Peadar-a Horse to Build Confidence

Teaching Kids to Ride with Confidence

Diego has no fear of horses because he is growing up around them and loves to sit on the biggest horses in the barn.  Fiona is riding Peadar who is a kind gentle horse and Simon is on Shadow, with Lauren giving him some pointers.

Droid Commercial with Tye

Rex received a last minute call from a production company in LA  to bring horse to a commercial for Verizon.  Originally they requested a horse to rear under saddle and then gallop off into the desert.  When we arrived on set, the director decided he wanted something entirely different.  Tye was the Directors pick of the 3 horses Rex brought including Tuff and Copper.  You can see in the final commercial his performance is nothing like the original story board. Fortunately the client loved the look and result of the cowboy being knocked to the ground.  After the first couple takes I think Tye thought he was supposed to knock the cowboy to the ground, so with each new take he gave it more drama and gusto.  Rex and his son Ryan, worked Tye from the ground while I rode a pick up horse with another outrider so that  after e we could  bring Tye back to the set after each take.  Special effects had some difficulty blowing up the explosives, with several duds and a few times of only a black cloud which created a wall so that Tye ran the wrong direction, circling back behind camera to his stablemates.  It was a long hot day in the desert, but in the end everyone was thrilled with the result you see here.

Silver and The Lone Ranger

I am fascinated with the history of horses in films and have been researching the horses used in The Lone Ranger.  Recently I came across the following from a beautiful book Hollywood Hoofbeats by Petrine Mitchem.

The Lone Ranger began as a radio serial in 1933.  The famous fictional partnership between the masked hero and his “fiery horse with the speed of light” began when the Lone Ranger saved Silver, a wild white stallion from a buffalo attack.  Clayton Moore portrayed the Lone Ranger in the television series that debuted in 1949.  His trademark cry “Hi Yo Silver!” preceded wild gallops in defense of good.  The original Silver, formerly White Cloud, was a Tennessee Walker standing 17 hands tall.  The twelve year old even-tempered Silver was a natural picture horse.

A second Silver was purchased as a four-year-old in 1949.  He was half Arabian and half Saddlebred.  He was extremely high strung and required the magic touch of Glenn Randall, Sr. who trained the horse until 1952.  Silver number two was  used to double the original in the action scenes, often performing the signature Randall famous near vertical rear.

Zenyatta -A Super Horse

I could not believe the power and beauty of this mare running in the Breeders Cup.  I found this video of her on youtube that will give you the feel of what it is like to ride her with her mane flying in the wind.  Notice how relaxed she is with her ears flopping.  Enjoy a unique experience from the back of this outstanding athlete.

His Holiness the Dali Lama

I recently heard from an old friend, Norbu Tenzing, that this years Annual dinner is fast approaching.  I have had the honor to meet His Holiness the Dali Lama several times and I would highly recommend attending if you are in the area,

American Himalayan Foundation Announces

Infamous Annual Dinner

Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009 in San Francisco, CA.

A special evening in tribute to Tibet, AHF is proud to honor Richard Gere, a longtime champion of Tibet and its people, and Lodi Gyari, Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for their lifetime of dedication carrying the flame of the Tibetan cause.

Good food, great friends, wonderful cause.  Don’t miss it.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please call 415-288-7250.

Breaking News from the BBC

The genome of a domestic horse has been successfully sequenced by an international team of researchers.

The work, published in the journal Science, may shed light on how horses were domesticated.

It also reveals similarities between the horse and other placental mammals, such as bovids – the hoofed group including goats, bison and cattle.

The authors also found horses share much of their DNA with humans, which could have implications for medicine.

Horses suffer from more than 90 hereditary diseases that show similarities to those in humans.

“Horses and humans suffer from similar illnesses, so identifying the genetic culprits in horses promises to deepen our knowledge of disease in both organisms,” said co-author Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, from the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, US.

“The horse genome sequence is a key enabling resource toward this goal.”

To generate a high-quality genome sequence, the researchers analysed DNA from an adult female thoroughbred named Twilight.

The horse’s DNA was sequenced using capillary DNA sequencing technology (known as Sanger sequencing) to reveal a genome that is roughly 2.7 billion “letters”, or nucleotides, in size.

In addition to sequencing the genome of a thoroughbred horse, the researchers also examined DNA from a variety of other horse breeds.

These included the American quarter horse, Andalusian, Arabian, Belgian draft horse, Hanoverian, Hakkaido, Icelandic horse, Norwegian fjord horse, and Standardbred breeds.

The team surveyed the extent of genetic variation both within and across breeds to create a catalogue of more than one million single-letter genetic differences in these breeds.

This is slightly larger than the genome of the domestic dog, and smaller than both the human and cow genomes.

So far, scientists have also sequenced the genomes of the platypus, mouse, rat, chimpanzee, rhesus macaque and, of course, human.

Horses were first domesticated 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. Over time, as machines have become the chief sources of agricultural and industrial muscle, those roles have shifted to sport and recreational activities.

Trick Riding

As a kid, Rex Peterson rode Trick horses and ponies–this one is Motor Scooter, performing at Rodeos and events across the country with his family.  Click here for more Photos from the archives.

Cast Horses for Film-Tuff, Tutt, Tazz, Monkey

Tuff, Tutt, Tazz and Monkey in California.  The field of “Blacks” are ready to be cast in their next film.

Lisa Houlgrave Photography

Lisa Houlgrave shooting on location at Windrock Farm with McCoy in the fields of soybeans.  Lisa specializes in portraits, weddings and fashion.