365 Days in Horse Country – Arena Footing    It’s not something many horse people think about, but it’s an important part of your horse’s environment: the footing, that is, the dirt under your horse’s feet in your arena. Whether you have your own riding ring or are using a boarding stable facility or community arena, it’s important to take note of the footing.  If the arena where you ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Wind Horse     Horses have often inspired spirituality through the ages.  A symbol called the Wind Horse has found its way into both Buddhism and Native American religions. In the Buddhist faith, the Wind Horse represents one of the cardinal directions.  This symbol originated with the Asian shamanistic faith of Bon.  In Tibetan Buddhism, its appearance be ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Pony of the Americas    An Appaloosa in miniature, the Pony of the Americas, or POA, is a popularmount for children. The breed began quite by accident in Iowa when a Shetland pony stallion was accidentally allowed to mate with an Appaloosa mare.  The resulting foal, an attractive black and white colt, named Black Hand because of the handprint-like marking on ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Arena Etiquette    If you take group lessons or ride in an arena, you need to be aware of arena etiquette.  You and your horse are sharing space with others, so courtesy is essential. Here are some basic rules of arena etiquette.  If you need to mount or dismount your horse in the arena, go to the centre to do it.  Stay off the rail.  When passing a hor ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Lunging Transitions   Imaging having to travel around and around in a circle, over and over again.  It would get pretty boring, right?  Your horse feels the same way when you make her work repeatedly on the lunge line.  You can make lunge-line work more interesting for your horse while fine tuning her training at the same time.  One good way to do this is wi ...

365 Days in Horse Country – The Hanoverian    A member of the family of warmbloods, the Hanoverian is a German breed originating in the former kingdom of Hannover.  In the 1600s, they were used as warhorses, and they went on to be bred to Spanish, Oriental, and Neapolitan horses.  The horses that resulted from these breedings were used as farm horses, riding horses and to pull coaches.  ...

365 Days in Horse Country – The Eyes Have It    They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and that is certainly true when it comes to horses.  You can tell a lot about a horse’s mood just by looking at her eyes. Unfortunately, eye disease is all too common in horses, threatening the horses’ overall wellbeing in a variety of ways. One of the most common eye problems in horses ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Happy in Bad Weather    It’s a cold night and you are warm and snug by the fire.  What about your poor horse?  Standing in the wind, rain, snow, and cold can’t be pleasant for her.  Right? In truth, horses are much more tolerant of bad weather than humans.  Our species is designed to seek shelter and stay out of bad weather.  After all, we don’t have winter ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Craniosacral Therapy The cranium is the part of the skull that encases the brain.  The sacrum is the bone that lies between the lumbar and coccygeal regions.  Craniosacral therapy, then, addresses a horse’s problems from head to tail.  Originally developed for use in people, it is one of the many alternative therapies now available to horses. Craniosacral t ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Equine Metabolic Syndrome     The condition called Equine Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of problems that includes obesity, insulin resistance and laminitis, or founder.   It tends to affect horses with certain characteristics: they tend to be overweight or gain weight easily, even when they don’t eat much or eat only hay or pasture grass; they have fat d ...