One of North Carolina’s wild horses recently got herself stuck halfway over a fence. The 1-year-old mare, Amelia, is a member of the wild horses of Corolla who live on the Outer Banks. In attempting to cross a fence she apparently misjudged (youthful inexperience?) and got stuck straddling the rails with her front legs on one side and back legs on the other. There is no way to know how long she was immobilized but the rest of the herd had wandered away by the time two tour guides happened upon her. Interaction with the Outer Bank wild horses is prohibited for the safety of  both people an ..read more

The Interior Ministry of Poland has proposed new legislation that would grant dogs and horses serving the police, border guard and fire services the type of retirement they deserve. The legislation grants official status to each working animal and a stipend paid to their new owners to help cover their cost. The law was drafted following appeals from service members concerned when the animals are given away with no safeguards for their future welfare. The law would affect approximately 1200 dogs and 60 horses currently in service to their communities. Nearly 10% of service animals are retired a ..read more

June 17, 1875, Saline, Kansas (USA): Our vigilant sheriff captured a horse their by the name of Clark at Bavaria, last evening, and brought him to the jail, late in the night. He had been disturbing horse flesh on Chapman’s creek. The other part of his name was not I.F. There will be a grand display of horses at the Fourth of July celebration. Owners of fast horses from Russell, Ellsworth, Dickinson, Ottawa, Lincoln and McPherson counties have signified their intention to enter their respective horses for races. The first race will take place at 11 o’clock, a.m. An exciting horse race took pla ..read more

Written by Life Coach, Katherine Jansen, Shepherd’s Knoll Farm I was looking for a topic for the women’s group I lead, and the word of the day in the Daily Word booklet I subscribe to was “Weave”. And I love this word. For the actual weavers of the world, I do weave sometimes, using yarn I have hand-spun from my sheep’s wool, but I have a long, long way to go before I’d consider myself good at it. For one thing, when I get about ¾ of the way through warping my giant rigid heddle loom, using the other end of the dining table with the pin fixed to it to wrap my yarn around, … the whole loom levi ..read more

After the 2020 postponement until October due to the Covid pandemic, this year’s Preakness Stakes returns to its traditional place, 2 weeks after the Kentucky Derby and 3 weeks before the Belmont Stakes. Middle child syndrome certainly does not apply to this year’s middle gem of the Triple Crown series. The public spotlight shines more brightly than ever on the racing world. Thoroughbred racing has been highly scrutinized driven by public concerns over issues of safety and oversight. Running counts of horse deaths on the track have stirred political and industry regulatory modifications. Cont ..read more

May 9, 1860, Springfield, Ohio (USA): The Overland Mail Coach, with Lieut. Cogswell, of the USA, Dr. J P Breck, and Mr. and Mrs. Arnold, as passengers, and San Francisco dates to the 20th of April, arrived here at 4 P M California news anticipated by the Pony Express. By this arrival we have news from the frontiers of Texas, obtained from Lieut. Cogswell and Dr Breck They report the Indians very troublesome in the vicinity of Mustang Pond [Nevada], and between Mountain Pass Station and Phantom Hill. A blacksmith in the employ of the Overland Mail Company, and three men living at Mountain Pass ..read more

“Humanity’s true moral test, its fundamental test…consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.” ― Milan Kundera The Federation Equestre International (FEI), the international governing body of equestrian sports, recently handed down two rider suspensions and had an earlier suspension set aside on appeal. Brazilian Dressage Athlete Suspended for 3 Years for Horse Abuse April 21, 2021: The Federation Equine International (FEI) issued a final decision against Leondro Aparecido Da Silva filmed riding and mistreating his daughter’s pony. The FEI issued the following stateme ..read more

What is it about horses that we love so much? Their beauty? Their strength? Their soulful eyes that know all our secrets? Of course, the answer is YES. Trying to explain our love of horses to others can be difficult. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that “it’s just something that happens.” Oceana contemplates the day Such was the case for Patrick Archer of Grandview, Texas (USA). Patrick was always interested in animals, horses in particular. Twenty some years ago, Patrick and Chris Jones bought land south of Dallas/Fort Worth and began showing and breeding miniature donkeys. Over the y ..read more

In November 2019, a disturbing video was posted to Facebook showing a horse tied and dragged behind a moving truck. As the truck moved forward in the snow, the lead rope became taut. As the horse braced against the pressure its hooves slipped through the snow. The truck then sped up dragging the thrashing horse the length of a football field. In the original Facebook video (which was soon deleted) a woman filming is heard saying, “This (expletive) refuses to leave the ranch, so he’s pulling him across, cause he’s being a douchebag.” The video went viral eliciting widespread outrage. Authorit ..read more

Argentine researchers have successfully edited the genes of an equine embryo utilizing a technique called CRISPR or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. This successful advancement confirms the ability to produce customized horses by manipulating embryonic DNA. CRISPR was conceptualized by Emmanuelle Charpentier, PhD and Jennifer Doudna, PhD who proved in 2012 that genetic scissors can be harnessed and reprogrammed to edit specific DNA molecules in any organism. The two received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery. To date CRISPR has been utilized to dev ..read more