Horse Sense

Fancy Dress Friday - Manitoba Moonsocks dressed as a car

This week's Fancy Dress Friday  features the wonderful Manitoba MoonSox dressed as a car, we'll let his owner Sand tell you all about it:

"My dad gives me a leg-up onto my bareback horse, and they put his costume on. I can tell Dad, Mom and BF are nervous about the whole thing. Yeah, if running at liberty is nerve-wracking, what's a giant cardboard car in front of so many people, with a horse that's never been in such a contraption at a walk (I had only had it fully on him once, at a stand still!), on a wind day gonna be like? Oh, and me mounted this time, bareback??!

Yes, I was up there and realizing I was insane. Literally, insane.

Am I nuts, or what?! You can't see the bleechers full of spectators!

We do one loop around the judges in the ring. The crowd is pleased. My family looks like they're just praying we make it once around.

 

 

The judge calls out that we won. And then...

 

The velcro comes undone on 1/2 the costume, thanks to the movement and the wind.

And as it half-falls off Moon, he starts circling, thinking it's chasing him. No matter how he circles, it's still following him.

Here's where I realize I know my horse. A couple of circles and I slide off his back, snap the piece of duct tape that lets me slide it easily off his body to the ground. He halts just as the judge and my dad run up, and they move it out of his way. He's totally fine now, and we walk out of the ring.

I get a lot of comments from other riders how there's ZERO way 1. Their horse would ever wear a costume like that, and 2. If it fell apart, they're horse would dump them and be out of there kicking and bucking.

: ) Not Mr. Moon. Not my Mr. Moon. He can be a nutter, but in all things, he still a very sane little pony."

If you'd like to read more about Mr. Moon aka Manitoba Moonsocks you'll find him on the blog Manitoba Moonsocks (and me)

Thanks Sand and Mr. Moon for a great Fancy Dress Friday.

Other Fancy Dress Friday posts include:

Spanish Lady

Dog dressed as horse

Sunflower Horse and Bumble Bee Handler

Pirate Ship

Skeleton

Easter Bunny

If Wishes Were Ponies - Franga Designs

Fancy Clips

BRC Quadrille Selection 2011

Miniature Horses in Fancy Dress

Pony dressed as lion

Pony styled as a poodle

Instructions for making an equine poodle costume here

A story of Lippizaner wedding carriage horses

 

A short video of Lipizzaners, English born Stuza and Hungarian Silver, getting ready for a horse drawn wedding and going home afterwards, with a collage of pictures of some of the weddings they attended.

International Helmet Awareness Day 2012 - coming soon

International Helmet Awareness Day 2012 is on June 9th.

What is International Helmet Awareness Day?

In 2010, Riders4Helmets hosted the first national event designed to educate equestrians on the benefits of wearing a properly fitting, secured and certified helmet. The event brought over 300 U.S.-based retailers and eight helmet manufacturers together, to help educate their customers on topics such as correct helmet fit and why wearing a helmet is important.

Since that day, Riders4Helmets expanded the event globally. Riders4Helmets International Helmet Awareness Day 2011 received support from 10 helmet manufacturers and more than 500 equestrian retailers in the USA, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. We are expecting even more growth globally for our 2012 event.

What are the benefits to equestrians?

• The opportunity to be educated by retailers on the importance of wearing a properly fitted and secured, certified helmet.
• The opportunity to participate in helmet fitting demonstrations.
• The opportunity to purchase a helmet at a one-time special discount offered only on International Helmet Awareness Day.
• Riders4Helmets will host a series of live educational webinars on Riders4Helmets.com during the 2012 Riders4Helmets International Helmet Awareness Day. The webinars will feature a variety of experts in: Traumatic Brain Injury and Concussion; Psychologists; Neuro Physiotherapists; Helmet Manufacturers (tips on correctly fitting a helmet); Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors; Leading Equestrians etc. Viewers will be able to ask “real-time” questions to these experts. Details of who the experts will be, along with the topics that they will discuss, will be available nearer the date.

When Is International Helmet Awareness Day?

• International Helmet Awareness Day 2012 will be held on Saturday June 9^th, 2012.

How do I find a participating retailer?

• You may use the search function on this website to locate participating equestrian retailers by “name” or by entering your address to find participating retailers located nearest to you. Equestrians are encouraged to visit Riders4Helmets.com on a regular basis for updates with regard to the event.

How can equestrians get involved?

• If your club or organization is interested in hosting their own event to celebrate the day, they may email admin@riders4helmets.com. We can send interested parties safety brochures and an educational CD that will be available for purchase at a small charge (to cover our costs).
• We will be happy to help promote any event by posting details of it on Riders4Helmets.com and also on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Equestrians are encouraged to take lots of photos of their event and write up a short description of what they did, and who participated. This will then be included as a feature article on the Riders4Helmets campaign website.

How can you help?

• The more you write, blog, post, tweet and, in general, share the details of International Helmet Awareness Day with equestrians in the build up to the event … the more people will have an opportunity to get educated on the benefits of wearing a helmet. Your sharing information on the event with others might just save a life.
• Logos, photographs and quotes for Riders4Helmets International Helmet Awareness Day 2012 may be obtained by emailing chad@riders4helmets.com.

About Riders4Helmets

Riders4Helmets was founded in early 2010 after Olympic dressage rider Courtney King-Dye was seriously injured in a riding accident. King-Dye, who remained in a coma for a month following her accident, was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident and continues to undergo rehabilitation. The goal of the Riders4Helmets Campaign is to educate equestrians on the benefits of wearing a properly fitted and secured, certified helmet. For more information on the Riders4Helmets campaign, visit riders4helmets.com. You can also follow the campaign at www.facebook.com/riders4helmets and http://twitter.com/riders4helmets.

"Ready &Willing" print of a black Percheron horse harnessed up and ready to go by Cindy Price McMurray

Artwork by Cindy Price
Cindy has always felt a connection with horses. Even when she was a girl she would draw horses. She is a 2001 honors graduate of the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
She lives in Bellaire, Michigan, and enjoys being in nature and interacting with all animals. In her work she strives to capture the spirit or soul of each individual animal making the artwork come alive. Horses have been her favorite subjects but she also focuses on dogs, birds, deer, or any animal that might catch her fancy. Cindy also specializes in custom animal portraits, working from photos of the pet.
Cindy works mainly in pastel because she loves the feel of it, the softness she can achieve and also the ability to move it around on the paper without any brushes to get in the way. Cindy has been attending art shows and selling her work since she was thirteen years old. She is now an internationally collected artist. She has won numerous awards, mostly for her paintings of horses - her favorite subject.

Some of Her Awards Include

"Ready & Willing" won 1st Place Drawing in the Exe Equinus Art Competition put on by Art Horse Magazine. Dec. 2007.

Best of Show Award at the Grosse Pointe Hunt Club Art Fair in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. June 25th and 26th 2005.

"Night Watch" won the President’s Choice Award at the Grosse Pointe Hunt Club Art Fair. Grosse Pointe,Michigan. June 25th and 26th 2005

"Mama’s Side" was selected to receive the Mayor’s Choice Award at the Warren Art in the Park in 2004. She also received second place in the two dimensional category.

"Golden Glow" has been selected as the official artwork for EquitanaUSA held in Louisville Kentucky, June 14 - 17, 2001. "Golden Glow" was featured on the program cover, T-shirts, posters, and banners.


"Evening Glow" won an Outstanding Award at the 2001 Warren Tri-county Fine Arts Inc. Prestige Show.


"Chelsey" was voted as the People's Choice Award at the 2000 Thumb Area Artists Exhibition sponsored by the Romeo Guild of Art.

"Evening Glow" won the Best Animal Award at the 2000 Thumb Area Artists Exhibition sponsored by the Romeo Guild of Art.

"Head Rest" was voted as the People's Choice Award at the 1999 Thumb Area Artists Exhibition sponsored by the Romeo Guild of Art.

"Head Rest" also won the Best Animal Award at the 1999 Thumb Area Artists Exhibition sponsored by the Romeo Guild of Art.

"Chestnut Beauty" won the Best Animal Award at the 1997 Thumb Area Artists Exhibition sponsored by the Romeo Guild of Art.

The print pictured is of a black percheron horse harnessed up and ready to go.  The original pastel painting was created by Cindy Price in the year 2007 and won 1st place drawing in the Ex Art Equinus Competition by Art Horse Magazine. The print is approximately 8x10 inches and it is matted to a standard 11x14 inch and available to purchase form Cindy's shop Cindy Price Art.

Fancy Dress Friday - Spanish Lady

Just look at these two

What an amazing mane!

 

Other Fancy Dress Friday posts include:

Dog dressed as horse

Sunflower Horse and Bumble Bee Handler

Pirate Ship

Skeleton

Easter Bunny

If Wishes Were Ponies - Franga Designs

Fancy Clips

BRC Quadrille Selection 2011

Miniature Horses in Fancy Dress

Pony dressed as lion

Pony styled as a poodle

Instructions for making an equine poodle costume here

Recycled machinery horse and rider by the Australian metal sculptor Andrew Whitehead

Amazing work by Andrew Whitehead.

Andrew Whitehead 's sculptures are made from a long list of scrap metal, including stuff  like cogs off a combine,  engine wheels, steering boxes, plough linkage,  tow balls, shearing combs, truck brake-lining, even cement mixers.

Andrew, a plant operator from Urana, in the NSW Riverina, Australia, learned his skills at the age of 40 during an adult apprenticeship as a mechanic with the Urana Council which he took after a 20 year career in the army.

"I learnt skills I never had and they put me in contact with a lot of the scrap around the shire."

His first work was a half-tonne cow made from an old metal tank found lying at home.

"We'd been driving by it for 20-odd years and I said I'm going to do something with that one day.

"I'd just finished it and someone said why don't you enter it into that sculpture competition over at Lockhart."

He entered the Spirit of the Land festival and won.

"So I thought maybe there is something in this for me."

Last year he finished a $25,000 commission, a shearer and two sheep, for the township of Muttaburra in Queensland.

And he's just been commissioned to make a swagman and a dog for Boree Creek, but needs to look further afield for material.

"I've pretty well cleaned up what I can around here, now I have to go to Wagga and buy it from scrap metal yards."

Mr Whitehead had hoped to become a full-time artist but said the art market wasn't strong enough to sustain him.

"That shearer probably took the equivalent of six months full-time work, so $25,000 is not a lot when you take out overheads for the materials and electricity and all that.

"But it's a great hobby, I love it." The Border Mail

Andrew has decorated the entrance to his 100ha farm with quirky metal sculptures of a kangaroo, spider and catapult.

The 250kg kangaroo and her joey, called Roobot, took "four months and 30 slabs of beer to make". Weekly Times Now

Here's a link to a site used by Andrew, he wrote about and posted photographs of work in progress of a sculpture of an Australian Wedgetail Eagle

A toy horse a child could ride - the Hansa Shetland Pony

Apparently the "strong, yet lightweight, structural metal frame allows the animal to be ridden by children or adults (up to 150 lbs.)"

According to the FAO website "HANSA is known for their unique collection of handcrafted, highly realistic and cuddly plush toys. HANSA is known and respected for their close-to-nature reproductions representing many of the world's most loved animals. Children of all ages will delight in the size and realism of these life-sized stuffed animals."

And this Shetland Pony " is meticulously handcrafted from portraits of real animals in their natural habitat. Its coat is cut by hand, never stamped by machine and its face and body are carefully sculpted inside-out to create the distinct features and musculature that are unique to each animal. The face is hand finished."

Yours for $499.99 - no feed bills and no poo picking!

If you have a horse mad child you might also like:

The pony bicycle

Horse and Pony Stable Wallpaper Mural

The Horse trust's Cuddly Toy Pony

and if you're considering buying your child a real live pony please take a look at

Should I buy my child a pony?

 

The illegal traveller's sulky race on Mallow Road, Cork, Ireland, the one the police tried to stop

 

Russian Lady and Chrissy's Philly racing on a main road in Ireland, the police try to stop the race to no avail.

Horse chases off assailant and saves woman

Serena McKenzie with Domino, left, who chased off her daughter’s attacker, and Archie, who stood guard over her. Picture: Marilyn Bernard

Kerri-Lee McKenzie was bleeding from a stab wound to her chest and her assailant was telling her he was going to rape her when a horse named Domino, and his stable companion, Archie, came galloping to her rescue.

The astonishing incident took place at Toti Ranch, in Amanzimtoti, south of Durban.

Domino’s owner does not live in Durban and Kerri-Lee is his regular rider.

While McKenzie, 25, is still recovering from her injuries, her mother, Serena Mckenzie, said the attack last week could have had a far worse ending had it not been for the two heroic horses.

“Kerri-Lee had taken the horses down to the paddock to graze when she spotted some rubbish. She was afraid that the horses might try to eat it, so she went to pick it up. As she was doing that, this man came up from behind, grabbed her and put a knife to her neck,” said McKenzie.

According to her mother, Kerri-Lee fought back, head-butting her attacker, as well as trying to stomp on his feet with her gumboots.

“He was trying to strangle her and as she fought back, he stabbed her in the chest. He also told her he wanted to rape her,” said McKenzie.

At that moment, Domino charged up and the attacker took fright and fled.

Another rider, who was in a higher paddock, said she saw Kerri-Lee crawling out of the bushes and thought she was playing with the horses.

But Domino was in fact chasing the panicked assailant across the paddock.

“Then Archie went and stood over Kerri-Lee while she lay on the ground. It was as if he was protecting her.

“Kerri-Lee was rushed to hospital. Fortunately the knife had not hit any major vessels or organs, but she had to have a few stitches,” said McKenzie.

The police dog unit were called to the scene and a tracker dog followed the man’s scent to a nearby township, but the suspect had disappeared.

Local horse behaviourist Glynn Redgrave described the incident as “amazing” but said horses can form an incredible bond with their rider, owner or groom.

“Horses are masters of body language and a horse can tell if you are confident, assertive or nervous. You are dealing with an active, intelligent animal who is also a teacher of unconditional love. A horse could definitely sense if someone was being attacked. This horse must have an phenomenal bond with the rider,” said Redgrave.

Another KZN horse behaviourist, Patsy Divine, who specialises in equine facilitated therapy (EFT) and equine facilitated learning (EFL), said it was “absolutely feasible” that the horses had helped with intention and not by chance.

“It’s inherent in horses to read energy and if there was bad energy in that situation, those horses knew it and would have recognised that she was in a bad place.

“They are powerful, gentle animals and would definitely sense distress. And if I were the attacker, I would definitely run from an attacking horse,” said Divine. 

The Independent on Saturday

If you liked this you may also like:

Tonk the horse that chased off a grizzly bear and saved a child

 

Succulent Horse Topiary

Amazing succulent topiary found on Etsy.

Here's the listing for the above:

17" tall this little foal is the perfect centerpiece or gift for any horse lover!

Best-in-Show!

Powder Coated Wire Frame Planted filled with high quality sphagnum moss and planted with colorful succulents to resemble the mane and tail, and other details of a horse. Ready to add a touch of nature to any event or to your home.