Category Archives: May

Horses Matter

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“I call horses ‘divine mirrors’,
they reflect back the emotions you put in.
If you put in love and respect and
kindness and curiosity,
the horse will return that.”
Allan Hamilton

Horses Matter

Victor Espinoza rides American Pharoah to win the 2015 Kentucky Derby.

Every year on the first Saturday of May, you can find me watching the Kentucky Derby. In more than a half a century I have missed only a handful of Derby races.

Sometimes I pick a winner. Sometimes I pick a loser. But, no matter what horse wins or loses it’s a great day, as long as no horse or rider was injured.

The Kentucky Derby’s first run for the roses was in 1875. Just three years before that first famous race, two men set out to prove whether all four feet of a horse were off the ground at full stride. The human eye could not break down the action of the horse, so the former governor of California, Leland Stanford, a businessman and race-horse owner, hired Eadweard  Muybridge to prove his belief that a horses four hooves leave the ground at a gallop.

That’s how movies were invented. Who knows, if it wasn’t for Stanford’s love of the horse and Muybridge photographs of a galloping horse, there would be no movies. I like to think that the horse is responsible for the invention of movies. In fact, the horse has played a huge roll in the evolution of man. Because in my opinion, horses matter.

Shine On

Rescuing Others

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“When we love an animal as our family,
we begin to understand animals are our family.”
Anthony Douglas Willliams

Rescuing Others

It’s been almost a week since the devastating earthquake hit Nepal. Over 6,000 were killed by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and they estimate that number could double.

The most inspiring story I heard on the news today was a story about six recently trained search and rescue dogs from Southern California who are in Nepal on a mission. One of the dogs, Ripley helped in the rescue of a teenage boy trapped under debris in Kathmandu.

Most of the dogs trained for search and rescue are dogs from the pound. They’re super athletic, super agile, extremely high-drive dogs that just will not stop. They are taught to find humans by using inaccessible human scent. Their reward, isn’t a yummy treat, it’s their favorite toy.

Search and rescue dogs are the unsung heroes of the world. With love, care and training these discarded dogs go from being rescued to rescuing others.

Shine On