America’s First Horse - Horse chit chat
When Paloma arrived at the barn, which was accustomed to warmbloods, she drew a crowd of people who were waiting to see in person what a real mustang looked like. Curiosity turned to even greater intrigue when her owner said that she was a “Spanish” mustang, not the feral mustang that roams free in the west. The timing was an interesting coincidence as most of the boarders had seen the movie “Hidalgo,” in which the equine star plays a Spanish mustang.
The Spanish mustang is a descendant of the horses brought to the Americas by the early Spaniards. On his second voyage to the New World, Columbus brought a number of Spanish horses, as the breed was considered to be the finest horses in the world.
In the 1950s, because they were on the verge of extinction, an effort to preserve the Spanish mustang type began through the selection of horses that best demonstrated the Spanish mustang breed characteristics. As a result, the Spanish Mustang Registry was incorporated in 1957. “This registry was formed to preserve and perpetuate the last remnants of the true Spanish mustangs,” according to the Registry. Twenty horses were originally entered into the registry, and current numbers show about 3100.
Like the Spanish mustang breed classification describes, Paloma was just under 14 hands, with short strong canon bones and round, muscular hindquarters. But her most outstanding trait that caught everyone’s admiration was her classic Spanish head with concave forehead and convex nose. Her noble head was set on a fully crested arching neck, and she looked like a baroque horse, such as the Andalusian or Lipizzaner.
A particular herd of pure Spanish mustangs was discovered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 1977 and separated to preserve their purity of traits. These horses are known as the Kiger mustangs. To be considered a Kiger, according to the Kiger Mesteño Association, a horse must be the offspring of a registered Kiger or have documented proof it was obtained from one of the Kiger herd management areas. Additionally, Kiger mustangs carry the breed color traits, which include dun and gruel, among others, along with markings such as dorsal stripe, zebra stripes or facial mask.
By contrast, the American mustang is the descendant of escaped light riding horses and draft horses, mixed with the Spanish bred and others. In general, these horses are thought to have little-to-no remaining Spanish blood.
Charged with the oversight of wild mustangs and burros is the BLM, which manages wild horses and burros on the public land in a “multiple use” mission that considers natural resources and uses such as ranch livestock grazing. The BLM monitors herds for health and population size and offers individual animals for adoption. Since 1973, BLM placed more than 213,000 horses and burros in homes through its adoption program. In 2005, Congress enacted a new law to maintain herds at healthy population levels that requires BLM to place for sale horses and burros older than age 10 or for whom adoption has failed three times. According to BLM, this affects approximately 8400 horses and burros.
Formerly wild mustangs have found success in new homes. J.B. Andrews, a large black mustang, has successfully competed in dressage to Intermediare I while schooling at the Grand Prix level.
Michael Albert is an expert by profession but he is also writing articles on horses, stallion, and trailors for a long time. He has done his research work in the same field within the organization of Horse Chit Chat.To know more about horse chit chat, horses for sale, horse trailers, horse forum, equine forum, horse articles visit horsechitchat.
Tips For Picking Out A Dog Bed
Dog beds come in all shapes and sizes, large and small, which makes it both easy and hard to find the right bed for your dog. Sure, you have a lot of options: big, small, round, rectangular, colored, patterned, custom and even luxury and designer dog beds. But with all the choices available, you'll still spend lots of time picking out the right bed for your dog.
Buying a dog bed may seem straight forward, but it's more complex than you think. Just as you would if you were buying a bed for yourself or a child, think about the comfort of your pet, and remember that this should be your primary criteria. No matter how much you want the bed to match, say, the décor of the living room, bedroom or other area, you have to think about the comfort of your pet over your own desires.
That said, here are some tips and tricks for finding a good bed for your dog (or for any other pets!):
Cheaper is not necessarily better. You want the bed to be made of good, sturdy warm material that will keep your dog comfy while wearing through bouts of scratching, gnawing, drool, accidents and all the other normal habits of a dog. There are plenty of reasonably priced beds that are really well-made, so shop around before you settle on the cheapest deal. There are also many designer and luxury dog beds available if you feel like splurging on your pooch.
Think about your dogs sleeping habits. Does your dog sleep in a ball or sprawl out? Always edge one way on the bed? Wiggle a lot? Toss and turn? Sleep sound as a rock? Identify your dog's sleeping patterns and choose a bed accordingly.
Think about the shape and size of your dog. Don't skimp on size and always take your dog's measurements before buying them a bed. Also, remember with dog beds its better to err on the side of larger than smaller. You also need to think about size if you have two dogs that sleep together. An extra big bed can fit two little lap dogs easily; however, if you have a way larger breed, like a Great Dane, you may have to go custom, though there are companies, like Mammoth, who offer larger dog beds for up to 200 lb breeds.
Think about padding. This ties somewhat in to the shape of your dog, but also its weight. Over time, dog beds wear out and bed padding thins; make sure you get a material that can withstand at least a decent amount of time. New technology has provided excellent stuffing materials for dog beds, like high memory, virgin upholster filling.
Keep in mind just these few tips and you should be well on your way to finding your much need and much wanted dog bed. From luxury and designer dog beds to cheap, flimsy ones, there are an unlimited number of choices; use the above criteria when searching for your pet's bed and both they will ultimately get the bed that's right for them.
Mammoth Dog Beds is a manufacturer of vet recommended bedding. They have done intensive research on dogs and their sleeping habits for over a decade, a factor that brings extra value to their high-quality, reasonably priced pet products and dog beds. For more information, please visit http://www.mammothoutlet.com.
Dog Training - Dog and Puppy Training Yourself Successfully
So you're trying to train your dog or puppy then. Having any success?
Still barking incessantly? Chewing up your shoes? Soiling your carpets? Pretending they're not with you when you're out?
So what exactly do you do? You can spend a lot of money asking a professional dog trainer to do the dirty work for you, but mostly this will be a waste of time and money. Why? Well your dog may well end up with the utmost respect for their new found trainer and act like a saint for them. But their trainer wasn't you! And therein lies the problem. Dogs by their nature are pack animals and follow
their natural leader, the 'top dog' if you like. If you aren't seen as the natural 'leader of the pack' then your dog will quite happily assume that role and then you really are up against it.
So you buy some books on the subject. Great! There are some fantastic books out there that will tell you everything you need to
know about training your puppy or dog. So why then, when you have been following the advice and instructions so closely, does your dog
continue to pretend you're talking mumbo jumbo?
Well it's not enough to just read about training your dog. The reason a professional trainer will have success is not because they know more about dog training than you've just read in your amazing book, but because they know 'how' to apply it. They know how to act around dogs, the stance to take, gestures to use, when & how to use praise & especially when 'not' to use praise. They also know not only what to say, but how to say it. The intonation to use, the sounds to emphasise.
So how do you learn how to do this yourself? Well, when you choose the training materials with which to train your dog, make sure they cover all your training needs not just with words, but with pictures (not illustrations, but photos) or even better with actual video footage. And especially make sure you can 'hear' exactly how to apply the training methods. If you can see exactly what you should be doing and hear exactly what you should be saying and how you should be saying it, your chances of training your dog successfully are infinitely improved!
These days there are many options available for meeting your dog training requirements that enable you to achieve great results without paying out a fortune to professional trainers. There are of course videos and DVDs, but in more recent times the advent of multimedia eBooks on the internet are a fantastic way to learn about just about anything. Not only are they instantly accessible and generally very cheap, they achieve all of the aims described above. And unlike videos and DVDs, often the authors of these products are available to contact should you have further questions or require additional advice.
Whichever method you choose, good luck and enjoy being 'top dog'!
Best Wishes,
Dave
