For over six years the human behind the personality of Merry Horses has been creating interactive venues for equine rescuers to interact, pool their resources and generally find new ways to connect with each other as well as the public. From creating a massive social network for equine advocacy, to a Facebook page that pools and disseminates posts for rescues and advocacy groups clear through to a professionally designed and published book that lists “Whos Who in Equine Advocacy”.

The time has come for me to step away from these enormous projects and get back to work in areas where my positivity seems to have greater impact: my art. Of course I won’t be giving up my work with equine advocacy entirely. Not by any means. I’ll just be redirecting my efforts in less public, more targeted ways. Some will pop up as select creative offerings in my online shop at HappyArt.com wth proceeds clearly earmarked for different equine (and other) animal rescues.

I want to thank everyone who got on board with these many projects and helped them succeed for as long as they did. I will continue to work quietly behind the scenes making this world a better, safer place for equines and all animals.

Thank you. Good Bye!

–Marti McGinnis

“Merry Horses”

Superheros

Superheros are different from you and me. They take a path that’s both distinct and sometimes even dangerous. Their inner drive is often sparked by what they see as a great injustice and unlike so many of us, rather than feeling helpless – they roll up their sleeves (or get into a symbolicly powerful uniform of one kind or another) and get to work righting wrongs!

The REAL Sabrina Sparklepants

The Epitome of a Horse Rescuer

Here, take a look at a post she made on Facebook recently:

I had quite a bit of time to think on my drive today, thoughts about life, thoughts about purpose, thoughts about how I got to be where I am today. I never would’ve imagined my life this way but I can honestly say I’ve never been happier. I went to college to become successful and as it turns out I never really did anything with my education.

Success is measured many different ways. Someone asked me what I did the other day and the first thing that came to mind is I save horses. That’s what I do. That’s who I am. I would’ve never imagined a life where I lived in dirty jeans and boots, talked to kill buyers on a daily basis as if they were friends, and having my workout consist of shoveling wheelbarrows of manure, but honestly I couldn’t ever think of a more rewarding life.

Life is short and if anything I want to feel like I made a difference. I hope I am and have the strength to continue to do what I do, save lives. It’s not glamorous but it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done and I’m proud to say I am a horse rescuer.

Super Heros

I recently heard a discussion on the radio about the personality portrayed by the Batman character. In fact a psychiatrist has written a whole book about it. The upshot, the difference between the superheros and you and me is that these ordinary folk twist adversity into the power they need to address replications of those feelings as their lives progress. Rather than turn from struggle they approach it face on believing doing so can make a difference.

Here’s the audio:. And here’s the book referenced: “What’s the Matter with Batman?”

We love you Sabrina! Your stepping up has saved so many from suffering and we are all better people because of your efforts. Thank you!

Who’s Who? Sabrina Sure is!

Available on amazon.com. Just $10.95. Be inspired!

Sabrina Sparklpants appears on Page 124 in the volume “Who’s Who in Equine Compassion”. Let her inspire you. Below is her tribe. Join us.

The Official Book Trailer:

NOW Available!!

132 gorgeous professionally designed pages – an excellent source of who’s involved with how you and your contacts can be included in future volumes!

Currently its listing page is in sneak peak page listing –  format – missing the amazon.com detailed “Look Inside and title info – coming soon as amazon does its behind the scenes book listing thing).at amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Whos-Who-Equine-Compassion-Compendium/dp/1466363932/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1336399251&sr=8-3

ALSO available at discount for rescue groups and other resellers here:

https://www.createspace.com/3694313

email me at merryhorses@gmail.com for the savings promo code. Please tell me if you’re a rescue or a reseller (or both!). The book retails for $10.95. Your savings will be from 40 – 50% OFF.

Who's Who in Equine Compassion Volume 1

I ordered the fina proof copy of “Who’s Who in Equine Compassion” the first volume two days ago. I’m so excited! I am also so proud of each and every Individual, Group, Business and other collective who stepped up to announce to the world they you all care abou the horses in your care, under your watch and within the scope of you concern!

I will announce it far and wide when it’s live on amazon.com. Until then here’s a little sneak peak at what’s inside:

Equine Aubade

Consider how smart

smart people say horses are.

 

I love waking

to a field of such intelligence, only pigs

more likely to go to M.I.I., only dew

harboring the thoughts of clouds

upon the grass and baptizing

the cuffs of my pants as I walk

among the odes.

 

Long nose

of a thousand arrows

bound together in a breath, each flank

a continent of speed, this one

quiet as a whisper

into a sock, this one

twitchy as a sleeper

dreaming the kite string

to her shadow has snapped.

 

Old now

to my ways, they let me touch

their voltage, the bustling waves

of atoms conscripted to their form, this one

even allowing my ear to her side

so I can elope

with her heartbeat.

 

I often feel

everything is applause, an apparition

of the surprise of existence,

that the substances of life

aren’t copper and lithium, fire

and earth but the grasp

and its equivalents, as when rains falls

on a hot road

and summer sighs.

 

Or the poem

feels that, it’s hard to tell

my mind from the poem’s, the real

from the lauded horses, there’s always

this dualism, this alienation

of word from word

or time from thrust

or window from greed, I am eager

to ride a horse out of the field, out of language,

out of the country

and to the sea, where whichever of us

is the better swimmer

will take over, in case you see a horse

on the back of a man

from where you are

on your boat, looking at the horizon

in the late and dawdling company

of a small but faithful star.

—Bob Hicok

More from Mr. Hicok here.

A compilation of his book  Legend Of Light (Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry) available here at amazon.com.

Hunter Jumper Classes

Coming to the Kentucky Horse Park next month is a wonderful new opportunity for ‘retired’ race horses to strut their stuff out in public. Organized by the Thoroughbred Horse Show Association, this fun new event will showcase the versatility of this amazing breed in a variety of classes.

The Thoroughbred Horse Show Association was created to develop horse shows exclusively for Thoroughbreds that are registered with The Jockey Club. These shows are designed to showcase Thoroughbreds in their second careers.

The Classes

The first scheduled show is for April 14 and 15th, with a second due to take place October 6 and 7. While there will be an emphasis on Hunter Jumper classes, there are also two class categories that will reach out and appeal to a broad base of thoroughbred horse lovers:
In Hand Showmanship and Suitability

The TB "in hand"

Competitors will be judged on how well he or she exhibits the horse to its best  advantage, with additional scoring for the grooming and presentation of both horse and  handler. The horse’s soundness, muscling, and balance count and the ability of the handler  to control the horses body and mind are taken into consideration. In Showmanship the  handler stands on the horses opposite side of the judge to give the judge a clear view of the  horse. For conformation classes, horses will be judged on correctness, balance, and  conformation and the handler remains on near side.
Introduction to Competitive Trail Riding Obstacle
Horse and riders will have a start time and will be sent out on the course in groups of 3 or 4.  Riders may choose their group. The course will be 6 to 8 miles, around the Kentucky Horse  Park with 6 obstacles and may include crossing water, walking over a log, backing up,  passing through hay bales, and side passing.

The Fun Goes On

Competitors are not required to be members of the association, but they must enter Thoroughbreds using the horse’s registered name with The Jockey Club. With this information, a list of horses competing in our shows and affiliated shows will be made available to association members. As a result, owners, breeders, trainers, rescue organizations, and fans will be able to follow the second careers of horses they admired at the racetrack. More info on all the classes available here.

About The Show Creators

Jan Roehl has worked with Thoroughbreds and has been involved in horse shows for most of her life. She spent 20 years competing in combined training and several years working on the racetrack. She has extensive experience working with riders with disabilities as well as creating shows. Call or email her for more information on this wonderfully worthwhile series! jan@tbhorseshow.org, (859) 421-8710.

John Prather has a resume chock full of equine and equestrian event experience as well. In 2010, John was the main stadium manager at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. His duties included planning, security, traffic control, trade fair, and patron logistics. He was the point of contact for the 700 volunteers working in the stadium and oversaw the scheduling and management for the event. He can be reached at john@tbhorseshow.org or (859) 421-8710.

Find them on Facebook.

I am so excited to tell you how you can help horses in a Very BIG way with minimal effort and absolutely no money! This isn’t too good to be true – this is social networking at it’s most powerful!

Here’s what’s happening. A new website, horseshow.com, has opened up a contest for “The Coolest Horse”. It’s a website created to hold equine competitions of every stripe. Well, ok, I don’t think there are any for zebras, yet – but there are video competitions for Hunter Jumpers, Eventing, and more! It’s pretty cool and you should check it out! They want more people to know about their site – so they’re holding this contest.

Iota McHippus – 5000 Smiles

All-American Coolest Horse!

A friend of mine with a pretty nice network of horse lovers has entered the contest. He’s Iota McHippus. If you don’t already know him, you should. He’s a Facebook sensation who share funny one liners and wacky links just about every day. He is also a therapy horse and a very dedicated equine advocate. He’s already in 16th place in the contest and he just entered a couple of days ago. To win he needs 5000 votes. The first horse to get 5000 votes wins $5000!

Iota has pledged to take the winnings and share it with the top rescues voted by you on his wall! At least $500 each! He will also use a small bit of the winnings to go on a road trip and personally deliver as many of these bags of money as he can! He’ll blog about the rescues and post videos as he goes helping them (you) gain recognition and audience for your efforts!

Win! Win! Win!

This is really a true win-win-win situation. When iota wins, he shares the money with equine rescues and brings them much needed attention! He gets a fun trip and maybe more followers. Maybe he’ll even get some sponsors for the trip so he can give the entire $5000 away! That’s how he rolls.

Your Rescue can Benefit!

Here’s what you do:

1. Vote for Iota McHippus in the “Coolest Horse” contest here: http://www.horseshow.com/shows/#/coolest-horse/entries/177
   IMPORTANT: You can vote once every 24 hours for five total votes!
2. Add YOUR RESCUE (or vote for it if it’s already mentioned) on the question on his Facebook wall. You get to vote for four others too!
3. SHARE these links with YOUR NETWORK and friends!
4. Check iota’s wall for progress!

Iota McHippus wants to visit YOUR rescue and give you money!!!

When he wins, and why shouldn’t he, he will schedule his “Share the Love” road trip with stops to rescues along the way. He’ll be posting this on his Facebook page and on his own website at LittleHorseBIGtrip.com

Thanks for your help and we hope YOU win!!

We think we ALL win – and it doesn’t cost a penny!

Betsy Parker married a TB trainer....

Betsy Sews. Why do you care? Because she sews empty plastic equine (and any) feed bags into grocery totes! And why do you care even more? Because she gives a portion of the proceeds to thoroughbred rescues! One of her faves is The Thoroughbred Connection.

We LOVE Betsy!

She says she married a thoroughbred trainer and her life was never the same. She started making repairs to blankets and girths with her trust sewing machine. Her mom had encouraged such behavior as she was growing up – so this was no big deal for her.

Like so many of us she felt a little bad about throwing away the bags that hold the feed for the horses, dogs and cats in her life. So putting two and two together – she’s upcycling them into wonderful totes, purses and bags!

Race Horse Bag

Her prices are perfectly affordable and the bags themselves are fun and clever. I can’t think of ANYone who wouldn’t want one, or two or a whole set! So here’s someone near and dear to our hearts, she loves horses, she’s into recycling and she’s got a heart as big as Secretariat’s! She also does special orders and is working on a jacket design! How cool will that be!

The holidays are coming and wouldn’t it be awesome if Betsy got a ton of orders from us? Your friends are going to want these and you can afford them! Even her shipping is reasonable. This is one of those true win-win-win situations you know I love!!!

Here’s her main site: http://betsysews.weebly.com/index.html

Of course she has a Facebook page too!

Betsy Parker
She’s in New York state
718-801-6644

Kitty Bag!

Corny!

This came into my inbox last week. The author of these words is expressing her frustration with the issue of ‘too many mediocre’ horses. She raises some interesting points. I encourage you to offer feedback in the comments below.

Always and still a sensitive issue

Abandoned Mare in Eastern Kentucky

If only EVERYONE who supported the closing of US slaughterhouses was willing to support JUST ONE horse (financially) through the 15-30 years of it’s life, there would NOT be the estimated quarter of a million horses EVERY year that are abandoned, abused, neglected or killed.  It’s a subject that NO ONE wants to hear or think about.

There are new stories (that DO NOT make the news) every day of horses that are being left to starve to death in their barns, fields, woods, or are being turned out onto someone else’s land hoping that they will survive, or abandoned in desolate areas such as “KY”s mine lands”, BLM ranges and other open spaces, etc. With the current economic state of affairs, there is very little hope for an improvement for this dilemma.

I’m sure this won’t be a viewpoint shared by many. Personally, I believe that closing the US slaughterhouses was one of the worst things that ever happened to horses in this country. The ONLY plus I see to closing them is that it put a few people out of business who were breeding horses for quantity rather than quality, knowing that there would always be a market for their leftovers.

Too Many ‘Mediocre’ Horses

However, on the other side of the coin, now there are way too many mediocre to poor quality horses on the market from every Tom, Dick and Harry that has (specifically) a quarter horse or paint stud that they probably just forgot to get gelded, and the neighbor who is equally clueless just happens to have a mare.

Suddenly they have a mediocre foal that they forgot would have to be fed for 4 years before they could DO anything fun with it. So, off to the auction barn it goes. I saw a perfectly lovely medicine hat paint filly, 3 years old, with 30 days training, go for $15 at auction here recently. Why? Because there were SO MANY horses in that sale, that she was just one more paint.

People are turning out horses on the BLM lands here. The result? The horses try to join a herd and get beaten up within an inch of their lives, or they simply starve or die of dehydration because they have absolutely no idea where the water is. Sometimes the mares get accepted to a herd, and they promptly get bred and foal, and add to the mustang population problem.

Reopen the Slaughter Houses

Reopen the slaughter houses and people who cannot afford to feed their horses will want to make a few bucks and the horses will be humanely killed, rather than abandoned, or abused, or dropped off in a neighbors field to become someone elses problem. In a relatively short period of time, the supply of extra horses will drop, horse prices will go back up, and good breeders will be able to get a good price for a good horse.

Yes, some horses get stolen for slaughter. Yes, some mustangs get rounded up secretly and taken to slaughter. Protect your own horses with good fences and microchips, and lay heavy penalties on mustang thieves, but do not destroy the entire horse market because of an emotional attachment to an entire species. I LOVE GOOD horses. I breed a FEW select, excellent horses every year.

Yes, it would bother me to know that one of my foals ended in a slaughterhouse, but when I sell them, I LET THEM GO. I cannot take responsibility for every horse I ever sold. I do let people know that the horse can come back to me should they be unable to care for it, and I will find another placement for it. In all my years of breeding, only one has come back because of a divorce, and she is the dam of our top scoring yearling this year.

I get good prices for my horses. They are worth it and people take better care of something they had to make a sacrifice to obtain. My horses are not just another pasture ornament. Reopen the slaughterhouses, let some of the garbage be removed from the species and let horses, once again, become worthwhile members of the family for people who can afford to care for them.

Ok, I am stepping off my soapbox now. Thank you for your time. Please, if you intend to flame me with accounts of how inhumane equine slaughterhouses are, please don’t. I have been dealing with starving domesticated horses all summer that were tossed out onto public lands and mustang range. Trust me.

These horses would rather have met a bullet BEFORE they could experience this degree of suffering. The ones we ALMOST found in time haunt me. They suffered and suffered and suffered, and finally met relief at the end of a gun where they lay.

About the Author of this post:

I have been training horses since I was given a rotten, mean outlaw 4 year old pony cross when I was 8. She stayed a rotten, mean outlaw, but at least she could be ridden when my folks sold her. I have loved horses my entire life and have never been without at least one since that pony mare. I breed a few exceptional horses every year, but do not believe in indiscriminate, backyard breeding unless the breeders intend to keep every horse they produce for the rest of that horse’s life.

Postscript

I don’t know who this is. I can’t get in direct contact with her. I have her email and have let her know I’ve  made this post. If she checks in she will see your comments.

Secret's New Look

Secret is Saved!

Secret was pulled off the slaughter truck on 1/7/11. She was left at the auction after being used as a broodmare for four years. The only information her previous owner left with her was a note reading “She is a baby MACHINE! Just weaned a gorgeous filly off of her…” At the auction Secret showed almost aggressive behavior on the ground and so was passed up for adoption and landed in the kill pen. When Secret arrived at Natural Horse Savvy she was skinny, with horrible feet, and covered in rain rot with a severe case of scratches. (Here’s a Facebook album of her before and after pix)

“We are so happy to announce Secret found her forever home in July with Michelle A.!”  A perfect match, fate brought Michelle to NHS where she found Secret – who had been returned from a trial only a few days before!

Natural Horse Savv started as a rescue, and quickly learned the problem was education. “But our heart is still in rescue. Each of our lesson horses has a story to tell.” Since opening their doors in 2004 NHS has given over a hundred horses a second chance at life.

Find these awesome horse stewards on their Facebook page too! You’ll love their posts. They’re all about saving horses, retraining them and finding them for-real homes.

Two Very Happy Friends

Contact Them:

Natural Horse Savvy
Monica Meyette
Trainer & Dynamite Distributer
(206) 384-6121
cowgirl77m@yahoo.com

Currently training at:

Eden Farms Stables
9225 72nd St. SE
Snohomish, WA  98290-1627

Their current wish list includes:

- Safe Choice feed
- Grass pellets
- Hay
- Volunteers
- First aid supplies

They do not have our non-profit status.