Mules are smarter than their parents
August 12th, 2008 by admin
When it comes to intelligence, mules have got it where it counts. These hybrids - bred from male donkeys and female horses - have turned out to be smarter than either of their parent species.
Leanne Proops at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK, tested the learning skills of horses, donkeys and mules in a bid to assess their cognitive abilities.
Six of each animal were shown sets of two food buckets, each marked with a different symbol.In order to gain access to the food, the animals had to pick the correct bucket. The mules learned to discriminate between more pairs of symbols than the horses or donkeys, and did so more consistently (Animal Cognition, DOI: 10.1007/s10071-008-0172-1).
Proops reckons that increased intelligence in the mule is a result of hybrid vigour, where the best genes of the parent species “mix and match” to produce hybrids with superior traits. While this mechanism gives mules greater height and endurance than either parent, this is the first study to show that hybrid vigour is able to improve cognitive function, too.
Although mules are physically robust and smart, they are also sterile, notes Ben Fitzpatrick of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. So unfortunately, in evolutionary terms, this increased intelligence is a gift that cannot be passed on.
Source: NewScientist
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Failte Ireland Horse Show 2008
August 7th, 2008 by adminOver a thousand horses and ponies will take part in this year’s Failte Ireland Horse Show which got underway at the RDS in Dublin this morning.
Teams from eight countries will compete for an overall prize fund of €800,000 at the event which has been running now for 135 years.
This year’s show also sees the return of Eddie Macken.
After a ten-year break, he joins Jessica Kurten, Cian O’ Connor, Edward Doyle and Denis Lynch on the Nations Cup panel.
Source: BelfastTelegrapg
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Crash kills 14 horses and 1 man
August 7th, 2008 by adminA veteran rodeo star and 14 of his horses were killed in a head-on collision in western Canada, police said Wednesday.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a tractor-trailer carrying 15 horses collided with a pickup truck Tuesday near Rycroft in west-central Alberta. The driver and 14 of the horses were killed.
Police have not released the man’s name, but friends confirmed it was 68-year-old Herman Flad.
A man and a child in the pickup were taken to a hospital.
Flad was a veteran of Canada’s chuckwagon racing circuit. The sport, involving four thoroughbred horses pulling a covered wooden wagon, is popular at rodeos mainly in western Canada, such as the Calgary Stampede.
Kelly Sutherland, a longtime friend and a fellow chuckwagon driver, said Flad’s death is a blow to the chuckwagon community.
“He spent the better part of 50 years with horses — he was a true traditional cowboy. He just loved the sport of chuckwagon racing like nobody else,” said Sutherland.
Flad won the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby title in 1980, the Grande Prairie Stompede in 1998 and the Edmonton Klondike Chuckwagon Derby in 2001.
Source: AP
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Bo Derek on horse racing board
July 16th, 2008 by admin
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named actress and animal rights activist Bo Derek on Tuesday to a state commission overseeing horse racing.
Derek, 51, was appointed to fill one of two vacant posts on the California Horse Racing Board, a position requires confirmation by the state Senate and pays $100 per diem.
Derek is a horse lover who has lobbied Congress for the past five years to ban the slaughter of the animals. She also owns the pet care products company Bless the Beasts, which sells such items as dog shampoos, conditioner and fur polish.
She also wrote the book “Riding Lessons: Everything That Matters in Life I Learned from Horses.” Her Web site said the autobiography links her life lessons with her understanding of horses.
Her first board meeting will be Thursday at the Del Mar racetrack. She joins Jerry Moss, the co-founder of A&M Records and a prominent horse owner, on the board.
Also appointed was writer and TV producer David Israel, whose credits include “The Untouchables” and “Midnight Caller.” As a former syndicated sports columnist, Israel covered the Triple Crown victories of Seattle Slew and Affirmed in the 1970s.
The seven-member racing board supervises horse racing and parimutuel wagering at racetracks in California, enforces laws and regulations, and sanctions violators.
Source: AP
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BLM to move 1100 wild horses
June 28th, 2008 by adminn an effort to save their lives, the Bureau of Land Management will start an emergency gather to remove 1,100 horses from the Nevada Wild Horse Range.
Since the grounds do not have the water or foliage to support the horses, the 15 to 20-day roundup will move them to a facility in Ridgecrest, Calif.
Officials said the number of horses will be brought down to an “appropriate management level,” a term used to describe the number of animals the landscape can sustain. The rest will be moved.
Crews will use water trapping to gather the animals and, once trapped, will feed, water and inoculate the animals before relocation.
Many of the animals will be available for adoption or sale about 45 days after they arrive at the new facilities in mid-August.
Source: FoxNews
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Miniature horses and Donkeys seized
June 28th, 2008 by admin
McClellanville — Thick, matted hair concealed sharp bones along the backs and hips of miniature horses and donkeys seized Thursday from a woman authorities said didn’t comply with orders to improve their care.
The shaggy coats were a sign that daily brushings had not been done, said Kay Hyman, director of outreach and communications for the Charleston Animal Society. Distended stomachs likely indicated parasites, she said, and one animal needs dental work.
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21 malnourished horses seized
June 28th, 2008 by adminAnimal control officers have seized 21 undernourished horses from a boarding facility in Riverside County, authorities said Thursday.
The officers, acting on a tip that the horses were being neglected, seized the animals Wednesday and took them to a private ranch where they were being cared for, the county Department of Animal Services said in a statement.
“These horses needed immediate veterinary care from what appears to be severe neglect,” animal services director Robert Miller said. The horses included Arabians, draft, quarter horses and paints.
The Menifee horse seizure follows a similar raid earlier this month at the Equus Sanctuary in Los Angeles County, where 15 sick and undernourished horses had to be euthanized. About 100 horses were taken to other facilities.
Authorities posted a notice on the Menifee property, citing a section of state law that allows an animal control organization to seize animals that appear to be neglected. The owner of the facility has ten days to respond.
Source: MercuryNews
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Evacuated horses back home
June 28th, 2008 by adminAll the horses evacuated from the Trabing Fire are finally safe at home.
“It was utter chaos,” said Marguerite Nicholson of the fire that swept through Larkin Valley June 20.
The rescue effort was “very unofficial,” she said, and “just a matter of trying to help friends and neighbors in times of emergency.”
Volunteers joined with Santa Cruz County Animal Services to save 220 horses and livestock, including llamas, goats and a mini-horse, by sundown the day of the fire. The animals were evacuated to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville and to the Graham Hill Showgrounds in Santa Cruz.
Animal Services was on the scene within an hour after the fire broke out after getting calls from frantic people who couldn’t get to their property to rescue their animals.
“We already had control officers in the field, and we called and told them to drop everything and sent them to the evacuation zone,” said Tricia Geisreiter, Animal Services coordinator. At the fairgrounds, “we were so busy keeping track of the horses that we lost track of how many volunteers showed up,” she said. “They’d say, ‘how can I help?’ And we’d say ‘here, feed the animals hay.’”
The last horses and volunteers returned home Sunday morning.
The most recent fire brings to light the necessity of having more people trained in equine evacuation, said Linda Murre, a volunteer.
Source: MercuryNews
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Michael Caine will never ride again
June 25th, 2008 by adminOscar winner Michael Caine has revealed that he vowed to never ride a horse after his friend Christopher Reeves got paralysed in an equestrian accident. Contactmusic.com reports that Caine thinks he is a bad rider and was lucky to survive a horse riding scene while filming “The Last Valley” in 1970. After Reeves’s accident in 1995, Caine told his agent to ignore all horse-based movies. Reeves died in 2004.
Caine said: “I am absolutely useless. I act as though I can ride. In ‘The Last Valley’, I led a charge. If I’d have come off, they’d have all run over me. But since Christopher’s accident, I say, ‘If there’s a horse in the script, don’t even send it to me.’ I’m never getting on a horse again.”
Source: ThaiIndianNews
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Reno Rodeo Collision
June 25th, 2008 by adminThe start of the Reno Rodeo was delayed for about 15 minutes tonight when the horses of two members of the Reno Rodeo Flag Girls Drill Team collided in the middle of the arena.
Rhonda Barnes and Sherry Davis were knocked from their horses and Davis’s horse, Love, also went down.
After several minutes, Davis was able to get to her feet.
Barnes was placed on a backboard and evaluated in the on-site medical center. She was transported to Renown Regional Medical Center, Reno Rodeo Medical Director Alan Tom said.
Tom said late Monday that X-rays of her neck and spine showed no injuries, but there was swelling on her face and concern about a broken jaw and MRI tests were pending late tonight.
The injured horse was placed in the Flying U Rodeo Company’s animal care unit and taken to Comstock Large Animal Hospital. It was walked at the hospital with no signs of trauma, rodeo officials said.
Barnes’ horse, Shorty, suffered bruises, but was walking at the rodeo grounds.
The Flag Girls Drill Team consists of the best riders of the Reno Rodeo’s Flag Girls. The group a few days earlier won its division at a drill team competition.
Source: rgj
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