#Horse Farm: Holsteiner
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Affix: Outlast_13
Skills: 3772.85
Breed: Holsteiner
Age: 22 years 4 months
Species: Riding Horse
Height: 16.3 hands
Gender: female
Weight: 1005.4 pounds
Coat: Dark Bay
Date of Birth: 2019-03-10
Producer: Fallen-Wolf
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Are we still breeding or are we just multiplying?
At the VZAP general meeting, the agricultural scientist Andreas Perner gave an interesting lecture on current problems in purebred Arabian breeding, which we used as an opportunity for the following interview. This is about undesirable developments in Arabian breeding, which have arisen primarily through specialization and selection on individual characteristics, and he sees parallels in cattle breeding where the changes are scientifically substantiated.
IN THE FOCUS: Mr. Perner, in your presentation at the VZAP general meeting you pointed out some parallels that exist between cattle and horse breeding. Why should we concern ourselves with cattle when we are actually interested in horses?
Andreas Perner: Because there are numerous parallels. The primitive cattle were characterized by an enormous chest cavity with plenty of space for the organs, relatively fine legs and a pelvic shape with a high sacrum so that birth could proceed quickly. Through breeding selection, a major change in this appearance has taken place over the last 100 years, including extreme specialization in beef and dairy cattle. Since cows as farm animals have long been the focus of science, one also has easy access to data, e.g. milk yield, slaughter weight, but also bone measurements, etc., which can also be used to document such changes.
In animal breeding, a distinction is made between two constitution types: the asthenic and the athletic. The representatives of the Holstein cattle, a highly specialized breed of dairy cattle, today almost exclusively belong to the asthenic constitutional type: large, tall and narrow, i.e. less space in the chest for the organs, rather poor feed conversion, etc. Male calves of this breed are so weak in the muscle development that they no longer have any economic (slaughter) value. Before this extreme specialization in milk production, this breed corresponded to a dual-purpose cattle (milk and meat) and thus more of the athletic constitution type, which has become very rare today.
One can definitely draw parallels here with Arabian breeding, where the Arabian show horse was bred through specialization – and became also an asthenic, tall, long-legged, with little depth to the trunk. And among Arabians, too, the athlete, the medium-sized, broad, deep-rumped Arabian of the “old type” who is also a good feed converter, is becoming increasingly rare. From a population genetic point of view, this is a major catastrophe and countermeasures must be taken.
IN THE FOCUS: If we ignore the outside appearance, i.e. the conformation – are there any other changes that have occurred as a result of this specialization?
A. P.: In the last 30-40 years, dairy cattle have increasingly been bred for maximum performance (milk production) in the young animals, i.e. there has been conscious selection for early maturity. This has resulted in serious changes in the animals: through selection for early maturity, the useful life has been extremely shortened due to high susceptibility to disease and fertility problems – the latter is the main cause of loss in cattle breeding. This can also be proven with figures: In Germany today a cow has an average of 2.4 calves, but biologically it can have 14-15 calves. The “useful life” of cows is now at an all-time low. The selection for early maturity also has an impact on the quality of the claws: the early maturing animals need claw care three times a year, because the claws are soft and grow very quickly.
In contrast, slow, long-lasting growth – i.e. late maturity – ensures healthy development of the entire organism and a long lifespan. Late-maturing cattle only need hoof care once a year, sometimes only every two years, because they have extremely good, strong hoof horn. All this can also be transferred to the horse, because the horse’s hoof horn is also of better quality in late-maturing animals. This all depends on the high quality of the connective tissue. If you breed late-maturing animals, they often look underdeveloped when they are young and breeders often do not recognize their true quality. It is also a feature of breeding for longevity that it produces healthier animals, which statistically incur significantly less veterinary costs (i.e. only a quarter of the costs) in cattle breeding.
Here, too, the parallels to horse breeding seem clear to me: the late-maturing types have no chance at shows in the junior classes, which is why show horse breeding promotes the early-maturing type. Late maturing horses often look like “ugly ducklings”, but often they only become “beautiful swans” when they are 6 years old or older. Egyptian breeding has had this problem for a long time, which is why you see fewer and fewer Egyptians at international shows or they have their own shows where they are not in competition with the early-maturing “show horses”.
IN THE FOCUS: When you say that a late-maturing horse is characterized by long-term growth, which then ensures healthy development of the entire organism and a long lifespan, the Russians come to mind. But it is precisely these that are tested on the racetrack very early, as early as two-year-olds. Isn’t that a contradiction?
A. P.: As far as I know, the two-year-old horses are prepared very carefully for the racetrack and the trainers make sure that they are not overstrained. The horses also have time to develop further – they are encouraged to exercise without being overstrained. As a result, they develop better, become wider in the chest, more muscular overall, the entire organism becomes stronger, etc.
But ultimately what matters is: How old do the horses get in good health – and therefore without major veterinary costs? And in the case of breeding animals there is also the question: How good is their fertility? There are Russian stallions with racetrack careers who are still mating naturally at the age of 28, mares who still have foals at well over 20 years of age, and the Arabian mare Nefta in Pompadour, France, had one foal every year between 1975 and 1995, i.e. 21 foals in total! I don’t know of any such examples from show horse breeding without the use of embryo transfer (but I’m happy to be informed!).
In warmblood breeding you can see what selection for early-maturity does, especially with show jumping horses, the horses often have a nerve cut at 8 to 9 years of age, then you have two more years of use, so to speak, and then they go to the slaughterhouse. Or think of the hypermobility of dressage horses, which have weak connective tissue and the resulting weakness of the joints, capsules and ligaments as well as the tendons and muscles. That cannot be the breeding goal.
Any selection that is not also focused on fitness and longevity or long-term performance automatically causes these characteristics to deteriorate.
IN THE FOCUS: To what extent have modern selection methods influenced the development of specialization?
A. P.: Specialization in cattle has been driven forward in the last 10 years by genomic breeding value estimation, which has now also found its way into horse breeding. For this method, the entire genome had to be sequenced and all performance parameters were then assigned to specific gene loci. Then, using complicated calculations, one could get an estimate of what performance the animal in question will perform in the future. In this way, it was possible for a young cow to achieve a milk production of over 40 kg per day, but the animals are no longer physiologically able to absorb enough nutrients to be able to achieve this output at all! As a result, over 90% of young cows end up with severe organ damage in the slaughterhouse. This means that the animals can endure it for a certain amount of time, mobilize all their body reserves but at some point their metabolism switches off and liver damage occurs, which ultimately leads to death.
Part of the problem is that selection according to the wrong parameters took place. Instead of taking “longevity” and “health” into account, they only selected for “milk production”. A lot of breeding knowledge is also lost due to the convenient catalogue selection. The people who are in charge of cattle breeding today only use the preliminary breeding value or the genomic value for planning the matings.
We are not quite there yet in horse breeding and especially not in Arabian horse breeding. But here too, a lot of breeding knowledge has been lost in recent years!
IN THE FOCUS: How can you avoid such a development in horse breeding as you have outlined for cattle breeding?
A. P.: In our association “European Association for Natural Cattle Breeding” we have selected cow families that have proven to be long-lived over several generations and in which the animals have produced over 100,000 litres of milk in the last 3 to 4 generations. We buy bulls from these cows. We have also inseminated such cows with semen from bulls that lived 30 or 40 years ago, and we now have the first 200 daughters of this F1 generation of the appropriate age. What’s exciting is that the animals produce almost as much milk as their “high-performance relatives”, but are significantly healthier! The question now is: How to continue breeding with the F1 generation – this requires a lot of breeding experience and knowledge. But this is exactly what young farmers are missing.
In horse breeding we have the same problem, where the most diverse bloodlines are crossed together and due to Mendel’s rules the appearance then splits in all directions in the F2 generation, and top horses that cost a lot of money produce maximum average offspring, as can be seen from the example of the gelding Agnat (pedigree see AP 2-22). That’s why we offer information in our association on the topic: How do you have to breed in order to achieve a high level of heredity reliability? To do this you have to use the old breeding methods, i.e. line breeding, occasional inbreeding, always working with blood connection. Then I don’t have the problem of anything splitting.
IN THE FOCUS: Let’s stay with Arabian breeding: What are the breed-typical characteristics that you should select for?
A. P.: Breeding means selecting. That doesn’t mean that the horses that are not suitable for breeding go to the slaughterhouse. But you have to decide which horses go into breeding based on which characteristics and which don’t. Those that do not go into breeding should still have enough quality that they can survive in their respective market segment (riding horses, show horses, racing horses).
Characteristics typical of Arabians that need to be maintained are a hard constitution, suitability for long-term performance, high age, high fertility, good feed conversion, lively but benign temperament, sociability and people-oriented nature.
The suitability for long-term performance is due, among other things, to the fact that the Arabian has the most haemoglobin per litre of blood (compared to warm-blooded and cold-blooded horses). Haemoglobin is responsible for supplying oxygen to the muscles, and it is therefore important that the Arabian can also mobilize the haemoglobin reserves in the body most efficiently at the same time. In this context there is also a high regenerative capacity. All of this is deeply anchored genetically, but if you don’t pay attention to these characteristics, i.e. if you don’t select for them, then these characteristics are lost within few generations. In animal breeding we speak of genotype-environment interaction, i.e. if I decrease the selection for certain characteristics, then these are gradually (and unnoticed) lost.
The lifespan of Arabians is often 25 years, and horses over 30 are not uncommon. Regarding fertility, there are examples from the state stud farms where mares had 15 to 20 foals and demonstrated high fertility into old age. In addition, the Arabian horse has the highest milk yield (in grams) per kg live weight, which is also a sign of good feed conversion and efficiency. In Tersk Stud, milk production is used as a selection criterion because they don’t want mothers who don’t produce enough milk.
IN THE FOCUS: Which other results from constitutional research on cattle can be transferred to horses or the Arabian horse?
A. P.: A whole series of points come to mind: we have already covered some of the constitutional types and early maturity/late maturity, plus there is sexual dimorphism, i.e. the difference between male and female animals, breeding rules, breeding methods, the importance of mare families, the selection for size and the effects of show breeding, which also occurs with cattle!
The more masculine the male animals are in their appearance, the more feminine are their female offspring.
Sexual dimorphism is a true secondary sexual characteristic caused by different hormone constellations between the sexes. These sex hormones are produced in the adrenal cortex of stallions and mares. In addition, testosterone is produced in the testicles of stallions and estrogens are produced in the ovaries of mares. One such secondary sexual characteristic is, for example, the “stallion neck or crest”. If we now breed horses where stallions and mares look the same, where there is no longer any visible difference between the sexes – what happens on the hormonal level? The natural hormonal balance shifts, testosterone decreases, and the stallion’s neck disappears. In the long term, however, we are selecting against fertility, i.e. fertility will deteriorate! That’s also what you hear more and more often – behind closed doors: stallions have poor semen quality and mares are becoming increasingly difficult to conceive – you often have to use all the tricks of modern reproductive technology to get the animals pregnant at all. By the way, there is an old animal breeding law that says: “The more masculine the male animals are in their appearance, the more feminine their female offspring are.”
IN THE FOCUS: Breeding is a very complex matter, as we can see. What breeding principles can you give to a “young breeder”?
A. P.: Yes, what have we learned for breeding from all this research?
Never massively select for individual traits if you don’t understand the whole thing. This is going to shit. I would like to cite one of the most significant experiments in the history of animal breeding here: In the 1950s, the Russian biologist Dimitri Belyayev and his colleagues began to capture wild silver foxes, select them for tameness and repeatedly breed the animals selected according to this criterion with each other. The aim was to recreate domestication (becoming pets) in an experiment. So what happened? Already after the 3rd generation, serious changes occurred in the phenotype (external appearance): change in fur color, lop-eared ears, curly tails, shortening of the extremities, shortening of the upper and lower jaw, change in the texture of the fur, change in torso length, etc.
There are a number of hypotheses to explain this phenomenon, but explaining them here would go too far. It is important to know that only a small part of the entire genome is activated; the rest are so-called “sleeping genes”. Environmental influences or selection pressure from outside (= breeding) do not change the genetic material itself, but rather the intensity with which certain parts of it are read and converted into molecules such as hormones.
The conclusion for the breeder remains: selection for one characteristic ultimately changes entire complexes of characteristics!!!
Any selection that is not also aimed at fitness and longevity or long-term performance automatically causes these characteristics to deteriorate.
As already mentioned at the beginning, the physiological basis for longevity and long-term performance is slow, long-lasting growth (=late maturity). Opposite to this is the complex of characteristics of “early maturity”, i.e. fast, short growth, high and intensive performance at a young age and the associated rapid aging. Research on cattle has shown that intensive selection for early and high milk production of the animals dramatically reduces their useful life. Before the animals are even fully grown (with 4 calves), a very high percentage of dairy cows have to leave the stable due to illness. These early-mature animals are physiologically incapable of maintaining this performance. On the other hand, late-maturing animals begin with medium performance, develop slowly and only achieve high and highest performance when they are fully grown. The organism with all its metabolic processes is then well “trained”, connective tissue, cartilage, joints, tendons, ligaments and claws are of high quality (because they have grown slowly) and the animals produce well into old age without any health problems.
Everything that has just been said also applies in reverse to horse breeding. The rapid success pushes breeding towards early maturity with devastating consequences for the horses and ultimately for the horse owner.
Function determines form. I have to think about what breeding goal do I have? If I want to breed a riding horse, it needs certain riding horse points and it has to be ridden so that these can be checked. If I want to breed a racehorse, it has to be fast – it is this function (speed) that dictates the form. But if I want to breed a show horse, it has to fit into a conformation template that was developed by some people (judges). So here the form comes first, and the horse is bred to adapt to this form, which is fundamentally wrong.
IN THE FOCUS: There are different breeding methods to achieve your breeding goal. Could you briefly explain to us what these are?
A. P.: I actually come from a generation before population genetics. My grandfather had nothing to do with these theoretical considerations. But these people still developed different breeding methods based on their experience – and these are still valid today. The breeding methods commonly used for the Arabian horse are:
Line breeding – this means that we find a (minor) relationship on both the father’s and mother’s side, so we bring together related genes, so to speak, from breeding animals that correspond to our breeding goals and are selected as best as possible. Because of the slight relationship, I have a high degree of certainty that the next generation will be as good as or better than the parent generation.
We talk about inbreeding when you have outstanding breeding animals and you want to consolidate or increase this gene pool through breeding close relatives. Of course, inbreeding is only possible if the animal is free of any genetic defects. Inbreeding not only solidifies the good sides, but also the hereditary defects or undesirable traits and brings them forward. Two recessive genes can appear homozygous, i.e. monozygotic, through inbreeding. If the genetic makeup then contains a genetic defect, this genetic defect is present in a monozygotic form and it comes into play (e.g. CA, SCID). How close the inbreeding can be is a matter of debate. Basically, a generation postponement is always good. Before it was possible to test for hereditary defects using genetic tests, father-daughter matings were made – if the father was a hidden (recessive) carrier of a hereditary defect, this would come to light. Today’s genetic tests can save you from having dead or deformed foals. In any case, the use of inbreeding must be embedded in a breeding plan and strict selection must take place!
“Unplanned mating” – here the nice stallion around the corner or the super show crack is used without much consideration as to how well he suits the mare and what effects this has. Let’s take Agnat’s example again: His sire Empire was bronze champion at the European Championships as a junior and in the top ten at the World Championships. Grandfather Enzo was US National Champion, his grandmother Emira was All Nations Cup Champion, his other grandfather QR Marc was World Champion, and Kwestura was also World Champion and the most expensive horse at a Polish auction. His pedigree really shows the “Who’s Who” of show horse breeding and yet the combination of all these illustrious names resulted in a completely ordinary horse. So what happened there? It’s simple: In this pedigree everything is mixed together and then Mendel’s splitting rule kicks in and it splits in all directions in the F2 generation. As a consequence, the major show horse breeders then switch to embryo transfer, producing embryos from different sires, e.g. B. 10 foals, 9 of the resulting foals do not meet the requirements of a show horse and are sold cheaply, and the one that meets expectations goes into the show. But the fact that 9 foals do not meet the breeding standard is kept quiet. This is “trial and error” and has nothing to do with “breeding”. That’s why I am an absolute opponent of these methods.
Outcross – how an outcross works properly in terms of breeding is generally not known to many. So here’s an example: the stallion Kurier, bred at the Khrenovoje stud farm, a stud farm that was known for its extreme racing performance breeding. The damline is Russian, the outcross comes through the stallion Egis from Poland, a Derby winner of which the Russians have hoped to get not only a blood refreshment, but also the highest performance. In terms of breeding, the way it works now is that the stallion Egis gets the 5 best mares from the entire mare population to cover and his two or three best sons then go into breeding. Only these sons are then widely used in the broodmare band. Breeding means thinking in generations!
Displacement breeding – generally speaking, this involves replacing certain traits with others. In animal breeding, this is usually done by crossing with other breeds. In Arabian breeding this happens through a different type of horse within the breed. This can currently be seen in the Polish state stud farms, where show horse stallions, sometimes in the third generation, are being used indiscriminately on the thoroughly bred Polish mare base, so that Polish blood is being increasingly suppressed. What is currently happening there is a displacement crossing with show horses. In doing so, within 20 years they are ruining everything that has been built and consolidated over 150 years of breeding work.
Selection – in the large stud farms you could actually still select. Every year you have 50 or more foals and you select the 3 to 4 best ones, the rest go to the remonte, i.e. they become riding horses and are therefore taken from the breeding gene pool. But if, as a small private breeder, I only breed one foal in 10 years, the selection becomes difficult.
The golden rule in animal breeding is: always double the good! Then you have a high degree of security in inheritance.
IN THE FOCUS: Mare families traditionally play a major role in horse breeding – and in Arabian breeding in particular. Why is that?
A. P.: Scientifically, this can be attributed to the so-called cytoplasmic inheritance. During fertilization, the stallion only contributes the sperm, and of that only the cell nucleus. The mare, however, contributes the egg cell with the cell nucleus and around it the cytoplasm with the cell organelles, and especially the mitochondria. The mitochondria are also carriers of genetic material and are responsible for the energy metabolism of the cells. These mitochondria are always passed on from mother to foal in the egg cell. A colt has the benefit of this, but cannot pass on this mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to its offspring. Only a filly can pass this on to the next generation. Therefore, the female line can be traced back into the past using mtDNA. Maternal performance lines such as Sabellina in Poland and Sapine in Russia are also known in Arabian horse breeding.
IN THE FOCUS: What advice would you give to a breeder who wants to buy a mare for breeding?
A. P.: A breeder should look at the damline of the mare in question. If possible, you should choose a mare from a damline that has undergone performance tests. Ask the breeder about the number of foals for the mother, grandmother, etc.? This gives an indication of fertility. If the last three generations consist of mares that meet all the criteria, you can also count on a resounding inheritance in the mare that you want to buy or with which you want to breed, i.e. a high degree of heredity security. If you buy a broodmare that has already had foals, you should ask whether this mare gave birth without any problems, did she become pregnant immediately, did she accept the foal? If we select better with regards to fertility, this will save a lot of unnecessary veterinary costs!
The problem today is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain such data, because even studbooks usually only contain those foals that are born healthy and are considered “worthy of registration” by the breeder – the number of coverings that are used to become a mare pregnant, the number of resorptions, abortions, stillbirths, all of this is unfortunately no longer recorded today. Another problem is that most broodmares are kept by small breeders where they have no chance of having 10 or more foals because they are only bred once or twice in their lives. Based on today’s studbook data, it is not possible to determine whether a broodmare that only had two foals in 10 years was bred more often but did not produce a live foal, or was only used for breeding twice.
And a good broodmare also has good milk production! In the large state stud farms in Poland and Russia, this was recorded as a selection criterion because it is also one of the good maternal qualities.
IN THE FOCUS: How can the “lack of data” be remedied, since it is the members of the associations who have decided that only the absolutely necessary data will be recorded, or that stillbirths or abortions will not be reported to the stud book at all?
A. P.: Yes, that is a problem. But I think we’re at a point now where we have to think about where do we want to go with breeding Arabian horses in the next 20 or 30 years? The breeders should arrange for the associations to collect the relevant data. The same applies to proof of performance, regardless of whether it is equestrian sport, racing, endurance or show.
IN THE FOCUS: Let’s move from mares to stallions: Stallions have a much greater influence on breeding in terms of numbers. For example, QR Marc has sired over 850 offspring in the last 15 years…
A. P.: What makes a good stallion? For me he has to have performance-tested ancestors, he must be free of hereditary defects, proven performance, best conformation and – very important – an impeccable character. If a stallion is problematic and cannot be handled, he has no place in breeding.
Let’s get to the question: How do I breed a good stallion? For me, this is the most exciting question of all! I currently see far too few good young stallions in Arabian horse breeding in order to have a few good stallions available for breeding in 5 or 10 years. How to address this problem? In breeding you can say: behind every good stallion there is a good stallion mother. The mare from which you want to breed a future sire is extremely important. Good mares in particular should remain in breeding and planned, targeted matings should be encouraged.
IN THE FOCUS: What dangers do you see in show horse breeding?
A. P.: My job here as a population geneticist is to point out developmental trends. One must be aware of the dangers of where the path leads if we continue in this direction for a long time. I want to come back to the cattle here to show what effects show breeding has, because it really runs in parallel:
Just like in Arabian breeding, in cattle breeders try to achieve a straight topline. The topline must be completely straight, only then it corresponds to the show standard. But what happens when this has been achieved? By selecting for the straight topline, the sacrum descends into the pelvis and makes birth more difficult. The birth ducts become smaller (narrower) because – as desired by breeders – the sacrum lowers.
Poorly developed muscles in the hindquarters – let’s remember again the male calves mentioned at the beginning, which have poor muscles. This is due to the fact that the spinous processes of the sacrum have shortened by 2-3 cm due to incorrect selection. This means that the attachment area for the muscles is lost and this creates these muscle-poor pelvises. And I see exactly this tendency with the show horses.
In cattle breeding, a survey has shown that over 90% of Holstein cattle are asthenics, i.e. tall, narrow animals, while less than 10% are athletics, i.e. the medium-framed type with the broad chest, which could compensate for this in the population. Now you actually want to breed an animal that is as well balanced as possible, but to do this you would have to have a medium-framed, broad stallion/bull available for the vast majority of animals. However, these only make up less than 10% of the population. And this is exactly the direction horse breeding is going in!
The position of the hip joint, in cattle this is called the inverter, meaning the point at which the thigh attaches to the pelvis. The selection for the straight topline tends to shift the hip joint backwards, which means that the animal has to put the hind legs behind the body, which in turn has a negative impact on movement, creates kidney pressure and significantly worsens the resilience of the back.
The extreme “typey” head with dish is, in my opinion, a deformation. Anyone who demands a minimum level of performance from their horse will recognize that a horse with an extreme dish will have trouble breathing. This would require research to understand the exact connections. But we know from dogs and cats that the shortening of the nose does not reduce the amount of mucous membrane material in the nasopharynx. However, this is no longer tight, but rather “wrinkled”, which leads to the familiar wheezing breathing noises. The lower jaw and the ridge are no longer straight, but are curved, which leads to dental problems. Teeth change very slowly in evolutionary terms. The desert Arabians’ teeth are too large for today’s delicate heads and therefore have space problems in their jaws.
The refinement of the head in particular, but also of the entire horse, and the associated lack of gender type in the stallions. This has, for example, effects on the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland controls the entire hormonal process in the organism. It shrinks and you intervene directly in the animal’s hormonal balance and ultimately select against fertility.
Here is also an example from cattle breeding: we are increasingly receiving feedback from farmers about weak contractions during birth. What happened here: the hormone oxytocin is responsible for water retention in the tissues before birth and during birth for triggering contractions. All of these natural regulators are significantly weakened by the change in the pituitary gland; the hormone levels are too low. As a result, the contractions during birth mean that the remaining blood is not sufficiently pressed from the placenta via the umbilical cord into the foetus. A normal calf has around 7 litres of blood in its system shortly after birth. If contractions are weak, the calves are usually taken out using mechanical pulling aid and the calves often only have around 3.5 litres of blood in their system and are therefore clearly weak and have to be brought with great effort through the first three weeks of life or even die.
Insufficient depth of the thorax means that the animal has no space for the organs, especially for the heart and lungs. Such animals lack endurance and performance, and the performance of the lymphatic system is significantly reduced.
The middle section is too long – although a feature of the Arabian horse is its short back! Nevertheless, long backs are selected here, which means that the animals have backs that are far too soft and the backs are no longer stable. The long back causes the loins to sink and the animals can no longer walk without pain.
Significant weaknesses in the connective tissue. Selection for early maturity and the associated rapid growth lead to a significant weakening of the connective tissue. We examined this in cattle over long periods of time based on the suspension of the uterus in the abdomen/pelvis and the back formation of the uterus after birth. Swollen legs and swollen hocks are a sign of this weakness in the connective tissue in horses – and these animals are ultimately completely useless as riding horses.
IN THE FOCUS: An important aspect today is size. The Arabian horse, which was imported to Europe 200 years ago, was often smaller than 1.50 m, but today customers demand a horse that should be 10 cm taller. What “dangers” can we expect when our “cultural Arabs” become bigger and bigger?
A. P.: In cattle, we examined what happens when the animals get bigger and heavier and what effects this has. On average, a cow weighs around 600 kg. If we now have 100 kg more body weight, this inevitably means an enormous increase in resources just to maintain the body. I agree with H. V. Musgrave Clark, an English Arabian breeder who valued small horses around 1.45 m and did not use any animal for breeding that was over 1.53 m. He lived in America for several years and worked there as a post rider and his insight was that medium-sized horses always had the greatest endurance. For us, this means that selection for excessive size, i.e. for animals that are over 1.60 – 1.65 m, is not effective. The size must fluctuate freely, which means there may well be animals that are larger, but you shouldn’t select especially for this.
IN THE FOCUS: What could happen next?
A. P.: The state stud farms are dissolving, unfortunately one has to say that. In Russia, Khrenovoye was privatized and Arabian breeding was abandoned. Tersk is also privatized and today has three different breeding programs, racehorses, show horses and “Classic Russian”, although this last group is becoming smaller and smaller. In Poland we have seen that displacement breeding with show horses is taking place. If this goes on for another 10 years, there will be nothing left of the original Polish Arab.
But there are also small glimmers of hope. A very interesting project was launched in Spain back in 2003. A breeding value for performance tests was developed; there are different selection levels, including young horse selection, tested sires and elite sires.
Finally, I would like to introduce a project that we have launched here in cattle breeding. We have decided to maintain long-term performance breeding because this type of cattle has no chance at all due to genomic selection and breeding value estimation as currently carried out. We therefore founded an association and then looked for cow families that met our criteria for long-term performance breeding. Then we bought bulls from them, i.e. we now have almost 40 bulls in the insemination station, we have our own semen depot, and we use it to supply farmers who are interested in this type of breeding. Something similar could also be applied to the Arabian horse. You would need a Europe-wide breeding platform, and of course you have to think about how you could finance something like that. Then you need much better data collection, research work would have to be done, you would have to network the individual initiatives (like in Spain, see above), record stallion and mare lines to see which ones are at risk, start a survey to find out which frozen semen from older stallions still exist and – and this is very important to me – there needs to be a transfer of knowledge. It would be necessary to offer breeding advice for the next, younger generation of breeders, because otherwise the old hippological knowledge would be completely lost.
IN THE FOCUS: Thank you very much for your clear words and your commitment to preserving the old values in our breed.
The interview was conducted by Gudrun Waiditschka.
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beneath the cut is a frankly silly amount of horse breed and hermits discussion
Bdubs: thoroughbreds, for obvious racing reasons
Cub: Lipizzaners, because he's intense and talented enough to handle one to its full potential, and also he wouldn't settle for less. also he deserves a war horse breed
Etho: American Saddlebred - descended from thoroughbreds (as a little nod to him working w Bdubs on horse breeding), very chill temperaments but also can have fun with the best of them, possibly the most famous American breed? Not most popular, most famous
Hypno: Arabian. I don't have an explanation for this one. I really don't. I just know it somehow
Impulse: Appaloosa!! It's got the spots and while it's not the most impressive horse on the server, it's very versatile, and he's mostly using it for trail riding anyways which Appaloosas are very good for
Iskall: Mustangs. He keeps finding random horses and then they disappear on him? Mustang lifestyle for SURE, between the feral herds and the roundups.
Jevin: OLDENBURG OLDENBURG OLDENBURG. He loves that horse and it's a GREAT jumper of course it's an Oldenburg (I'm not biased why do you ask)
Keralis: his first horse was a Welsh Cob for the attitude it gave him but now he's breeding Holsteiners (one of the top jumping breeds in the international community)
Pearl: Does she have a horse or just a pair of donkeys?? I don't know donkeys.
Scar: Morgan horse. Very easy horses to manage even in uncontrolled environments like, say, going off-trail to try and rope a creeper.
Stress: American Quarter Horse, very good stock horses (farm/ranch horses) who are in my experience very friendly and silly. And being primarily bred for stock doesn't preclude them from kicking ass in the ring when they're used to show!
Tango: Belgian Draught. Cogsworth just cannot be a name for anything other than a draft breed, and he needs one properly impressive enough to match his build. So, Belgian!
Wels: ...well, he stole Iskall's, and Iskall's is a mustang, so... XD Though if he had his own, it would absolutely be an Andalusian to match his aesthetic.
Xisuma: Azteca, to match his build! Also one of the prettiest horse breeds I've given a hermit thus far, and frankly he deserves that.
ZombieCleo: a Friesian, because they fucking deserve the picture that paints. Maybe even a Friesian-Percheron cross for the extra intimidation the height and muscularity gives them. Please just look up a Friesian and imagine them on one. It's PERFECT
#about the author#hermit horses#<- tag for this going forwards#for that matter: does anyone know if doc false gem grian joe mumbo ren skizz joel beef or xb have horses yet???#and if so where can i find footage of said horses. because i'm being stupid serious about this and trying for accepted coat colors#in most cases at least
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Please, please tell me about the [untitled miniature show cows au] for the WIP game!
Of course! So I was talking to one of my friends from my Horse Girl days and she went pro and owns/runs a (horse) farm now. And she was telling me about this story she heard from a lady she ran into at a horse show in Oklahoma about the most bitter hobbydrama-style feud going on in the miniature show cattle scene in her area.
And one of the farms involved had 'sun' in the name (hopefully that's not too specific not trying to dox anyone here...), so of course my brain *instantly* went '.... Sunshot Campaign but with drama about miniature show cows???'
This conversation was later last year and actually was after this post, so the idea of 'somehow give Jiang Cheng an adorable little cow' was already planted in my mind! I've always loved highlands cattle (even regular full-size highland cows) whenever I came across them at a county fair or something, so naturally in my AU the cows need to be a miniature highlands or a highlands cross like HighPark or HighPanda for my AU. (Unfortunately most of the cattle any friends or distant family members have are boring standard holsteins/herefords/black angus so I have been DEPRIVED my WHOLE LIFE I tell you)
Anyway the outline isn't super firm because I didn't do much besides jotting down the basic idea, but it involves a devastating barn fire (arson perpetrated by Wen Chao, of course) that kills the Jiang parents and a decades-long journey to re-establish the farm or something.
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NAME: Prickly Pear Acres
Location: Gatlin Fields
Prickly Pear Acres is a farm that sits closer to the Allgood Death Pit than most would be comfortable with, but it still manages to flourish in spite of the grim environment. Unknown to the general public, the farm is run solely by the undead: zombies make up the farm’s payroll, and there are certain perks for those that would otherwise feast on people. Blood and brains are supplied to the staff any time an animal is sent to slaughter—it is the owner’s mission to help his fellow undead find less harmful ways to make it through their cravings. Not only that, but being a farmhand for a more old-fashioned company provides them with a place to live and consistent, honest work.
The farm has an assortment of Holstein and Jersey cows, bulls, and steers, East Friesian and Awassi sheep, and a smattering of Alpine, Nubian, and LaMancha goats. The cow, sheep, and goat milk is sometimes used to make cheese, otherwise it is pasteurized and sold to local businesses.
There’s also some horses for driving the cattle to pasture, three cattle dogs, a cat, a handful of chickens, one very ornery donkey and an equally stubborn mule, and two catoblepones that help guard the herd.
Pretty much all the animals on the farm were a rescue of one type or another.
The farm is pretty large, having several sizable pastures for turning out the grazers in rotations. There are multiple barns for all the livestock to stay in during the colder months, one main house where Monty lives, and about a dozen smaller cabins where farm hands are permitted to live if they need a roof over their head.
There is a tatty bogle off on one far side of the property that has always been there. Attempts were made to remove it, but it… resisted those attempts. Now everyone just leaves it alone.
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Serendipia Student Profile - Ignacio Luna
Theme song to listen to while reading ^^
Name: Ignacio Desta Luna
Nicknames: Dulce Toro (Damián),Iggy (Everyone Else)
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Species: Longhorn Bull Bestialhuman
Orientation: Gay(Not Out Yet)
Birthday: 7/14
Zodiac: Cancer
Height: 223cm/7'3"ft
Eye Color: Emerald Green
Hair Color: Burnt Orange
Homeland: Harveston
Dorm: Serendipia
School Year: 3rd
Occupation: Ranch Hand
Club: Track & Field Club
Best Subject: Animal Linguistics & Science
Dominant Hand: Right
Favorite Food: Grilled Nopales
Least Favorite Food: Meat except some Fish
Dislikes: Unrulyness,Random Horn Pulls,Animal Mistreatment
Hobby: Life/Farming Simulation Gaming,Outdoor Activities,Tests of Strength,Admiring Damián
Talents: Livestock Care,Physical Strength,Track Running,Headbutting,Zoology Knowledge
Elemental Magic: Flora/Water
Unique Magic: Will be revealed in Dorm's Story
OC’s Lore Summary: Ranch bull boy from Harveston. Lover of animals,farming,and the outdoors. Was assigned the night shift of prep for the ranch so has adapted a nocturnal lifestyle. Abit clueless when it comes to talking to people but he is trying his best to be friendly. Gets along well with other animal lovers.
Personality: Abit serious but only if there's work to be done otherwise very chill. Has a competitive temper when it comes to strength or animal knowledge. Hides his romantic & flirty side due to family.
Fun Facts: Ignacio has a charm about him people say draws them to want to speak/hangout with him despite him being new to being a people person.
Family is a mix of two beautiful region cultures. He is bilingual and often lets out some ranch speak too.
He has to convince horses to let him ride them as most are super intimidated as they see him as an almost full bull. Some just give in immediately.
(Picrew)
He needs no tool or help to herd cows. They follow him his every move when he comes to let them out to go eat. They adore him. The bulls can be stubborn but he actually will accept one's challenge if need be. He loves the cattle the most.
Took a year for his family to convince him to go to NRC as he didn't want to but is the only one in the family to have a knack for magic. He was always embarrassed by the fact he could use magic since he more of a physical boi.
Everyone back home is so used to him they don't even acknowledge the fact he has a bull lower half body & legs. People who aren't are so curious and ask him all sorts of questions.
He doesn't know if it is a joke or people are serious but he gets asked a lot if he is "Milkable" cause they think he is a cow even when his large horns are right in their sights and his big manly chest is out. He fears someone is going to use that as a pick up line toward him or try to milk him unfortunately.
He gets so competitive when it comes to strength or endurance. He is very fast for his size and can break boulders bare handed. He was asked a few times to transfer to Savanaclaw but he just is not a day person too much anymore he prefers nighttime and early mornings.
He admires Damián and his cat love so much since he can always have kitties around him as he works on classwork or just wants to vibe outside. He loves the cats so much since he loves animals.
He is a bit awkward at the dorm parties since he is not used to them and being a big weird legged boy but is opening up more at them each time he sees Damián just out there with everyone like nothing different.
Please don't rattle a cowbell near him. You may regret or fall in love with what happens..
Since he was feeling homesick a lot Damián went looking for a way to fix that and was told by Idia that maybe gaming could help since there's games where you're a farmer. Damián didn't quite understand but bought Ignacio one of these games and now he is so addicted to these games in his spare time. He often asks Damián to come see his farms or help him name newborn animals in the game.
Family
Parents
Mother - Sancha Luna - 58yrs old - Holstein Cow Bestialhuman
Father - Ignatius Luna - 60yrs old - Longhorn Bull beastman
Ignacio's hardworking parents. They've been working for numerous farms & ranches across the Shaftlands as they love outdoor jobs and met at a farm. Ignacio's mother shares his animal lower half thing with her having cow lower half & legs(no udders). They had him way into their mature age as they were too focused with working in their youth.
They come from two different cultures and had made it a tradition to teach Ignacio about both with books,going to events in home regions,letting him eat different foods from both,and teach him their native languages while raising him. Once he hit teenhood they told him he could now choose to like whatever he wanted from any modern stuff,etc just to remember he is special and loved. It helped shape the young man you see today.
His parents nowadays are just so sweet and are soon retiring from work. He would describe them at home as being traditional as their home has alot of the culture combination reflection and usually their conversations with each other or friends are about old days. Ignacio's room probably only place in house with modern things from outside what they have since they told him he could have that but keep it in his room.
He loves them so much and knows they are very chill to modern things like when they go out and stuff. He kinda wishes to talk to them about his orientation as he always got advice on things from them yet he is being the typical teen too afraid to ask. His mother has once mentioned randomly that instead of grandkids he can adopt cows. Maybe she knows? He unsure.
#serendipia#twisted wonderland fandorm#twst fandorm#twisted wonderland oc#twst oc#oc profile#Ignacio
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At the Makers ' Run Farm Carolina International CCI Horse Trials, Team Leslie wins the 2024 USEF Futures Team Challenge.
The 2024 USEF Futures Team Challenge winners ωere Jenny Caras and Sommersby. ©Allie Contrad Photography
Team Leslie won the head-to-head competition at the 2024 USEF Futures Team Challenge after three days of interesting eventing competition, winning with Team Bobby and teammate, Team Bobby, who had 112. 2 sanctions totals. At the Carolina International CCI at Setters ‘ Run Farm, the crew competition took place in the CCI3*- S and CCI4*- S groups.
Group Bobby, led by Chef d’Equipe/Technical Advisor Bobby Costello, produced good shows by Christina Henriksen and Cisco’s Calor Z, Andrew McConnon and FVF Top Gun, Caroline Pamukcu and She’s the One, and Sharon White and Claus 63.
Following Thursday’s dressage contest, Team Leslie took the lead with ƒirst leaderboards from aIl team members who posted small 30s scores. One fall from the dressage cycle is taken into account in the Future Team Challenge format, and the first time ended with 7. 9 penalties separating the teams. In the end, Team Leslie emerged as the wire-to-wire winners despite both groups ‘ strong results over the two jumping aspects.
Caras ( Buckhead, Ga. ) and Sommersby, the 2012 Holsteiner horse she co- owns with Jerry Hollis, had the striking performance of the week, earning the best dressage report across both teams and adding zero penalties in cross- region and jumping to accomplish on a 30. 8. Henriksen ( Keswick, Va. ) and her own 2015 Zangersheide gelding Cisco’s Calor Z had Team Bobby’s top score and the second- best finishing score in the competition with a 37. 3.
The Futures Team Challenge was created to imitate the structure oƒ global team competition and give up-and-coming athletes the chance to experience that environment as a training ground for poȿsible senior teams iȵ the future. Laws claims that this occasion was a victory by that standard.
” We started on Tuesday and Wednesday doing some staff courses”, said Law. ” I believe it’s beneficial for them to practice that. We spoke with the runners αbout what they thought should be done bȩfore going into competition and what is the best way to obtain their animals readყ for a contest that involved a group. Those first two weeks are when we do trot-ups. It gives the players a comprehensive understanding of what it means to bȩ a group. I think that’s the highlight—getting as many people into that space as possible”.
The staff members have the opportunity to socialize at staff dįnners and practice and get to know one anothȩr through competition. Accσrding to Law, these views helped the team work up properly.
” I think]Futures Team Challenge ] has good value for these younger athletes”, said Law. l believe it may grow and we can create ideas and do more to make it even more team-oriented. I firmly believe that in Europe, whether it’s the Western Championships or the Li Governments Cups, there is so much more opportunity for groups to gain that experience. We do n’t have that [in North America], so anything we can do to better prepare our athletes for an Olympic team or a World Championship team can only be for the better.
Laws had high praise for the host competition, Carolina International CCI and Horse Trials.
” They put on a great competition in all aspects”, said Law. ” It’s pretty well done, very professionally done. This time, the cross-country classes were fantastic, and the going was flawless, which was great for the animals. I believe there were excellent training for the horses going on this year, which taught riders and horses a bit, and hopefully this will help them continue and succeed in whatever three-day journey they’re on.
The USEF Futures Team Challenge is available here for more details.
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Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Signed 1994Historical Photograph Chase Farm Lincoln, RIBarn and Farm twin sil
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@positivelybeastly
'Don't do it, Hank,' Tess had told him in that irritating way she has when she thinks everyone else is wrong. 'She's a mysterious. Stay here.' And eventually, 'okay, well, I'll miss you when you die.'
However, 'Puttyfoot Farms' checks out: upstate New York, owned by little known billionaire Sharon St. Clare. Old money--the sort who keeps her wealth quiet until she appears at charity galas draped in Dior, antique diamonds winking in her ears. Or the front of the Daily Bugle for firing a harpoon gun at Ingrid Newkirk. She has the sort of money that allows for her to care for animals more than people, and for those who hear about her go 'oh, yeah, one of those'.
He's greeted by rolling hills and bright white fences, not to mention a handful of alpaca that stare at him, placid and unblinking. Oh, and goats. Pigs! Horses. Not to mention a--farmhand? Butler? If it's the former, he's the cleanest farmhand Hank's ever set eyes on, his buttondown shirt pristine and old fashioned spectacles sliding down his nose as he eyes the blue mutant up and down.
His eyes are pale and shrewd as those of a seasoned general. "Ma'am--" there's a faintly sardonic note to his voice--"is with the cows."
And Sharon St. Clare is indeed with the cows, singing a bright rendition of Sondheim's The Miller's Son. (Tess likes that soundtrack.) She's shoveling dirty hay and cow patties into a wheelbarrow, her hair woven into a coronet of blonde braids like a stereotypical farmer's daughter.
In fact, she's the very image of one of those cliche old illustrations, healthy and wholesome as she stops. A brilliant smile wreathes her face as she regards him, shoving the shovel into its big wheelbarrow of shit as a Holstein heifer with milky, blind eyes lows a complaint.
"Henry McCoy!" Sharon St. Clare sings out, as if they're the oldest of friends. "As I do live and breathe. Come say hello!"
She doesn't give him the chance, instead bounding toward him to clasp both his hands in two thick, dirty gloves. Her squeeze is firm--too firm. "How was your trip, darling? I do hate the subway this time of year--or did you drive?" Again, he's not allowed the chance to respond before she's half-turning to the cool, clinical man who 'escorted' him. "Gerard!" The Butler Farmhand. Gerard Butler. "See to the good doctor's car, won't you?"
Squeeze. "Henry, give him your keys. It wouldn't do to have you walk all that way back."
How did she know where he parked his car?
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Farmers with horse drawn ploughs, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, Herbert List, 1930
#photography#vintage#vintage photography#herbert list#black and white photography#1930s#1930#horses#germany#schleswig holstein#german#jewish#lgbtqia artists#queer artists#farming
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So I did a thing today 🐄
#cow#horse#Holstein#paint horse#paint#neigh#moo#dairy#animals#barrel racing#equine#equestrian#farm365#farming
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Hello! I want to ask if john really wanted to move to the farm in the late 70s? And you mentioned the old mclennon farm ,what is that?
Thank you!😚
Thanks for asking!
The McLennon farm I mentioned is from John Lennon: The Life. In late 70s John became interested in farms. Yoko bought him four farms and John called them "old McLennon's farms". Can't believe I can actually see "McLennon" in a biography🤣🤣🤣
Another investment strategy gave John his biggest dose of Liverpool déjà vu since exploring downtown New York. Just like his beloved Uncle George, he became a dairy farmer. America’s milk producers at the time received generous tax breaks, and investigation showed that a cow of the premier Holstein-Friesian breed could appreciate in value almost as spectacularly as a French Impressionist. An expedition was mounted to Delaware County in upstate New York to inspect farms and herds currently for sale. Yoko preferred to stay in the limo with Sean, but, accompanied by Sam Green, John tramped over the fields, lost in memories of Uncle George in his milkman’s peaked cap and brown overalls on the early-morning Woolton rounds with Daisy the cart horse. “He got really enthusiastic, talking about houses he’d like to build,” Green remembers. “I got the feeling he wanted to live in the country more than anything.” Subsequently Yoko bought four farms—“old McLennon’s farms,” John instantly dubbed them—and a herd of 122 Holstein cows and 10 bulls.
— John Lennon: The Life
#not sure if it's about paul but it's so interesting#it's not the first time john had used this word though#yoko bought john four mclennon farms#think about it😂#john lennon#yoko ono#mclennon#john and yoko
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Statement of keith hirayama regarding
her volunteer work on a ranch near Cratfield. Original statement given November 9th, 2008. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.
Statement begins.
ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT):
Some years have passed now since I left, but I can still remember that feeling. I recall the blood, and I remember its eyes, looking straight at me, alive and terrified and new.
I started helping out at a local dairy farm when I was just 14, and I can remember the time this horse we had got caught in a fence and it was just me and this young ranch hand, and we held her still for nearly two hours until someone came by to cut her out of the wire.
I started going there after school on Thursdays. And that summer, the owner started me working for her full-time, riding this truck delivering milk to the grocery stores up north. I wasn’t old enough for my license, so I got to go with this 20-year-old kid called Beth instead, who had grown up working for the ranch.
Beth was as soft spoken and shy as you can imagine, and she didn’t say a lot, but she listened. She listened so closely, she didn’t miss a single sound, it made you feel self-conscious talking. Like maybe she could hear everything that was going on inside your head.
Now, this was years ago, so I’m not exactly sure exactly how much I’m remembering and how much I’m imagining, but, god, do I remember something. This one night, I was sixteen, there was a storm brewing, and I was assisting giving birth to a calf. One of the cows, a big Holstein called Fluffy, was in labor, her udder was huge and swollen, and it was pouring rain outside.
I’d been watching her for several hours, it was me and Mrs. Dealy and one other guy from the ranch helping her out. We had to use the jack, but in the end, she did it. That calf, all glistening black and new, came out all right, and we were celebrating, the three of us, while I tried to make sure it was breathing.
Looking at that calf I felt proud. All big eyes, and wet black fur, and sharp white teeth. It was breathing, so I was starting to relax. We put it with the mother right away.
Mrs. Dealy looked at me. She told me I did a good job, after she told the same thing to Fluffy with her new squirming baby, tail wagging, ears perked.
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i....would love to hear some of your animal's names if you're up for it :)
OH MY GOSH YES.
I am always up for it.
I adore my babies so much that I will talk for ages about them.
If I don't want to talk about them, you know there's something wrong with me.
So here are some of them (not all, but some):
This is my baby girl Juniper Ann "Junie": She is nearly 3 years old (birthday is August 17th). I met her as a baby when she was red colored and took care of her. When I got home, me and my sister worked to try and get a pen set up for her because we could've taken her home if we wanted. But, only a few months later, we were able to bring her home for a decent price. The owner couldn't bring himself to butcher her. Anyway, she was wild when we got her and quite big. It took me a whole summer to tame her and now... words cannot describe how much I love her.
Ivy Anne: this is Junie’s daughter. She was born big and was running within three hours of birth. She was born huge too! Sadly, her destination is butcher, but she is gorgeous with black stripes lining her whole body (didn't have them in time of photo). Mama Cow Junie was not agressive towards us at all which is awesome because she was a first time mother.
Icky: Formally Echo, then Ecky, then finally Icky. This three year old hen is a Delaware hen and boy IS SHE LOUD! Anyway, this girl with amazing confirmation took home a blue in showing (a second blue, not first so she didn't qualify for champion, but dang is this chicken the stuff!)
Pyper: She is the baddie. I don't even count her as living for she is never around. She is brooding currently, but before she got broody she was stellar. I saw her this morning, caught her, and proclaimed her presence to my family. She was show material, even though she wouldn't ever compete for champion for this two year old is Whiting True Green which is in the crossbred egg type class.
Tabitha: Or "Tabi" as she is commonly called. She is three and since she was a pullet (hens under a year old) I've been trying to get a good show out of her. Third her first year, then second (small class, so no competition) because when Speckled Sussexes molt, they get more speckles. I was relying on her to molt, but of course she didn't. I only recall her having 1 molt and they should molt every year. Chickens sometimes...
Zack: Isn't he cute? He is one year old, and like a foot and a half long! But he is kind of skinny, which is probably because of his age and the fact that he hasn't filled out yet. Before his first birthday, he weighed 10 pounds. 10 pounds for an active, outdoor cat! And now he weighs even more. Slender, yes, he is so big that he walks around with a hunchback. In a couple years we are going to have a monster. But, said monster, is scared of two pound kittens and ran up a tree when he saw a feral cat.
Clover: This is my oldest cat at five years. As pretty as she is, she is the crankiest princess ever. Even when she got sick (yesterday we took her to the vet, it was just a cold) she was still growling and hissing. Clover has this "I don't care" attitude about everything and just states her presence and goes to take a nap on the couch. If you touch her, be warned she will tear your arm off. Unless she is in a sweat mood, then you may be lucky.
Leo: I have talked about him before. He has been in rehab since April. Everytime I get somewhere, he relapses. The dumb horse rolled down a hill and hurt a ligament in his right stifle and it doesn't help that he has arthritis everywhere (it is manageable, just irksome at the moment). A couple days ago, he bucked when my sister was leading him and kicked her hands. He broke one and gave her a couple hairline fractures on the other. Months ago, he bucked me off and I broke my rib (that was in November 2020, I still have problems with it) Other post here.
Anyway, that is just a few of them. I also didn't know if you wanted a full list of them or not so I did that too.
Chickens (in age order):
Allyberries (White Crested Black Polish)
Black Diamond (Silver Laced Wyandotte)
BDH (Silver Laced Wyandotte)
Sweet Baby (Silver Laced Wyandotte)
Pearl (Silver Laced Wyandotte)
Misty (Brown Laced Leghorn)
Sugar Moon (Brown Laced Leghorn)
Diann (Cuckoo Maran)
Snowflake (Cuckoo Maran)
Patricya (Cuckoo Maran)
Tiffanie (Welsumner)
Daffodil (Welsumner)
Icky (Delware)
Felicity (Delaware)
Tabitha (Speckled Sussex)
Lilac (Sapphire Gem)
Pyper (Whiting True Green)
Joey (Light Brahma)
Cheep (Whiting True Blue)
Peep (Whiting True Blue)
Thundercluck (Blue Laced Red Wyandotte)
Super Chow Wen (Blue Laced Red Wyandotte)
... all are female
Other Poultry (in age order):
Night Bagoo (Guinea Hen, female)
Dr. Sausage (Silver Appleyard Duck, male)
Mrytle (Silver Appleyard Duck, female)
Cats (in age order):
Clover
Zack
Maya
Theo
Cows (in age order):
Juniper (Brown Swiss)
Skylar (Scottish Highland)
Lucy (Scottish Highland) here
Rocky (Holstein)
Gypsy "Wee" as she is mostly called (Angus)
Alice (Scottish Highland) here
Vikki (Scottish Highland)
Ivy (Hereford/Brown Swiss x)
... all are girls but Rocky
Horse:
Leo (American Paint gelding)
Dog:
Luke (Saint Bernard/Greater Swiss Mountain Dog x)
Pigs: currently six, but only one is named (Winston) because all but him look similar. I have raised 19 in my whole life and all but five have been named.
Wild Animal Friends:
The Toad: she lived in the basement for as long as I remember and she still does
The Pheasant: poor guy can't get any ladies so he courts my hens. Let's just say that Pearl was not interested....
The Hummingbirds: every year we get a flock of hummingbirds. It started with Harmony and Hank and now the flock has grown.
There aren't too many, but I love them all and it is a perfect sized hobby farm!
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Which breed(s) of cattle do you milk? And do you have a favorite breed?
Holsteins! We’ve tried a few breeds in the past but my family have always loved and raised Holsteins. I’ve always found the temperament and nature of the breed to just suit us. The girls are calm and quiet. Very healthy and long lived. I have had so many as pets. My first was actually a tailless girl we got from another farm (hence why I have no idea what happened to her tail) that was a pure white cow other then her neck upwards. All black after that. Was the oddest color pattern. She was called mimi. We used to sit on her back and let her take us places. She was oddly huge too. But a wonderful cow. We always name our girls. And as kids we would sneak and name some of them after a sister we where annoyed at. Rule was after the name was on the registration form it couldn’t be changed. So we had a few names after us. My sisters would fume terrible seeing there names over a new cow stall. Whole lines of chancy, yancy, jancie. Janice.. we’d tease each other by telling the affected one to get up earlier to name the cows. Course there was the retaliation of naming the chickens.. most where named crystal. Because my youngest sister loved that name. But the moulting ones got named after annoyed sister of the day.
I gotta say thou all around the Holsteins are just a sweet loveable breed. Like purebred horses. These cattle are athletes in their own way. Always will be my fav.
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Richie Moloney & Rocksy Music Prance & Dance their Way to the Top at Ocala
Ocala, Florida, USA – March 09, 2024 – An elite group of horse-and-rider combinations vied for top honors in the $31,500 Winning Round CSI 4* Saturday afternoon at the WEC Grand Arena. Gregory Bodo (FRA) and Pieter Viste (BEL) crafted the tracks that asked several questions, but it was Richie Moloney (IRL) and his trusted partner Rocksy Music (Ars Vivendi x Diamond Serpent), owned by Equinimity LLC, that seized the lead and took home the lion’s share of the prize money.
The Winning Round CSI 4* introduced a new class format at World Equestrian Center – Ocala. This class brings back the top 10 horse-and-rider pairs after the first round, regardless of previous faults or time, to the ‘Winning Round’ in reverse order, resetting all scores to zero. Today, all 10 contenders delivered clear first rounds, setting the stage for an exciting jump-off.
With each competitor faster than the last, Moloney had a strategic plan. “It helped to be a little bit quicker in the first round, because I was eighth to go in the jump-off, so I had a good idea what everyone else was doing,” he shared.
“The first two jumps, everyone was doing nine, and I did eight because I had to do something different. From the water tray to the oxer, I did eight again, where everyone else did nine, so there were two places where I think I had the time.”
Richie Moloney (IRL) & Rocksy Music
Moloney and Rocksy Music blazed through the timers, clinching victory with a time of 33.40 seconds, a full second ahead of second place.
Reflecting on his partnership with the 16-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, Moloney expressed, “I’ve had him since he was nine, so it’s been seven years. I know him very well. He’s always a great one to have at these shows for the speed classes. He seems to always pick up a little bit of prize money and help us pay for the week,” Moloney laughed.
Rodrigo Pessoa (BRA) & Quick Step
Rodrigo Pessoa (BRA) secured another podium finish, this time aboard Paseo Farms’ 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding Quick Step (Quintender 2 x Calido I), clocking an efficient time of 34.43 seconds.
Charlie Jones (GBR) & Capitale 6
Charlie Jones (GBR) claimed third place with Morning Star Sporthorses’ 13-year-old Holsteinter gelding Capitale 6 (San Patrignano Cassini x For Pleasure), just shy of Pessoa’s time in 34.68 seconds.
Richie Moloney (IRL) & Rocksy Music during the awards ceremony
Final Results – $31,500 Winning Round CSI 4*
1) Richie Moloney (IRL) & Rocksy Music: 2008 Irish Sport Horse gelding by Ars Vivendi x Diamond Serpent, Equinimity: 0 / 0 / 33.40
2) Rodrigo Pessoa (BRA) & Quick Step: 2013 Hanoverian gelding by Quintender 2 x Calido I, Paseo Farms, LLC: 0 / 0 / 34.43
3) Charlie Jones (GBR) & Capitale 6: 2011 Holsteiner gelding by San Patrignano Cassini x For Pleasure, Morning Star Sporthorses, LLC: 0 / 0 / 34.68
4) Amy Millar (CAN) & Jagger HX: 2014 KWPN gelding by Ustinov x Bustique, Team Eye Candy: 0 / 0 / 35.86
5) Conor O’Regan (IRL) & Big Boy Z: 2013 Zangersheide gelding by Big Star Jr K Z x Carido Z, Delshore Horses LLC: 0 / 0 / 37.11
6) Nicole Walker (CAN) & Atout de Trambles: 2010 Selle Francias gelding by Nectar Des Forets*hn x Apache d’Adriers, Nicole Walker: 0 / 4 / 34.06
7) Kama Godek (USA) & Conny 409: 2014 Oldenburg mare by Conthargos x Cassini II, Kama Godek: 0 / 4 / 34.09
8) Sharn Wordley (NZL) & Brin d’Or de Haute Melen Z: 2014 Zangersheide gelding by Bamako De Muze x Baloubet Du Rouet, Della Wordley: 0 / 4 / 36.48
9) Tiffany Foster (CAN) & Nindino PS: 2015 Oldenburg gelding by Nintender x Diarado, 5 Roosters: 0 / 4 / 37.08
10) Daniel Coyle (IRL) & Farrel: 2010 KPWN gelding by Cardento 933 x Stakkato, Ariel Grange: 0 / 8 / 33.68
Source: Press Release from World Equestrian Center
Photo: © WEC / Andrew Ryback Photography
Related
Categories: CSI 4*, English, Jumper News Ireland
Tagged as: Capitale 6, Charlie Jones, CSI 4*, Equestrian, Horses, Irish Sport Horse, ISH, Jumper News, Jumper News Ireland, Quick Step, Results, Richie Moloney, Rocksy Music, Rodrigo Pessoa, Showjumping, Team Ireland Equestrian, WEC, WEC – Ocala, World Equestrian Center, World Equestrian Center – Ocala
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