Step right up and watch the STOOPID humans ignore the very clear horsey message!
Jun 03 2010
And no one seems to pick up on it at all!
I wonder if she is going to have the World’s Smallest Ulcers?
I wonder how long this poor thing is even going to live, this stressed out and angry?
Who cannot pick up on the body language here? HOW STUPID are the owners to keep exhibiting her like this when she’s so clearly upset? Oh, and who thinks she’s going to pick off a few child fingers one of these days? Hellooooo lawsuit.
*sigh*Â I seriously cannot believe anyone owns horses and can’t read the body language this mare is displaying and recognize that it is time to put the poor little mare back in her trailer with some hay and let her have some PEACE and QUIET!
Anyway, while we’re on this topic, let’s talk about things we can do to keep our horses from feeling stressed when they’re at a show or other exhibition. What do you do? Do you have a horse who doesn’t care at all, or a horse who gets stressed? Other than letting the horse have some time off (which this little mare clearly needs!), what do you recommend to keep horses relaxed when they’re away from home and having to deal with a lot of strange people and a strange place? My VLC doesn’t mind crowds of people, but he hates the noise and not getting a good night’s rest. Last show we had not just a kicker but a body-slammer one row away that kept us both up all night. And I have a friend whose little rescued Arabian mare just went NUTS in a stall at her first show – got herself into a white lather, so if anyone has dealt with a horse like that and has some tips to share, I’d love to hear them. Does anyone use earplugs in the stall? I was thinking about it. Do you use herbals like Calm & Cool? Do you use stall curtains? I want to hear your best ideas for keeping sensitive horses happy and performing well!
216 comments to “Step right up and watch the STOOPID humans ignore the very clear horsey message!”
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so sad sigh they learn the hard way
i have one my gelding he thinks sushi monsters lives everywhere so i stay clam let him have his snort OMG moment if i don’t he just gets spooky at everything so to me as a good owner i show n prove to him that what ever he is scared of will not eat him people say oh pull him away he got to learn to trust you etc but we have the trust it due his past abuse that causes this fear so for me to let him is safer on me and him
Off the topic Cathy
to let you know guess whos still prompting him self and has a facebook page i have feeling you should know about seeing he stuffed you friends horse up
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Trainer-on-Retainer-by-Randy-Byers-Horsemanship/119474128085807?ref=ts
Oh, I know he is. And he has a column in some free horse magazine, too! It’s painful. I can’t BELIEVE anyone still listens to him. You should have read my e-mails after I blogged about him. I have literally never in my life heard SO MANY horror stories about one trainer.
Please tell me I am wrong and his website does not say “Some people succeed because they are destined to”.
Honestly I never heard of him until just now.. I didn’t even see the original blog about him, but after I write this I am going to search it! How can people fall for these jerks who just by reading his facebook page you can tell looks down on people, mostly women?
I find his facebook page and the whole ‘ ihorse garbage’ to be a pretty cute joke. He talks to people like they are in elementry school and/or stupid and his ‘advice’ is just little sayings and nonsense.
How can people think this is how it is? Its sad, many people will not get to see what it can be like if you research and find someone good to work with youand your horse.
btw his iphone/itouch app costs $9.99 if anyone wants to buy it lmao.
“How can people fall for these jerks who just by reading his facebook page you can tell looks down on people, mostly women?”
I love how you got that about him just by reading his facebook, and you haven’t even seen all of my e-mail from women who are afraid of this dude IRL.
And he doesn’t know how to spell fascinating?
He can’t spell “absolutely,” either.
And you should have seen MY emails after I linked to your post about him. The guy either has some rabid fans, or is super unprofessional about defending himself (while pretending to be someone else), put it that way!
The body language is very clear. Poor creature probably goes from exhibition to exhibition. Personally, I don’t find her all that cute, more like deformed. Reminds me of when they use to have freak human sideshows.
Yeah, poor girl looks like a mini buffalo or something. She deserves MUCH better regardless.
Thats exactly what I thought. That poor thing is SO poorly put together. And she doesn’t deserve the life she seems to have, poor thing.
Aww, but because she’s a deformed, mutant dwarf mini its sooo kyoooot!
…
Seriously though! The moment she swung her head around at that kid I thought he was getting bitten. I would think adults would have sense enough to know the animal was being agressive, not cute ,but NOOOOO.
It always boggles me to find out just how blind some people are to the body language of animals. To me, that fugly little critter is clearly VERY upset. Very sad.
From the video description:
“She may look a bit ferocious, lol, but she is really just having a good time and kicking up her heels, much to the delight of the kids watching!!”
By Pegasus’s gelded left testicle she is! Are they insane?!?
I do take comfort in the fact that most of the youtube comments are on the side of sanity (oddly enough for youtube comments). Even the bad-grammar ones.
My horse used to get very nervous with large groups of people and horses out on prize rides or just trail riding for that matter. He would get so nervous it would cause some bucking issues. So instead of putting him through that kind of nervous stress I have tried B-Calm and absolutely love it. It doesnt make him a zombie, and just takes the edge off his nerves. Much more relaxing for both of us, there is still the occaisional buck, but its not nearly as bad as what it had been before. Now that he is on the B-calm when we go on prize rides he is MR. Friendly, he will nicker to other horses and wants to sniff noses rather than hide behind his pasture buddy.
Poor horse. This is why you should not let me near your kids…
Do you think they would notice if it was a dog in the cage and it was growling and baring its teeth? I don’t understand.
I went to my first horse show ever a few weeks ago, just as a spectator. It was a Paso Fino show.
During the day the stall areas were open to the public, so I went in to admire all the pretty Pasos. I was hoping to pat a few noses because I am a very affectionate person
I couldn’t believe how cranky all the horses were!! Most were standing in the stalls, facing the corner, ears pinned the whole time. A few were curious enough to sniff your fingers through the bars, but then they would turn around once they figured out you did not bring food. Out of dozens of horses, maybe 3 or 4 actually let me pet them.
The scene wasn’t really that crazy, and I didn’t see any mistreatment or abuse, but 90% of the horses were very unhappy
It was very discouraging and disappointing. I do not want to show my puppy-dog Paso if it will make him angry and cranky.
Some of that may be how they are treated at home, though. A lot of show barns don’t turn out, and a lot of trainers are less-than-nice to the horses. One of my big requirements when I chose a training barn for my horse is that I wanted to see fresh, happy horses in it. I found that barn but it was NOT easy. Walked through a lot of barns with ear-pinning, shut-down, cranky horses first. I’ve said before, if one horse is crabby, ok. If twenty horses are crabby, there are care/treatment issues – 100% of the time, there are no other explanations for this.
What you mention, at the show with horses in their stalls facing a back corner, I know lots of show horses who are happy campers who do that just to protect themselves. Show horses work very hard, and the smart ones rest whenever they can.
If you walk through our barn at home every horse (except mine, who’s happy face is his grumpy face), they’re happy to see you and inspect you for treats. At shows, most of them don’t give a crap if you’re there until you grab their halter. Maybe some of this is what you saw? I don’t know, I show Arabs, not Pasos….
Yeah, some of them were definitely napping, but there were a lot of pinned ears and pissy expressions. Some of them snorted when you approached their stalls.
It caught me off guard because I am used to interacting with MY Paso gelding… He absolutely MUST touch noses with EVERY creature he encounters, including humans, other horses, cats, dogs, cows… Even chickens! He is so friendly, so if he’s not sticking his nose in my face, it’s the first sign of a bad mood.
There was one 3 year old stallion at the Paso show who was a lot like my gelding though… Very happy to accept ear scritches! He even nickered at me when I walked away to move on to the next horse
That is a stallion who has been treated well
Nice to see, isn’t it?
My horse loves the attention. Like I say, what irritates him is not being able to get a good night’s rest. We don’t have any kickers at home so he’s used to his quiet and doesn’t have that at shows. He spent a lot of time sleeping during classes when it was actually quieter than it was at night.
I don’t know about horses, but I’ve been showing dogs since 1977. This is a bit of a sore spot with me. You may not realize that animals like dogs and horses are NOT genetically equipped to enjoy having a series of complete strangers come up and pet them.
I’ve competed in a few “benched” shows, which is where the dogs have to sit on an assigned table in a sort of “cubicle” the whole day. Literally THOUSANDS of spectators came past my dog, and every one of them wanted to pet him. They want all the dogs to look at them, respond to them, cuddle up to them, etc. It never occurs to them that the dog is sick and tired of it, and that this particular spectator is not the only one who have been doing this all day. Today, in the few benched shows still left, the smart handlers put the dogs in their spot inside an airline crate with a blanket over it.
In a simlar vein, people here in Turkey go to zoos and throw wadded paper, etc. at every animal they pass, trying to get the animal to look at them. They bang on the glass or the bars, shout, yell, and hoot. And EVERY Turk does it–men, women, children… hundreds or thousands of them a day. For some reason, they can’t realize that the animals’ goal in life is not to have meaningful eye contact with each and every human that passes by.
I guess most horse shows don’t have this many spectators, but the horses are not there to cuddle up with strangers that come by. They are out there to rest. If that was a human stranger sitting out there in the barn, would you go up and expect him to tolerate you giving him a hug and kiss? Now add the fact that the horse isn’t even our species and you can see why the horses weren’t welcoming.
You might think that animals like dogs are calmed by people petting them. Nope. I was a participant in a major U-Missouri study on the human-animal bond. My dog was a therapy dog who visited hospitals and nursing homes. He was also a top competition dog that spent every minute with me. As part of the study, we had to pet our own dog, a robot dog, or a stranger’s dog. We were all in blood-pressure cuffs and gave before/after blood samples. (Not the robot!) The study was clear that humans are calmed by petting dogs. But the dogs are stressed even when petted by the owner, and even more stressed when petted by a stranger. If you look at dog culture (and likely horse culture), there is NO physical interaction similar to petting. Petting is a primate thing–apes and monkeys do it. Horses and dogs don’t. Luckily, our pets learn to tolerate petting, mainly because it’s paired with treats, freedom, exercise, presence of a social partner, etc.
That’s a very interesting study. I’ve noticed some dogs love only firm but gentle head stroking. Many dogs seek out firm, whole body massage. I can understand why they don’t like petting, as it is commonly practiced. I had a boyfriend who had lousy hands for massage. He’d sort of pet my skin like most people do with animals. I tried to show him how, but he just didn’t have “the touch.” I’d feel so irritated.
Poor animals. They can’t break up with you like a human can.
I agree with almost everything there, but horses do have physical interaction in the form of mutual grooming. They sure appreciate a good skritching
Hm…. What did this study say about being petted by familiar people? Or in their usual place? Because my cat ADORES being petted. She’s beside me right now, poking my shoulder as I type this. >_< But… she's a bit weird. She loves being petted by anyone as long as it's on HER chairs. The dining room chairs, the living room chairs, the chair by my desk or… the ironing board will all do. So will the top of the futon. Upstairs? Forget it. In the living room near the TV? Nope. Of course, she's part Siamese so she comes from a very long line of domestic cats…
Unlike dogs and horses cats do have a mutual grooming behavior similar to petting, if you have two cats who are buddies you will see them curl up together and lick and kneed each other. In fact, quite often a cat being petted by a human will return the favor and lick the human. I imagine it is quite calming for them. The trouble is dogs and horses do not have similar behaviors (horses do nibble, but that’s more like giving a good scratch).
Another thing dog tolerate but do not like is hugging. Primates hug to show affection, but when a dog wraps its paws around another dog it is a show of dominance. If you ever look at the face of dog being hugged they usually do not look happy. They mostly tolerate hugging and petting as one of those crazy things people do, but that doesn’t make them happy about it at all.
Most parrots love scritches, but petting can either uncomfortable, or, ahem, overly stimulating for them, especially for females
I can’t tell you how many people I have seen unintentionally masturbate their pet parrot when they thought they were just petting them. A female bird’s erogenous zone is on the back folks! And petting the vent area is just… I don’t know. I guess some people just have no common sense at all.
Reptiles generally either hate or tolerate handling, they do not love it, not even the social species. I have trained crested and gargoyle geckos to associate being fed fruit baby food with being handled, but that is the best I’ve seen a reptile react to handling. My iguana HATES it when I pet him, he goes very still and pretends he does not exist. I try to handle him regularly because a 6+lb, 6 foot long animal that can (and has) bitten through a leather coat needs to be safe to pet and handle, but I do not pretend that he likes it.
Ah… that makes sense. I know my cats BEG for petting and won’t leave me alone until I touch them!
But our shih-tzu is a bit different… the ‘petting’ she likes is more like wrestling, heh. I’m sure that’s not a calming activity! 
I’ve seen mutual grooming behavior in my pack of dogs as well as among my cats. One rat terrier in particular was dubbed the Doctor Dog as he would doctor any hurts, lick any rashes on other dogs. I sleep with my dogs (like, why have a dog if you can’t take it to bed?) and the best bed warmer and velvet teddy bear is my APBT who is my lap dog as well and is always wanting to be stroked while we watch TV. Maybe its just me, but my dogs seek out my touch as well as my hubby’s touch. Perhaps its GOOD stress they are registering rather than bad stress on these tests?
The study showed that dogs were stressed even when petted by the owner. The location was a comfortable office at a university, wih carpeting, decorations, a sofa, etc. The dogs had been there with the owner on a couple of occasions before the test. The blood draw and blood pressure cuff reaction was controlled for, because there were “before petting” and “after petting” tests. They were only interested in the difference before/after.
People are so in love with the “fact” that our pets love to be petted. But in fact, their tolerance is a learned behavior, just so they can live with their primate companions.
I have grown up with dogs, and pretty much any dog I have every deals with gets more excited when you pet them, and will poke you with their paws, or noses for more affection. Do you think that this spike in blood pressure could be due to excitement rather then stress?
I have a border collie who I am sure would have her blood pressure go up when I pet her, she goes from laying on the ground to jumping all around, jabbing me with a front paw to try and get more attention.
My experience is different than yours. I participate in a club that is heavily involved in public education. As part of this mission, we exhibit our breed at the state fair. Much like a benched show, but with a wee bit more room, we set up chairs in our ‘cube’ and rugs for the dogs and then hang out for 12 hours while the public asks questions and are allowed to pet the dogs and learn about the various breeds. The cubes were set up with a fence like front and gate – it made a charming picture and allowed for folks to reach in and pet dogs – and allowed for the dogs to walk well out of public range if they so chose. I did my first state fair event last year. I had 5 frenchies and a husband along. All dogs were super excited and stood at the fence allowing themselves to be petted by strangers. By days’ end we were both hoarse from non-stop talking. As you can imagine the dogs were tired out too. But even as the event wrapped up, the dogs were laying against the fence and allowing the public to pet and stroke them as passed out or slept. Since mine is a popular breed du jour, we had folks lined across our fence – so 15 bodies across and 4-5 bodies deep – literally at all times until closing. I forget the gate counts, but we easily saw 10,000 people that day. Frenchies are a companion breed, bred to be petted and fawned over and fussed over; that is their sole reason for existence. The dogs were in HEAVEN for those 12 hours. Other breeds were not so engaging, didn’t allow themselves to be petted – that was just their temperaments and normal for those breeds. The folks with those breeds would swap dogs in and out off the show floor to give them a break. I could not swap my dogs in and out due to heat conditions – it was cooler to stay on the show floor. That and mine would give people dirty looks for stopping the petting when they moved on to the next booth! Breed makes a huge difference IMHO.
Did they use several different types/breeds of dogs in this study? I know for a fact that my corgi is not stressed by petting, he is stressed by not being pet. If you don’t pet him he throws a fit, so I would have to disagree with the dogs being stressed by being pet by people. I’m sure some are, but not all of them. Just curious.
Your horse isn’t named Luke is he? I knew an Arab named Luke whose happy face was pinned ears, and a really nasty look. He used to scare anyone who didn’t know him because they thought the big Arab was coming at them to attack, when really he was just coming to say hello. He honestly did not know what pinned ears meant.
My friend has an Arabian who does the same thing. We call it snakeface and always laugh because we walk right up to her and kiss her on the nose like that, and anybody who didn’t know her would think we were idiots who couldn’t read body language. In her case, it really IS meaningless.
I can’t say anything about Paso shows but I know my normally happy-go-lucky meet every new person he can horse tends to sleep with his head in the corner or eating hay the entire time he is in his stall at a show. He is out 24/7 at home and when he goes to shows I think he knows he’s going to get his bum worked off (3’6″ jumpers aren’t easy). I’ve owned him for 5 years and even when we took a year long break from showing he went right back to his routine of sleeping with his head in the corner whenever he can.
I was going to say the same about my guy. When he was showing he had a “game face”. He was always well mannered, but he tended to ignore anyone that was not one of “his” people. He never pinned an ear, but just turned his butt to strangers. He was much more content with his hay pile in the far back corner where he could have some personal space. With his people he is a total ham, begging for stratches and treats, but he can do without everyone else.
My old horse was a different story. He had his head out the whole time saying hi to everyone. It drove me nuts though, because do you know how many times I found wrappers for all sorts of treats (non-horsey) in his stall? I feed some peppermints, but usually just carrots. What if he had been on a strict diet and coliced or choked on one of these treats? What if he bit someone? I always had a not on his stall card to please not feed treats, but obviously people ignored that.
Lol, I have a Paso Paint, and he positively loves people.
I never take him to shows because of a stifle injury, and he’s pastured 24/7. He is just a lot more social than my quarters or paints. I also have a Morab, and he’s also more social than my stock horses. IDK if it’s something about their genetic make-up, or what. 
But I do have one paint that likes people. But none of my horses will walk to the fence to be petted. I don’t know about being in stalls though. This is very interesting. 
In response to the shrink (lol, jk, jk) were any of the dogs in the study golden retreivers? Lol, I have a golden, and anytime you sit down outside he is sitting at your feet, waiting to be rubbed with a foot.
If you don’t pet him, he will put his paws on you, or just move closer and closer until you rub him with your foot. 
He’s kinda odd…. Lol!
Gah! That poor little thing. What a miserable existance that must be.
As for showing our horses were always fine at shows. Their worst vice was getting bored/imaptient waiting for the next class, so I would ride around the grounds. Usually did the trick.
I´ve already watched that video some months ago when Fugly wrote about dwarves. Poor, poor thing..
But thanks to this blog, I was able to identify a dwarf foal which was shown in a shetland pony forum. They tried everything they could but unfortunately, it had to be put down… Without this blog, the owners wouldn´t have known what to look for …
Glad to hear that was helpful. A lot of things I post here, I hadn’t seen in real life before either! I didn’t know a thing about dwarves before I wrote that initial blog about them after I found that weird freaky memorial page to them. I had no idea minis had a 36% foal death rate. I don’t think most people understand how hard it is to breed them successfully. They think it is like a dog.
Yup, they even take them to bed with them. :-/
The user showed the pic of the foal and it was obvious: underbite, very crooked legs, very short legs, tongue sticking out… Thank God the user tried to do the right thing and it became obvious pretty soon that the foal would never live a normal horse´s life so it was put down.
I translated some pages for them and linked some which were shown here and told them what the outcome might be. :-/
Years ago I worked at a large animal hospital and was introduced to the term “fetotomy”. It is a procedure commonly used on mini mares that have dystocia (a difficult birth). If the head or other body part of the foal is to large to deliver, they will actually cut the baby up in utero to get it out and, in the end, save the mare’s life. Luckily I never saw a fetotomy, but it was pretty common with the mini mares. It does happen in other animals, too, but I’ve never heard of that first hand.
Yup, I´ve heard of that before. They also do that with cows. :-//
Sadly I have seen one of these performed whilst I worked on a TB stud in Oz. The foal had died not long before birth and consequently had partly presented for birth. However, it was a lovely big foal and the mare was a bit skinny hipped. Its shoulders were twisted so it wouldn’t fit easily through the pelvis.
Obviously it initially appeared to have presented properly so there was a delay on getting the vet who, although he lived close by in australian terms, was still over an hour away. We did all we could but when the vet arrived it was decided to perform a fetotomy to save the mare any further distress (she was pretty exhausted by this time). It was pretty gross and definitely no fun for anyone involved but it got the foal out and saved the mare. This whole process took about 4 hours and we finished up half an hour before time to start work at six. We were pretty bummed out all day – and of course it fell to me to go and take the foal away from the mare (left it with her so she could see for herself that it was dead) as I was the least squeamish of the girls but I was still pretty grossed out by it.
I don’t know why anyone would breed with the increased risk of this happening – why cause any unnecessary suffering? Us responsible horse owners get our horse’s feet trimmed correctly to make them as sound and comfortable as we can. Surely this should be the same aim when breeding?
From my understanding, this is a last ditch effort to save the mare when the foal is already lost.
The only mare I’ve ever known to have to under go this surgery didn’t make it through, the trauma was too much for her and she died shortly after the surgery for the foal.
I wasn’t there to witness it, but the mare was owned by a close friend of mine, and she was still teary eyed about it several years later. I don’t envy you having to remove the foal from the mare’s side.
I’ve heard of them doing it in cattle when the foetus has already died – it’s a lot less traumatic for the mare/heifer than having to do a c-section.
Yeah, I have had to help a vet with that before. It was a very crude “get it done in the field” procedure so that the down mare could be safely winched onto a trailer and taken to the clinic. Horrible, horrible thing to have to do. In the end, the mare could not be saved.
I use rolled cotton to keep my horse happy at shows. It’s the surgical kind I get from my vet. Way softer than panty hose too.
If that little mare is happy, then I am a freakin super model. I wouldn’t tolerate that behavior out of ANY of my horses. Just wait until she goes rogue— I can hear it now. “SHE HAS NEVER DISPLAYED THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR” .. argh, how sad.
When I worked at the petting zoo in the West Edmonton Mall we had three adult miniatures, and one weanling/yearling (can’t remember how old she was, it was a while ago) that were suitable for display, as well as a donkey named Pico that looked like she was stoned alot. The adults and the donkey did pony rides as well as being petted. The baby was just for cuddles. They had a seperate pen that they stayed in within the zoo when they weren’t working. It was large enough that people couln’t reach them unless they came right up to the sides. We rotated them from the home farm every other day if we were open more than two days. (We were open from 11:00am-9:00pm weekends and holidays.)
Besides that, they only did rides for short distances, at a walk, for an hour at a time, then had 20 minutes to relax, drink, eat hay, whatever. Plus of course we were only actually busy in spurts, and if there was no requests, they loafed, saddles off.
They never seemed to sour. Only Pico stood with helicopter ears and her tongue hanging out. People kept asking if she was drugged.
I swear, that donkey knew the route so well we didn’t even bother leading her, just concentrated on sidewalking the kid. Tourists never fail to amaze me with their general ignorance/stupidity.
Basically the same rules for the other animals, and if they were looking depressed or angry they went to the trailer or we put them in with the ponies for a break.
We did retire some back to the farm because they weren’t doing well anymore (soured). And Jon had one saddlebroke pony that we never used because it was mean. Most of the animals enjoyed the attention. Many had been bottle babies and that helps. (goats and the like)
At a petting zoo, especially in a place like the WEM your animals had better be clean, friendly, and ifinitly tolerant, or you face law suits, and lose your exhibit, hence your income. That cranky mini would never have left the farm. I shudder to speculate how much kimchee we would have been in if anyone got hurt by one of our animals. Even rabbit scratches were a big deal!
I am starting to show a gelding who at 10 is very green about traveling. He isn’t that willing to pee in his stall because he live outside, he won’t stand still in his stall if he hear people, he doesn’t sleep, but boy does he eat! It’s hard to start teaching them to travel at that age, and because he was never well socialized to traveling, working, and being away from home over night this is really hard on him.
Because he’s going to breed shows I cannot give him tranqs, but I do help him relax by hand walking him when he shows quiet behaviors. He also spends lots of time tied in the back of his stall, he’s learned that the back corner is a safe place to rest where there are no expectations on him. He is left alone, and he’s beginning to relax. It’s a really long process, and I wish I could help him more, but he does have to learn on his own that he will survive.
Generally, when we (my trainer, myself, people I ride with) get horses who are bad travelers, we do have them spend lots of time being left alone. Often, if you get one who is pacing and being silly you start taking them, but not showing them so that they can travel, and get all their silliness out. I’ve seen lots of Arabs who behave poorly in stalls at shows simply because they want attention, and poor behavior is an easy way to get attention. It’s hard, but I ignore most poor/stressed stall behavior. When they’re quiet and happy looking, I praise them and give them attention (hand walk to grass, grooming, short ride, just hang out with them) at that point.
As for my more experienced horses, I do take them to a lot of places. When they’ve had enough of the public I park my chair in front of their stalls and plainly tell people that the horses are resting and need to be left alone. Most people have been pretty understanding when I explain that the horses have worked hard and need to rest. I have one gelding who is very good about protecting himself; he simply doesn’t respond to anybody but me when he’s had enough for the day.
“As for my more experienced horses, I do take them to a lot of places. When they’ve had enough of the public I park my chair in front of their stalls and plainly tell people that the horses are resting and need to be left alone. Most people have been pretty understanding when I explain that the horses have worked hard and need to rest.”
At my first show a few weeks ago, I was part of the annoying public
I would slowly, calmly, approach the stall and if the horse came up to the gate, I’d let him sniff my hand and then pet him if he was accepting. Otherwise, I left him alone and moved on to the next stall. Sometimes I’d watch them eat if they didn’t seem bothered by my presence.
Hopefully I wasn’t annoying the horses or their handlers… I just really wanted to look at all the horses to get an idea of what a fully conditioned and dolled-up Paso should look like.
Sorry, but I do not want *anyone* touching my horses at shows. Look all you want, but keep your hands to yourself, please! How many horses’ soft noses have you touched before you got to my stalls? Did you use hand sanitizer after each one?
Yep, “petting” can transmit diseases. I will talk to you forever about my kids, I’ll introduce you, I might even let you pet necks and shoulders, but please don’t touch without permission!
And, really, that goes for anyone’s horses. You don’t have to touch them to enjoy them, honest!
This really is an issue – alphamare brings up a good point. Disease control. I WISH everybody were responsible enough NOT to bring sick horses to shows BUT they are not.
We had some asshat bring a sick horse to a clinic and YEP made everybody in the barn sick with an upper respiratory including my horse. If I knew the guy’s name I would have sent him the bill.
Oh yes. x_x It’s a SHOW, it’s not WORK, why would people bring sick animals? But they do.
I remember reading some books written by a vet when I was a kid… danged if I can remember the name but they were all set in Europe and some were written about his experiences during WWII. I think the author was British… anyway. I remember one book where he volunteered to be a judge at some kind of agricultural event. He talked about what a nightmare it was… one man brought in a sick dog with a temp of 102 or something and kept begging to be let in! And another problem he had was with the horses who, when he tried to stick them, wouldn’t stand straight. Another judge told him it was because the owners would stick them with pins or something to get them to look shorter to enter a lower class. I think. It’s been years since I read this so I might be garbling it a bit. Hey, does anyone know the books I’m talking about? *feels like reading them again*
The books were written by James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, The Lord God Made them. I might have screwed up the last title but they are a great read!!!!
That woudl be James Herriott. The story in question is from his book “Let Sleeping Vets Lie”.
Only one of the best authors ever!
Thank you! I haven’t read those books since high school, and I’m over thirty.
I’ll have to see about buying some copies!
Yes, I loved those books! AND, if you have Netflix, you can instantly watch the BBC TV series that was made of them in the late 70′s / early 80′s, it’s very good and really brings the stories to life. The series is titled “All Creatures Great and Small.” They have 5 or 6 seasons of it, alltogether about 100 episiodes!
Re that poor mini horse- my heart goes out to her. Can you magine if she were 1000 lbs behaving that way… maybe they’d pay attention!
Maybe if she bites a few kids they will stop letting people touch her.
You’re so right, alphamare! Diseases are so easily spread by well meaning people. I’ve been lucky and not personally been affected by the ever loving public, but stuff flies through the training barn on a regular basis; fungus, scratches, upper respiratory issues…. It never stops. Ugh!
One other thought, when I can’t be with my horse at shows that public frequent, I have a printed sign stating that my horses are all biters and that for public safety they’re not to be approached. I’ve had pretty good luck with my lie, too!
Lol, I usually don’t ride with other people, but when I do, I HATE it when they get their horses right up on mine’s tail! Hello-o! Just because she doesn’t routinely kick other horses doesn’t mean that she won’t kick yours if you let him TOUCH MY HORSE WITH HIS NOSE!! I’m going on the ACTHA world record trail ride soon (at least I’m planning too) and my horse will most definitely be wearing a red ribbon in her tail.
Not only can you be the INFECTION Vector to pass on communicable diseases to my horses, but in this day of age with the some of the sick so called humans walking amongst us–how do I know you are not feeding my $10,000 Peruvian Paso (Peruvian Horse) poison? It only takes a moment to slip my pony a cookie with something in it to silently watch the outcome…
I have a tremendous amount of training, lessons, conditioning, commitment, money and love dedicated to this one sole animal–please have the respect, dignity, and etiquette to observe a show horse from either the bleachers or from a distance…but you don’t need to touch my horse to have that experience. Think about other people and not about yourself.
The topic here is what sets off my horse and what do I do about it? People trying to touch, pet and handle him are what unhinges him–he trusts our trainer and me. My mother who has known him for 4 years when he was a 3 yo is just as much of the boogie man as John Q Public to him–he is a quirky little guy who is a tremendous contender. So don’t you want to see all the horses have the same playing field when it comes to the SHOW…then stand back, give us some room, don’t crowd us or force your horsey needs on us–after all this show is suppose to be about the show, not you fetish to see how many horses you can cross contaminate in one day!
So I am basically the barn bouncer when it comes to my boy or the horses I show–just keep walking…if you want to see a Peruvian there are plenty for sale to bother others for your tactile experience. We don’t need the stress or the germs you are carrying on your hands–after all you don’t want to pay my vet bill do you? Look with your eyes not with your hands…all horses feel the same.
I’ve been actively mocked because I do not visit two barns in the same day without using hand sanitizer (if I can’t shower between) and disinfecting footwear and gloves. I prefer to *shower and change clothes*.
Why?
Because I had to watch somebody I know lose an entire crop of foals, the reproductive health of his stallions and his entire livelihood as a breeder because of an infectious disease. (Which MY horse also got and was miserable for weeks).
I also disinfect ALL footwear if I’m going out of the immediate area and even think I might go near any livestock or the enclosures in which they are kept.
For some people ‘foot and mouth’ and ‘EHV’ and ‘EVA’ are words…for anyone who has lost an animal, they are very bad words indeed.
So, I would not pet horses at a show for just that reason…shows are risky enough as it is.
I don’t show but I do work with a horse rescue that takes in injured horses for recovery. I have found a drop of oil of lavender massaged into each nosril helps to keep a horse calm while working on painful wounds might work in the show or on the trail too.
All mine are mellow, so I can’t really help.
Anyone got tips for helping out a herd-bound mare? We have a polo pony staying with us who has attached herself to my mom’s driving mare and flips out whenever she leaves the pasture, even if she can still see her. She whinnies and runs the fence line. The place isn’t big enough to totally separate them and “wean” her and the owners are on hard times and are boarding her with us for free, so she can’t really be moved to another barn. So far she hasn’t shown signs of doing anything dangerous, but I feel sorry for her.
I had seen that Thumbelina video before. Poor little thing! I wonder why she hates that one child in particular. Have you been to her homepage? It’s all sweetness and light and magical rainbows – unlike the mare herself who appears to be one PO’d little equine!
Polo ponies are bad like that, because their entire life, they go EVERYWHERE with at least 5 other horses. I don’t have any great ideas other than throwing her a tasty flake of alfalfa and hoping her stomach overcomes her desire to pace after a while.
One idea some trainers use is when the second horse acts up, take the first horse back into the pasture (with you on him) and run the second horse around until she’s tired of you. Then leave the pasture, and if the second horse acts up again, go back in and run her around with your first horse. Eventually, the idea is that the second horse figures out, “Oh, when my buddy is in here, I have to work. When he goes away, I get to rest.”
I’ve never used it, so I can’t tell you if it works well or not. 
Here is a list of tricks I’ve learned over the years, both in showing goats (now THOSE are some stressers!) and showing horses. In no particular order:
1. For noise, I recommend a fan, assuming it isn’t too cold for one. Put it SAFELY in or outside the stall, in such a way that the horse can either use it or avoid it as prefered. Many horses will put their face into the fan and stand and sleep even at shows, thanks to the steady background hum it gives off. Goats love them too. If your horse is used to music, consider bringing some to the show.
2. Curtains are okay for veteran show horses, but often the nervous new ones seem worse at shows if they can’t see. To handle stall nerves, we set up in front of the stall, and share treats with our horses. Saltines, apple slices, in fact any horse healthy treat works wonders for turning the strange stall experience into ‘Out with my people having a GREAT time’. This has the added bonus that we can keep track of who is approaching the stalls, and we can ‘guide’ horse petting experiences for people passing through. Take a book, talk with friends… heck, take a nap if you want. But do it where your horse has your protection and those lovely treats.
3. ONLY take a buddy if you intend to keep buddy and new horse together the whole show. Yes, you can shuffle horses around at shows, but if your horse’s first or second experience at a show involves being put through separation anxiety, you probably aren’t gonna have a horse that likes shows. That’s just logical. Think of it this way– if you took your kid to the mall, and then left him/her, then did it again a week later, how is your kid gonna feel about malls? “No thanks Mom, I’ll stay home. You’ve lost me TWICE.” Horses are no different. Buddies are great if you intentionally use them to help a young horse learn the ropes. If you abandon a new horse at a show, expect them to get a bad view of the show scene.
4. LOSE your classes. Just put it in your mind, tell yourself that’s the plan, and go forward. Don’t take a young green horse with no experience into the ring with any intentions of placing or winning. Why? Because most riders who compete exhibit nerves. Elevated heart rate, increased sweating, change in breathing, muscles more tense… it might not be noticeable to other riders, but your poor green first time at a show horse is going, “Oh Crap. We’re gonna die, right? Right?!” So remember your goal at that first show or two is to school, and to make sure that your horse has the best time in the world out in that arena. Heck, take treats there too. I’ve never yet seen anyone Dqed for giving a horse a treat during a class, and if they do disqualify you, it doesn’t matter. Lose the class, remember?
5. Bring water from home, bring hay from home, bring shavings from home. Feed at the back of the stall, so your horse can eat without being petted or bothered. Bring blankets and saddles from home. If you are of a particular style of horse owner (cough cough) bring your home! A new saddle on a new blanket on a new girth at a new show for your green horse is just one more thing to adjust to. Save the fancy stuff for a later show when you are there to compete and win.
6. Get there early. A day early, if you have the time. Let the noise gradually increase around your horse, instead of hauling in before the first class (or even halfway through the show), and unloading your horse into chaos. Let him/her establish a comfort zone before the zoo atmosphere surrounds them.
7. Expect problems. I’ve seen so many people who went to a show with a young or unshown horse, and then fell apart because King can go on 50 mile trail rides but can’t get past the entry gait because it’s synthetic and shiny. Expect the first show to be a mess. Maybe it won’t be, maybe your horse will do great. But if things go wrong, becoming upset or frustrated won’t help. Remember, you are expected to be the thinking partner in the horse and rider marriage. Your ‘spouse’ has a fight or flight instinct.
There are tons of other little things that help at a show, but these are just a few tried and true ideas.
I love your suggestion to plan on losing a class! I’ve never shown, but if I ever get around to it, I’m definitely going to go in with that mindset. I think it would help with the nerves a lot! If I go expecting to lose, maybe I’ll end up having a lot of fun and not being nervous! Thanks for the tip!
Those are all really great suggestions. The fan alone can work wonders. With a nervous horse you sometimes also need to experiment. Some horses want to be able to touch noses with another horse over the stall wall, others need to see one across the aisle. Still others do not want horsey contact. I have had some that demanded the best view in the barn and others who needed a stall curtain hung with a tiny flap folded back so that they could feel alone and safe, but peek out at what was going on. I also give my horses free choice hay in THE BACK of the stall so that they can chill out and eat in their own space.
Those are some great tips! I sleep with a fan on as background noise, but I never would have thought of that for my horse! Thanks!
And as for the “preparing to lose”, that is spot on. I feel that too many people focus on winning that it really gets their nerves and body in a mess, translating that to their horse. I prepare by telling myself that someone has to come last, it might as well be me. Not that I plan on coming last, but if that is the worst thing that happens, it’s still a great day (keeping in mind that there are worser [is that even a word?] things that could happen such as getting thrown, or yourself or your horse getting injured)
Thanks again!
Those are some great ideas, I am planning on going to some shows with my green TB this summer/fall and will keep your advice in mind. She can be “looky” but she’s also really smart about stuff too, we’ll go and have fun and if she likes it ( and I’m guessing she will) great
Funny anecdote. I knew a lady who showed a TB mare. The mare had a little companion donkey who went to shows with her. The two were very attached. The mare was in heat at shows a couple times and the donkey walked around on five legs. When the mare went to a class, the donkey brayed until she returned. The mare performed very well even in heat – it was the donkey who caused embarassment. When the mare returned to her stall, she welcomed the donkey’s attentions if you know what I mean. They would usually go home early on those days.
I like your third one, about bringing a buddy. My 4 y/o gelding does great at the local WP shows. But his first show there, I brought just him, tacked him up when we got there, rode him just about the whole time we were there, then untacked him and went home. When I took him to his first EXCA competition, I also took my mare, who I’d been showing there before. Her class was first, so I tacked her up and rode her away, and my gelding started freaking out. He would paw the ground and the trailer and whinny to her. Even if she was just tied on the other side of the trailer he would paw and neigh. I took him again and he did the same thing. Which i thought was wierd because he’s usually a great traveller. Now it makes a little more sense….
My gelding MUST be hand-walked all over the show grounds and be allowed to look at EVERYTHING before he will calm down. But and hour or two of wandering around is SO worth having him calm in his stall. I also prefer to arrive at shows the night before so they can calm down and settle in before show day, but if I had an extreme pacer/weaver type, I probably wouldn’t. I think it just depends.
The hand-walking (a LOT) trick also works on my pony. At our last show we even hung out in the warm-up arena and watched some of the classes over the wall, and she actually got bored.
I found that the best thing to do for horses who get overly upset at shows is not to take them. Seriously, I don’t understand the need to show a horse if he doesn’t want to do it. I had a gelding that got ulcers because he hated showing. It was a horrible shame because he had a perfect gait and we won a lot of ribbons and were always in the top three. But why should I force him to perform to satisfy my own ego? He is now at a guest ranch in Kingman, AZ where he is really loved and cared for. I see him on a regular basis and he is doing so well.
However, I have had good horses that enjoyed showing but were nervous when they first got there. So I’d use Quietex or an herbal supplement of some kind to calm them. I also made sure I walked them around a lot on the show grounds while on their back and on the ground so they could see everything. When they’re in the stall or at the trailer, they always have hay available to keep their mind busy. I also would turn them out at night after everyone had left the arena so they could run and have a good roll before bed.
I currently have a 3 week old colt who I plan to be a flag, exhibition, and demonstration horse. I’m going to start him early–taking him to shows with his sire, walking the grounds with him, things like that, so he can get used to everything. But if he shows any signs of not liking it, then he’ll be delegated to being a trail horse. It’s no big deal to me–his well being is far more important than what I want him to do.
You’re right, of course, if it never gets any better. But I think it’s normal for a young or inexperienced horse to get nervous the first handful of times out, and to later adjust to it.
I think if the horse is along with a calm, “been there done that” friend, the experience at the show/new place is a lot better. It’s like going out on trail with a buddy.
wow was that ever sad to watch! I’m actually shocked that none of those kids were bitten or kicked! I can’t blame the mare, all those hands constantly in your face and the laughs and giggles non stop, I’d want a piece of them too! She’s friggin miserable!! It’s one thing to want to share your horse with the world, but when it’s at the expense of the horse’s own happiness and sanity, it should stop! grrrrr
My OTTB is one of those “move right in” kind of guys. He gets to a new stall, he checks the feeder, rolls, checks the feeder again, pees, then checks the feeder a third time. If there is nothing in the feeder by then, I get a dirty look.
If there is no stall, he hangs out in his trailer (the “bachelor pad”). I have a Circle J LaGrande, two horse bumper pull. I close the butt door, open up everything else, and he’s a happy camper.
When I first got him, he was nervous at new places, so I started feeding B-1 crumbles and then switched to brewer’s yeast, which contains B-1 among other B’s. It was easier to get and less expensive. After a week on the loading dose (two scoops), I started calling it “Focus Factor” for horses. He would still be alert at the new place but suddenly he’d see his feed bag and all the terror was gone.
My neighbor’s cutting horse was one of those “head in the corner, ears pinned even at feeding time” types until he moved to my barn. Overnight he became a different horse: ears up, happy to see everyone, very accepting of my big dogs (the former barn did not allow dogs on the property). Neighbor couldn’t understand why he was “so different,” and I said, “What’s not to like here? The dogs are happy, MY horse is happy, and I think your horse got the message.”
Whether you use barn toys, a mirror, something to eat 24/7, turnout, regular exercise, or lots of activity in the neighborhood (we have school buses, paper and mail delivery, skaters, cyclists, ATVs, walkers, joggers, a pleasant view from the paddocks, and two little girls next door who love their trampoline and their swimming pool ;o), a change of scene can often alleviate boredom and “irritation” when the horse is at a show or otherwise “away from home.”
I have seen that video before. It makes me really angry.
As for shows, my horse is really mellow… but I do try to keep her out of the stall as much as possible, walking and grazing. Our horses aren’t kept in stalls usually.
I also usually bring large containers of our own water. You never know what the water will be like when you get to the show grounds… sometimes it is really chlorinated or tastes different… and a dehydrated horse at a show is obviously not a good thing!
*When I show a horse I make sure that I have hay constantly in their hay bag, this tends to make the nutier ones stay calmer, the ones that go OMG my friends! Where are my friends! These are usually from the owner not really taking them off of the property -_-; and or doing anything with them. Until I come along and ask if I can show their horse/pony. Most people let me because they ride maybe once a week if that and horses and ponies need to do something more than stand in their paddock all day long *sigh* if I had my own pony I’d be doing things constantly with him. This behavior usually goes away after a couple of shows because they realize that their not going to stay there forever and at the end of the day that they are returned to their friends.
and trying to challenge the pony to behave when he doesn’t, doesn’t make for a fun class 
.
*I give myself at least 45 minutes before the class I enter to longe, either power longe or regular longe, want to do anything stupid? Please do it on the longe or round pen before I get on. I’m surprised at how many people don’t do this, and than they wonder why their horse explodes or acts up in the class. I always scratch my head at the whole trailer to stall to class scenario, don’t you want them to blow off steam so you don’t wind up getting killed or your horse pulling something that makes another person also wind up getting hurt? And let them see what is going on around them even if they have been there a billion times.
*Don’t stress the small stuff. I’ve had to scratch myself from classes because pony has gone, “Nope! Not listening lalalalala.” So I’ve gone in easier classes that they can handle. Besides I like having fun
Does anyone ever win the lalalala ride
NOPE. Hats off to you for recognizing that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen kids, trainers and sometimes parents crank on and on about something they can’t fix in a show ring. And if they do try, it usually ends up spoiling a rider for someone else in the class.
The typical program for my horses is a pre-lunge or pre-ride way before the class and then bring them back and fully put them up.. hose, linament, breakfast.. whatever. I then get them out with the idea that they will warm up for ten or fifteen minutes before the class. During the warmup we only go over things that are easy for that particular horse. There is absolutely no schooling during pre-class warmup.
My walking horse mare HATED being stalled at shows. She didn’t like all the people/horses walking passed her stall. She started charging the bars and baring her teeth – it got pretty severe. I went to Wal-Mart and purchased some pretty shower curtains, the fabric type, and curtain rings and hung them up on the inside of her stall covering the entire front of the stall. They are easy to put up/take down, transport, and wash. She was a happy camper after that. I did worry however about people thinking I was trying to hide something, because she was a walking horse and I showed on the sound horse circuit. It is common in the Big Lick shows for people to hide soring activities behind stall curtains. I was just worried about people drawing the wrong conclusion about the reason for the curtains.
When I kept this mare at a boarding barn, she always had to be in the last stall in the back so that there wasn’t a lot of traffic going past her stall. I just learned it was one of her quirks. She is a very tolerant, good-tempered horse otherwise. She is now 24 and completely retired to pasture with a run-in – so no more stall-stress for her!
I had a horse that was the complete opposite. He HAD to be in the center of everything. He got depressed if he was stuck in a stall at the back of the barn. He wanted to be dead center by the tack room, or even better, the feed room. He loved getting attention from anyone and everyone who walked by. Demanded it actually … politely. He also didn’t like being in stalls where he couldn’t have his head out. He tended to be jealous of me though, and if he saw me paying attention to another horse (especially my other gelding) he tended to grab his halter off the hook and fling it across the barn at me. Then of course give me the cutest “it wasn’t me” look, just so I’d come over and kiss his nose. When I had to retire him, at 30 due to arthritis, he hated that too. He really wanted his old job back and consequently earned the nickname “Grumpy Old Man”.
Oh, those horses DEFINITELY exist! I know horses who love, love, LOVE the show ring!
You know those really ugly pompoms made out of wool that grandma used to sew onto those really awful knitted slippers? They make great ear plugs.
you just wrap wool around a piece of heavy cardboard then tie it really tight in the middle and trim off the loops. I leave a couple of long pieces of wool that I can tie to the halter or into the forelock in case they fall out. The other thing I’ve done is put a little Vicks on the skin between the nostrils (not in the nose). Cuts down on the weird smells that might be part or the problem.
In Canada, and I’m sure in the USA, you have to be really careful on what additives you give them as they are testing now at even the low level shows if they are permitted through EC. Even some of the herbel remedies can cause a problem.
If you are at an outdoor show that has any grass areas, we just haul them out with a halter on and let them graze and relax a bit before putting them back in their stalls. And yes … what you are doing at home will have a big impact on stall problems at shows. Turnout and down time are a must. Even if it is a walk down a lane.
I sort of dread the spectators marching up and down the stabling areas at shows. I love to show off our our horses but some people have no respect or common sense and some just won’t listen to you when you say “don’t stand there” or “please don’t put your fingers through the bars” or my personal favorite, “please don’t feed that to the horse it’s poison to them”. I’ve seen everything from icecream to that fluffy shit (candyfloss) being offered. Even caught one little shit throwing stones into the stall. That one got frog marched out to security (off duty cop thank god) who made the brat sit in a patrol car for a while.
Re the mini. Yup, not the best example of a mini that I’ve seen and anyone even a four year old should be able to figure out that was aggressive behaviour not “kicking up his heels”. Its a wonder one of them did connect through the bars of that so called stall.
Meant to add that yes, we use stall curtains but it will depend on the show and the weather. They can be brutal when it’s hot and humid so unless you have access to hydro near your stall and you have a nice stall fan, it can be an expensive option. Oh, and the fans are another idiot draw.
*scratches head* Candyfloss… that’s nothing but sugar and air, isn’t it? And I’m sure I’ve read that sugar cubes can be a treat for horses. Not that it’s right, if everyone did that the poor horse would be wired! But it would be safe enough, wouldn’t it? Just curious.
I bought my 11 yro QH at an auction last year and I don’t really know his history. We have done a lot of trail riding and he’s very steady and sure-footed. However, when we are in large groups he gets nervous and has twice kicked out. I put a red ribbon in his tail to give everyone a heads up. I keep myself on high alert when the group stops while everyone discusses which way to go, etc. When I sense he is getting nervous I talk to him and that seems to help, but any other ideas would be great. How should I discipline him if he does this? A quick smack on the haunches? the neck? I’m talking about right away if he were to kick? I would really like to correct this behavior but am not sure how to do so. Someone mentioned B-Calm. What is it and where would I buy it? Anyone else have any experience with it? Thanks.
B-1 is usually the prime/major ingredient. It’s Thiamin and has a calming effect. My vet suggested drenching my horse with it a couple of hours before his dressage class, but it didn’t work. The horse was still a basket case until he figured out he wasn’t going to die and then he settled in. (Test scores verify this. We do better as the day wears on).
I didn’t like the drenching because thiamin STINKS. The brewer’s yeast or B-1 crumbles are a daily supplement. I’ve never used B-Calm (Is it the one that comes in paste form?). Would prefer to have the “long term effect” of daily dose ;o)
I would say try to anticipate the kick- if you even think he might be about to kick pull his head around and turn him in some circles. Try to catch it before it happens.
Agreed. I love using small circles when they are being naughty.
One of the horses I rode as a kid ( At one of those never realised how bad it was until I left barns) was this absolutely fugly pony named Tucker. Tucker was a kicker through and through. In the ring during lessons, during shows or trail rides, if any horse or animal was within range of his arse end it was getting fired at.. Until we realised his trick. Smacks to the rump didn’t work, we finally realised one day that he hated to disengage his hind end. It took us two weeks of almost daily work on this but with a loud angry mommy ” Agh!” And a quick thump of one calf before turning him the other way and making his arse end move that kicking ment work, and that kind of work stunk. He never fully got over it, but we were finally able to ride in the middle of the pack during trail rides without having to worry about a sudden halt and double barrel.
I am going to try that…. I have to admit my sweet little pony can give a heck of a boot if you get on her tail. Double barrel straight in the face, never to me, or to any human (except the dentist. She hates him with a passion, and not only because he does teeth) but only if another horse gets close.
We tried B-Calm one time and it totally had the reverse effect on our horse. He became an animal we did not recognize. As far as what DOES work, and it is all natural, is called “Rescue Remedy” and it is a Bach Flower Essence. We use it on rescue dogs as well. It just takes the edge off and helps to refocus. I discovered it during a particularly nasty period of stress in my life, and then gave it to my daughter and her horse for shows and now use it freely whenever needed by horses, dogs or humans. It is wonderful stuff.
I’ve used rescue remedy and other Bach flower remedies previously on a rescue and they worked really well. If needed as well as the recue remedy, aspen and mimulus are for fears, known and unknown. Also walnut for changes is good. Larch is used for insecurity so would also be good for shows.
Very careful of herbal remedies. Many common substances are forbidden including, but not limited to: chamomile, capsaicin, skullcap, passionflower, lavender, laurel, and comfrey.
Our horses travel to shows when they are yearlings and 2 yr olds just for the experience. They travel with their barn mates, they get extra goodies, they see exciting new things, then they come home to their own barn and routine. By the time they are really showing at 3-4 they are seasoned. It can be difficult to convince a newbie owner that a yearling “field trip” is worth the expense purely for the education it provides. My trainer carefully decides who goes in which show stall, either next to or across from a buddy. Our groom/ready stalls have drapes not to hide anything, but to give the horses privacy while getting foofooed for show. We are welcoming in our show aisle to passers by, but do not allow anyone to touch or pet, or for heaven’s sake, feed, the horses! Our seasoned show horses hustle to jump onto the van for every field trip, and put up a fuss if they don’t get to go. They are happy campers, and show like the happy horses they are.
Brag: Last weekend at the PNW Morgan at Tacoma Unit 1 my own ponie brought home four 1st, a second, and a championship. I’m proud, they’re happy. It’s all good. But it was WET!!!
Congratulations!
Some one I used to board with used Calm and Cool on his horse EVERY time he went riding. The horse was already very mellow, and giving it to her didn’t do anything except make her lazy. He used the pellets in her food and gave her 1 or 2 tubes of paste before he saddled her up. We all rolled our eyes at him and though he was wasting money. It might be OK to take the edge off once in a while, but this horse didn’t need it. It also isn’t a replacement for good training, which is what she really needed.
The active ingredient in Calm and Cool is L-Tryptophan, which is an amino acid (a component of protein.) A small Danish “blinded” study (the handlers were blinded!) showed that it had no effect on horses: http://www.equinescienceupdate.co.uk/behavtryp.htm
Further, people ingesting Tryptophan suffered some serious side effects causing the FDA to investigate and restrict sale in the US. Its undetermined if the effects were from the Tryptophan or impurities specific to that batch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan#Tryptophan_supplements_and_EMS
Having been a long time patient of chronic illness myself, I have learned through trial, error, research, and a whole lot of wasted money that most of alternative medicine such as supplements, herbs, etc. is snake oil and most of the anecdotes you hear about are placebo affect. In the case of an animal, it’s placebo obersvation on the owner’s part. It’s also a largely unregulated industry unlike pharmaceuticals. Unless you can find solid veterinary research indicating efficacy, save your money.
I have always agreed that most supplements and herbal remedies are snake oil. But I have to tell you my story. I have a 6 yro Dutch WB that I bought as a weanling as I knew I could never afford a made warmblood. He has matured to be everything I could have hoped for. Last year, he began to lose his hair. First a small patch on his neck that grew larger. By late March this year, he had lost 80% of the hair on his face and had many bald patches on his neck, withers and haunches. No hair left on his dock, a scraggly few hairs left on his tail. There was no hair loss on his barrel or legs. I took him to the University of Minnesota in January where he had 8 biopsies. They diagnosed him with alopecia as a result of an auto-immune disease and told me there was no effective treatment. I was heartbroken at the way he looked. Otherwise, he was in good condition, had maintained his weight, and I continued to work him with fleece on the bridal.
I posted his condition on the TCCT List (a Twin Cities horsey chat room) and received a response from a woman whose horse had had the same condition and diagnoses. She had finally gone to a Chinese herbalist with good results. Having little to lose, I contacted For Love of the Horse, a Chinese herbalist company run by a Dr. Thomas in Missouri. Dr. Thomas is a PHD in something, not a MD or vet. I have been feeding my horse two herbal supplements (Immunity boost and Anemia) for 2 months at a cost of $315 per month. The hair on his face is growing back in, he has his blaze back and he has hair covering his dock. Dr. Thomas reviewed the blood work and determined there was no auto-immune disease, but there was a massive bacterial infection.
So, I guess the proof is in the pudding. I don’t understand how a bacterial infection could have been missed by the University. I don’t know what is in the herbs I am feeding him. They look like Cinnamon sugar and I half think they are purchased at Sam’s Club and repackaged. Part of me still thinks this is a lot of expensive phewey, but my horse is getting better, so I have become a believer (not sure in what, only that this stuff is working for this horse in this condition.) The results are there. Anyway, that’s just my limited experience with herbs.
“She may look a bit ferocious, lol, but she is really just having a good time and kicking up her heels”
This part just KILLS me. Is this her owner?? I really, really hope not… poor thing!
Wow….I can’t believe they think she is “just kicking up her heels”, like she’s having a good ‘ole time!! I was just waiting for her to kick up through the bars and knock one of those kid’s teeth out!! She is clearly aggitated…her ears are laid so far back you can’t even see them! Are people really that clueless, or do they just not care?! Apparently the owners could care less about her welfare, or they wouldn’t be putting her through that, so sad.
It really is a CLASSIC example of people being unable to read equine body language.
I am convinced the main cause of horse accidents is this inability to read. I wish people would spend more time simply watching horses and figuring out what they mean by certain motions. Watch horses in a herd.
An additional problem is that people always think that minis are kyoooot little dogs…
When my shetland was still a stallion and in his “oral phase”, everybody walked up to him and started touching his face and mouth! It drove me crazy because I was trying to get him to stop tasting everything with his mouth.
Also, another boarder let her mare (!) touch noses with my horse and I told her that although he is well-behaved and SMALL, he´s still a stallion! *roll eyes*
I agree. I can tell what ALL of my horses will do before they do it. Heck, half the time I know what OTHER people’s horses are going to do before they do it. I’ve warned “experienced” horsepeople to back away NOW before a squeal/strike/whatever. Heck, I’ve discovered that I can’t even ride in the same arena as my friend who boards her mare with me, because she doesn’t pay attention to our horse’s body language AT ALL. I usually have to some fancy maneuvering because she can’t figure out that my mare is pinning her ears and swishing her tail, and that means BACK OFF.
Furthermore, this same friend (yes, Cathy, THAT one) and I co-own a pony who was abused in a past life and had a SEVERE rearing problem. The pony is pretty much over it and is very sweet and friendly now, but Friend can still somehow manage to trigger the rear response every once in a while, even though Pony gives PLENTY of warning that she’s about to blow. Which pisses me off no end. Friend has been riding horses long enough to be able to detect subtle clues, let alone big ones. I just feel like asking, “Does the pony need to draw you a picture? Really?”
I do have a non-horsey friend who is more perceptive of horse body language than some “pros.” And she constantly asks me what every little ear twitch means. LOL. I wish I could convince her to start riding. She’s be awesome. Super-observant and in-tune with the animals.
My eight year old daughter watched the video and said ” Can’t they see that pony doesn’t want to be pet. Those kids are going to get hurt!” If she can see it why can’t they?
How sad. I know this sounds terrible, but I was kind of hoping she would land one of those kicks. Why would they put her through this? I wonder what they charge for people to come and torment her. I don’t understand how people can look at deformed minis like this and see them as cute. They look like potbellied pigs! Some can hardly walk! How is that cute? What short miserable lives they must have.
If she did land a kick or snag a finger the really sad part is SHE would be tho one to be punised for it and not the dip-$#!t owners.
True. I just *hate* when parents do nothing while their brats torment animals. Then when the kid gets bit, it’s always the animal’s fault. “Oh, poor Johnny! That nasty thing bit you!” Nope! Little Johnny got exactly what was coming to him!
The parents here have no sense at all. And where the hell it the owner?
Hi Cathy,
This is quite OT but I’m really hoping you can help me w/this one/post something about it
http://www.vividgray.com/actha-guinness/acthaguinness.html
All the money raised goes to equine rescues (and they are strict about who qualifies, must be a non profit and be approved (or have started the process) by GFAS)
A ride going on in every state on the same day, the highest number of riders ‘assembled’ at the same time other than at war time
A sample ride, attended for the 1st time by Rick Lams is posted on the ACTHA site
A possible $200 000 raised for rescues
You’re the best blog I know
I need more riders for MI (25 required) for Guinness to ‘recognize’ us (ride goes on regardless, money still going on to charity)
CA and TX have close to 100 ea. lucky them LOL
Think you could mention it??
You’re the best, tks for all you do, the research alone must take up so much of your time, don’t you have a job? LOL
Regards,
Just my two cents– we recently had an ACTHA ride at a local horse park, York Hills, in Indiana. Very nice idea, and I hope it continues to grow!
Unfortunately, I’m losing my job, so I can’t afford to participate (it’s a bit costly for an unemployed single Horsemom). I just wanted to encourage anyone who might see the above link and pass it by to give it a click and think about joining one of the trail challenge rides. They are good fun with very nice people.
This ride is a great idea, not to mention the generous offer of donating funds to rescue. It seems to be a little on the expensive side. $25 membership, $58 entry fee, lunch, fuel, haul in fees, etc. It is going to be over $100. I’m giong to go riding locally with some friends and donate the money I save to a local rescue. Let’s hope for good weather!
You can ride as a “buddy” rider for $40. This means you are not judged on the obstacles. A small discount, but it might make the difference for some people. I’m doing the NM ride.
I’m going to my local ride! My very close friend told me about it. Not cheap, it cost me $65 to go as a buddy but it is for a good cause and will hopefully raise awareness about rescues.
Marjie Newton: Any B-1 supplement will work. I’ve tried liquid B-1 and B-1 Crumbles. I think the crumbles work a little better because they get the full dose. With the liquid it tends to leave a little on the bottom of the scoop.
B-1 is also known as thiamin which is a required amino acid. An imbalance of B-1 can cause nervousness and even emaciation.
B-12 however will have the opposite effect making them more hyped up.
Where the heck was the owner of the mini? I would have “rescued” by horse from the kids, not the kids from the horse. They should have double fences her pen so the kids could see her, but not touch her. Whenever my horses are on “general public display” such as like at the Equine Affaire, I line the inside of the stall front bars with 15 inches of clear plexi-glass – so the public can see, but not reach in. Even the best of horses get grumpy by the end of the day with so many people reaching thru the bars at them. Many of the people that attend such events are not horse people, but bring the kiddies to see the horsies and they haven’t a clue about horse body language. I hang a little sign that says, in a nice way, “Fingers look like carrots, please don’t feed fingers to my horses.” as to explain why I don’t allow arms reaching inside the stalls. Kids aren’t the only ones that do this. Twice this week, I had 2 adult people stop in to see a new foal and INSIST on kissing both mare and foal on the nose! Neither momma or baby wanted any part of that! Just this past weekend I had another adult walk by my “hot” horse, who was standing in the isle while I was getting her ready for her class – and stopped and kissed her nose. She is not a “kiss my nose” sort of gal.
Honestly, kissing a horse on the nose is a good way to get a broken nose.
Occasionally I’ll kiss my horses cheeks or whatnot, but not their noses anymore! I went to kiss my mare’s nose once, and got a hurting nose in return! Owch! No more of that for me!
Our horses are so calm that they’re almost comatose at shows, though we’ve largely stopped going for the last few years. Mostly Appaloosas, and then my Frost, who is a Clyde/Thoroughbred. Frost is strange about new things.. he seems really calm but I honestly think it’s just that whatever it is hasn’t clicked in his brain yet. Once it does, usually one-two minutes later, sometimes he’ll spook or shy, or just do the helicopter ears/rolling eyes/feet braced apart thing.
However, if you have peppermint treats, he immediately decides it’s really not that big of a deal and becomes more interested in discovering if I have more of them anywhere on my person.
Even my seven year old daughter said, upon viewing that video, “Why are they upsetting that horse? She looks angry.” Poor thing.
This video reminds me of how my mare doesn’t like small children. She gets nippy and annoyed around them. I feel so bad for this poor little horse. People who own or manage horses should learn to read them & react appropriately: getting them out of the situation, etc.
I showed this to my not-really-horsey fiance, and asked “Does that look like happy horse?”
“No.”
How can people not see this?!
I’m going to have my hubby watch it tonight and see what he thinks. He is one of they typical kyoot animal lovers. He is not horsey at all other than wanting to, no- insisting on kissing my mare’s nose each time he comes to the barn. He knows nothing of body lnguage and I’m still constantly reminding him not to walk behind a horse without leting them know you are there or giving a very wide girth- no matter how calm the horse is or how well he thinks he know it.
How sad is that. Her entire life is travel, be on display, travel, be on display, etc. I have looked at her website in the past and the schedule of events they put her through yearly would drive any well seasoned show horse insane.
Its too bad that there isn’t a way to charge the owners with cruelty in this case for allowing her to become that unhappy and upset. It would be a difficult case to prove on grounds that the horse is well taken care of in terms of food, water, and medical, but there is a huge gaping hole in the laws for what amounts to mental abuse of animals. You can feed them, water them, make sure they have all the best medical care, but then they exhibit behavior like this? No true horse person would be able to look at her and say that she’s in a happy state of affairs. If she were a NORMAL sized horse and doing this publicly? Wanna take a guess what would happen to her? It wouldn’t include treats, scritches, and fields of grass, I promise that.
That horse needs a solid year off in a pasture with a few buddies, whether it be goats, other minis, or donkeys. And even then, she may never recover from the mental stress her owners and life has imposed on her.
As for the showing issue… Having worked with high bred, and high level showing paso finos, I am curious to know where the show was that Zanthia went to. I traveled to shows with a paso barn for nearly 3 years total (including the Festival of the Spanish Horse in Burbank, Ca; Shows locally; Tuscon; and all the way out to Florida and Georgia for Nationals and the Paso Fino World Cup). Nationals and the World Cup are the breed equivalent to Congress and World for you QH folks, for comparison.
You will see a lot of both extremes in those level shows. Paso’s as a breed are usually very people friendly, and LOVE meeting new people. But then you have a segment of the trainers for the breed, that ….. well, like everything else, the horses are commodities, and treated as such. They get very very hot at shows, some of them, and even a mare we had, who was as sweet and gentle as could get at home, when she was at a show, she’d be all business and no fun. She knew what her job was, and acted ‘professionally’ for lack of a better word. A lot of the horses I’d see at the shows wouldn’t come meet you at the front of the stall, but we also had the inside advantage of knowing all of the different trainers (or at least most of them) and their training styles. So we pretty much knew why the horses weren’t friendly, because we knew how they were being treated daily. And its not that most of these trainers were abusive, its simply that the horses live in their stalls, except for training. There is very little time off for them. Their job is to show, and show well enough to bring a high price. ONCE they are sold, then usually the new owners, (most often non-trainers), would introduce them to a more normal life with treats, cookies, turn out, and the like. The horses would come back to the shows a year or whatever later, and you could very easily see the difference.
Our horses were trained to travel though, which might be one of the big differences between our horses and theirs. (Ours also got regular turn out too.) Starting at 6 months of age, we started trailer training, and since the ranch is about 10 minutes away from Westworld, Scottsdale, Az, we’d often trailer up to Westworld, walk them around for a while, then trailer back home. The BIG shows cost way too much money to take a horse that was just along for the ride, but the smaller local shows, often they would get to ride along.
We never used curtains, but we didn’t need them for anything other than the tack stall. We did put locks on the stalls at night though… but only on the two stallion’s stalls. We didn’t use any calming agents on them, though there was one show we wished we had some. That trip was a nightmare from the get go, involving the truck running out of gas just outside of Hollywood Park In Burbank, Ca on the freeway offramp. The fuel pump then locked up, and the computer shut everything off so the truck wouldn’t do anything – literally. The tow truck dude that was there messed up HORRIBLY and forgot to secure the truck into Park before putting the tow chains on the front wheels… that offramp is angled downward on a curve back to the freeway, and when he lifted the front end of the truck up, it slid off the tow bar and started rolling backwards toward the freeway…
It was as scary as you think, and then some. The trailer ended up jackknifing slightly, and got stuck (thankfully!) with the back axle perched on top of the curb. It took another 2 hours but we got the trailer unstuck, the truck safely hooked up, and pulled into the Racetrack’s main parking lot where some friends hitched their truck to the trailer, and the At some point one of the mares inside the trailer somehow hit her jaw and later the next day she had developed a massive hematoma where the impact was. This mare is normally a basket case to start with at home, and she had been severely abused by a previous trainer at the LA Equestrian center some years before. We were bringing her back the one time to see if we couldn’t work her through her nervousness, but that experience shattered whatever chances we might have had.
As a result of the trip, the hematoma, and simply being in that environment, she went off the deep end, and I spent hours with her in her stall, just brushing her and talking to her because that was the only thing that kept her from trying to paw, kick, bite, lunge, and every other behavior you could think of to get out of her stall. We the time came to load her back up and head home, She literally RAN into the trailer the moment she saw it, and stood there trembling, but with her head up waiting for the trailer tie to be clipped to her halter. She was permanently retired that show, and the rest of her life will be spent breeding her to the best stallions because she has the most awesome babies. Thats what she loves doing, and she finally got her wish.
I agree that there are just some horses that will never do well at shows. Just like people, there are some that do well and thrive under pressure, and others that simply fall apart and there’s nothing you can do to hold them together. The sad part is that there are people that just don’t care to listen to what the horses say. That mare was ruined from an incredible show career from one asshole who decided that because she wouldn’t do what he wanted, she deserved to be beat. She had everything – looks, movement, fire, that ‘x’ factor…she was on her way to being a world champion Paso Mare, and would have given the chance.
It was the Ozark Empire Midwest Classic show in Springfield, Illinois.
I was also disappointed at the low attendence… There were only 1-4 horses in each class, and only about 20-30 spectators there. I have heard that, in the past, this show was much bigger.
That poor little mare.
I really hope she was just having a bad day and that she gets all the time she needs to just be a horse. And if not, shame on her owners for being cruel, because keeping her in that little pen while she clearly would rather everyone just leave her the hell alone is just that, cruel. As for the parents of the kids around, I didn’t notice too many within a close enough distance to see what was going on. Plus, people are down right ignorant when it comes to “reading” animals. Heck, even my poor husky has a bad rap, and he’s the sweetest dog you could ever meet. His scaryness factor? He howls a very friendly “hellooo-o-o-o” and some people think he’s going to attack (yeah, with his tongue, maybe.) It was that mare’s owner’s or at least handler’s job to say, “Uh, she needs a little break now, kids. Why don’t we all quiet down, maybe she’d like to take a nap.”
Unfortunately, it sounds like all she does is travel the country being a freakshow…poor little thing
I’ve never done overnighters (they’re not very common in the UK) but I’ve found the best thing for settling our lot down when we’ve moved yards or a change to routine is their treatballs – these are multi-sided balls with a hole on one side, into these we put fibre nuts, which are pellets made from chopped grass and they all go nuts for these ‘sweets’ (They are used as a grass replacement as well) They get a couple of handfuls of these in and thats them for the next hour or two, kicking it round trying to get these sweets out. They will go for these over their dinners usually and the whole yard usually puts heads over the door when they are made up.
The shows we have attended we usually tie outside the trailer as then they can move a bit rather than having them in the trailer – also my sister’s cob will not stand inside, as soon as the trailer stops for more than a few minutes he starts kicking to get out. They always have a full water bucket and hay net in front of them as well as usually being tied long enough to reach the grass if it’s decent. The other thing is we NEVER leave them unattended – I’m always amazed at how many people go away and leave their horse’s for ages. The yard we’re on runs showjumping almost every weekend and I’ve seen ponies getting legs over the front bar, spooking and pulling loose amonst other things – there was even one person who parked right next to the one of the fields (all of which have mains powered electric tape) and tied the horse to the trailer on the same side as the fence. The horse was so close he could easily have zapped himself. There are signs up saying the fence is on, we put the reg out over the tannoy saying they needed to return to the horse cause there was a problem – it took them almost half an hour to return and move the horse (one of us working stayed with the horse to make sure he didn’t zap himself) The yard is not that big – it only takes a couple of minutes to walk across from one side to the other and the tannoy reaches everywhere that is open to the public on the yard (the ‘livery’ part is off limits to anyone not connected with resident horses).
Mostly lurker here, but have to comment, as a longtime owner/former breeder of miniatures, on top of a long lifetime w/ ‘big’ horses, mostly stock horse breeds.
First, knowledgeable miniature people decry the relentless exhibition of the poor sour little dwarf mini as much as any of you! If anyone dares to say so on the most-frequented forum for minis, though, they are roundly ‘jumped’ on by friends/defenders of the owners…and because there is basically a ‘only sweetness and light, no-criticism’ policy on that forum, most people just avoid mentioning it at all. I continue to read here because I support the committment and humane compassion that I KNOW the blog owner feels–and absolutely agree that we should be able to frankly discuss serious subject matter–though as an oldtimer from a different (and I’m convinced, BETTER, time), I could do without some of the language…)
Dwarfism in miniature horses is finally receiving some serious research interest…but there is still a widespead tendency to sidestep the issue among many. If Mendelian genetics hold here, it would most likely be VERY simple to end its occurance over a relatively short time by never again breeding EITHER parent, to ANY horse, once a dwarf has been produced; unfortunately, the position of MANY is “I’ll never breed THOSE TWO to EACH OTHER again”–thus almost certainly producing ‘carriers’. A genetic test is devoutly to be wished, IMO—I know I’d welcome it, as would other serious and horse-knowledgable owners/breeders…but there are still PLENTY who sadly DON’T want a test. It’s called ‘stupidity’, IMO.
I must say to Cathy…I personally KNOW the person who has the dwarf memorium page on her website, and she is truly a kind, compassionate, and considerate lover of horses. I believe you are being unfair to her in your comments; she in NO WAY is supporting the production of dwarves; only offering those who have undergone the heartbreak of having one born on their farm a place to acknowledge that dear departed little life. It wouldn’t be my personal choice to post there, but I believe it is unkind and needlessly judgmental to bad mouth those for whom such an action offers solace.
You may not want to believe it, but dwarf miniature horses seem often to ‘come with’ as sweet and loving a temperment as ever ‘owned’ by any horse; what can be so ‘wrong’ about trying to acknowledge that, remembering the little soul with love?? NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WHO HAS ONE IOTA OF SENSE ABOUT HORSES would advocate DELIBERATELY trying to produce a dwarf miniature horse, and those of us who ARE horse people who happen to love miniatures KNOW THAT! …yet that is what’s apparently not being understood by those looking in from the outside of the world of miniature horses!
I bred miniatures for 19 years; stopped breeding 6 years ago. I produced very modest numbers–at most, 3, maybe 4 foals/year, usually less- showed my self-trained, and several homebreds AND self-trained, successfully, including at the National level. I bred one dwarf. She was the sweetest little soul I ever met, but in hindsight, I’d have had her euthanized at birth; as it was, it was done when she was around 5-6 months of age, as it became clear that she would only become more seriously ‘disabled’. I still cry when I think of that day; it was one of the saddest of my life with horses-she was so dear, so sweet and affectionate — yet there was really no other choice. I never bred EITHER parent again; made as sure as I could that neither would ever be bred by ANYONE again (though I couldn’t afford to spay the mare, I disclosed her production of the dwarf.) I GAVE a daughter of the sire–a gorgeous little mare–to a youth program and GAVE the sire to the same program(they didn’t breed)–both with full disclosure.
It is a SAD occasion when a dwarf miniature horse is produced, but once it IS here, it is a life, and ethics demand a fair consideration of the viability of that life, IMO.
I HATE the exhibition of dwarves as ‘world’s smallest’, yada, yada…to me it is unethical and unkind to the little one, to have to be subjected to the kind of attention that has so(understandably)soured the little one in the video. I certainly agree about ‘reading’ the horse’s body language; however, the general public is unlikely to EVER ‘get it’; it is the owner who bears the real responsibility, since they could STOP SUBJECTING THE POOR ANIMAL TO THE STRESS!!
OK–had my say; back to lurking/reading!
Margo, AKA olehossgal
I guess my question has always been: are dwarves the result of trying to breed for smaller, smaller, smaller or is it just a crap shoot?
As a mini breeder, CAN you reduce the possibility of dwarves by only breeding the larger class of minis?
Is there any way to keep this from happening? You stopped breeding the parents as soon as it happened to you, but is there a way to predict/test/rate the probability before it happens? If it happens because people are breeding for smaller, smaller, smaller, then I have NO sympathy for those whose foals die. If it is just a total crap shoot and happens to all the classes of minis in equal proportion, then I feel differently about it.
Overall you sound like a very sensible person and responsible breeder, and FYI, I’ve been at a mini breeder’s (used to board with one) and she didn’t have the high death rate or really any issues that I saw. I really don’t hate all the mini people – not at all. But I’m bothered by the memorial page because I don’t see anything there addressing responsible breeding or why we should strive NOT to have this outcome. It just takes the “oh how sad” attitude. Well, sure it’s sad, but is it avoidable? Can we lessen the probability?
It’s pretty much a crapshoot right now. When the breed organized in the 70s, they bred smallest to smallest. They didn’t recognize dwarfs. They were small, that’s all. It wasn’t until later that they realized that there was something wrong (after all, it WAS the 70s!) and then they started breeding for the smallest CORRECT Miniature horse. Unfortunately, many of these animals do carry the gene/genes (they aren’t sure if it’s more than one) and they don’t show it. You don’t know your horse carries it until it throws a dwarf. We bought a gorgeous, very well bred mare that was in foal. She threw a dwarf that did not survive. She’s now a pet. She doesn’t LOOK dwarfish at all. Neither did the stallion (who is now a gelding) Both were about 31″ tall.
Many of the AMHR breeders are crossing their Minis with American Shetland ponies. This may cut down on the dwarfism problem, as Shetlands don’t seem to carry the gene. However, many other breeders don’t like the look or temperament of the crosses. Personally, I prefer the non-Shetland type. (I don’t like the pony-type head) But these animals are stunning, and they can MOVE! And they LOOK like small horses! We have several of them. I can live with the pony heads…. *grin*
There is a gentleman who is doing research on dwarfism. He is associated with one of the biggest Miniature horse farms in the world. Last year he requested anyone who had a dwarf to send him blood samples, or even the foal if it didn’t survive. He believes he is getting close to isolating the gene/genes that cause dwarfism. if he does, then the big question becomes: geld ALL stallions that carry it, don’t breed/spay mares; don’t breed carriers to carriers; or even more scary- what if ALL Minis carry some form of the gene? Then what?
No respectable breeder EVER breeds for dwarfs. But since they are “kyoot” and “inexpensive” many people who don’t give a damn breed. And the sad part? When they run the kyoot dwarf through an auction, it normally gets the highest bids, while that nice but bigger Mini goes for peanuts.
And I feel extremely sorry for Thumbalina. Talk about explotation.
I’ll freely admit I don’t know how this applies to horses, but in the case of human beings, dwarves are not any more likely to be the children of short parents than tall parents.
hi. long time lurker, first time poster.
getting a dwarf from a breeding is a crap shoot. you could breed a 38 inch mare to a 38 inch stallion and get a dwarf, just as you could breed a 28 inch mare to a 28inch stallion and get a perfect, porportionate foal. its all about genetics and chance, and the resonsibility of the breeder. some minis have a higher chance than others to produce a dwarf because of what’s in its bloodline, way back then some people purposly bred dwarf stallions because they didnt know any better and i feel that kind of hightens the chances.
I have no clue- I will ask Dawn about it. BUT I do know that in the 20 years she’s been breeding minis, she has had ONE dwarf that she bought because she felt sorry for it. It wasn’t from her breeding program.
I should probably also add that she has the low death rate because she is vigilant about foal watch, and assists in pretty much every single foaling. The reason this is important is because the foals are HUGE in proportion to the dam, so 90% of the time, they require extra assistance to get OUT. It’s very common for her to be “midwife” to the mares and literally help pull the babies out. That takes a lot of dedication and sleep deprivation. I pretty much never see her during foaling season. Babies just start showing up. LOL.
I made it a happy habit to take the show horses out individually during lunch break. We would go find a nice quiet piece of grass far away from the hub bub back in the barns (even if it only was a strip of grass on an island in a parking lot) while everyone was getting ready for afternoon session. I would eat my sack lunch (which always had a few carrot sticks in it) or SHARE my lunch as it would always turn out. The horse would get a bit of normalcy doing what horses do best, putting their heads down and grazing. It helped with their digestion. I’d talk in a quiet soothing voice, give them carrot sticks. It was a good quiet happy thing and they knew they could trust in it. Taking that 45 minutes to an hour with them did wonders for keeping them bright and UP.
The Mini: Oh Dear! That poor little thing is beyond sour she is downright P***’ed OFF! That is just not OK, downright exploitative. I was annoyed by those kids after the first ten seconds, I can’t imagine what it would be like to hear that all day. People are so damn ignorant. I hate ignorant.
I always graze mine at shows. I think like you do – it’s a colic preventative.
You do have to be careful about grass, however — especially at the big venues. Often it’s been treated with chemicals, bug killers, etc., that are not good for equine consumption.
That’s what I worry about. There is a place where I ride and they spray the grass in the parking lot with a chemical to kill the mosquitoes. I tell everyone I see to not let their horses eat that grass.
Our barn’s horses can have their fill of grass outside the ring as well. But they know when it’s time to perform. My gelding can get a bit spooky so I usually take him on a leisurely walk around the grounds on his halter. When we school, our trainer allows plenty of time for our horses to walk, check things out, and loosen up. I let my horse look and prick his ears at “skeery” things, but he has to keep moving after looking at it closely once.
Chamomile tea! Believe it or not, it worked for us. Two or three tea bags in about a liter of boiled water, let stand until just warm then add to regular feed. Then, brew yourself a cup to take the edge off those show nerves!
Chamomile is illegal for any USEF competitions.
Good to know. I wouldn’t have expected that one!
http://www.feicleansport.org/ProhibitedSubstancesList_Jan2010.pdf
A list of the FEI banned substances list for anyone interested. A surprising number of herbal concoctions are banned.
This is so totally wrong but….I was hoping for her to get a good kick on one of those kids jaws!
I know I know I know it wrong! Please dont yell at me cause I do know its wrong but it would have been funny to see all the dumbass adults stare in wonder. “Duh….dat der lil horsie jes kiked my lil susie marie in der face! Duh, damned lil horsie thang.”
Idoits. Poor lil mare needs valium and some liquor then a nap.
For Peanut, when I take him to a game show/barrel race, I always make sure he has hay in front of his face and that I’m close by. When I arrive, I make sure to give him a nice little tour of the facility and that always calms him down. I try to get there early so I can be one of the first people wamring up my horse, and then he can slowly get used to the increase of horses as they show up. If it’s a show where he has to be tied somewhere the whole time, then I make sure to keep him away from horses that are freaking out, and near horses that are nice and calm. He’s never been a big fan of tractors, so i make sure to keep him in a place hthat he can hear and see the tractors, but where he won’t be so close to them that he’ll get freaked out.
When riding, I just take everything slowly. I try to act bored so that he feeds off of my energy (or lack there of). But when it’s time to run a pattern, he knows that it’s time to work. He’s still being seasoned, so I don’t really push him too much. I let him start the pattern at whatever speed he wants, and then if he’s doing nicely, I’ll push him about halfway through. So far we’ve had no disasters at a show, so I guess whatever I’m doing is working.
I’ve never used a calming supplement and I hope I never feel the need too. If I did have to use one though, I wouldn’t be actually showing. I’d just bring the horse and hang out. I’d continue to do that until the horse is comfortable being away from home, THEN I would start competing.
poor thing! and the annoying thing is that if this was a normal sized horse, the moment it started to kick everyone would have scattered. Heck, no one would probably have even kept on petting it the moment it made that ‘get out of my face, now’ face.
It’s being treated like a dog. Any one with any horse-sense would know that most horses would not enjoy being in a pen, surrounded by screaming kids reaching out to grab at it, with no where to go. My mare would have a FIT!
A couple things I do at shows with my nervous horses:
Calm & Cool for extreme cases is awesome
Lavender oil rubbed onto their muzzle and face
Bring water from home so they’ll stay hydrated
“Quiet Time” away from all the noise to relax
Don’t let yourself get nervous!
OT but: This is not training. This is the reason we get horses into rescue (and the E.R. gets business!)
http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/grd/1770875162.html
Top two pictures, I was like, “What? that one guy on Youtube does that sorta stuff?”
Then I scrolled down. Awe. Isn’t that sweet. A toddler/child crouched on the ground in the snow between a horse’s legs. Charming. And still alive! (at least at the time the picture was taken….)
Sigh.
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s Your Sign, Hunny. Pick a different career.
1.) Kneeling? *WHY* in the world would anyone train a horse to kneel? It certainly doesn’t look like fun, and I can’t see any purpose to it….
2.) Oh, rearing. Totally what I’d want a horse I’m on to think it’s ok to do. Totally the skills I’d look for in a SRS TRAYNER omg kthx.
3.) “Huh, they put funky pink legwarmers on it? Or maybe some weird hobble, which would be quite fugly in its own righOH SWEET CEILING CAT SHE’S GONNA DIE.”
I actually commented on that video a few months ago…never ceases to piss me off at just how clueless people are when it comes to obvious displays of aggression and fear.
I haven’t shown my mare yet since I’m still training her, but I would love to one of these days. When I did showing back in South Carolina, I’d take my gelding to the quietest part of the show grounds and have a little “us” time. I’d groom him while he grazed so we could both just relax before we got into the swing of things. If he ever showed any signs that it was getting too much for him, I didn’t have a single problem cutting us from the class. A ribbon isn’t worth my horse stressing out to the point of illness…plus, I didn’t want the experience to become a negative one. I want my horses to have as much fun as I am!
One thing that I started doing with my mare is equine massage, which she LOVES. She likes it so much, in fact, that I’m signing up to get my equine massage therapy license. I discovered her “magic spot” (right behind her ears where the bridle path is), which causes her to relax almost instantly when I rub her there. I also do some stretching exercises with her before and after working in the round pen, and she seems to really enjoy that, too.
She wore her very first saddle last Friday, and she did AMAZING with it. I call her Wonder Horse because she has made training her an absolute breeze (she makes my job look easy!), and I can’t wait to see how far we’ll go.
Cathy(Kathy? Sorry, I haven’t paid proper attention to how you spell your name!)–
No one really knows; today, I personally believe that there are fairly few who are breeding ONLY with ‘smaller’ as a goal. Most who are would be those without genuine credentials as knowledgeable breeders–as with ANYONE who breeds with a single-characteristic-only in mind, neglecting the idea of the ‘whole horse’.However, in the past, there is little question but that many if not all WERE striving for ‘smaller’, AND that horses, esp. stallions, that were CLEARLY dwarves, WERE being used for breeding, with the goal of reducing size(Try googling “Bond” bred miniature horses/”Bond Tiny Tim” for a clear example of this unconscionable practice.)
As of now, it IS a ‘crap shoot’, unless and until you have a dwarf born. Then, it is a safe presumption(but not yet ‘proven’ by research), that each parent was a ‘carrier’ of the genetics to produce a dwarf–at least, the most prevalent type, commonly known as ‘brachyocephalic’(sp?)…as is the one in the video…domed forehead, pot belly, crooked legs,highly-placed nostrils, almost non-existent neck, are some of the most frequent features, though not the only ones. It does NOT appear to be directly tied to the actual height of the stock, in most cases–dwarves have been born from the tallest of the taller ‘section’ of minis. It *may* occur statistically more frequently among intensely linebred horses who go back to the breeding of genuine dwarves, though, because it is statistically more likely that more of them are ‘carriers’ of one copy of ‘the gene’(or genes)that are responsible.You probably know this, but… in ‘simple’ Mendelian genetics, it takes ‘one copy’ of a recessive gene from each parent to produce an offspring that SHOWS the recessive characteristic(in this case, dwarfism), AND, a dwarf would be homozygous for the recessive characteristic…IOW, have ‘two copies’ of the recessive gene, so it could ONLY transmit the recessive gene(s). SO…ANY animal with a dwarf as EITHER parent(most likely, it would be the sire, as most true dwarf mares would be less likely to be able to carry a pregnancy to term/delivery) WOULD have at LEAST one copy of the recessive gene. When a ‘carrier’ is bred to a non-carrier, you wouldn’t get a dwarf, but MIGHT get another ‘carrier’…and when two ‘carriers’ are bred, there is a 50% statistical chance that the offspring will be a carrier, and a 25% statistical chance that it will be a dwarf, and the same chance that it will be ‘clear’ of the recessive gene….BUT,until there is a proper genetic test, it can’t be known WHICH you may have if the phenotypical characteristics of a dwarf are not in evidence. So no, right now, there really is no way to rate/predict/test the possibility of producing a dwarf…EXCEPT, IMO, to ‘stay clear’ of certain bloodlines(those where the early breeder was known/strongly suspected to have been using dwarves for breeding), AND, to QUIT BREEDING ANY AND EVERY miniature of ANY height that has produced a dwarf, be is as sire OR dam. If this were being done EVERY time a dwarf was produced, I believe that there would already be FAR fewer dwarves being born, and that dwarfism could be essentially erased in short order! Trouble is, MANY who breed, including some who should KNOW BETTER, are not willing to take this step(you should hear the excuses when this subject arises….it’s disgusting and discouraging, the rationalizations people will come up with…and so the problem continues. Although there ARE some who support developing a proper genetic test, so that carriers can be determined BEFORE they produce a dwarf, there are sadly still a LOT who don’t, claiming that to withdraw carriers from the ‘breeding pool’ would damage the breed by making the ‘pool’ too small to be viable. I believe that’s hogwash, and still hold out hope for the development of a reliable genetic test.
Hope this makes things a bit clearer.
Margo AKA olehossgal
Thanks! I know I am not the only one reading this who is interested in learning how/why this happens and who doesn’t have any personal experience with breeding minis. I appreciate the explanation. Sounds a lot like other genetic defects – we COULD greatly reduce the incidents if only people knew what the heck they were doing before breeding.
This sounds a lot like the same thing going on with HyPP, and OLWS. Those that know horses that carry the genes still continue to breed them and perpetuate the disease, yet come up with every excuse under the sun for why its ok.
Thanks for helping clear that up. I knew that dwarfism is a recessive gene, therefore all the homo/hetero stuff isn’t that new. But knowing that there are certain bloodlines that carry it IS new, but it makes me wonder now … because Friesians also carry the gene, as well do a few other breeds that at the moment I can’t remember.
It doesn’t sound like it would be all that difficult to convince a research lab (In a perfect world of course) to develop the test… we have tests for so many other genetic equine diseases, it really is odd that there ISN’T one for dwarfism.
Off topic, but on the subject of gene testing. I recently read an article in The Horse magazine that they have found the gene responsible for LFS (Lavendar Foal Syndrome). The think up to 10% of the Egyption Arabians may be carriers for the disease. They hope to have a diagnostic test soon. The following snip is from the article in The Horse.
Mutation Causing Lavender Foal Syndrome Identified
by: Stacey Oke, DVM, MSc
May 19 2010, Article # 16377
Print Email Add to Favorites ShareThis
A mutation in the gene called myosin Va (MYO5A) is responsible for Lavender Foal
Syndrome (LFS), reported a group of researchers from Cornell University and The
Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center.
LFS is a heritable, fatal, neurological disease of horses that primarily occurs
in the Egyptian Arabian, a sub-group of the Arabian breed currently found
worldwide. Common clinical signs in affected foals are seizures, opisthotonos
(severe hyperextension of the head, neck, and spinal cord), stiff, paddling leg
movements, and nystagmus (involuntary movement of the eyeballs). Perhaps most
characteristic is the soft lavender color of the foals’ coats.
Based on research performed in human medicine and in other animal species,
Brooks and colleagues scanned the entire genome of 36 Egyptian Arabian horses
using a newly available technique called a “single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP]
chip.” Using this genetic chip, the research team identified the MYO5A gene and
discovered that a single mutation in a specific region of (exon 30) was present
in all tested horses.
Further genetic testing, using a Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism assay,
found that six of six foals with LFS had two copies of the mutation (i.e., they
were homozygous for the MYO5A mutation).
“We also found that 10.3% of the Egyptian Arabian horses unrelated to the foals
diagnosed with LFS were carriers of the mutation,” added Brooks. This means that
the carrier horses had one copy of the mutant gene, not two.
Now on topic: That little dwarf mini is one PO’d equine, not that I blame her. I would realy not enjoy being the next person who has to handle her. She needs to be retired permenantly before she colics from stress related ulcers, (or kicks some kid in the head).
EWW
That’s good news.
You know what I would love to see in the distant future? Gene splicing such that you could have the various interesting colors like dominant white, the lethal white, and this lavender, without the fatal illnesses associated with them. Now that would be a nifty use of science.
There’s some observational evidence that roan is lethal homozygous too…and then some that it isn’t. It’s starting to look like the ‘frost’ roan commonly seen in Quarter Horses and the more familiar classic roan may in fact be different colors altogether.
It would also be nice if genetic engineering could unlink Lp from uveitis (moon blindness) and silver from related vision and eye conditions.
My guy is a tourist. He LOVES going places – vets or otherwise. I almost always get the pull on the lead to go check out the truck/trailer if one’s left out at my barn. Of course, I let him check out them both as long as he wants (and doesn’t do anything stupid like try to get into something) and that seems to make him happy. I’m sure that he’s just waiting for me to tell him to hop in!
When we were showing, I always tried to check in with him every hour, make sure he had hay and water, gave him a fan when it was super hot, and always walked/rode him around as much of the grounds as possible. I knew he was comfortable when he would try to eat the plants on the judges’ stand!
It’s not just horses, it blows my mind how some people are just clueless to any animal’s body language. I brought my dog to a family barbecue last weekend and all of my little step-nieces and nephews were super excited (none of them have pets) and my dog sat there like a good little boy and allowed himself to be pet and . . . well . . . examined is the best word I can come up with (what? This tail is attached to the dog? He needs all four feet on the ground to stand comfortably??) until one of the little girls started chasing him around with a hockey net because she thought it was a hilarious idea to “put him in jail”. He ran up to me and was cowering against my legs and I stopped her and said, look at how he’s standing, does he look happy? And she paused and thought about it and said, no . . . And I said, do you think he looks like he likes you chasing him with the net? And she said no again, and I said, so why are you doing it? And then she treated him very nicely for the rest of the evening. To be fair, she’s four and I think that children with no experience growing up with animals need some guidance on how to read body language, but come on, what about her parents? They were surprised that I stopped the “fun”.
Where the hell are that pony’s owners?
If my pony was upset…I would make sure everyone could leave her alone…
People are idiots…
Hey, lets let adorable pony bite and kick our kids…wouldn’t you have enough common sense to notice that poor pony was upset…ass holes!
Ahh, but see the owners make money off of displaying her like this – hundreds of times a year. This is what they do. They market Thumbelina to death.
http://www.worldssmallesthorse.com/
The REALLY sad part about all of this is that they do actually have a few decent charities that proceeds from her marketing go to.
Quoting from the website directly:
Children are not only our future; they are Thumbelina’s biggest fans. Kids everywhere see Thumbelina as a friend; someone to turn to when they are hurting or feeling sad. At Goose Creek Farms, we believe that friends should look out for one another. So Thumbelina is doing just that. Each year, she heads out in the Thumby-mobile to visit sick, needy, troubled, disabled and abused children. To date, she has made hundreds of stops in all 48 lower states to visit tens of thousands of suffering children. Thumbelina is there for them whenever they need happy thoughts. She lives in their hearts and brings them hope and joy even in their most difficult times.
Furthermore, Thumbelina is devoted to raise money and awareness for many wonderful children’s charities. We salute these organizations and all who volunteer their time to help children in need. In fact, this foundation was originally established to channel the world’s affection for Thumbelina toward worthy charities and the missions for which they strive. Standing at just 17.5 inches tall, it is amazing to witness such a tiny, loving creature accomplish such great works. Thumbelina is a blessing that we are thrilled to share with the world. We hope that she will raise millions of dollars for sick and needy children in the years to come.
We thank you for your support and good thoughts.
Sincerely,
Kay Goessling
Goose Creek Farms
Comparing that statement directly to the video? I’d say Thumbelina wants to take her job and shove it up her owners ass.
Well, I am glad they are doing good things…but like you…if the horse doesn’t like it…you shouldn’t do it!!!!!!
Yeah, they make money…but is it for the right reasons?? If they are horse people…they will know she is MISERABLE!
It makes me mad that the poor pony will have to continue this….all for the money.
For my paint showing is not big deal, but for my quarter horse gelding stalls make him nervous, to the point where if he is closed in he tries to rear up so he can see out…. his problem is instantly fixed when I bring a stall guard for him that lets me leave the door open so he can hang his head out and still be contained in the stall. He doesnt even have to be looking out after you up the guard up, he will go back into the corner and munch hay and whatever else, just so long as he COULD go look out if he felt he needed to.
Poor little mini. That video made me RAGE.
See…I’m thinking that if it was a large, full-sized horse exhibiting that kind of angry/irritated behavior, those people would have backed off and respected her space. (Of course, there are Darwin nominees out there that would be idiotic enough to ignore even a full-sized horse’s cues of anger/irritation, but I digress.) However, since this is a “kyooooot” little mini, they think her behavior is “adorable” even though it’s painfully obvious the poor little creature is in distress. And since she’s cute and small, people think that gives them license to torment her. Sort of like how people take aggression from a Pomeranian a lot less seriously than they do from a German Shepherd.
Also, while I’m no expert, am I the only one that thinks that little mini’s conformation is funky? Or is it just me? Regardless, that makes me sigh and roll my eyes in disgust. And if it was her owner saying she was having a “good time?” Well, how would YOU like to be locked in a small, confined space with small, shrieking children trying to poke at you from all directions? I’m sure you’d be pinning your ears and snapping too!
Yes, she’s very funky. She had to have repeated surgeries in order to be able to walk, eat, and breathe properly. But it’s not her fault she looks like a pig.
Yeah, I agree. It certainly isn’t poor little Thumbalina’s fault, but her asshat owners? Definitely. I can’t help but pity this poor, unfortunate little creature.
OK, Washington locals: who’s the asshat faux rescue featured here?
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/06/03/1211296/animals-removed-from-eatonville.html
My money is on that psycho Debbie chick with the pony ride business. But I could be wrong. There is a lot of crazy in Eatonville, also the home of MeSue Babcock. Sorry if you’re sane and live there but YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN if you do!
I just saw this on the news and got on here to ask what’s up! Does anyone know where we can help out? I can’t tomorrow but can this weekend and next week.
I don’t think their a rescue. Psycho – Yes. This is the second time. As a neighbor reports:
“This was the second time that authorities have responded to remove animals. The first time May of 2009, authorities counted 83 dogs, 26 horses, 6 rabbits, 3 goats, 12 chickens, 2 geese, 12 cats and 1 caged bird in the house.” WTF is wrong with someone who collects 83 dogs? You’ve got to be complete whack job.
One pattern I’ve noticed in these cases. Usually the people involved are over run with emotions of caring for animals. So much so, just having them around to Looove on overrides the conditions they live in. Basically, they are doing it to fulfill their own (emotional) needs.
Someone in the comments alluded to the idea that it was two women who were trying to “help” animals = faux rescue. I bet anything it’s someone I know about already.
Read on KOMO it was four women “who are related and range in age from 28 to 82″
82????
Ever watch Hoarders? Very often hoarders are OCD (note, most people with OCD are not hoarders). They either literally don’t see the mess, or they are so perfectionistic that they get frustrated very quickly trying to clean up the mess and give up. Most hoarders don’t hoard animals, thank goodness, but there are enough that do to cause problems. Basically hoarders see the world and their possessions very differently than normal people. Animals add another layer of emotion that collecting food or newspapers just don’t have.
Poor baby. What torture!
Regarding the idiot spectators: WHY THE HELL DOES EVERYONE WANT TO STICK THEIR FINGERS INTO A HORSE’S MOUTH???? Even horse people will walk right up, invade the horse’s personal space and then proceed to stick their fingers in the horse’s mouth or tease the poor creature by playing the “tickle his nose” game, or just plain stand all up in his business. People… BACK THE F*** OFF! Please stop teasing my horses. All day at shows I find myself telling people to please not stick their fingers in the horses’ mouths. WHY??? I find that a decorative chain with a “Barn closed. Please visit later” sign attached does a lot towards letting the show horses relax. There is also the problem of people feeding treats to show horses. A little bit of a chocolate bar or soda will make a horse test positive for caffeine, a carrot will create orange drool which looks a lot like a bloody mouth and can get the exhibitor eliminated.
Well said, Arabtrainer. And I like the idea for the sign! People who feed things to horses (at a show or otherwise) without asking permission first are one of my pet peeves. I’ve even seriously considered putting up signs saying that my horse bites or is generally nasty and so to leave her alone, but I haven’t actually done it because I don’t want my horse to carry THAT kind of label.
I once found slimy m’n'ms outside my horse’s stall… the bits of carrot, apple, horse treats were bad enough, but chocolate… what is wrong with people?
That poor little mare, I wouldn’t blame her in the least when someone is missing a few fingers, or possibly an entire limb.
When I take my mare to horse shows I use stall curtains when we are stabled in temporary stalls without full, solid walls. Also, I hang my horse’s water and grain buckets and hay net in the back of her stall so she can eat in peace and quiet without people reaching in and poking at her. I got in this habit after a girl I was riding with had some asshat put their cigarette out in her horses water bucket! Now everything goes in the back where it’s out of reach of people.
I feel sorry for the little mare. Personally, don’t agree wtih the goal of breeding dwarf horses. Also feel sorry for the kids. They were so excited to be around any type of horse.
If a horse I’m riding becomes stressed and we have to continue our job, I try to give them an opportunity to “walk it off” (it’s what they do in herds when things get intense) and provide calm cuing/leadership
Not all horses have the tempermant to tolerate what they have to do in order to earn their oats and it saddens me to see them chemically restrained through either herbals or synthetics. What a crappy life.
It’s not exactly surprising though. Look how many HUMANS can’t function without popping all sorts of crap to get through the day. And they do the same to their kids – every kid is on Ritalin these days. Or something harsher!
I guess that’s a whole other rant though!
I agree with your point.
In general, we have become a culture dependant on pharmaceuticals. Herbal or synthetic. I think it’s a cop-out, in most cases.
Funny, how I, and others, can get a “basket case” and have the pleasure of watching them settle and become contented without that junk.
One of our 4-Hers used to post a sign that said “Stick in 4 fingers, come back with 2″ It caught peoples attention, made a lot of them laugh and open the conversation of why you shouldn’t touch all the horses.
I had a “Please don’t feed fingers to the horse” sign. It worked pretty well. XD
Perfect Prep and earplugs. Walk them around the entire showgrounds. Don’t skimp on bedding! An extra comfy bed helps them relax. Prepare them for showing by schooling them in the rings they will be showing in. You can usually do this the day before the show starts, and/or purchase warmup tickets. Taking the time to walk them back to their stalls between classes rather than standing at the ring gives them an opportunity to drink, grab a snack, pee and get even more used to their surroundings…
I don’t think any horse that my family has shown on a regular basis was nervous at shows. Miss Ruby practically self loads when you aks if she’s ready to show or run. All of the horses in my family that are shown love their job and might get worked up because they’re ready to go (mostly barrel racers). The gelding my 8 year old cousin showed was 18 at the time and seemed to enjoy going because no mare could resist his appeal. I’ve never seen a mare not try to love up on him when we went somewhere.
Halle Berry joins the dumb parents club.
I SAW IT TOO.
Did you get that off of CDAN? I saw it and about died. That picture is so full of FAIL, it’s outstanding.
Two year old? Check
Seat belted onto the pony? Check
Long shank bit? Check
No helmet? Check
Pony looks like shit? Check
I’m not saying that strapping the kid in wasn’t stupid, cause that is, but where I’m from “pony rides†don’t usually make kids wear helmets and most of the parents don’t even think about it. I have yet to see a pony ride where it was in a circle, along a path, etc and the kids wore helmets. I’ve seen kids wear helmets when on a pony in a round pen or arena, but never for a pony ride…
And the bit several sizes too large…. sigh.
You didn’t mention the:
Poor-fitting saddle (for both girl and pony)
Totally wrong stirrups (one is upside down)
No one holding the pony or the kid
Short pants and flat sneakers (not that it matters, given the stirrup situation)
Halle is obviously totally clueless. Pony ride companies everywhere depend on clueless customers to get away with unethical business like this. I hope Halle receives at least some public bashing about this, and maybe more parents can be educated about these sorts of kids’ activities.
…wow.
Kid strapped to pony.
No helmet.
Pony needs FEEDING.
Bit too large and why the hell is there a shanked bit on a pony ride pony?
Saddle too large for both of them
One stirrup UPSIDE DOWN
Halter is four to five sizes too large…that pony’s going to get a foot into it, possibly with a kid strapped to his back and then go down. On the kid.
Saddle blanket is in the wrong place….its not actually properly under the saddle.
Western people, is that cinch secured correctly?
No sidewalker…kid that age NEEDS a sidewalker.
That fence is NOT going to stop that pony jumping into the spectators if something spooks it…maybe that’s why its half-starved? Into submission, perhaps?
And I’m guessing whoever ‘groomed’ it knew as much as whoever tacked it up.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this poor mini for myself. At the event that she was at her “owners†weren’t letting the kids touch her for the first bit because she was “unsure of her surroundingsâ€. They were really pushy as to what went on with her – to the point of making the feedstore that she was appearing at put up an area IN the store for her. There wasn’t a lot of space at this event for her to get out and move, but I did see her nipping at things quite a bit. She also tried to fight with the Clydesdale she was standing next to… Napolean complex much?
It could be that the owners are just lazy about updating her schedule, but it appears Thumbelina hasn’t gone anywhere since October of ’08, and the video itself is three years old, so it’s possible she may finally be getting rest? Maybe we can all sleep a little sounder if this is isn’t where she is now.
(hopefully this works)
go any farther and the rest is blank in the calendar…
Ok, this is slightly OT but signing a petition on facebook to save dolphin slaughter takes only a few minutes of everyone’s time and I thought with the amount of readers you get it might make a world of difference to this year’s dolphin slaughter season which commences in September.
This is the petition:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/252
To find out more, please visit:
http://savejapandolphins.com/
Having had a few different personalities, I’ve learned it’s different for every horse.
I had one who needed curtains and me. As long as he couldn’t see the scary, noisy things, and I peeked in every now and then to say hi and give big pets and talk, he didn’t care. Then when we did go out during our exhibitions, he was calm and collected.
I had another who had to see what was going on. He needed to be walked between classes, no curtains. Most importantly, he needed familiar things (Me; a barn buddy; etc).
And the third personality I’ve had needed to just be left alone, period. Give her the water, food, and curtains, and she just wanted peace and quiet, even from me. When we exhibited, she needed as little warm-up as possible, then put back in her stall for a few minutes of “meditation” before we went to class. And she was a happy camper.
I feel so sorry for this poor pony. Not only does she have t put up with people completely disregarding what she’s trying to tell them, she’s so heavily deformed. Jeez…
OT, but I keep wondering and forget to ask. When is the VLC going to be in HI? I wasn’t able to renew my subscription due to massive vet bills, but want to read the article. Just wondering!
I hate it at the Sydney Easter Show they have a massive animal pavillion, most of the animals are in pens around the edges of it (sizable pens, with plenty of shelter to get away from people), but roaming around in the middle they have calves and lambs (so little they’re just off mummy) and you can buy chaff to feed to them. So most of the goats and lambs look like they’re about to founder and there’s kids EVERYWHERE, patting, ‘cuddling’, chasing, practically sitting on them when they’re that exhausted and dehydrated that they’re sprawled out on the floor trying to rest. It is so noisy in there and so hot, it’s appalling. Last time I was there my best friend and I went around and dehydrated tested a bunch of the collapsed calves and all of them were shockingly dehydrated (if it was a horse at our stables they’d be electrolyted, molasses watered and hosed down) and went and reported them all to the workers repeatedly and NOTHING was done about it!
My Tb developed terribled behaviour issues from being stabled up for too long (only in the arvo/night, but it was too long for him), he hates being stabled (I would too and he doesn’t exactly fit well in most stables), he’s now living in a lovely pasture but if you put him in a stable and walk away, along with having destroyed it, he’ll be working himself up into like a mental psychosis (which is total opposite from him, normally he’s a dopey, lazy ass, plodder), luckily I haven’t had to stay overnight at a show with him yet, don’t think I ever will be able to. He really doesn’t care about being out at shows (the only issue I have is he’s terrible loading on the float, then spends the whole time jumping his bum up to site on the back of the float), he loves it cause he spends most of the day eating grass or eating hay (he can open the float ppl door, unvelcro my haybag and self serves himself), calmest thing ever. Walked into town and around town on him and I had to push him in a jog the whole way to keep up with my friends TB.
My Arab mare is total opposite, she has a routine. Night before I give her yummy hard feed with 2 sachets of Good As Gold (Magnesium, B12 and a tad of Tryptophan supplment, meant to balance out the nervous system so it works properly to keep them calmer) hidden in it (she’s fussy). Let her out of her stable at hom, let her have a wander around and a roll (so she thinks she’s staying), then you have to jump out of the way before she barrels you out of the way running onto the float lol, once there, unload, tie to float, sort hay and water out and then walk away, you have to completely leave her alone for a good 10mins, can’t even touch her. Then get on and ride around in the warm up for a good hour (which consists of head in the air bolting). Take her back to the float, unsaddle, redo makeup, get myself dressed properly, then get back on and go back to the warmup for another 30mins-1hr (this warmup is calmer) and then go compete and she’s fine, I have to sit trot everything on her to keep her calm. It takes alot to get her settled but once she is she’s fine.
Oh one thing my tb doesn’t like at shows, the mini ring. Bff’s with the minis at home but all those made up lil minis in the ring at a show, only thought running through my boys head, “HOLY SHIT THEY’RE GUNNA KILL ME!!!!”. Dad has to pony lead me past the ring otherwise it ends up with a flip out rearing hissy fit where he’s nearly throwing himself on the ground (even if i get off and trying and lead him), it’s hilarious, esp when he’s 17hh and the mini handler’s are standing there pissing themselves laughing.
My pony went to his first show last fall just to school. He was not having a meltdown, but he was extremely nervous when the other horses left. He called out, jigged around. Since he was not being a danger to himself or to anyone around us, we pretty much let him figure it out for himself…nothing bad happens, and he’s not getting left forever. And after we perform, he gets lots of treats, more hay, some water and a nice grooming. He’s not stupid, he quickly realized that GOOD things happen when he goes to shows.
That being said…it’s different when they are *really* getting scared and stressed, not just getting super concerned and jittery.
The first thing I do when Jack comes off the trailer is walk him around near the trailer, let him graze if there is grass, let him look, and then I tie him up and give him a hay bag. He went alone to our last show and we had no problems. It seems giving him a moment to adjust and then giving him something to pay attention to (food, of course) keeps nervousness down.
And honestly, for my pony personally, when people are around where he can see them, he feels better as well. Just grooming him relaxes him very much. Talking to him, singing a song, just keeping him feeling ‘safe’. Reassurance is key.
I didn´t know that until a few years ago when at a European championship the winner was accused of doping his horses. He vehemently denied it and it was later found out that that place where he let his horses graze during the show had a lot of chamomilla grwoing there. It was proven that the results from the drug testing originianted from there. I think he was acquitted.
Over night shows are very rare here, but I´ve been to a big horse fair with my horse. I always feel sorry for those horses that stay there over night because everybody wants to touch them. Some riders put ropes in front of the stalls to prevent people from getting too close. Personally, we decided to trailer our horses to the fair every day and let them relax at home.
I never touch horses at shows, because I know hundreds of people touch them and also because of infections.
Fortunately, my horse is pretty mellow at shows. As long as there is some grass, he is ok.
http://www.worldssmallesthorse.com/
This is so wrong, it is disgustingly wrong.
$$$$$$ just scream out and all in the name of charideeee! Yer, right.
When I show two…I always try to get a corner stall and a tack stall…this way, there is only the horses on the back wall (if any) that my horses has to deal with…the tack stall separates them from the rest. I want to minimize the amount of strange horse exposure to mine.
I also try to get there the night prior…most of my shows are 4+ hours away so I get there by noon, let them stretch their legs while I prep their stalls, let them chill out for several hours, do a “get use to the strange arena” ride and call it a day. They’re pretty mellow.
My Dolly is the most laid back of them all…on a trail ride, gave her the day off and rode another horse. Set her up with a huge hay net and water. She stood quietly by the trailer, munching her hay and never did the screaming, pacing my gelding would have done.
I’ve done the Bachs..both for me and the gelding…don’t know if it worked or if it was the placebo effect but, we were relaxed.
Ugh, that is suburban stupid combined with what is probably some asshat party pony service that will do anything for a buck with their probably home-bred deformed dwarf mini. Idiots.
I have an 18 year old gelding who goes from half asleep to high strung in a second. He was a abused and neglected early in life and the only thing that really calms him down when he gets wound up is to “talk to his face”. I put my mouth right on his muzzle and just spew nonscense in a baby voice to him. His head comes down, his eyes close and his tongue starts twisting and rolling in his mouth. If I say.. “Come here and let me talk to your face,” he’ll even offer his face if he’s in the mood. Otherwise, he’s not an especially affectionate horse. He’s the herd boss and has a reputation after all!!
My youngest horse is now 3. He’s very excited when we first arrive somewhere. I calm him down with a tour. I walk him around to everything and tell him what it is (I know he doesn’t understand me, but it calms him right down if I touch things and name them). If we are walking down a aisle, I just have to wiggle things like saddle stands and garbage cans as we pass and he’s satisfied. If I don’t touch them or let him put his nose on them, he’ll stare at them and fret. Once he’s been introduced around his “area” then he relaxes.
As has been said previously, I believe that many mini’s carry dwarfism because dwarfs were bred indiscriminately originaly for being ‘small horses’. However now you are just as likely to get a dwarf from 39 inch pony as a 28inch pony. (and they are ponies, sorry, under 14.2hh
)
The really sad thing about this mare is that she is probably in a bit of pain. Dwarf Miniature horses are not healthy, maybe if your lucky one or two are heathy , but then they dont look as deformed as she does. She is very very very heavy, and that is putting stress on her knees legs, I wouldnt be suprised if she has laminitis, and ulsers . Usually miniatures are really good about kids , I have miniatures and I have never seen one act agressive like this one , her body language looks to be more pain related.
At the shows…we dont seem to have a problem with the miniature horses. Like I said they are usually pretty tolerant of kids, and like attention. Last show I went to my mare had an off day. It was a bad day from the moment she woke up . She came in last at the show that she normally would have taken 2nd or 3 or 4th, there were 30 horses competing in halter obsticle. My husband was showing her. When this happens again , I will complete the corse, but not take a ribbon , and just calmly walk her through like it was a schooling trial class. I should have just kissed the competition goodbye , and made her lunge a little in the warm up pen, something she CAN do , and just had a “fun ” day with her. It was cold , raining , and there was no place to put your horse, so she had to stay in the trailer all day at this particular show… she was not happy, really I dont blame her one bit. The mare in the video should be in more qualified hands then their current owners. I am sure she is not getting the care she needs, and should not be stressed by being a public display. I would like to know who the owners are.
I worked with a Morgan gelding who loved to be the center of attention so much that he would actually charge the front of his show stall if you turned away from him to look at another horse. We always had to bring his jolly ball (which he would grasp in his teeth, rear up and bat at it with his front feet), but we had to hang curtains over the front of his stall after a particularly dangerous incident at a show last fall. Sometime just before breakfast (around 4;30am), he began kicking the stall front to get the attention of the barnhand (he would sleep in one of the empty stalls during shows as a safety precaution–we think the Morgan began kicking because he couldn’t see the groom going to the feed stall yet and was getting impatient), and the horse managed to lodge his rear left foot through the steel bars on the stall door, partially dislodging the door from the track and the steel bar insert from the frame. Surprisingly, he stood completely still and waited for the groom to come find him (he woke up once he heard the crash of the door coming off the sliding track). It took nearly an hour to get him disentangled from the bars (he was calm as a cucumber the whole time), and all he had to show for it was a shallow four-inch laceration just above his hock. The vet even cleared him to show the same day (and he won his night class). Our trainer decided that he’d been bloody lucky but probably wouldn’t dodge serious injury if it happened a second time, so she hung curtains on the outside of his stall to prevent him from getting so worked up. He doesn’t seem to respond as much to sound as he does to sight, so he’s been much easier to deal with in his stall in subsequent shows. He does seem to be blessed with a good dose of horse noggin, otherwise he probably would have shattered his leg trying to free himself.
All I have to say is…
STUPID!
My dog is smaller than that pony (westie) but I know if his ears are back, he’s growing and acting like he wants to go for my throat that I don’t touch him.
If that cat I saw down the street is walking around with his ears flat and looking like he’s about to murder me, I don’t touch him
I could go on.
The thing is it seems that everyones going ‘aww look it’s so funny, the little pony is upset’ and thinks it’s ‘cute’ yet would they be doing the same if it was say a large Shire horse?
I learned from a young age when I was around animals to watch how they behaved, and that if they were acting grumpy that I left them alone. No matter what size the animal was.
Yeah…some people are observant, some aren’t. I have seen people get attacked by cats, too, because they just did NOT read the signs that kitty wasn’t happy.
I had to google ‘calm & cool’. At many dog shows there are various vendors hawking their wares. One such vendor has essential oil blends and one popular blend is ‘Valor’. You rub it on the inside of the dog’s ears and it works to give a nervous dog more confidence. I tried it on myself and did feel a calming effect. Didn’t make me any more confident in the ring, but it did take the nervous edge off. Don’t see why this would not work on a horse. Have folks here heard of this, has it been used on horses?
http://www.smartpakequine.com/productclass.aspx?productClassid=7477
http://www.smartpakequine.com/productclass.aspx?productClassid=7476
I have had good luck with both these supplements for the spooky horses, to the ones that need a little something while they are on stall rest.
Poor Thumbalina, she looks miserable and in pain.
A co worker recently had a sister in the ICU after being trounced by 2 horses in pasture. They were mad at each other and the sister got in between. Kick to the head and then stepped on with liver lacerations ect.
I always hated having to go into a paddock with more than 1 horse in it. Even if they are usually friendly together they can get piggy when a human gets in the mix.
Do horses get jealous? My dog gets super jealous when I’m petting my cat and starts to bark then will try to shove her out of the way.
But I imagine that wouldn’t be nearly as amusing with a horse trying to shoulder another away. 
That poor little dwarf. It made me a little sick to watch that, and sad. Whoever commented that it reminded them of a circus sideshow, I agree with.
As to show horses and their behavior – I’m actually rather shocked at some of the responses here. If you don’t want anyone to touch your horses ever, at all, then leave them at home and don’t bother going to the show in the first place. I can’t imagine showing is any fun anyway if all you are going to do is wallow in anxiety about what *might* happen if someone touches the horse while you’re not looking. Maybe I’ve been singularly blessed to never have any truly terrible experiences, but I’ve always been flattered when people have walked by and asked to pet my gelding at the shows, especially kids. But then, he’s a friendly guy and has always liked to hang his head out and watch the world go by.
There’s one memory I cherish from years ago where I let this little girl pet him while he was dozing in between classes. She was with a family that was stabled on the same row and they’d been watching each other all weekend, horse and girl, it was the funniest thing. Long story short, I made that little girl’s weekend just by letting her rub his forehead. Later on, her mom came back and thanked me a second time. Turned out that little kid was scared of the family’s ponies, but kept asking if she could go see the pretty red horse down the row. I’ve always thought that was pretty special.
I’ve never worried about diseases or poison cookies or anything else the human mind can conjure up. For one, I keep up on a good vaccination and parasite management program. That, along with good training and discipline has always left me feeling confident that as a responsible horse owner I’ve done my best to prepare and protect my guy for a fun time away from home. The fringe element is in God’s hands.
I’m pretty useless at advice for nervous show horses because I’ve never really had one. I love to show and I love being at shows, and my gelding has always taken my lead on that. Some of my friend’s horses get really wired getting off the trailer, but I wouldn’t call it nervous, and a little lungeing (NOT hours and hours of endless circles, mind you) did just the trick. Personally, I think the key always lies with the humans involved. If you take your horse to a show and are happy to be there and treat the experience as another (fun!) part of your horse’s life, the horse will pick up on that and come to enjoy it as much as you do. If you are fearful, anxiety-ridden and just generally unhappy at the show, how can you expect the horse to be any different?
Poor baby. Her face is the cutest thing about her in regards to her conformation. She deserves better than that.
OMG. My Grandmother, who hates horses with a passion could probably pick up the fact that it was time to give Mini a break. The owner probably just doesn’t care, wants to get as much money outta that poor little pony as possible.
When my horse is stressed in a new place, I walk her around handgrazing her til she relaxes, or stand her up next to a calm, experienced horse to show her the way.