A Zorse By Any Other Name

 Eclyse has earned her stripes as one of the zoo’s main attractions.

It looks as if someone tried to give a zebra a respray. . . then ran out of white paint halfway through the job. But in reality there is no artificial colouring on display here.

This amazing but natural coat belongs to Eclyse the zorse.

Her father is a zebra, while her mother is a horse.

And she’s walking proof of how a child inherits genes from both parents.

For while most zebra-horse crossbreeds sport stripes across their entire body, Eclyse only has two such patches, on its face and rear.

The one-year-old zorse was the accidental product of a holiday romance when her mother, Eclipse, was taken from her German safari park home to a ranch in Italy for a brief spell.

There she was able to roam freely with other horses and a number of zebras, including one called Ulysses who took a fancy to her.

When Eclipse returned home, she surprised her keepers by giving birth to the baby zorse whose mixed markings betray her colourful parentage.

The foal was promptly given a name that is in itself a hybrid, of her parents’ names.  

Now she’s become a major attraction at a safari park at Schloss Holte Stukenbrock, near the German border with Holland, where she has her own enclosure.

Udo Richter, spokesman for the park, said, “You can tell she is a mix just by looking at her. But in temperament she can also exhibit characteristics from each parent.

“She is usually relatively tame like a horse but occasionally shows the fiery temperament of a zebra, leaping around like one.”

Horses and zebras are often crossbred in Africa and are used as trekking animals on Mount Kenya.  (Story Link)

In 1920, the breeding of horses and zebras was considered a promising hybrid and were called Zebroids.

Seabiscuit Statue Returns To Horse Legend’s Home And Final Resting Place

Willits, CA, June 23, 2007

After an absence of more than 55 years, a classic, life-sized bronze sculpture of the legendary American racehorse Seabiscuit was returned to its original home at Ridgecrest Ranch in Willits, California. 

The statue was transported by an historic, fully restored Seabiscuit-era van once used at the ranch. 

The sculpture departed Atlas Bronze Castings in Salt Lake City on April 10 for a “Seabiscuit- Homecoming Tour”.

 

With police escorts and in a takeoff on Seabiscuit’s old whistlestop tours, ceremonial visits were made across the country.

A Call to Post preceded and concluded each stop.

The final “whistlestop” was held aboard a historic Northwest Pacific caboose circa 1909-1971.

As the time honored van carrying the Seabiscuit statue arrived at Ridgewood Ranch, the magnificent old statue was finally back home.

A private ceremony was held at the place where the legendary Seabiscuit spent his final racing and retirement years, died, and was buried.

‘May the World Never Forget the Magnificent Seabiscuit’    (Laura Hillenbrand)

 Classic Photos

Seabiscuit

Ridgewood Ranch

Seabiscuit Press Stop

Seabiscuit with trainer, Tom Smith, Bing Crosby and others.

Seabiscuit Arrives At Home 

Historic Video:  Seabiscuit and War Admiral Race 1938

Story Link:  Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation

 

Sad Farewell To Manhattan Riding Stable After 115 years

 

Claremont Riding Academy, said to be the oldest continuously operated stable in the United States closed its doors last April and faded into the pages of history.

The stable has been a fixture on the upper west side of Manhattan since it opened as a livery stable in 1892, six years before the automobile began to negotiate city streets. It has operated as a riding academy since the 1920s, giving lessons and renting horses for rides in Central Park.

The Claremont Riding Academy was a little-known fixture of the Upper West Side. It was a place where anyone could hire a horse and take it for a trot in the middle of the world’s most famous park.

It was where off-duty NYPD officers could ride shoulder-to-shoulder with Wall Street executives.

It was a slice of nature in the middle of the most urban few square miles of the city.

The landmark building was sold to developers and will now be made into condominiums. 

The closing of a half-forgotten riding stables right next to Central Park should have been a cause for city-wide mourning. Instead it merited a few press mentions and then it was gone.

 

“It’s a unique place and I don’t think there’ll be anything quite like it again, ever,” said Claremont Riding Academy employee, Judithe Martin. 

 

Trainer Karen Feldgus, who has worked at Claremont for more than 18 years, was giving her last lesson at the stable to a group of 10 people who were riding to music.

Feldgus began to cry as the music began playing. ‘These (horses) are all my best friends. I’ve ridden all of them,’ she said.

  

Only a few horses remained that final closing week. Many were being retired, others sold to their riders and most will move to the Potomac Horse Center in Maryland.

    

Riding instructor Sarah-Jane Casey crosses Central Park West Street for a last ride into Central Park with a horse from the Claremont Riding Academy.

 

Scores of New Yorkers looked on as a dozen Claremont instructors on horseback made their way out of the building for a final ride through Central Park to mark the end of its 115 years as a stable and riding school. 

 

Some watching the procession cheered; some wept; some snapped photographs.  One woman called out to the riders: “God bless y’all”.

After 115 continuous years of operation, a piece of New York City history rode off into the sunset.

Only the memories of yesterday now remain.

Video:  Horses from Claremont Riding Academy in New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Story Link:  

Born to be Mild: The Pony Rarer Than A Giant Panda

 

The Eriskay Pony

 It was one rather wobbly step for a pony, but one giant leap for her kind.

Because this newborn foal taking her first steps is one of the rarest breeds of horse in the world – with fewer of the animals left than there are giant pandas.

So her birth has been hailed as a significant milestone in the recovery of the critically endangered Eriskay pony, which is noted for its gentle, calm temperament.

Experts at the Cholderton Rare Breeds Farm Park near Salisbury, England  are particularly pleased because the gangly filly, meaning she in turn can one day produce offspring.

The breed, developed by crofters on the Isle of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides, was down to just 20 in the 1970s.

Since then, numbers have risen to 300 mares and four purebred stallions, one of whom is the foal’s father.

“They are incredibly rare and endangered,” said the park’s farm manager Alan Talley.

“Over the years on Eriskay the islanders just bred from the quiet, well-mannered ones. “

This led to a breed that was easy-tempered. They can live on very meagre rations and have an oily coat that keeps the weather out.

“They also have a long nose so the cold air they breathe in is warmed by the time it reaches their lungs.

“They are tough, endurable and very strong and make ideal ponies for children to use.”

Story Link:

Andreas Helgstrand – WEG 2006 Free Style Final

Anky van Grunsven Dressage Final World Cup 2006

The Art of Designing Horses

Terri Garofalo  created “Snapshot” for this year’s “Horses, Saratoga Style” event in Saratoga Springs.

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 The Art of Designing Horses ~ Equine-Inspired Creations Line Streets of Saratoga Springs, New York

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Taking care of a horse requires money and time. Terri Garofalo of Poughquag knows a horse that doesn’t require feeding or grooming, yet maintains a beautiful coat and never complains. She created it.

“From the time I was a little kid, I gravitated towards horses,” said Garofalo, two-time artist for “Horses, Saratoga Style” in Saratoga Springs. “I have a natural communication with them.”

“Horses, Saratoga Style” began in 2002 with 24 fiberglass horses designed by local artists. The works were displayed along the streets of the resort city north of Albany.

Joel Reed, executive director of the Saratoga County Arts Council, said a project that created fiberglass horses was an “obvious choice” for Saratoga.

For one thing, the city boasts historic Saratoga Race Course, the oldest horse racing facility in the country. 

“Horse breeding and horse racing are a big part of the Hudson Valley,” Reed said. “We’ve been working on the horse display since August. We have 34 horses and 37 artists this year … each horse has a sponsor.

Garofalo was inspired by horses as far back as she can remember.

“It’s hard to say how I began to follow art,” she said. “I was able to draw well because I wanted to draw a horse picture well, which is ironic.

“She worked through the most challenging elements of the project to get a final product, aptly titled “Snapshot.”

Garofalo said her childhood contributed to her love for art and horses.

“I grew up on a farm until I was 7,” Garofalo said. “I understood cows and cats, but then I had to go to kindergarten and understand humans.

I’ve always been creative and made my own toys because if I wanted something different, I’d have to make it myself. Creativity for me extends into everything I do.”

Original Story: Poughkeepsie Journal.com

Photo: Robert W. Garofalo

Police Looking for Owner of Mystery Horse

North Middleton, Pa. resident walks a horse that was found by township police.

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Have you seen this horse?

That’s the question the North Middleton, Pennsylvania Police Department is asking after an officer found it prancing up Spring Road near the Turkey Hill convenience store earlier this week.

Now, the department is searching for the answer to where the mysterious horse came from.

“We have yet to find the owner,” said Chief Jeffrey Rudolph.

“And no one has reported it missing.”

Rudolph said Officer Dan Fiber was patrolling Route 34 around 4:30 p.m. Sunday when he saw the animal running northbound up the highway.

The officer managed to herd the horse into the Turkey Hill parking lot, then into a nearby parking lot used by the Winchester Gardens service building.

That’s where owner Chester Schlusser stepped in.

“The police were following the horse and I happened to be working,” he recalled.

“The officer asked me if I was missing a horse and I said it wasn’t mine.”

But as the owner of five horses himself who has spent more than 30 years working with the animals, Schlusser is something of an expert. He joined Fiber in leading the frightened horse into a barn on his property.

And that’s where the puzzling horse has been ever since.

As police search for its owner, Schlusser has agreed to temporarily house the horse at his barn. He also has plunged into the search, calling neighboring farms to see if any are short a horse.  Not one was.

Although he wasn’t able to determine a type, Schlusser said the horse is a small, brown male — about 12 to 13 hands high — with a white blaze on his face and a pair of white socks on his rear legs.

Nutrition-wise, Schlusser said, the horse is in good shape, although his feet have been neglected.

While the horse is slowly starting to accept him, he added that the animal is very frightened of people.

“He doesn’t want anything to do with people.  He’s afraid of them,” he said. “If I didn’t know what I was doing, I wouldn’t have been able to touch him.”

Schlusser said it is hard to judge how long the horse might have been out on its own. before being captured in North Middleton. 

“We’re looking for the owner of the horse or someone who might want to give him a new home,” he said.

Story Link: 

Photo: Michael Bupp/The Sentinel  

  

 

Dog Helps Save Foal From Abandoned Well

Molly the Border Collie looks on as mud is cleaned from   7 1/2 week old foal after it fell into a well.

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 It could have been a scene straight out of “Lassie.” Kurt Smith was working in the yard at his horse boarding and breeding facility Monday when Molly, his border collie, came running and barking, signaling that something was amiss.Smith, the owner of Essex Stud Arabians, discovered that the 2-month-old foal Mati _ short for Matinicus Rock _ had fallen into a 12-foot-deep abandoned well.

“(Molly) baby-sits the baby horse and looks right after her,” Smith said.Smith called the Bangor Fire Department, which dispatched firefighters and a ladder.

He descended into the well, slid ropes around Mati’s front legs and hindquarters and was able to pull her out of the well, “no worse for the wear,” he said. The 250-pound foal, owned by Lisa Kelly, was small enough to fall down the well that was about 5 feet wide.

The artesian well had been covered with boards, but the wood had begun to deteriorate. The well shaft was filled in with gravel Tuesday to prevent any future incidents.

The story of a horse falling into a well gets odder still. Earlier that morning, Smith and his wife, Denise Mitchell, had watched a television news report about “Baby Jessica,” whose rescue after she fell into a well in Texas nearly 20 years ago engrossed the nation.

“Then two hours later we had baby Mati,” Smith said. “It was deja vu.”

Story Link:

Photo: Bangor Daily News/Kevin Bennett  

Rare Odds ~ Pony Gives Birth To Twins

Newborns Bess and Royal go for a trot with mum Royal Beatrice

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Running through the fields with her newly-born foals, mare Royal Beatrice has good reason to celebrate – after managing the astonishingly rare feat of producing twins.  

The 22-year-old New Forest Pony has shocked equine experts with the surprise birth of healthy twin foals because the chances of both surviving are so slim.

The chances of a mare giving birth to healthy twin foals are about 1 in 10,000, experts said today. But little filly Bess, and colt Royal, have defied the odds by becoming the first twins to be born in the New Forest, Hampshire for many years.

And at just a few weeks old, the playful pair are lapping up all the attention they are attracting from horse lovers across the country.

Bess and Royal can thank their father for their distinctive white markings and have been registered as First Cross New Forest/Appaloosa ponies.

Secretary of the New Forest Pony Breeding and Cattle Society, Jane Murray, said: “It is extremely unusual for horses to give birth to twins like this.

“To get both foals surviving to full pregnancy is a very rare feet indeed and we only have a couple of examples in our stud book of it ever happening before.

“But it is even more rare when the mare is so old. At 22, I think it’s fair to say that Royal Beatrice has done extremely well to have healthy twins.

The British Horse Society’s senior executive of welfare, Lee Hackett, said the overall chances of a mare giving birth to healthy twins are 1 in 10,000.

He said: “This is incredibly rare and it is wonderful news that both these foals have been born healthy.

Story Link:

Photos: Solent News