NYC Horse Carriages a Campaign Issue in the State
Republican Congressman Michael Grimm—notwithstanding his endorsement by HSUS’s Humane Society Legislative Fund—doesn’t support Mayor de Blasio’s pledge to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City. “I don’t think we should ban the carriages. The only thing we should mandate is that the horses are treated well and treated humanely,” Grimm told the New York Observer. […]
First WNV Case in Virginia in 2014
A horse in Virginia has tested positive for West Nile Virus. This is the first case of WNV in Virginia in 2014. The horse, an eight-year-old Paint Gelding stabled in Augusta County, had not been vaccinated. WNV is a mosquito-borne disease, and the first cases are generally seen in August and September, according to Dr. […]
Is Riding Good Exercise?
The New York Times affirms that riding can be moderate to even strenuous exercise, depending on how you ride. The report cites a study comparing the energy expended in various form of exercise. The energy expended is expressed in METs. A MET is the ratio of the work metabolic rate to the resting metabolic rate, […]
Vaughn Clatterbuck, Whipper-In to Twelve Virginia Huntsmen
Vaughn Clatterbuck signals a view for the Blue Ridge hounds across his Bartley Farm // Nancy Kleck photo Vaughn Clatterbuck, who whipped-in to twelve Virginia huntsmen, died at home on his cattle farm in Millwood, Virginia at age seventy-six on September 24, 2014 after a lengthy illness. Among those huntsmen to whom Vaughn whipped-in are […]
Huntsman Walter Perry Dead in UK
Retired huntsman Walter Perry died in his nineties on September 17, 2014 in Crowcombe, Somerset, UK. Walter hunted the Devon and Somerset Staghounds from 1963 to 1971, the Dulverton East Foxhounds from 1971 to 1978, and accepted his final post in 1978 as kennel-huntsman and huntsman for the Quantock Staghounds. He retired from the Quantock […]
Elusive Live Oak Foxhound Is Finally Captured
Charter, secured at last / Nancy Kleck photoCharter, the elusive foxhound that has been on the lam for nearly four months, has finally been secured. A happy ending to a series of News items we ran after Charter and Perfect—male and female unentered hounds belonging to the Live Oak Hounds (FL)—became frightened and escaped from the Virginia Foxhound Show at Morven Park just before the Memorial Day weekend.
Perfect, who never left the Morven Park grounds, was caught a couple of weeks later in a box dog trap and returned to Live Oak, but Charter has been on an odyssey that took him from Leesburg south across two major east-west Virginia highways, Routes 7 and 50. He traveled on his own as far as Middleburg—perhaps twenty miles as the crow flies—where he settled in near Zulla Road and cadged a living wherever he could. He would not allow anyone to get near enough to capture him, however.
EIA in Aiken; First Case in More than a Decade
A mule in Aiken, South Carolina has tested positive for Equine Infectious Anemia. This is the first case of EIA in Aiken since the 1990s. In fact, South Carolina is the only Southeastern state in which no positive cases of EIA were recorded in the last ten years. The mule, which has been euthanized and […]
Lecture, Book Signing on Grisone’s Sixteenth Century Riding Manual
Elizabeth M. Tobey will present a lecture and book signing at the Middleburg Public Library on September 18 at 7:30 p.m. Tobey will discuss her (and Dr. Federica Deigan’s) translation of Federico Grisone’s The Rules of Riding (Gli ordini di cavalcare). Tobey began the translation project seven years ago while a John H. Daniels Fellow […]
Male or Female Rider: Does It Matter to the Horse?
Does the sensitivity of a woman rider improve the way a horse performs? Or does the strength of a male rider produce better performance? According to scientists at Veterinärmedizinische Universität (Vetmeduni) in Vienna, the horse doesn’t care. Scientists there recently published a paper describing how they arrived at their conclusions. Eight horses, eight male […]
Former Huntsman Billy “B.C.” Douglas Dead at Eighty-three
Billy “B.C.” Douglas, the first professional huntsman for the Two Rivers Hunt of Tampa , Florida (now known as the South Creek Foxhounds), died on July 28, 2014 at the age of eighty-three. B.C. was well-known as a night hunter and field trial judge throughout the states of Florida and Georgia. He was not only […]