When I was a kid, COTH and Practical Horseman were the two big magazines for the h/j crowd. COTH was the fancy “cool” magazine with all the pretty show pictures and ads for things I could not afford. I went about a decade without picking one up (aside from the stallion issue, which I used to buy every year) but since winning a subscription at AEC and reading them regularly for the past year plus… it’s lost a lot of it’s luster for me. I like their Untacked side publication and I like the fact that you can choose print or digital, but the content has left me wanting. Practical Horseman is still the same ol’ solid, dependable magazine that it always was, with lots of riding articles, but it starts to feel like the same thing over and over after a while. Fun to page through, but nothing particularly exciting or cutting edge.
This year I’ve branched out a little bit into some of the newer publications, wanting to find something different. After lots of looking and a little trial and error, I’m left with three: Heels Down, Horse & Style, and The Horse Magazine.
Heels Down is a digital magazine that seems to be catered more toward the younger crowd. They’re usually one of the first to cover new trends or tackle more controversial subjects, plus they have a pretty good balance of riding articles and a really solid social media presence (not to mention their fair share of great giveaways). There is definitely a lot of variety. The magazine is downloadable each month via their app to your smart phone or tablet for $4.99 per issue, or $3.99 per issue if you have a subscription (there’s a one month free trial period so you can check it out first if you want). It’s fun, it’s cool, and it’s current… perfect for the 18-30 crowd (or, uh… 33yo’s who are pretending like they aren’t as old as they are. Ahem.).
Horse & Style is, in a word, posh. It’s printed on sturdy paper with a thick cover, has TONS of show photos, and definitely gives an overall high end, elegant feel. They do rider interviews, style guides, articles about horse shows, equestrian vacation destinations, book reviews, Q&A with a sports psychologist, etc etc. It has a very grown-up, sophisticated feel to it… and it’s just ridiculously gorgeous, cover to cover. They too have a good social media presence, with lots of horse show photos and monthly giveaways (I won one!). You can also page through it here.
Then there’s The Horse Magazine, an Australian publication that I’ve mentioned on here before (and now you can read it online here). They focus a lot on what’s going on in the show world internationally, plus have riding articles and a good dose of breeding stuff thrown in. My favorite thing about them is that they’re never afraid to be blunt, even if it’s controversial. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies, which is really refreshing.
Never change, Chris Hector. Never change. ❤
I love all three publications, for very different reasons. If you want something that feels young and fun, I think Heels Down is worth the download. If you want something decadent to hit your mailbox every other month that you can slowly and indulgently page through, Horse & Style certainly fits that criteria. If you want something honest that will get you thinking, The Horse is a great read. If you like variety, read all 3.
I used to subscribe to Warmbloods Today, a US based breeding-centered magazine, but let my subscription lapse for some reason I can’t remember. I really should renew that, because it was a cool magazine if you’re into the breeding stuff… I’ve given a gift subscription to a few people for Christmas before, too. And of course since I’m a USEA member I get their magazine, Eventing USA, which is free with membership or you can buy back issues. It’s actually pretty good.
What about you… what are your favorite horse magazines?
Henny got his own TB family tree post, so I figured I’d throw in the other two equine kids as well: Sadie, and her still-in-utero Nugget (she’s currently 240 days pregnant, but who’s counting?). I’ve talked plenty about their parents before, but I’ve never really delved further back into their pedigrees because I felt like most people eyes would start to cross and they’d fall asleep. But since we’ve already opened this can of worms all over blogland, and because I think it’s really interesting to see what all is hidden in those warmblood lines: get your pillow ready, because here we go.
Sadie
Sadie is kind of fun because she’s half Hanoverian and half TB… the warmbloods are so easy to trace back, because there’s so much info and even videos (I’ve linked to lots throughout this post). Her sire, as everyone has heard a million times by now because I love him, is Westporte.
Westporte wearing a top hat, because duh
Westporte has mostly produced hunters, obviously, since that’s what he was shown and marketed as, but he’s also had a few babies show up in the jumper ring, and one is even a 2* eventer. His offspring are generally known for being good movers and amateur-friendly.
2* eventer West River
Westporte himself was bred in Germany for dressage. His sire is the well-known Wolkentanz I, who won his stallion licensing and was also known for his good movement and good rideability.
famous red pony
Wolkentanz was by the legendary Weltmeyer, also winner of his stallion licensing. At the Bundeschampionate he earned a 10 for trot, 9.5 for canter, 8 for walk, and 9.5 for conformation and general impression. So… I guess he was alright. While Weltmeyer ended up becoming a phenomenally successful dressage sire, it’s interesting to note that at his stallion testing he managed a jumping score of 141.44 – almost as high as his dressage score of 143.94. There were some hops hidden in there, even though he never went down that road.
really famous red pony
Wolkentanz’s dam was named Lovely (ok that’s cute) who was by Ludendorff
Not that famous and not a red pony
known for producing – you guessed it – excellent rideability, although he sired horses that were successful both in showjumping AND dressage. Ah, finally, some variety.
You can keep going back into these lines for a long way with plenty of pictures, thanks to the excellent record keeping of the Hanoverian Verband, but I’ll stop there on the sire line before anyone becomes comatose. On to the damline!
Westporte’s dam was Farrah, a bay (yay) Hanoverian mare by Fabriano.
Fabriano was another excellent dual-purpose stallion, although he is probably best known for his dressage offspring. He also won his stallion testing (this is a trend here) with high marks for rideability (also a trend here). Farrah’s damsire was Egerländer
who actually sired mostly eventing and showjumping offspring. Believe it or not, Egerlander’s sire Ecuador was full TB. Other well-known stallions in Westporte’s pedigree include Absatz , who at the time was used to bring more “type” and help lighten the Hanoverian breed (although these days we would look at him and call him a heavier horse),
and the prolific Hanoverian showjumping sire Gotthard.
So although you glance at Westporte’s pedigree and immediately think “dressage”, there were definitely some jumping influences in there. That mixture obviously served him well as a hunter.
Sadie’s dam is a full thoroughbred – Hope’s Secret Port. She raced a little and then pretty much just lived the broodmare life. She was presented to RPSI while pregnant with Sadie and missed Premium by one measly point. They liked her type, walk, and trot, but Hope decided that that particular moment was the best possible time to canter around like Pepe LePew, so she got dinged a bit for that.
Hope says “don’t hate, sometimes you just gotta bounce”
Hope’s sire was Porto Varas, who won a little bit of money at the racetrack and then sired a bunch of horses who also won a little bit of money at the racetrack. At one time I swear I had a picture of him but I can’t find it now so just use your imagination here.
Chestnut Stallion
with
Big Butt
Porto Varas was by the much more successful Miswaki, a stakes winner who raced in Europe as a 2yo and then the USA after that.
considering Sadie had two bay parents, there is no shortage of RED in this pedigree
Miswaki was by Mr. Prospector, who I’m not particularly a fan of, but both Miswaki and Mr P have managed to show up in the pedigrees of many successful sporthorses so I’m learning to live with it. Miswaki’s damsire was Buckpasser, both a great racehorse sire and a great sporthorse sire.
Porto Varas was out of a mare by Arctic Tern, a french stakes winner (who was apparently blind in one eye) that went on to be a leading sire in France.
he looks like a warmblood
On Hope’s damside there are a few random little sporthorse lines further back, but the most well known name that would immediately jump off the page to anyone is this guy:
Hope’s pedigree actually has one mare, Hopespringseternal, in there twice, through two different offspring of hers. It’s pretty uncommon to see the same mare show up twice.
As for Baby Nugget, obviously his dam is Sadie, so see all of the above for damline info. His sire is Mighty Magic, who I’ve already talked about a lot here. Summary: won the world eventing championships as a 7yo and is now an international level dressage horse with a child rider. He’s also homozygous bay, because omg that’s enough with the red (even though Sadie is brown, she still has a chestnut gene. Yes I had her tested. Yes I am crazy.).
I’m adorable, love me!
Although Mighty Magic is registered Holsteiner, he’s actually 88% thoroughbred, with both a full TB sire and a full TB damsire. His sire Mytens
was bred in the USA and then sold to Britain as a yearling. He ended up being a good sire for all 3 Olympic disciplines, as well as producing offspring that made their way to the US and were successful in the hunter ring.
Mytens was by Spectacular Bid
out of a mare by Hoist the Flag.
Pretty classic American breeding, and no surprise he was a successful sporthorse sire.
Mighty Magic’s dam Neika was by Heraldik, who has been ranked somewhere in the top 3 eventing sires in the world every year since at least 2008.
Heraldik started his life as a racehorse (flat and steeplechase) in Europe before retiring due to a tendon injury. After that he became a very successful showjumper, competing up through 1.50m. He has sired A LOT of upper level eventers and is also the damsire of Michael Jung’s famous ride, La Biosthetique Sam. Heraldik has had offspring at the Olympics for both eventing AND dressage… pretty impressive, especially for a full TB stallion.
yes, these are 3 DIFFERENT horses by Heraldik… he certainly throws a type.
The actual Holsteiner blood in Mighty Magic comes via Neika’s dam Fiona, who was by Lavall.
Lavall’s sire was the famous Landgraf, and he was out of a mare by Sacramento Song – another Thoroughbred who became a well-known showjumping sire in his own right.
Fiona’s dam was by Ladalco
which gives her two crosses to Ladykiller, perhaps the most influential thoroughbred in warmblood history.
It’s not hard to find a lot of information about Ladykiller, such as:
“He was an averaged sized, clearly masculine type with a beautiful head, really heavy neck, good shoulder, rather flat loin, and a nicely coupled, heavily muscled croup. He had first-rate legs and feet for a Thoroughbred and was an elastic mover. Today he must be viewed as one of the most important jumper sires of modern time. Ladykiller offspring correspond more to performance, jumper types. As a rule, they are strong horses, they are not, at first, very tight with their front ends. This however, quickly improves with increasing maturity.”
“Passed on a good temperament, although sometimes a little hot. In spite of his early injuries he did not pass on any defects in the limbs. Ladykiller xx passed on specific characteristics, such as a fine head, an often light brown colour with white on the legs, sometimes less coupled loins, good, powerful and correct bones, very good jumping qualities (lots of guts, power, fine technique and rounded back over the fence), excellent basic gaits and on average, good sized products.”
“At the 2014 WEG, Ladykiller’s line is responsible for 11 of the entrants in the showjumping championship.”
So, while Sadie’s sire line might have been a bit lacking in blood, her full TB dam combined with the 88% TB blood from Mighty Magic means that Baby Nugget will be 73% thoroughbred, representing many of the great thoroughbred sporthorse lines. Just goes to show how vital the thoroughbred has been in shaping the modern warmblood, especially the jumpers and eventers.
Creative folks – time to put on your thinking caps, because this is a contest you definitely want to win. With the help of some very generous companies, we’ve put together a pretty epic prize package!
Some of you might remember the logo contest I did a couple years ago for the blog. I got so many great submissions that when my friends over at Willow Tree Warmbloods decided it was time for a new logo, I suggested we join up for another contest. The logo on their current website was something that I, in all of my severely graphics-design-challenged glory, slapped together with generic clipart in about 5 minutes just to fill the space, and well… uh, it looks like it. It worked fine to get everything off the ground, but now that WTW is super legit and well-established, they need a logo to match and I’m hoping that you guys can help.
First, to give you an idea of what’s at stake here, let’s start with what you can win:
custom painting by Michelle made from a photo of your choice
examples of her work
custom baby pad OR jacket embroidered with the WTW logo
Lund Saddlery figure 8 bridle and rubber grip reins (you pick the size)
Hamer & Clay custom item of your choice (magnet or ornament)
– WTW barn colors are black and teal. It is not required to use color, or more than one color, but if you do use it, please stick to that general color family.
– submit your best logo designs to michelle (at) willowtreefarmtx (dot) com
– please title the email CONTEST ENTRY
– There is no limit to how many logos you may submit, the more the merrier!
Feel free to be creative, keeping in mind that it needs to be something that will embroider well. And of course take a look around the Willow Tree website, facebook page, and Instagram to get a feel for who they are (you should follow them too, because it’s almost baby season). The farm mostly focuses on breeding for jumpers, with some hunter and event horses as well.
Entries must be submitted by midnight on January 2nd. The winner will be chosen by Willow Tree Warmbloods no later than January 7, 2017, and will be announced here on the blog, on Instagram, and on facebook. Please understand that by submitting the logo you are agreeing that it can be used with no restrictions by Willow Tree Warmbloods. Also please keep in mind that since several of these prizes are custom, they may take a little time to receive.
Henry had his chiropractic/acupuncture appointment last week. He’s had chiro a couple times before, but he’s never had acupuncture so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. And, well… although it might have been the first time, it definitely won’t be the last.
brain and boob needles
The practitioner we used was a new one for us – she’s a vet that specializes in acupuncture. I’ve not had any personal experience with acupuncture before at all, either human or equine, so I had no real opinion about it either way beforehand, just a healthy dose of skepticism. I was not convinced that a few specifically placed tiny needles could really make much difference, but ultimately I figured “hey, why the hell not?”… worst case scenario I burn some money. And if there’s one thing that I’ve gotten really good at after 17 years of owning horses, it’s this:
She started out by asking me some questions about Henry, his history, his personality, and then watched him walk up and back in the barn aisle. She immediately noticed that the right hind wasn’t moving as freely as the left hind and one hip was higher than the other. First order of business: chiropractic adjustment.
I think he enjoyed it
She started at his poll and worked her way back, finding several spots that needed adjustment. When she did the right side of his neck I swear his eyes just about rolled back in his head and he immediately relaxed a bit. The real “trouble” spot, though, was basically everything near and/or connected to his SI area. Which kind of explains a lot.
She also noticed that he was very very tight in his psoas, so she released those (and showed me how to do it so I can maintain it), explaining that the psoas was basically like the human hip flexor. Everything was starting to add up when you compared what she was finding with what I had been feeling. How he felt “stuck” in the right lead canter, and had trouble crossing behind in the lateral work, and seemed to want to hold his neck slighty bent to the right.
He’s still baller enough to do this with no trouble, though, because he’s Henny
Then we moved on to the acupuncture. I wasn’t sure how Henry would react (he is a HUGE wuss about, uh, everything) but he didn’t seem to notice as she stuck a couple needles at his poll, a couple more in his chest, his neck, his legs, and then basically made a giant pincushion of his SI area. The only one he reacted to was the right fetlock, which she said connected to the spot where he was so “out” in his neck. Something about meridians maybe? I dunno, here, learn things:
Then, to up the ante of the treatment a bit, we shocked the shit out of him! Just kidding, no we DID NOT do that, it just kinda looks like it. Electroacupuncture really just uses a very very mild pulsating current that helps further stimulate the acupuncture points… like regular acupuncture on steroids. It looked cool, anyway, and Henry offered no objections while she worked.
After that was done she gave me some exercises to do with him to help keep that SI area loosened up, wrote down her findings, and we made another appointment. Due to just how tight and “jacked up” (my own very scientific term) he was, she warned me that it wouldn’t be fixed overnight. Ultimately he might end up needing the SI injected, but hopefully with a few more sessions, if he responds well, we could get him ironed out and avoid that.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much difference. I figured maybe he’d feel a little looser and his stride would open up a bit, but the chiro he’s had in the past has only made minimal difference, and what kind of magic can a few needles really do? Um, well, he felt freaking amazing the next day. Huge walk, very straight, very happy to go forward, steadier in the contact, and the right lead canter no longer felt stuck at all. WTF KIND OF VOODOO IS THIS???
We’ll see how long it lasts. Unfortunately it poured buckets all weekend long so his turnout time and my riding time were minimal… not ideal for keeping him loose. His next appointment is next week. I’m really hoping that some regular treatments can get everything ironed back out to where it should be. Either way though – I think we’re on to something here!
Another month, another Lund Saddlery giveaway, and therefore: another item up for review! This time we’re looking at the Lund Saddlery 3 point breastplate.
Me Red. Me famous model.
I already reviewed the Lund 5-point breastplate, and the majority of my comments from that piece also apply to this one. The materials are the same – Sedgwick leather, SS hardware, and strong navy (yay!) elastic. It has the same fancy stitching details on the wither strap (or as I like to call it, the emergency “oh crap” handle) as well as super soft padding on the wither strap and chest strap. There are snaps at each point for quick and easy on/off, plus a snap-on running martingale attachment. Like the 5-point, it comes with dee savers if you’d rather use those instead of your saddle’s permanent dee rings.
The cob size is a little bit snug on Red and Henry (both average sized TB’s) so I would say the sizing runs pretty true. As with all of the Lund tack, there are size charts available with exact measurements, so if you have any sizing questions it’s as easy as sending them a message and asking for assistance.
As far as breastplates go, the 3-point design is probably the simplest and easiest when it comes to every day use. Less straps = faster tacking up = happier lazy person. Another perk for lazy people – no skeepskin to keep clean! This design is also ideal if you are particularly sensitive to having any extra leather or straps under your calf.
My Lund 3 Point has been in regular use now since August (it even made a trip to AEC’s with my trainer) and is holding up beautifully. The leather has broken in and softened up nicely, and it still looks just as gorgeous as it did when it was new.
Now for the best part: price point. I’ve had a lot of breastplates over the years (some even purchased from France because I’m insane) and the quality of this one is up there among some of the best, while still only being $175 CAD (about $130 USD). There are a few similar breastplates near this price point, but it’s the details on the Lund that really make it stand out from the rest: the soft Italian leather padding, the top wither strap with fancy stitching, the dee savers, the SS hardware, the hardy Sedgwick leather, etc. If you want high end beauty and quality and a mid-range price point, look no further.
Want to win your own Lund Saddlery 3 point breastplate? Go to lundsaddlery.com and enter your name for the December giveaway!
breedrideevent.com 