Charlotte Dujardin welcomes her first child, Isabella! Photo courtesy of Charlotte.
Have you ever had a horse that, despite what everyone else thinks, you just fall in love with their totally weird personality and like them even more because nobody else does? Just me? Actually, thinking back over my entire riding career, there is a strong theme for this exact horse and my inevitable ensuing love affair. I almost never genuinely like the horses that are beloved by all others, but I get aggressively attached to that one weirdo, and I make it mine. I have a horse in my barn like this right now, and I’ve been fighting it, but honestly he’s the highlight ride of my day, not because he’s doing amazing fun things, but because I just have fun on him. All the weirdos, send them this way!
U.S. Weekend Preview
Chattahoochee Hills H.T. (Fairburn, GA) [Website] [Entries] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
Full Gallop Farm March I H.T (Aiken, SC) [Website] [Volunteer]
SAzEA Spring H.T. (Tucson, AZ) [Website] [Entries / Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
Southern Pines H.T. (Raeford, NC) [Website] [Entries] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
News From Around the Globe:
We’ve all been there—on the horse who pokes his way around the warm-up ring, needs leg, leg, leg coming into the combination, or brings up the rear on every trail ride. None of us wants each and every ride to be a lower-body squeezefest, nor do we wish to do anything with our crop except maybe wave it at that annoying deerfly. In this excerpt from his book The Sport Horse Problem Solver, former international eventer Eric Smiley explains the essential quality of forwardness and how to prepare the horse to expect you to look for it in all that you do together. [That “Forward” State of Mind]
Throwback Thursday: Remembering Shutterfly
It’s important to scientifically confirm what horse owners “know” because sometimes what we know is wrong, even if it’s common practice. Without scientific research, for instance, we might still be withholding water from dangerously overheated horses for fear they may colic or tie up simply because “everyone knows that.” For example, research conducted in the lead up to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta found that not only will drinking or being bathed with cold water not harm hot horses, but it helps them recover from exertion and prevents potentially deadly heat stress. [What We Know We Don’t Know]
Best of Blogs: Thoroughbred Logic: Transitions and the Post
Mustang fans will be glad to hear of the success of animal welfare advocates in recent budget changes. The 2023 budget signed by President Biden allocates an additional $10 million to the Wild Horse and Burro program. It also instructs the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to implement a humane and sustainable approach to wild horse and burro management, shifting the agency towards reliance on fertility control. Lethal management and sale to slaughter of these animals are prohibited under the budget’s terms, as well. [ASPCA Applauds Horse Friendly Laws]
