The Cold

It is really cold today, I’ve waited for this all October, I love cold, to wear jackets and to hug people, to drink coffee and eat chocolate, I like it a lot, and because of this I started to wonder how horses protect themselves from the cold, so I investigated a little and found a really interesting information about horse anatomy.

This is an image of the internal parts of the horse anatomy, to have an idea of where is each organ and what is its main function.

Many kinds of respiratory diseases commonly limit the use of horses for performance, so when the lung is diseased or inflamed, cells of the immune system travel there to help out and otect the horse, because horses have high numbers of T lymphocytes in their lungs, both in and around the airways.

The horse has very efficient respiratory and circulatory systems that enable it to race at high speeds without running short of air. While walking, a horse consumes only 1 liter (about 0.25 gallon) of oxygen a minute, but at a racing gallop, its oxygen consumption can approach 60 liters (nearly 15 gallons) per minute. At the gallop, the horse’s head and neck move up and down in rhythm with each stride. This motion tends to squeeze and expand the lungs, so that a galloping horse automatically takes exactly one breath per stride. This mechanism ensures that the faster the horse gallops, the more air it takes in.

Also horses have fur and a layer of fat under the skin that protect them from cold.

This is very important to have in mind so you can take care of your horse, even if it has a very well synchronized immune system, you need to be very careful if an illness strikes it.

Have a nice day and protect yourself from the cold.

 "Welcome to Horse Health- The Immune System = The National Defense." A Complete Rider- Horses A Companion Web Site to The Complete Rider the TV Show. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://www.completerider.com/immunesystemhorse.htm>.

"The Horse." Windt Im Wald Farm. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://www.wiwfarm.com/The_Horse.html>.

Horse Racing

A race is a competition of speed in which the participants struggle to win, usually races are about running but in the case of horse racing, they involve riding.

There are three types of horse racing:

·         Flat Racing: is the most common horse racing, that is ran over an oval track, usually the horses that compete in this type of racing are thoroughbreds. Great Britain is the most common place where it takes place.

·         Steeplechasing: it is an obstacle race in which the horses need to jump or dodge the barriers. This kind of races usually takes place in Canada, Australia and Ireland.

·         Harness Racing: it is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait. They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky.

Of course to participate on a horse racing you will need to train your horse and here is when Horse Whispering techniques become really useful for you. The conditioning program for the different horses varies depending on the race length, so before you start training your horse you should consider this factors and techniques in order to have a completely and successful training.

It is really important that you achieve a well-trained horse to compete, because there are a lot of risks and dangers in horse racing, the most common accident that occurs during a race is that a horse can stumble and fall exposing both jockey and horse to be hit and trampled causing severe injuries or even death in both of them.

It is everything for today, I hope you train your horses properly and if you compete I wish you luck, remember that winning is not everything and if you fail it gives you the opportunity to try again.}

Have a nice day!

"Horse Racing." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_racing>

Rushing

Today I don't have so much time, EVERYTHING IS FOR TOMORROW, so I will write quickly. Tomorrow I will have to give an speech, and the topic that I chose was "The Family" because I thinks it is very important to the life of the teenagers, and while I was thinking about it I noticed that horses also have families, that's why they live on herds, because they are social animals, and this is one of the reasons Horse Whispering is so effective, because a Horse Whisperer tries to make a familiar bond with the horse to make it feel comfortable and therefore cooperate.

And while I was thinking about horses and their abilities and relating it with teenager concerns, I remembered that there exists an animal assisted therapies given with horses, they are called Equine Therapies and they are treatment programs for young people suffering from addictions, anxiety, depression, mood disorders and other psychological problems, and I think this are possible because of all the social skills that horses have. There are many physiological and psychological benefits documented in people during interactions with animals. These include lowered blood pressure and heart rate, increased beta-endorphin levels, decreased stress levels, reduced feelings of anger, hostility, tension and anxiety, improved social functioning, and increased feelings of empowerment, trust, patience and self-esteem. It can also help people to stay out of gangs, which I think would be very needed and useful here in México because of all the insecurity issue.

In conclusion coexisting with animals would be a solution to great part of the problems society faces right now. I will always wonder why humans try to go away from Mother Nature when the easiest and the better thing is to go back to her.

Hope you enjoy today’s blog, and you liked it, leave your comment and have a nice weekend.

Animal Assisted Therapy - Equine Therapy - Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://www.equine-therapy-programs.com/>

Horse's Movies

Let´s talk about horse’s movies:

First of all there is “Black Beauty”, the movie that inspired the name of the blog. Like I said on the first entrance, Black Beauty is a story narrated in first person, like an autobiography, of a night black beautiful horse that has a very changing life. The story takes place on the streets of London, where this horse passes from one owner to another; encountering ones that are bad and abuse of his utility and others that are good and beneficial for him who showed him respect and affection.

Actually there is a movie that is called “The Horse Whisperer” starring Robert Redford who is a talented trainer with a remarkable gift for understanding horses (The horse Whisperer). There is also an important role played by Scarlett Johansson, but for what I saw on the trailer, because I haven´t watched the movie yet; she was very young and I think that it could be possible that if it wasn’t her first movie, it was one of the firsts. This movie is about how Grace (Scarlett Johansson) tries to overcome from an accident that she and her horse had and that killed her friend and her friend’s horse; to make this possible her mother hired a horse whisperer (Robert Redford) to help her, of course there is more than just the recovery because the mother and the horse whisperer fell in love while the mother is married, but she makes the right thing and stays with her husband.

Then there is my favorite horse movie “Spirit” this story is also narrated in first person and the starring character is a wild horse that is going to be the next leader of his herd. Then a group of man came to the place he was living and captured him to train him to be a battle horse, but he does his best to escape and he achieves this with the help of an indian that later shows him how to be free and coexist with humans at the same time. I like it a lot because it is one of the movies I saw on my childhood.

I extensively recommend this movies, you will spend a good time watching them and learning a lot too. God blesses you, have a nice day.

"The Horse Whisperer." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 22 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horse_Whisperer>.

"Black Beauty." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 22 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Beauty>.

September fifteen, the day of Mexican Independence. Today it is a very important day to us, Mexican people, is the day in which we reached our freedom. To accomplish this we had to fight a war and in a war there are battle horses.

A battle horse is a specially trained horse that knows how to react and how to behave in a war. Battle horses have existed since 3000 years B.C. when they were used to pull wagons. Then by the romans in the circus maximus, and on the wars that they had to fight and from there and on humans have used horses in war. The main characteristics that a battle horse should have are based on the weight a horse will need to carry or pull, and the distance traveled. Sometimes the horse will be need to be fast so they are light weight carriers, the middle weight carriers are the ones that pull a chariot with one or two people, and the ones that pull weapons or supply wagons are the high weight carriers. The most important feature that a battle horse is needed to have is to remain calmed under fire.

Here in Mexico we have a sport with horses that is called “Charreria” in which the riders make movements and maneuvers with the horses, they can jump from one horse to another or they can make circles with a string and make the horse jump inside the circle. Charreria is considered the national sport.

Today is a day of feeling proud of our nation, and I really feel proud that Mexico have this traditions that make us be so great in comparison of other countries in the world.

Horse Whispering

Horses are sensitive creatures that can communicate between each other and with other animals; Horse Whispering is based on these fact. What horse whisperers try to do is to associate with horses and to work with them in order to create and maintain a healthy horse-human relationship, in which both participants are beneficiated and satisfied.

Horses have a communication system, a language that is mostly based on corporal gestures and sounds (Horse Whispering: Learninig the Horse Language), like moving the head, or walking, or making noises with their nose when they breath, some of these gestures can be translated and used to work with the horse. When someone is working with a horse it is important to emphasize that the leader or the one who is dominant is the human who is training the horse and not the horse, because when the horse thinks that it is the dominant one then it will be very hard to work with it.

The goal of Horse Whispering is to create a healthy relationship between humans and horses. Throughout history we can see that humans have tried to domain other animals and other humans through violence, because violence and anger are part of human nature, but we can also analyses that this method of domination has not result properly or it has implied the death of animals and people. This is why Horse Whispering is very effective,  it is trying to reach a win-win solution in which both sides are happy with the results. Horse whisperers do not harm the animal to make it obey, people that harm other animals is because they do not understand their language, but horse whisperers do, so they try to make the animal understand them by communicating with them.

I think that it is essential that all humanity follow this philosophy toward all the living beings on earth in order to have an harmonious life with everyone and everything.

"Horse Whispering: Learning the Horse Language | Suite101.com." Suite101.com: Online Magazine and Writers' Network. Web. 01 Sept. 2011. <http://www.suite101.com/content/examples-of-the-horse-language-a204402>.

Why Black Beauty?

I thought that probably you would be wondering about the name of the blog, so I decided to dadicate this week's blog to explain why did I decided to put that name to it.

When the teacher told us that we had to create a blog and that the topic of my blog has to be about horses I had no idea of what to write about, then I remembered a movie that I watched when I was little, the name of the movie was Black Beauty. Do you remember it? If not I'm going to explain what I remember:

It was about the life of a horse that lived alot of different situations, it was a male horse that, of course, was black. He had alot of owners during his life, some were horrible people, some others had beautiful souls, but the point is that all that he lived, that was told by him (like an autobiography), made his life very interesting and full of adventures. It is really beautiful; I remembered that I cried when I watched it.

 So in my blog name dilemma I remembered the movie and I named the blog like it.

I think its a good name, considering that the blog is about the good and bad relationships between horses and people, and Black Beauty experienced both; I think it feets perfectly.

But you can also give your opinion about it, live your comment of how I should have named the blog and have a nice day.