although our feathered friend seemed week when he first appeared (I had to check to see if he was breathing the first time I saw him), over the week he gained strength and became feistier. Apparently there are lots of “helpful” folks who bring fallen birds to the veterinary clinic not realizing that is safest (and preferable) to leave them where their parents can find them.
On Sunday morning I saw him trying to fly. By Sunday afternoon, he was gone. But probably not far. I imagine he/she is now one more of the dozens of birds living in our barn and hopefully eating their fill of mosquitoes.
I’ll Have Another takes the Preakness
I’ll Have Another made a tremendous run down the home stretch and edged out Bodemeister. Great to have a horse with the potential to win the Triple Crown!
I will admit it: I thought that Bodemeister would win the Preakness. Without an early pace setter and over the shorter distance, I thought he’d do it, especially as coming into the backstretch the time was a full two seconds slower than the Derby.
But I’ll Have Another rallied with another incredible run down the home stretch. It was a very impressive effort and a great race. I just love having this kind of excitement going into the Belmont, especially when the horse that’s won two legs of the Triple Crown is bred for distance!
Here are two videos of the race. The aerial view gives an excellent vantage point for watching I’ll Have Another accelerate.
