Archive for the ‘She Rides’ Category

Horse Meat in the Beef Supply in Europe!

Seriously? Can you believe this story?

My sweet old girl, China (that’s her above), is quite disturbed by that headline. If I didn’t have the resources tok take care of her in her old age after she had finished having babies and packing people around on her back, she might end up in a burger.

Even if you factor out the psychological trama that someone (like me) who has had a decades long love affair with all things equine would incur by unknowingly eating horse meat, the fact that food manufacturers/distributers were outright lying on meat labels is horrifying.

In Britain, it has been confirmed that horse DNA was found in meat pies sent to 47 schools in Lancashire. Confirmation is now available that horse meat was served to patients in hospitals and ended up in convenience frozen foods, most notably lasagna.

And now, not only horse DNA, but traces of bute (a very powerful horse anti-inflammatory and pain killer), routinely administered to horses (especially as they age) have been found in meat labeled as beef in France.

It’s bad enough that the majority of the beef sold in the world today is riddled with hormones, antibiotics and pesticides, now it appears as though people who had trusted their government labeling regulations, ate horse meat with traces of powerful painkillers.

All of this has just made me more determined to know where my food comes from. I want to personally know the people who produce the food I put in my body and serve to my family.

Xxoo,

RMW

HAD – Horse Addiction Disorder – It’s a real disease!

This post is in honor of the letter “H” and part of Jenny Matlock’s Alphabet Thursday. For more hilarious “H” posts, please click here http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/

HAD (Horse Addiction Disorder) refers to the psychological dependence on equines.

HAD sufferers are generally happy people, in fact all of them will tell you they don’t suffer from this condition, they survive because of it!

I saw this on several different websites that cater to us horsey types, and got quite a kick out it. It’s absolutely true!

It started for me about the time I turned 40, this overwhelming desire to be around horses as much as I could. It lead to the acquisition of two mares, which eventually led to the purchase of a truck and trailer, a large plot of land in the middle of nowhere and all kinds of various and assorted horse related accessories.

Since this disorder (I can’t tell you how happy I am that I have a real disease and not just that I am weak and indulge myself) typically starts when women are in their early teens and have very little money, it usually isn’t quite as devastating financially. If it strikes when you are more established financially, that just means that you have more to spend (and lose) on treatment (i.e. more horses, more t-shirts with cute horse sayings on them, a bigger truck, bigger trailer, a barn, well, you get the picture).

There was a time in my life when everything I did or said revolved around my disease. I worked all day, but then came home to brush, feed, clean and ride my horses. At one point, I ended up with nine of them!

Fortunately, I’m in recovery. I still keep horses and love them, but I don’t feel like I have to buy every horse that looks like it wants to come home with me, and I don’t think every mare on my place needs to be pregnant most of the time. For one thing, I just don’t have the energy I had once and there are limits to what I can do physically and financially, so I’ve cut down, waaayyy down. Every once in a while, though, I pass a new born foal on a neighbor’s farm, or I see an amazing stallion who would be a great cross on a certain mare and I get the itch. It’s probably something like an ex-smoker who gets a whiff of cigarette smoke on occasion.

At any rate, I’m not ready to give it up entirely and who knows what the future will bring? There may be one more special baby who will take the show world by storm in my future. For now, I like to think of myself as being in semi-retirement. When the house is completely finished and I finally get a barn built, I may just start looking for that perfect Arabian mare who wants to have a baby or two. You never know what might happen around this place!

Xxoo,

RMW

JUST SOMETHING FOR HIM TO DO – HOW I GOT INTO THE HORSE BUSINESS PART III

This post is in honor of the letter “J” and part of Jenny Matlock’s Alphabet Thursday. For more “J” posts, please click here http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/

The mares came back from the breeder. We rented a big pasture across the street from our house so they could run around for the summer, barefoot and pregnant. As the summer days got longer, I couldn’t seem to go to bed until I had walked across the street to check on the “girls”, maybe taking them a carrot or apple. I’m not sure if it was the mother in me or if I just had always been fascinated with horses and didn’t know it until then, but I fell in love with these two little mares and the idea of two baby horses the next spring really was tripping my trigger if you know what I mean! I started doing research on imprinting and training and horse care and anything else I could find about my new obsession. It was like being 16 and falling in love for the first time, I couldn’t think about anything else except my new passion. Oh Wilbur!

When the vet came out and confirmed our mares were pregnant, something in me shifted and I was changed forever. I know that sounds dramatic, but it was a life changing moment that took me completely by surprise. I had always loved animals and typically had a dog or two running around, but this was entirely different. The whole idea was to just find something for my husband to do now that he couldn’t work anymore. No one, especially me, expected this to turn into what it did. I wanted to build a bigger barn, buy a few more mares, quit my job and breed and train horses full time. The problem was that my job was our only source of income now and as anyone who has ever bred horses will tell you, it really isn’t a good way to make money, just spend money.

So I went to work every morning and then rushed home to clean stalls and groom horses. My husband just kind of stood back and watched me with this shocked look on his face. He never said it, but I think he was a little worried that I was going just a tad overboard. He had no idea how overboard I could get!

Summer turned into fall and fall became a very cold and snowy winter. We moved the mares back over to the barn behind our house and I spent every spare minute I could with them. I loved to brush them and put my hands on their swollen bellies. You could feel the colts moving around in there. I would stand for 1/2 hour at a time in the freezing barn leaning up against one of them and feeling the babies. I was hooked and there was no going back…

To be continued…

For the beginning of this story, please click on the “She Rides” category…