Equestrian Tales

Horse shows held all over the globe with a very wide range of guidelines, equipment, events and clothing used. These are the most common types for horse shows:

• Equitation, sometimes called seat and hands or horsemanship, refers to events where the rider is judged on form, style and ability.
• Pleasure, flat, or under saddle classes feature horses who are ridden on the flat (not jumped) and judged on manners, performance, movement, style and quality.
• Halter, in-hand breeding, or conformation classes, where the horse is led by a handler on the ground and judged on conformation and suitability as a breeding animal.
• Harness classes, where the horse is driven rather than ridden, but still judged on manners, performance and quality.
• Jumping or Over Fences refers broadly to both show jumping and show hunter, where horses and riders must jump obstacles.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrianism

Who would have thought that a horse shoe could be a family legacy? It’s not that my family loves and owns horses but there is a story behind the horse shoe and it’s worth telling. My grandparents have 8 kids, one of them is my mom. Back then, my grandfather’s job isn’t enough to feed all of them and that went on for quite a long time.

One day, out of nowhere, my grandfather saw a horse shoe in the streets and that was when he was able to get a decent job with a good pay. Promotions and salary increases came in in the family. To support 8 kids isn’t easy but my grandparents were able to send them all to college and all eight of them graduated. My grandfather believes that it was the horse shoe who brought all the luck into the family.

Until today, that horse shoe is still displayed in our house. It may or may not be true but the horse shoe will always be a? reminder that life can get better and better.

One of God?s beautiful creations is horses. Here are some interesting things I?ve gathered about them:

1. There are more than 350 breeds of ponies and horses can be found

2. If you want to know how old a horse is, all you need to do is to count its teeth

3. 10 Pounds is the weight of a horse?s heart

4. A horse is able to drink 10 gallons of water per day

5. Horses spend more energy lying down.

6. Horses usually live for around 20 to 25 years. Some of them can live up to 5 years more.

7. “Samson,” was the tallest horse recorded.

8. And my favorite fact: After being born, it only takes a foal about 1-2 hours to stand up and walk.

Now, imagine us, humans, are like them. Then we wouldn?t have to crawl for the next 9 months or so after we are born. How cool could that be?Image source: www.buzzle.com

The next thing that we can do is to explain terms such as the pace time. The pace time is the ideal time to safely but quickly ride the set trail. When the competitors arrive they send out teams of two or three to ride the trail. Checkpoints set along the ride ensure that the riders are staying on course and are not overworking their horses. Each group of riders is timed. Riders are penalized for either riding too fast and beating the pace time, or too slow and taking longer than the pace time. The group to come closest to the pace time wins the competition.(Source:Wikipedia.org)

A hunter pace is a form of competition involving horses and riders. In a hunter pace a trail is marked for horse and rider to follow. On the day of the competition, early in the morning, the hosts of the event send an experienced horse and rider to ride the trail as fast as it is safely possible to do so. This morning ride is called “the dead body run”, and it establishes two things: 1. that the trail is clear and safe for the competitors and 2. The “pace time”. These will be further expounded, well kinda, on the next entry. Source:Wikipedia.org

In spite of popular myth, most modern “broncs” are not in fact wild horses, but are more commonly spoiled riding horses or horses bred specifically as bucking stock.

Bronc riding - there are two divisions in rodeo, bareback bronc riding, where the rider is only allowed to hang onto a bucking horse with a surcingle, and saddle bronc riding, where the rider is allowed a specialized western saddle without a horn (for safety) and may hand onto a heavy lead rope attached to a halter on the horse.

Bull Riding - though technically not an equestrian event, as the cowboys ride full-grown bulls instead of horses, skills similar to bareback bronc riding are required.

(Source:Wikipedia.org)

The pace race is a commonly used term in equestrianism. But what really, is this simple term all about? A competitive pace race is a timed race in which the objective is not to finish in the least time, but to finish within the prescribed time and in the best physical condition. In some races, the prescribed time is very narrowly defined and the winner is the competitor who finishes closest to the prescribed time. In other races, the prescribed time is a window and competitors who finish outside the window (too early or too late) are penalized or disqualified.

In one of our vacations, I noticed a group of horses that were very different. I was so used to seeing horses that had black, brown or white manes that I was so shocked to see these kinds. One was white but had pink colored mane and tail. I immediately asked the owner why he did that to his horse. You know what he said? “My daughter likes the color pink and so I colored her favorite horse for her birthday.” Weird but true. Some people would really do that for their princess. I don’t think I’ll do that ever.

Image source: braino.org

When I was a kid, I really wanted to ride a horse. At that time, it was so cool to show this off to my friends. I even tried to ask my mom repeatedly to let me until she got sick and tired of me asking that she finally gave in. I could still remember the joy I had inside until disaster struck.

In my excitement as I mounted, I pulled on the reigns of the horse and it sped away. I felt so scared that I was screaming and fell. No more horse riding for me from now on.

Image source: www.hsc.wvu.edu

This story is somewhat different from what I have been used to. It tackles an electronic language program that teaches a young girl to speak French. In the program, the word is said and the user will choose among the pictures displayed what it signifies. The girl soon notices that the program has used the picture of a horse to signify different words like run, jump, and eat a carrot.

This shows that the programmer was so into horses that he included it in numerous words in the program. Basically for me, the story seems too pathetic.

Image source: divinecaroline.com