Week 13 Blog #3

In the article “How to buy a horse at an auction,” by Dr. Jim Hamilton, DVM, he states what is the best way to buy a horse at an auction. This is very hard because auctions are where problem horses go. Either the horse has a very serious medical problem or is crazy. People have no real way of telling this without having an actual vet check before buying a horse. This is impossible at horse auctions because there is not enough time to bring a vet to check the horse out. Potential owners therefore have to rely on their own horse savvy to figure out whether the horse is worth the money they will be paying for it. They need to be able to tell through a fence when the horse is being sold. This is very hard because from far away a horse can look completely different than up close. At auctions horses can also be drugged to look calmer or to look like they don’t have a problem. Many owners may send their horses to auctions with pain killers in them too so that the horse will not show if it has a lameness of some kind. The vet, who is the author of this article, gives advice as of how one should make sure the horse they may buy is not a problem horse. One thing the buyer has to do is look over the horse’s body in the back pens and make sure there are not any scars, which may be evidence of an injury that could affect them. The owner also needs to look at the eyes, teeth, and feet, in order to make sure the horse can see, eat, and walk without a lot of difficulty. If these three things are not healthy the owner will have to spend a lot of money on a vet and farrier to fix the horse. One question about this article is whether auctions allow vets to be on site and give horses vet checks at a buyer’s request, or is that not allowed?
Article used: http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com/articles/hamilton_howtobuyahorseatauction.html

Week 13 Blog #2

Since my research paper was peer reviewed on Monday I have viewed grammar problems as my priority. I read through my paper again and couldn’t find a lot that I thought I needed to improve on. I disagree with putting too much emotion in a research paper because I believe that doesn’t make it as formal as it should be. I believe that you must state your opinions about the topic in your thesis and through the information, quotes, and evidence you put in the paper. The grammar issues were the only basic ones in the paper that I saw as needed to be fixed mostly. There were also a couple MLA citation problems that could be improved on. For example, when I did in text citations I did not put the period in the correct place. I also had to changed the names of the sources to make them correctly cited.

Week 13 Blog #1

Before my research was viewed today I believed that it had many strengths and weaknesses. Its strengths appeared to be the facts and quotes used as evidence in the paper. I also believed that the sources were very strong and helped me a ton with the paper. The movie especially was very helpful because it was exactly what my paper was about and didn’t leave anything out. My weaknesses were the clearness of my argument and the ways to fix the problem in my paper. For example, the solution to what I’m argument is very hard to decide how to fix the problems that are occurring in the horse world. It was hard for me to tell how many weaknesses my paper had because most of it wall all facts laid out to support my thesis and it had barely any of my personal opinion in it. It didn’t have a lot of emotion in it because I was taught to not put emotion in my research papers because that isn’t very formal.

Week 11 Blog #3

In the article “Wild Horses Move From Threatened to Critical,” by the Equine Post, it talks about the numbers of wild horses starting to diminish. The government has placed wild horses in national parks in order to keep their numbers up, but they keep going down. The next level after critical is extinction, which is what the program has been working against for a long time. They are now starting breeding programs to make new herds of horses so that if there is an epidemic and they have to kill of some of the herds they will still have descendents of the original wild horses. The author believes that it is horrible with how low the wild horses population numbers are going down. They think that it is a good idea but a little weird about starting to breed a new outside herd in case a catastrophe occurs. This defeats the purpose of the original wild horses because it brings in human contact and they are pretty much making hybrids. Although, it is good because the wild horses will still be around. It is really scary to think of there being a huge catastrophe or spread of disease where they’d have to kill off a herd that is already diminishing. On the east coast it doesn’t seem like there’s a huge problem with the wild horses as there is on the west coast or in the Midwest. It’s hard to believe that farmers over here are talking about there being huge numbers of mustangs that are ruining the land and eating a lot of the range up, yet if there are so many why are they in danger of going extinct. This isn’t helped by horse slaughter either because this makes them disappear even more. How are these animals going extinct when they apparently are having a hard time controlling the population?

Article used: http://www.equinepost.com/resources/articles.asp?ID=55

Week 11 Blog #2

I have encountered at least one naysayer that has to do with my topic. I was watching a movie, which is one of the sources, and there was a definite naysayer in it. My topic is about the slaughter of horses, especially mustangs and burros getting taken off BLM lands and getting sold to slaughter. In the movie the narrator would ask peoples opinions about this issue. Some of the farmers in the area believe mustangs should be taken off the BLM lands because apparently they are a competitor for the food with the farmers cows or sheep. I believe that in some ways the famers reasoning is for the benefit of their animals, but I believe that the mustangs really don’t make it so the famers animals can’t eat. There is so much range land the mustangs are of the smallest percentage that use the roughage there. If anything, it’s the cows and sheep that could be making the mustangs lose weight. Overall, taking the mustangs off of the public lands and sending them to slaughter is a horrible solution to the fight over food for livestock. The farmers don’t even own the land and therefore have no right to complain.

Week 11 Blog #1

The Horse Protection Act is a law that prohibits the inhumane treatment of horses within our country. It should be protected in order to keep horse safe, unabused, and without suffering up to the point of their death.

Week 10 Blog #3

In the article “Rocker’s daughter wins ASPCA Maclay Championship,” it talks about how Bruce Springsteins daughter won one of the biggest junior jumping competitions in the country. This competition is a huge deal. All of a riders training goes into this competition. With over 13 years of training going into under two minutes of adrenaline rushing competition, it is a huge accomplishment to win it. She spent countless amounts of hours training and competing in order to even qualify for this event. Her parents were extremely proud of her and have even more appreciation for the sport as a result. Her father, Bruce, mentioned how horse riding is similar, yet different compared to his band performances. He said how in these horse competitions all of your practice is shown, but unlike his band performances, riders only have one shot to show their skill and that they deserve to win it. In band performances if there is a mess up they can just play it again at a different location, and get a redo. This doesn’t go on at horse competitions at all and Springstein is very impressed and proud of his daughter’s accomplishment. The author’s opinion on this situation is that it is great publicity for the horse world and is a great accomplishment for this little girl. I believe that it is great to see celebritys kids riding horses and winning competitions because it shows that they don’t always get the special treatment. In show jumping one isn’t judged, but timed, and truly the best of the best win. This article represents this notion in that famous people don’t get special treatment, and Jessica Sprinstein had to work extremely hard for this huge accomplishment. One question I have about this article is whether people from her training barn were able to show at her level or if it was just her.
Article used: http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-news/2008/11/03/springsteen-wins-maclay.aspx