What Is a Good Working Gait? by Jane Savoie

At Training and First levels, you’re asked to ride your horse in a working gait.

So you might ask, how do I know what is a good working gait for my horse?

A working gait is the gait that the horse most easily presents himself in the best balance. So a working gait is as individual as the horse himself.

In other words, a working gait for a Haflinger is going to look different than a working gait for a 17.0 hand Hanoverian.

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So I’m going to give you 3 general criteria that you can apply to any horse regardless of size, breed, or type.

Those three criteria are:
1. Rhythm
2. Activity
3. Footfalls

Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9155

Tags: Animal, Directories, Equestrian, Haflinger, Horse, Horse gait, Horse Training, horse-back riding, Jane Savoie, Sports, United States

USET Foundation Awards Lionel Guerrand-Hermès Trophy to Jennifer Waxman

Lionel Guerrand-Hermès Trophy winner Jennifer Waxman riding Venturo.

Gladstone, NJ – December 7, 2009 – The United States Equestrian Team Foundation (USET) is pleased to announce that 18-year-old Jennifer Waxman of Chagrin Falls, OH, has been awarded the Lionel Guerrand-Hermès Trophy, recognizing a Junior/Young Rider who exemplifies the USET Foundation’s ideals of sportsmanship and horsemanship.

The award was established in 1983 by Patrick Guerrand-Hermès in memory of his son Lionel, an Olympic hopeful trained by U.S. Eventing Coach Jack Le Goff, who was tragically killed in an automobile accident at the age of 18.

Waxman had a successful year in all aspects of the hunter/jumper discipline, but her success in the jumpers was outstanding. She and her horse Venturo won the individual gold medal and team silver medal at the North American Junior Young Riders Championships (NAJYRC) in Lexington, KY. Waxman made the step up to the grand prix level too, and she and Venturo placed second in the $50,000 Country Heir Grand Prix, second in the $25,000 FEI Prix de Lexington, first in the $5,000 Open Welcome in Kentucky, and sixth in the $35,000 Merrill Lynch Grand Prix. Waxman was also competitive in the High Junior Jumpers with Shakira, who won a $10,000 classic in Lake Placid. Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9142

Tags: equestrian community, equestrian competitions, equestrian disciplines, hunter/jumper, Lionel Guerrand-Hermès Trophy, USET

Will US Congress & Canadian Parliament Allow Europeans to Consume Tainted Horse Meat?

December 6, 2009 – CHICAGO, (EWA) – European horses sent to slaughter require a passport that chronicles every drug the horse has received since birth.

Canada and the U.S. do not regulate nor track this information in equines and American horse meat is potentially poisoning European consumers. Worse still, the American government is abetting the process. In 2008, 134,059 American horses were sent to Canada and Mexico for slaughter for consumption in the European Union with no regard as to the drugs they had received.

The EU is now insisting that the countries supplying this meat follow guidelines it issued in April, but it is apparently relying on the US and Canada for enforcement of an affidavit system.

For the past eight years, Congress could have ended the slaughter of American horses for human consumption in Europe. Despite strong bipartisan support, production agriculture has been allowed to stop the bills dead in their tracks preventing a vote on the floor of either one house or another. Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9139

Tags: Canada, Canadian Horse Defence Coalition, Equine Protection, equine welfare alliance, European Union, Federal government of the United States, Horse, Horse Care, Mexico, United States Congress

Advisory Board Meeting Streamed Online TODAY

Advocates to Make Strong Showing for America’s Wild Horses and Burros at Advisory Board Meeting Today

Reno Meeting December 7th from 8am-5pm will be live streamed at www.nvhorsepower.org.

Please continue to demand an immediate Moratorium on roundups – click here to sign the petition and send your comments to President Obama.

Reno, Nv. (December 7, 2009) — The Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board will meet today in Reno at the John Ascuaga’s Nugget to hear presentations from BLM and make their recommendations for the management of American’s wild herds. Members of the public will likely be allowed 2-3 minutes to give their comments and suggestions to the Board. This comment period will begin at 3pm PCT. Businesswoman and philanthropist Madeleine Pickens, representatives of In Defense of Animals and advocates from around the United States will be speaking on behalf of the public’s horses and burros. A veteran of over ten years of these meetings, Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation Ginger Kathrens, will address the Board. In an advance copy of her comments, Kathrens makes this recommendation:

“I ask the Board to recommend that Secretary Salazar clean house and replace those that have shown an utter disdain for wild horses and burros on public lands with those whose aim is the restoration of our wild herds and preservation of those still roaming free.” — Ginger Kathrens, Emmy-award winning filmmaker and creator of the popular PBS Cloud Documentaries. Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9136

Tags: BLM, Cloud Foundation, equestrian community, Equine Protection, Madeleine Pickens, Mustangs, wild horses