Week 9 Blog #3

In the article “Mustang Competition Leads to Adoptions, Funds,” written by The Associated Press, it talks about how the BLM is booming with mustangs and is in danger of overpopulation. Since the economy has been bad people haven’t been able to make it to the auctions that go on after mustang roundups. The solution to this problem was making mustang competitions. In these competitions the roundups would catch a bunch of young mustangs and send them to trainers. These trainers would mess with them for 60-100 days and in the end take them to a competition. At this competition they would show off what their assigned mustang has learned. They would try to show how much better their mustang was than the others. At the end of the competition there would be a musical freestyle where the final ten or five would make up their own patterns to show off what their horses could do. The winner after this final part of the competition would get a purse and a title. After this there would be an auction with all of the mustangs that came to the competition where people could buy them. This is a huge money raiser for the mustang foundation and gives an alternative to having to euthanize them instead of adopting them out. The authors stance on this whole issue is that it is great for the mustangs because now they don’t get euthanized and are put in good homes. I believe that this is great for the mustangs too, and it promotes what great horses they can be since most people believe them to be untamable. One question I have about this article is whether it is really true that the mustang population is booming and is it true that the government needs to reduce the numbers every four years? How are they growing so rapidly when everyone else is freaking out that they are all disappearing?

Article used: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=12847

Week 9 Blog #2

Works Cited

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. To amend the Horse Protection Act : report of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on S. 311. Washington : U.S. G.P.O., 2007.

Last of the Spanish Mustangs. Dir. Len Johnson. Writ. Len Johnson. Perf. Len Johnson. DVD, VHS. Len Johnson Productions, 2006.

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. ”U.S. horse slaughter exports to Mexico increase 312%.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 232, no. 2, (2008): 176

United States. Bureau of Land Management. Burns District. Kiger Mustang, The. Hines, Or.: Bureau of Land Management, Burns District, 1990.

“The Horse Protection Act.” Animal Welfare Information Center Newsletter, Volume 8, Number 2, Summer 1997

Farlex. “Horse Protection Act 1970.” The Free Dictionary.10/27/08

Week 9 Blog #1

A potential topic that I have been thinking about for my research paper is the issue of horse slaughter. I have also been thinking about doing my paper on the horse protection act, or the issue of mustangs and burros being taken off state land and sold at auctions. These topics interests me because it is an undermined issue in our world today that a lot of people aren’t that familiar with. I also am very interested in the horse industry and this is one of the controversies that is going on in it. This topic is a very suitable choice for my purpose because it has many different opinions involved with it. For example, they have outlawed horse slaughter in the U.S., which is great because horse slaughter should not be happening, but now people are selling and smuggling horses to different countries where they aren’t treated humanely. They aren’t treated humanely there because there aren’t any animal welfare laws like there are in the U.S. This means that horses were treated nicely before being slaughtered in the U.S., but now they are going through horrible treatment on their way to be killed. This shows how controversal this topic is and how many causes and effects there are to it.

Week 8 Blog #3

In the article “Snohomish therapeutic-horseback-riding lessons for children ends,” by Jennifer Sullivan, it is announced that a long time riding center for disabled people has all of a sudden shut down out of the blue. They have been relying on donations from the public because they are a nonprofit organization but this year their key fundraiser had barely anyone sign up for it. This was a huge shocker to the board of the program and in order to cut his losses without going into anymore debt he had to shut EquiFriends (the riding program) down. This was a complete shock to the public and no one, not even the employees saw this coming. They are in the process right now of selling their tack and equipment in order to pay back families that have already paid the program for their kids lessons. EquiFriends had already gone over their $50,000 bank credit and are completely out of money. The economy right now isn’t helping either since everyone has lost so much money in the stocks they don’t have any extra money to donate. The author of this article believes that it was a complete shock that EquiFriends closed down. She believes that this is a huge disaster for the families that sent their children there and it was large downfall for the community. People had specifically moved their children up to the Snohomish area in order to give their kids this unique kind of therapy. Families have also been struggling to pay for it so much since the government won’t cover any of the costs. EquiFriends tried to help these families by only charging them a third of what the price really should have been. I was completely blown away when I heard that this place was shutting down because it had been doing so well for the past ten years. It is a huge loss for the community and is a large example as to how bad our county’s economy has gotten. One question about this topic that I would like to explore is if there is any way of them making a comeback or if it is totally over? If the economy comes back up will they still have the money to restart what they have just shut down?

Article used: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008284301_equifriends19m.html

Week 8 Blog #2

I am very picky about the kind of texts I enjoy reading. I particullarily like books pertaining to horses, with lots of action and adventure in them. I like reading books where I don’t want to put them down and I can’t wait to start reading them again. I enjoy reading horse books because I am familiar with the subject and books about them get me interested really fast. I am taking animal science 101 this semester and I enjoy the lectures that they give. We don’t have a text for this subject but the lectures are just as good. The lectures relate a lot to the books that I like to read because they are about the livestock industry and about the mechanics of it. We also had a lecture on horses last week and I really enjoyed it. This is because I knew about the majority of information they were going over, but it still interested me to go over it in class.

Week 8 Blog #1

In the past I have written many collaborative essays. All of them were very different in the division of the workload and the arguments among the group members. In my first experience with collaborative writing, it was with some friends in high school. We got to pick our groups so we ended up pairing up because we thought it would be fun. It all started to go downhill from there when we couldn’t agree on a topic. We all wanted to do a different topic and no one would give in. Once we all finally agreed then there came the problem as to where to do the work and what day. No one was willing to give up one of their beloved weekends to work on this paper together. It was very frustrating because we needed to get this paper done and no one was willing to make the sacrifice that was needed to get the paper done. After this experience I have learned to dread group papers because I don’t know how it will work out and I don’t like arguing over schoolwork.

Week 7 Blog #3

In the article “The Importance of the Helmet,” by Lydia K. Kelly, she talks about the importance of wearing a helmet. She brings up the potential dangers of horses and how they hurt and kill people every year. She gives examples of how even the most disciplined, trained, and worked with horses can at any second throw a rider. If the rider doesn’t have a helmet on they have the potential to break a bone or get a concussion. Horses weight over 1000 pounds, and most of it is pure muscle. They are more dangerous than a motorcycle because they can think and are unpredictable, unlike a motorcycle which is controled by the driver, and it can’t think. Motorcycle riders are forced under the law to wear helmets no matter what age they are. Horse riders on the other hand don’t have to wear a helmet once they reach 18 years of age, and in todays society most kids don’t ride with helmets. Wearing helmets is a very serious issue in the horse world. I agree with the author in that we need to make sure to support the wearing of helmets. With so many adults and trainers that kids look up to not wearing helmets, it makes kids think that it’s cool not to wear a helmet. They are raised resenting the wearing of helmets, and sometimes being sneaky and not wearing them at all. This is particularly dangerous because I know that when I was younger I would do the craziest and most dangerous stuff with my horses that I wouldn’t even think of doing today. What personally helped me wear a helmet more often was when I showed my horse I had to ride english, and it was required to wear a helmet because that was the “look.” This encouraged me and other kids to wear helmets while we were riding at home because it made us feel more professional. One question I have relating to this helmet issue is that how could the government force motorcycle riders to wear a helmet and take special driving tests to even drive one on the street, yet there are little kids riding huge thinking animals who don’t even wear helmets? Why doesn’t the government make a law and enforce it better so that kids aren’t practically driving motorcycles around without helmets or even some supervision?
Article used: http://www.articles3000.com/Pets-and-Animals/143506/Horse-Riding-The-Importance-of-the-Helmet.html

Week 7 Blog #1,2

Dear Robert Cook,
I have read your letter to the editor on http://www.bitlessbridle.com/Cook_Dean_ltrs_Your_Horse.pdf , and I have found there to be a couple logical fallicies in it. In the letter you said the researchers and vets aren’t completely happy with the results of shoeing to help horses with laminitis issues. The goal of shoeing a horse with laminitis is to make the horse sound again and not in pain. With a good farrier this is exactly what the shoes do, if the horse seems to be in pain the vet will also give it specific a specific pain killer designed to help wit the laminitis. When someone makes a horse barefoot after having shoes for a long time the horse goes lame and is very tender footed. If the farrier trims the horses feet too short they will start to bleed. Shoeing is needed for certain horses in certain climates, even the barefoot theory will leave a horse lame depending on the horse and the climate. Yes, leaving a horse barefoot is best for the health of the horses feet in its natural habitat, but in reality, since we have taken horses out of their natural habitat and have confined them sometimes shoeing is desperately needed to keep a horse sound. An example of the barefoot theory not working better than shoeing is horses in the northwest. Thoroughbreds especially don’t have good feet, with the moist climate in the winter, and the dry climate in the summer, their feet go through many drastic changes. Especially with the variety of footing the horses have to walk on, they go from walking on hard rocky gravel to walking in muddy mush. The mud will soften their feet and when they go on to gravel there is a shock and their feet get sores. This is a reason why shoeing is a big necessity. In reality, shoeing is not a horrible thing to do for horses, everyone has their own opinion, and different things work for different horses.
Sincerely,
Betsy

Week 6 Blog #3

In the article “Horse Show Skills and Solutions,” written by Cindy Hale, the issue that is addressed is how at horse shows the people who ride bays and chestnuts have a hard time being noticed by the judge. Then the article points out some tips on how to be noticed in the show ring and not blend in with the other horses and riders. It is very true that people with bays and chestnuts tend to blend in a lot in the show rings. Eventhough the judge should be able to consider everyone in the ring, it is hard to judge a class of all plain colored horses. The author also believes that it is very difficult to stand out and get ones true placing from the judge when one is riding a bay or chestnut horse. The author suggests to make the horse more noticable by making its white markings extremely bright. Although this is a good tip, if ones horse and minimal white, making the white markings brighter won’t do much for the horse that has a lot of chrome. The author also believes that the rider can stand out better with a brighter undershirt under the normal huntcoat. This gives a nice accent to ones show clothing, but one has to be careful that they don’t go too overboard to the point that it mkes the judge mad and they biasly mark you down. A third suggestion is to ad a little bit of bling or something extra to ones tack. One can do this by getting a custom browband with beads and jewels on it, this will definitely catch the judges eye. Most judges won’t mark a person down for this either as long as it’s a normal browband with nothing hanging off of it. A question about this topic that Iwould like to explore is if the judges try to pay even more attention to the bays and chestnuts in order to tell them apart? Would this make the judges pay less attention to the colored horses and then give them a disadvantage?
Article used: http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-exclusives/plain-brown-horse.aspx

Week 6 Blog #2

Peer reviews can both be beneficial and difficult. They are very beneficial for both the writer and the reader. For the reader it tells them about their writing and helps them find out how to make it better. It also gives them a critical example of someone elses opinions on their writing style. They can be beneficial for the writer because the writer gets practice proof reading other peoples works, and in turn when they proof read their writings their proof reading skills would have gotten better. They also get exposed to different writing skills and can figure out which ones work and which ones don’t. Even though peer reviews are very beneficial, they are also difficult for the reviewer and the writer. They are difficult for the reviewer because it forces them to critically state their opinion of a complete strangers paper. They are expected to give helpful feedback and not mess up. A peer review is difficult for a writer because as they read the peer review they can disagree with the reviewer, and can get very confused and defensive about the content and mechanics of their paper. This makes peer reviews both helpful and difficult.

Week 6 Blog #1

This advertisement is telling people to order movies on the 1996 equestrian games. It is telling the audience that even when the games are over, they can still watch them and enjoy them in the comfort of their home. They can subscribe to the outtakes by sending the company “Spur” money, and can either have the subscription for one or two years. They use this visual image to catch the horse lovers attention. The image uses pathos by being very simple and showing the excitement of the equestrian games. When people see this image they can’t help but want to watch the movies. The text of the advertisement is very small and inviting. The diction of it uses memorable wording to make one miss the equestrian event, and then draws them into thinking that it would be nice to take the games home with them instead of leaving all of their memories of it for that day. The text doesn’t detract from the image, but makes the audience try to focus on it.

Article used: http://www.dagmarhorseart.com/horse_art_articles/Spur_Ad_1996.jpg