Christmas Gifts; Equestrian Jewellery

Here are some equestrian jewellery pieces that would make great Christmas presents! I have put the cheapest ones first moving through to the more expensive ones!

First is a set of two types of stud earrings from Asos, this is currently half price down from £7 to £3.50.

Next are some horseshoe stud earrings from Asos from the brand Orelia, they are rose gold in colour and are £10.

 Next is a horseshoe necklace from Hot Diamonds, it is £40 and is sterling silver with real diamonds.

Here is another necklace, this one has a long chain and a rocking horse pendant, it is by Ted Baker at Asos, it is £49.00 and is rose gold in colour. 

This necklace is an unusual one and is an origami horse. It is black silver and is from Boticca and is £86.50.

Love Laura
xxxx

Science Sunday; The Stay Apparatus

Last year at university I didn't choose to take the anatomy module as I find anatomy quite hard to memorise. Those that did take the module had to write an essay on "the stay apparatus" and I thought it might be an interesting topic to talk about this Sunday.

The stay apparatus is why the horse can rest whilst standing. This is present in both the front and hind legs and is due to a number of muscles and ligaments that lock the leg into position and hold it there. This mechanism is slightly different in the fore and hind limbs but the basic idea behind it is the same for both.

The tendons and ligaments
The horses' leg below the knee or hock is supported by three elastic ligaments at the back. The suspensory ligament supports the fetlock and pastern joints. The superficial flexor tendon supports the fetlock and pastern joints. And the deep flexor tendon supports the fetlock, pastern and coffin joints.The superficial and deep flexor tendon are both supported by check ligaments. All three of these tendons work in a series, with the body weight pressing down through the joint, the fetlock joint moves down. The suspensory ligament tightens first, then the superficial flexor then the deep flexor and these hold the leg in place.

The front legs
In the front legs, above the knee, there are a number of muscles involved in enabling the horse to stand whilst resting. The serratus ventralis muscle is the major one attaching the limb to the body, it supports the body when relaxed. The weight of the body pressing down through the leg closes the shoulder joint. There are also some mechanisms involving muscles to stop the shoulder joint over flexing. The knee is able to weight bear without extra effort in its normal position. This is due to the vertical line going through the radius and large metacarpal bones. The knee is prevented from buckling forwards due to an inelastic tendon inserted onto the large metacarpal bone.

The hindlegs
In the hind legs there is a similar mechanism to stop the hock becoming too flexed. The greater the weight going through the limbs there is a greater tendency to flex the hip and the tighter it will lock. Little or no muscles are needed to maintain this posture. There is also a mechanism in which the pelvis locks on one side in order to allow the hind leg on the other side to rest. It is said that horses still need to rest their legs despite the stay apparatus as the amount of energy used is reduced but muscular effort is still required.

The stay apparatus in foals
When looking at newborn foals the stay apparatus has been looked at. Foals are born at a more advanced stage of development than human babies, it is also thought that they have an advantage over human babies when standing as they have four legs and not two. However, it is also thought that the foal may have the ability to have automatic limb control whereas the human baby needs to learn this. If the muscles in the legs failed to maintain a state of contraction then the foals collapse to the floor. It suggests that a moderate level of contraction needs to be maintained at rest in order to stay standing. The stay apparatus becomes better as the foal grows and develops.

The stay apparatus is not controlled by muscular control alone, and it is not entirely automatic. Balance is also involved and this includes the central nervous system. Reflexes are also involved.

Once the legs have locked into place, only limited muscle use is required. In order for them to unlock, the femoris muscle contracts to lift the patella up off the ridge it is resting on.

A lot of this information is from the book Horse Structure and Movement by Symthe and Goody. This is a really good book if you want to learn more about the anatomy of the horse and how it effects their movement.

Love Laura
xxxx

Science Sunday; How Horses Keep Warm

Hopefully I am going to start writing a regular equine science type post every Sunday. Today I am going to talk about how horses keep warm during the winter months. I have already written a post on this, (click here) but this one is going to go into more detail into their actual mechanisms of keeping warm. Over the summer I wrote a post on how horses keep cool, click here to read it!

Ways of keeping warm
A horse's body temperature is 37-38 degrees Celsius and their body will react in a way to maintain this temperature in the body and keep levels constant. The body temperature is important for the normal running of the body systems and changes may lead to problems. The most active organs produce the most heat, this includes the muscles, the liver and the digestive system. Receptors called thermoreceptors monitor the temperature of the horse, if they detect that the temperature is falling they will send messages to other areas of the body in order to do something to warm up the horse.

• If a horse is cold then the hairs in their coat may stand on end, this is called piloerection. When the hairs stand up it traps a layer of air in the coat which helps as an extra layer of insulation. These hairs lye flat if the horse then gets too hot to let the heat quickly escape. The use of a rug on the horse will flatten down the hairs and prevent this from happening. 
• Vasoconstriction may also happen, this is when the blood vessels constrict and reduce the amount of blood going to the surface of the horse's body. Due to this, less heat will be lost from the blood into the surrounding cold air.
• The shape of a horse also helps to keep them warm. They have a large surface area to volume ratio meaning that for the amount of heat that is kept in the inside, less will be lost through the surface of their skin. Their legs also have a very low blood supply (which is why injuries here take longer to heal). This means that not much heat is lost from the blood flowing through these areas. 
• Counter-current heat exchange also happens. This is when the blood that is on it's way back to the heart and lungs after being near the horse's skin is warmed before it gets there. This is due to it passing near by to the blood in arteries and the heat is transferred from one to the other.
• Circulation shunts also happen in the feet of the horse to prevent them from becoming too cold. This is why your horse's feet don't freeze! This isn't well understood but it is thought that blood is moved to these areas to warm them up. 
• The horses metabolism may also increase which would result in more heat being produced. 
• Horses may also shiver if they get cold, this extra movement of muscles will help to produce heat and warm them up.
• Horses also develop a thicker coat in the winter, this adds to the amount of insulation they have compared to the summer. 

Love Laura
xxxx

New Kittens

We have some new kittens on the farm at the moment. They were playing in the viewing area of the indoor arena while I was watching my Mum ride so I got a few photos of them. The black and white one is called Jess and I am not sure what the black one is called. They are both very friendly though and chasing leaves and wrappers around in practice for catching the mice!

Love Laura
xxxx

Do I Have To Be Ridden?

Yesterday we went to ride Trooper in the afternoon and he was very tired... I'll let the pictures do the talking!

There was a Halloween party on the farm the night before so maybe he didn't get much sleep! Below is a photo of his saddle pad which we have had for years but it is nice so I thought I would include it.

Unfortunately he didn't manage to get out of being ridden, this is him heading down to the indoor arena. He woke up a bit once we got inside!

Love Laura
xxxx