Denim and Diamonds 4H Club

15/11/2024

14/11/2024

I was busy pulling myself out of the creek bed and by chance, I looked up at Sasha turning Epona around down the way. She had hit some kind of lighting matrix. A honey hole, a sweet spot, the lighting lottery. I hollered at her to stop right there and not move a muscle.

I wedged my borrowed and waterlogged tennis shoes back into the river rock and took a deep breath to still for the shot. I was soaking wet from being submerged in a cold mountain creek and I was pretty chilled and shaking by this point which aways becomes an annoyance for trying to hold a camera still.

It was a total chance capture amongst the feathery weeds as we were losing the last streams of sunlight behind the mountain. Unplanned, unprompted, and one of the most unforgettable scenes of my lifetime. You'll never be able to convince me that I was not looking at Shadowfax.

📸: Sasha Doughty & Epona
📍: Sky Horse Ranch

12/11/2024

We are well into the 4th year of working to stop the ban on Rodeo and similar events in Los Angeles. The amount of work to keep this campaign going is staggering. To ensure we had a group of organizations and associations united under one mantle, we formed a first-of-its-kind coalition – the Weste...

12/11/2024

Horses stomachs are delicate things really. Too much food and they release food too soon as it doesn’t prepare the food adequately before it goes into its next journey.

Empty stomachs are bad as they are at risk for stomach ulcers as the acid in the lower part splashes onto the upper part

This was the huge stomach I showed you from a 34 year old horse I studied (after death) at the weekend.

He literally gorged himself. But on further study I found a lump of tissue in his omemtum - the thin web like structure that covers the stomach

The greater omentum and lesser omentum are connective tissues associated with the greater and lesser curvatures of the stomach.

Maybe this “lump of tissue”which measured 5 x 6 cm caused the stomach not to empty properly.
There was plenty of digested food throughout the rest of his gut so I am perplexed.

The lump- without histology, I cannot say for certain what it was but in my experience with human and horse tumours I believe it to be a tumour.

Unfortunately it was discarded in error 😲 before I had the chance to study it.

My showcase of my hoof and whole horse dissections:
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The Donkey farrier
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Lighthoof Mud Control Grids Fix Your Muddy Horse Paddocks Forever - https://www.lighthoof.com

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Heike Veit
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Areion Academy
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Equine Podiatry and Barefoot Trimming Education - Areion

12/11/2024

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 "𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐭" 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲

As citizens anxiously awaited the election and to see the direction it would ultimately take our nation, an unlikely hero emerged: a beloved pet squirrel named Peanut, who was unrightfully seized from his owners and euthanized at the behest of animal extremists, who cited a law that states it is illegal to own wildlife without a license.

Peanut had been the beloved pet of Mark Longo of Pine City, New York, for seven years after the squirrel’s mother was hit by a car and Longo rescued him. Longo was reportedly in the process of filing the paperwork to establish legal ownership. State agencies received several anonymous complaints that led to Peanut’s confiscation and death.

It has been reported that in an astonishing display of government overreach, at least six state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) agents raided the Longo household for five hours and left it in complete disarray. Their excuse was that Peanut needed to be tested for rabies, which requires euthanasia. A pet raccoon named Fred was also taken and euthanized, but Peanut took the spotlight because of the popular Instagram account dedicated to him.

The story of Peanut powerfully demonstrates the very real danger that the animal extremist movement poses to everyone who owns and enjoys animals of any kind. All it took for Longo’s cherished, healthy, and happy pets to be confiscated and killed were the petty actions of a few inexplicably angry and vengeful animal extremist activists.

The story of Peanut offers a perfect example of exactly how misguided and dangerous the USEF’s revised rule GR838 will be for the horse industry. The changed rule applies to abuse, neglect, or otherwise unethical treatment of horses. As of December 1, 2024, GR838 will apply anywhere USEF members raise, board, practice, train, or otherwise use horses, including home facilities.

The rule allows anonymous reporting, opening the doors wide for malicious attacks to be made on horse owners in the same way that Peanut’s owner was targeted. The USEF does not have the authority to make site visits to private property and instead relies entirely on reporting of alleged incidents of abuse or neglect.

Like most of the horse industry, Western Justice does not condone abuse in any form. What must be kept in mind is that animal extremists consider even the use of bits to be “abusive,” and they view any use of animals as being akin to slavery.

Even though Peanut was a squirrel, his case is a perfect example of what Western Justice is fighting and what our team has been fighting through various channels for over 15 years. 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘵, 𝘥𝘰𝘨, 𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘠𝘖𝘜𝘙𝘚.

10/11/2024

💔 𝙍𝙄𝙋 𝘽𝙊𝘽 𝘼𝙑𝙄𝙇𝘼 💔

Heaven gained a hell of a horseman, and we lost one of the most innovative minds in the business we will ever see. Sending our love and prayers to his family, friends, and the entire industry.

09/11/2024

04/11/2024

Long hours in the shop add up to the best selection of handmade leather goods. Be the first to see all of the new and unique items at Bruneau Cowboy Christmas this coming Nov 9-10.

02/11/2024

Rare Element Resources has already started operations at its rare earths demonstration plant in Upton, Wyoming, with what’s known as a “shakedown.” The…

02/11/2024

31/10/2024

I had been watching this horse since the day before. He was in the center of a herd of nearly 100 horses owned by the outfitting company hosting us so not easy to single out in all the ruckus and we had other shoots on the docket, lots of them (I was leading a workshop through Wyoming and Montana). It was the final morning and we had just finished a round of action and portrait shooting in the beautiful Paradise Valley of Montana. In the car driving through Yellowstone on the way to this particular destination, I had talked with a couple of the joining photographers about having that cry moment on a trip. That moment when you just can't believe where you are and whatever is happening just jars you to the core with a gratitude for what you are witnessing.

We had rounded all of the horses up that morning out of the fields and into wooden corrals as part of our action shooting. There was a straggler, however, and out of 100 horses it happened to be him. I saw the shot lining up and started getting excited, blurting my vision for the shot. But when I turned around, all of the photographers had walked away to exit the pasture. There was one photographer still close by, so we approached the angle. But I have to admit a moment came where I forgot about anyone else around me.

I was watching a dream shot align in real time. I laid on the ground to shoot, and I shot as many images as I could, whistling and motioning to him- trying to get him to stop in his walking path and put his ears forward. I knew I had something good so I got up and walked up to him. His name was Laird, Scottish for Lord. I buried all of my fingers in his soft be-speckled coat, I rubbed his jaw and around his ears. I leaned in and smelled his coat, looked up at the snowy peaks thinking about the shot I had just taken. That was my moment on the trip.

It was just me and this horse in the Paradise Valley of Montana. It was probably so mundane and normal for most. But every time I get that shot, every time I feel that I've done it- I think about how unattainable horses used to feel for me. Let alone a career with them. I'll never forget this moment or how the horses and people made me feel in this beautiful place.

27/10/2024

With the new "cow tax" in Denmark and the spread of disinformation and pressure to tax meat in America by certain fringe groups it is important for the public and lawmakers to have a clear understanding of the facts about livestock and GHG in the US

26/10/2024