Photographer: Paul Moody
Clydesdale Becomes Britain’s Biggest Horse
“ Digger”
Mounting this Trojan steed
is a tall order for any rider
~~~
Measuring over 19 hands, 6ft 5 inches, and weighing 900 kilos, Digger the Clydesdale is thouht to be Britain’s biggest living horse.
And at only 4 years of age this magnificent animal still has some growing to do.
“Digger is the largest horse we have ever had to deal with and at just four years old, is still a baby,” says Eileen Gillen, manager of the International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH) at Belwade Farm in Aboyne, Scotland, where Digger is kept.
“He was hand-fed as an orphan and from then on he just grew and grew. He is the equivalent of a growing teenage boy – never out of the fridge.
“Heaven knows what size he is going to end up.”
Digger arrived at the farm in December after a call for help from his owners, who were suffering from serious health problems and finding it increasingly difficult to cope with such a big horse.
“He was hand-reared from two weeks old which is not the easiest thing to do so all credit to the previous owners – he was just too big to cope with,” says Eileen.
“Digger arrived just 10 days before Christmas – it was some Christmas present I can tell you.”
However Digger’s height, measured from hoofs to shoulder blade is not an exact reading of his size. “
We can’t measure him absolutely bang on because our measuring system doesn’t go past 19 hands,” explains Eileen.
“He is the about 6 ft 5 inches hoofs to withers – which is hooves to the top of the shoulder.
“He has obviously got to bulk out because he is just a frame – but who knows what height he will end up growing to.
“His feet measure between 10-15 inches – a good foot across.”
But Eileen, 48, who has been caring for horses for the past 35 years, is not interested in breaking any records.
“Digger is certainly over 19 hands and when his head his up he will measure up to 9 ft.
Digger’s unusual size means that he has a bigger appetite than most horses.
“Because he is a growing lad he is a little under weight. But he is eating three times more than a normal horse and consuming about 20-25 gallons of water a day.
“We have a big yard and he lives in there, but even to get him here we had to get a specialist lorry with lower stabilised floors.
“He is a big docile horse – he will do what he wants. He is not one for running around. He takes life very slowly, which is the nature of his breed.
His friends at the farm include12-year-old Sweep, a mini Shetland pony who, despite his intimidating size, is best friends with gentle giant Digger.
At 34 inches tall, he can walk straight under his belly.
“She is out mascot and when Sweep first met Digger his height didn’t seem to bother her – she wasn’t intimidated,” says Eileen.
“They just love to play together as you can see.”
~~~
News Link: UK Daily Mail
Earlier Post: Tina, Guinness Tallest Horse in the World.
Graceland To Be Home For Rescued Horses Adopted By Priscilla Presley
Rescued Horse, Max
~~~
To keep the spirit alive as it was in Elvis’ time, there will always be horses at Graceland.
Max arrived at the estate Jan. 10 — two days after what would have been Elvis Presley’s 73rd birthday.
He will never be able to thank Priscilla Presley for adopting him and giving him a new home. She also adopted his brother, Merlin, who will arrive at Graceland in the spring.
Max will never be able to thank Carol-Terese Naser of Palermo, Maine for saving his life.
Then again, Max is a 3-year-old bay horse.
It all began like this:
Max and his brother, Merlin, a magnificent chocolate-colored creature, were scheduled to be slaughtered — along with four other horses in their family in Quebec — last summer.
Naser, who has had horses of her own since she was a child, stepped into action and rescued all six horses with just days to spare.
“If we hadn’t done this when we did, they’d all be long gone,” said Naser.
Naser and her friend Cathy Cleaveland found out soon enough that it wasn’t easy — or cheap — to care for six horses. So they decided to start fundraising.
“We sent T-shirts to celebrities we knew were passionate about animals,” Cleaveland said. “We requested they autograph the shirt, then send it back. We were going to auction them.”
Country crooner Alan Jackson, former Catwoman Julie Newmar and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” host Ty Pennington, among others, signed and sent back the shirts for auction, Naser said.
And then came a phone call from Priscilla Presley that would change Max’s and Merlin’s lives.
An animal lover, Presley told the women she wanted to adopt Max and Merlin to give them a permanent home at Graceland, the nearly 14-acre spread, 23-room mansion in Memphis that Elvis shared with Priscilla and their daughter.
Graceland
“I have always had a bond with horses,” Presley said in a telephone interview. “Elvis gave me my very first horse. It was the horses that made Graceland home to us.”
Presley, who called herself “the kid who had to rescue all the animals” growing up, said that when she received the T-shirt from Naser and Cleaveland, the story of the near-slaughter struck her.
“It haunted me,” Presley said. “I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to do that.”
Presley, who called Naser’s saving act “an unbelievable labor of love,” said it is her desire to educate people about horse slaughter, including spreading the word to permanently ban the practice.
“Max and Merlin are a symbol of horses who escaped the slaughter,” she said.
They will live out their lives at Graceland for all to know the value of horses in our lives.
Elvis Presley bought his first horses in 1966. The first horses to come to Graceland were Christmas gifts for Priscilla and some of Elvis’ friends. They were Tennessee Walkers.
Elvis soon bought more horses – and then trucks and trailers – for his friends and bodyguards.
Priscilla remembers playfully, “It didn’t matter if you wanted one or not, you were getting a horse!”
The stable at Graceland was called “House of the Rising Sun” after Elvis’ own horse, a Quarter horse.
Elvis on Rising Sun
Ebony’s Double ~ Tenneessee Walker
Priscilla Presley’s Horse
Elvis sought solace in his land and his horses. Priscilla recalls, “In the morning right after breakfast he was out riding.”
The year 2007 marked the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. The sound of hoofbeats has never faded from his home.
Graceland now includes the beauty of two rescued horses.
~~~
Rancher On Horseback Finishes Ride Across America
Bill Inman atop his horse Blackie
as riders in Hendersonville, N.C. welcome him
~~~
January 13, 2008
An Oregon rancher who set off on a cross-country horseback ride seven months ago in search of what’s good in America dismounted Sunday, feeling encouraged by the spirit and stories of the people he met.
Bill Inman began his journey June 2 because he felt distress over how the country was being portrayed in news coverage and on TV shows. He rode his 16-year-old thoroughbred-quarter horse Blackie.
His wife, Brenda, and a four-person support crew joined him on the trip through eight states.
Along the way, Inman collected stories of hardworking, honest everyday people in rural America.
His cross cross-country trek was dubbed Uncovering America by Horseback, a website that noted his experiences, including videos.
The scenery in America is changing and I’m really proud we took snapshots at slow motion of this time period because 20 years from now it will be different,” he said.
Inman talks about the retired rancher in Idaho who he considers “a true image of America with his honesty and hospitality,” or people he’s met working multiple jobs to make ends meet, or another Idaho rancher e-mailing the progress of the journey to his son in Iraq.
“There is nothing like riding across the nation to learn about the people of this country,” he said.
Among the people he met was a Wyoming deputy sheriff who drove 25 miles through a thunderstorm to bring dinner to him and his wife, and all 17 people of a Colorado town who came out to see him ride off.
An Idaho state trooper paid him $20 for the chance to sit on top of Blackie, he said.
“Sometimes, I was more intrigued by the stories they were telling than the stories I was telling,” Inman said.
Inman finished his trip riding into the southwestern North Carolina town under overcast skies. A crowd of more than 100 people greeted Inman as he ended the journey.
Crossing the plains of Kansas
“I don’t know if that’s really sunk in yet. It may take me two or three days to think it’s over,” Inman said in a telephone interview.
Inman ticked off a list of what’s been bad about the trip — temperatures ranging from 108 degrees to freezing, pesky insects, water shortages, crossing mountains and desert and riding in a lightning storm. People aren’t on the list.
“I haven’t run into any bad people,” he said.
Inman bought Blackie in 2001. The two have clearly bonded.
“I know his capabilities and I know his flaws and I think he can say the same thing for me,” he said. “Now if you think we’re constantly kissing buddies, I don’t think so.
Do I brag about him a lot? Yeah.”
~~~
News Link: Washington Post
Gentle Owner Trains Huge Horses With Great Heart
Ray Powell of New Castle, Kentucky speaks to a 5,000-pound team of young Belgian pulling horses with the gentleness of a violin teacher on the first day of lessons with a 6-year old.
“They hear a lot more than you think they do when you’re foolin’ with them,” said Powell. “I’ll get awful close to them, and they’ll get close to me. They’ll get to where they trust me, and they’ll pull harder for me than they will for anybody else.”
“You watch this horse here. He’ll set his back feet past where he picks his front ones up,” said Powell, as he drove the 4-year-old team of King and George, who were hitched to a sled.
“Watch him. I like a good long-walking horse, because then when you put him on that big load and he drops in that long walk, he can smoke that sled.”
Powell’s eye for good horses and his skillful training methods have been repeatedly proven with hundreds of trophies, a world and international title, and many state titles from Michigan to Florida.
The retired longtime sheriff of Henry County, now 70, grew up on a farm near Drennon Springs learning from his father how to handle a team, both in the field and in competition.
His father, Floyd, handed Ray the lines at a horse pull in Bedford in 1948, and the boy was hooked for life.
This year, with a hay crop damaged by a late freeze then a lengthy drought, Powell and his sons, Robbin and Rick, realized there would not be enough hay for their herd of Angus cattle and their 16 Belgian pulling horses. So they sold the cattle.
Their horses are part of the family.
Ray Powell has turned much of the competition driving in recent years over to his older son, Robbin, 47, while Ray concentrates on training. “I guess I like it,” Robbin said. “It’s all I’ve ever done.”
Ray Powell is at work nearly every day bringing along future pullers. The young Belgians are bought as weanlings from Amish breeders in the Montgomery-Loogootee areas of Indiana and trained at the Powells’ farms in Henry County.
Two of Powell’s former champions, Rock, age 13, and Bill, 15, are now retired to pasture and stall on the Powells’ farms, where Ray Powell feeds the two every morning and night.
“They’ll both die right here,” he said. “They’ve earned the right.”
~~~
Story Link: For complete story: Courier Journal, Louisville Kentucky
