A genetic study of horses across Eastern Europe and Central Asia has traced the domestication of horses to wide-open grasslands shared by Ukraine, southwest Russia and Kazakhstan. Horse genetics is the science of heredity as applied to horses. Heredity is the reason for the similarity between parents and their offspring. Researchers generally date the domestication…
A central Harlem street was transformed into a rodeo for a few hours one day by a group of black cowboys wanting to expose city kids to something different and expand their horizons. First, kids were given a lesson about the history of black cowboys. In the late 1860s, there were as many as 15,000…
When Black Caviar raced in Melbourne, Australia in the 2012 Australia Stakes her win made it 17 wins out of 17 starts. ‘It’s a wonderful privilege to be on top of Black Caviar. I thank God every day,’ said jockey Luke Nolen. Nolen admitted he restrained the 6-year-old mare at the start, letting the others…
Math is involved at a fast pace when jumping a horse. An average a horse’s stride is 12 feet long, and a rider must figure out during the approach to a jump how to influence the horse’s stride to make the distance to the jump perfect. Do you need to lengthen or shorten your horse’s…
She’s slept inches away from scorpions and snakes, fended off attacks from wild stallions and broken her ribs and collarbone – all as part of an epic 10,000-mile long distance horseback ride. But for West Wales pony breeder Megan Lewis, her four-year challenge to ride from the 2008 Beijing Olympics to the start of the 2012…
Did you know you can use math to estimate the mature height of a foal? Use a string or tape measure and measure the distance from the fetlock to the elbow. Using that same measurement, place one end of the string or tape measure at the elbow and hold it straight up to where her…
The 2012 Kentucky Derby had a surprise winner in I’ll Have Another. He produced a strong finish to catch the front-running Bodemeister in the closing stages of the race and win by one and a half lengths. The distance horses run in the Kentucky Derby is 1 1/4 miles. A furlong is 1/8th of a…
Shackleford Island is a part of North Carolina’s Cape Lookout National Seashore, and home to 118 wild horses. These horses are likely descendants of those that escaped shipwrecks in the 1500s. In 1974, Dan Rubenstein, then a Duke Ph.D. student of zoology, began a study of their social lives. 1. This is 2019. How long…
The sport of Vaulting is a combination of dance and gymnastics performed on the back of a moving horse. To excel, the rider and horse must develop a high level of trust and coordination. Both the horse and the vaulter score points. Competitors in the beginner divisions vault on horses that are walking or trotting.…
Hannah Hammond and her barrel racing buddy, Jackie Ganter, were first or second in all three incentive races at a barrel racing competition held at the Taylor County Expo Center in Abilene, Texas. Hannah placed seventh in the Most Consistent Horse contest with a 0.294-second difference factor between her three runs of 15.644, 15.758 and…