HSUS Genesis Awards "Best Documentary" for Humane Issues Goes to NYC Anti-Carriage Film "Blinders"

News Flash! Another award for the documentary film Blinders, condemning the New York City tradition of carriage rides around Central Park and midtown. Blinders was honored last night at the Humane Society of the United States' Genesis Awards, a gala star-studded evening in Los Angeles to honor media's role in publicizing humane-related issues. Should they stay or should they go? Are they cruel or are they kind? Carriage rides are still a hot button issue around the world. There's no question which side of the issue this documentary is on. Here's the trailer:

Desperate Dressage:: Wisteria Lane Leads Nicollette Sheridan to Vienna and the Spanish Riding School

by Fran Jurga | 29 March 2009 | The Jurga Report

The Lipizzaners of the Spanish Riding School are used to visitors. And they're used to celebrities, dignitaries, royal monarchs and even jet-lagged journalists like me. They pretty much take it all in stride.

A special guest recently at the stables in Vienna was Hollywood actress Nicollette Sheridan, star of the Desperate Housewives television show here in America. Ms. Sheridan was in town for a celebrity appearance at the Vienna Opera Ball.

A keen rider and horse-lover herself, she insisted on spoiling some of the School stallions with carrots and sugar lumps.

Our friends at the Spanish Riding School write in their understated way, "Although she would have loved to be able to ride and was beautifully turned out in pure white breeches, boots and waistcoat, this was one wish that could not be fulfilled."

Welcome to the club, Nicollette! One thing you learn in the first five minutes at the Spanish Riding School: The Lipizzaners are the celebrities, no matter who you are!

Aficionados of the Spanish Riding School might be interested to go back in time and read my Equisearch blog about the SRS 2005 Tour of the USA. Those were the days...

Photo provided by the Spanish Riding School: thank you! The stallion seems a bit wary of that coat! Click here for the tabloid version.

Rest in Roses: Kentucky Derby Champion Alysheba Was Euthanized Last Night

by Fran Jurga   |  28 March 2009  |  The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

As the horse racing world gears up for an exciting afternoon of racing with the the 2009 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, a pall of sadness drifts across the landscape. It's source? An empty stall at the Kentucky Horse Park outside Lexington.

"Alysheba" is the name on the stall plate.

The Kentucky Derby winner and Horse of the Year was humanely euthanized at 11:13 pm Friday at the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, a short trot across Iron Works Parkway from the Horse Park. The 25-year-old stallion was buried this morning at the Hall of Champions, across from the grave of the legendary John Henry.

Alysheba fell in his stall on Friday afternoon and was not able to get up. Hagyard's Dr. Nathan Slovis was immediately called to the Kentucky Horse Park, and an equine ambulance transported Alysheba up the long driveway and across the road. Dr. Slovis and his team treated Alysheba and evaluated his condition. By evening, it was clear that he had sustained an insurmountable injury.

“Due to a chronic degenerative spinal condition that led to ataxia and instability, Alysheba fell in his stall yesterday injuring his right hind femur,” said Kathy Hopkins, Kentucky Horse Park Director of Equine Operations. “Complicated by his advanced age, this trauma resulted in severe pain that did not respond to analgesic therapy. The resulting pain and suffering, and the inability to stand unaided, led to a joint decision for euthanasia. This very difficult decision was made by the veterinary staff of Hagyard Medical, the veterinary staff of His Majesty King Abdullah, and those who loved and cared for him at the Kentucky Horse Park.”

From  John Nicholson, Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park: “Discussions with Dr. Slovis and King Abdullah’s team, however, led us to conclude that this was the right thing to do for Alysheba, and Hagyard’s staff performed admirably in such a difficult situation. I am grateful to His Majesty for giving us the opportunity to enjoy this special horse and share him again with his many fans, and I am happy that his last days were spent here on his native soil.”

Frank McGovern, General Manager of King Abdullah’s stables in Saudi Arabia, participated in the decision and thanked the park staff for trying to save Alysheba. He stated “his injury is one of those incidents that is not uncommon in older horses, and, unfortunately, nothing can ever be done. I am glad that he was back home and enjoying the first shoots of Spring before this happened.” He added his thanks to the Kentucky Horse Park team “for their work in making Alysheba a star again.”

Before coming to the Kentucky Horse Park, Alysheba spent the previous eight years of his life in the royal stables of His Majesty King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, after standing his first years at stud at William S. Farish's Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. Known on the track as “America’s horse,” he was sent to the Kentucky Horse Park as a gift to the American people in October 2008.

Bred by Preston Madden at Hamburg Place in Lexington, Alysheba (Alydar-Bel Sheba, by Lt. Stevens) was sold as a yearling to Dorothy and Pam Scharbauer for $500,000. They campaigned him under the guidance of Hall of Fame trainer, Jack Van Berg, who said, “He stuck out like a diamond in a rock pile.” Later, Van Berg observed, “He was so smart he knew what he was doing all the time.”

Alysheba won the 1987 Kentucky Derby (G1), Preakness Stakes (G1), Super Derby (G1), and an Eclipse Award as Champion 3-year-old colt. As a 4-year-old, he was even better, winning six Grade 1 stakes: the Strub Stakes, Santa Anita Handicap, Iselin Handicap, Woodward Stakes, Meadowlands Cup and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He was ridden in 17 consecutive starts by Hall of Fame Jockey, Chris McCarron. Alysheba is listed at #42 on The Blood-Horse magazine’s list of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, one notch above another Kentucky Derby-winner, Northern Dancer.

His career highlights also included Horse of the Year honors and track records for 1 1/4 miles at Belmont and The Meadowlands. Along the way, he defeated Risen Star, Forty Niner, Bet Twice, Seeking the Gold, and another Kentucky Derby-winner, the ill-fated Ferdinand. Until two-time Horse of the Year Cigar came along, Alysheba was the world’s richest Thoroughbred, with earnings of $6,679,242.

A memorial service for Alysheba will be planned at a later date.

Who could ever forget Alysheba and Ferdinand, two great Kentucky Derby winners, racing neck and neck down the middle of the track? Thanks for the memories, Alysheba.

Thanks to the Kentucky Horse Park for assistance with this post. ESPN will broadcast the Florida Derby at 5 p.m. today and may have more information and possibly a look back at Alysheba, although I don't know what their plans are.

Creepy-Crawlies Invade Kentucky Horse Farms: Are Pregnant Mares At Risk Again?

A sure sign of spring: Eastern tent caterpillars are hatching in Kentucky. (South Dakota forestry image)

What on earth could possess them? Researchers tell us today that horses in Kentucky pastures actually do eat eastern tent caterpillars, properly known as Malacosoma americanum (Fabricius). You know them by the damage they do; these little caterpillars spin thick webs on tree limbs...and then munch their way to metamorphosis on emerging young leaves. Once hatched, they fly away, leaving a denuded tree limb behind. But for pregnant mares, they could pose a much greater risk.



Experts at the University of Kentucky today reported that eastern tent caterpillars have begun hatching in central Kentucky and that their population numbers are trending up.

It seems like only yesterday that the horse industry in central Kentucky was devastated by an event known as Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS). The 2001-2002 event caused the loss of an estimated 30 percent of that year's Thoroughbred foal crop, with serious losses suffered by mares of all breeds of horses. After several false tries, the finger of guilt was finally pointed at the caterpillars, which were especially populous that year.

University of Kentucky College of Agriculture entomologist Lee Townsend will be closely monitoring caterpillar development over the next two to three weeks. He and his colleagues anticipate full-grown larvae by the third week of April. From the end of April to the beginning of May, caterpillars will likely leave the trees where they’ve eaten the available foliage and search for additional food to complete their development.

Once the caterpillars have reached these dispersing stages, controlling them becomes much more difficult, Townsend said. If needed, control should target caterpillars while they are gathered together in the trees. Apparently they love ornamental cherry trees, the bright pink-purple blossoms of which are such an exclamation point on spring landscapes.

However, Kentucky's Townsend cautions against spraying too early. That won't work, either. Obviously, timing is everything.

Studies since the 2001-2002 MRLS outbreak revealed that horses inadvertently will eat the caterpillars in the grass. When they do, the caterpillar hairs embed into the protective lining of the alimentary tract. Once that barrier is breached, normal alimentary tract bacteria may gain access to and reproduce in sites with reduced immunity, such as the fetus and placenta. Fetal death or weak foals from these roaming alimentary tract bacteria are hallmarks of MRLS.

UK entomologists recommend that unless horse farm managers have been aggressive in managing eastern tent caterpillars, or removing host trees, they should keep pregnant mares out of pastures bordered by cherry trees or other hosts for the next several weeks.

At many farms, steps have already been taken to cut limbs that overhang or border paddocks. But eastern tent caterpillars are found in many states and horse breeders should be aware of the danger they pose. Apparently the ingestion of the caterpillars does not have known health risks for horses other than pregnant mares.

For a fact sheet about eastern tent caterpillars, as well as periodic updates, please visit the University of Kentucky's special web page on the caterpillar problem. Ohio State University has a helpful web page on how to wage war on eastern tent caterpillars.

Amazing Photo: A Lucky Day for One Off-Road Equine

by Fran Jurga | 24 March 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Hello in there? Rescuers on Interstate 70 near Vail, Colorado spoke to a horse trapped inside this upended trailer. The accident was a result of a tire blowout that separated the trailer from the truck hauling it. Rescuers cut a flap in the trailer's roof and the horse walked out into the snow. Click here to read the full story in the Vail Daily.

Animal Planet's JOCKEYS Expanded to an Hour; New Series Airs Late Summer 2009

by Fran Jurga | 23 March 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Will Canadian jockey Chantal Sutherland find love and career success at Santa Anita? Animal Planet will continue to follow her romantic and equine exploits in an extension of the reality series JOCKEYS. Still unknown: why do so many jockey silks include those little bow ties? (Animal Planet photo)

Do you miss the thrills and spills (there certainly were a lot of those) of the Animal Planet reality series JOCKEYS? The inaugural run of the series ended March 13 but Animal Planet announced today that the filming will resume and that the episodes will be expanded to an hour each for the sophomore season.

Adding to the intrigue will be the addition to two very well known jockeys, Garrett Gomez and Corey Nakatani, who join California regulars Aaron Gryder, Mike Smith, Alex Solis, Kayla Stra, Chantal Sutherland and Joe Talamo. Original cast member John Court will not return, as he is relocating to Kentucky.

The freshman season brought Animal Planet viewers into the lives of jockeys who raced at the renowned Santa Anita Race Track during 2009's 30-day Oak Tree meet, the first racing done on the track's new Pro-Ride artificial surface.

The successful first season brought in more than 9.2 million unique viewers, so Animal Planet plans a quick followup second season order with seven hour-long episodes set to premiere late this summer.

This season, viewers also can expect to see more of professional handicapper Jimmy the Hat and West Coast Regional Manager of the Jockeys' Guild, Darrell Haire.

Let's hope they remember that the horses are the reason that many of us watched the series...and that the network is, after all, called "Animal" Planet. JOCKEYS gets ten bonus points and a gold star in my book for the links on its web site to CANTER and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.

More mention of what becomes of the horses after the jockeys hop off for the last time would be a great addition to the series. At a track like Santa Anita, there's nowhere to go but down; horses that don't succeed there are dropped down in class to cheaper races at cheaper tracks. If one of the jockeys spoke out about Thoroughbred retirement and/or welfare issues in racing, this series would really win my heart. 

Likewise, the producers could find the horses that the jocks rode in the first series and ask "Where are they now?" I'd like to know, wouldn't you? Or is asking a reality show to have a conscience too much to ask?

Save Boston's Police Horses!

by Fran Jurga | 19 March 2009 | The Jurga Report

Police horses took to the outfield to control angry crowds at Boston's Fenway Park during the 1912 World Series. The horses have served the city since 1873. Double-click on photo to see enlarged view; photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

They’re always there, whether it’s bobbing over the heads of the crowds outside a Red Sox game or with billowing sails behind them on a spring day on the Charles River. You hear them clip-clopping up and down the cobblestones in front of Paul Revere’s house and you see the familiar horse trailer parked in the strangest places downtown. And no one will ever forget the day that Boston Police horse fell down a manhole.

But everywhere you go in Boston lately, there’s a hushed tone of concern: “Did you hear about the police horses?” “How can they shut them down?” “The first horse I ever patted was one of those big guys!” and, most often comes the follow-up, “What can we do to save them?”

In a city that’s more like a town, and in a town where a horse is technically a “hoss”, there is outrage, indignation and an outpouring of support to keep the clip-clop on the city’s register of official sounds.

Horses have patrolled Boston streets since 1873. For many years the force favored Morgan-type horses but lately has bought and trained draft crosses that tower over crowds at events like the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl victory parades. Boston Police horses galloped onto the Fenway Park outfield when a riot erupted at the 1912 World Series.

But across the country, from Honolulu to Cincinnati, police horses have been menaced with the budget ax in the past few years, although Philadelphia’s new commissioner bucked the trend and pledged to bring back the disbanded mounted unit there.

Boston horse lovers are not letting their street-savvy steeds go without a fight. An online petition has been launched with plenty of room for your signature, whether you live in Boston or not.

Click here to go the petition to save the Boston Police Mounted Unit.

Click here for the “Save the Boston Police Mounted Unit” Facebook page, which already had 891 members when I wrote this post!

Supporters of the Boston Police Mounted Unit may also write to:
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis
Boston Police Headquarters
One Schroeder Place
Boston MA 02120

Or contact the office of Boston Mayor Thomas` Menino:
Email address: mayor@cityofboston.gov
Tel: 617.635.4500
Fax: 617.635.2851

Thanks to farrier Sean McClure for his help with this article.

Not Just Natasha: Florida Accident Another Reminder to Wear Your Helmet

Last night's announcement of the tragic death of actress Natasha Richardson brings home again the risks that we all take, every day, as we work around horses. Head injuries are always lurking, and there are days when I think working around horses in the barn and paddock carries just as many risks as riding.

While Richardson's death took over the airwaves last night, there's another story going on a little closer to home. In Florida, a rider is hospitalized with a head injury suffered when a horse caught its foot in a jump. Click here to read about the concern over Stephanie Keliner's condition in an update from today's Palm Beach Post.

And I'm sure that there are similar dramas going on in hospitals around the world, although most would not be as severe. 

Stephanie was jumping without a helmet. Wellington's town statute requires riders under the age of 16 to wear them and farms in that town may be fined for every incident of helmetless riding...but adults are just as much as risk.

Just ask Stephanie...when she recovers, which we all hope she will.

Click here to read a special report on spinal cord injuries in equestrian report from the journal Nature.

Click here to read a project report on helmet safety for equestrians from the University of Connecticut.

Riding does have its risks, but please try to minimize them with safety gear, and knowing the basic preventions. And what would you do if you saw a riding accident or found a fallen rider out on the trail?

Retirement Ceremony for Dressage Star Brentina Announcement

US Equestrian Team star Brentina and rider Debbie McDonald

The United States Equestrian Federation just announced the official timing for the retirement ceremony honoring the great dressage mare Brentina. Her final public appearance will take place on Friday afternoon, April 17 at the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Finals. The World Cup will be April 15-19, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Along with Brentina's rider Debbie McDonald, owners Peggy and Parry Thomas, for whom The Thomas & Mack Center is named, will be honored.

Brentina and McDonald represented the United States at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. At the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, they led the U.S. to the Bronze medal. In 1999, McDonald and Brentina put in an amazing performance at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, winning both the Individual and Team Gold medals.

Brentina recently recovered from colic surgery, as reported in January on The Jurga Report.

Someone in Louisville Loves This Blog...and Told the World!

by Fran Jurga | 16 March 2009 | The Jurga Report
Writing this blog reminds me of being on stage in a play. The lights are so bright, you can't see beyond the stage apron. Is there a full house...or will your words just echo around an empty hall? When I hit the "Publish" button for today's post, will there be the hoped-for wave of laughter, maybe a smattering of polite applause...or an uncomfortable silence, with a cough or two?

Blogging has taught me to take a lot of risks. I have to open my email account to anyone who posts a comment. I have to read and then delete the obscene, abusive or overtly commercial messages left by drive-by comment thugs. I scrutinize statistics of unique visits, page views, referring sites and landing pages.

But I don't have a clue who you. the readers, are or, some days, if you are.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that The Jurga Report was recently the subject of a very favorable and flattering article in one of my favorite daily newspapers, The Louisville Courier-Journal. Reporter Diane Heilenman, it turns out, is a regular reader of this blog and she wasn't afraid to tell the world. Then Google News picked up the story...and for a few days, the blog picked up steam and a few rows of new readers from the Louisville area.

Thank you, Diane, for tuning in to this blog and for sharing your enthusiasm with the world. I am still shocked at your kind words and the paper's nice graphic presentation of the article about the blog.

The newspapers lately are filled with stories about web predators, identity thieves, viruses, and rip-off schemes. Every time you download a file, do you wonder who--or what--might be hitchhiking a ride into your hard drive? Do you screen your email through filters and guard your "white list" like its a key to your inner sanctum? It just might be, if you believe what you read in the newspaper.

I'd like to encourage everyone who reads this blog to stay safe on the web, but also to take some chances. Find new web sites and blogs and forums that are out there waiting for you, beyond the Yahoos and the Googles and breed/sport horse sites of this world. Explore the world, not just the USA, and re-discover how much fun the web used to be, before we all became paranoid and security-crazed.

You can be safe and surf at the same time, so head out there today and have a good time. Just don't lose the bookmark or RSS feed of The Jurga Report. I'll still be here when you get back, with some interesting news. You can count on that.

Thanks for reading The Jurga Report, whoever you all are!

No-Clone Zone: AQHA Postpones Cloning Decision (Again)

by Fran Jurga | 9 March 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Clones are knocking on the door of the American Quarter Horse Association, seeking legitimate places in the largest breed registry in the world. "Go away! Come back next year!" came the cry from within at yesterday's AQHA committee meeting. (Fran Jurga/Puppet Tool software image)

Yesterday was billed as the Day of Decision at the annual convention of the American Quarter Horse Association in San Antonio, Texas. The issue: the AQHA's Stud Book and Registration Committee was scheduled to vote on the inclusion of clones (genetic replicas via engineered reproduction and DNA replacement) in the definition of an American Quarter Horse, opening the door for clones to be eligible for registration.

First reports from the San Antonio meeting indicate that a motion to postpone the decision for another year was passed by the committee. However, I believe the committee's recommendation needs the official stamp of the larger organization, as well as the appointment of a task force to further study the implications of registering clones, leading up to another airing at the 2010 AQHA Convention.

This story is not dead. Just like the late great Quarter horses who have been cloned, the story keeps having new life breathed into it. Over the past 10 years, the AQHA has progressed (or regressed, according to your political view) to allow frozen and fresh artificial insemination...then survived a lawsuit that opened the door to allow embryo transfer...and finally winds up with genetic clones on the doorstep of the registry office.

Clones may be the ultimate and most expensive "unwanted horses" in the universe, at least temporarily, when it comes to registration-paper legitimacy. That will surely change, even as multiple clones of champion cutting horse Smart Little Lena grow up in their "equus non grata" state of limbo. Other clones are replicas of favorite horses engineered for a fee for individual owners.

Clones are technically allowed to compete in cutting and reining, but the whole point of cloning Smart Little Lena or the mare Royal Blue Boon is not to compete, but to breed. And breed. And breed, thus infusing the breed with the bloodlines of champions who would otherwise have limited offspring. The number of foals sired by Smart Little Lena could be infinite in the future....as could be the number of exact genetic replicas of Smart Little Lena himself standing at stud all over the world!

Cloning is wonderful technology and yesterday's decision gives one hope that when the AQHA allows clones to join the registry--which surely seems inevitable--it will do it with a plan that is responsible and fair.

The much bigger story here is that once the AQHA allows cloning, other breed registries will surely follow suit. The framework and perhaps welfare of our entire horse world depends on the AQHA to lead the way, if it decides to, in a way that will encourage other breeds to be responsible in their policies and ensure the safety and welfare of horses and the viability of breeds and breeding.

You know what the critics are asking: Are we ready for offshore breeding laboratories, unauthorized DNA capture, and lawsuits over the implications of mitochondrial DNA? Are we entering the age of Dr. Frankenhorse or a new era of genetic analysis and engineering that may be able to better all breeds?

Something I've been wondering: Couldn't the cloned AQHA halter horses be manipulated so they have feet of proportionate size to their bodies?

If I was to give advice to the AQHA, I'd suggest that for every dollar a clone costs, an equal amount be put into research to predict, analyze and remove threats of genetic disorders from the breed. The same energy that figured out how to select a coat color for a clone could certainly go a long way on the health front. HYPP and HERDA may be only the tip of an iceberg, and those who want to register and breed clones should be responsible for any headaches and heartaches their engineered horses introduce to the bloodlines of the horses the rest of us just want to own and ride.

Stay tuned for more news!

Update: After this post was published, a press release from AQHA confirmed that the vote had been postponed to the 2010 convention and that a task force had been formed to continue to investigate how cloning might impact the breed, and vice versa. Click here to read the official announcement from the AQHA.

Favorite Video: Learn About Ringworm in Horses

by Fran Jurga | 8 March 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com



Those friendly vets at Vetstoria TV are back with another horse health podcast. This time the subject is the highly contagious fungus ringworm, a problem I hope you and your horse don't ever have to endure!

Ringworm is one reason that buying used sheets and blankets and even saddle pads is a little risky. Be sure you thoroughly wash everything, and keep tack for horses separate and clean.

Vetstoria.com is a British veterinary project; previously we posted their excellent video on strangles. Their web site has a fantastic library of short health videos for dog and cat owners, and with some encouragement, may soon offer more equine videos.

HBO's "Death on a Factory Farm" May Reverberate to All Animals, All Farms

Pete's back. The now-famed undercover animal rights advocate infiltrated a commercial hog farm in Ohio this time, and bets are on that the new Death on a Factory Farm documentary, airing one week from tonight on HBO, will go a long way to further alienate viewers from the idea of eating meat, although its intent is to expose the legal loopholes that often doom animals in institutionalized production to abuse and cruelty.

Even Pork magazine recommends to its meat-industry readers that they watch this documentary. The abuses are extreme and, in the minds of many viewers who have never been to a farm, the implication that all livestock is abused or warehoused inhumanely isn't a far leap. Pork agrees that the farm workers caught on film were out of line.

And, from the other point of view, the ways that business and legal entities view the animal rights movement spills over to virtually any cause or concern for animal welfare and safety as well as "rights".

Just as not all farmers throw piglets across the barn, not all animal advocates want to shut down all farms.

Expose films like this one are great for ratings; word has it that Oprah's well-done expose of puppy mills was her most-watched program in history.

Death on a Factory Farm will not be easy to watch, but try to do it with a critical mind. If you consider yourself an advocate for horses, understand that you are likely to be lumped with advocates for uncrating sows and liberating lab mice. Drawing lines between species isn't easy, and lawmakers, attorneys, and judges often don't see much difference between a horse and a rat and a sow. One law may cover them all, although the point of this film is that there is not much of any law at all to help these sows and piglets.

Put it on your calendar: Death on a Factory Farm, HBO, Monday, March 16. Check local times and listings.

To learn more about this film, click here.

To read the article in Pork, click here.

"A Bad Time to Be a Horse": New York Times Examines Struggling Horse Businesses and Rescue Farms in the Northeast

by Fran Jurga | 2 March 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Empty saddle racks in a New York City area stable reflect empty stalls at boarding barns. Where did the horses go?

Yesterday's New York Times was filled with financial news, economic downturn reports, and more stories yet about how people are coping with less or clinging to their jobs for dear life. It seems like only yesterday I savored Sunday morning with the papers spread out around me on the living room floor. Coffee in hand, I'd read about art and films and museums and books and peruse the ads for cars or clothes or jobs. 

Newspapers are different these days. The ads are all but gone and the cultural coverage is a shadow of itself. Instead, the paper is a survival guide to life here in the New York/Boston neighborhood. And the New York Times, thanks to its excellent web site, is as likely to be read online as on the living room floor.

Imagine my surprise when I saw an article about how the economic downturn is affecting horse businesses in metro New York. I did a double-take. A photo of a tack room, sans tack, really hit home with me.

I've just returned from attending the American Farrier's Association convention, a rare horse-related event that possibly exceeded its organizers' expectations. I know there were more farriers in attendance than I had expected, and they were in good spirits. While some shook their heads and told tales of how bad it (supposedly) was in some part of the country or another, the farriers who spoke with me said cautiously, "It hasn't hit me...yet...." 

But I noticed that the attendees tended to have gray hair and the look of successful professionals; I was obviously talking to established businessmen and -women. How different might it be for someone further down the success ladder, or for someone starting out? 

One farrier school owner told me that applications were up, and that he had more students than ever, a fact he attributed to insecurity. "People are losing their jobs, they want a backup skill, they want to work for themselves," he assured me. But will there be work for them all?

They can't shoe horses that aren't there anymore.

The Sunday papers are stuffed in the recycling bin now, but I want to share the Times article with you. I know that not everyone is out of work. I know some people still have the means to help out a horse in need. Whether it means bringing one home or sending a monthly check to a rescue farm or putting a donations jar on the counter where you work or rolling up your sleeves to clean stalls at a rescue farm...what are you doing? what can you do? when will you do it?

We can all do a lot more than we think we can, and the editors would welcome an article or a flurry of letters about how the horse world is pulling together in spite of the empty stalls and lifeless tack rooms. A good-news story would be welcome next Sunday on my living room floor, and yours, I'm sure.

Click here to read the New York Times article on horse rescue farms and businesses in the area.

Click here to view a slide show of images from the Times article.