My Soapbox for Equestrian Writings
Although I have never been able to keep a grazing muzzle on a horse — I tried one on Freedom to try to prevent cribbing — this pair has it down to a science! Freedom destroyed every cribbing muzzle I tried in under five minutes. Other horses just saw it coming and ran for the […]
Read More
There was a recent post on Facebook that postulates that horses don’t have frontal lobes and, therefore, cannot undertake higher mental functions such as reasoning. This would mean that horses cannot plan to be naughty or blamed for bad behavior or poor performance. Well, no one told Zelda. After much thought and planning, Zelda has […]
Read More
Periodically, I invite other bloggers to publish an article on Equine Ink. This article is written by Melissa Waltz, who grew up on a family farm with 4 dogs, sheep, a few hens, gooses, and two Appaloosas (named Ronny & Barty), and one American Miniature Horses (Moosa). Before opting for a full-time vet-tech career, she interned at Fort […]
Read More
Firenze Fire proved himself a fierce competitor in the Grade 1 Forego, reaching over to bite at Yaupon around the sixteenth pole. When this happens in a race, it’s called “savaging” and it’s kind of surprising that it doesn’t happen more often, given that many of the horses racing are stallions and they are in […]
Read More
Freedom is the poster child for separation anxiety. Looking back over my blog posts, I’ve written about this before . . . always with the thought that he is “getting over it.” And he does. Kind of. For awhile. But then the anxiety comes back. When I take Zelda out for a ride I can […]
Read More
Trust a mare to understand social distancing. Trust a hungry mare to enforce it! Zelda has always been fiercely protective of her food. Curly must know it by now, but every day she tempts fate and inches close enough to grab a few mouthfuls of alfalfa hay . . . or dives in to check […]
Read More
Cribbing is in Freedom’s DNA. He is not as bad as some cribbers: he can stand on a trailer for hours without cribbing, but without a collar, he will crib consistently. In fact the days before I ordered the Dare cribbing collar, he walked over to the fencepost near the gate and cribbed while I […]
Read More
The last few days have been challenging, but in different ways: deer, turkeys and wind have made each ride a little more exciting than it had to be. Yesterday, it was the turkeys and the wind. It’s courting season for the wild turkeys and they are everywhere. Poor Freedom, who has always had a turkey […]
Read More