2010 Radio Show Episode 69 – Chatting with the Champions: Anky van Grunsven

We continue our Chatting with the Champions series this week with WEG multiple gold medalist in dressage, Anky van Grunsven. Anky speaks to us about her favorite moment in past World Equestrian Games and what she is looking forward to in Lexington in 2010. Listen in….

2010 Radio Show Episode 69 – Chatting with the Champions: Anky van Grunsven:

• Hosts: Samantha Clark and Glenn the Geek
• Guest: Champion Dressage Rider Any van Grunsven. A big thanks to Anky for joining us, you can visit her website here.
• News: Six hundred people and two hundred horses will prance, dance and perform in the opening ceremonies of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games next year. The acts will include well-known equine and artistic performers including opera star Denyce Graves and the Culver Academy’s Black Horse Troupe, which has marched in the past 15 presidential elections. “We are very excited about this,” said Everett McCorvey, the director of the University of Kentucky‘s opera program who took over the directorial reins of the opening and closing ceremonies in August. Read more…
• News: Featuring the fourth leg of the FEI Rolex Driving World Cup, the third running of the Budapest Show lacked nothing in excitement in that contest and also the supporting jumping programme. As usual the Hungarians had made every effort and their organisation and perfect arena surface puts a lot of supposedly more prestigious shows to shame. More…
• News: Fédération Equestre Internationale officials named Linda Zang as the new president of the dressage ground jury at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games after Anne Gribbons accepted the position of U.S. Technical Advisor. Gribbons was scheduled to judge at the WEG, but her new job would create a conflict of interest. More…
• News: German Olympic gold medallist Isabell Werth is back in the saddle after a long baby break, giving birth to her first son Frederik on 30th October 2009. Werth had been walking a few horses the last couple of weeks, but she’s now actively training her top horses again. “The baby-riding-break was not easy for me,” Werth admitted. “Satchie, Hannes and Don Johnson , these three are my after-pregnacy-fitnessprogram. I might not be as slender as Super-Mom Heidi Klum, well, I guess I never was, but the excess kilos are gradually going away and my breeches fit again.” More…

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Tags: Anky Van Grunsven, dressage, Equestrian, FEI World Equestrian Games, Horse, Lexington Kentucky, Sport, University of Kentucky

Dressage Radio Episode 32 – Scott Hassler on Training the Young Horse

Scott Hassler is one of the leading breeders and trainers of young dressage horses in this country and he shares some valuable advice and insight on this final episode of the year. Listen in…

Dressage Radio Episode 32 – Scott Hassler on Training the Young Horse:

• Co-Hosts: Chris Stafford and Debbie McDonald
• Tip of the Week: Debbie McDonald
• Guest: Thank you to Scott Hassler of Hassler Dressage for joining us.

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Listen, Download or Subscribe:

Tags: Associations - Breeds, Debbie McDonald, dressage, Equestrian, Horse, Scott Hassler, Sport, Trainers and Facilities, Training Guides

Lope Departures, by Leonard Berryhill

How to get your horse to do correct lope departures with minimal cues.

December 15, 2009 – In horsemanship or equitation, a good lope or canter departure will lead to a better execution of your maneuver. A good lope departure is when a horse responds to a minimal cue from the rider with willingness and collection.

It’s important in every AQHA event. In western riding, it’s scored. In western pleasure, a lope departure sets up your lope. It’s much easier for a horse to carry himself after he has departed correctly than it is to have a bad departure and try to correct it as you go down the pen.

As a judge, when I see a horse depart to a lope from a jog, I consider it a bad departure if a horse increases his cadence of step at the jog and trots into the lope. But it is all right for that horse to take a step, collect himself and then depart. Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9274

Tags: AQHA, Canter, Equestrian, Equestrianism, equitation, Horse, Horse Training, horse-back riding, Sports, Western, Western riding

Documentary ‘Disappointment Valley’ explores the plight of wild horses

I found this information from R.T Fitch’s blog at http://rtfitch.wordpress.com when I was trying to find what the outcome was from the protest discussion with the BLM on Monday. I still haven’t run across all of the details, but I will post as soon as I do. The below are excerpts from the post written by SABINA DANA PLASSE:

The American West’s wild horse saga will not end without a good fight from lovers of the land and the animals.

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker James Kleinert has been documenting the struggle of the wild horse and its disappearance from the West for the last six years. Kleinert has been gathering footage and commentary from wild horse lovers and at roundups.

“The wild horse will be annihilated as an American symbol,” Kleinert said. “The Bureau of Land Management is pitting horse advocates against ranchers, but there is a greater issue.”

The larger issue is the mining of public land, he said. Read more …

Kleinert said he does not oppose the management of horses, just the reasoning for and degree to which it is done.

Reblogged from http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/the-managed-extinction-of-an-icon/

Watch YouTube video: Disappointment Valley… A Modern Day Western – Trailer

 1) Call President Obama (202-456-1111) and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (202-208-3100). Demand a Congressional investigation into the Bureau of Land Management. Ask for independent studies on statistics of the wild horses and do NOT rely on the BLM statistics. They are flawed and misrepresent the truth.

 To contact your congressman, visit: www.house.gov

2) The R.O.A.M. Act is currently siting in the Senate Committee of Energy & Natural Resources as S. 1579.

Please contact the Senators on the Energy & Natural Resources Committee and ask that they support the R.O.A.M Act (S. 1579). www.senate.gov

3) Share this video and information with friends and family. Most people don’t know wild horses still roam the west, let alone they are being rounded up and slaughtered. The public has fought to support these horses in the past. We can do it again! The more people who become aware of the issue, the better chance they have for survival. www.theamericanwildhorse.com

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• Ken Salazar’s Wild Horse Plan Fuels Accusations That He’s In The Pocket Of Ranchers (huffingtonpost.com)
• Wild horse plan rekindles cattle grazing debate (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Wild Horse Plan Rekindles Cattle Grazing Debate (abcnews.go.com)
• Ken Salazar Blamed By Oil And Gas Companies For Scant Interest In New Drilling Projects (huffingtonpost.com)
• Thousands comment on Monsanto’s planned Idaho mine (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Government Accused of Land Grab in Fight Over Rangeland in the West (usnews.com)
• Sheryl Crow takes up cause of wild horses in West (sfgate.com)
• Trigon’s Intercontinental Potash Corp. commences Phase One drilling program (newswire.ca)
• Hee-Haw! Want to Adopt a Wild Burro from the Desert? (laist.com)
• Lopez Island Nick Teague wins BLM Silver Award for Excellence (pnwlocalnews.com)
• In Defense of America’s Public Wildlands (thepetitionsite.com)
• The Cloud Foundation: Dedicated to the preservation of wild horses (stillisstillmoving.com)
• Ken Salazar Plans To Transfer Overpopulated Western Wild Horses To Sanctuaries In East (huffingtonpost.com)
• Where Wild Mustangs Tame Human Hearts (abcnews.go.com)
• Ramblers Cymru Business Plan (powysramblers.org.uk)
• Nature Trust faces land management issues (cbc.ca)

Find even more information by clicking on the category for Wild Horses-Mustangs or Equine Welfare in this blog, e.g., http://horsesinthesouth.com/blog/?cat=468

Tags: American West, BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Cloud, Government, Horse, Ken Salazar, Mining, Mustangs, Public land, United States Secretary of the Interior, Western United States, wild horses, YouTube

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.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

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

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