Weird Horse News

Ladies' Choice

2010-03-17T18:25:00Z

This year marks the fifth anniversary of March to the Arch, an AQHA event featuring cross dressing, micro-piglets, and more--all for a good cause.

AQHA's America's Horse Daily reports the show has raised more than $120,000 over the years, supporting research by the American Cancer Society and the University of Oklahoma Cancer Institute. Funds raised this year--the total's not yet known--will go to the Children's Hospital of St. Louis.

All the staff and officials for this show donate their time, including the AQHA judges and show managers. Despite the economy, stalls for the March 11-14 event sold out in early February.

A highlight of the event, Friday night's "Ladies Western Pleasure" calcutta class is filled with male trainers in drag. AQHA Professional Horseman Denny Hassett (aka Denny Mae Hassett) of Auburn, Kan., claimed the top honor this year.

Old Baldy

2010-03-12T16:02:00Z

Two city museums are fighting over the mounted head of a horse called "Old Baldy," The Associated Press reports.

Old Baldy isn't just any horse--he was the preferred mount of Gen. George Meade during many of the Civil War's most infamous battles, including Antietam and Gettysburg.

The Grand Army of the Republic Museum and the Civil War Museum will have joint custody of Old Baldy. Read more (and see a photo!).

With Triple Crown season approaching, it looks like a longshot might be bringing a great storyline. Only this time, it's not a horse; it's the jockey.

No less than the New York Times is covering the story of Paul Atkinson, a hard-luck rider who was looking for a 50-1 shot or a claimer and somehow stumbled onto the back of Caracortado, a top contender for Saturday's San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita.

Atkinson has piloted the promising 3-year-old in all of his starts, and found the winner's circle every time.

Why does the trainer and part owner of this talented athlete stick with a relative unknown?

"I'm a firm believer that loyalty means something," Mike Machowsky told the Times. "Paul had ridden him flawlessly every time, and he's been around long enough not to panic. I'm confident in him."

Read the rest of the story.

Calling All Mules

2010-03-03T16:24:00Z

To get a handle on its mule deficit, Cuba is undertaking a national census of the long-eared equids, their daily newspaper reported.

"The paper reports the country might be some 8,000 [mules] in the red (pardon the pun)," said the Miami New Times.

Mules are crucial for the transport of coffee, cocoa, and other agricultural staples in the country's mountainous areas. The hardy hybrids are generally sterile.

Officials will carry out the census between March 1 and 10.

Archaeologists have discovered that many of the hundreds of terracotta horses unearthed from the mausoleum of Qinshihuang were geldings--suggesting that the procedure might have been practiced on real horses when the statues were created during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 207 BC).

"These indicate that castration of animals was prevalent more than 2,000 years ago," the researchers said.

All the 520 horses that pulled chariots in the terracotta army were gelded, while some of the 116 cavalry horses were not.

Horsepower

2010-02-24T19:49:00Z

A Polish man is in trouble. The story involves a horse or horses, one of which was found hitched the front axle of his van. Beyond that, the details depend on whom you ask.

The Daily Mail version goes like this: 55-year-old lumberjack Leszek Stepien (who might have had a nip of vodka--an officer said he was at twice the legal limit), loaded a stallion and a mare into the back of his son's van to take them home. At some point during the journey, the stallion got loose and attempted to mount the mare. She objected.

In the confusion, Stepien hit a roadside barrier and tipped the van. He then hitched the stallion to the front of the vehicle and was attempting to right the vehicle when firefighters arrived.

In the Horse and Hound version, the van broke down and Stepien (now a farmer and 7 years older) attempted to use the stallion to tow it to a garage. However, he steered the horse into the path of an oncoming vehicle, which tipped the van.

Horse and Hound reported, "When police arrived, an undeterred Stepien was standing in the road berating his horse for causing the accident, yelling, 'This is all your fault.' "

In both versions an officer at the scene is quoted as saying the horse(s) was/were uninjured and Stepien will face charges of animal cruelty and drunken driving.

Either way, the horse looks rather bemused. See the photos.

Georgia State University might want to consider changing its mascot from a panther to a Zebra.

A startled Zebra broke loose from training at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus last week and galloped through downtown Atlanta in the middle of rush hour.

The Zebra, named Lima, sustained some hoof injuries and was examined at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine. It was unclear if he'd be rejoining the circus for their Raleigh performances, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

This is far from the city's first encounter with striped equids.

In December 2008 two Zebra were removed from a farm outside Atlanta after one--named Barcode--was found wandering the halls of a campus building at Emory University as part of a year-end prank. Read more.

In April 2008 a Zebra foal later named Evidence was found on I-75. Estimated to be 2 or 3 months old at the time, investigators postulated that he fell from a truck before being hit by a car. Read more.

Snowplow

2010-02-16T17:37:00Z

A sturdy pony has been credited with helping caretakers attend to animals stranded in a recent Virginia snowstorm.

Half a dozen donkeys and llamas were stranded in a lower shed at Leesburg Animal Park, Leesburg Today reported. The animals had hay but no water. Staff members tried to use a tractor to reach them, but the machine became stuck in deep drifts of snow. Resigned, they started slowly digging out the 500 yards to the shed.

That's when Quinn the pony pushed through the deep snow to see what the fuss was about. Park curator Leslie Eicher hopped aboard and was able to lead the stranded animals along Quinn's trail to the main barn.

A new horse owner had a scare when his 10-year-old Quarter Horse bolted away from their farm north of Duluth last week. Two search planes, one helicopter, a thermal-imaging camera, and dozens of volunteers responded to the search call, The Duluth News Tribune reported.

The horse, named El Nino, was located in near-waist-deep snow in the forest six days later. Owner Scott Frisby, who had the horse (a "bucket list" purchase) for only a week at the time of its escape, was able to snowshoe in and find him after a pilot spotted a warm patch on a thermal camera.

"He wasn't moving, but he was just chewing on the bark of a poplar tree," Frisby told the paper.

Now safely back at home, the horse is recovering from his ordeal.

Frisby said coworkers are chipping in to help pay for the cost of the air surveillance that proved crucial in finding El Nino.

"It's incredible--the people at work, the emotional support, friends and family and neighbors, they all pitched in," Scott's wife Chris said.