Dog and Pony Show Bodywork by Erica Curless

09/16/2024

09/15/2024

Below, two lumbars and sacrums with two very different stories.

The top specimen is from a standardbred/welsh 13.2hh pony who despite having ECVM made it to 25 with only a few minor symptoms. She was put down for laminitis and arthritis getting the better of her. Her lumbar and sacrum are the normal anatomy for this area.

The bottom specimen a 8 year old Thoroughbred returned from racing in Hong Kong shows a very common finding among my dissections. 60 percent based on my dissections across breeds but very common in mainly thoroughbreds. This guy has what’s known as a sacralised lumbar aswell as sacral spurs. The sacralised lumbar I believe is a heritable trait although there has been no study it is in humans inherited through genetics from parentage. In my opinion the sacral bone spurs are from early hard work when the growth plates between S1 and S2 are still open. The sacroiliac joint is made of two parts and if under load grows osseous bone to strengthen the area and can fuse to the pelvis.

In my opinion sacralised lumbar is a major limiting factor for performance as it appears to compromise the function and mobility in the hind end. These horses are very stiff and do not track up. They can’t take weight through the hind end joints well and have trouble engaging the pelvis. Secondary compensation is often an issue that goes along with this.

I’ve heard multiple stories now that insurance companies are not paying out on horses diagnosed with ECVM because it’s not an injury but an inherited trait that can limit performance. So it leads me to ponder….. how many heritable traits will strike off insurance claims in the future with further study into skeletal variations/malformations. Will this push breeders to think more seriously about skeletal conformation? Will insurance companies lead the charge on researching the limitations of these skeletal variations? Will genetic testing for heritable skeletal traits be the future of breeding horses for optimal soundness? Don’t forget that the gene for kissing spines has recently been found, will horses with kissing spines now be considered a heritable trait and not an injury.

Will this void insurance claims?

I have put together a video on my patreon page to explain further.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/skeletal-in-hind-111909060?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

09/12/2024

A pony's eyes will tell you a great deal about his character.

09/05/2024

Ponyhenge is a patch of farmland off of Old Sudbury Road in Lincoln, Massachusetts where dozens of abandoned rocking horses have been left since 2010.
No one knows who started it.
🎠

08/03/2024

Who’d have thought there would ever be a day when Snoop Dogg dons a riding hat, gloves and watches the Grand Prix dressage!

07/22/2024

Six months after Lexington died, his skeleton was exhumed from outside his barn to be displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In preparation, the bones were shipped to Upstate New York to be bleached in the sun and mounted. Due to the huge amount of work that needed to be undertaken, the skeleton was not ready in time for the fair, but was instead donated to the Smithsonian Museum as a national treasure.

By the 1970s, Lexington’s skeleton was being shown in the Bone Hall of the Natural History Museum but only as that of a generic horse. His glorious pedigree and extraordinary success as a racehorse had been wiped from memory. His illustrious identity was not rediscovered until 1999 when plans were made to move the remains to the American History Museum as part of an exhibition featuring the first mass produced stopwatch.

Geraldine Brooks and her novel, ‘Horse’, will ensure that the life of Lexington is never forgotten again.

Skeleton of Race Horse Lexington in Castle Yard
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7074, Image No. SIA2015-004061

07/18/2024

The Far Side by Gary Larson

07/16/2024

07/14/2024

A cartoon by Michael J. Johnson.

See more from this week’s issue: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/rFMd_t

06/29/2024

Famed cowgirl Mabel Strickland at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo, 1922. Over a 25-year career, Mabel came to be the sport’s “most beloved cowgirl.” In her day she won more titles than any other female hand. Born Mabel Delong in 1897, she began relay racing and trick riding while still in high school. Traveling on the circuit, she met and married top all-around hand Hugh Strickland in 1918. She was small but tough. Her "signature piece" was trick riding. She could expertly pass under the belly of the galloping mare or jump her over an automobile. The year this was taken in Fort Worth, 1922, Mabel captured the coveted McAlpin Trophy, awarded to the top all-around cowgirl at Cheyenne.

This is yet another stellar photo taken by the great Basil Clemons of Breckenridge, Texas and hosted by the wonderful archivists at UTA Special Collections . The Basil Clemons collection contains almost 5000 photos by one of the best photographers in Texas history.

06/26/2024

Modern archaeology has discovered something new about Roman Cavalry with the help of 21st century scientific tools. The bottom image is of the remaining Cavalry barracks foundations at a large Roman fort along Hadrian's Wall in northern England. The wall was built to keep the Celtic tribes at bay with patrolling cavalry. The pictured Roman fort along the wall was abandoned in 410 AD.

The Hadrian's Wall forts were first excavated at the turn of the last century when archaeology was in its infancy. It was believed at that time that these foundations were the mounted soldiers' living quarters, but no evidence of barns for their cavalry horses were found back then.

Fast forward a century later, with ground penetrating radar that can "see" ancient wooden post foundations beneath the surface, and the Roman Cavalry stable mystery is now solved. Again a 100 years later, no barns have been found anywhere on the site. Where did they keep the cavalry horses? The modern archeologists took biological samples from inside the barracks looking for ancient DNA.

New evidence of ancient horse manure was discovered in the barracks. The evidence points to the Roman cavalrymen lived in these rooms, outlined by the foundations, with their horses, probably three or four soldiers and horses in each.

This puts a new light on the relationship between the Roman cavalryman and his horse. In the cold damp north of England, Roman cavalry shared their logging with their horses 24/7, the warmth, the sounds, the smells all together with man and horse. I like it a lot.

06/25/2024

~ up close, at Ace Academy ~
Ace High Rough Stock Academy | Cervi Championship Rodeo | BLACKRAPID | Canon

06/20/2024

🌞 As the sun rises high and the days grow longer, we welcome the first day of summer with open arms here in Montana! 🏞️ Let's celebrate the beauty of this season, just as Charlie Russell did through his captivating art.

06/20/2024

06/13/2024

Once extinct in the wild, these primitive horses are being prepared for eventual release in the land of their ancestors.

06/12/2024

Lol 😂