Before trucks and tractors, draft horses performed the heavy work of pulling wagons, plowing fields, and hauling logs. But the internal combustion engine did not entirely replace these animals, and they are still used in many parts of the country for agricultural and other jobs, as well as for pleasure driving and county fair pulling contests.

This book is a celebration of these “gentle giants,” as well as a handbook on their breeding, care, and training, and their use as competition and working horses.

Author: Donna Campbell Smith
Publisher: Lyons Press
ISBN: 978-1-59228-979-0
Price: $28.75 CAD
Hard cover / 147 pages / b&w photos
To order: Contact Lyons Press at Box 480, Guilford, CT,
06437-0480, USA, call (203) 458-4500 or visit www.LyonsPress.com

It is now acknowledged that the grazing habits of the rare Konik breed – the name meaning small horse in Polish – play a crucial part in helping to make wetlands more habitable for other species.

They are a highly unusual breed, descended directly from the Tarpan, the wild European forest horse hunted to extinction in Britain in Neolithic times.
continue reading "Rare Horse Breed Proves Crucial to Ecosystem"

1. Critical

Cleveland Bay (GB), Dales pony (GB), Eriskay pony (GB), Suffolk horse (GB), Caspian (Iran), Barb Horse (Central Asia), Colonial Spanish* (USA), Mountain Pleasure (USA), American Cream Draft (USA); American Mammoth Jackstock (USA); Poitou Donkey (France).

2. Endangered

Exmoor pony (GB), Hackney horse and pony (GB), Akhal-Teke (Turkmenstan), Canadian Horse (Canada), Lipizzan (Austria).

3. Vulnerable

Fell pony (GB), Dartmoor pony (GB), Clydesdale horse (GB), Welsh Mountain (Section A) Semi-Feral pony (GB), Highland (Scotland).

4. At Risk

Highland pony (GB), Shire horse (GB), Gotland (Sweden), Clydesdale (Scotland). *Colonial Spanish horses are horses whose genetic makeup shows them to be directly descended from stock introduced during the colonization of the Americas, especially North America, primarily through the Conquistadors of Spain.

Foundation stock was heavily Iberian. This genetic pool represents a time capsule of bloodlines from some 400-plus years ago.

Today’s horses include Feral, Native American and Rancher strains of Spanish Mustang, Florida Cracker, Banker Pony, and Marsh Tackie among others.

Rare livestock breeds are becoming extinct at a rate of one per month, prompting 108 countries to agree on a global plan of action to save the animals, including horses.

The United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called the extinction rate “alarming.”

“Wise management of the world’s animal genetic resources is of ever greater importance,” said FAO Assistant Director-General Alexander Muller, addressing participants at the first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in Interlaken, Switzerland, in September.
continue reading "Global Plan to Save Endangered Breeds"

by Lorraine Taylor

During the First World War the Canadian Corps used an average of 23,500 horses and mules. When demand dictated, the number rose to 50,000 per week with the addition of imperial divisions and artillery brigades.

Horses were purchased by the Canadian government from ranchers, farmers and at public auctions. They were transported by trains to Halifax, Montreal and trailed from Val Cartier to Levis, Quebec, where they were loaded onto ships. In October 1914, the first contingent of horses and men sailed for the United Kingdom.
continue reading "Horses in The Great War - The ultimate equine sacrifice"

by Cindy Mark with files from White Stallion Productions

The “World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions” were recently in Calgary as part of their world tour, and indeed, they are just as magnificent as I remember.

This year marked the 37th anniversary of the tour, and having seen them when I was a child, their “airs above the ground” were still thrilling to watch and an ode to the stallions’ disciplined training.

The organizers of the show have a good working relationship with the famed Spanish Riding School of Vienna, with most of the ten stallions and two geldings featured on tour having been bred at the Piber Stud Farm in the state of Styria, Austria.

While the horses on tour spend 11 months out of the year on the road, they make their home in Oviedo, Florida, just outside of Orlando.
continue reading "Lipizzaner Stallions have colourful history"

by Pam Asheton

Brent and Grace Seufert are widely recognized as serious Canadian competitive trail and endurance riding specialists. Their Water Valley event for Trail Riding Alberta Conference (TRAC) ran successfully for years until, suddenly, in 2006 they decided they’d had enough.

Simply, this high-energy couple tired of increasingly long Alberta winters, and sold up land, house, and everything. They bought a monster fifth-wheel with living accommodation for horses and humans, and enough plug-ins for Brent’s software TechWest business (RodeoLogic that includes the Calgary Stampede as a long-term customer, and HerdLogic for farmers and ranchers’ records, plus other organizational software programs).
continue reading "Ancient Akhal-Teke Breed now Alberta Bound"