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Photographer: Ralph Palmer, Copyright Photo
Posted with permission
Attention Horses! Turn Off The Radio!
No more tranquil music for horses
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A woman who plays classical music to her horses to keep them calm has been told she must pay for a public performance license.
Rosemary Greenway has been playing passages of opera and orchestral symphonies on the radio to the animals at her stables for more than 20 years, convinced that it helps soothe them.
But at the Malthouse Equestrian Centre in Bushton, Wiltshire, England there will be no more music, and perhaps some very nervous horses now residing there.
Because her stables employ more than two people, she received a telephone call from the Performing Right Society which has been targeting stables as part of a drive to get commercial premises to pay for the music played around the barn.
In defense, a spokeswoman for the society said: “Of course, we don’t ask people to pay for music played to animals. “Mrs Greenway was only asked to pay for music played for staff, like any other workplace.”
The radio is now turned off except for Sunday when there are no staff at the stable yard.
It has long been thought that music helps to calm anxious animals.
Last year a study at Belfast Zoo found evidence that playing Elgar, Puccini and Beethoven to elephants helped reduce stress related behaviours such as swaying, pacing and tossing their trunks.
Perhaps the Malthouse Equestrian Centre might consider purchasing some soothing CDs to calm any horses that have become anxious over this “no radio” ruling.
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Link: Have A Spooky Horse? Try Tchaikovsky!
The “999” Pony
“Mayflower”
In Southampton, England there is a pony that is creating a rush of emergency calls from caring people that are driving by her pasture.
The message to the fire brigade is always the same: Come quickly, a poor little pony is stuck in the mud.
The reason for the emergency calls is not that the pony is sunk in the mire, but that she simply has very short legs.
Her owner is considering putting up a sign outside the field to advise motorists that “Mayflower” is a stocky pony, not a stuck pony.
The problem with putting up a sign is that one day she might actually get stuck and then the fire brigade won’t turn up, says the owner.
“Mayflower” is a cross between a Shetland pony and a New Forest pony. She inherited the Shetland’s short legs and the New Forest pony’s long body.
Her unusually short legs compared to the other ponies in the pasture that surround her cause Mayflower to stand out, or rather semi-disappear. Thus the cause for all the excitement.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service’s animal rescue team have been called out numerous times to rescue the animal since it started grazing on the salt marshes at Redbridge, Southampton.
This has included a specialist lifting vehicle, 12 fire fighters, two to three fire trucks plus an animal rescue expert.
Every time the highly trained firefighters rush to the scene they find the same horse … “Mayflower”.
So, what does Mayflower think of all this?
She simply trots her little self off to prove that she’s not stuck at all, but quite simply minding her own business doing what ponies do … grazing.
Simply Marvelous Horse World 