The newsletter of HorseHobbyist.com Summer 2003 In This Issue:
Hello!
Seems like things happen that way though; you get a great project started and little technical things make it very frustrating and sometimes it would seem to just not be worth the effort. Then something works, and things get going, and before you know it you're looking back and saying "Yeah, I did that!" Even training our horses can be like that. I have a weanling now who has taken a definite dislike to flyspray, or to anything that comes out of a spray bottle for that matter. Some days when she's pitching a royal fit I feel like just letting the bugs eat her... but I know that eventually things will work, she'll get the idea that not only is the spray not melting her skin away but it is keeping the bugs down, and I'll be able to say "I did that." Of course, at this point, I'm looking more towards having a barn full of hay that I can look back on! Regardless of if today is one of those "three steps back" days or not, there's always a good reason to sit back and cool off, take a break and grab a cold drink! And of course that moment is a great time to prop up your feet, sit back, and enjoy this edition of Hoofbeats! Then, if it's still hot outside, slip on over to our boards and meet some new folks, update us on what's going on in your Summer, and order up a round of drinks in the Equestrian Tavern! Oh, and while you're there, congratulate PH Mustang on her newest addition to the family - her first horse!
PH Cody
Be sure and visit the newest member of the PetHobbyist family of websites: PondHobbyist! You'll find it at http://www.pondhobbyist.com! Currently featured on the HorseHobbyist message boards:
As always, some of our "hottest spots" are the Ask the Equine Vet and Equestrian Tavern Forums. We hope to see you there!
Reviewed by PH Cody
Author Lisa Wysocky is a former professional horse trainer and long-time Nashville entertainment publicist. In The Power of Horses: True Stories from Country Music Stars, Lisa joins country music stars with their own inspirational stories and photos of their horses. Here you will discover:
Other stars featured in the book include George Jones, Kix Brooks (Brooks & Dunn), the Bellamy Brothers, Charlie Daniels, The Wilkinsons, Wild Horses, John Berry and many more! "Readers be warned: once you pick this book up, it is very hard to put down!" Suzie Housley, www.MyShelf.com "If you love horses and country music, you may have just found a little piece of heaven!" Keith Bilbrey, WSM Radio, Grand Ole Opry
Curly Horses were orignally discovered by white men in the mustang herds of eastern Nevada, in the late 1800s. These Curlies were rounded up, along with other mustangs, and trained to be ranch horses. They proved in many cases to be easier and faster to train than the other mustangs - also hardier, able to survive even the fiercest winters that would kill many of the other wild and domestic horses. The ranchers began breeding from the Curlies to improve their ranch stock. From these Western Curlies come many of today's Curlies, bred in different directions for different uses. There are still Curly horses in the wild mustang herds; they are occasionally rounded up and offered for adoption, though some are turned back loose into the wild in order to help perpetuate the curly gene there.
So why curly horses? Why are they perpetuated today? Many reasons. Curlies are often hypoallergenic for people who are allergic to straight haired horses. Research to discover why this is is ongoing, but it has been a dream come true for many horse-allergic people to finally be able to be around a horse without suffering. The Curly generally has a very calm tractable disposition, easy to control and train, so they are useful for beginners who haven't been able to be around horses because of allergies. Curlies have also shown their mettle in a variety of horse disciplines, at the higher levels - two Curlies have been U.S. Dressage Federation Horses of the Year, and are currently doing Intermediare and Grand Prix work. Other Curlies have excelled in Western and English sports, driving, sidesaddle, competitive trail, etc. The only two disciplines Curlies haven't been bred for so far are racing, and the high stepping Park horses. Because the curly gene is dominant (except in the case of the recessive curly gene discussed below), outcrossing often produces a curly coated foal, with the desirable curly traits of good bone and hooves, nice forward movement, hardy constitutions, and tractable dispositions. Arabian, Morgan, Quarter Horse, Missouri Fox Trotter, and Appaloosa blood have been added over the years to different lines, and Warmblood, Thoroughbred, and Shagya blood are occasionally added now to produce a good, sound, level-headed sporthorse Curly. Pony, miniature horse, and draft breeds have been occasionally added as well, so Curlies can be found from mini to Warmblood or draft size, though their normal size is around 15HH. They come in all colors. About 10 percent of Curlies have a smooth intermediate gait, the Missouri Fox Trot being the most common, but the running walk and stepping pace are seen as well in the gaited Curlies, who make wonderful riding horses for people who must or prefer to avoid the jar of the trot.
There is a recessive curly gene seen in some breeds as well. Missouri Fox Trotters, Quarter Horses, Appaloosas, Arabians, Morgans, Pasos, Standardbreds, and some others, occasionally will throw a "sport" curly from two straight haired parents. In the past, some breeders culled these curly foals, thinking they were somehow defective, and not realizing that this was simply a coat variation in the breed. These days, more and more breeders are realizing that curly foals in their breed are normal healthy animals, and are treating them the same as their other foals. We hope this trend will continue. Our dominant Curly horses can also occasionally throw straight haired foals. It is believed the gene for the curly coat is a simple dominant, with perhaps a variety of genes that affect the expression of the curly traits. A homozygous curly, one that carries curly genes on both alleles of the coat gene, will always throw a curly, whether the other parent is curly or straight haired. Heterozygous Curlies (those with a curly gene and a straight haired gene on their coat gene alleles) can sometimes throw straight foals. These straights do often carry the desireable curly traits, just without the curls. Some people who want the curly traits but don't need or care for the curls, especially treasure the straight Curlies.
For further information, the ICHO website address is "A HREF="http://www.curlyhorses.org/">http://www.curlyhorses.org/. The American Bashkir Curly Registry (ABCR) was the original registry, founded in the early 1970s to help preserve and protect curlies. The ABCR has recently added restrictions on the registering of Curly Horses with them. The website address for the ABCR is http://www.abcregistry.org/. "Ride the Wave" is the slogan of many Curly Horse afficianados. And we do! Come discuss the Curly Horse in our NEW Curly Horse Forum!
Seems odd to read back on the first part of Spider's story that was written with snow on the ground, now that it is so hot and muggy! Much has happened to our logo horse in the last several months, some great things and some not so great. Spider started out the year in a mess which had us very worried that she wouldn't make it into the New Year very far. I went out to feed one morning just after Christmas to find her standing in the barn, left hind leg soaked in blood and torn from the front of her hock down about 4 inches. Seems one of the mares here who lives to tear up our fencing had succeeded yet again, and somehow Spider had been run through the downed wire, catching it with her back leg. She was not lame, miraculously, but she had been cut down to the bone, severing everything in the wire's path. Now, if you have ever dealt with leg injuries like this, you will know how difficult it is to stitch a leg where there is no flesh to stitch to, and even more difficult when you are dealing with a joint which moves - putting even more stress on the stitches. But we didn't have much choice and my husband (who is a vet) stitched her up and wrapped the leg. Despite having to be in severe pain, Spider never once kicked while being examined, and only kicked out a couple of times while the area was being numbed. She showed her true colors that day, and for days afterwards as we wrapped and cleaned the wound. The stitches held long enough to close the wound to only 1 inch of a gap - a significant closure compared to what it might have been. And her own powers of healing have since reduced a wound we feared would end any show career to a mere half-inch width of scar tissue, which is still steadily getting smaller and smaller. When warmer weather showed up, we threw our fears to the wind and brought her up anyway, fitting her for showing. I felt if nothing else, we could get her out and get some mileage and experience on her so that later my daughter could show her. She went through a huge growth spurt, lost her winter coat to a glossy, amazing summer coat and began building up muscle where there had been just baby fat. Add to that, she has multiplied her color and now has the white spots in her black to compete with the black spots in her white! Things were looking up... Our next setback was when we discovered she is evidently super sensitive to midges, or "no-see-ums." We're still not 100 percent positive that's the case, but its looking like that may be the problem. All I know is one morning I came in to find she had rubbed a nice 3-inch by 4-inch patch out of her tail, and a couple of patches out of her mane. Then within a couple more days, she had a couple of bald spots on her withers and back. So we went to battle trying to discover what was causing such severe itching, and then to eliminate it and get her hair to grow back in! Of course, again, you can't rush nature. So there we were with a scar and no hair... not exactly fitting for a halter horse! I fell back to my "experience" plan and much to my husband's raised eyebrows and huge sighs, took her to her first show the beginning of June. Due to me having to show her little sister in the class before her and not having time to switch numbers, my husband showed Spider. She didn't place, but I was beaming as she followed along right beside him, stood still and gave her honest best for him in her first show despite being scared of all the noise, commotion and horses at the showgrounds. Again this past weekend we took her to another Appaloosa show just for the experience. But we came home with a bit more, as she must have looked just fine to one of the judges and came home with a 5th place out of 16 horses in her Most Colorful class. I guess persistence does pay off in the long run! Just imagine what we'll be able to do when her mane finishes growing back in, she gets her tail back and that scar heals up as much as it looks like it is going to! So she has a new bright show potential, a new ribbon, and as fitting as it could be, when we got back I found that PetHobbyist had updated our forum logo and given her a new look there as well! What a great way to end the weekend and start a new week. So stop by sometime, check out her new look at Horsehobbyist, and drop in on the Appaloosa Message board where her show picture is posted and see how the rest of her summer goes!
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Welcome to the Summer Edition of HorseHobbyist's Hoofbeats. Summer tends to be a busy time of year for those of us in the horse business. This year, we not only have the yearly dose of foals to wean, shows to go to, and the yard to mow, but we're trying our hand at hay making too... ask me again in the fall how that is going, I might have a better answer by then! Right now we're trying to see how many different ways a baler can find to not work.
If you are fan of country music, a lover of horses, or simply interested in the extraordinary bond between humans and animals, 
A North American Curly Horse, aka an American Bashkir Curly Horse, or American Curly Horse is a relatively rare type of horse, whose winter coat is curly; anything from a super tight microcurl, to a marcelle or sand dune wave, or a ringlet, or a minimally expressed curl just in certain areas of their bodies. Manes and forelocks can be corkscrew, ringlet or dreadlock; ear hair, whiskers, eyelashes and fetlock hairs are wavy to curly. In spring, Curlies shed out to straight or wavy short coats. A few will also shed mane and tail hairs, to grow them back again in the fall.
Research has shown that there have also been curly haired horses in other parts of the country, and the world. The Crow and Sioux Indians kept curly horses, considering them sacred; there are descendants of these Native Curlies in some Curly lines today. Charles Darwin reported seeing curly haired horses in South America when he was doing research there, and there is evidence showing curly horses in China and Russia; and a curly herd in South Africa has recently been reported. Whether these curly horses are genetically related to our North American Curly Horses, or whether there were separate mutations causing the curly coats in these different populations of horses is unknown; scientific research is currently being planned to discover more about the curly gene.
Curlies require normal care. They generally do very well living outside, and are usually easy keepers. They can often do without shoes, and don't need blanketing in the winter. Winter curls are their trademark, so Curlies aren't usually clipped in the winter, except perhaps for a trace clip for hardworking horses, to allow them faster cooling. Curlies are usually left their ear hairs, whiskers, and fetlock hairs; again, these curly areas are a trademark of the breed. For people who prefer natural horsekeeping, the Curlies are ideal - they look wonderful in the winter in their natural coats, and do well with good basic natural care, but not pampering.
There are two Registries for Curly Horses in the United States. The recently developed International Curly Horse Organization (ICHO) registers all North American Curly horses, placing them in dominant, recessive, straight, dominant/recessive combined, or unknown Divisions. They are also offering registrations for curly horses around the world, both for any native curly horses found anywhere, and for the numerous North American Curlies that have been exported - they are gaining a real foothold in Europe at the moment, for instance. Various Associations within the Registry are being planned, these to include Sporthorse, Western, Mustang/BLM, Gaited, Pony, and Draft; horses can be submitted for inspection and evaluation, for inclusion in these Associations, whose goal is to help breeders improve their Curly horses for these various disciplines and types. Association membership is entirely voluntary for the owner of any Curly Horse- as stated before, the ICHO will register all curly haired horses of any type, and their first generation straight haired offspring, in the General Registry. Association status can follow from there if the owner desires, and the horse qualifies.
