Whole Heap of Little Horse Links

Billionaire Roman Abramovich has purchased Pringle, one of the best showjumping ponies in the UK, for his daughter Irina. (Daily Telegraph) Mustang round-ups in the US are halted after video evidence of abuse of the horses is presented (Salt Lake Tribune) The owner of a pit bull that chased a police horse for a mile-and-a-half …

Whole Heap of Little Horse Links

Carol sent me a blogpost about a herd of Arizona horses who have been reclassified from “wild” to “feral” and now face a round up, which some suspect will result in their eventual slaughter. The leader of the band, Champ, was an internet hit last year when he was pictured rescuing a filly from the …

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 …

The Persecution of the Mustang

I’ve blogged a handful of times about the round-ups of wild mustangs that are occurring in the US just now, and the furious debate over them. I haven’t kept fully up to date, although I did get an excellent grounding in the history and issues from Deanne Stillman’s Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse …

How Much Does it Cost to Fly to Washington?

O to be in Washington! The Washington International Horse Show and the National Museum of the American Indian are putting on an exhibit called A Song for the Horse Nation, opening the last weekend in October. There will be pony rides, war paint demonstrations and displays by the local mounted police. There’s more detail of …

Here’s One for Fugly Horse of the Day

From the Herald News: The owner of the bay mustang taken into the town’s custody last week insists her horse has never been neglected, but several months ago fell into a funk and stopped eating the way she should. Ellie Rose, of 27 Marshall St., said she has been working diligently to get the horse, …

Stop Round Ups of Mustangs and Burros in America

The Humane Society of the United States is asking for signatures to stop the removal of wild equines from open land in America by the Bureau of Land Management. Sign here. More on the background here.

Of Oil and Wild Horses

The American mustang has long since passed from resource (for war, for ranching, even for movies) to designated “pest” in the eyes of the government. A couple of years ago I read Deanne Stillman’s excellent, detailed history of the mustang which takes in everything from the sea crossing from the Old World to nineteenth-century cattle …