Horse Tack - Which Martingale Should I Use? By Lydia K Kelly

There are two basic types of martingales, the standing martingale and the running martingale. Depending on your discipline and your purpose, both have their place in your training repertoire.

Standing martingales are common in the hunter ring. They are legal for use over fences, but are not acceptable on the flat.

A standing martingale consists of a strap that leads from the noseband to the girth, held in place by a second strap that wraps around the neck. It is a passive aid, meaning that the rider has no active influence on its action.

If a horse lifts its head, or flips it into the air, the standing martingale will become tight, preventing the action. In the western world, a similar device is called a tie-down.

While the martingale prevents the horse from lifting its head too high, it does not tie the horse’s head down. This would in fact interfere with the horse while jumping, which would be foolish.

The theory is that the martingale prevents the horse from leaning on the rider’s hands while working. This may be true, but it is probably more because the horse winds up leaning on the martingale than because it stops the horse from leaning in the first place.

In the hunter ring, wearing a standing martingale is more of a fashion statement than a necessity. Most hunters who wear standing martingales would do fine without. Unfortunately, many riders have made a habit of using them, and many horses have developed bad habits because of them.

Running martingales are not legal in the hunter ring, but are common in the jumper ring. Instead of connecting to the noseband, a running martingale splits into two straps that end in rings. The reins are run through the rings so that the martingale can pull against each rein when the rein is tightened.

Running martingales are active aids. This is because the rider’s use of the reins activates the martingale. They should always be used with blocks on the reins to keep the rings from running up to the horse’s mouth where they could interfere with the bit.

Running martingales are great for helping to control strong horses. By directing the pull of the rein downwards, they add leverage to the rider’s aid, and force the horse to drop his head. Most horses who run away tend to stick their heads and necks straight out. By forcing the horse to drop his chin, you break his run so that he must slow down and begin to listen.

In the jumper ring many horses grow excited and tend to forget to pay attention to their riders. The running martingale allows the rider that extra little bit of leverage to regain their attention and keep the horse on course.

Racehorse riders often use a modified running martingale with a bib attached between the two parts of the martingale. The bib keeps the ring of the martingale even with each other, and allows the rider to apply even pressure on both reins.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=299034&ca=Pets

Horse Color Genetics - What Color Will I Get? (Part 1) By Lydia K Kelly

Whether it is your first time breeding, or you have had many foals at your farm one of the most exciting things is not knowing exactly what you will get when the baby arrives. There are so many variables that it is impossible to predict how big your foal will be, whether it will have good conformation or whether it will have the potential for the discipline you bred it for. One question that always has owners guessing is what color the foal will be.

Interestingly enough, you can actually predict the likelihood of the foal turning out a specific color. While color prediction is not always 100% accurate, there are some color combinations that will give you a guaranteed outcome. How can we be so sure of this? It’s all in the genes.

Horses have two basic color genes; black (B) and red (b). All horses carry a combination of these two genes in a pair. The red gene is recessive to the black gene. This means that whenever you get a combination of black (B) and red (b) genes the black gene will express itself. So, a (BB) gene combination will result in a black horse; a (Bb) combination will also result in a black horse and a (bb) combination will result in a red horse.

If that is the case you may wonder why we don’t only have black and red horses. In addition to the base color genes there are special genes that modify color. If one of these genes are present it will cause the base color to be modified and the horse will turn out “a different color”.

The most common modifier is the Agouti gene. When the Agouti gene is present it modifies the black gene. A black horse with the Agouti modifier will fade leaving its points black and its body brown. This is of course the classic bay horse.

Other modifiers include the grey gene, the roan gene and the cream gene. Each of these genes causes the horse’s coat to change according to the instructions written into the DNA code. Because this complicates matters for now lets stick with the basic black (bay) and red genes. To simplify things for now I will use the term “black” to include bay horses. We will discuss the Agouti gene further in the next installment.

So how can you apply this to actual breeding? Let’s start with a simple scenario. You have a chestnut stallion (bb) and you breed it to a chestnut mare (bb). In this case both the stallion and the mare have two red genes. No matter which way you mix and match those genes the resulting foal will also have two red genes (bb). The resulting foal from this breeding will always be a chestnut.

(b) (b)
(b) (bb)
red (bb)
red
(b) (bb)
red (bb)
red

To make things a little more complicated we will now breed a black mare (BB) to a chestnut stallion (bb). Because both the mare and the stallion must contribute one gene the resulting foal will be (Bb) carrying one black and one red gene. The foal will be black in color but will have a recessive red gene.

Now let’s pretend that we breed the foal from the first scenario (bb) to the foal from the second scenario (Bb). Use the following diagram to see how the genes relate:

(b) (b)
(B) (Bb)
black (Bb)
black
(b) (bb)
red (bb)
red

As you can see from the diagram there are two color possibilities in this cross. When the foal receives both a red gene (b) from one side and a black gene (B) from the other, the foal will be born black (Bb). This means that you have a 50/50 chance of the foal being a chestnut or a black.

If you cross a homozygous (meaning that it has two copies of the B gene) black horse (BB) with a heterozygous (meaning that it has one copy of the B gene and one of the b gene) black horse as you might expect there would only be one possible color for the foal, black. This is because all of the color combinations would include at least one dominant black (B) gene.

(B) (B)
(B) (BB)
black (BB)
black
(b) (bB)
black (bB)
black

Of course this leaves one more combination, the (Bb) x (Bb) combination. In this case both the mare and stallion carry a recessive red gene but are black in color. While at a glance you might expect all the foals from this breeding to be born black this is where you get the odd surprise foal that is a bright chestnut. In fact 25% of all foals from this cross will be chestnut in color. That is because of the possibility of the foal getting a pair of red genes, one from each parent.

(B) (b)
(B) (BB)
black (Bb)
black
(b) (bB)
black (bb)
red

So now you can see where the basics of color genetics come into play when breeding horses. You now know that you will always get a chestnut foal when you breed two chestnut horses together. You also know that when you breed two blacks together you just might get the odd chestnut foal that crops up.

While color is far from the most important thing to consider when breeding, it is certainly one of the most predictable. With the advances in genetic research we are always finding more color specific genes and can predict color variations with increasing accuracy.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=299038&ca=Pets

Best Dog Breed - What I Recommend To My Friends By Adam Katz

To recommend a good dog breed to someone, you need to know two things:

1. You must have an in-depth and personal experience with many different breeds. And more specifically, you must have multiple experiences with each breed. When you've been training dogs professionally for about 10 years, you've seen pretty much everything cross your path, at least three or four times. And for the more popular breeds, you've had literally hundreds of experiences that can put you in a very good position to analyze the pro's and con's of each breed.

2. You need to understand both the wants and needs of the family who is looking to adopt a new dog. A couple who have very dominant personalities and no children will generally be able to handle a dog with more horsepower than would a quiet, submissive couple with a few small children.

That being said, here are the top five breeds I recommend to people I don't know very well:

1. Golden Retriever: These dogs have a soft, pliable and easily trainable temperament. They are very pain-resistant and very forgiving to the owner who accidentally steps on a toe or clumsily trips on the dog. Purchased from a good breeder, these dogs are a joy to own.

2. Poodle (any variety): These dogs score extremely high on both the trainability scale and on the intelligence scale. I'm always amazed at how quickly these dogs can pick up an new behavior. It's almost like communicating to a human in dog clothing. If it wasn't for the sissy factor, I'd probably own one myself. Professional dog trainers see very few dog owners who walk through the door with troubling behavior problems. If everyone owned a Poodle, we'd all be out of business.

3. Australian Shepherd: Not to be confused with the Australian Cattle Dog (also an excellent breed but not for the amateur or weak owner) the Australian Shepherd - if obtained from a quality breeder - is fantastic. I don't think that there is anything you can't train this breed to do.

4. Boston Terrier: These dogs are clean and quiet. They make a fantastic house dog and are very easy to get along with. A perfect companion for the elder dog owner, or just somebody who wants a very peaceful dog ownership experience with a breed that is not very demanding.

5. Shetland Sheepdog: Small, easily trainable and possessing a soft temperament, they are intelligent and - with the right training techniques - will learn new behaviors very quickly.

That's all for now, folks!
Adam

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=69166&ca=Pets