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

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

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?

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 passing on (assuming he were a stallion) above average conformation.  His best conformational features to be passed on are predicted to be his back, legs, and proportions.  And his worst features are predicted to be his mane and tail and head. As for gaits, BLUP predicts his potential offspring would have a decent trot and tolt.  It also predicts they will have a flying pace--which Blessi himself at age 15 has never shown.  BLUP predicts, his offspring would be taller than average (Blessi is 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. 

Remember BLUP refers to what could be passed on to offspring.  However, BLUP can give you some hints as to what to look for when you see the actual horse:  If BLUP predicts that the horse pass on a below average tolt, you could legitimately check on the quality of the actual horse's tolt.  Does BLUP predict that offspring 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 offspring 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.