Weird Horse News

Old Baldy

Erin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:02:00 GMT

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

Erin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:24:00 GMT

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

Erin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:49:00 GMT

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

Erin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:37:00 GMT

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.

Abandoned Horse

Erin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:15:00 GMT

Australian horse owner Jenny Mahoney awoke one day last week to find a strange horse in her pasture. Sadly, this story isn't uncommon. But this one has a twist.

"I only have the one, McBeal, so I slowly approached the strange horse, saying 'Steady, easy fella,' " she told the Herald Sun. "It was only when I got right up to it in the dark that I realised it was a life-size, fiberglass horse."

The Mahoneys were amused by the horse, but Jenny said McBeal was positively enamored, nuzzling it until it fell over. She reported it to the police, just in case the model had been reported stolen. (It's believed to have originated at a defunct miniature golf course in the area.)

But the story doesn't end there.

Two days later she found the horse moved to another part of the pasture with a flymask on its head. So she added a red blanket too.

Another two days later, the horse was gone. In its place was a 13-foot fiberglass crocodile.

"The croc had the horse rug stuffed down its throat and was meant to look like it had eaten the horse" Mahoney reported.