Horse Safety

Horses were a big part of Elvis Presley's life. Who knew? But I read recently that the stable of Graceland are now open to the public from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

On Sunday I went for an early morning ride to escape the heat of the day. A few dozen other people had the same idea and I found myself and my horse sharing the trail and the roads with bicyclists, joggers and baby carriages.

There was some unusual excitement on the streets of Paris last week when Garibaldi, 15 year old Stallion, unceremoniously dumped his Republican Guard rider and high tailed it for home. The 10-year veteran of the force spooked while on patrol.

There was a great post on COTH recently about the importance of keeping "In Case of Emergency" (ICE) information in your trailer.

Today U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan denied a temporary restraining order to halt the roundup of the Pryor Mountain's wild mustang herd. The round up by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which will begin on Thursday, is aimed at reducing the herd's population from 190 to 120. The 70 horses culled will be offered for adoption.

Fourteen year old Kaitlynn Bilskie always believed that she would find her beloved horse Maximum Reflections (Max), a paint gelding that was stolen more on August 23, 2008 from his paddock in Illinois. On October 4th of this year her dream came true: Max was found in Springfield, Mo. and returned to her.

There was a post this morning on the Chronicle of the Horse Forums about a school horse that died after his nylon halter was caught on a hook in his stall. Unfortunately, I've known more than one horse that died due because they were turned out in a nylon halter.

Quality Road, the colt that broke through the starting gate at the Breeders Cup ended up with quite a set of scrapes and bruises including stitches, a laceration and big bruise over one eye, and a large hemotoma on his leg. He also almost knocked out one of his teeth.