Hard for me to post this, but condolences can be sent to Barbaro’s family and team, also here are a Horse Loss and other support groups. Barbaro Condolences, support groups
They also have thoughtfully started a Laminitis Research Fund and a Barbaro Fundto support ongoing patient care and expansion of the George D. Widener Large Animal Hospital, Penn Veterinary Medicine’s world-renowned clinical, research and teaching hospital. Penn School of Veterinary Medicine support.
To see other Barbaro posts on petArtistWithPeaches, search on Barbaro at top right…
Barbaro Epilogue, a huge compendium of the writeups appearing in bloodhorse.com; Barbaro Fund donations; email links to owners Roay and Gretchen Jackson and to trainer Michael Matz; Barbaro photos for sale by bloodhorse.com.
Barbaro portraits, two Barbaro fine art prints by John Fawcett reproduced as fine art giclees by FinePrint collection.com, proceeds to benefit Thoroughbred Charities of America.
__________________
Connie Moses– Blog:petArtistWithPeaches website:PortraitsWithHorses.com (horse and pet portraits)
Hoping to improve our barefoot horses’ self-maintenance and self-conditioning, I recently read Jaime Jackson’s book Paddock Paradise and am adapting his theories to a New Hampshire winter. He advocates a paddock arrangement designed to encourage horses to move a great deal (healthier for the horses and for their hooves) and to restrict the amount of fresh grass available (also healthier for them.)
Yearling Perch/Arab walking on track in New Hampshire snowstorm.
Jackson’s TRACK concept is meant to get domestic horses to imitate behavior of horses in the wild, who travel repeatedly and almost continually along established routes or tracks. To do this, he sets up a 15-20 foot wide path around the inside perimeter of a typical pasture, by using an interior (electric) fenceline which can be adjusted as necessary for an optimum track width for the number of horses.
Horses are motivated to move around and around this track by various areas of interest placed along it– such as water, sand piles and mud spots to roll in, trees, resting areas– and also by spreading their hay out along the length of it. Apparently horses are quite inclined to keep moving on a track just BECAUSE it is fairly narrow and restricted. Reports are that formerly-pastured horses start moving on their own (directionally) and do MUCH more walking when placed on a track.
20 year old Arabian mare moves around a lot searching for grass under snowcover.
With our frozen solid ground, we are unable in winter to install any new fencing to build a track right now; instead, we modified our horsekeeping methods, trying to thereby increase their movement. Our turnout area lends itself to this; it is about 1/4 mile long straight-line distance (a series of connected paddocks and pastures and some woods,) with the barn/shelter at one end and the horses’ favorite large pasture at the other end.
To increase their time available for movement, we started giving our three horses 24/7 turnout (we used to restrict them overnight to a small paddock.) They are walking a lot and running on frozen ground with hard pack ice under a light snow cover. They get their hay and light grain fed at the barn twice daily (they come to a ringing bell at feed time.) In between hay feedings AND OVERNIGHT they travel to the far pasture where they spend their time pawing through the snow and ice for dead grass. They chew bark off trees, nibble underbrush and acorns, run and play, posture with neighbor horses, and return to the barn for shelter IF and WHEN they want to (which happens rarely even when temps are well below freezing.) They have to return to the barn to get water.
Yearling and mom stand in pea stone gravel in their run-in shelter (November ‘06.)
Pea stone gravel is also advocated by natural hoof trimmers to both stimulate growth and wear hoofwalls, and to help toughen the soles and frogs. We installed a large 12×20 pea stove gravel area 4-5 inches deep in the run-in shelter at the barn, plus 3-4 small areas of pea stone in gateways and around their water trough. We feed out their hay on the pea gravel, and if they do feel like sheltering, they choose to mill around on the pea stone under the shed roof rather than go into their (open-doored) stalls.
FYI, our three horses– ages 20, 3 and a yearling, arabian and perch/arab crosses– are never blanketed and have healthy insulating winter coats of fur; they are also very compatible with each other. I admit that occasionally, when around zero degrees with roaring winds, we have made ourselves feel better by stalling them overnight. Freezing rain has not been a problem, it sheds off and does not penetrate their coats.
Time will tell how well our horses’ hooves maintain themselves in these winter conditions. They are acting happy as clams. Of course their hooves do not grow nearly so fast in winter as in summer. This past summer and fall, they maintained well enough on an 8-week trimming schedule. Then they had mostly 24/7 turnout but on more restricted space of grass, woods, some hardpack and rocky paths, and often mud. Our using them lightly on asphalt helped wear their hooves as well.
I hope in spring and summer we will add tracks around our pastures a la Paddock Paradise and keep them moving, as many other horseowners’ experiments are indicating that this track concept can work.
See all the updated blog info on using peastone gravel for horsekeeping… and be sure to look for other folks’ COMMENTS at the end of these posts.
NOTE: See my Horse Blogs/Links for other peoples’ articles on paddock paradise-type turnout and barefoot hoofcare.
__________________
Connie Moses– Blog:petArtistWithPeaches website:PortraitsWithHorses.com (horse and pet portraits)
One of the best dressage performances I have EVER seen (YouTube-posted)! thank you Bridlepath!
(Though video is slowed down and therefore a little choppy, it doesn’t detract, actually lets you see the movements a little better.)
I want you to take note of this horse’s tail, how relaxed and swinging and loose it remains. This indicates the horse is comfortable and happy with what he is doing. In so many dressage performances you see the poor horse wringing its tail around and around, saying in the only way available that it is tense, and it is NOT comfortable or happy. These horses either need another career or a more compassionate rider who has a better connection with the horse’s feelings!
Our horse management for fifteen years has always leaned towards natural, more for reasons of our convenience and ease of upkeep than for any conscious choice to be natural. But looking back, I’d say we were always governed by observing what the horses seemed to enjoy the most and what kept them healthy.
We have always believed in run-in stalls and our 3 horses have a lot of room to roam when we let them, approx. 5 acres mostly open with some woods areas. They have access to a shelter/windbreak and can go into their stalls whenever they want. Prior to recently, we would shut them in their stalls overnight when weather was cold freezing rain, sleet/ice, or fierce snow storms. We didn’t bother keeping them out of warm rains.
Three stooges in light December snowstorm, just being horses. Mare mare in front, yearling Glendale center, black 3 yr.old sticking out his tongue.
Our latest experiment in 24/7 turnout in frigid weather is sort of ala Paddock Paradise, a book by Jaime Jackson, a natural hoof trimmer and horsekeeper. (Book Paddock Paradise is sold on Jaime’s website, also at The Horses Hoof and other locations online.) Jackson has an interesting concept patterned after wild horses, basically it’s a way to get domestic horses to be more active all by themselves.
I will put a more complete description of Jackson’s ideas on my blog soon and you can get the whole picture. Described here is our winter version of paddock paradise so to speak; we have not made any track, because in winter there is no need to limit their pasture, rather we have simply maximized the area available for them to range in, maximized the TIME they have to range, and given them more incentive to travel. Between our lower pasture and the barn is a long straight line distance. Our horses travel back and forth because they like the lower field best of all, but they have to return to the barn to get their hay AND their water. The frozen ground is helping their hooves maintain.
Our 3 horses [ages 21, 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 yrs.] move around and thus keep themselves warm and can go into any stalls whenever they want to, but they rarely do. It was below 0 degrees here in New Hampshire on Mon. night (Jan. 15), today 8 degrees in early am. THe horses show no signs of discomfort from cold.
Their can fluff up their own fur, did you know that? They contract their skin so the undercoat fur lifts away from their bodies to provide maximum insulation. Rain and sleet actually shed right off and don’t penetrate the fur. We know their insulation is good because the snow and ice stays on their backs without melting from their body heat. Of course they have grown these warm winter coats because we never blanket them.
Mom mare Willy (age 21)– note how snow on her back doesn’t melt, that means she is well insulated.
We have a lower grass pasture which is their favorite area, nearly 3-acre field with neighbor horses across the fence, which most of the year we limit their use of or they would blow up like blimps if not founder themselves (though we’ve never had a founder or even colic symptoms here, knock on wood…) This winter we’ve let them use this field. While there was dead grass easily available there they often wouldn’t leave this pasture to return to the barn for a night feeding, so we figured their stomachs were full and just left them out.
Early this week we just got a decent snow cover (4-6 inches), which turned to hard-packed ice due to freezing rain and bitter cold. Now that the dead grass is hard to get to, the horses do come back to barn when we call them for feeding, and this morning they were at the barn already at daylight, milling around under their shed roof shelter in the pea gravel (looking for hay scraps.) The yearling Glendale is keeping good weight, he’s the only one we have to monitor (the other 2 are easy keepers, he’s still growing) and he gets the most and highest caloric grain, but skipping a grain meal occasionally hasn’t bothered him any. We give them plenty of grass hay which is what warms their gut from roughage digestion, NOT the grain. (Normal hay amount fed is 10 lbs./day per 1000-lb. horse more or less, a little extra on a really cold day,)
Gilford our 3 yr.old perch/arabian sampling bark on a tree.
I should mention that our horses also are part beaver… since there are trees around that they can get to, they gnaw the bark off until the tree is finally girdled bare and eventually joins our firewood pile. Any trees we don’t want to lose have to be protected from the horse beavers. Their order of taste preference is sugar maple, other maples, poplar, and lastly pine and oak. Horses in New England are helpful to thin out lower underbrush in a woodlot. They will eat poison ivy twigs in winter (that’s another story) and they don’t catch it, but don’t kiss them on their noses!
I expect many folks are going to freak that we never blanket our horses. We used to use blankets when we had our first horses fifteen years ago (in New Hampshire.) Each winter we let it get a little colder before we’d blanket them, finally after 3-4 yrs. we just stopped blanketing and it hasn’t mattered, in fact we believe they are healthier and happier for not wearing blankets. Our lives are certainly easier.
Our horses’ bare hooves are holding up well too, the last time they went 8 weeks between trims and didn’t need much taken off, a little toe and heel shortening. They get decent traction with their bare feet on our hard crusty snow/ice, they are heavy enough to break thru the surface, they are smart enough to feel slick ice and go carefully. They are happy as clams.
I would caution, if you want to start trying this 24/7 turnout with your horse who has always been stalled at night and/or is not used to making their way on ice and snow, just start out gradually and observe what’s going on. If your horse has never been out overnight, start gradually and keep him close to the barn at first. Don’t want him to get spooked by night noises he’s not used to, but bear in mind they have very good night vision.
If you have been blanketing, DO NOT just take off the blanket now! Their fur coat may not be normal this winter due to blanketing… wait til next year to not use blankets from the beginning. I appreciate that those of you who have indoor arenas or someplace to work your horses and ride all winter will want to control hair growth (due to excessive sweating during hard work and being very difficult for the fur to dry out,) but next year consider a winter clip instead of continual full blanketing. Typical is to clip the chest, underbelly, legs and maybe underneck to facilitate cooling and drying, leaving the barrel, back and rump with winter fur to help the horse keep warmer naturally.
I was up at my home away from home– the best place on earth (aka The Lakes Region!)– for the weekend and I can’t go up North without stopping to see three of my four favorite horses (the 4th one being Princess!) …the 3 of course (need you ask?!) are Connie’s horses, Mom Willy with her boys, Gilford and Glendale.
Where’s my treat? photo by HorseGal’s sister.
I wanted my sister and her husband (who I had come up to NH with) to see all three of these wonderful horses in person, since they’ve heard me talk about them non-stop (they’ve also seen many pictures.) Also, my sister is a great photographer and she loves taking pictures anywhere, anytime.
I saw the 3 of them where I always see them when I stop by Connie’s place… down in the lower pasture that Connie and her hubby own. It was snowing out and they were all together so I called them all over to me, one by one, and it was SO funny… All 3 RAN right over to the gate. What a sight that was – I of course, would love to think that they recognized me or my voice and were running over to see ME. [Ed. note-- they were looking for carrots!]
HorseGal with mom mare Willy, icy whiskers, photo by HorseGal’s sister
However, the more likely story is that they were looking for a treat! I think horses that are snow-covered are beautiful (as long as they aren’t cold, because I do worry about that when I see horses in the rain or the snow and I don’t like seeing horses in the sleet or freezing rain, that really bothers me)… [Ed. note-- If allowed to (ie. not blanketed,) horses grow their own fur coats for winter. My horses have the option to go into shelter or stalls whenever they want, and they rarely come in out of the weather. Neither do they get sick.]
Gilford’s uncontrollable forelock at a different time, barely cold at all!
Gilford, with his jet black color and his uncontrollable forelock… he was stunning! Glendale and Willy were equally beautiful. The snow on their whiskers was a riot to see. And, I’m so excited– Next month, if the timing works out for Connie’s farrier, I’m going to watch all 3 have their hooves trimmed! I’ve never seen that and I can’t wait. Woo hoo! Happy Trails!! Feeling Down? Saddle Up! [Ed. note-- doesn't take much to excite HorseGal, when a horse is involved!]
__________________________ by HORSEGAL, Guest Writer for Blog petArtistWithPeaches– journal of Connie Moses, horse and pet artist
SHORT: Online Newsreaders (aka News Aggregators or Feed Readers) are like having your own free homepage, which you can customize and set up to track the latest news on your favorite topics and blogs (most blogs offer feeds.) You can subscribe to news and blog feeds and follow news groups and forums. (This is what the funky RSS Feed/Syndicate buttons are all about on blogs like my petArtistWithPeaches.)
You can read and access all this pre-organized information at your convenience, on your own homepage online, without having to get email newsletters. Some make photo albums such as Flickr handy for your use (Netvibes.) A big benefit is no spam.
LONG:What are Newsreaders? Why would you want one? What are newsgroups and Usenet? article from GUBA, Gigantic Usenet Binaries Archive
Newsreaders are programs that let you read newsgroups, thus I will start by defining them. Newsgroups are forums for discussion that are most comparable to e-mail lists, except that the messages go to the public (unless the group is a local group) and one does not need to be subscribed, in the mailing list sense, to participate.
For example, if there is a group called “rec.widgetmaking” (a group for widget making enthusiasts) that you are interested in, you would tell your newsreader to subscribe you to that group. (You would find the group by looking or searching through the full list of newsgroups on your server, or perhaps a friend also interested in widget making told you about the group.) This has no impact on the group itself, it just tells your newsreader to put that group on your subscribed list. Your newsreader program then makes this group more accessible and stores information about which messages you have already read, etc.
When you open this newsgroup to read, there should be a bunch of messages from various people. (If not, see if your newsreader has a command for loading all messages in a group; some newsreaders seem to default to showing no messages for a group newly subscribed to, as opposed to showing all messages still on your news server). You should have something that looks somewhat like a mailbox in your e-mail program. You can read these messages just like e-mail messages.
The difference is that the message is not addressed to you. It is addressed to “rec.widgetmaking”. Similarly, if you choose to post a message in response to a message you are reading, you need to decide (and be careful) whether to reply (or “followup”) to the newsgroup, reply to the author (almost all newsreaders have ability to send e-mail messages), or both. (This can be a “netiquette” question. If someone is asking advice, I tend to respond to both the group and the person. But there are times when it is best to take things off the group, and there are some people who prefer not to get responses in their mailbox, since they will see the response in the group anyway.)
That is the main difference between newsgroups and mailing lists. Whereas mailing lists get e-mailed to a certain group of people and the messages exist only in their mailboxes, newsgroup posts get sent to your news server, which then forwards it to news servers around the world (except for newsgroups which only exist on your local server, called local groups).
Usenet is the main source of newsgroups. Just as ABC is a source of television programming, Usenet is a source of newsgroups and newsfeeds. Sometimes people refer to Usenet as newsgroups and vice versa, but strictly speaking, this is incorrect. First, there are other sources of newsgroups that are widely distributed. For example, Clarinet is carried by many ISPs and subscription-based newsfeeds. Second, there are many semi-private newsgroups that are not propogated beyond their own server. You need to point your newsreader to that server rather than the one you normally use; in some cases anyone is allowed to access the newsgroups on that server, but in other cases one needs a password to access the server.
Why would people want to use newsgroups instead of mailing lists? The best answer is to just try newsgroups and see if you like using them. No law that says everyone has to prefer it. But some people prefer not having messages arriving by e-mail all the time. Others prefer being able to drop in on groups when they feel like it, rather than feeling they have to read every message. One nice thing about newsgroups are that if you use a “threaded” newsreader, then the messages show up in logical order; replies to a post show up after that post, usually in a collapsible thread.
Lastly, you should be aware of the difference between “online” and “offline” newsreaders. Online newsreaders assume you maintain an Internet connection during the time the program is running. When you run the newsreader, it polls the server to see how many new messages there are in the groups to which you are subscribed. You can then enter a group, and the newsreader downloads just the message headers, and you see what looks like a mailbox. The messages themselves, however, are not on your machine. As you access a particular message, the newsreader gets it from the server. When you are done reading a message, it is not stored on your machine, unless you save it specifically.
Offline newsreaders, on the other hand, connect to the server, download all new messages for the newsgroups to which you are subscribed, upload any posts you wrote since the last time you connected to the server, and then disconnect. You can then read the messages as you wish, composing replies and new posts to be uploaded next time you choose to connect.
Lastly, a word about expiration. Given that newsgroups are perpetual, how do you wade through all the posts? You don’t. The news server “expires” posts after a certain amount of time, determined by the person running the server. Could be 2 days, 7 days, or whatever that person wants. So the first time you enter a newsgroup, or if you use your newsreaders command to access all articles on the server, you are just getting the unexpired posts.
My Christmas gift from my daughter, pertinent for anyone with a blog or thinking about blogging. Insight into how blogging has helped different businesses.
naked conversationsHow Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, by Robert Scoble/Shel Israel at Amazon (where else?)
__________________
Connie Moses, petArtist– self-built website: PortraitsWithHorses.com (horse and pet portraits)
