Whole Heap of Little Horse Links

– the march of the Bronies continues apace – literally. We now have a thriving “military bronies” community, dedicated to adult My Little Pony fans, and a full range of customised guns to accessorise. (Military Times) – a two-year-old cob in West Yorkshire managed to trap himself in an underground pump chamber for five whole …

The Right Way to Ruin a Horse

Insane footage of an illegal trotting race on a busy Irish road, with spectators jockeying to keep the Garda away from the sulkies. How these eejits avoided numerous head-on collisions I’ll never know. They were greater fools to film it all and load it on the internet. I hope there are plenty of arrests. (UPDATE: …

“Fly Grazing” – the New Name for Crappy Horseownership Practices

The BBC reports on a herd of forty cobs dumped on a conservation area in the Vale of Glamorgan and left to decimate the grazing and starve to death. The police cannot get involved as this is a “civil matter” and the villagers have explored every legal avenue, so the horses will probably be destroyed. …

Salvos Across the Equine Gene Pool: a Reader

This is not so much a post as a string of links to some interesting, thought-provoking essays elsewhere and a question: what is “pure blood” and should it matter? Let me explain. Roughly speaking, until the nineteenth century and even the twentieth century, the vast majority of horses and ponies in the West were not …

Cobsession

“At Harolds Park Farm, Essex (31 July), Vicky Westcott and her ‘hairy pony’ Ad Lib III won both elementaries on over 65% – their personal best scores to date. Vicky said: ‘He’s a 15hh piebald Romany cob with full feathers and a full mane. He thinks he’s very handsome. When we go around the arena …