Blessi ngs--Life with an Icelandic Horse

A Brow Band Making Party

2012-03-06T00:05:00.000-08:00

Gretchen, Lora, and Deb admire their purchases

The Bad Cowgirls--Lora, Deb, Gretchen, and I--got together to make browbands. The craft making session was preceded by another adventure--Goodwill Hunting--in a search for suitable belts. Of course other treasures were found during this expedition. Thrift stores are an excellent source of barn clothes. No matter what color of barn clothes I wear, they all eventually turn green from Blessi snuggling and snorting.

Gretchen makes a template

The Bad Cowgirls had a blast making this bling. Wine was involved and a lot of giggling. We also tried wearing the browbands ourselves thinking that it gave us a medieval princess look or a 60s hippy aura. During the hammering of the rivets nobody smashed a finger. And none of the helpful dogs or cat ate any of the hardware. And there was chocolate fondue at the end of this craft making session.

Do you think the belt on my forehead gives me a
Viking princess look or is it the wine?

So here are some tips when looking for belts to use for brow bands:

Select a belt that suits the shape of your horse's head. I selected a sparkly blue, pink narrow band for my instructor's Arab Skye.
Consider your horse's personality. Deb selected a beautiful black belt with blue dragons for Abner, her handsome, large, black Tennessee Walker. (And her husband likes dragons so it is a win-win.)
Look for a color that will compliment the color of your horse. Gretchen used a sparkly silver, rose, dark blue floral design with silver beaded edges that is going to pop on her gray horse Flynn.
Choose a belt with a design that can be centered. Some belts have designs or studding positioned so that you cannot get enough of the design centered in the brow band.
Don't use belts with studs or grommets that extend on the underside of the belt--they can irritate the horse. If you really love the design, you would have to line the belt.
Be careful with any belts that have beading or braiding that might fray when you cut it. This type of decoration may unravel over time.

The tools and finished browbands

And here's to Lora who won the find-a-belt jackpot. She had purchased a $3 leather belt with large flat scallops; engraved silver, heart-shaped conchos; and engraved silver buckle. Upon closer inspection, the belt was made by Justin Boots and the conchos and buckle may be German silver. Lora may choose to wear the belt or sell it on ebay. If not, her horses Quigley and Hollyanna will be sharing a stunning browband.

For detailed directions on making your own browbands, check out the following Blessiblog posting.
http://blessiblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/blessi-bling-how-toleopard-skin.html

Can Horses Hiccup?

2012-03-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, horses can hiccup. The behavior is called “thumps” and is heard in the chest—not in thethroat like a human. “A horse’s hiccupstarts near the diaphragm and creates and audible thump sound in the chestarea, sometimes accompanied by a rhythmic jerk in the flank area.”

Hiccups occur more frequently in endurance and race horsesafter prolonged exercise. The phenomenoncan also be caused by an electrolyte imbalance.

From: Mullen, G. (2008). Amazing Horse Facts and Trivia. Chartwell Books, Inc., New York. (p.27)

Can Horses and Dogs Get PTSD?

2012-03-03T00:05:00.000-08:00

My sister's dog Lana

Approximately 5% of the military dogs serving in the US armed forces suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). If the dog cannot be cured, it will be retired from active service.

Signs of PTSD disorder in military canines is shown by a variety of symptoms such as listless behavior, barking at gunfire that the dog previous met with silence, and running away from certain situations.

"More serious cases will receive what Dr. Burghardt calls "desensitization counter-conditioning," which entails exposing the dog at a safe distance to a sight or sound that might trigger a reaction—a gunshot, a loud bang or a vehicle, for instance. If the dog does not react, it is rewarded, and the trigger—"the spider in a glass box," Dr. Burghardt calls it—is moved progressively closer until the dog is comfortable with it."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/military-dogs-taking-xanax-receiving-therapy-canine-ptsd-222819057.html

So what does this have to do with horses you might ask? Temple Grandin, an animal behaviorist, in her book Animals Make Us Human discusses how rough training methods may ruin a horse. She compares "sacking out" or the exposure of a horse to all manner of new things all at once to overwhelming or "flooding" a horse with new stimuli. All horses react with fear--some adjust but some do not and are traumatized. As Grandin states:

"It's a horrible thing to do to a horse. The hot-blooded Arab-type horse, you traumatize and wreck. I think you get a post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) effect, similar to a traumatized war veteran. A horse treated this way can't be ridden. A less reactive horse, like a quarter horse from a bloodline that's really calm, can take it, but it's still a bad thing to do." (p. 108)

Grandin recommends habituating horses gradually to new and strange stimuli similar to what Dr. Burghardt calls "desensitization counter-conditioning."

Source: Grandin, T. (2009). Animals Make Us Human, First Mariner Book, NY.

Of Monsters and Men--Icelandic Band

2012-03-02T19:30:00.000-08:00

3-2-12 update The more I listen to this band Of Monsters and Men, the more I love the music. Their album "My Head is an Animal" is due to be released in the US some time in 2012. As we wait for the album, you can listen to 5 songs Dirty Paws, Lakehouse, Six Weeks, Little Talks, and Love Love Love on the broad cast by NPR.

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=143197790&m=143212295

As the NPR reviewers state: "Maybe some of us cheated a little bit on our Top 10 lists for 2011. A handful of KEXP DJs and staff just couldn't help including Of Monsters and Men's debut album, My Head Is an Animal, even though it's not due out in the U.S. until next year. But you can hardly blame us: A year ago, we tried to warn everyone that, with its catchy melodies, sing-along choruses, rich orchestration and heartfelt lyrics, the young group would blow up soon enough. We've been waiting for Of Monsters and Men's debut ever since."

"Of Monsters and Men's appeal is no great secret. Its members combine the anthemic exuberance and homespun theatricality of bands like Arcade Fire and Edward Sharpe & Magnetic Zeros. Their style, which also shares a strong male/female dynamic, is typically Icelandic: They combine earnestness and aptitude, which makes for irony-free, feel-good music that's nearly impossible to resist. Just listen to the songs that follow, particularly "Lakehouse" and "Little Talks," and we guarantee you'll be hooked."

My fellow Bad Cowgirl Lora send me a link to an up and coming Icelandic band called "Of Monsters and Men." With the amount of great music coming out of Iceland, it seems like its entire population must be in a band. This indy-folk band has gotten a lot of attention for its music. The vocals of the song "Little Talks" are performed by Ragnar Þórhallsson and Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdótti. This has to be one of the most awesomely weird and beautiful videos that I have seen in a long time. (You may need to sit through a commercial before the video starts.)

There is one Icelandic horse in the video (see if you can spot it). And there are certainly a lot of references to Icelandic trolls, monsters, giant sea monsters, volcanoes, floating glaciers, and flying Viking ships. The video makes you wonder what is going on in the artists' heads.

This band is touring the US during March, April, and May 2012. Here is the schedule:
http://ofmonstersandmenmusic.tumblr.com/

The Great Escape

2012-03-01T00:05:00.000-08:00

Once again, horses prove that they are smarter than we think. Here Bruno and friend escape. How do horses figure this stuff out? Once again thanks to Lora for finding this video.

Trimming Horse Whiskers--Yes or No?

2012-02-29T00:08:00.000-08:00

Dr. Joyce Harman DVM questions the normal practice of trimming the whiskers off the horse:

"My question for you—and for most other competitive riders—is: “Why would you clip your horse’s whiskers?” Although they may appear superficial and nonessential, horse whiskers provide valuable information to horses. Equine eyes are positioned in such a way that objects immediately in front of or below horses’ noses are beyond their range of vision. So their horse whiskers help them “see” these objects. For example, while grazing, horses constantly rely on their whiskers to guide their muzzles toward edible food and away from other objects. The long whiskers near their eyes also warn them when there’s a risk of bumping into obstacles, such as branches poking up out of the grass."

Source: http://www.equisearch.com/horses_care/health/behavior/clipping-horse-whiskers-yes-or-no/

I recognize that many disciplines require trimming of the horse's whiskers, ears, fetlocks, etc., in order to compete. Please don't think that I am trying to diss this practice--you do what you have to do to compete. However, I would like to point out that we are lucky in the showing of Icelandics. FEIF (International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations) does not permit clipping the horse's whiskers:

"The Icelandic horse is an unique breed with special qualities related to its primitive character. It shall be shown respect unreservedly. The following rules apply at all times: the natural appearance (e.g. natural growth and colour of hair) of the horse shall not be changed. Exceptions – the mane and tail may be trimmed if too long, and the horse may be clipped for health and welfare reasons. Hair on the muzzle, fetlocks, and inside the ears shall not be clipped. The rider shall take into account the special background and needs of the Icelandic horse, and keep the horse under as natural conditions as possible, which provide enough light, fresh air and space for free exercise. Artificial or psychological methods to alter the natural expression of the horse are not allowed."

Source: http://feif.org/FEIF/StatutesandRules/tabid/123/Default.aspx

I do have to admit that our shaggy, hairy Icelandics do appear somewhat "primitive" in open classes in comparison to the breeds that require more trimming.

Icelandic Horse and Llama

2012-02-28T00:05:00.000-08:00

We all know that Iceys tend to make friends with many different creatures but here is a clip of something unusual.

Saddlepad as Work of Art

2012-02-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

This all started with some friends dragging me into a quilting store. We all got so enthused about the beautiful quilts hanging on display--real works of art--that we urged each other to buy quilt patterns. My friend Gretchen bought the Dancing Chickens pattern. Similarly inspired, I purchased the Cobbled Crow design, got the material, and actually made the wall hanging.

There was quite a bit of hand-dyed batik left over--too much to throw away. So I decided to make a coat for myself using the same design elements.

And still some of the gorgeous material remained so I decided to hand quilt a saddle pad for Blessi. You can judge the results for yourself. So far, I haven't found any venue good enough for this saddle pad but something will come along.

And if you like to sew be sure and check out Suitability patterns--patterns for both English and Western riding apparel, saddle pads, costumes, helmet covers, saddle covers, and much more.
http://www.suitability.com/

Skyr

2012-02-26T00:05:00.000-08:00

I first encountered skyr when the parents of one of my Icelandic friends arrived at my house to spend the night while traveling on a tour of the US. They had carefully carried a liter of skyr from Iceland and for a week of travel in the US until they got to another relative who was homesick for Iceland.

Skyr is a very thick yogurt, closer to cheese rather than what we think of as yogurt. Knowledge of making skyr travelled with the Vikings from Norway to Iceland but knowledge of how to make skyr has been lost in Scandanavia. Jules Verne in his novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth described lunchat a farmhouse in the 1800s which included lichen soup, fish served with sour butter,biscuits, juniper berry juice, and “skyr.” Let’sface it, you have be born in Iceland or have visited Iceland or know a homesickIslander to know about “skyr.”

Recently a local grocery store started carrying Siggi's Skyr, made the traditional Icelandic way. The method of preparation is different from making yogurt. I really liked the taste of skyr. It is much tarter than most commercially prepared yoghurt in the US so I added a little agave syrup to sweeten it to my taste.

What is quite amazing is the difference in calories, fat, protein, and sugar content between the two types of "yogurt."

The pomegranate & passion fruit skyr contains skim milk, agave nectar, passion fruit, pomegranate, live active cultures, and vegetable rennet. The commercial yogurt contains lowfat milk, sugar, fruit, corn starch, tricalcium phosphate, gelatin, citric acid, pectin, beet juice, natural flavor, vitamin A and D. Skyr contains different and more types of active cultures.

Here is a nutritional comparison:

                                Skyr                                     Commercial Yogurt
Weight                     5.3 oz                                    6 oz
Fat                            0 gram                                  1.5 gram
Cholesterol               0 mg                                     10 mg
Sodium                    60 mg                                    85 mg
Carbohydrate           11 grams                               33 grams
Protein                     14 grams                                 5 grams
vitamin a, d             none                                       15% and 50% daily requirement
calcium                     15%                                      50%

When you compare the two, skyr is much lower in sugars, fat, and sodium but higher in protein. Skyr does not contain the added vitamins A and D. Skyr is about double the price of commercial yogurt. I am going to dust off my yogurt maker and try to make my own. I'll let you know how that goes.

Gerald Butler and Icelandic Horses--Beowulf & Grendel

2012-02-24T00:35:00.000-08:00

Sturla Gunnarson, a Icelandic-Canadian director, filmed the move Beowulf & Grendel in Iceland. The film is based on one of the oldest works of literature "Beowulf," a poem written down sometime around the 8th century. It is about the hero Beowulf of the Geats coming to aid Hrothgar, King of the Danes, who is under attack by the troll Grendel. Gerald Butler plays Beowulf and Stellan Skarsgardplays Hrothgar.

As Gunnarson states:

“I have been wanting to do a story that has been tied to my tribal, my ancestral, past for a long time,” says Gunnarsson.“When I started to think about [Beowulf], it just seemed to be such a great fit for me, because while it’s written in the eighth century by Anglo-Saxons, it recounts events that take place in the sixth century in a pagan Norse country, so it’s about my ancestors.”...His attraction to the material isn’t just intellectual, though. “The appeal is that it’s a great story, it’s an example of the hero myth,” he says. “Every Western you’ve ever seen is based on Beowulf — so the story itself has tremendous bones, and it really appealed to me, the idea of doing something that was kind of a ‘scary’ movie.”

Source: http://www.beowulfandgrendel.com/location/

The movie itself contains no computer generated effects. The scenery and action is all real and the director tried for as realistic a historic look as possible. One of the opening scenes of the movie of the Viking ship sailing through the ice floes in the bay is breathtaking.

Since the movie was filmed in Iceland, the Vikings ride Icelandic horses. You get to see how the horses were used in battle and in everyday life. Although reviews of the movie were mixed, it is fun to watch the horses tolting through the Icelandic country side. In one interview, Gerald Butler says it was a blast to ride these horses into the sunset in one scene. And reading the reviews of the movie is very entertaining. Some critics display their lack of historical understanding by complaining that real Vikings didn't ride "ponies."

And the beauty of Iceland shines in this movie. The movie is filmed near Vik, located on the south central part of Iceland. In 1991, Islands Magazine named the local beach as one of the ten most beautiful beaches in the world. As Wendy Ord, production assistant states in her weekly blog, "Vik is a HUGE tourist area because it is one of the most beautiful places – we will shoot there on cliffs that are higher than the grand canyon…on glaciers that are currently receding and shaping the mountains as they go (yes the ice age is still here) …on mountain streams that you can drink and bath in (if you like glacier-cold water) in lava fields that go on for as far as the eye can see (from the last time a volcano erupted – about 6 years ago) LAVA when it cools leaves a landscape that is not possible —weird shapes have bubbled up, frozen and stand eerie and beautiful…Moss that is 12 inches thick grows there and now it is covered in tiny flowers that are BRIGHT florescent pink, purple and blood red… It is – spooky, but it takes your breath away .. We are shooting on BLACK sand beaches that go on un-interrupted for MILES and there is not a soul on them (except of course for the “hidden people”:-) …We will shoot in caves that are carved by wind and volcanic eruptions deep in the earth…(with holes to the surface that put beams of light down into them and that any unsuspecting animal or human could fall into –which, of course, one of our characters in the movie does)…And we will shoot (and bathe in at lunchtime) in natural swimming pools which are steaming and hot with minerals spurting up from the centre of the earth in geysers of steam. The steam drifts up from these “hot springs” and floats across the mountaintops in rivers of clouds that surround the peaks… In all of our locations – there is no (I mean NO) sign of humans. Our film is set in 500 AD when the monks from Ireland set out in tiny boats made of skin and bone and trusted the hand of God to take them somewhere – this is how Iceland was originally settled and so the people are very religious (to this day)…All of the folklore is connected back to the time of Mary – but they are not stories that you have heard…(ex. the “hidden people” are the descendents of the children that Mary did not want God to see….hmmmmm)."
Source: http://www.beowulfandgrendel.com/wendy-ord-you-know-youre-in-iceland-when/

The filming in Iceland was beset by disaster after disaster--from tremendous windstorms, flying rocks, a sinking ship full of stars with no life jackets, etc. A documentary called The Wrath of Gods was made. Check out the following link and be sure and watch minute 4 of the clip. Over the filming of the scene, the narrator talks about hiring a crew of "specialty riders" to ride Icelandic horses up and down the beach at speed. The horses were afraid of the huge waves so the riders tried to get them into the water. Unfortunately, the "specialty riders" were inebriated early in the morning so the riding was truly "special." Some of the cast and crew believed the movie was cursed. A pagan priest "blessed" the production but suffered some broken bones in a freak accident shortly after the blessing.

http://www.beowulfandgrendel.com/wrath-of-gods-a-documentary-about-filmmaking/

Blessi Is Now "Sweetness of the World"

2012-02-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I took Blessi to a friend's stable so Kathleen, who is really new to horses (her second time on a horse), could ride Blessi. At first, Kathleen did not want to get on Blessi--she was too scared. But she led him around for a little bit and then decided she could get on.

Kathleen was riding for a few minutes when we stopped for a photo opportunity. Blessi broke the ice by hamming it up big time--he stood perfectly still but started giving these big horsey smiles--stretching his head up and lifting up his upper lip) which made everbody, including Kathleen, laugh hysterically. Blessi has never done that while under saddle.

So Kathleen continued her ride--in a much more relaxed frame of mind. In fact she rode him twice. Anyway Kathleen is in love with Blessi and Icelandics. Kathleen gave Blessi the title of "Sweetness of the World" and kept kissing his nose.

So my question is "Why did Blessi do this?" He doesn't regularly "Smile" and I don't give him treats for this behavior. Eight years ago, I tried to teach him the smile trick but I could not get him to do it on cue and gave up. He does "Smile" at odd times--such as when we are all standing around a long time listening to an instructor. And he has done it several times when people are taking pictures and the photographer says "Smile." So this behavior could just be a random event. But Blessi does tend to repeat behavior if people laugh at it.

What do you think?

How to Identify Horse People

2012-02-22T00:05:00.000-08:00

The Bad Cowgirls dressed up to audit the Buck Brannaman
clinic--no horse hair on our clothes that day.

Here are ways you can identify horse people:

“They click or cluck to their kids when they want them tomove.

Their nice clothes are the ones without horse hair on them.

They know why there is a yard of string on the end of ahorse thermometer.

They have less wardrobe space than their horse.

They think nothing of eating a sandwich after mucking out astall.

They are the ones stealing all the socks for tail bags.

They spend hundreds on a show, just to win a piece ofribbon.”

From: Mullen, G. (2008). Amazing Horse Facts and Trivia. Chartwell Books, Inc., New York. (p.76)

Where in the World Are the Horses?

2012-02-21T00:05:00.000-08:00

In 2006, surveys determined that the worldwide equine populationis over 58 million (current estimates are closer to 75 million). Based on current estimates, Icelandic horsesrepresent 00.2 % of the total horse population. Countries with over 1 million horse are:

US 9 million

China 7million
Mexico 6million
Brazil 6million
Argentina 4million
Columbia 2million
Eithiopia 2million
Mongolia 2 million
Kazakhstan 1 million
Russian Federation 1 million

I thought that Canada would be on the list. However, research indicates that the horsepopulation in Canada is about 900,000, which does not make the 1 million cutoffpoint.

From: Mullen, G. (2008). Amazing Horse Facts and Trivia. Chartwell Books, Inc., New York. (p.24)

Wearing Iceland on Your Feet

2012-02-19T00:05:00.000-08:00

Halldora's design featuring leather, salmon skin on heel,
horse hair, and lava stones.

Halldora Eydis Jonsdottir , an Icelander whograduated from the London College of Fashion, has recently released her first collection of shoes and boots. Her high fashion footware is accented with natural products from Iceland including salmon skin, perch skin, lava crystals, horse hair, and lamb skin--all to give a look of natural features in Iceland. I love some of the detailing and would definitely wear some of these styles. I am not sure how I feel about the use of "pony skin from Italy."

http://www.shoes.tv/my-first-collection-halldora-90749

Blessi and the Fathoms O'Fun Parade

2012-02-17T00:05:00.000-08:00

Last year, Blessi and I walked in our first ever parade last year--the Fathoms of Fun in Port Orchard, WA. We went as a member of the Kitsap Saddle Club. This is a great venue for a first time parade--lots of support from the KSC, a staging area with lots of grass along the side of the road for horse grazing, short distance, and a finish point right by the horse trailers.

I wasn't sure how Blessi was going to react so I decided to lead him in the parade. At first, he was a bit impatient since we were paired up with a slower walking Quarter Horse. After we switched partners and were matched with a faster walking horse, Blessi was quite happy.

About half way through the parade, Blessi started thinking about going to visit the parade watchers along the side of the road. He was particularly interested in the people eating pizza by the side of the road. Blessi was certain that they would share. He also was fascinated with the helium balloon vendor. Blessi suggested several times that we should go visit that guy.

And the Kitsap Saddle Club Royal Court were absolutely adorable in their matching outfits--check it out.

Blessi and the Zipper

2012-02-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

A friend returned mysaddle that she had borrowed to evaluate fit for another horse. We wentinto Blessi's pasture to socialize since he was hanging his head over thegate. Note Blessi's stall is open to a large run out pasture. There is agate in his pasture about 10 feet from the back door to his stall.

Zippers--from Wikipedia

As my friend Pam and I (yes there are two Pams in this story) are petting and talkingto Blessi, Blessi gently grabs the zipper tab on Pam's jacket and starts tuggingit up. Blessi has developed this fascination with zipper tabs in the pastweek. It is the third time that he has explored zippers on visitors' jackets.He ignores the zippers on my clothing. He does beg for treats but he hasdeveloped fascinations with other aspects of human attire in the past. Last summer, he was interested in women's bras. If a woman had a low cutshirt on, he would gently put his nose down the shirt of a willing woman andexplore the bra. He seemed to know which women would be amused by thebehavior. Several summers ago, he spent a few weeks checking out toes,especially toes with red nail polish. He was just fascinated the firsttime I took my boots and socks off in front of him and he found out that I hadtoes rather than hooves.

Tugging on zippers is not a good habit so I correct verbally by uttering aloud, sharp, "Ay", the sound I use to discourage grass diving when heis on a lead line. Well, Blessi's head goes up a few inches and he slowlyturns around and goes into his stall. He puts his head in a corner, withhis butt angled towards us, and his ears back a bit. His body is angledslightly so that he can keep one eye on us.

Pam and I laugh and start making a fuss over the 8-month old filly in the pasturenext to Blessi. About five minutes later, we finish our conversation andstart to go out the gate. As soon as Blessi hears the chain on the gate rattle,he comes trotting out of his stall towards the gate, ears forward, head up abit. He very politely tries to accompany us out of the gate. This starts offanother round of laughter.

So I guess the way to keep Blessiengaged is to get him his own zipper to play with and his own set ofhorse-sized building blocks that he can pull down. I refuse to get him a bra.

Blessi at the Evergreen Gaited Horse Show

2012-02-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

Blessi and I have competed twice at the Evergreen Gaited Horse Show in Puyallup, WA. This Friends of Sound Horses (FOSH) affiliated show is an open gaited show. You will see Peruvian Pasos, Tennessee Walkers, Kentucky Mountain Horses, Rocky Mountain Horses, Paso Finos, gaited Morgans, and Icelandics of course. It is interesting to see the variation in gaits across the gaited breeds. Beautiful horses and riders!

You'll see Carol riding Blessi at about 1:10 in the video. Don't tell anyone but he did some trotting in this gaited show!

Icelandic Horses in Movies--The Hobbit and HBO Game of Thrones--Update 2/14/12

2012-02-14T22:00:00.000-08:00

2-14-12

Here is more footage about the filming of Game of Thrones in Iceland. You will see Icelandic horses in the background. The horses were probably the only cast members not freezing during filming.

2-3-12

There is a wonderful site dedicated to discussing news about HBO filming of Game of Thones while providing a place for fans to discuss and debate topic from the series of novels collectively called A Song of Fire and Ice.

http://www.westeros.org/GoT/

Elio, the webmaster at Westeros, has given me permission to share two screen shots from Season 2 of HBO's Game of Thrones. Both shots are from Iceland. The first shot shows Jon Snow (played by Kit Harington) looking out over the icebound vastness Beyond the Wall. This part of the script was filmed in Iceland in winter so the scenery is so dramatic that little CGI was required.

And here is a glimpse of the Icelandic horses in their role as pack animals or garons for the Wildlings.

1/29/12

HBO has released the new trailer for Season 2 of Game of Thrones. The beyond the wall chapters of the book were filmed in Iceland in winter. And as you can see in this trailer, the scenery in Iceland lends the footage a fantastical aura. You can see the wildlings leading Icelandic horses around the 52 second marker.

12/21/11 I have decided to keep a running posting on this topic since it is so cool. You can see more Icelandic horses in Peter Jackson's Production Video, Part 5 (see link below). It is well worth watching the video to see Elijah Wood take a tour of the Hobbiton, with its 44 permanently installed hobbit holes that will remain after shooting ends. The New Zealand Department of Tourism will be promoting the site. Anyone for a tour of New Zealand?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e2pcUSXLAU

================================================

Here is a link to the Hobbit Movie Trailer. You will see Icelandics!!! How awesome.

The film industry has finally figured out the appeal of Icelandic horses, who definitely have an elfish or Hobbit-like look. Some Iceys are scheduled to make appearances in two major films--The Hobbit and HBO's Game of Thrones.

The Hobbit

I couldn't find my English version
of the Hobbit.

Peter Jackson is using thirteen Icelandics in the filming of The Hobbit in New Zealand. Per Cali Madincea of New Line Cinema, "'The look of the Icelandic horse, which grows a thick coat in the winter, was one of the things that attracted the attention of the producers. Another important aspect of the Icelandic horse is its endurance and strength.' She added that the tölt, the gait particular to the breed, played a part in the decision as well 'This soft gait moves them right along, which helps an actor in full armour stay close to Gandalf, who's riding a large horse.'"

The Hobbit is scheduled to be released in two parts, December 2012 and December 2013. My friends and I have already set up a date to go to see that movie.

Source: http://grapevine.is/Home/ReadArticle/Icelandic-Horses-Used-In-Hobbit-Film

Game of Thrones
George R.R. Martin's multi-book series A Song of Ice and Fire has often been compared to Lord of the Rings--except that there are not purely good versus pure evil characters--characters are more gray, grittier, and definitely bloodier in Martin's books. I have read the first 5 books in the series and highly recommend them.

HBO made the first book Game of Thrones into a very successful 10-part TV series. Filming has started on part 2 of the series A Clash of Kings. Events "beyond the wall" are being filmed in Iceland. Fifteen Icelandic horses are included in the shoot, including a 28-year old horse Randver. "Randver has the right qualities and considerable experience for the part; it has both been on stage in Reykjavík City Theater and at Hotel Ísland."

Source: http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/Icelandic_Horses_to_Play_in_Game_of_Thrones_0_384388.news.aspx

You can read in Icelandic about the Icelandic horses being used in the film at this source:

http://www.visir.is/haetti-vid-ad-loga-randver/article/2011711119981

Although no Icelandic horses appear in the following clip, you do get some views of the spectacular scenery from Icelandic that will appear in Season 2 of Game of Thrones. After a lot of commercials, the program picks up again around minute 15:00.

Sources: http://visir.is/section/MEDIA99&fileid=SRC3B2C1862-00D1-49E3-99C3-8ABBD74A3210

I am so looking forward to seeing the Icelands in Season 2 of HBO's The Game of Thrones.

Whirls and Swirls--Icelandic Lore

2012-02-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

Blessi has a Straumfjađrir, I think,
and he loves water crossings
Photo by Carol Townsend

Bjőrnssonand Sveinsson(2006, p. 73) in TheIcelandic Horse, a comprehensive reference book about the breed, present someIcelandic lore about the meaning of whirls. The Icelandic horse can have various whirls on its body:

Flugfjađrir(flying feathers) are whirls in a row along the mane. Three such whirls arebelieved to indicate a horse with more stamina.
Pétursstingir(strings of St. Peter) are whirls along the mane on both sides of theneck. Some believe that it is “healthy”to touch these fingerprint of St. Peter.
Pétursfar(touch of St. Peter) is a whirl under the mane.
Straumfjőđur(stream feather) is a whirl on the lower part of the neck. Folklore says a rider will never drown ridinga horse with both a touch of St. Peter and a stream feather on both sides ofthe neck.
Straumfjađrir(stream edges) are whirls on the chest and such horses are regarded as beinggreat water horses.
A whirl “atthe front of the eyebrow” indicates a very lively horse.

Bjőrnsson,G., & Sveinsson, H. (2006). TheIcelandic Horse, Edda Publishing, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Blessi Bling- How To-Browband with "Black Diamonds"

2012-02-13T00:05:00.000-08:00

Once again, Merci has to help.

Going green entails recycling and you can recycle the strangest things. I have experimenting with converting people belts to browbands. I found a fantastic belt at Goodwill that looked like it was encrusted with black diamonds and made it into a browband for Blessi. Total cost was about $3.50. Do you think it is elegant enough for a dressage test or too flashy? Check out my earlier posting on "Blessi Bling--How to make leopard skin browbands" for directions on how to make your own.

Good and Bad Hair Days for Blessi

2012-02-12T23:38:00.000-08:00

Since you probably just read the posting on Blessi's bad hair day, you might enjoy a photomontage of Blessi's various hair dos through the years--some good and some bad.

Dannelle uses about a half can of hair spray and
a bunch of sticky goo to get the French braid to stay.

This is what the French braid looks like
after one dressage class.

Blessi has a bad hair day

2012-02-10T00:05:00.000-08:00

Photo by Sherry Wallmark

Blessi (denoting Blessing in Icelandic) and I attended a clinic at Rose-el Stables, Port Orchard, WA to learn the different styles of braids used on a horse's mane and tail. The braiding clinic was interesting. Eight horses and braiders attended the session. One of the attendees was a 5-year old girl who had brought a small ladder to work on her 15 hand horse.

Evie the instructor takes one look at Blessi and says she has never seen a horse who had so much hair. She walks away because she said she needs to think about how to handle that much mane. In the mean time, I am suppose to use the Sticky Goopy Paste (hereafter referred to as SGP) to move the partial left mane to the right side with the rest of Blessi's mane.

The first problem is the SGP comes in a light green, round tin and Blessi is convinced that this is a Granny Smith apple just for him. He tries so many methods to get to the plastic bag with the braiding supplies that we have stuff--crochet hooks, yarn, ribbons, shears--scattered across the arena. It does not help that the SGP has a pleasant, apple scent to it.

The second problem is the SGP just isn't going to do the job. Nothing short of industrial strength glue is going to get the left mane to stay on the right. SGP holds the mane over for about the time of an Apollo countdown--10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, Reykjavik, we have lift off--as you watch the left hand mane separate from the right side and move back across Blessi's neck. The SGP does get the short 4-inch stray mane hair to stand straight up in the air.

Evie returns in about 10 minutes and I have made no progress. Blessi still has a full right and partial left mane. So Evie decides to do a long French braid across the bottom of Blessi's mane. We can pull in the left mane as we braid.

The third problem is that Blessi has shagged his mane. He has three levels of mane--about 16 inches, 8 inches, and 4 inches--each level has more hair than a normal horse. So we decide to do 2 rows of French braid. Evie shows me how and it looks easy so Evie lets me on my own.

The fourth problem is that Blessi has now discovered that there are real carrots in the supply bag and he redoubles his efforts to claim them. At one point, he gets the bag and we play tug of war with the carrot bag until it bursts. All this time, the little girl's horse is standing perfectly still like an equine angel as the little girl works from her ladder.

The 2-hour clinic is almost over and I have two rows of French braids down Blessi's mane. The other participants are starting to lead their horses around with beautiful braided manes and tails in short French braids, button braids, galloping braids, etc. One young woman has created galloping braids on her bay horse--picture wide braids done every six inches down the mane and then pulled over into overlapping arches. Entwined among the braids are ribbons in shades of purple. The black tail is braided with matching purple ribbons--just a beautiful picture.

Back to Blessi--he looks like Courtney Love on a bad hair day since that 4-inch hair at the top is sticking straight up out at the crest of the mane. Evie has no advice on this so I decide to take a gold and white ribbon and sew down the top of the mane using a back stitch. This works and actually provides a touch of elegance. Blessi now looks like Courtney Love on a really good day--ready for the red carpet or the judge's booth.

Evie and I discuss what to do about the forelock which is almost a 4-inch thick cylinder of hair. Evie suggests that when I have another hour or so I do a single braid and somehow glue the ends in a ball under the braid. There is no time to do anything with Blessi's tail.

The event organizer snaps a picture of Blessi. As I lead Blessi back to the refreshment table for people, all the braids start to come loose and we are back to the Courtney Love bad hair day look. Oh, and that little girl and her horse are adorable as she leads him around in his short French braid with green ribbons.

Note: Blessi has an average or less than average mane for an Icelandic. I think Evie might have had a breakdown if she had tried to work with an Icelandic with a "good" mane for the first time.

The Horse in Myth and Mythos

2012-02-09T00:05:00.000-08:00

Horses also feature in the myths, dreams, and religion of mankind. Modern art better conveys this relationship of mankind to the horse. Once again Bestbonjon has put together 125 examples of modern art to the music of Franz von Suppé's Overture to "Light Cavalry.

Horse Festival in Mitersill Austria

2012-02-08T00:05:00.000-08:00

There's got to be snow in some part of the country. So we'll look at the draft horses today and some of their traditional tack and sleighs. This fun video is from a historical draft horse festival in Mittersill, Austria. You'll see the drafties hauling winter houses to small sleighs. And the harness and tack is beautiful!

Which Burns More Calories--Riding or Aerobics

2012-02-07T00:05:00.000-08:00

Below are estimates of number of calories burned per hourperforming common activities with horses:

238 calories--grooming, saddling, and riding
175 calories—riding at a walk
450 calories—riding a trot
550 calories—riding a gallop

As a comparison, aerobics and moderate bicycling burn around500 calories. And sorry to say, riding agait such as tolt burns less calories than riding a trot.

From: Mullen, G. (2008). Amazing Horse Facts and Trivia. Chartwell Books, Inc., New York. (p.41)

Queen of England Rides a Pony--Advantages of Small Horse

2012-02-06T00:05:00.000-08:00

I really wish that I could show you this picture directly. However it is copyrighted so you'll have to use the link to view it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1385730/Queen-Elizabeth-goes-riding-Prince-Edwards-children.html

In the picture, Queen Elizabeth, on a Fell pony, is riding with her grandchildren Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, in Windsor Great Park. So if an 85-year old woman, who just happens to be the Queen of England, can ride a pony, why should any of us worry about being seen on a smaller horse?

Princess Fiona is an Irish warmblood who is very successful at
cross country, jumping, and dressage. Compare her conformation
with Blessi. He is a bit unsure of Fiona's intentions--his front legs
are not normally splayed.

Smaller horses definitely offer some advantages over larger horses. The Horse Confirmation Handbook by Heather Smith Thomas discusses how to evaluate horse confirmation for soundness, potential for different activities, trainability, and willingness. The author gives some information on gaited breeds but that is not her focus.

One of the chapters in the book discusses height and how it impacts horse performance. Thomas makes some interesting statements as to why smaller horses can be a better ride. (I am summarizing some of the points so there may be some oversimplification since confirmation requires the analysis of many interrelated factors.)

Body balance is more important than size.
"A shorter legged horse has a lower center of gravity and better base of support, with a securer balance than an overly leggy horse."
"Horses with short legs rarely overreach and forge, yet this is a common problem in a disproportionately long-legged horse." ie, short-legged is defined as slightly short-legged in relation to the horse's proportion.
"When a short-legged horse gallops well, he can often compete with the best of the taller, leggier horses, due to better balance and body control on turns and uneven terrain on downhill slopes."
The longer-legged horse will probably be faster on a long uphill grade.
A short rider on a tall horse may have difficulty applying the aids appropriately since the rider's legs may be too short to contact the appropriate areas on the horse.
Tall horses are harder to mount and dismount.
A rider who is too heavy or tall for a shorter horse may hinder the horse's balance.
"A small horse almost always has better endurance tnan a large, bulky horse."
Depending on bone width and back length, a smaller horse may be able to carry more weight proportionate to its height.
"When agility and staying power are considered, a well-built small horse will often do better than a well-built tall horse." ie, cutting horses are usually 15 hands or less.
A taller horse may be better for racing and jumping, but many smaller horses excel at these sports also.
"From foalhood, large, leggy horses tend to have higher risks for injury and problems." due to fast growth, weak spots in bones growing rapidly, etc.

I have only owned one horse, Blessi an Icelandic. Do you agree with these statements? How do Icelandics compare with the other breeds you may have ridden or owned? And taller horses offer advantages over shorter horses but you'll have to look up that information yourself.

A Different Type of Tour of Iceland

2012-02-05T00:34:00.000-08:00

I thought the group might like the following video tour of Iceland byhorseback
(sort of). The scenery is very beautiful and the video is very clever. It made
me smile. Although I think the horse should be tolting.

Cows Are Running the Show

2012-02-03T00:14:00.000-08:00

Blessi and I went to an arena sorting clinic. We had done some cattle sorting previously so I knew Blessi wasn't afraid of cows. However, cattle sorting is performed in two small round pens so there is less space for the horse to run around in if he gets too excited. I wasn't sure how "excited" Blessi was going to get when he got the opportunity to chase cows in a much larger arena setting.

Since this was a 2-day event, I took Blessi to a new stable for overnight boarding. I thought he might like to run around the big arena for a bit before he was stabled for the night. The cows (calves really) were penned right next to the arena but separated by a 5-foot solid wall. I turned Blessi loose in the arena, he smelled the cows, and ran.....right to the separating fence so he could put his head over the solid fence and stare at those cows. Well this seemed to be a good sign.

Here's a video of Kathy riding Blessi during his first day of cattle sorting. This is the first time Kathy is riding an Icelandic. She rides Western and Blessi is trained English. Sometimes, you will see Kathy point at cow so Blessi knows to chase it. Kathy said she had so much fun that she laughed so much that her face cheeks hurt for the next 24 hours. As you can see by the video, it seems like the cows were running the show.

Icelandic Cowboys

2012-02-02T00:05:00.000-08:00

Icelanders are very proud of their horses and horse trekking remains an integral part of their culture. This island has a population of 318,500 and 80,000 horses. I read somewhere that 1 in 4 people ride in Iceland and more men than women ride. Treks over long distances are a very popular activity and last for hours, if not days. The rider often ponies one or two remounts so that each horse can be rested. This video shows the joy of Icelandic "cowboys."

Blessi's Rules of Team Penning--The Icelandic Version

2012-02-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

Since Blessi and my dressage instructor Dannelle are competing in the Northwest Horse Expo All-Breed Show in Albany, OR this week, I am re-publishing some of the best of Blessiblog.

Team Penning is a western competition. Two circular arenas are put together. There are 6 calves with numbers on them from 1 to 6. The timer calls out a number from 1 to 6, let's say 5. Two riders attempt to move the cows from one pen to another in the order of 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4. For the beginning riders, chaos now begins as all the calves want to stay together. You spend a lot of time waiting your turn at this event so Blessi came up with his own amusements.

1. As you walk around the outside of the arena, be sure to nuzzle and/or pull down any abandoned jackets or sweaters draped over railings to check for treats.

2. Make sure your owner apologizes profusely to clothing owner when you knock said item on the ground.

3. Also, pause before anybody you know and see if they have a treat.

4. Just to make sure, pause in front of complete strangers, in case they have a treat.

5. Repeat all of the above as needed as you circle the arena waiting your turn, in case you missed a treat.

6. Approach all children gently—they always say “What a cute pony!”

7. Position yourself in front of a cute mare as you stand in line for your turn at the cows so she can nuzzle your butt. If it’s a gelding, that’s OK too.

8. Stand by the arena fence, and try to get the youngest calf to approach. Just don’t act surprised when the calf starts to clean your face with her tongue.

9. Be especially slow and pokey in the arena for your owner so she feels safe.

10. But try to get your owner to find a nice rider so you can go
faster in the arena and really chase those cows.

11.Be sure and volunteer a tolt for the nice rider so they know
what they are missing.

12. When the nice rider dismounts and acts surprised because
the ground was so close, don’t act too smug.

13. When that green horse spooks and slews by you, don’t do anything since you calculate that the horse is going to miss you by ten feet. Your owner may startle but be calm and patient with her—she’s only a human.

14.Let your owner know you are enjoying this event when she is leading you by gently putting your head on her shoulder and giving her a horsey hug.

15.Let your owner know when you are bored by raising your upper lip and giving everybody a big, horsey grin. Repeat process when everyone laughs.

16.Be sure and tell your owner to proudly tell the stranger who asks that you are a chestnut Icelandic and not a Haflinger.

17.Make sure that when the team sorting event is over, that everyone thinks Icelandics are awesome.

Blessi at Corey's Day on the Farm

2012-02-01T00:30:00.000-08:00

Since Blessi and my dressage instructor Dannelle are competing in the Northwest Horse Expo All-Breed Show in Albany, OR this week, I am re-publishing some of the best of Blessiblog.This year, Blessi, and I had the most awesome experience in all of the seven years of our partnership. I was close to tears several times. We participated in Corey’s Day at the Farm for the first time. Coleta and Nick Corey of Silverdale, WA have a special needs son Danny. In 1968, Danny took some puppies to his class for show and tell. Many of his classmates were unfamiliar with puppies so Coletta and Nick invited the class of 26 to their farm to ride ponies. For over 40 years, the family has continued to expand the program so that today over 1000 special needs children plus their parents and grandparents come to the Kitsap County Fairgrounds to pet the goats and cows, take wagon rides pulled by tractor or draft horses, have lunch and popcorn, rope pretend cows, square dance, and so much more. Up to 200 people volunteer to help.

The heart of the event remains the horse rides so Blessi and I decided to see if we could help. The kids who attend have special needs ranging from autism to vision and hearing impairment to physical disabilities. Really, I had no idea what this would entail—especially the dreaded “chute.”

Stage 1--help child dismount

Getting a child from a wheelchair or a physically handicapped child on a horse requires a special set-up—the chute. At the end of the ride, the horse has to take the child into the chute. The chute goes round a curve to the unloading platform which is about two feet high and about 10 by 10 feet square.

Stage 2 Help another child into the saddle

Several people are there to help the child off the horse. The horse is then led through the chute to the loading platform, which is about 5 feet in the air so that several adult volunteers can help the child down onto the horse. During the loading and unloading process the horse must stand perfectly with all the volunteers helping an often unbalanced child. Once in the queue, the horse cannot panic since there may be a horse ahead and behind it in the chute. And let’s not forget all the flashes going off.

Stage 3 Get two walkers to help support the child

The horse/leader/child grouping also picks up one to two spotters to help the child balance on the horse. The entire group makes a circuit around the arena and the process repeats itself. For children who are very scared or very unsteady a 4-H volunteer hops in the saddle and holds the child or sits behind the saddle and holds the child.

And all of this occurs in the chaos of the fairground-- outside the arena are tractor rides, milling crowds, strange horses walking around, etc. Most of the horses—mainly quarter horses and paints-- have been working at this event for several years. They are absolute saints to tote a child who may kick suddenly, make sudden hand motions, be very unbalanced, or suddenly cry.

Other activities around the riding area

The only horse misbehavior that I know of happened to the adults who loaded children in the pony pasture (as opposed to the large horse arena) who got nipped several times by the ponies, who declined to bite the children.

Blessi was one of the first-time horses. I arrived early to get him used to the set up. I did not chunk this training well but Blessi is of a forgiving nature and a quick study. Luckily there were lots of 4-H volunteers who were willing to play the role of special needs child—both on the platform and in the saddle. It took about 20 minutes and several circuits with 4-H volunteers before I felt Blessi was ready to give his first real ride. The final training step was when a 4-Her fed Blessi her breath mints from the level of the platform. (Note—many of the first time horses could not cope with dreaded chute and went back to their trailers or stalls for the rest of the day). As soon as that first child was lowered into the saddle, Blessi seemed to relax even more. It was almost as if he understood the reason for the platform. Blessi did such a good job that he got promoted to the pony pasture in the afternoon (don’t tell FEIF the international organization for the Icelandic “horse”). The smaller children are even more likely to make sudden movements. Oh, and Blessi is Icelandic. He was really good at the “I’m a relaxed pony, my head is going down, look there is grass” grass snatching trick.

Stage 4 Return to chute

Here are just some of my memories from this afternoon. I have changed the names.

Anna, with limited leg movement, taking her first horse ride with a smile that just got bigger and bigger as the ride went on

Jeffrey who got on Blessi and was so excited he shouted “Yi Haa, I’m a cowboy” and kicked Blessi in the sides
Desi who was in sixth grade and just so sad because she had been coming to Corey’s Day on the Farm for six years and, since there is an age limit, could not come back as a seventh grader
Jacob, who was about four and had to be carried by a 4-H rider. He started off the ride crying but within 10 steps he started to sing the words to his own nonsense song, a song that lasted to the end of the ride
An unknown boy who would not talk or look at us. However, he spent most of the ride hugging or petting Blessi’s withers
Davie who kept getting in line and arranging his position in line so that he could ride Blessi five times
And most of all the smiles, smiles, smiles of happy children and parents

I also have a confession to make about Blessi. Sometimes you find out something about your horse that makes you ashamed. After a grass break, I was walking Blessi back to the arena. Parents pushing a child in a type of stroller/wheelchair asked if their son, who looked about 5, could meet Blessi. I led Blessi over and he promptly lowered his head to greet the child at his level. The child’s legs were covered with a grass green blanket. After greeting the boy, Blessi gently took the blanket in his mouth and tried to remove it. The kid smiled and his parents laughed and laughed. The parents asked if Blessi would re-stage the event for photos—which Blessi was happy to do. So here is my confession: MY HORSE STEALS BLANKETS FROM SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN.

So humor aside, there are many volunteer positions to help with therapeutic riding –even if one does not have a suitable horse. It is an amazing and emotionally rewarding activity.

Blessi and the Flag

2012-02-01T00:16:00.000-08:00

Blessi and I attended a fun day with the local Tennessee Walker club of which we are members (they made Blessi an honorary TW). The club was going to open the event with a salute to the flag and a parade around the indoor arena to "God Bless America."

Blessi and I had never carried a flag before so I volunteered to carry the American flag if Blessi was OK with it. Before seeing if Blessi reacted to the flag from the ground, I propped the flag up against a wall and turned to talk to my fellow flag carrier Dan. While my back was turned, Blessi reached over and knocked the flag to the ground. The club members teased that "Those foreigners have no respect for the flag."

Needless to say, Blessi had no reaction to the flag from the ground or the saddle so my fellow flag carrier and I mounted up, stood for the national anthem, and then started to lead off the parade of about 10 horses in the small indoor arena. I was struggling to handle the flag and reins while not hitting the somewhat low rafters with the flag. Blessi was doing great--keeping up with the other flag horse and keeping to the rail--with minimal directions from me.

As we were going round for the second time, we pass Jim who was taking some photos. Blessi slowly peeled off from the group and started to follow Jim closely. Jim turns and says "Blessi, the treats in my pocket are for my horses." I guess Blessi felt he deserved a treat for doing so well with a new activity and was going to reward himself.

Icelandics--you have to love their sense of humor.

Blessi has a Coat of Arms and a Motto

2012-02-01T00:05:00.002-08:00

Since Blessi and my dressage instructor Dannelle are competing in the Northwest Horse Expo All-Breed Show in Albany, OR this week, I am re-publishing some of the best of Blessiblog.

About a year ago, Blessi and I moved to a new boarding stable that has never had an Icelandic before. Blessi is doing well there and the owners and other boarders really like Blessi. In fact, 24 hours after I moved him to the new stable, I went back to check on him and Rena,the owner, told me that if I ever leave, Blessi has to stay--they are going to adopt him.

Well Icelandics are smart and they are opportunistic. Not long after moving in to the new stable, Rena told me that she and her husband were having lunch in the kitchen. They looked out their French doors and saw Blessi grazing right by their deck--note that is not his pasture. The electricity for the pastures went out and Blessi noticed the golden opportunity.

It turns out that there is a lower gate that consists of two wires attached to the "bicycle" handles. I didn't even notice the gate but Blessi did. He undid the lower wire and then ducked under the upper wire. What
is impressive about this is that he associated the "bicycle" handles with "gate." Blessi has never been taken in or out of the pasture at this area. When Rena went to fetch him with a halter and lead rope, he led her on a merry chase around the yard until she thought to get some grain. Luckily there were no other horses in the pasture.

The stable owner analyzed Blessi's personality. She said that his personality is described by the expression "I can so I will" and that he should have a sign on his door with that phrase. I thought that would be cooler in Latin, which per the online translator is:

"Possum sic ego."

This could be the motto of many an Icelandic horse. So Blessi now has his own coat of arms complete with motto. Rena has a sense of humor and they still want to adopt Blessi--I think.

Note: The horse artwork in the center is not a very good representation of an Icelandic but the image was in the public domain.

Blessi and The Doughnut Effect

2012-02-01T00:05:00.001-08:00

My instructor Dannelle rode Blessi in his first dressage show of this year. Some friends and I attended with our non-traditional “dressage” horses—two Paints and an Icelandic. Since this was an all-day event, we brought items to share for lunch. I supplied iced tea, bottled water, and doughnuts.

The first class--Training Level 1--was won by a very talented Hungarian warm blood mare whose dressage trainer/owner is working the mare up the levels to compete at regional or higher Prix St. George level. It was a joy to watch this talented pair go through the dressage movements. Blessi and Dannelle and the other dressage trainer and his warmblood both scored 63.333, which was a tie for second place. Actual ranking during a tie is decided by some quirky dressage rule and Blessi and Dannelle ended up with third place—not bad at all.

What the box looked like

Reconstruction the next day

We left to check for scores. The horses were tied at the trailer and somebody was supposed to keep an eye on them. We returned to find that an animal had gotten into the doughnuts and eaten the ten that remained. No harm done. Except just a few minutes later we found out that the “animal” was Blessi. He had untied himself from the trailer and eaten the doughnuts and the three apples that my friend had brought as post show treats for the horses. My friend’s husband found Blessi cleaning up the icing in the box and re-tied him to the trailer.

Blessi ate the bear claws, the pink iced doughnuts with sprinkles, the cream filled doughnuts, the chocolate iced doughnuts, and the plain cake doughnuts. Blessi has never met a doughnut—or cookie, carrot, or peppermint-- that he doesn’t like.

Blessi looked a little uncomfortable but did not seem to be suffering otherwise so Dannelle rode him in his second test. Well overall the scores were not good. It must have been like trying to run a marathon right after eating Thanksgiving dinner. I did notice some distinctive differences in the scores between test 1 and test 2—something I am labeling the Doughnut Effect.

A sugar high does create animation. During the second test, Blessi managed to achieve an 8 on his free walk. Normally he scores a 6 on this movement. Judges usually note that he is relaxed but “lacks impulsion.” He also upped his final movement “Down centerline, halt, salute” to a 7, which goes to prove that it takes impulsion to get a good halt. However, any movement involving a canter dropped from a 6 to a 4 or 5. Dannelle has been working to develop more of a 3-beat canter with Blessi but Blessi’s sugar high turned his canter back into a 4-beat, rushed affair.

So my challenge is to determine how many doughnuts we need to feed Blessi to animate his free walk yet not impact his canter. Obviously this is less than ten but more than one (Note: this is a joke—I don’t advocate more that a small bite of a doughnut for a horse). By the way both Paints and their riders also did well at this event. Luckily the sandwiches and fruit were stored at another trailer so the humans were able to have lunch. Oh, and Blessi seems to have a cast iron stomach because he has suffered no ill effects from his doughnut binge.

I wasn’t able to capture any video of Blessi’s escape and self-indulgence. However, somebody threw the doughnut box in my truck when we packed up and I was able to re-stage the event (with box but no doughnuts) back at the home stable.

And here is a picture of Blessi sleeping off his doughnut binge on the day after the show.

Before I created the Blessi Blog, I shared this story with Stacey Kimmel, who writes the highly recommended blog Behind the Bit. Stacey was kind enough to put this story on her blog but did some edits that made the story even better--she introduced the idea of the doughnut effect as a scientific study. Please check out Stacey's blog!

http://www.behindthebitblog.com/search?updated-max=2011-08-31T14:11:00-04:00&max-results=4

A Free Pony for Every American--One of the Stranger Campaign Pledges

2012-02-01T00:05:00.000-08:00

In the state of New Hampshire, you only need to pay a $1000 filing fee to run in the presidential primary for that state. In 2012, 14 Democrats and 30 Republicans are running. One of the candidates,Vermin Supreme is a performance artist, anarchist, and satirist. He is known for wearing a boot shaped hat and carrying a tooth brush. His political platform includes strong teeth for a strong America, flying monkey awareness program, time travel research funding, and zombie apocalypse preparedness.

Vermin also promises a free pony for every American, his only entitlement program. This program will help with job creation. A pony based economy will help reduce America's reliance on foreign-based oil. And there will be a federal pony-based identification program--all Americans must have their pony with them at all times for identification purposes. In the video, you can hear Vermin talk about his platform. At least this is intentional satire unlike a lot of US politics.

What Horses See on the Trail

2012-01-31T00:05:00.000-08:00

The Back Country Horsemen of Washington state put together the following video about trail safety. It does a really good job of introducing the topic of how bicyclists, hikers, and horse riders can share the trail safely. The biggest key is that everybody should talk to each other--let the horse know that that object wheeling silently through the woods is really a human not a predator.

Icelandic Horses in The Hobbit--and Their Stand-ins Update 1/30/12

2012-01-30T17:30:00.000-08:00

Photo used with permission of Eric Vespe

1/39/12 It is confirmed that the actor who plays Bilbo Baggins in the movie will be riding a chestnut Icelandic. The actors playing dwarves will ride horses made up to look like Icelandics and the size standins for the dwarves will be riding Icelandics.

I was so excited to hear that Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarvesare going to ride Icelandic horses in Peter Jackson’s movie version of TheHobbit. Icelandics are beingfeatured because of their shaggy, hobbitty look and their smooth gait thetolt. You can refer to my post “IcelandicHorses in Movies--The Hobbit and HBO Game of Thrones—Update” for more detailedinformation.

Working for Ain’t It Cool News, EricVespe, otherwise known as Quint, was given the chance of lifetime when he wasinvited to spend two months with The Hobbit cast and crew as they were shootingin New Zealand. I highly recommendreading his entire 5-part “Unexpected Journey” (link listed below) as hedescribes observing the set up of Hobbiton, speaking with Frodo (both actor andcharacter), being assigned his hobbit name Fredegar Chubb and getting to de-gutfish for a scene in the movie, attending a Powhiri or greeting ceremony by thelocal Maori tribes, and much, much more.

One of the sites used for the New Zealand shoot was Ohakune Beech Paddock. Per Eric, “This wooded area was to representthe outskirts of The Shire and featured Bilbo catching up to Gandalf and thedwarves. They’re riding on horseback so you can imagine the circus that day.Thirteen dwarves and a Wizard and horses for them all! The dwarves’ horses werewearing sort of shaggy jackets since they were supposed to be ponies, but theguys playing the dwarves would look silly in all their gear on tiny ponies. Inorder to sell the stature they had to make the regular horses look morepony-like.”

Eric Vespe has given mepermission to show his photo of a dwarf riding one of the horses disguised asan Icelandic. How ironic that the actorsare riding horses made up to look like Icelandics and their size-stand-ins areriding the real Icelandic horses!

As Eric goes on to say, “The daywas spent mostly getting wider shots of troop on horseback riding through thewoods as Bilbo catches up to the party, but there was one shot in particularthat you can actually glimpse in the trailer that had Fili and Kili picking upMr. Baggins (from horseback) and putting him up onto his pony.”

Working withchildren and animals always has its challenges as Eric explains. “It takes a lot of coordination to make thetiming work when you have humans and animals in a scene together and I noticedsome interesting things the trainers did to make the horses comfortable. Forinstance, I saw one of the trainers gently sniff the boom mic in front of ahorse so the horse would follow suit and realize this fluffy thing hanging overhis head wasn’t going to attack him.”

Source: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/52353

If you are interested in more details about the Icelandichorses in The Hobbit movie, you may want to check out the future editions of theUnited States Icelandic Horse Congress Quarterly. There will be interviews with the owners and handlers of the “real” Icelandic horses onthe set of The Hobbit as soon as the non-disclosure contracts permit..

How Horses See

2012-01-30T01:40:00.000-08:00

The February 2007 edition of "Perfect Horse" has a fascinating article "Eye Openers" by Tracey Emslie about recent research on how horses perceive the world. Did you know that horses have the largest eyes of any land mammal? I recommend that you check out this article in your local library or bookstore. I have summarized some of the key points below. Most of the results are from the studies of Dr. Evelyn Hanggi, president of the Equine Research Foundation. The research has some interesting implications for people who train or ride horses. It helps explain why that sign post/drain pipe/car was not a problem on the ride out when it was in shadow but was a problem when it was glinting in full sunlight on the ride back.

Horses can see almost 360 degrees around but have small blind spots in front of their noses, just behind their tails, and probably low on their backs. By shifting their heads slightly, they can see even those spots. Horses can see using monocular vision (view different things out of each eye) like a chameleon or binocular (both eyes work together to focus on the same view) like a human. Using monocular vision, the horse can focus on both on the horse behind him and the trail in front—all at the same time! Just think how many scary things the horse can see that way.

This monocular versus binocular vision has probably contributed to the myth that horses need to see things with both eyes before they really process it. However, experiments have shown that a horse can learn to select a symbol with one eye blindfolded and will immediately transfer that learning when the other eye is blindfolded. So information is processed between the two eyes.

Then there is the situation "The horse passes the mail box on the way down the trail but spooks at seeing the mail box when coming home. The horse must not be able to recognize the mail box from a different angle." Horses can recognize different objects when they are rotated through most, but not all, angles. Horses are sensitive to changes in "lighting, contrast, and shadows" so perhaps the horse does not recognize the mailbox due to these differences.

The horse's eyes are set slightly to the front of the head with a 55- to 65-degree overlap in eyesight. From a binocular point of view, the horse has fairly accurate depth perception but needs to raise or lower her head to adjust the depth perception. When riding, you need to give your horse enough rein to move her head when she needs the additional depth perception required to herd cattle or maneuver through tight situations.

This finding has a profound implication when riding "on the bit." After watching two dressage horses collide without seeming to see each other, Dr. Alison Harmon did some studies on the horse retina. "She found that the forward portion of a horse's sight runs approximately down his nose, with the blind spot being roughly the width of the horse's body in front of him as well as slightly above the level of his eyes. If a horse is ridden `on the bit' with hisforehead vertical to the ground, or overflexed and `behind the bit; with his nose pointed toward his chest, he only sees the dirt beneath his nose. The peripheral vision is still showing what is to the side, but he is working blind in regard to anything smack dab in front of him" (p. 35-36). In disciplines like dressage that encourage this type of headset, the horse has to really trust his rider since the horse effectively has blinders on.

Here are some other bits (no pun intended) of horse sight trivia:

The horse is a little nearsighted with 20/30 vision.

A horse can see fairly well at night

It can adjust to differences in brightness and darkness fairly quickly but is impacted more by "situational differences."
Horses can see color but have trouble distinguishing between red and green.
"Color vision deficiencies do not make objects invisible" (p. 37).

I hope that you enjoyed reading about some of these perceptual differences as much as I did. Researchers have a lot more to learn about how the horse sees the world. Does anyone have any stories illustrating these differences? Does everyone agree with the research? As a new rider, I am curious about this.

Source: Emslie, T. (2007, February). Eye openers. Perfect Horse, 12, 2, pp. 33-37.

Blessi Bling How To—Leopard Skin Browband

2012-01-29T00:01:00.000-08:00

Browbands can add a bit of bling to your bridle. However, adding that bling can be expensive since browbands can cost $40 to $200 depending onmaterials. I thought I would experimentwith making a snazzy but low cost browband for Blessi.

Materials:

Used belt (make sure that the belt is not rough or haveprotruding studs on the inside of the belt)
Snaps or rivets (post should be long enough to go through 2layers of belt)Note: If you get Chicago rivets, you can use a screwdriver rather
than a hammer to apply the rivets.

Tools:

Scissors
Leather hole punch
Measuring tape
Hammer

Steps:

Measure the length of the browband on your current bridle(forBlessi this was 16 inches).
Add at least 6 inches to measurement to account for folding of belt.
Cut length of belt (I cut 22 inch section of belt).
Measure width of bridle where current browband fits—add about¼ inch extra to account for folding of belt.
Use hole punch to add 4 holes to belt to allow room forrivets.Note: If you have never applied metal rivets or eyelets beforecheck out this link for directions.
http://sew4home.com/tips-resources/sewing-tips-tricks/635-how-to-attach-metal-rivets-on-sewing-projects
Fold over each belt end to make loop and apply rivets permanufacturer’s directions.
Trim excess belt.
Disassemble bridle to replace browband. This was the longest part of the process forme—making sure that I put everything back together correctly.Note: Once againbeware of cat trying to help.
Model on your horse.

This browband was made from a leather belt with cowhair dyed with aleopard skin print. Total cost wasapproximately $3.50 and I have enough rivets left to make several morebrowbands.

Pippi Longstocking rides a pony

2012-01-28T00:05:00.000-08:00

Although the equine in this video is not an Icelandic, you have to admit that the pony is darn cute. And the little rider dressed as Pippi Longstocking has spent a lot of quality time working with her pony. This is your quota of cuteness for the day.

Thelwell's Naughty Ponies

2012-01-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

When I first got Blessi, the stable owner told me that Blessi looked and sometimes acted just like one of Thelwell's naughty ponies. I had never heard of Thelwell. She lent me her beloved Thelwell books and I laughed out loud at the cartoon antics of the little English girl Penelope and her pony Kipper. Kipper had the thick body, somewhat short legs, and long mane and tail that looked like a cartoon Icelandic. I promptly went out and got my own copies of Angels on Horseback and Pony Panorama.

Thelwell drew his first pony cartoon for Punch in 1953. Per the official Thelwell site, "...Angels on Horseback, was published in 1957, and was inspired by his observations of two hairy ponies - 'small and round and fat and of very uncertain temper' - who grazed in a field next to his house. They were owned by 'two little girls about three feet high who could have done with losing a few ounces themselves.... As the children got near, the ponies would swing round and present their ample hindquarters and give a few lightning kicks which the children would side-step calmly as if they were avoiding the kitchen table, and they had the head-collars on those animals before they knew what was happening. I was astonished at how meekly they were led away; but they were planning vengeance - you could tell by their eyes' " (para 4).

Although you seldom hear of an Icelandic kicking out at people, the Iceys certainly have attitude and can be creatively naughty. If you want to make your own comparisons, you can check out some cartoons at the Thelwell site.

Source: http://www.thelwell.org.uk/

A Rodeo of Horse Art

2012-01-25T00:05:00.000-08:00

Bestjonbon has put together 230 pictures of the horse in art--from medieval to Impressionist to Amercian Western. The show is set to the music of Aaron Copeland's Rodeo. Watching this review really highlights the important role that the horse has played in transportation, war, exploration, sports--andhow it just brings joy to the lives of horse owners. I had to watch this multiple times.

The very first picture in the video is of a medieval ambler, a type of gaited horse like the Icelandic. How many other gaited horses can you find in the video?

Icelandic Horses, Hobbit, Dwarves, Goblins and Dragons

2012-01-23T00:05:00.000-08:00

Der Kleine Hobbit

Icelandic ponies arefeatured in Peter Jackson’s film TheHobbit, to be released in December 2012. Excited about my favorite breed being showcased in such a high profilemovie, I decided to re-read The Hobbit from the pony’s point of view. Unfortunately the ponies in the book do notfare well.

The first mention of ponies in The Hobbit is when thedwarves come to pick up Bilbo Baggins at the Green Dragon Inn, Bywater, at 11am. Bilbo gets to the Inn precisely ontime to meet Dwalin. “Just then all theothers came round the corner of the road from the village. They were on ponies, and each pony was slungabout with all kinds of baggages, packages, parcels, and paraphernalia. There was a very small pony, apparently forBilbo” (p.29).

After a brief protest by Bilbo that he was so rushed heforgot his hat, pocket-handkerchief, and money, Dwalin the dwarf reassuresBilbo that all has been provided and he should get on his pony. “That’s how they all came to start, joggingoff from the inn one fine morning just before May, on laden ponies…” (p. 29). Soon Gandalf joins them “very splendid on awhite horse” and so begins the adventure to retrieve the gold Smaug the Dragonstole from Thorin’s grandfather The King Under the Mountain.

The dwarves give Bilbo a dark green hood at the start
of the journey. Klaus Ensikat illustrator, p. 46.

After some traveling, Gandalf disappears and the company hastheir first small mishap. “Then one ofthe ponies took fright at nothing and bolted. He got into the river before they could catch him; and before they couldget him out again, Fili and Kili were nearly drowned, and all the baggage thathe carried was washed away off him” (p. 31). The pony survived… this time. Andthe ponies did well with the encounter with trolls.

The Over Hill and Under Hill adventure proved fatal for thefirst set of ponies. Goblins capturedthe company. As Tolkien says, “And thatwas the last time that they used the ponies, packages, baggages, tools andparaphernalia that they had brought with them” (p.55). Goblins are not kind to ponies.

After a great escape from wolves, wargs, and goblins, Bilboand the dwarves encounter Boern, the skin-changer who has the ability to transformhimself into a great, shaggy black bear. Boern “lives in an oak-wood and has a greatwooden house; and as a man he keeps cattle and horses which are nearly asmarvelous as himself. They work for himand talk to him. He does not eat them” (p.106). Since Boern can be a bitunpredictable when encountering strangers, Gandalf and Bilbo go ahead to smooththe way. As they push open the gate andwalk towards the house, “some horses, very sleek and well-groomed, trotted upacross the grass and looked at them intently with very intelligent faces, thenoff they galloped to the buildings”( p. 108). Gandalf explains that the horses have run offto tell Boern that he has visitors. When they find Boern, “The horses werestanding by him with their noses at his shoulder. ‘Ugh! Here they are!’ he said to thehorses. ‘They don’t look dangerous. Youcan be off!” (p. 108).

Animals setting the table at Boern's house.
Klaus Ensikat illustrator, p. 164.

Through the gradual telling of their adventures, Gandalfpersuades Boern to host the company. Andhere follows a visit with magical creatures as hosts. “Boern clapped his hands, and in trotted fourbeautiful white ponies and several large long-bodied grey dogs” who proceed tolight the fire and set the table. “A pony pushed two low-seated benches withwide rush-bottoms and little short thick legs for Gandalf and Thorin….The otherponies came in rolling round drum-shaped sections of logs, smoothed andpolished, and low enough even for Bilbo…” (p. 115). The company enjoys a wondrous meal enlivenedby song and tales.

After this brief respite, Boern lends the company a horseand ponies, provides food, and sends them on their way to Mirkwood. However, Boern warns them not to take theponies into that dangerous place. So upon the edges of the evil forest, “…theysaid good-bye to their ponies and turned their head for home. Off they trotted gaily, seeming very glad toput their tails toward the shadow of Mirkwood” (p. 125). These are the ponies that survive in TheHobbit.

After horrific adventures in Mirkwood and escaping fromsuspicious elves, the company is provided with another set of ponies and gearby the Master of Laketown for the final leg of the journey to the LonelyMountain. As the company camps by thesecret door to the lair of Smaug, the ponies are allowed to graze nearby.

Carelessly, Bilbo alerts Smaug to the presence of thecompany when he steals a golden cup. Enraged, Smaug comes diving towards the camp,roaring and shooting flames. “The poniesscreamed with terror, burst their ropes and galloped wildly off. The dragon swooped and turned to pursue them,and was gone. ‘That’ll be the end of ourpoor beasts!’ said Thorin. ‘Nothing canescape Smaug once he sees it’” (p.197). Later Smaug taunts Bilbo, “Let me tell you I ate six ponies last nightand I shall catch and eat all the others before long” (p. 201). Three of the ponies do survive and areeventually sent back to the Laketown.

After the demise of the “Worm of Dread” and the Battle ofFive Armies, Bilbo bids a heartfelt farewell to his surviving companions. With new ponies, Gandalf and Bilbo start thelong ride home with a short side trip to retrieve the troll treasure. “So they put the gold in bags and slung themon the ponies who were not at all pleased about it” (p. 269). They reach finally reach BagsEnd after manyadventures and hardships. Unlike Billthe Pony in Lord of the Rings, only about one in four of the ponies inthis story get home.

So this brings up some interesting thoughts. Just how is Peter Jackson using Icelandicponies in his script? The movie trailershows Bilbo and the dwarves riding Icelandics through the forest and acrosssteep mountain crests. Do they ride thesame set of ponies throughout the adventure? Or does Peter Jackson follow the book closely in which case there aredifferent sets of ponies—some of whom meet up with a bad end? We have until December 2012 to ponder thesequestions.

Tolkien, J. (1997). The Hobbit or There andBack Again. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

Blessi --Grass, Grass Everywhere Nor Any Bite to Eat

2012-01-22T00:05:00.000-08:00

Blessi in a grass muzzle--this one is too small for
his muzzle but it was bought so I could take a picture
for an article on laminitis

Blessi and I used to live in Chester County, PA near Philadelphia, which was home to a lot of thoroughbred breeders. Smarty Jones, the winner of the 2004 Kentucky Derby, was born in Chester County. The typically large pastures consisted of rich grass and clover—which was like a candy store for an Icelandic horse. By midsummer, Blessi was overweight and well on his way to obese.

I asked advice from the local horse owners about how to deal with this potential problem and they recommended a grass muzzle. “Just snap a grass muzzle onto Blessi’s halter. He’ll be able to get some grass through the muzzle openings but he won’t be able to vacuum up grass like he normally does.” Rding around the country side, Blessi and I had seen a lot of thoroughbreds come trotting up to the fence to greet us—many of them contentedly wearing grass muzzles.

So to avoid the risk of founder, I started to use a grass muzzle. Well putting something on Blessi that restricted his eating was like giving him a Rubrik’s cube to play with. He was getting the grass muzzle off in shorter and shorter time periods. I tried many models--muzzles attached to halters and one-piece grass muzzles, cage muzzles and sieve-type muzzles, muzzles with big holes and muzzles with little holes. I even tried adding additional metal clips—all to no avail.

Blessi had many different ways to defeat the grass muzzle puzzle. He would scrape the bottom of the plastic muzzle against the ground to wear a bigger hole in the bottom of the muzzle. He would position the muzzle against a handy post or stump and rub the muzzle off. Somehow, I never figured out how, he undid the clips on the muzzle and removed the muzzle but left his halter on. Once I walked into the pasture to find another horse tugging on Blessi’s grass muzzle as he was wearing it—probably because there were wisps of grass stuck in the muzzle.

It got to the point that I was spending more time walking the large pasture looking for the muzzle than Blessi wore the muzzle. I would find the muzzle in a different place each day—hanging off a fence, sitting on tree stump, buried in a clump of grass. As I was searching the fields, I would find a detached grass muzzle, sometimes the muzzle-halter combination, and, occasionally, muzzle and halter in different parts of the field. Just a note of advice to those of you who also own clever Icelandics: Never get a muzzle/halter combination in any shade of green. And all those thoroughbreds watched me search the field while they contentedly grazed through their grass muzzles.

And the pounds kept piling on. In desperation, I went to a local Amish harness maker for a customized grass muzzle. The harness maker confessed he had never been asked to do custom work on a grass muzzle so I explained the situation. After he stopped chuckling, he went to work on the design. The muzzle had two extra levels of straps around the muzzle and an extra chin strap; it was attached to a cribbing collar.

Blessi in the pudgey pony pasture.

I wanted to make sure that Blessi did not feel trapped or uncomfortable with the new muzzle. I slowly introduced him to the muzzle and made sure he had no problem with it. However, he did look like Hannibal Lecter wearing the mask in “Silence of the Lambs.” We spent a half hour hand grazing to see if Blessi had any issues; he immediately put his head down and started vacuuming up much smaller amounts of grass—the difference between a portable hand vacuum and the industrial shop size vacuum.

Since he was comfortable with the contraption, I led him back to his pasture. When I turned him loose, Blessi took a dozen paces into the pasture, stopped, dropped, rolled to his back, and used his front leg to brush the muzzle off the end of his nose. When I was done laughing, I gave up on grass muzzles and put him in the pudgy pony pasture, i.e. an almost dry lot, for the rest of the summer. He even managed to lose some weight. Now if I can just find a pudgy pony pasture for myself.

I Send Greetings

2012-01-21T00:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I posted a rather silly poem in honor ofthe Icelandic midwinter festival Þorrablót.Seriously, Iceland has a long history of literature and poetry, going back asfar as the saga first told in the 9th and 10th century and written down by the 13th century. Icelander Halldór Kiljan Laxnesswon the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.

The following poem was written by JonasHallgrimsson in 1835. Jonas was workingfor the cultural and economic revival of Iceland and its independence fromDenmark. He is credited with introducing the Romanticism movement in Iceland. Above, you can listen to the poem in Icelandic with English translations.

I Send Greetings

Serene and warm, now southern windscome streaming
To waken all the billows on the ocean,
Who crowd toward Iceland with an urgent motion ---
Isle of my birth! where sand and surf are gleaming.

Oh waves and winds! embrace with bold caresses
The bluffs of home with all their seabirds calling!
Lovingly, waves, salute the boats out trawling!
Lightly, oh winds, kiss glowing cheeks and tresses!

Herald of spring! oh faithful thrush, who flies
Fathomless heaven to reach our valleys, bearing
Cargoes of song to sing the hills above:

There, if you meet an angel with bright eyes
Under the neat, red-tasselled cap she'swearing,
Greet her devoutly! That's the girl I love.

For adetailed interpretation of this poem, refer to:

http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/jonas/Heilsa/Heilsa.html

Þorrablót Poem

2012-01-20T00:05:00.000-08:00

Þorrablót is a traditional Icelandic get together held in January or February. Country style food such as wind-dried fish, rotten shark, ram testicles, blubber, seal flippers, and sheep head may be served. (I am not kidding about this--check with your Icelandic friends). And rye bread, lamb, wonderful deserts, and other food are included. Per Wikipedia, "the Þorrablót is an evening with dinner where participants hold speeches and recite poems, originally to honour the Norse god Thor, after whom the month is presumed to be named."

So in honor of Þorrablót, here is a poem titled Thor (author unknown):

Photo from Wikipedia

The tundergod went for a ride
Upon his favourite filly
I'm thor! he cried
And his horse replied,
You forgot your thaddle thilly.

Check back tomorrow for a real Icelandic poem set to music and accompanied by wonderful scenes of Iceland and people in traditional costume.

Blessi and the Western Saddle--What not to do

2012-01-19T00:05:00.000-08:00

I finally got a custom made Western saddle for Blessi. Finding a Western saddle for an Icelandic horse is very challenging. Blessi has a gullet measuring 8 1/2 inches which is draft horse size but a back length of about 23 inches. He is boulder-shouldered and mutton withered. And performance of the tolt results in huge shoulder movement which requires a lot of saddle flair. Blessi is relatively flat backed but requires some flair to the saddle. Ideally the saddle should weigh around 25 lbs. And I have it lucky. I know somebody who has a 13.2 Icelandic with a gullet of 12 1/4 inches!

So I tried the new saddle on Blessi. I believe it fits him--this is the third or fourth time that he has had a Western saddle on. Anyway, we were riding in the arena all by ourselves in the new Western saddle. Blessi seemed happy in the saddle and I loved the fit.

So I go to dismount and do the typical tyro Western dismount--I get my shirt and coat--but not the bra thank goodness-- hooked on the saddle horn. Now it's a real burlesque show involving both ribald comedy and partial nudity.

I am short and Blessi is short but I still ended up with my feet dangling about six inches off the ground. Blessi has my not-inconsiderable weight hanging off the horn hanging off his left side. I am struggling to get unhooked but there is nothing to push against for leverage to get the clothing off the hook.

Well Blessi stood like a stone for the 2 to 3 minutes that it took me to figure this out. I showed off my bra and untoned stomach to the neighborhood--and it was cold on Sunday. As soon as I dismounted and got my clothing rearranged, Blessi started to bow. He kept bowing. I think he thought that this one of the weirder bomb proofing exercises that I came up with and I had forgotten to feed him his carrot. Thank goodness I had a peppermint in my jacket--he really deserved it.

However, I am going to tell people that I dangled off the saddle horn just to see how Blessi would react to roping a calf.

Walk Like a Yak (on Yaktrax)

2012-01-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

I live in the Seattle area and usually winters are quite mild. The weather forecasters are predicting some severe snow this year so last week I invested in some Yaktrax. (Eddie Bauer featured a half price special.) Per the manufacturer, "Named after the sure-footed Tibetan Yak, Yaktrax stre[t]ch over everything from casual walking shoes to winter boots."

I have to admit they are easy to put on over riding boots or sneakers. They provide a lot of traction on icy surfaces--just what a Klutz like me needs--sort of like snow chains for sneakers. However, take them off before riding or going inside. And I discovered that if you aren't careful when you stretch a Yaktrax on your shoe, you can fire it across the driveway like a giant rubber band. I almost hit Ollie my dog.

http://www.yaktrax.com/pro

Note to self: Next time, remove shoe and Yaktrax before taking
picture--ankle does not bend easily in needed direction.

Whirls, Swirls, and Whorls--Horse Personality

2012-01-17T00:05:00.000-08:00

Several registries such as the American Quarter Horse Association and the Arabian Horse Association use whirls, or swirled circular patterns of hair, as a way to identify a particular horse. FEIF, The International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations, does the same thing. Below you can see Blessi's international passport and the location of his whirls and blaze details used for identification purposes.

Many people believe that the location of horse whirls can provide insight into horse personality. Based on lore passed down from her grandfather as verified by a statistical survey of owners of 1500 horses, Linda Tellington-Jones devised a method of analyzing horse personality based on whirls. Linda cautions that whirls need to be read as part of an analysis of all facial features.

Here are some of her findings (pp. 40 - 46):

A whirl above or between eyes is fairly common and generally indicates a fairly uncomplicated horse but there are some variations. As you face the horse, a whirl a little to the left indicates that the horse is more complicated but trustworthy. A whirl a little to the right indicates less cooperation.
A single whirl below the eyes generally indicates an interesting horse with above average intelligence.
A single long whirl between the eyes usually indicates a friendly, people oriented horse; if not, check the horse for pain.
A horse with two swirls side by side on the forehead may indicated a more reactive and unpredictable horse.

Linda's sister, Robyn Hood raises Icelandics. Robyn notes that Icelandics tend to have more double swirls than other horse breeds. These horses tend to be more emotional but are still less emotional than other breeds. Icelandics tend to have more facial swirls in different locations but this does not seem to correlate with a more complicated nature. Icelandic lore states that swirls on the neck or crest tend to indicate good swimming and water abilities.

Source: Tellington-Jones, L. (1995). Getting in TTouch: Understand and Influence Your Horse's Personality, Trafalgar Square Publishing, North Pomfret, VT.

Dr. Temple Grandin has also conducted research in this area and found a definite link between whorls and personality for cattle. "Cattle also have hair whorls on the forehead similar to horses. We conducted research on hair whorl positions and temperament in cattle because it was easy to find large numbers of cattle with similar genetics and similar early experiences. In a study of 1,500 cattle at a commercial feedlot, we found that cattle with hair whorls above the eyes fought more in a squeeze chute during vaccinations, and were clearly more frightened by restraint compared to cattle Selecting Whole Animals."
Source: http://www.grandin.com/references/horse.genetics.html

Of course, meaning can be attached to body swirls also. I find it interesting that Blessi has very uniform body swirls--one on the center under his neck and one at the side of each of his four legs. I have no idea what that means. But his forehead swirl is above the eyes and slightly to the right--and I do have to say he can be a tad resistant from time to time--especially if he is convinced he is right.

Blessi Has a Passport

2012-01-16T01:59:00.000-08:00

Blessi, registered name Veigar frá Búðardal, was exported from Iceland to the US in 2003. Believe it or not, he had to have his own passport. This 34-page document--written in Icelandic, German, and English--is issued by FEIF (International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations). It contains his registration number, microchip number, owner name, pedigree, and detailed physical description. There are pages for vaccination records, passport control, medication control, and medical treatment.

Every time Blessi is sold, the passport must be returned to the national Icelandic horse organization (USIHC in US) so the passport and certificate of registration can be re-issued in the new owner's name.

So for your viewing pleasure, here is Blessi's horse passport.

Loose Rein Tolt

2012-01-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

One of the sanctioned Icelandic horse competitions is the loose rein tolt. In this competition, the riders must tolt down the long side of the oval track with no rein contact. The rider slides the reins up the horse's neck. Here is a great example of the quality and training of some of the horse and riders from a competition in Germany.

Fun Facts About Icelandic Horses

2012-01-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

· Icelandic horses come from Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice(volcanoes and glaciers).

· Icelandic horses originally came to Iceland on Viking ships.

· Icelandics can perform twomore gaits—tolt and flying pace—than a Quarter horse.

Odin riding Sleipnir--Wikipedia

· In Norse mythology, the god Odin rides the 8-legged horseSleipnir.

· Icelandic horses were given as gifts to the Danish king.

· Icelandic horses have been fed herring (fish).

Icelandic horses are known as the Bridges of Iceland, since people could not drive completely around Iceland the 1960s due to lack of suitable roads--people rode horses to visit the more inaccessible parts of Iceland.

· Some Icelandics have cannon (leg) bones as thick as someClydesdales (draft horses).

· Icelandic horses are related to the Mongolian pony.

· If an Icelandic horse leaves Iceland, it can never return.

A Viking ship--Wikipedia

· The Icelandic horse has a longer intestine than other breedsof horses enabling it to get more nutrition out of poor grass.

Icelandic horses were buried with important Viking chieftains.

· The Icelandic mare Tulle lived to be 57 years old in Denmark.

· The dwarfs in the 2012 movie The Hobbit ride Icelandichorses.

· Some Icelandic horses can change colors by season—for examplebe a chestnut in winter and summer and be a white body with chestnut mane,tail, and legs in spring and fall.

Who Says Dogs Can't Do Dressage

2012-01-13T00:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a lovely video of Tina Humphrey competing with her dog Chandi, a border collie rescue. They are competing in freestyle in the Netherlands. Who says dogs can't do tempi changes and piaffe? What a great partnership.

Six year old riding Icelandic Stallion Through the Snow

2012-01-12T00:05:00.000-08:00

In this video, Auður Karen, age 6, is riding an Icelandic stallion Friðrik. They are flying home through the snow at a fast tolt. What a great partnership between horse and young rider.

Blessi Bling How To--Hair Extensions

2012-01-11T00:05:00.001-08:00

Hair extensions can be a fun, funky decoration for your horse. But it can get expensive buying enough extensions to to make a statement. Here are directions for making your own. The hair extensions that I made for Blessi cost me approximately $1.50 each.

Materials:

Snap clips available from beauty supply stores
Thin sewing needle (needs to fit through holes in snap clip)
Thick quilting or button thread
Extension hair usually available in toy section of dollar stores
Scissors

Merci is planning her attack!

Directions:

If necessary, disassemble the hair extension that you bought at the dollar store.

Cut the width of the hair extension to fit the length of the snap clip. For horses with exceptionally thick mane like Icelandics, you may want to double the width of the hair extension used.

Tip 1:When working with long, dangling, shiny things, keep your eye on the cat. A few minutes after this picture was taken, Merci the cat snatched the hair out of my hand and took off with it.
Using quilting or button thread. sew the hair extension to the snap clip using the holes across the top of the snap clip. Be sure to sew the hair extension to the outside of the snap clip.
Sew the hair extension to the snap clip.

Tip 2:You may need to wax the end of the thread by rubbing it over a wax candle. You will then be able to more easily get the thicker thread through the eye of the needle.
You may need to trim the sides of the extension to give the bottom of the extension a more natural look.
Model hair extensions on your horse.

Talking a Blue Streak over Hair Extensions

2012-01-10T00:05:00.000-08:00

Well, you wouldn't think that an Icelandic would need hair extensions. Truthfully, Blessi has below average length of mane for an Icelandic--if you can believe it. For Christmas, my friend Deb decided all the Bad Cowgirls' horses needed hair extensions. So Blessi got a bright blue extension. Here are pictures. As you can see, he ended up talking a blue streak about it. We'll definitely sport this equine accouterment during the next play date--it gives Blessi that punk rock look. The question is what is the best place to wear it? Many thanks to Lora for the title to this posting.

I put the blue hair extension on Blessi when Joe the farrier came to shoe Blessi. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for Joe to notice the extension in Blessi's mane. Finally, I had to point it out. Joe thought it looked great. We both laughed--just like a guy to never notice any difference in hair styles even if it is a horse.

Here is a link to a source for equine hair extensions.
http://www.colorfulmanesandtails.com/

Sola--The Great Houdini Horse Escapes from the Barn

2012-01-09T00:05:00.001-08:00

Chris and Nathaly Jones of Tuskast Icelandics own a very clever Icelandic horse named Sola. Watch how she opens the barn door latch in under 5 seconds. She knows how to open 5 different types of latches. Heaven help us all if Sola and Blessi ever get together!

You can check out Christopher and Nathaly's farm at their web site http://www.tuskast.com/

Blessi Blog Stats--Those Darn Russian Naughty Sites

2012-01-06T00:05:00.000-08:00

One of the pleasures of creating a blog is watching the audience numbers build. I especially like looking at the number of readers from various countries. I was so excited that people from Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, and other places would like to read about Blessi. Most of the traffic comes from countries that have a large or growing population of Icelandic horses.

Views by country for Blessi Blog

And then I noticed that I had a few viewers from Russia, which according to WorldFengur has only two registered Icelandic horses. How cool I thought, there must be a growing interest in Russia in this breed. And within a week, the number of viewers from Russia was way more than any other country except the US. So I decided to look at the referring sites.

Referring sites for Blessi Blog

I thought that some of the sites looked really weird so I did a search in the on-line help of Blogger to try and figure out what was happening. The ow.ly and tiny.cc looked a bit suspicious. It turns out that spanners will surf to as many new blog sites as they can hoping that the new blogger will check her statistics, click on the link, and go to their web site as a customer or spam recipient.

Google's Blogger cautions: "It's even possible that the computers that we see reflected in our logs - Latvia, Poland, and Russia - are being controlled by porn spammers who live in England, Germany, or even the USA. Even spammers don't crap where they live. Referer spamming involves massive amounts of fake page accesses, against multiple websites."
Source: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2011/02/referer-spam-is-needlessly-alarming.html

Oh the joys of being a new blogger. My apologies to anyone from Russia, Latvia, and Ukraine who may be genuinely interested in the Icelandic horse.

.

Reykjavik in 1926

2012-01-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

I love this black and white film of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, in 1926. The film opens with "We came ashore at midnight..." Watch for the Icelandic women wearing traditional costume. And there is a great section on Icelandic ponies showing riders with historic tack to the draft-style Icelandic pulling a wagon filled with tourists. And one rider must be late as he carries an umbrella and canters his horse through the rain.

Icelander--The Metaphysical Mystery Novel

2012-01-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

I selected the novel Icelander by Dustin Long based solely on the appeal of its cover--an embossed line sketch with silver highlighting. You don't get the same tactile sense when reading with a Kindle. OK, the novel doesn't have any Icelandic horses in it. It does have Icelanders in it---both the above ground and the below ground dwellers the Vanatru. Yes, that right I said the subterranean, fox worshiping Vanatru who are inciting for sovereignty within Iceland. So this is also a mystery set in an alternative universe.

At its simplest, the mystery revolves around the murder of Shirley MacGuffin. Per Hitchcock, the term "MacGuffin" is "the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers."
Source: Marshall Deutelbaum, Leland A. Poague (2009) A Hitchcock reader p.114. John Wiley and Sons. A MacGuffin is essentially meaningless in itself but the search for it drives the plot of the book/movie.

"Our Heroine" is the offspring of Emily Bean-Ymirson, the famous crime solver, and Jon Ymirson, an adventurer and anthropologist. She is trying desperately not to be dragged into solving the murder of her friend since she has spent her youth being involved in her mother's adventures, which are immortalized in the 12-volume fictionalized series by Magnus Valison. There are a host of supporting characters from Wible & Pacheco, the "philosophical investigators;" Garm the Dachshund; Gerd, Queen of the Vanatru; and the Refurserkir, fox-fur wearing Ninjas who serve Gerd.

The best way to describe the style of this book is to compare it to how the author describes the placement of Magnus Valison's novel The Case of the Consternated Cossack which is located between Herman Melville's The Confidence Man and Sir Author Conan Doyle's Valley of Fear but above and below books by Vladimir Nabokov and Elizabeth Peters (author of the Amelia Peabody mysteries). In other words, Icelander marries the writing style of Nabokov with the plotting of Peters within a self-referential literary romp which adds references to Scandinavian mythology and 17th century English literature.

You will either love this book or hate it. But read at least 50 pages before making up your mind. It wasn't until pg. 41 when the academics Dr. Lorenz, Mohs, and Curleigh (Larry, Moe, and Curley) appear that I got caught up in the free-wheeling spirit of the book.

List of Honors Stallions

2012-01-03T00:05:00.000-08:00

Blessi's pedigree Part 1

In Iceland, only 26 stallions have attained Honors status from the awarding of the first honor in 1978 to 2008. Mares can also attain honors status. One of the fun things you can do is look up the pedigree of your horse in World Fengur, the international breeding registry of the Icelandic horse. Or you can have a friend look it up if you don't have access. You will almost certainly find one or more of these honors stallions in your horse's pedigree.

Note: You get free access to WorldFengur with your annual membership to the United States Icelandic Horse Congress (or your national Icelandic breed association). Normally access to WorldFengur is around $95 per year; an individual membership to the USIHC costs $45 so you may want to think about joining.

http://www.icelandics.org/join.php?usihc=3f6fc6c08c17c2cb6f0967857f64f8aa

Honors Stallions: 

Blessi's Pedigree--Part 2

1978 Sőrli frá Sauđárkróki

1982 Hrafn frá Holtsmúla

Páttur frá Kirkjubae

1986 Ófeiger frá Hvanneyri

Náttfari frá Ytra-Dalsgerđi

1990 Hervar frá Sauđárkróki

Gáski frá Hofsstőđum

Ófeiger frá Flugumýri

1994 Þokki frá Garđi

Kjarval frá Sauđárkróki

Stigur frá Kjartansstőđum

1996 Angi frá Laugarvatni

1998 Stigandi frá Sauđárkróki

2000 Orri frá Þúfu

Kolfinnur frá Kjarnholtum

2002 Þorri frá Þúfu

Gustur frá Hóli

Oddur frá Selfossi

2004 Kraflar frá Miđsitju

Óđur frá Brún
Andvari frá Ey I

Galsi frá Sauđárkróki

2006 Hugi frá Hafsteinsstőđum

Keilir frá Miđsitju

2008 Hródur frá Refsstőđun

Saer frá Bakkakoti

Source: Gates, M. (2010). The art of horse breeding. In The Icelandic StudBook, Icelandic Stallions of North America, ed. T. Kristjánsdóttir, Cranial Solutions, Chatham, NY.

What is an Honors Stallion--Orri frá Þúfu

2012-01-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

In 1978, FEIF established the rules for awarding honors status to stallions and mares: Honor stallion status: Minimum BLUP of 118, 50 or more evaluated offspring. An honors horse not only has great confirmation and outstanding performance but they are so genetically stable that they pass on these traits to a large number of their offspring. Very few horses achieve honors status. Breeding has often been described as a crapshoot but selecting the right stallion can certainly help you weight the dice. If you look at the breeding results of some of the honors stallions, the results are astounding.

At the time this blog was written Orri frá Þúfu had 1170 registered offspring of which 48 were 4 years old or younger. If you subtract the number of young horses from the total and calculate the number of assessed offspring, (544/1122) an astounding 48% of Orri’s offspring were assessed with over 40% making first or second prize. Note that the author hand counted some of this information so the percentages may not be accurate.

Below is a video of Orri from Landsmót in 1994.

Orri frá Þúfu’s quality was recognized very early. In their book The Icelandic Horse, Bjőrnsson and Sveinsson describe Orri as a friendly, easy to handle, black stallion with four great gaits (Orri sires few pacers) with high leg action and wide movements. The reason that Orri is so famous is not only for the quality of his gaits but for how many of these abilities he passes along to his offspring. As Bjőrnsson and Sveinsson proclaim, “There is no doubt that Orri has been the strongest stallion in Iceland for years. His influence will be seen for a long time, and many superb sons and daughters will still show up” (p. 235). Orri has been awarded “honors stallion” status in Iceland.

Source: Bjőrnsson, G., & Sveinsson, H. (2006). The Icelandic Horse, Edda Publishing, Reykjavik, Iceland.

2012 Happy New Year

2012-01-01T00:05:00.000-08:00

Blessi and I wish everyone a happy New Year. To celebrate, here is a beautiful video by Yoz Creative--no dialogue--just music and the beauty of a winter skiing or a ride through the snow on your Icelandic horse. May this be a year of peace and goodwill.

Why Blessi Has a 34 Lb Bag of Dog Food on His Back

2011-12-30T22:44:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know, Blessi has been accepted into the All Breed Competition to be held March 22-25, 2012, in Albany, OR. My dressage instructor Dannelle is going to ride him in this 4- day competition. So Dannelle is in charge of furthering his gait and dressage training and I have taken it upon myself to further Blessi’s training in potentially scary things.

http://equinepromotions.net/northwest-horse-fair/event-details/special-events/

Someone told me that last year at this event the riders were expected to dismount, throw a 30-lb sandbag (simulating an injured calf) on the horse’s back, lead the horse some 30 feet, remove sandbag, remount,and continue with the competition. Several of the horses seemed to have problems with this activity. I had just picked up 34 lbs (15.4 kgs) of dog food for my dog Ollie so I decided to stop at the stable on the way home and work on this obstacle with Blessi. I wanted to take some pictures to show Dannelle how well Blessi did with strange and unusual activities.

Jordan the dog is really interested in
that dog food served a la cheval

When I get to the stable, I park my truck at the barn rather than the arena. Rena the stable owner is at the barn and I ask her to take some pictures. If things go disastrously wrong, nobody ever needs to see the pictures—right?

I put on Blessi’s halter and lead line and lead him to the truck. I know that Rena wants to feed the horses since it is dinner time so I decide to practice this activity in the parking area rather than the arena. After all, what could go wrong?

So I lead Blessi to the back of the truck, open the truck bed cover, and lower the tail gate. Blessi is very interested in the contents in the truck bed since there are leftover hay and interesting containers to explore. I pick up the dog food bag and let him sniff the bag. Blessi definitely knows it contains food of some kind and wants to investigate. Enticed by the interesting smell, the barn dog Jordon also comes over. Well the bag is heavy, Blessi seems quite calm about the process, so I decide to fling the bag on Blessi’s bare back. What’s the worst that can happen?

Right after the bag fell--Blessi really wants to get that bag

I put the bag on Blessi’s back and he stands quite nicely. I lead him around a bit and Rena snaps some pictures. It is really hard to keep a 30 lb bag of dog food stabilized on the back of a horse and lead the horse at the same time but I manage. We stop to pose for a few final pictures. And guess what, the bag slips off Blessi’s back and crashes to the ground. Blessi doesn’t move a muscle. Rena and I laugh. I am very surprised that the bag doesn’t break. But I have some pictures and what else could happen?

Hole that Blessi chewed through bag--he did not read the directions for how to open!

So Rena gives me the camera and I put the dog food in the back of the truck. As I turn around to move some things in truck bed, Blessi reaches into the bed of the truck, grabs the bag of dog food in his teeth, and lifts the bag out of the truck. He proceeds to shake the bag. I must confess that I am so surprised by a 34 lb bag flying by my ear that I make a noise--the closest word I can come up with is screech. Or would that be shriek? I have visions of the bag bursting and $30 of dog food flying all over the place. I kick myself for not getting a bag of bark mulch or a real sand bag or something not so fragile. Not at all perturbed, Blessi continues shaking the bag but it slips through his teeth and hits the ground. Amazingly, it does not break. Rena and I burst out laughing and wish that we had kept the camera out. As I lead Blessi back to his stall, he starts licking and chewing. I have to stop and remove some bag remnants from his mouth. Rena comments that Blessi and I are a good match—I am not sure if that is a compliment to me but I am sure that it is a compliment to Blessi.

The Story of Super Guus

2011-12-30T00:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a very inspiring story of another little horse that exceeded all expectations--succeeding in the large horse world of dressage, overcoming a medical crisis, and even modeling in some top magazines. Jolanda Adelaar, owner and trainer, narrates Guus' story, the little Fjord who could. Now if only Guus' book would get translated into English!

What is BLUP?

2011-12-29T00:05:00.001-08:00

WorldFengur is the international registry for the Icelandic horse. It contains a treasure trove of fascinating information about your Icelandic horse. One of the nuggets of information is BLUP. So if you have a registered Icelandic horse, you can look up its BLUP in WorldFengur. Note: If you join the US Icelandic Horse Congress (or the Icelandic breed association in your country), you get free access to WorldFengur for your individual membership fee of $45; normally access to WorldFengur runs around $95.

https://www.icelandics.org/wf_access.php

BLUP stands for Best Linear Unbiased Prediction. Per C. Clarke (2010, para 1), BLUP indices are “statistical values that are designed to help predict likely future developments based on past performance… However, in animal husbandry they are most widely used to improve the genetic quality of the breeding herd and although originally introduced for dairy cattle they are now regarded by many as an essential tool in the sports horse breeder’s armory.” You can refer to T. Árnason’s (2010) article International Genetic Evaluations with the BLUP Method for more information on how WorldFengur calculates BLUP.

To summarize, BLUP is a statistical method used for predicting the breeding value of animals based on field assessments of that animal’s progenitors. Sports competition scores do not factor into the BLUP calculation for Icelandic horses. BLUP has been used to improve the breeding of French riding horses, Dutch trotters, and American quarter horses (Árnason and Van Vleck, p.485). As a casual user, the important thing to remember about BLUP is that it is a predictor only. Now let’s find the BLUP for Blessi.

In interpreting BLUP, you consider a score of 100 as average. As you can see above, Blessi is predicted as having above average conformation. His best conformational features are predicted to be his back, legs, and proportions. And his worst features are predicted to be his mane and tail and head. All in all, his BLUP for conformation is fairly accurate (although his back is a bit long). As for gaits, BLUP predicts he has a decent trot and tolt. However, it also predicts he will have a flying pace--which at age 15 he has never shown. And as BLUP predicts, Blessi is taller than average at 14.1 hands. BLUP accuracy is calculated at 61% which is fairly low. His total BLUB score is currently 104; when I first got him over seven years ago, it was 108.

As M. Gates (2010, p. 16) cautions, BLUP is a valuable guide in breeding but ”… BLUP scores are not always accurate due to the fact that some breeding horses are missing either pedigree or evaluated parents in their bloodlines, and are therefore automatically scored lower.” The BLUP score will change over time as assessments are added to horses in the pedigree tree. However, BLUP can give you some hints as to what to look for when you see the real horse: Does BLUP predict that this horse will have a better than average confirmation but average gaits (or vice versa)? Is the tolt score much lower than the trot score? Does BLUP predict that this horse will be taller or shorter than average? Have fun playing with these types of questions and see how the real horse measures up.

Sources:

Árnason, T. (November, 2010). International genetic evaluations with the BLUP method 2010. Found at: http://www.worldfengur.com/WorldFengur/temp/International_BLUP.pdf

Árnason, T., & Van Vleck, L. (2000). Genetic improvement in the horse. In The Genetics of the Horse. Eds. A. Bowling & A. Ruvinsky, CABI Publishing, London, pp. 473-495.

Gates, M. (2010). The art of horse breeding. In The Icelandic StudBook, Icelandic Stallions of North America, ed. T. Kristjánsdóttir, Cranial Solutions, Chatham, NY.

Merci and the Fly Trap

2011-12-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

Poor Merci's tail!

I heard a really awful commotion down stairs. It sounded like a rugby team was running around and knocking things over. I ran downstairs to check out what was happening. My Burmese cat Merci was running around like a
mad thing.

I had placed a fly trap--one of those cylinder-shaped things coated with sticky stuff--in the laundry room to capture the pests. Well, I never considered that this might look like an empty paper towel holder which many cats like to kill. You know how the cat rolls the tube around and then lays on her back and claws and rips at the tube to "kill" it.

Well, Merci had decided to play with the fly trap and it stuck to her belly. Like Uncle Remus' tar baby, the more she clawed at it, the more stuck she got. And the more she ran around, the more stuff --especially dust bunnies--stuck to her. By the time I caught up with her, my beautiful sleek, short haired, brown cat looked like a long haired, cream colored, Himalayan because of all the stuck fuzzies.

Well the danger was that Merci would attempt to clean off this mess herself and eat some of the sticky, fly-killing goo--not a good idea. So I put her in the sink and ran warm water over her. Burmese are kind of like the Icelandics of the cat world--Merci did not struggle but she uttered this occasional heart rending mew.

Water did not get the goo off so I got out the scissors. I flipped Merci on her back and proceed to clip small sections of fur, goo, and dust off her belly. From time to time, she wiggled loose and I had to catch her and start the process all over again. Finally we were done and a damp, balding Merci retired to the closet for the day.

This was not funny at the time. I was so concerned over my distressed cat. I can see the humor now. And Merci did make a good start on the weekly dusting. She was like a very animated Rhomba or live dust-and-mop. I keep checking her every hour or so since I missed some goop. More dust collected, and I need to trim off more hair. Her tail was mostly naked and she had bald spots on her belly. Otherwise she suffered no ill effects--except hiding for one day in the closet and refusing to let me pick her up and walk towards the bathroom for an entire week.

The Christmas Pony

2011-12-25T00:52:00.000-08:00

It was Christmas eve. The extended family had gathered at my parents' house to celebrate. My 5-year old niece Amy came running up me and handed me a small, lovingly wrapped package. "Guess what it is," she joyfully asked. "But you can't open it until tomorrow morning," she added.

Well the last thing in the world I wanted to do was ruin a little girl's Christmas surprise. So I took the small box and carefully shook it. The box was just the size that small pieces of jewelry comes in. And it rattled just like a piece of jewelry. So I decided to guess something that could not possibly be in the box. "It's a pony," I announced.

Pony magnet that is currently on my refrigerator

Poor Amy, her face crumpled and tears came to her eyes. Sobbing, she turned and ran to her mother. "Aunt Pam is so mean. She guessed. She guessed."

Here is what was in the box.
I felt so bad for the rest of the night. I had to play a lot of games to get Amy back in the Christmas spirit.

But what is ironic is that Amy's gift pony magnet turned out to look a lot like my first and only horse Blessi.

Blessi says Merry Christmas to everybody!!!

A Different Type of Sleigh Ride

2011-12-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

Of course, not everybody can afford a ride with Pere Noel himself. Some people make their own sleighs. Look at the ingenuity of this person. And if you watch closely, you might catch a glimpse of Santa's reindeer in the fields--or is it more horses?

Pere Noel and the Icelandic Horse

2011-12-23T00:03:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Christmas. Pere Noel takes Ambre for a carriage ride through the streets of a French city. Since his reindeer are only trained to draw a sleigh, Pere Noel had to harness up his trusty Icelandic horse. The video starts after the series of photos. Enjoy!

What Blessi is getting for Christmas--A Hand Hooked Saddle Pad

2011-12-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

One of my hobbies is felting and needle work. So I decided to make Blessi a saddle pad for Christmas. I found these neat on-line directions for an old style cowboy hooked saddle pad made with roving and burlap. I have been working on getting a Western saddle to go over the pad. I ordered the wool roving from this site:

http://www.thesheepshedstudio.com/Roving.html

I ordered five pounds of roving in chestnut and cream--to match my pony. The roving was high quality and easy to work with. Well, the saddle pad turned out beautifully!!! Here is a picture--please note nobody was at the stable that day and my horse Blessi thought it was silly to hold up his head just for a picture when there was grass to eat.
Here are the online directions for making a pad:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5024333_make-hooked-wool-saddle-p...

If you are making a 32 X 32 inch pad, you need all 5 lbs of roving. The pad is about 2 inches thick but will compress down to slightly less than 1 inch under the saddle. I did not have enough left over roving to finish the cat bed that I started. And the process takes a lot of time. If somebody wants to do a more precise pattern, they will probably want to order more wool to make sure they have enough of a certain shading.

WASU on his favorite bed.

Everyone (including my cats) want to snuggle with the pad and take a nap on it.

I just reordered more roving to make a black and cream English style saddle pad.

What an Appaloosa-Colored Icelandic Would Look Like

2011-12-20T00:05:00.000-08:00

In Britain, somebody crossed an Appaloosa with an Icelandic (or perhaps the horses made the decision). Icelandics come in over 40 different colors--from silver dapple to cream to dappled grays to all variations of pinto--but Appaloosa. The closest you get to Appaloosa in an Icelandic horse is some "ink spots." So here is what an Appalossa-colored Icelandic would look like. I have to admit this cross is very cute and talented also. Too bad Stripes is in England or I know a lot of people who would be tempted to buy this horse.

Blessi Explains How to Do Equine Massage

2011-12-19T00:16:00.000-08:00

Blessi is an honorary Tennessee Walker. A few years ago, Blessi and I attended a play day set up by the Pleasure Walkers Club of Washington. I had to leave early but left Blessi for some of the club members to ride in the afternoon games. At the end of the day, Blessi was invited to join the club--I still think I was an afterthought on the invitation.

The club set up a "Learn Equine Massage" clinic taught by Ashley Bowen, Stride N' Balance Massage for Horse and Rider. Ashley asked if the club would provide a horse that a) had been through equine massage before, b) was good with a whole bunch of people standing around, and c) would permit several people to work on him at once. And like just about any time somebody comes up with a strange idea for a horse activity, Blessi gets volunteered. Actually, Ashley had worked on Blessi before and he likes both Ashley and massage so he was a good choice--mostly--as you shall see.

So the day of the clinic arrives and Ashley starts demonstrating how to massage an equine. Everything is going well until Blessi decides to provide commentary. When Ashley concentrates on the massage, Blessi lifts his upper lip and "Smiles" or makes a face.

As soon as Ashley addresses the audience, Blessi stops the behavior. Within minutes, Blessi has the audience in stitches. Ashley thinks she is very witty. She never catches Blessi as he continues to provide commentary behind her back.

The Club President forwarded pictures to Ashley the next day and explained what happened. Ashley now uses those pictures on her business card. Oh, and I have Ashely to thank for "carrot stretches." She showed the audience how you can use carrots to get your horse to stretch to either side or make a bow to stretch out those neck muscles. Blessi thinks earning a carrot is a wonderful thing. When bored, he will start doing carrot stretches and bows unprompted. This unusual behavior has provided some interesting moments in subsequent non-massage clinics.

Let me make a personal testimony. Ashely really knows her stuff. Blessi took a tumble one time in the arena. He was playing like a colt and made a sudden turn in some uncertain footing and went down. He got up and continued to play but the next day he had a weird limp. I had the vet out and he could not pinpoint a cause but suggested pasture rest. A few weeks later, Blessi was still limping so I had Ashley come out. She led him limping into the stall for a massage and led him out an hour later limp free. He had pulled some sort of muscle during his tumble but had gotten used to holding his neck and back in an out-of-balanced way. Ashley was able to make the adjustment and get him back to normal.

Ashley Bowen's business card

Flocked Icelandic Horses for Christmas

2011-12-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Christmas....If you are looking for party favors or gifts for children over 5, these Derby Stable flocked Icelandic horses are adorable. One is even tolting. And you don't even have to be an Icey fan to appreciate them Dollar Tree Stores are carrying them for, what else, $1 each.

My friend Deb made giant cupcakes for my birthday celebration and decorated them with these cute little guys. (Hint: wrap the legs in plastic so the icing doesn't ruin them and the flocking doesn't get into the icing.)

Deb made me these giant cupcakes for my birthday.

Here are the Bad Cowgirls--Pamela, Lora, Deb, and Gretchen.

I also gave a complete set to my 3 1/2 year old niece (to be played with under adult supervision). MacKenzie adores them. And I gave them Icelandic names--Blessi, Veigar (Blessi's registered name), and Miska. I had to write them down since MacKenzie can't remember them. My Mom has to look them up every few hours.

Blessi on the Race Track

2011-12-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

When you go to a race track, this is what you expect to see. Long-legged thoroughbreds bursting out of the starting gate.

You don't expect to see this--Icelandic horses on the race track. In 2007 and 2008, my Icelandic instructor Svanny Stefánsdóttir rode Blessi in the Parade of Breeds at Emerald Down Racetrack in Auburn, WA. In the photo above, Peter Townsend is riding his Icelandic gelding Thytur. Below is Svanny and Peter warming up in the Emerald Downs parking lot.

Icelandics in The Great American Horse Race

2011-12-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

In 1976, 91 riders (there is some disagreement as to exact number of riders) and
a 450 support team participated in the Great American Horse Race. The race was
for 3,000 miles from Frankfort, NY, to Sacramento, CA and was scheduled to last
over 100 days. Each rider had two mounts. Vet checks were done 4 times a day. Icelandic horses had a spectacular showing in this extreme long distance race.

http://creativecats.sectorlink.org/gahr/gahr.html

Riders in the race originated from all over the US, Canada, Germany, Austria,
France, Switzerland, Iceland and Australia. Horsebreeds represented
were:"Spanish Mustang, Arabian, Morgan, Saddlebred, Standardbred, Pony of
America, Pinto, Icelandic pony, half Orlov trotter, Mule, Appaloosa, Palomino,
Thoroughbred, an Albino, Quarter Horse, Connemara pony, Paso Fino."

http://theequestrianvagabond.blogspot.com/2011/02/great-american-horse-race.html

The winner of the race was Virl Norton, riding the mules Lord Fauntlerroy and
Lady Eloise. At the beginning of the race, Virl cautioned, "Watch the mules.
They're tougher and can take the tough terrain better than a horse," he said. He
felt his mules could match the Arabian horses at endurance because this was
going to be a long race, not a fast one.

http://virlnorton.madmoosestudio.com/articles_read.php?id=4

All of the remaining top 22 places went to Arabs or Arab crosses except for :

7th Appaloossa
9th Conamarra ponies
10th mules
13th Icelandics (Johannas Hoyos)
16th Pinto/Thoroughbred
21st Icelandic (Walter Feldman)
22nd Appaloosa
http://creativecats.sectorlink.org/gahr/gahr.html

Per Robyn Hood, TTouch trainer and a Canadian breeder and trainer of Icelandics http://www.icefarm.com/ ,participated as support crew during the race. As Robyn commented, "During the GAHR the organizers liked to put the Icelandics near the entry to our camping site because our horses looked so good. We fed them as much hay as they could eat and about 6 pounds of grain a day. They were very fit but not thin."

http://great-american-horse-race.iceryder.net/

There is a book available on Amazon about the Race:

The Great American Horse Race of 1976: A Photographic Documentary by Curtis Lewis

What an interesting bit of history!

Why I got an Icelandic--It is all Kathy Anderson's fault

2011-12-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, December 14th, 2003, I was sitting in my living room reading the Neighbors section of the Philadelphia Inquirer. My eye was immediately caught by the absolutely adorable photos of these hairy little ponies. What were they? They looked nothing like the thoroughbreds and quarter horses on which I had been taking riding lessons. So I had to read the article.

Kathy Anderson had written an article entitled "The feel of Iceland--courtesy of farm." Kathy, then living in Malibu, CA, and her niece had come east to visit family for Christmas.  Having heard of Lynn Alfonsi's Viking Horses, they booked a ride through the Chester County countryside on Icelandic horses.

Kathy describes her first look at Icelandic horses: "As Lynn led us away from the aloof thoroughbred to a nearby paddock we watched four horses with very thick, long manes trot over to us with friendly enthusiasm. You could sense immediately that these were horses with a lot of personality" (p. 1).   Oh, I thought, these horses are not only cute but they seem like such characters. Intrigued I read on.

Kathy goes on to describe her first memorable ride on an chestnut mare named Rúm. "Once out in the field, Rúm surveyed the environment, took note of all the activity, then picked up her pace. She was very alert without being skittish and sturdy without being cloddish. She whinnied with delight at being out on a cold winter day with her pals. Her sure and sensible attitude gave me confidence, and I was ready to give "tolting" a try. I gave Rúm the signals Lynne had shown us, and the Icelandic moved into the smoothest and fastest gait I had ever ridden! We were now 'tolting' across the brisk countryside" (p. 1, 12).

What is this tolt I wondered? My knowledge of horse breeds was limited. I did know about walk, trot, and canter and I vaguely remembered something about ambling palfreys in the middle ages.   And I had heard of Tennessee Walkers but had never seen gaited horses except on the pages of a book. I just knew that the lesson horses that I had been riding were safe. they were reliable, they had good training basics--but that trot sure was rough.

Kathy goes on to describe the rest of the ride. "Once out on the trail, and now comfortable with my mount, I went into a state of tranquility. Riding for me is a meditative place to think about everything and nothing at all. It's a place to talk with my riding companions and a place to be silent and listen to nature...The landscape resembled a Wyeth painting in its stark simplicity, and the soft winter sunlight cast shadows from empty tree branches. The brisk, cold air was invigorating, and when my hands became cold, I put them under Rúm's thick mane for warmth and shelter. The quiet of this winter day was accompanied by the gentle sounds of hooves hitting the frozen earth and geese flying overhead" (p. 12). This passage was more poem than prose to me. Was there something magical about these Icelandic horses?

How wonderful to ride through the rolling Chester County country side on a brisk winter day. Up to this point, I had been mostly riding lesson horses in the arena with an occasional trail ride.  I didn't want to ride a colorless lesson horse in the arena anymore--I dreamed of having a companion and just the two of us could explore that wonderful countryside that so inspired Andrew Wyeth. And Icelandics sounded so much more alive, personable, and calm than any horses I had met previously. I clipped the article out of the paper. For weeks, I kept re-reading that article.

It snowed in Chester County in February.   I couldn't stand it any more. I called Lynn at the number listed at the end of the article. I booked a ride and ended up tolting on Rúm. I kept booking more and more rides. By April, I was the proud partner of my own Icelandic Blessi and we were boarding with Lynn. And it is all Kathy Anderson's fault.

Along with her very successful career in the film industry, Kathy Anderson continues to write equestrian articles, especially about preserving the American mustang. She has a web site at http://web.me.com/kathfilms/Kathy_Anderson/Feature_Writer_articles.html where you can read this article in its entirety along with many other wonder stories. I recently corresponded with Kathy to thank her for her inspiring article. If not for her I would have missed meeting up with this wonderful breed.

Blessi and Icelandic Horse Character

2011-12-12T00:05:00.000-08:00

Rena, who owns the stable where I board Blessi, gave me the following card. She says the cartoon face looks just like Blessi and I totally agree with her. But you can judge for yourself by comparing the cartoon Blessi to the real Blessi.

And Blessi is certainly a "character" in the definition of "a person who is odd, different, or eccentric." Which brings up the question, what is the character of the Icelandic horse.

Per the International Icelandic breeding standards, the Icelandic horse at its best “should be very willing, brave, happy, cheerful, confident and offering its best with very little encouragement. The horse tries to please the rider and is sensible and easy to handle.” (pg., e-19)
Source: Antonsson, G., Siiger Hansen, J., Grimm, M. eds. (2011) FEIF Rules for Icelandic Horse Breeding FEIF International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations. Found on September 23, 2011 at http://feif.org/Download/Breeding/tabid/204/Default.aspx

However everybody has a different definition of “willingness”—what should be the balance between “forwardness” versus “mangeability.” As Bjőrnsson, G., & Sveinsson state, “Horsemen do not see eye to eye about willingness, and everyone has his own requirements. Some are not satisfied with willingness and want vigour—but from vigour to loss of manageability can sometimes be a short step. Judging of breeding horses and gæđingar often have a difficult job giving scores for this difficult feature” (p. 154).
Source: Bjőrnsson, G., & Sveinsson, H. (2006). The Icelandic Horse, Edda Publishing, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Yes the Icelandic is a sweet faced, “brave, happy, cheerful, confident” little horse but there is fire in his soul. And there is considerable differences among Icelandic horses as to “willingness” and “forwardness.” And training may impact the balance between the two characteristics also. The Icelandic as a breed is not a children’s horse (although some are very suited for children.) Don’t mistake the cartoon for the real horse. If you are thinking about getting an Icelandic horse, be sure to have a frank discussion with the seller about how he or she defines “willingness.”

I Love You Peter Pan

2011-12-11T01:42:00.000-08:00

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are British comic team who have worked on various radio and TV projects for almost 30 years. Saunders is also known for her lead role in Absolutely Fabulous and Jennifer Sauders also worked on The Vicker of Dibley. But they are most famous for their skits and film parodies on the BBC show French and Saunders.

Here is one of their brilliant gems from that series about girls and their ponies. It is laugh out loud funny.

How many "I love you Peter Pan" moments can you share?

Unusual Trail Obstacles

2011-12-10T00:05:00.000-08:00

On Gaited Horse Sense discussion group, people have been helping me come up with trail obstacles that may come up at the NW Horse Expo All Breed show. Some people shared pictures of the craziest obstacles that they have ever encountered.

Barbara M. shows what happens when your horse can't believe that there is a (stuffed) lynx on that table. Barbara (http://www.pegasusacres.com/) has her own blog at http://creatingpegasus.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately, I don't have permission to show the photo of the horse and the stuffed moose!

Blessi and the Extreme Trail Challenge

2011-12-08T00:05:00.000-08:00

This is one of the videos submitted to the NW Horse Expo that helped us get early acceptance to the All Breed Competition. This fall, my dressage instructor Dannelle Haugen rode Blessi in the 2011 Kitsap Saddle Club Extreme Trail Challenge in Port Orchard, WA. Dannelle is an accomplished dressage trainer who teaches Intro to fourth level dressage. Dannelle also holds several titles within the Arabian Sport Horse circuit including: Top Ten at 2^nd Level, 3^rd Level, 4^th Level dressage. This was both Blessi and Dannelle's first attempt at an Extreme Trail Challenge. They took the Grand Championship with 191 points out 200. They scored 10 out of 10 for 17 of the 20 obstacles. They were the only competitors riding in English tack and Blessi was the only gaited horse.

Dannelle rode Blessi brilliantly. But what is so surprising about this performance is the number of obstacles that Blessi had never encountered or encountered only once:

rocking bridge--I led Blessi over a rocking bridge a few times two years ago
jumping--Dannelle took him over a few jumps once last summer and I free jumped him with a longe line once
carrying tarp over head--never
dragging a barrel--never
straddling a pole--never
cantering in figure 8 with lead changes--never

And Blessi and I don't spend a lot of time practicing side passing or opening gates or doing 360 turns in boxes--these are not traditional dressage movements.

Based on Blessi's reactions to things in the arena and on the trail, I believe that Blessi was ridden a lot on the trail in Icelandic before he was exported to the US. And if you have ever seen the "horse treks" in Iceland, this must have seemed like a walk in the park for Blessi.

So to Blessi extreme trail is just dressage with scary things--which is much more interesting than dressage.

Blessi is competing at All Breed at Northwest Horse Expo

2011-12-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

Bless and Dannelle at KSC Extreme Trail

I am so excited!!!! My dressage instructor Dannelle agreed to ride Blessi in the All Breed Competition at the Northwest Horse Expo in Albany, OR. Only 24 horses will be picked to compete in a multi-day competition from March 22 to 25. I had just mailed in the application last week and selections weren't suppose to be announced until February 1. But Blessi got early selection.

Crossing the moveable bridge

"The All Breed Challenge is a timed and judged competition through an obstacle course that will test the abilities of each horse/rider team as they execute familiar and new maneuvers that push them out of their traditional “comfort zones,”. In each preliminary round up horse/rider teams will attempt to conquer a timed course made up of tasks that can include jumps, dressage, reining, trail obstacles, barrel racing, ranch versatility and more. See gaited horses, dressage horses and western horses go head to head in this fun and challenging competition and compete for $3,000.00 in cash prizes, and the title of “Northwest Horse Fair & Expo All Breed Challenge Champion.”

Source: http://equinepromotions.net/northwest-horse-fair/event-details/special-events/

Not a classical jump position but
not bad for Blessi's second jump ever carrying a rider.

The Cascade Icelandic Horse Club and the Can Am Icelandic Horse Club will be sponsoring a booth and performing demos each day. If you want to meet these colorful, curious, fun small horses with the big hearts come on out to the NW Horse Expo. It will be a fun event!

Meanwhile, Dannelle and I need to figure out how to get Blessi prepared for this competition. Wish us well!

War Horse in Korea--SGT Reckless, A War Hero

2011-12-06T00:05:00.000-08:00

With the movie War Horse soon to be released, this would be a good time to highlight a real horse who served heroically in a war. Life Magazine once published a list of the top 100 American heroes and Sgt. Reckless, a mare who served with the US Marines in Korea was listed along with Washington, Jefferson, etc. Reckless' sire was from Korea and her mother from Japan. Although some sources claimed that she was a Mongolian pony, which breed is related to the Icelandic horse. And my Dad was also a Marine who served at the time of the Korean War.

The background to the story:

Like Icelandics, Reckless had a huge appetite:

"Reckless had a voracious appetite. She would eat anything and everything – but especially scrambled eggs and pancakes in the morning with her morning cup of coffee. She also loved cake, Hershey bars, candy from the C rations, and Coca Cola – even poker chips, blankets and hats when she was being ignored – or if she was trying to just prove a point."
http://www.sgtreckless.com/Reckless/About_Reckless.html

At the end of the war, the Marines brought Reckless back to the US where she was promoted to Sgt. and lived in retirement. A private was assigned to take care of her. This sometimes led to problems since she outranked her caretaker:

"Because she was a war horse from Korea, and carried ammo across no mans land to the troops on the front line, when she returned to the States there were written orders that nothing would ever be placed on her back other than her blankets, I remember asking how I was to exercise her if I could not get on her; that's when I learned that I was to run along side until she got tired and wanted to go back to the stall. Lucky for me she knew the word oats and I could usually get her to cut her runs short. I remember that when she retired as a S/Sgt, I was not permitted to lead her in the parade because she out-ranked me and I could not

give her orders, so they found a ranking NCO for that duty."

http://www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/mascreck.html

And in this video, Gerry Lucasik wrote a song celebrating Reckless.

Unfortunately, almost all of the horses who served in the wars did not have such a happy ending. And I know I am going to cry like a baby when I see the movie War Horse.

Fathers and Daughters and Ponies

2011-12-05T00:07:00.000-08:00

My father

It is my Dad's birthday today so I thought I would write about the important role that a Dad plays when his daughter goes horse crazy--regardless of her age. My parents did not have the money to support a horse when I was growing up. However, they made sure that all the important things in life were covered such as health care, college, and, of course, love and support.

So when I got interested in horses late in life, my Dad found himself in the unusual position of playing equine enabler for a daughter in her late 40s. I had taken some riding lessons and was thinking about getting a horse. Well, after my first ride on an Icelandic horse, I knew that I wanted an Icey. The only instructor offering lessons on Icelandic horses was Kelly Pierce of Sundaze Icelandics, whose facility was close to my parents' home in Harrisburg, PA. So every few weeks, I would drive to see my parents and book a lesson with Kelly.

My Dad insisted on taking me to my lesson. He was not at all interested in horses. His only experience with horses was a job that he had early in his life driving a team of draft horses to drag out timber in Western Pennsylvania. This was one of his least favorite jobs. Despite his dislike of horses, he would faithfully drive me to my lesson and patiently wait for me in the car. So here he was in his late 60s performing a service that most fathers get out of the way in their 20s or 30s.

Today, my Dad is in nursing home. I went to visit him a few weeks ago. His eyes lit up when he saw me and the first words he spoke were "How's the pony?" And he still patiently listened to me tell Blessi stories. Thank you Dad. I love you.