Is this like when mommy tells you you're the prettiest girl in the world?

Several people told me I had to go see this Pinto Arabian breeder's web site. I mean, there's some interesting stuff on there. There's an orphan stud colt they are trying really hard to sell on payments so that they can "get their sleep," for example. WTF. If you want to sleep, I SUGGEST NOT BREEDING. Orphans happen and yes they are a PITA, I helped feed mine last year and it is a hassle but this is the risk you take when you breed. Sheesh.

But then I got to the part with their senior stallion and the amazing claim that "To date, he has more Champion and Reserve Champion get and grand-get than any other stallion in the world...and his potential has not even been tapped."

Whaaaaaaat? Than any other stallion in the world?

I admit I am not an expert on the Pinto Arabian, or Pintabian as they seem to call them. But what I see here is a rather underweight spotted Ay-rab I've never heard of. It's hard to imagine he has sired more Champion get than, say, Obvious Conclusion or Barlink Macho Man or Dreamfinder or Magnum Psyche...well, you get my drift. I mean, I can say I'm a fairy princess, but it doesn't mean if I wave my longe whip, money will fall from the sky. Why put these completely off-the-wall statements in your ads? I mean, for all I know, he is the top siring Pintabian stallion. But that's not what they said.

And his breeding fee is $7500 to other Pintabians? For real, are people paying that?

P.S. They also have genuine horse skulls for sale for $250. I don't even wanna know...sounds like a solution for those solid foals that is actually a money-maker as opposed to what they auction for these days!

Normally, I encourage sharing...

I will never complain if parts of this blog are republished elsewhere or crossposted. I think it's great. Spread the word, have a blast.

However, actually making money off it? COME ON. While I am not going to pursue legal action over your projected $25 in CafePress earnings, this is pretty fucking tacky.

http://www.cafepress.com/hideozygous

The whole world knows that's mine (thank you Horse & Rider - You guys rock and I always appreciate the mention!)

Seriously, clean a couple stalls for the money you'll make doing this...you will get some exercise and won't look like such a twit.

Load up and go, already!

As you know if you're not living under a rock, there is a large and powerful storm by the name of Gustav heading for the Gulf Coast. If you are in its path, stop fucking around and load up and go already.

I'm serious. I went down for a week after Katrina and helped with cat rescue. Pics. Blog. What a clusterfuck. If you think the authorities are going to take care of your animals, you are sadly mistaken. The authorities were telling us all NOT to show up, that everything was handled. I thought, oh yeah, I believe that. So I showed up, at the evacuation center in Gonzales. Hell, they practically rolled out a red carpet for me. They were desperate for help. There were three of us taking care of over 200 cats including mothers with newborn kittens. It was in the 90s all day, thick with humidity and the cats were terrified because, of course, they were being housed in the same barns with barking dogs (I have never seen so many scarred up, angry pit bulls in my life - apparently one thing Katrina washed up was a hell of a lot of dog fighting inventory). They had nowhere for volunteers to sleep except tents and having heard a thing or two about the safety of that, I slept in my rented minivan all week. Everybody was working 20 hours a day, only sleeping for a few hours when it was actually cool enough to sleep in the middle of the night.

The "authorities" such as they were basically involved the ASPCA and the HSUS bickering about who was in charge and having a lot of meetings in their air-conditioned RV's. When I suggested that they should bring some animals who were suffering from the heat into their air-conditioned RV, the HSUS guy looked at me like I had grown a second head. Nice. And the damn thing had cages built into it! What did he think they were put there for?

My head hurts just remembering all of this.

Anyway, my point is - the government is not going to help you. The government is going to fuck it up, like they fuck everything up. So will the big animal organizations. Really, the only major org I saw doing anything useful down there was Pasado's. (And yeah, I know about the Tammy Hansen thing. I still say, they did a better job than anybody else - one mistake does not mean overall failure). If you're in the path of the storm, GRAB YOUR ANIMALS AND GO! Now! While you still can! Don't think it's gonna miss you, like there's some golden cloud protecting you. And don't wait 'til the last minute when the highways are clogged or they close the highways. GO NOW.

If you have temporary boarding to offer, please post to this thread with your e-mail address (HTML links work if you know how to format them). From the NewsStar: The Ike Hamilton Expo Center in West Monroe began accepting evacuees with livestock on Thursday. The facility's manager, Ramona Martin, said the center is set up ideally to handle horses. "They are the ones that need to be leaving (today) because of the large trailers that must be used for transport," Adcock said.

I don't want to hear from anybody later that they lost a horse in this. You won't get {{{hugs}}} here if that happens. If you don't have a trailer, post and ask for help. Get them moved now. Today.

I do not care how nice it is...geld it ANYWAY!

Under normal circumstances, this Appaloosa stallion would be featured here as an example of something good to breed to. He's successful in both halter and performance. He trail rides. They can pony off of him which means he's not a rank bastard. He's probably an absolutely lovely horse to be around.

He should still be gelded. He is HYPP N/H.

They do realize this is bad. They address it by offering a negative HYPP guarantee - much like a live foal guarantee, you get a free breed back if the foal is positive. But you've still produced a positive foal. There's the problem.

"I’m Your Dreamfinder is HYPP N/H and we recommend testing the resulting foal for HYPP. If the foals is confirmed N/H or Positive for HYPP we will offer a return breeding with only mare care being charged in the case of live cover or chute fee in the case of shipped semen."

I am sure that by now this stallion has at least one stellar N/N colt on the ground. Right? So keep that as your stallion and geld this boy and enjoy riding him for the next twenty years. I am not bashing your stallion at all - except that he has a potentially fatal genetic defect. His athleticism and conformation need to continue - without the defect, through his N/N get that are already on the ground.

Do you really want to be responsible for this? Or this? Or this? I'm just asking you to think about that.

I know it seems like I harp on HYPP alot as opposed to other genetic defects but HYPP is kind of unique in that it would be so easy to eliminate it forever. All we have to do is stop breeding H/H and N/H horses. Period. Just stop breeding them. There's no other way for the disease to perpetuate itself. It doesn't skip generations and suddenly reappear. It hasn't been found to mutate out of nowhere. If 100% of our breeding was N/N to N/N, there would be no more HYPP. And there are a TON of nice N/N halter horses out there, more every day, so don't even start trying to tell me you can't buy a competitive halter horse who's negative.

P.S. And good Lord, people, how many times do I have to tell you? Impressive does not equal HYPP. There are lots of wonderful Impressive bred N/N horses that cannot suffer from or pass along HYPP. THOSE are the ones you buy, show and breed from. Like this APHA stallion, Impressive bred, HYPP N/N and absolutely lovely! (Watch the whole thing - they show him in all of his events, super nice versatile horse) Please stop running around like the paranoid mother of a kid who's got a HIV positive classmate, spewing misinformation about a disease you don't understand.

TGIF and it's time for good news!

I know you're all dying for some good news, so happy Friday - you're getting nothing but!

First of all, I want to publicize a new web site called Report Animal Cruelty. THIS IS FOR THE STATE OF VERMONT ONLY. FINALLY, a simple way to report it when you see animals in jeopardy, without having to deal with Sheriff Doofus who thinks all old horses are skinny or Deputy Dingbat who doesn't see anything wrong with horses standing up to their knees in mud ('cause it's been rainin' you know, so that's just gonna happen). Hopefully it will spread to all 50 states, but right now, this is VERMONT ONLY. I'm excited to hear how it works out! We can thank the Vermont Humane Federation and the Humane Society of the United States for making this happen.

This is Barney, the poster child for the Vermont Humane Federation. "We are filming a television PSA on why people should report animal cruelty, and Barney here is a perfect illustration. This horse is a mid-20’s Belgian/Morgan cross. All he needed was basic horse care….worming, teeth floating, and lots of groceries."

In the interests of having a happy post, I won't show the "before" picture. You all know what it looked like. HOORAY for Barney! And HOORAY for the VHF for doing a PSA and spreading their message!

Here's what I always talk about - a horse who was going nowhere but the slaughterhouse FAST when somebody intervened, rehabbed her and then placed her with someone who - gasp! - actually TRAINED her! Folks, if you are able to train OR pay for training, that is the #1 BEST thing you can do for a rescue horse today, right now. For those of you who keep saying "what can I do?" well, this is what you can do. This is what MOST needs to be done for the irresponsibly produced horses already in existence. Do it! Seriously, if you train, what's one more baby to work with? You can put 60 days on something and change the course of its entire life. Especially those of you who have assistants/working students to help ride, and you know who you are. Please consider making that contribution this winter. I'm not telling you not to make money on the deal. Just pick up a youngster from an auction that has papers and train it and make all the money you want on the resale. Go for it! Heck, come back here and brag. My personal best is we (friends and I) took one from $525 to $2500 in less than a year and then he resold for $8000 that year (in 2007). If you can beat that, I would LOVE to hear about it - c'mon, trainers, I'm challenging you!

"I purchased a registered 2 year old Clydesdale filly with Budweiser bloodlines from a woman who was going through a rough divorce. I was sent 1 photo of the filly, incredibly thin and standing in a ton of mud...Despite the fact that I could tell the filly would be a lot of work, I went ahead and purchased her anyways. I was assured that she had been handled at least a little bit recently so I was thinking I wouldn't have to worry so much about that from the beginning. That was until she bolted out of the shipper's trailer and refused to be caught for the rest of the day...She was scaled a 2 on the body scale according to the Veterinarian that I had check her out the next day, rain rot all over her body, she had scratches from the mud she was standing in all the way up to her knees and hocks, and her hooves and frog were sloughing off from the excessive moisture over such a long period of time."

The rescuer then adopted her out to a home which started her under saddle at age four. "Pretzel, now 6 years old, competed at the Yoncalla 4th of July Rodeo against over 10 QHs and Paints to have the honor of carrying the American Flag at the opening ceremonies. It's a NPRA sanctioned event, and the horses had to exhibit a reining pattern as well as make a circuit calmly around the arena with the American Flag. They won!!! I'm including a few photos of Pretzel with her wonderful trainer Kelly doing the spin in the reining pattern as well as carrying the American Flag during their victory lap."

Kelly, you rock! What a great job with Pretzel, and how exciting to triumph over the light breeds and give people a reason to look twice at full drafts for riding horses.

OK, I love this one because it stands in SHARP contrast to the ridiculous Ponytales fugly stallion story (too old to geld, my ass). Now this is doing it RIGHT with a rescued stallion!

"His name is Ophir Epona. We got him a year and a half ago from the doggers - Unbroke, unhandled 16yo stallion. We were told at the doggers that he was 8yo. As a stallion, we wouldn't be able to keep him and figured that 8 wasn't TOO old to be gelded. When his other option was a bullet, gelding seemed a good option. A few weeks after he was gelded.. We made the discovery that he was not 8, but 16. Gulp! He recovered fine however and is now enjoying his permanent home with us and is slowly learning new things."

More on the good news front - Prince Caspian, the Cowgirl Spirit horse who was a recent Friday Featured Rescue, has been adopted! He has a new home with a wonderful woman with fabulous references and I have no doubt he is her dream horse. Honestly, I rode the horse in a class last weekend (his SIXTH time under saddle) and he was so good it was unbelievable. I'm even going to put the picture up, and yes I do know my upper body position is hideous but hey, sixth ride in the show ring and I had never been on him until 2 minutes before the class, gimme a break...LOL! The important thing is that he is a beautiful, smart boy who has a new home and I knew you all wanted to hear that!

This is the REALLY cute pic though...Juliane rode him in trail after their drill performance and he figured out he could open and close the gate with his nose, so she let him. How cute is that? It makes my day that this wonderful horse didn't slip through the cracks - thanks again to Cowgirl Spirit for getting some training on him and getting him ready for a career!

Salsa, featured on this blog, has also gone to a new home so congratulations to her new owner. Now we just need to find a home for Class, a large Quarter pony pictured on the VLC blog. So if you are in the Seattle area and need a versatile large pony with no soundness issues or vices, hit up CSRDT!

Have a wonderful long weekend, everybody. If the weather holds, I'm going to try to take the VLC for his first "outing" to a new barn and a strange arena. What are your holiday weekend plans with your horses?

Movin' on!

One thing that hoarders/faux rescues/bad breeders like to do when people catch on to their shit is pack up the tent and steal away in the night to a new state where people do not know them. A classic example is the Flying AH Ranch which has relocated to Arkansas from Colorado. Why, you ask? Well, according to their web site:

"Wait! Wasn't this a horse rescue?Well, it was, but a particularly hard winter, lack of financial support and an abundance of "unwanted" horses lead to animal neglect charges and the closure of our facility.In the future we will be using this website as a place for our friends to check in on our progress as we make our new home in Arkansas."

So I went to the ever-handy archive.org to see what was up with these people. Oh what a SURPRISE! More asshats claiming to allow mustangs to live in their natural state. Well, I guess starving to death in the winter is their natural state, but most of us have a different perception when you use the "sanctuary" line and become a non-profit. We certainly don't expect to see a news article with a picture of a horse who has frozen/starved to death. Or learn that the "sanctuary" operators have been charged with cruelty and are providing asshatesque explanations for dead horses like:

"Martin never planned to overcrowd her ranch, but it just happened. She said she tried to get rid of some of the horses, but there were no takers."I didn't intentionally go, 'I need 40 horses this winter,'" she said"

Gosh golly gee, how is it that I'm not going to end up with 40 horses I can't feed this winter? Oh yeah...SAYING NO! It just happened. That's as lame as saying I didn't mean to get pregnant, it just happened. Life is full of choices, Carol - you made bad ones!

Carol also thinks horses die from the cold. Well, Carol, I don't see any blankets in those pictures. Ever heard of taking them into the barn? Oh wait, I'm guessing you didn't have barn space for 40 - which do you think meant you shouldn't have had 40?

"Martin said she spoke with Sexton on Dec. 22 and agreed to surrender some of the sicker horses, but she was floored when animal control showed up with warrants on Dec. 26. She said the horses that died during a recent cold snap were ill or old, and lacked the body conditions to handle the cold weather"

This is the foal Asshat Martin was keeping IN HER HOUSE. Yeah. There ya go. He had one ear from a dog ripping it off (unclear whether or not it was Martin's dog). Another rescue tried to save him but he died a few months later despite their efforts. Video in his memory.

Again, do you know what a rescuer is without money? A HORSE ABUSER. There is NO difference. You are not a better person because you became a horse abuser through over-rescuing. KNOW YOUR LIMIT, it's not that tough!



Anyway, Arkansans take note - you have two new horse abusers to watch out for! Carol Martin and Keith Synnestvedt. HEADS UP! Do not under ANY circumstances sell or give these people a horse! They've killed enough of them already. They are legally barred from owning horses but you know that never stops people like this. So it's up to you - spread the word and watch out!

Forget building a case, let's just get a posse together

Graphic picture alert - don't follow this link if you don't want to see.

The story was posted on LiveJournal by the daughter of a wonderful rescuer who is THE ONLY reason this horse is going to survive. Here's the basic story from the LJ post:

"His name is Buck (original, no?). And he's a beautiful black and white pinto. His owners gelded him on Saturday, rode him the following Wednesday (?!) and left him tied to a fence in his pasture on Thursday morning while they all went out for drinks and BBQ across town (*rage*). That day, a large T-storm rolled through and we are assuming that this is what caused Buck to break his lead rope and flee. When the owners came back, they found Buck on their neighbors property with massive wounds on his shoulder and side. He had apparently broken through two fences and caught himself on the side of an in-ground BBQ pit and ripped it out of the ground. They sprayed some of that topical wound-heal stuff on it and left it until yesterday (3 days?!). They decided to surrender him because they "didn't have time to take care of it"."

Habitat for Horses is rehabbing him. Please make a contribution if you are able to - they do great work and I'm sure the vet bills on this one will be extensive. They are pursuing prosecution, and I'm sure they will have information up when it is appropriate about which D.A. to contact to suggest that these people be, say, soaked in kerosene and lit on fire. OK, OK, of course I recommend a more polite e-mail than that...but you know it is what I am thinking would be appropriate!

I think I want to start a campaign. It's going to be called HORSES ARE BAD. It's going to be targeted at all the redneck, knuckle-dragging idiots in the world and their teenage kids and will be an educational campaign to teach such concepts as:

1. Horses are "out." Quads are much cooler and you want one of them instead!

2. Horses carry disease. Yup. You kin get AIDS from them thar horses. It's in their spit and if they bite you, y'all will get it. So you don't want none of them critters around!

3. Horses are for girls. Real men ride motorcycles! And they don't wear none of those sissy helmets neither. ('Cause if some of y'all smack your head on the concrete and take yourselves out of the gene pool, that'll be just fine by me!)

4. Horses are real spendy and will cut into your beer budget. (Complete with spreadsheets showing pictorial depictions of the number of cases of beer lost per year per horse!)

Do you think it might work?