He is a 3-year-old Shire sport horse with one blue eye and an unflappable nature. Hay bales flying from above? Fine. Chainsaw? Fine. Feed bags blowing in the wind, a weed-whacker? No problem.

Impulse Buy

I bought beautiful Chaps on impulse when he was little more than a year old. He was the size of a pony with much growing to do. For two years we have enjoyed trail walks, grooming and hand-grazing. My Section D Welsh Cob and I ponied him on quiet hacks.

On the long walk to Chaps’ turnout field, we worked on small goals, my shoulder to his cheek: walk next to me, not in front. Stop when I stop. It is possible to walk through grass without grazing.

Chaps learned fast. But soon this joy monger would need to learn to carry a rider. I’d sent a deposit a year before for a spot in a colt-starting program with a gentle cowboy named Randy Brown. Chaps walked right onto the trailer the day he left for his three-month Shenandoah Valley summer “riding camp.”

First Ride

By all reports he did great. Still, worry set in as I drove down to ride him for the first time. I had been riding my cob for 17 years. I hadn’t quite faced the fact that now I’d need to ride a freshly started youngster.

I recalled the day my oldest child was born. I’d sailed through a blissful pregnancy, but having a newborn to care for at the end of it was still a shock.

The Blue Ridge mountains cast shadows over the unfamiliar barn. Chaps greeted me warmly. Outside, he stood like a soldier as I stretched my leg over his back for the first time. He moved off at an unhurried, unworried pace.

This new perspective felt right, his wide shoulders and thick mane in front of me. Chaps seemed to understand that it was me up there on his back, ears flicking in my direction to check in. I exhaled and put my shoulders back as joy began to replace angst, one stride at a time.

14 Days

The next day, Randy escorted us through an expanse of beautiful farmland. We walked. We talked. I reached my hand back to scratch a spot on Chaps’ back just behind my leg. Later, I used the word “momentous” to describe the brief ride. It had importance.

When Randy delivered Chaps home at the end of September, he admonished me to make the most out of my training investment. To lightly ride—or do something with the horse—every day for 14 days, starting immediately. “Just ride him,” Randy said.

I still had anxiety about the new responsibility (and risk) of riding a young, inexperienced horse. The first day, we explored the ring. Then we expanded our travels to the fields and into the woods around the property. There was a single meeting of my knee and a tree (I yelped so loud he was careful from then on).

I could see that Chaps still had much to learn: Don’t rush downhill, pay attention to your feet even if there’s something to look at, don’t veer off the trail. When I let him wander, our first stop was always a visit to Teddy, his pasture mate relegated to a paddock.

Crunching Leaves

While our rides were short and light-hearted, the everyday routine meant daily bursts in our trust and confidence in each other. Chaps didn’t spook much. I reassured him as needed.

On that fifth day as we turned into the woods with the crunch of leaves underfoot, I worried how I would make the rest of 14 days work. I had a full-time job, a teen with a broken arm who couldn’t tie his own shoes, a husband out of town, three dogs, a cat and a turtle to mind. I was determined, but what if getting there every day—17 miles each way—started to feel like a chore?

Maybe it was the crunch of the leaves that reminded me of my 12-year-old self on that turn into the woods. The sound could be my autobiography. It reminded me in that moment of how hard I had to work for access to horses when I was a kid.

I persuaded the school bus driver to drop me off at a riding school along her route. Then I convinced a riding instructor to let me do chores in exchange for lessons. It wasn’t long before she let me wander off on solo trail rides on Whiskey, a liver chestnut Quarter Horse she had in training. I’d sing to him when he would startle from noisy geese overhead or a passing car on a dirt road. Often we were alone in the woods, just me, Whiskey, and his hooves crunching through the leaves.

Inner Horse Girl

The weather cooperated for every one of Chaps’ and rides during those intense two weeks. The trees turned autumn colors as we explored forgotten corners of the farm and made figure-8s around trees. We lingered with hawks and deer. I quit worrying where all this was going.

Day 14 was not our best ride, but it didn’t matter. None of this was a chore. It was pure joy.

Along the way, this remarkable young horse helped me pay respect to my younger horse-loving self, and the work it sometimes takes to get and keep yourself in the saddle—over a lifetime if you’re lucky.

This article appeared in the September 2024 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Your Horse Life: Young Horse Challenge appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

John’s parents made him a deal: If he committed to learning how to care for a foal, maybe they’d come back the following year and bid on one. They bought a book about Chincoteague ponies before heading home to Pennsylvania.

Getting Ready

Over the following months, John read and learned about hoof trimming, feeding and halter training. The book about Chincoteague ponies also included information about the Feather Fund, a charitable organization that grants kids between the ages of 10 and 18 money to purchase Chincoteague ponies. Applicants must have their parents’ permission, be able to provide housing and care, and write a winning essay about their Chincoteague pony dreams.

In his 2018 application, John wrote about helping his family train their American Quarter Horse, Sam. He also wrote about the anxiety he sometimes suffers from and his community service work building a run-in shed for the horses at his local humane society.

Still, it was a longshot. As many as 50 kids apply to the Feather Fund every year, and only two are chosen. But in April 2018, John got a call saying he’d been selected.

“It was like my dreams were finally coming true,” he says. He studied online photographs of the herd’s new foals, creating a binder with photos and information. A black pinto foal stood out. He was sired by a stallion that John had admired the year before: Riptide, an eye-catching chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail.

Bonding with Bandit

In July 2018, the carnival grounds at the Chincoteague auction buzzed with excitement. The black pinto foal was the third one up for bidding.

“There were tons of people talking about how they wanted him and how much they loved him,” says John, now 15 and a freshman in high school. He worried that he wouldn’t win but kept trying. Soon the auction was over. John had won with the highest bid!

“It felt great to finally touch him and to just be there with him and have him know that I was going to be his new best friend,” says John. Two days later, the 2-month-old colt (John named him Riptide’s Bandit) was headed home. John slept in Bandit’s stall the first few nights.

“He was really nervous being away from his mom,” he says. It took a few days before the colt would let his new family get close.

A week later, John moved his other horse, Sam, from the farm where he’d been boarded.

“They became best friends,” John says. As Bandit began to trust his new family, he learned to wear a halter, lead, and pick up his feet for the farrier. John also taught him a few tricks after joining a local Chincoteague pony group. By winter, Bandit loaded onto the trailer again for a trip to the local farm store.

“It was hard getting him on the trailer, but once we got there, he walked in the store perfectly without wrecking the place,” John says. “He got his picture with Santa.”

Hopes for the Future

These days, Bandit, now a yearling, loves to follow John aboard Sam on trail rides. The experience of bringing home a pony from the Chincoteague auction has taught John a lot about patience when training horses.

“When he doesn’t do something exactly right, you can’t get frustrated,” he says. “You have to encourage him.”

The two have a bond that John says nothing could break.

“Bandit gives me hope about my future as an equine trainer,” he says. “And he’ll be always be there for me.”

For more information about the Feather Fund, check out www.featherfund.net.

The Annual Pony Swim

The Chincoteague pony penning tradition goes back almost a hundred years. Today, the event includes a dramatic swim as the ponies, who live wild on the marshy barrier island called Assateague, swim a narrow channel to the neighboring island of Chincoteague.

After the swim, 150 or so ponies climb up the muddy bank, shake off the water, and parade down Main Street to the carnival grounds to rest. The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department cares for the wild herd. Every year after the swim, they auction off a group of foals to manage the herd’s numbers and raise money for pony care. This July’s event will mark the 94th year of Chincoteague’s annual Pony Swim.

Misty of Chincoteague

After visiting Chincoteague in the 1940s, author and horse lover Marguerite Henry wrote the now-famous book, Misty of Chincoteague. Published in 1947, it tells the story of siblings Paul and Maureen Beebe and their adventures in raising a wild Assateague Island-born palomino pinto filly named Misty. The story is based on actual events.

Two more books followed: Stormy, Misty’s Foal, and Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague. Still a beloved character on the island, you can see Misty’s hoof prints in the sidewalk outside of the Island Theatre on Main Street.

About the Chincoteague Pony

Spirited and surefooted, the Chincoteague pony likely traces its origins to many breeds of horses released to graze on Assateague Island hundreds of years ago.

Some say the breed descended from Spanish horses that survived a shipwreck off the coast, but that account is likely more legend than fact. Two herds of these wild horses live on Assateague Island, separated by a fence at the Maryland-Virginia line.

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2019 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post A Chincoteague Pony of His Own appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

In 2018, Elisa won the Retired Racehorse Project’s makeover competition and title of “America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred” with Reloaded. This year, she’s looking toward the 2020 Olympic qualifiers with her eventing string, and continues to have a warm spot in her heart for the American Mustangs in her life.

Elisa won her first Mustang Magic competition in 2012 with a horse named Fledge. In 2015, she competed again with Hwin, who placed fourth and showed great promise for eventing. Her goal these days? To compete—and win—at the upper levels of eventing on a Mustang and spread awareness about the breed.

Hwin has already evented at the Preliminary level, and not long ago became a Breyer Horse model. When Elisa’s not competing, she and her Mustangs perform for huge crowds, showing off the breed’s smarts and athletic ability.

Elisa, who started riding at 2 years old and began eventing at age 4 under the guidance of her horse-trainer father, recently took a few minutes to chat with Young Rider. Here’s what she had to say about her beloved gelding Johnny, horse training, and her hopes for the 2020 Olympics.

YR: How would you describe Johnny?

Elisa: He’s a wild man. You’d never know he’s 18. We have tackled some of the toughest cross-country courses in the world together, like Badminton, Burghley and Kentucky. He’s 16.3 hands and an Australian Thoroughbred. He has the biggest heart I’ve ever experienced.

YR: Why do you love Thoroughbreds?

Elisa: The breed is extremely versatile. Most things I’ve been able to accomplish have been on the back of a Thoroughbred or a Mustang.

YR: What’s a typical day like for you this time of year?

Elisa: In the spring, I usually I hack horses in the morning. I do flatwork twice a week and jumping once a week. We work on hills and play around, like going bareback or doing ground driving. I ride at least seven horses a day, including client horses. I have a new OTTB that I’m really excited about. His name is Play Big. He’s a real diamond in the rough. He’s a big, nice-moving horse with a happy-go-lucky attitude.

YR: What are your hopes for the 2020 Olympics?

Elisa: I’ll put in an application for the qualifiers if Johnny’s looking good. But it’s always a long shot. The horse I planned to compete on was injured, so that was a blow. I’ve wanted to go to the Olympics forever, but I just love working around the horses.

YR: How did you get into Mustangs?

Elisa: In 2012, a friend suggested I do a Mustang Makeover competition. I’d always wanted to train a Mustang. I was assigned a 3-year-old, 13.2-hand horse from the Medicine-Maverick Mustang herd in Nevada. Thirty days later, I was hooked. Fledge and I ended up winning the makeover and I bought him back in the auction. I couldn’t stand the idea of losing that little Mustang. The Mustangs are a good balance for my eventing—it helps me not be so intense. They’re very versatile horses, athletic and they have big hearts.

YR: What’s your favorite part of your day with the horses?

Elisa: I love the quiets moments in the barn when all the horses are munching on their hay.

YR: What advice do you have for young riders?

Elisa: That anything is possible if you are willing to put hard work in. When I was 17, I saved up all of my graduation money and I bought my first horse. He was a Thoroughbred yearling. We had an acre and a half and a big basement with a garage door. I put mats down and made a stall. My neighbor next door was a dressage trainer. I would work in exchange for hay, training and use of her arena. Jackson ended up being my advanced horse. He’s retired now and turns 20 in April.

YR: What is the most important part of training a horse?

Elisa: Listening to the horse. Sometimes it’s easy to push and be a little deaf to what the horse is trying to say.

YR: What is the best part of training Mustangs?

Elisa: It’s the magic that happens. Over 30 days or less, a BLM Mustang goes from wild-eyed, bouncing off the panels, blowing and snorting, to soft eyes and relaxed muscles. They go from hiding in the corner to wanting to cuddle. When you have that horse that was afraid but is now willing to trust you, it’s magic.

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2019 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Elisa Wallace: Off the Track and Off the Range appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

“It was kind of an adult passion,” she says. Counts had always loved horses from a distance, but she’d never had the opportunity to have one of her own. Not long after she bought Chili, a young Friesian-Gypsy cross, her passion for horses inspired her to expand her animal welfare work to include equines.

As president of both The WaterShed Animal Fund (a division of the Arnall Family Foundation) and the horse welfare group it funds, The Right Horse Initiative, Counts works for what she hopes will be lasting change that the entire horse world can support for at-risk horses in the United States. Her goal is to improve horse welfare on a scale similar to companion animal welfare.

“Incredible progress has been made nationally in the dog and cat welfare world,” says Counts, who is originally from Oklahoma City, where she founded the Central Oklahoma Humane Society in 2007 and still works for dog and cat welfare via the WaterShed Animal Fund.

“We can’t really say the same for horses. There aren’t fewer horses at risk each year now than there were 15 years ago.” The group hopes to change that.

The goal of The Right Horse Initiative is to reduce the number of unwanted horses through adoption and to create a support network for at-risk horses. But getting horse industry organizations on board hasn’t always been easy.

“As an outsider, there was an immediate distrust of me,” she says of when the organization first started in 2017. “I think people thought I must be a fanatic, or an activist. I got a lot of shut doors.”

Spreading the Word

But Counts dug in and hit her stride. These days, she spends most of her time traveling the country spreading the word about The Right Horse Initiative and its work, meeting with potential donors and building connections to create tangible solutions.

“It took a lot of time to build trust and have people understand that I’m someone who can help bring structure to what is often seen as the insurmountable number of problems related to at-risk horses,” says Counts. She defines an “at-risk” horse as one susceptible of falling into an “inhumane transition.” That could be a horse neglected in a pasture, a horse being transported to slaughter in Canada or Mexico, or even just a horse whose owner can’t afford to keep it.

“By working together, we—the horse industry and the horse welfare industry—have the potential to solve these problems together,” says Counts. “We created the Right Horse Initiative so that at-risk horses in this country have safe places to go.”

Innovative Programs

To date, the group has funded more than $5 million in equine programs. One of these was a partnership with the Maryland Horse Council formed in 2018. This pilot program for a mobile ambulatory assessment unit, called the Maryland Equine Transition Service (METS), is funded by the Initiative and operated by the Council. Now any horse owner in Maryland can call METS if they have a horse that needs help. “METS will investigate and connect that owner with a way to get the resources they need,” says Counts.

In 2018, the group also funded the Kentucky Humane Society to create a pilot transportation network called TROT. TROT is modeled after the success of companion-animal relocation programs that increase adoptions nationwide.

“One of the biggest barriers for adoption groups is often the cost of transporting horses from one area to another,” Counts explains.

Another ongoing project involves working with The Unwanted Horse Coalition, the ASPCA and the American Association of Equine Practitioners Foundation to collect and analyze data related to horse rescue on a national scale to streamline and improve care of at-risk horses.

Thriving on Challenge

In some ways, the challenges Counts has faced professionally have mirrored the ones she’s overcome with her horse. She was a beginner rider at the time, and bought him on impulse while she was seven months pregnant.

He was an eye-catching yet untrained 2-year-old, a beautiful bay that she calls a “Fabio horse,” with his flowing mane, a tail that dragged the ground and extreme feathers. “I waddled into the barn and the lady selling the horse said, ‘This is a terrible idea,’” Counts recalls. “I like to make things hard. I did what we tell everyone not to do.”

But she has learned a lot along the way.

“If I had gotten a nice, older, well-trained horse, I wouldn’t have learned nearly as fast,” she says. “Chile kept me on my toes from day one.” Eight years of lessons later, Counts considers herself proficient in the saddle. Chili lives on Counts’ farm in Bedford, N.Y. , along with his stablemate Rosie, Counts’ husband and three kids, and a menagerie of pets.

The same determination, grit and optimism she applied to her relationship with her horse applies to her work creating solutions for at-risk horses.

“All the programs we’re trying to build are risky endeavors, but we have to be willing to take risks and be uncomfortable,” says Counts. “If we’re not uncomfortable, we’re not growing and doing great things.”

For more information about The Right Horse Initiative, visit therighthorse.org.

This article originally appeared in the January 2019 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Helping Horses with The Right Horse appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Riding through a lush meadow in Virginia’s glorious horse trails of Shenandoah Valley, butterflies swarm. Orange monarchs and black-tipped blues flicker and flutter and sweep around the stalks of powdery goldenrod that stand as tall as the eyelashes on my horse. I’m riding a 16.2 Percheron-cross named Corey, but he’s not mine. He belongs to my friend Staci. My horse, Taff, is 70 miles away at the farm where he boards on the other side of the Potomac River in suburban Maryland.

With Staci on her horse Titan (her other, even larger Percheron-cross hunt horse), we ride through an endless field littered with an outcropping of ancient rocks. In the hollow below, cows stand in the shade, happily knee-deep in a mud puddle. More butterflies rest on soft white beds of Queen Anne’s Lace flowers that blanket the rolling meadow.

A Hint of Nostalgia on Horseback

It almost feels like old times. Staci and I rode together as kids. She was the fearless rider who I followed around on one of her horses when we were in middle and high school. In those days, we almost always rode bareback in halters and wore bathing suits, our feet bare. Staci always led as we tore around the fields, jumping anything in our path, falling off a lot and exploring patches of bursting, overripe mulberry bushes that stained our bare legs purple.

Over the years, Staci and I lost touch, but later reconnected through Facebook. She lives in D.C. (like I do), but keeps her four horses 90 minutes away on the other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. My horse, in contrast, boards at a farm about 15 miles outside of D.C. It’s a beautiful, grassy farm nestled into wooded parkland at the edge of suburban sprawl. It’s easy to get to, but we often share the nearby trails with jogging strollers, mountain bikes and dog-walkers. Neighbors with minivans full of eager children often pull into the farm to see the horses. There are good trails in the area, but the best of them require trailering.

Trying Something New

Driving 90 minutes one way to go riding seemed impractical to me, until I came home from a trip last fall. I traveled 3,000 miles to ride through the chilled and wild Alaskan backcountry. I came home inspired to ride more adventurously.

A few months later, I drove out to ride with Staci for the first time through the Shenandoah Valley. “Just show up with a saddle and smile,” she had texted me. So I did. I figured on the drive home, I’d know whether or not I’d be willing to make the drive again.

I was. In the months since, I’ve raced back over that mountain to ride on Saturday mornings more times than I can count. I’ve even spent the night out there to get in an early ride. It’s confirmed: I’m cheating on my horse.

Out there, Staci and I have cantered up hills strewn with wildflowers, paused to watch a nest of baby bald eagles through our horses’ ears, trotted the leafy banks of the Shenandoah River through beds of Virginia bluebells and watched a young red-shouldered hawk fledge.

We’ve guided our horses around a huge snapping turtle on a narrow wooded path, splashed through deep rocky creeks, startled wild turkeys out of the tall grass, jumped over stone walls, and clip-clopped down picturesque country roads undisturbed.

After riding, we’ve enjoyed juicy tomato sandwiches in beautiful barns with her fox-hunting friends. Being a part of this delicious countryside on horseback feels special and—with that mountain firmly in place—a true escape from my hectic family and work life.

Real Life

But my horse lives back there on the other side of the mountain. I still ride him during the week, and only his fitness seems to have suffered. Perhaps he nickers a bit more urgently when I show up at the gate with treats.

Driving the 90 minutes to Staci’s barn early on a recent Saturday, the sunrise through fast-moving dark clouds cast stunning shadows on the misty green D.C. side of Paris Mountain. I think of Taff grazing in his ample pasture with the herd he’s lived in for the past 11 years. He’s probably not wondering where I am. But I do wish he were with me on these adventures trotting through the Shenandoah Valley. I contemplate moving him to this equestrian wonderland where I wouldn’t see him as much.

But no matter what, I realize that I have Taff to thank for the gift of this escape. He and the other horses in my life (no matter whether I actually own them or not) have allowed me to go on these idyllic adventures. He and his patience have reminded me of the importance of riding in my life, and to enjoy the trail riding adventures—and the friendships that revolve around horses—when and where they come along.

Even if they’re on someone else’s horse.

This article originally appeared in the February 2018 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Cheating on My Horse appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

With their bellies full and nothing to do but fool around, the little herd of nursemare foals at Pure Thoughts Horse Rescue cavorts and kicks and rascals around in the Florida sun. The good news is that with round-the-clock care and friends and food, these babies hardly remember that they’re orphans. In addition to guzzling foal milk-replacer from buckets hung on the fence, they especially love to watch the rest of the horses coming and going. They’re also learning what cows are, how to walk peacefully on their lead ropes and how to stand for sudsy therapeutic baths.

The group of four arrived a week ago after first stabiziling with a volunteer at a farm in North Carolina. Rachel, the big red filly with lots of chrome is an 11-week old draft cross. Monica, the little bay with the star is six weeks old and also likely a draft cross. The gorgeous and unusual grulla foal was the first to be adopted and is already in her new home. Jack, the bay colt, was adopted and is going home this week.

But with four daily feedings and lots of training, caring for these adorable babies strains the human and financial resources of the rescue. With help from volunteers, the trainer and Pure Thoughts co-founder Brad Gaver spends a lot of time handling the babies himself. “We’ve done, haltering, picking up feet and bathing,” he says. “They’re very good babies.” They also get fed “creep feed” four times a day, which is a combination of milk, pellets, a little bit of grain, probiotics, and cocosoya oil for them to nibble.

If you’re interested in adopting Rachel or Monica (they’re also very bonded), call Brad Gaver at 561-951-2108. Or click here to make a donation to help the rescue pay for the care of these foals and other homeless horses. As for these babies, Brad’s goal is to “get these innocent foals into forever, loving, and knowledgeable homes as soon as possible.”

Read more about Pure Thoughts Horse and Foal Rescue >>

The post Nursemare Foals at Pure Thoughts Horse Rescue appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to ride on land formed by a glacier on a perfect fall day in Alaska? Except for the sound of the wind shaking narrow yellow leaves off the trees and the horse’s bare hooves on the trail, it’s quiet.

The forest is thick with lanky Aspens, shimmering birch trees, wild cranberry bushes and cottonwoods with gray bark furrowed like snow tires. Emerald moss clings to crumbling logs.

Down the hill through the trees I see the sparkle of Lake Matanuska, full of arctic char and silver salmon. I’m on a big, steady sorrel Tennessee Walking Horse named Cache of Class, or just “CC” for short. She’s the perfect candidate to show me Alaska (and the smooth ride of a gaited horse) on a remarkably perfect day.

When the invitation came for me to visit Palmer, Alaska and ride its surrounding backcountry, I jumped at it. The area is home to the remarkably beautiful Knik (pronounced ka-NICK) Glacier. The mountains, the horses and the chilled temperatures of Alaska beckoned. It had been a really hot summer where I live in Washington, D.C. I booked a flight immediately.

Arriving in Alaska felt something like arriving in a different world. The air was different. I felt a current run through me as I studied the massive mountains on the 45-minute drive north east to Palmer—massive rocky mountain faces capped with snow and, down below, ragged tree tops in browns and burnt umber.

Prepared for Anything

Later that week, when we rode the sandy brown riverbed that leads to the glacier, I felt the same electricity in the air as when I first arrived. It was spooky riding through the backcountry. It’s completely off the grid and filled with wildlife, like brown bears and wolves.

We took precautions. Some riders carried bear spray. And, especially when we rode near noisy, running water, in dense woods, and when the wind was strong, we yelled, “Coming through!” to let the bears know we were there. Bears don’t like surprises. They also don’t like humans and remain unseen most of the time.

In addition to black bears and wolves, the area is home to lynx, wolverines (remarkably tough little animals that look like bears but are actually a very large weasel-type animal) and moose. Very large moose. These animals can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds and stand 7 feet high at the shoulder.

That day, riding toward the glacier—it appeared like a strip of ice glowing blue in the distance—most of the wildlife remained invisible, as it did throughout most of my trip. The Walking Horses frisked and flat walked in the cool temperatures.

I rode in an Alaskan-made riding skirt that kept my legs warm and dry, even when it rained or when the horses splashed through creeks rushing with snowmelt. Bald eagles soared overhead and a flock of trumpeter swans with 8-foot wingspans crossed the riverbed above our heads.

With no roads or marked trails, few people make it out to this remote backcountry. There’s nothing but wilderness (and GPS coordinates) for hundreds of miles.

Beware the Moose

During another ride, we saw a gigantic bull moose pretty close up. He had antlers stretching out over his head wider than I am tall. These animals seem serene but can be aggressive, especially during the rutting (or mating) season. This one was courting a cow. The horses were on high alert.

We took the potential danger seriously. It was not a good time for iPhone moose videos, however tempting. We waited to see which direction the animals would go. After the bull followed the cow into the woods, we moved along in the opposite direction.

Seeing moose is an everyday thing for my Alaskan horse friends. But for me it was beyond special. I board my horse and ride in an area that’s more suburban than rural. That day, I was grateful to be in the wilderness, grateful for the existence of the wilderness and so happy to be among rugged horse lovers who shared their magical, snow-capped and wild world with me.

Polar Horsekeeping

My host in Alaska, Jen Garner, is a marine biologist in addition to running the B&B where I stayed (www.buttesbethel.com). In 2016, she founded ArcticHorseGear.com. She grew up in Vermont, riding and caring for homebred Morgan horses. In those days, blanket changes for different temperatures in the chilly Northeast dominated the winter care routine for the horses.

Over the years, Jen has simplified her approach despite living in a severe winter climate. In Alaska, the stakes are high when it comes to properly caring for domestic animals that live outside. The danger of cold, wind and wet is extreme.

Here are a few critical success factors Jen keeps in mind to keep her horses—an Appaloosa named Falybe and two Tennessee Walking horses named Sambatara and Willow, healthy and comfortable during Alaska winters where temperatures often dip to 20 degrees below zero.

Shelter: Jen’s hardy, furry horses live in a large, alpine paddock with a well-used open-air shelter made from logs found on the property. She focuses on making sure the horses’ coats stay dry enough to trap air, which their body heat then warms. When it’s rainy, the horses may wear sheets or blankets. Inside the shelter they have a heated water trough.

24-hour access to forage: “In this climate, I make sure my horses have access to quality hay all the time.” Hay digestion, she says, works like a combustion engine that creates heat from the inside. Her horses each eat about 25 pounds of hay a day, and more in the winter. Jen says they tend to bulk up at the end of the summer.

Frequent monitoring: Jen’s horses, who live not far outside the back door of the log cabin she shares with her husband, Chris, and their dogs, are closely watched. But even if it’s super cold, the horses tend to do just fine without extra care. “It depends on the individual horse and the conditions,” she says. “I’ve been around horses in many different climates, and these are the happiest horses I’ve ever known.”

This article originally appeared in the October 2017 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Riding in Alaska’s Backcountry appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

When my friend and fellow horse-loving writer Eliza McGraw mentioned she was writing a piece about taxidermied horses for the website Atlas Obscura, I was more fascinated than grossed out. I immediately informed her that she must not forget to include Blue, the horse immortalized in a large-scale diorama in the education center at the George Washington’s Mount Vernon, one of my favorite places to visit, especially around the holidays.

Of course, Eliza had already thought of that.

In fact, that horse was the inspiration for her story. She likes to visit Mount Vernon, too. A trip there started her thinking about stuffed horses. “Blueskin was one of Washington’s favorite horses,” she explains, mentioning that the other horse he rode through the Revolutionary War was named Nelson. She wondered about the real horse that had come to represent Blueskin in the diorama and found out he had been a workhorse in Pennsylvania.

“That led me to wonder about other stuffed horses,” Eliza says. “There are so many, it turns out.” You can check out her fascinating story here.

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The post The Fascinating History Of Taxidermied Horses appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Serious horseback rider Terri Mielke of Wasilla, Alaska says you can never get too much saddle time in, and she certainly does her best to try. I met and rode with Terri in the backcountry of Alaska when I was there in September. We had lots to chat about while we rode through the magical forest in the Matanuska Lakes wilderness area, like about her adorable Welsh sport horse she was riding, Mickey. He’s a delightful and adorable nine-year old Dutch warmblood/Welsh pony cross.

Terri told me about having recently completed an epic equestrian journey: trailering her other horse – a Tennessee Walking horse named Joe – more than 8,000 miles from her home in Wasilla to the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana and back again, with a side-trip on the way home to ride the Trinity Alps in California with her sister thrown in.

Joe (aka Dynamic’s Spirit) is 11 year old dark liver chestnut with an adorable snip on his nose. She says he has an unusual color phase with minimal sabino markings and light roaning, called Rabicano. Joe was born in Tennessee and shipped up to Alaska in 2010.

While in the Bob, Terri and Joe embarked on a wild, scenic 8-day trip with Wilderness Outfitters. She had to campaign pretty hard before organizers would let her bring her own horse for the trip. She begged, pleaded and promised that she would be completely responsible for her horse and keep him from running off or engaging with the other horses. In the end, it all worked out.

I asked Terri what was the wildest part of the trip. She said it was riding the cliffs. “I have acrophobia [that’s an irrational fear of heights] and an over-active imagination so traveling a single track trail with plunging drop offs was terrifying for me. Funny thing there were three totally inexperienced riders with us and they and blithely rode along totally relaxed. I have heard enough tales of horses going over cliffs to be nervous traveling precipitous drop-offs, including one of my friends that lost a horse off a cliff recently. We never had any incidents on this trip, but that never discouraged my imagination!”

The group rode 65 miles over eight days, camping, riding, relaxing and enjoying the outdoors.

When she left Montana and headed back west, she trailered Joe to Hayfork, California to ride with her sister, Karla Grasser and her husband, Boone Daniels in the Trinity Alps. They rode a friend’s mules into the stunning mountains and challenging trails, leaving Terri (the beautiful mule she rode was named Dylan) with a yearning to bring home one the sure-footed animals. “They are really mountain climbing machines,” she says.

Of course trailering 8,000 miles had its challenges, especially with a horse that is too polite to do his business in the trailer, meaning Terri had to pull over every few hours. “Unloading a single horse in a strange place next to a highway was nerve wracking,” she says. “But then he’d get a little grass, take a pee, poop, and refuse to drink water and off we would go to our next stop.”

She did this all the way from Alaska to Montana, from Montana to California and from California back to Alaska again. Terri told me she had the same clean bedding in her trailer when she got to California that she started with in Alaska.

She meticulously planned overnight stops so Joe would be in horse-friendly accommodations. Joe adapted well to traveling, even though he lost some weight on the way to Montana. But from California to Alaska had the routine down and enjoyed fresh alfalfa hay all the way home.

Now that she’s back in Alaska for the winter (they’ve already had six inches of snow on the ground) Joe will get a break while Terri focuses on training Mickey in jumping and dressage and of course, his favorite: trail riding in the spectacular wilderness that is right outside her back door in Alaska.

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The post Extraordinary Horsewomen of Alaska appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

What is it about a pony that makes him super? For the world-famous sport pony Theodore O’Connor, known as “Teddy,” (or “Theodorable” to those closest to him) it’s a long list: the heart that sent him soaring over jumps with style, his sweet face marked with a diamond-shaped star, the moments when the little chestnut left big horses in his dust, his athleticism and tough pony vigor, his incredible international accomplishments, and his charm. This star-quality pony (who was known to be a bit of a ham at times) brought smiles to the faces of everyone who watched him go.

Teddy was one of the most successful equines in the history of U.S. eventing, a discipline in which the horse and rider must compete in three disciplines: dressage, cross-country and show jumping.

Sadly, however, Teddy’s family and his fans are now mourning the loss of this amazing pony. On an unusually cool morning at David and Karen O’Connor’s farm in Virginia on Memorial Day weekend in 2008, Teddy spooked while being ridden. In an instant, he bolted and slipped causing a severe laceration to a hind leg. Not long afterwards a team of vets determined, sadly, that there was extremely little chance of a successful recovery. His rider and owners would have done anything to save the pony, but there was nothing anyone could do. Teddy was humanely euthanized. The news brought tears to his admirers all over the world who hoped to cheer him on later that year during the Olympics.

The Life of a Super Pony

Teddy was born in 1995, bred by P. Wynn Norman of Sportponies Unlimited in Ocala, FL. Norman breeds small, elegant and athletic horses by pairing smaller mares with thoroughbred stallions. In fact, Teddy is a great grandson of the champion race horse Bold Ruler and has other famous race horses like Count Fleet on his pedigree. His dam was a petite 13-hand mare named Chelsea’s Melody, who was one-half Thoroughbred, one-quarter Arabian and one-quarter Shetland pony. His sire was a racehorse, a 16.2 hand thoroughbred stallion named Theodore.

The foal Theodore O’Connor was named only partly after his father. The red colt was feisty and reminded the barn manager at the farm where he was born of the equally-fiery tennis player Jimmy Connor. To connect the two names she added an “O.” It was a coincidence that Teddy would later share a last name with his international partner, Karen O’Connor. But it also made them a perfect fit.

Though feisty, Teddy was a sweet foal with a willing and enthusiastic personality. He grew to be 14.1 ¾ hands high, enabling him to retain his status as a pony (if he had been just quarter of an inch taller, he would have been considered a horse). Teddy’s show career started when he was three, when he went cross country with an 11-year old rider.

Teddy was never sold. Norman sent him to a show barn when he was five years old where he showed in hunters through the winter and jumpers the following summer under a professional. That fall, he started eventing and won his first competition. Over the next year he quickly moved up through the eventing levels.

He was brave over fences right from the start. “We took a fall once,” said Norman, who continued to maintain part ownership of the pony throughout his life. “We were schooling an in-and-out when Teddy was five when I had the first inkling he was very special. After our fall, he just dusted himself off and proceeded to pop through the jumps like nothing had happened, except he’d learned to wait, instead of just fly it!”

Once paired with Karen, Teddy and the world-class event rider made history. In 2007, she entered him in the Rolex Kentucky four-star three-day event. Teddy was the first pony to compete at this legendary event since its inception in 1978. The pair thrilled crowds during all three phases. Fans swarmed the cross country course following Teddy from jump to jump to catch a glimpse of him flashing around the course. With only a few time faults in cross county and one of the only two double clear stadium rounds they finished third overall and won the “best conditioned horse award.”

Following their unforgettable performance at Rolex, Karen and Teddy were named to the United States team to compete at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To anyone that doubted a pony didn’t belong at the PanAm games, Teddy proved them wrong. After finishing the dressage portion of the competition in third place, he completed the cross-country phase among the top contenders. With his incredible jumping ability, he finished the show jumping phase with only a single rail down. Fans were overjoyed when Teddy and Karen brought home the Individual Gold medal and also led the United States to the Team Gold Medal. When the awards were presented, Teddy galloped around the arena with pizzazz, not seeming to notice that he was the very smallest of his gold-medal teammates.

In 2008, Teddy and Karen had another incredible performance that earned them sixth place at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. Wearing their lucky number one, they again smoked the competition going clean cross country and jumping a nearly faultless round in the show jumping phase. Their final major accomplishment was being named to the United States Equestrian Federation’s Eventing short list for the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong.

No matter his size, Teddy was a huge champion in the hearts of all his fans.

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The post Remembering Teddy O’Connor appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.