You know friends are special people. Annabelle is such a friend–as many of you reading this are–and a true lover of horses to have shared this video with me today. But she shares so many beautiful thoughts about the horse.
But, she does make me jealous too. She and her horses share such wonderful experiences out there just riding as we all want to do, as we all want our characters to do. I truly believe I lived when horses shared our lives.
Annabelle, may you ride on for all of us and thank you.
J
Category: sensories
Great posts here on what to do and not to do while riding a horse. Of course, for us writers who have various characters on horseback and want to make a scene good or bad, this is fodder. Now you know what to do that your character should NOT do but he must do because he’s a character that doesn’t deserve to be on a horse but is so we MUST make him look this bad. Or good because our hero would never do these things…if he’s that hero we dream about.
Have fun.
J
Top 10 Annoying Riding Habits.
via Top 10 Annoying Riding Habits.
Like this:
“LAFAYETTE, N.J. (AP) — Authorities say a fast-moving fire destroyed a barn, killing 22 show horses owned by a noted New Jersey equestrian family and worth tens of thousands of dollars each.
State Police Sgt. Brian Polite says the barn was engulfed in flames when troopers arrived around 2 a.m. Saturday in Lafayette. The blaze was soon extinguished, but all the horses inside were killed.
Polite says the animals were valued at $10,000 to $60,000 apiece.
Betty Hahn, whose family owns the horses, tells a local newspaper that no hay or fuel was stored in the barn, so she’s baffled about how the blaze began. Hahn says her family has competed and won awards in equestrian competitions along the East Coast.”
Man of Integrity…the Big Horse.
Man of Integrity aka 'the big horse'
A horse I owned died in a barn fire like this one. His papers said his name was Man of Integrity. We called him ‘The Big Horse’ because when he put his head up I think it towered over the Eiffel Tower. He was fifteen hands tall, chestnut, an American Saddlebred gelding. But boy could he lift his head to the clouds.
I remember trying to clip the winter hair out of his ears once. Footstool or no, couldn’t reach them. You know that thing race horses wear that covers their face and cups the eyes so they can’t see behind them? Well I had one and for some odd reason I thought about using it that day. Oh, ‘The Big Horse’ let me put it on. No problem…no buzzing clippers. So, I put this racing mask on and had to sit on the ground to clip his ears. Yes, he thought up was down. I’ll never forget that. I still laugh thinking about it.
Before me, most of The Big Horse’s training was in harness. Slap a saddle on the ol’ boy and he was miserable. He loved harness. Even my mother, who feared horses, could drive ‘The Big Horse’. But here’s the thing, Fine-harness show horses are not allowed to break into a canter. They get disqualified in the class for that. So, for at least ten years ‘The Big Horse” was never allowed to canter.
He didn’t make it in the show ring as the Fine Harness , so they clipped his mane and made him a Three-gaited show horse. That meant cantering. He was all screwed up now. And yeah, I bought him…cheap.
He and I struggled with canter leads. He just didn’t know how to break into one. He always hesitated like he would be punished or something–a back lash from his harness days. Once he even reared up and fell over on me . He reared. I lost balance. Over we went. I survived by the grace of God. We both saw stars.
So, I figured out the real problem. You see, one winter I decided to turn the Val and ‘ The Big Horse” out for the winter instead of working them out in the cold. Brilliant idea huh? I brought ‘em in at night, fed ‘em, let ‘em out each morning.
Day One: I let Val out. He took off lickety-split down the lane to the pasture, took the right angle turn like a barrel horse, and off he went kicking and bucking like a spring colt.
I took The Big Horse out. Let him go. He stood there. Didn’t know what to do. Saw Val. Wanted to join him. He wanted to hurry. Tried to canter. His legs were as stiff as toothpicks. He bounced down that lane like a cartoon character. Came to the turn. STOPPED. WALKED AROUND IT. And peg-legged it out to the pasture.
I was totally dumbfounded . He couldn’t remember how to canter!!
Spring: Both horses raced around the right angle turn to the barn at a neck breaking speed like teenagers in a car race. Yeah, The Big Horse had figured out what he had forgotten. And the canter became easier between us.
I had another great moment with him happened in a Three-Gaited Class. Here we were, a girl against a bunch of trainers. Four of them. Three showing and one judging the class. The Big Horse and I had all the applause all through the class and took fourth. Real shocker here isn’t it? The crowd booed first place, second and third, then cheered when I left the arena. hee hee
And then my parents and I sold him to a lady in Chicago. I had decided to marry and move on. And her trainer’s barn went up in smoke. Other horses besides The Big Horse died that night.
You see, horses won’t leave their stalls even if the stall doors are open. Smoke is out there. Flames are out there. Won’t go. That’s why you have to blindfold them. And usually a barn is wood and the floors are covered with straw or wood chips. In some cases, hay is kept in the loft too. So please, keep anything like cigarettes away from a barn, any barn.
It still breaks my heart that I sold The Big Horse. He was a beautiful, wonderful, kind animal with more integrity than most people.
The Big Horse and my dad doing their tricks
I’m in the background
The Big Horse
The Big Horse was… a Man of Integrity
Like this:
Let’s lift a toast to the world of racing…to the jockeys, owners, trainers, fans, and of course the beautiful Thoroughbred horses that have qualified to run in
The Triple Crown.
A toast can be anything from water to wine, but each race of the Triple Crown has its own specialty drink that has been enjoyed during all the years of these races. As a writer, you may want to use these traditional drinks, songs and flowers to add a bit of fun in your horseracing stories as a character sensory detail.
Dawn your hat, smell the thick scent of roses, hear voices singing “My Old Kentucky Home” and lift your Mint Julep to the Kentucky Derby. Here’s the recipe for this traditional drink:
The Kentucky Derby Mint Julep
2 C Sugar
2 C water
6-8 sprigs of fresh mint
crushed ice
Kentucky Whisky as Maker Mark or Early Times
Silver Julep cup
Make a syrup by boiling sugar and water together for five minutes. Cool in covered container with 6-8 sprigs of fresh mint and refrigerate overnight. Fill a julep cup with crushed ice, add one tablespoon mint syrup and 2 oz of whisky. Stir rapidly to frost cup and garnish with a fresh sprig of mint.
(Approximately 120,000 mint julep are served on Derby day, using 10,000 bottles of Early Times Mint Julep cocktail, 1000 pounds of fresh mint, and 60,000 pounds of ice.)
The Preakness, the second race of the Triple Crown, has the fragrant summer flower, the Black-eyed Susans, even though they aren’t blooming at the time of this race. Spectators sing “Maryland My Maryland” and lift this traditional drink. Here’s its recipe:
Preakness- Black-eyed Susan Cocktail
3/4 C orange juice
1/2 C pineapple juice
3T vodka
3T light rum
2T orange liquor as Gran Marnier
Crushed ice
Garnish with lime slices and/or fresh cherries
Stir together first five ingredients. Fill 2 (12 oz) glasses with crushed ice. Pour orange juice mixture over ice and garnish.
Now, to the Test of Champions- the longest and most difficult of the three races- The Belmont Race. This final race of the Triple Crown has the the sweet-scented flower of the Carnation for ‘love and luck’. If the favored horse has won the two previous races, heart and voices lift to sing ‘New York New York’ and then toast with The Belmont Breeze. Here’s the recipe for:
The Belmont Breeze
1 1/2 oz Kentucky Bourbon or American blended whiskey or 3/4 oz of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry
1/2 ox fresh lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
1/ 1/2 oz fresh orange juice
1 1/2 oz of cranberry juice
Shake all ingredients with ice and top with half 7-Up and half soda, approx 1 oz of each. Garnish with strawberry, mint sprig, and lemon piece.
So, when you are enjoying these races or using them in your stories remember, a toast is always more from the heart more than the glass. But a beautiful moment is always created.
J
Let me introduce you to Claire Ashgrove, a mother, a rider, writer and a lady who is wild about horses. She has also spent a lot of time and money on rescuing these beautiful animals on her farm. As a writer and a rider she knows the challenges of owning, caring for, breeding as well as writing about them. So I hope you enjoy getting to know her and her horse world both in reality and her stories….
Hi, Judy! Thanks for having me on your blog today!
About me, huh? I really hate talking about me. Let’s see, I’m a former sport horse breeder who lives on a small farm in Missouri . I’ve always written, although I didn’t always know I wanted to write professionally. I wrote for entertainment and to live out girlhood fantasies about being a rock star. Even had my own band in my books who I knew by heart – talk about bonding with characters! Now I write romance. All kinds of romance. As Claire Ashgrove I write steamy contemporaries (most often involving horses in some way) for The Wild Rose Press, paranormal romance for Tor, and historical romance. I also write erotic romantic suspense as Tori St. Claire. Why do I write? To answer the question, What if?
What brought me to horses… well, that’s easy. I was not paying attention in Nobel Lit my Junior year of High School and browsing the school’s job listings. A local stable advertised help in exchange for riding time or riding lessons. I was suckered from there. Shortly after I purchased my first horse, an Arabian gelding. And, as with every horse owner, from there it was all downhill! For the first five or six years of my horse involvement I learned about show life for Arabians and Saddlebreds, I went on to compete in jumping and dressage, and I sucked up every bit of knowledge I could find on a lot of other breeds and disciplines. After college and family I began raising and training sport horses, primarily Arabians, Thoroughbreds and Oldenburgs . I still dabble occasionally – this year I have one foal expected any day now – but the business end of horses is pretty much part of my former life.
What’s my favorite? That’s hard. Very hard. I would have to say above and beyond, the Arabian is. However, many of the Arabians I have loved, worked with, and owned weren’t physically able to do some of the sports that are my passion – such as cross country jumping. (In particular, water jumps. And anyone who’s had an Arab ought to understand that remark!) Which pushed me into bigger, more powerful movers, such as the Warmbloods. I’m pretty partial to the Hanoverian breed – and my Oldenburgs are founded on Hanoverian lines.
As to how I incorporate them? Pick a way. Really. I’ve written on the racing lifestyle, on a breeder’s struggles on pursuing the Arabian dream. You won’t see horses so much in the background, but as key elements to the plots in the stories I put them in.
What do I like to see in books with horses… accuracy. Not so much technical accuracy (although that’s important) but behavioral accuracy. For instance, historical romances, where the hero on his mighty stallion goes for an afternoon jaunt with the heroine and her pretty mare. Then, the mare and stallion are tied nose to nose, or wandering around loose. Drives me crazy. It’s very common, but the natural behaviors there aren’t going to allow for the hero/heroine to have an intimate moment under the tree while their horses pretend each other doesn’t exist. Or if a horse is acting up and someone is in danger, that the “savior” comes rushing in yelling, and doing things that puts the possible victim in more danger, because that seems logical to a non-horse person – also drives me crazy. I’m not such a huge stickler on having the appropriate parts of a bridle listed off, but the logical interaction between human character, horse character, and authorial control needs to be logical. Otherwise, I toss the book aside.
Gosh horse books. Honestly, I can’t answer this question. My reading time is so limited that the books with horses that stand out to me are often the ones with bad horse depictions. However, I can say that movie-wise two of my favorite portrayals are in Lord of the Rings – Shadowfax and the Ring Wraith’s horses. Both of those, although fantasy completely, were very awe-inspiring when on the screen / in the text. And Tolkien built the world so believably that Shadowfax and Gandalf’s relationship was completely plausible. Gladiator also has a very powerful, very realistic cavalry scene in the opening.
I have three books, presently, that incorporate horses.
The first: Waiting For Yes, just released on April 20th. This book is very special to me as it was inspired by my former Straight Egyptian stallion’s bloodlines. And he’s on the cover! If you like beautiful horses, I have some very nice critters in the book trailer on my website.
Gabrielle Warrenton gave up everything to pursue her dream of a first-class Egyptian Arabian breeding farm. Her future lies in her new stallion’s success. Though she possesses an exceptional eye for horseflesh, she lacks the training knowledge, and Bahadur Mamoon has a date with the nation’s most affluent show in three weeks. Nothing that would present a problem given his previous credentials. Only, the sellers disguised one critical fact—he’s crazy. Jake Lindsey-Sullivan was once part of an exceptional Arabian training team. Under his mother’s guidance, he developed an instinctual talent, but she was the star, the cornerstone of his life. Until she met a premature death. Grief-stricken and plagued by guilt, Jake abandoned the world of horses. Now an over-the-road truck driver, he evades the memories. When a snowstorm throws two Arabian professionals into close-quarters, they discover an engulfing passion. But will Mamoon rip open emotional scars, or forever seal them shut?
The second: A Christmas To Believe In, released November 2010. This book pulls on the dream of horses that so many of us hold dear to our hearts.
Struggling Thoroughbred breeder, Clint King, hasn’t been home for Christmas in five years. This year, his prize mare’s due to foal any day, and in the wake of his father’s death, Clint can’t stand the idea of returning. Except, Alex is getting married on Christmas Eve, and their mother’s put her foot down. With his mare in tow, Clint prepares to meet a sister he’s never known, and Alex’s unexpected triplets. The one salvation he looks forward to is childhood companion, tomboy Jesse Saurs. Yet when he reunites with Jesse, he uncomfortably discovers she’s become all woman. Jesse Saurs has everything she needs – financial security, a home, and a foster child who’s about to become her son. With Ethan’s final hearing scheduled just before Christmas, her dreams will come true. When she learns Clint and his brothers are returning, she anticipates a holiday reunion that’s sure to entertain Ethan. But on the night of Clint’s return, the ‘brother’ she expected leaves her trembling after a hug. Even worse, Ethan makes it clear Clint’s not welcome. Will Christmas destroy hopes and dreams, or will it become the gift they’ve all been longing for?
The third: Seduction’s Stakes, released October 2009. This was my first book, and is a very unique view on the world of elite horseracing.
McCleery Racing didn’t become a Thoroughbred racing powerhouse by betting on longshots. Maddie McCleery made it a multi-million dollar player through hard work, logical decisions, and a commitment to never involve herself with men who lived on the sport of kings. But when she sets her sights on a two-year-old colt her rival owns, she never imagines the lengths she’ll go to, to bring the future champion home. Riley Jennings wants unobtainable Maddie almost more than the Triple Crown. After his Kentucky Derby win, however, he sees a way to sure-fire victory. His proposed wager stacks the odds in his favor – if her horse wins the Preakness, he’ll accept her terms. If his horse comes in first, they’ll negotiate his way. When the dust settles on the wire, will love claim final victory, or will unexpected tragedy stop them in the gates?
For more information, and the other titles I’ve written with horses – including what’s coming down the pipe – please drop by my website: www.claireashgrove.com
Claire Ashgrove
Dark, Sexy, Timeless RomanceComing To TOR Books January, 2012! — Immortal Knights Templar,Waiting for Yes – April 20, 2011A Christmas To Believe In — OUT NOW!Seduction’s Stakes – 2009 LASR Best Book of the Year Nominee, Night Owl Romance “5 Stars”www.claireashgrove.com
Like this:
Something about the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man.
–Winston Churchill
The sensory of sight….what do horses look like? Well that is as varied as the Miss America pageant. What’s more horses vary by what you want them to do. For example, the Thoroughbred is built for racing; long, lean, and fast. The Quarter horse is built for ranch work; head low to get eyeball to eyeball with the cattle as well as a very muscled hindquarter. The fancy carriage horse will have a very high head carriage and be a very high stepper. The Draft will be like the heavy boxer of the horse world; thick muscles all over and very large splayed hooves up to 15″ across for pulling. This draft was also the early and uncomfortable charger of the knights because he could carry the weight of the knight’s armor. Ponies that were like rolly-pollies and stubborn would entertain children as well as pull ladies carts into down.
Horses come in all sizes,shapes and colorings plus markings. So here’s a paint palette for your horses:
- Black: Blue-black which don’t sunburn because of their bluish skin tone. Brown-black black with brownish skin tone that does sunburn to a reddish tint, most common
- Bay- brown with black mane, black tail, and black points on muzzle, ear tips, and legs; can come yellowish with black points or reddish known as “blood bay”.
- Chestnut-rich golden brown/burnt-orange, usually with a creamy/flaxen mane and tail; can be light or golden like a gold coin. Red chestnut-with more red in coat,; Liver chestnut-purplish or liver colored. (I knew one of these with a silver mane and tail…beautiful!)
- Roan- any color with white hair spread throughout the body. Strawberry roan- brown or bay with white hair, gray or dark points. Chestnut roan- chestnut with white hair through coat, no points. Blue Roan-black with white hair through coat, may have black points.
- Buckskin/Dun/Claybank- colors from light silver to mouse-colored hair, HAS a matching strip black down back from black mane to black tail, may have a few zebra strips about shoulders and back. Very common in western horses. Claybanks have color the same all over…body, mane and tail.
- Gray- born black and become lighter with age. Skin remains black though. Steel Gray- young black horse with a few white hairs through coat. easily confused with blue roan, Iron- has more white hair; Flea bitten Gray-tiny flecks of black and brown through coat
- White- normal skin tone and covered with white hair, will have brown eyes. Albino- pink skin covered with white hair, has pink skin around eyes and nose with blue eyes, blisters easily in the sun.
- Palomino-as golden as a new gold coin, color will vary to light to dark. Mane and tail is white, silver or ivory, skin will be darkish. Eyes are a dark hazel.
- Spotted horses-Morocco-black and white usually more black than white; bay and white- Pinto or Paints- brown colors and white; Appaloosa- any color combo but usually bay and white, tiny flecks of color or spots all over the horse but mostly spread over the hindquarters.
http://ultimatehorsefun.com/infoandfacts/horsecolor.html
Check out these pictures
Markings:
- Star- white hair defined on forehead in the shape of a star
- Race-white narrow strip down face
- Snip-white hair between nostrils
- Blaze-broad splash of white between eyes and down face
- White face- face is practically white covered
Pictures: http://horsefun.com/facts/factfldr/mrks.html
Hooves- normally steel-gray or brownish according to coloring. If white touches hoof will have white/creamy colored hooves where touched, can be streaked even.
Leg markings:
- White coronet/White pastern- meaning these parts of the horse are white around hoof
- Quarter-stocking-white spreads from hoof to fetlock
- Half-stocking- white has spread midway up to knee
- Three-quarter stocking- yep white is spreading up three-quarters up leg, approaching knee and hock
- Full-stocking- you got it…white all the way up leg
These marking are individual meaning they can vary per leg with each leg with a different marking….or they can be all the same on all four legs or any two legs.
http://www.cghorses.com/Markingsofthehorse.html
(More pictures)
Tidbits:
- Cowlick- tuft of funny looking hair that doesn’t flow with the rest of the coat
- Ray/Cross- dark side to side line over withers
- Zebra- dark horizontal strips on foreleg, knee, and cannon area.
Happy Coloring!!!
J
Thanks again to Shirley Drew Hardwicke’s manual “Horsemanship, 1953 (Colors and markings don’t change that much over time, I promise.)
To me, the sound of horses is the sound of music. I love the clip clop of the gaits, hearing them eating, snorting, the shish of their tail, pawing the ground. Okay, I simply love the horse for whatever it does. So, I got to thinking of what sounds a horse does make that we writers could use. I’m sure there are thousands.
So here goes. The clip-clop of a gait: The walk is single beat, one at a time sound. A trot is double, thus the clip clop. And the canter is three clops pause and three, which goes faster as the horse moves faster. (You figured that out easily enough.) They may paw the ground with one hoof when impatient or curious, throw in a snort or two especially if something is stinky. They swish tails if frustrated by flies or you for that matter. Oh and there is the thunder of a stampede. Get out of the way!!
There is the jingle of harness that is distintive and the creak or slap of saddle leather. There’s the metal jingle of bits, the clatter of wagons being pulled about amid the rattling of lines/reins, chains and jostling harness. You can hear this in the videos in my blog.
And they talk to each other usually in soft muffles, especially from a stallion to his willing mare. And then there is the opposite, if the mare is not willing, the scream of fury or pain from the stallion from being kicked. Should two stallions fight, there is the thud of hooves, the grunts and groans of muscle against muscle. Horses will greet you with happy eager nickers at feeding time that makes you smile because you know you are loved. And there is nothing more precious than a mare nuzzling and welcoming her new foal or that foal’s first whinny.
My favorite memory of sound was on a chilly autumn day when sleet began falling on the barn’s tin roof. I had just finished my chores and got to relax for a job done. I sat in a folding chair by the partially open barn door with my back side warm and my face chilled from the sleet. I still hear the Val and the Big Horse crunching the feed as they ate, then rustling the hay, stomping in the clean straw, and knocking the water bucket as they drank. I didn’t want to leave. In fact, I think I fell asleep. There was never a more perfect day than that.
So did I miss a sound? Probably. There are thousands. What sound reminds you of horses?
J
Boy did I have to struggle with this blog on sensory regarding taste and horses. The taste of horse sweat? yuck. Grain… good, but we all eat corn and oats. Then I realized that there is a long history of eating horsemeat. Apparently, horses have been eaten from the time man learned to hunt. Then, they discovered this animal’s strength and compatibility as a companion. From that time on, the horse was ridden and eaten usually in that order. Once they became too old to work, they were slaughtered for food. The horse is/was considered as agricultural as cattle. However, a cow produces more meat from grass than a horse, so it out ranks the horse in meat producgtion for that reason.
I do not know but the taste of horse is said to be usually slightly sweet, tender, more like a steak and doesn’t taste like chicken. Younger horses tend to be lighter in color than older horses whose meat is richer in color and flavor. (love you Wikipedia). However, horsemeat has the highest nutritional value of all meats. So let’s say it’s between a horse steak and a Dellmonico lean and fat trimmed beef steak: Calories 133/161, protein 91/89,fat 41/74, iron 3.8/2.2,sodium 53/63, cholesterol 52/59. So, horsemeat is good for you.
Once the horse was domesticated, (I guess it became ‘feral’ in Chilie after the Conquestidores went home and left them there), the horse wasn’t eaten as much as other agricultural animals. But during wars as the WWI and II when people were starving, people redeveloped a liking for horsemeat. In France, during the Revolution, horse was eaten because the horse was a symbol of the wealthy aristocrats and in some places are associated as the poor man’s food. Thus why it’s popular in Europe and Asia. Before the arrival of Christianity, the Celtic people sacrificed the horse to such pagan gods as Odin and Epona and ate the meat.
Now horse meat is referred to as ‘horsemeat’…unlike cow (beef, veal) or pig (pork, bacon, hame gammon) or sheep (lamb, hogget, mutton) which are all Anglo-Norman words. So if you wish to experience the taste of horse or avoid it as I would prefer… here are some ways to identify horse meat.
Asia: Indonesia- sate jaran..grilled meat served with spicy sauce. Japan- sakura or sakuraniku meaning ‘cherry blossum’ because of its pink color, basashi or izakaya. slices dipped in soy sause with ginger and onion, yakiniku or baniku, BBQ horse. Mongolia- kazsy,salted horsemeat sausages.
Southern Europe: Austria- leberkase-horse hot dogs. Belgium- paardenvlees or viande chevaline is steak tartare there, or potatoes are fried with horse fat. France- boucheries chevalines are the butcher shops that sell horsemeat, viande chevaline is French for horse meat. Germany- sauerbraten, marinated sweetsour braised meat dish..usually horse. Rossworst, horse sausage. Italy-..pastissada, a horsemeat stew, pezzetti di cavallo,made with horse fat, salsiccia di equino or salami or sausages, sfilacci, strips of horsemeat, carne di cavallo, horsemeat steak, panino con carni dicavallo or pezze cuadduis is a renowned horse meat sold in kiosks with bread, and stracaotto d’asino, pasta donkey.
Northern Europe: Kazakhstan- kazy and shuzhuk, horse sausage, zhaya, smoked horse hip, zhal, smoked or boiled horse neck fat, karta, smoked and boiled horse rectum, sur-yet, dried horsemeat. Malta- laham taz-ziemel, stallion meat. Netherlands- paardenrookvlees, horsemeat sliced and eaten on bread, paardenworst,sausages as fast food snacks and soups. Poland- kabano. Slovenia-zrebickovzrezek, colt steak. Sweden-hamburgerkott, horse hamburger, Gustafskory, horse smoked sausage. Switzerland- mosbrockli, specialty made with beef or horse, salmetti, sausages sometimes made with horse.
South Ameria: Chile- charqui, horsemeat.
The United Kingdom and the USA do not legalize the use of horsemeat in human food but it does pop up now and again especially in pet foods. China and Mexico rank highest in horsemeat production with Brazil and Kyrgyzstan being the lowest. Slaughtering has even been made illegal in the USA but that hasn’t stopped the thieft and slaughter of horses. I never heard if the authorities ever stopped the ring responsible for kidnapping and slaughter of show horses in Florida recently. Ferdinand, the winner of the Kentucky Derby 1986 and winner of the 1987 Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year, was believed kidnapped and slaughtered somewhere in Japan for pet food.
So, there you have it. The taste of horses…I’ll stick with beef.
Thank you http://enWikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_meat
Running your hands over a fine horse is about as good as your heroine running her hands over her hero…or visa versa. Ahhh yes it ,is a delight to feel all those muscles ripple beneath your palms, down a strong neck, over hard shoulders, muscled legs, a nice firm back strong enough to carry you anywhere, and a nice firm rounded butt. Is it any wonder horses enchant young girls?
The horse’s hair should feel silky and smooth except for the mane and tail which is course and thick. Their noses are velvety soft with whiskers that prickle. You run your hand down a front leg and you feel corded tendons, a knobby knee, bony cannon bone, long slender sloping pasterns and hard hooves like the hardest thumbnail ever because it is basically that. One curiosity is a crusty spot on the inside of his upper leg. I think that is a left over toe from the time a horse was as small as a dog and actually had toes. Over time they grew into a solid hoof.
You lift that hoof and find that you can run a finger over what is called a ‘frog’ the heart of the hoof that send blood back up the leg. Why that’s called the frog I don’t know but a healthy frog is ‘V’ shaped and you can run your finger along the lines. It’s not as hard as the hoof but still as hard as a the callouses of a hardworking man’s hands.
You bring your hand up along the arching neck that is supple and strong, brushing aside the mane and reach for the pointy ears the rotate to listen to your whispers. Moving slowly and carefully down, you caress his closing eyes with wonderfully long lashes, a large strong flat jaw bone that tapers to soft flesh and veins of his face tracking down to his mouth that nibbled for a treat, soft and curious. You splay your hand between his eyes across his broad forehead where the short hairs splay in different directions in the center, tracing possibly the marking usually there. You feel him nip your arm for the treat you have in your pocket because he had nestled it as if to say, “Come on. Give it to me. Please.” You give it to him and feel his lips possessively in your palm as he takes the treat.
It’s time to go for a ride and you pick up his bridle, feeling the stringy weight of the leather, the small buckles and straps and you lift it up to his ears, holding the iron cold bits between your first and second fingers. You place the bits before his front teeth and pinch with your thumb and first finger behind the teeth in the snobbery gap between his incisors and molars. You feel him open his mouth and let the bits glide in.
After attaching the proper straps you turn to the saddle. Brushing your hand along his back to smooth the velvety soft hide of any dirt particles that could rub beneath the saddle pressed down by your weight and lay a soft saddle blanket in place, feeling him shift and stomp. You lift the saddle. A western saddle (20 or more pounds) is heavier than an English saddle(10 or so pounds). You place the saddle down gently over the blanket and buckle the girth and walk around the horse with your hand dragging down his shoulder and across his chest to the other shoulder so he knows where you are, where you are going. He nuzzles you as you pass his head and reach for the leather girth and draw it up and buckle it, drawing it tight and feel his belly swell so keep it loose. Moments later you feel him take a breath and you tighten it so the saddle won’t slip down when you mount. You settled down on the saddle, feeling life between your legs,shifting with anticipation, strength as he steps forward. You pick up the reins and lacing them through your fingers. This is like touching a live nerve connecting you to your horse without the need of words.
Of course there is the wind in your hair as you ride over the moors and sunshine warms your face as you move in time with the horse. A walk is just that slow and methodical, one step at a time. A trot will bounce you because it is a two beat gait. But if you know how to ‘post’, which is rising on one beat of the trot and sitting on the next, the trot becomes almost a dance. A canter is likened to sitting a rocking chair or making love actually.As he drops back on a back leg, you draw your weight back with him; he rolls forward on two diagonal legs which brings you level and rolls onward onto the one front leg which swings you forward and then up, again and again. You lighten your touch on the reins and he moves faster and then faster, rocking you with him again and again. The speed floats across your face leaving you excited as a jump approaches. Ah yes, the lift, the climax, arching upward then downward like a ski slope. If the jump is wide, you may think you are floating before you land.
Did you know horses can dance liken to ballroom dancing? Yes Again, it is between only you two. And like dancing, you and the horse must learn the steps and become a couple reading each other’s mind.. But as a pair, move as one, turning, changing steps from walk, trot, canter, circling, crossing diagonally, going slow until you dance in place or do lifts that are heart stopping. This dance is called dressage.
When the ride or dance is over you feel his sides heaving between your legs as he gathers his breath, rejuvenated and feeling glorious as you do. You stroke his wet neck, lather from the reins rubbing there, soft, soapy and wet. You stop by the barn and dismount feeling his tail swish each direction and get stung like a bee by the long hairs. You reach up by the bit to lead him into stable and feel the slobber drip on your hand and his snort warm across your knuckles.
Ah yes, this has been a great day and you promise him and yourself that tomorrow will even be better.
Happy Valentines Day.
Enjoy this bit of Horse Dancing
Like Pepi Le Pew, the instant I smell something horsey, that mystical magical finger of perfume tucks under my chin and blissfully draws me toward any horse or horse barn, even as I hear people groaning, “That’s gross! Ewwwwww!”
As writers know, smell is one of the most powerful sensories instantly evoking a memory from a mother’s perfume or a villain’s aftershave. I learned just how powerful this is when I walked into a local feed store and the aroma of sweet feed greeted me. I was immediately transported to my feed room in my barn at feeding time. I almost cried wishing it were true.
However, have you noticed how if we are around a fragrance/odor for long we don’t smell it. A friend of mine went to Mackinaw Island in Michigan where no motorized vehicles are permitted. So, horse and buggies are a main transportation there. My friend quickly realized how the island smelled ‘kinda horsey’. I would imagine most pioneer towns and farms would have also smelled this way but the locals wouldn’t have noticed. They were too used to it. But what about that new bride from the city discovering her new hubby is a farmer?
Like all animals, horses have an odor that is unique to them. Ponies, draft (the big horses) or average horses have their own ‘smell’. I can’t describe the differences, but we’ve all smelled a horse and recognize it. When horses are worked out, they sweat and lather and this wonderful fragrance manages to get onto rider’s clothing as pant legs, hems of long draping gowns, gloves from patting or stroking a weary horse’s neck. This hefty fragrance is pungent in saddle blankets. Now, imagine a cowboy sleeping under the stars using his saddle blanket for warmth and his saddle for a pillow. But I’m sure he doesn’t even notice anything but campfire smoke and the smell of coffee. But what about a city slicker’s reaction on his first night out-of-town?
And leather, that yummy smell that we usually associate with new cars. I think car leather is more processed but still close to the smell of a saddle, bridle, halter, or lead rope. Usually these are made of leather but a lead rope or halter could also be made of a rope that would pick up this horsey, leather, dirt smell.
To clean ‘tack’ (saddle, bridle etc) you use clear glycerine soap (yep like what we use on our faces) then oil with the rich leathery scent of Neatsfoot oil. So when your rider puts a saddle on his stallion or settles down in onto the leather, he’ll know if his groom has been doing his duty by the way the saddle feels and smells clean. Or sweaty.
Instinctively, it seems, we know a healthy smell from something not right. Hooves are like that. When your hero is cleaning his horse’s hooves (which he does each night), he’ll know if all is well. Hooves have a nice, dry, musty smell. But they can rot if standing too long in too much water or muck (dirty stalls full of …you know). Then, they stink worse than old nasty sport socks.
Our hero also may notice that somewhere along the way, his limping stallion has stepped on a rusty barb, nail, or some odd metal piece and by smell alone he’ll know if it’s infected, which is a serious situation for his horse. You know the 14th century proverb:
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
And an infection could have the same effect as a lost nail.
All infections are serious. And logically, horses are as capable of getting cut from barbwire, bullets, thorns , arrows, and so on just as humans. You can imagine the many things that could cut skin and cause infections especially if the horse is kept in filthy conditions as a stall, corral with other mud-covered animals. So a sick horse simply doesn’t smell right.
Now as for barns…they should also smell right. Fragrances of clean golden straw, clean fresh hay like new-mown grass, fresh grains as corn, oats, bran fill barns. And there is that heavenly fragrance of sweet feed, the mixture of oats, cracked corn other grains, tossed together with molasses. This perfume does not exist in filthy barns where odors of thick urine, wet manure, moldy hay, and dusty grain prevail.
There is also the aroma of new or old wood for the stalls and walls. The hallways can be packed dirt or, in wealthy stables, the hallway could be paved with treated wooden bricks as it was at Longview Farms in the Draft Horse barn in Kansas City. Or, the hall could be concreted and then carpeted with woven hemp for footing as it was in the Longview’s Hackney Barn.
The Hackney Barn also had a wash area much like a car wash. Bring the horse in, ‘cross tie it” (one rope or chain on either side that is attached to the halter to keep the horse in the middle) and turn on the water hose. Spray warm water over this well-worked and weary horse, and then scrape down using a ’scraper’ (long metal stirgil as the Romans would call it) to remove the watery lather and sweat. Rub down with cotton rags or straw (a poor man’s rag). Once reasonably dry, toss a ‘cooler’ (wool or cotton blanket) over the horse to keep him from chilling and start walking to ‘cool’ the horse completely down to normal body temperature. (You’ll see this after a race at the race tracks or at any horse show.) Now, of course this ’cooler’ smells wonderfully sweaty and very horsey.
So, like the buttery cinnamon fragrance of apple pie, be it from a candle, pie, or a person’s perfume, this fragrance can transport someone to that favorite dinner or season or that special place with a beloved someone. For horse lovers …the fragrance of something horsey does just the same. Enjoy making your historicals this fragrant…we horselovers will appreciate it.
