Birthday Cakes

I went home last week and had my friends round for a late birthday party! One of them made me this lovely cake and I had to put it on here! It had a glittery pink horse shoe and a rosette with 22 on as that is how old I am! The candles were also little ponies that were pink! And if anyone is wondering, Boggi is my nickname but that's another story! The cake was also yummy! Thanks Holly for making it for me :-)

While I am writing a post on cakes I thought I would add a photo of my birthday cake I had for my 21st birthday. This one had a black horse in a paddock with a little bale of hay!

Hope I haven't made you all hungry now!

Love Laura
xxxx

No Stirrups!

I saw this first video on Horse and Hound, it is of Robert Whitaker jumping the puissance wall bare back! They are currently looking into if this is a new world record for the highest jump bareback! Surely it is!

This reminded me of the Spanish Riding School (lots of photos and info. to come), where in some of their schooling jumps they have to ride the horses with no stirrups! It was amazing to watch, the horses were beautiful and so well trained!

I will talk more about the 3 different types of movements the horses do in this video in later posts. I particularly liked how calm the horses were when performing these movements and they just got them to sit more onto the hindlegs to prepare for it.

I find trotting hard enough with no stirrups, when I canter I try and walk as little trot as possible in between! I used to like jumping with no stirrups and bareback but don't think I would like it as much these days!

(None of these videos belong to me)

Love Laura
xxxx

Update And Ancient Coat Colour

I am home this week and I have been for 2 little rides on Trooper. He is allowed to be walked for 15 minutes a day and his walk feels the same as before as he is striding forwards nicely. He is very fluffy now and hard to brush. I have taken some photographs of him that I will upload when I go back to university although it seems to be permanently dark at the moment so they are not the best quality.

I'm finally going to watch the Spanish Riding School in Wembley tomorrow so I am going to take lots of photographs! Carl Hester and Lee Pearson are also going to be there!

Here is a link to a news story I thought I would share with you about the coat colours of ancient horses.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15619885

I have got a lot of work at the moment so I am finding it hard to find the time to write blog posts as often, I will do them when I can though!!

Love Laura
xxxx

Hay-Net Blog Of The Day!

For any of you that hasn't been on there yet, Hay-net is a website hosting horse blogs. People can become a member to read the blogs or to write their own! I link my new blog posts on my page on there sending them to blogger! Check out their website if you haven't already. It's a really good idea and has lots of other things as well as blogs such as forums and an "Equine Agony Aunt". Here's a link to their website... http://hay-net.co.uk/

I had an email this morning saying I was their blog of the day so I thought I would put off writing my essay on the methods of analysing silage for another hour and do a quick post! I am going to do a bit of a catch up post for any new people coming to my blog.

I am very excited to be going home next week to see Trooper who I have not seen since September as I am at university doing a masters in Animal Science.Trooper is 22 years old but still acts the same as he did as a 9 year old.He injured his tendon in September and he has been having all sorts of treatments and is healing really well. He is now being ridden at walk for 5 -10 minutes a day!

Here are some photos of him my mum sent me the other day! This is the first year he has not been clipped since we first got him (he didn't need to be because we can't exercise him properly yet). On the photos he looks really fluffy and very muddy!

As you can see I think he is enjoying not having a rug on when all this mud is around! I feel sorry for my mum as he has to be ridden for 5 minutes a day at the moment so she is having to brush him every day to ride him for just 5 minutes!

And please follow if you are not already!

Love Laura
xxxx

Vaulting

I don't know what is more impressive, the woman doing handstands on the horse or the horse's perfect canter! A bit different to Troopers squealing broncos when he goes on the lunge! Please don't try this at home, I know I wont be!

Love Laura
xxxx

High-street Horses

I felt like doing a fun post today because I have been busy with lots of work! Here are some more horsey clothes and accessories I have found from high-street shops! They might be some good ideas for Christmas presents but I will probably write a post just on Christmas presents soon!

The first thing, which can be seen below is a clutch bag from ASOS. I love this and it would be perfect on a night out! It is £30 and is zip up with a tassel and has gold horses studded onto it. It is actually quite big as well which is good. Click here for the link!

Below is a scarf from Miss Selfridge with horse print. It is £16! Click here for the link!

The thing is from Topshop, they are socks which are pink with horses on! They are £3.50 but you can get 3 pairs of socks for £8 on there. They are a great stocking filler or secret santa present! Click here for the link!

The next thing is a necklace from Van Peterson at Debenhams which can be seen below. It is a horseshoe with a butterfly and a rose on it and is really pretty. It is currently £28, reduced from £35 and is solid silver. Click here for the link!

Another nice scarf I have found is from House Of Fraser and is £28. This looks like a really nice scarf that would go with lots of outfits. I think it has horseshoes and horse bits on it. Click here for the link!

Finally is this ring from ASOS and is £8, it is a horse shoe with a whip going through the middle. Click here for the link!

(None of these images belong to me)

Hope you enjoyed and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already!

Love Laura
xxxx

A Short History of Thoroughbreds

I am very busy now with lots of assignments to do so I am finding it hard to post as often as I was doing before. I am currently writing a genetics essay on racehorses so I thought I would do a post on the history of Thoroughbreds. I did a presentation on Thoroughbred breeding last year and it is a very interesting topic.


There is a long history of horse racing, there are records of flat racing existed in 1174. There were three important Arabian horses imported in the 17^th and 18^th century, these were the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerly Turk. All modern Thoroughbreds are descended in the male line from one of these three horses. There are fifty female lines still in existence. There are problems with this however, as coming from such a small number of horses they all have quite similar genetics. This limits the amount you can select the horses when breeding and may mean they could all be susceptible to certain diseases.

The Darley Arabian

The Godolphin Arabian

The Byerly Turk

(I do not own any of these images)

I know these images are paintings and not photos but these horses do look very different from the Thoroughbreds we have today. Probably because they are Arabs will have been crossed with other horses. And surely their heads can't have been that small in real life!

Most Thoroughbreds are descendants from the Darley Arabian. This is called the "Eclipse" line, named after the Darley Arabians grand-sire, Eclipse. It is thought that 95% of Thoroughbreds could come from this line.

The General Stud Book is the official record of the thoroughbred breeding industry and is made by Weatherbys. They reserve the right to decide what horses can be admitted to, excluded or removed from its pages. No horse is allowed to run unless it has been registered. And all foals must be registered within four months of birth. 

So if you own a Thoroughbred they are likely to be a distant relative to one of these three horses!

Love Laura
xxxx

Troops Photos

Here are a few photos of Trooper that my mum has been sending me. They were both taken today, he was very muddy this afternoon when they went to bring him in from the field! And the bottom photo is when she was having her first 5 minute ride on him. She just walked around the yard as it is a smooth surface there but we have to go over some cobbles before we get to the road so she didn't want to take him over those just yet. The surface in our outdoor arena is also quite deep, so for now he is just walking around the yard or in the indoor arena.

He looks cute and fluffy! I can't wait to see him properly because we have never not had him clipped in the winter so I think he will look funny!

Love Laura
xxxx

Trooper's Tendon Injury (& HY-50 injection)

Trooper had another ultrasound scan yesterday to see how the tendon injury was healing. He was slightly stiff in walk but he was sound in trot. He is 22 years old now so the stiffness may just be due to his age with the lack of exercise he has been having rather than the injury. The vet was pleased with it's progress and he is now able to go for two 5 minute walks a day. He is already out in the field during the day but he usually just stands there and eats! In one of his 5 minute walks he is allowed to be ridden which I am looking forward to when I go home!

Trooper when he first did the injury and wouldn't stand on the leg.

The vet also mentioned giving him an injection called a HY-50 injection. I had never heard of this but after a bit of "googleing" I found it has it's own website,  click here! There is a scientific study on their website but I am always sceptical about this as they are not going to put any scientific research that has found it not to work on their own website. It says it can help with carpal flexion recorvery along with other things. It is used in horses with acute or chronic synovitis.  The tendon sheath surrounds the tendon and has synovial fluid inside it. I think some of this synovial fluid had come out when trooper had his injury and the vet said this has cleared up now which is good.

When searching for research that has been carried out into this product it is called  hyaluronate sodium. I am lucky to have access to lots of journals through my university and there was a lot of research into this product.

From the papers I opened up on the first page of search results, there were papers on a variety of species including horses, rabbits and humans and  6/8 studies found it to have a positive effect. However, it was said that it has to be given in the correct amount. As different studies have found different effects it would suggest that there are other factors involved as to how well it will work but in general it does seem to help with the healing of tendon injuries.

Our vet has been very good throughout the process of Trooper having his tendon injury. In the past he has only had the vet for vaccinations so we have seen a variety of different ones from the same practice. The vet that has been dealing with his tendon injury has been the same vet all the way through. She is very good at explaining things to us and telling us about the different treatments available. She is also very good at dealing with Trooper who doesn't really like the vet!

Hopefully by the time I go home for a month at Christmas he will be able to go on little hacks out which I like doing as a break from revision!

Love Laura
xxxx

Atypical Myopathy

I saw on facebook earlier that the World Horse Welfare has been made aware of several cases of Equine Atypical Myopathy (EAM) in the south of England. This is a very serious disease and little is known about where it comes from or how it spreads, it is possible it is caused by a toxin on the pasture and effected by an adverse change in weather conditions.

Click here to go to the World Horse Welfare website for more information and signs to look out for in your horse.

There is also a website dedicated entirely to the disease...http://www.myopathieatypique.fr/en/la-maladie/

Hopefully this will not affect any of you but at least if you are aware of the disease and it's symptoms it may help if you are affected by it. Also please try and make people aware of the disease.

Love Laura
xxxx