Kickapoo Center Spanish Mustangs and Barbs

26/02/2020

A new Spanish Mustang treasure born in the UK!

02/12/2019

The Spanish Mustang Foundation was formed to strengthen and expand efforts to preserve this exceptional horse, through educational activities and preservation practices. By creating a better awareness of this horse’s history we hope to secure its legacy in America.

25/10/2019

Wow! Nice communication there. And what a beauty he is!

11/08/2019

11/08/2019

Just beautiful!!!

PICASSO ridden by AIDEN UDELSON at WEC Winter Classic 8 - 2019. This round is from class 475, $500 INTERMEDIATE CHILDREN'S/ADULT JUMPER CLASSIC .80M and fini...

18/07/2019

Although I have retired, and am no longer actively showing, I will continue to promote these rare and endangered horses as best I can. I will continue to follow the progress of the horses and dedicated organizations who are trying to preserve them. I will share sound information from the people I know to be reputable, and have their hearts in the right place, from past experience with them. I hope together we can save this equine treasure of history.

04/07/2019

Facinating

There are also some cool pieces of information revealed as scientists pull DNA from Equus skeletons up to 43,000 years old, but also some sad news as well.

06/06/2019

Absolutely right.

If we could only make this truth fully understood in the horse world, how much time and trouble would horses, buyers, owners and trainers save? Fewer horses would be mishandled, misunderstood and e…

31/05/2019

Mom is looking so much better in this video than she did before. You guys are doing a wonderful job ❤

31/05/2019

Fantastic!

28/05/2019

!!! Oh, no. Please help if you can.

08/05/2019

Wow!

30/04/2019

They are making progress!

20/04/2019

Please read about these horses in the posts below.https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=843176486023033&id=390793454594674

20/04/2019

This was originally a herd of 130 Spanish Mustangs owned and preserved by Dr. Bill Stabler. He passed away in 2008 and this is what has become of his herd. They are in Mississippi and a few very dedicated groups have come together to preserve these rare bloodlines. Please help if you can.

Exciting Easter update: $2000 matching grant from the Cathy Kangas Animal Foundation. Every dollar you give gets doubled!
Update Sat 4/20: $750 raised... $11250 remains.

Our immense thanks to the renowned Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary for inviting our ‘at-risk of auction’ herd of Mississippi Spanish Mustangs to sanctuary. These Spanish Mustangs at Black Hills Sanctuary will be on the look out for our first 18 to arrive in about a week.
We now need your help raising $12,000 more to buy, transport and safeguard the remainder of the Spanish Mustang Mississippi herd.

Donate to 501c3 Arizona Gila Herd Foundation PayPal: [email protected]
Or use Gila Herd's website direct donate button: https://www.gilafoundation.com/giving

Photo comment below: Here at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary we have a large herd of mustangs from Spanish and Portuguese bloodlines. Photo from Karen Parker thank you!

20/04/2019

Thank you $500 Angel Donor!
Total raised w/matching funds: $1,520
Total needed to reach goal: $10,480
Remaining matching grant: $1,365
Total goal of $12,000 to get second half of herd safe.

Exciting Easter update: $2000 matching grant from the Cathy Kangas Animal Foundation. Every dollar you give now gets doubled until we reach our $2000 match!

Update Sat 4/20: $750 raised... $11250 remains.
The Arizona Gila Herd Foundation, in collaboration with the Spanish Mustang Foundation, Rocking R Ranch & Rescue, and Turning Pointe Donkey Rescue, are prepping our first 18 Spanish Mustangs for transport to the renowned Black Hills Wild Horses Sanctuary in South Dakota.

To complete our mission to send all 36 to sanctuary at Black Hills, we need our village to rally to raise another $12,000. 6K to purchase remaining 18 horses (including coggins, short term care) and 6K for transport.

Donate via Gila Herd's website donate button: https://www.gilafoundation.com/giving

Donations to Arizona Gila Herd 501c3 Paypal email: [email protected]

We must share the sad news that our beautiful heavily bred and very thin mare passed away Tuesday night. Seen in this photo, we named her Promise and her unborn foal Spirit. While they now run free together, our promise to her, with your help, will be to get her herd family to Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary .

Calls have come in from wild horse sanctuary’s and the Spanish Mustang Foundation telling us of the historic nature of this Mississippi herd and the importance that these 36 be preserved. Several bands of this herd are said to have already been lost to slaughter through auction. It's nothing short of a miracle that we found a sanctuary able to take in a herd of 36 horses. Our intent is to get every horse in this herd safely there.

To get to this halfway point has taken $10,000 in grants and donations. Our immense thanks goes to all our loyal mustang supporters, with special thanks to an Angel Donor, along with the Spanish Mustang Foundation and Turning Pointe Donkey Rescue. Yay donkeys! Stay with us, we need you now more than ever.

09/01/2019

❤ What an extraordinary effort by all involved to save these precious and rare horses. My heart and prayers are with you all. ❤

And two more loads going to the Spanish Mustang Preserve in Bayfield Wisconsin.

01/01/2019

👍

This is an absolute must read for every horse owner and especially those with younger horses!
People can certainly debate and argue over different training techniques and styles but we can not argue the science.

"Owners and trainers need to realize there's a definite, easy-to-remember schedule of fusion - and then make their decision as to when to ride the horse based on that rather than on the external appearance of the horse.
For there are some breeds of horse - the Quarter Horse is the premier among these - which have been bred in such a manner as to LOOK mature long before they actually ARE mature. This puts these horses in jeopardy from people who are either ignorant of the closure schedule, or more interested in their own schedule (for futurities or other competitions) than they are in the welfare of the animal.

The process of fusion goes from the bottom up. In other words, the
lower down toward the hoofs you look, the earlier the growth plates will have fused; and the higher up toward the animal's back you look, the later. The growth plate at the top of the coffin bone (the most distal bone of the limb) is fused at birth. What this means is that the coffin bones get no TALLER after birth (they get much larger around, though, by another mechanism). That's the first one. In order after that:

2. Short pastern - top & bottom between birth and 6 mos.
3. Long pastern - top & bottom between 6 mos. And 1 yr.
4. Cannon bone - top & bottom between 8 mos. And 1.5 yrs.
5. Small bones of knee - top & bottom on each, between 1.5 and 2.5 yrs.
6. Bottom of radius-ulna - between 2 and 2.5 yrs.
7. Weight-bearing portion of glenoid notch at top of radius - between 2.5 and 3 yrs.
8. Humerus - top & bottom, between 3 and 3.5 yrs.
9. Scapula - glenoid or bottom (weight-bearing) portion - between 3.5 and 4 yrs.
10. Hindlimb - lower portions same as forelimb
11. Hock - this joint is "late" for as low down as it is; growth plates on the tibial & fibular tarsals don't fuse until the animal is four (so
the hocks are a known "weak point" - even the 18th-century literature warns against driving young horses in plow or other deep or sticky footing, or jumping them up into a heavy load, for danger of spraining their hocks)
12. Tibia - top & bottom, between 2.5 and 3 yrs.
13. Femur - bottom, between 3 and 3.5 yrs.; neck, between 3.5 and 4 yrs.; major and 3rd trochanters, between 3 and 3.5 yrs.
14. Pelvis - growth plates on the points of hip, peak of croup (tubera sacrale), and points of buttock (tuber ischii), between 3 and 4 yrs.

and what do you think is last? The vertebral column, of course. A
normal horse has 32 vertebrae between the back of the skull and the root of the dock, and there are several growth plates on each one, the most important of which is the one capping the centrum.

These do not fuse until the horse is at least 5 1/2 years old (and this figure applies to a small-sized, scrubby, range-raised mare. The taller your horse and the longer its neck, the later full fusion will occur. And for a male - is this a surprise? -- You add six months. So, for example, a 17-hand TB or Saddlebred or WB gelding may not be fully mature until his 8th year - something that
owners of such individuals have often told me that they "suspected" ).

The lateness of vertebral "closure" is most significant for two
reasons.
One: in no limb are there 32 growth plates!
Two: The growth plates in the limbs are (more or less) oriented perpendicular to the stress of the load passing through them, while those of the vertebral chain are oriented parallel to weight placed upon the horse's back.

Bottom line: you can sprain a horse's back (i.e., displace the
vertebral growth plates) a lot more easily than you can sprain those located in the limbs.

And here's another little fact: within the chain of vertebrae, the
last to fully "close" are those at the base of the animal's neck
(that's why the long-necked individual may go past 6 yrs. to achieve
full maturity). So you also have to be careful - very careful - not to
yank the neck around on your young horse, or get him in any situation where he strains his neck."

Dr. Deb Bennett

ABOUT DR. DEB: Deb Bennett, Ph.D., is a 1984 graduate of the University of Kansas, and until 1992 was with the Smithsonian Institution. She is known as an authority on the classification, evolution, anatomy, and biomechanics of fossil and living horses. Her research interests include the history of domestication and world bloodlines and breeds. She teaches unique anatomy short-courses and horsemanship clinics designed to be enjoyable to riders of all breeds and disciplines, and all levels of skill.

Internationally known for her scientific approach to conformation analysis, "Dr. Deb" has made a career out of conveying a kind of "X-ray vision" for bone structure to breeders and buyers. Her background in biomechanics helps her clearly explain how conformation relates to performance ability. Dr. Deb's clinics often feature real bones and interesting biomechanical models.

12/12/2018

I do not know the details that led to this, but from past experience with working to support the Spanish Mustang I strongly suggest people put their faith and support in the original founders of the earliest registries. The SMR, SSMA, and HOA respectively.

18/11/2018

30/07/2018

Magical......

28/07/2018

16/06/2018

Ray would tell me..."you gotta help that horse"...what does that mean to you?

08/06/2018

I thought I would share one from the Idaho workshop. Lots of horses and dust, who could ask for more?

19/05/2018

16/05/2018

Sharing this from Karma Farms :-( Karma Farms
5 hrs · Harleton, TX ·
Folks, due to health issues, we are selling most of our breeding stock including some of the finest young fillies and mares in the nation that we were keeping to add to the Dude String and brood mare band. Our young stallion and some of our mature ones are also for sale. We will be keeping the Dude String, Illya, Suerte and Brother love plus all mares over 18.
We are making real deals to place these great horses in homes where they will be loved and continue to preserve America's First Horse. Call me at 903-407-0298 for more info or to set up a date to look at the horses.

13/05/2018

Wow, isn't he a fantastic young Spanish Mustang stallion?

Buck is beginning to show his true colors as a Choctaw Conservation Stallion. Great disposition. Great confirmation. Old Spanish blood.

08/05/2018

This is such an important message. If you don't know who Temple Grandlin is there is a movie that was made about her life and how she's changed the livestock industry. It's well worth watching. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278469/