Horses help us and can heal us, they are not a bother or nuisance.  They are part of our culture and country!!! ~Declan

The horse whisperer - Equine visits boost the lives of dementia sufferers

RUPERT the horse may not be the most conventional visitor to an elderly people’s care home but he is always a welcome sight when he walks into the communal lounge.

By: Hilary Douglas

Published: Sun, August 11, 2013  As posted on Express

Horse therapy can ease loneliness and help dementia sufferers

Horse therapy is the latest weapon being used in the fight against dementia and loneliness.

Care home owner Neil Robson admits, however, he was initially horrified at the idea that a horse had been booked to visit residents.

Mr Robson, who owns Sambrook House residential care home in Newport, Shropshire, is so happy with the results, however, he intends to have Rupert visit regularly.

He said: “When I came back from leave and realised that half a ton of horse was about to walk around the home it seemed a mad idea as it could make a lot of mess and there was a real worry about it breaking things.

“However, he had an almost magical connection with the residents as he was led round, with one resident he bowed down to allow her to rest her forehead on his head, where they both remained for over five minutes, it was so special to watch.

“Both the resident and Rupert seemed completely calm. It was amazing how some residents could just completely relate to him and he seemed to understand them back.

“Without exception and even with the residents with dementia, the first horse visit was discussed for days on end and everyone enjoyed it.”

Animal therapy has long been acknowledged to have a positive effect on people, with autistic children, stressed students and the elderly all benefiting from the relaxation that animals can bring.

Head to head: Rupert the horse with one of the care home residents, picture Bob Greaves

"Rupert the horse had an almost magical connection with the residents as he was led round."  

~Care home owner Neil Robson

Rupert is part of the “equine interactive team” at Be-Equine in Shropshire, run by Elaine Whalley, who came up with the idea because her grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, got so much benefit from being near the horse.

She said: “She was so happy around Rupert and calm and he really cheered her up. At the time I got Rupert my grandmother was living with my parents and so she saw Rupert every day.

“Then when it became better for her to be in a care home, I took Rupert to her, first outside and then into the home. Everyone loves him in the 40 or so homes we visit.”

Elderly residents at Bramley Court in Histon, Cambridgeshire, have had visits from therapy dogs in the past, but now residents enjoy visits from Bambi, a half-American spot miniature pony.

Pony therapy is also now a regular feature at Hillfield House in Burton, County Durham.

The residents at the home for elderly people with mental illness have fallen in love with Molly, a Dartmoor pony, and Mr P, a miniature pony.

And residents at Eighton Lodge care home in Low Fell, Gateshead, have been treated to a visit by Wish, a miniature American pony.

Motorcycle Dressed as a Horse Powers Buggy

I definitely want a buggy like this one! ~Declan

Motorcycle dressed as a horse powers buggy

By Horsetalk.co.nz on Aug 11, 2013 

       

The busy streets of Sao Paulo in Brazil are sure to dish up many intriguing sights, but few could match this motorized buggy.

The buggy, propelled by a motorcycle dressed up like a horse, is no highway sloth, either, with the video showing speeds of around 50kmh.

The contraption appears to be the work of João Dias, who was more than happy to take his machine out for a spin on Sao Paulo’s busy roads.

The steering appears to be by reins, attached to the horse’s head, but it is less clear how Dias controls the throttle and brakes. However, cables running from the motorcycle shown in one close-up might provide some explanation.

The two-seater may also be for daytime transportation only, unless the eyes of the horse double as headlights.

Keen observers will also notice the “horse” is fitted with blinkers. Perhaps the motorcycle spooks in traffic?

The motorcycle cameraman poses with the driver of the motorized buggy, believed to be João Dias, on the roadside in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The kids don't care that Hammersmith has some physical disabilities because what is in the soul, matters most. ~Declan

Horse with a hole in his face comforts so many

By Susan Salk on August 14, 2013  As posted on Off-Track Thoroughbreds

Hammersmith found love, despite a facial malformation

This story was originally published July 2012.

At Brigitta Bogen’s Texas farm, looks and disabilities don’t matter so much.
Never was that single fact as clear as on a February day this year when a funny looking ex-racehorse came to live on her farm.

Hammersmith was just settling into his large stall with Dutch doors, when a group of excited youngsters burst excitedly into the barn, wanting to get a look at the new guy.

From over the top of his stall door, he peered at them face on, revealing, as if he’d been the poor loser in a fight,  a one-inch hole beneath his right eye, and a crooked, sunken nose.

But the kids, the whole bunch of them, blithely looked upon him, noticing nothing.  They simply greeted him kindly and got on with their daily activities at the barn.

“They were just excited to see him,” Bogen says. “I don’t know if their lack of reaction is due to the fact that I have so many kids here with disabilities, so they’re just used to differences, but, when they met Hammersmith, they did not see a horse with a crooked nose and a hole by his eye.”

They saw a future friend, one who was a little bit different, and a lot like them. Right away, Hammersmith was given a welcoming pat, and welcomed into to their world.

On this arid property, everyone is on equal footing.

For, under the roof of this particular barn in Claude, Texas, children with disabilities and American veterans coping with post war trauma, work alongside able-bodied equestrians; each is engaged in improving their relationships with horses and their own skills as riders, and ultimately, their self-esteem.

“I have so many kids with disabilities here that nobody says anything about somebody’s disability, and they don’t say anything about Hammersmith’s looks,” Bogen says.

A certified instructor in therapy riding, Bogen operates two horse programs designed to help people overcome personal obstacles. In her therapy-riding program, her goal is to help students with physical or mental limitations learn to become capable riders.

“If we have a student with one arm, for example, we’ll construct different reins for that child so that he or she can ultimately learn to ride independently,” she explains. “We work with each child individually, to help them overcome their disabilities” enough to ride their best.

The same can-do attitude guides Bogen’s approach to helping soldiers overcome post-traumatic stress disorder through her program, Horses for Heroes.

Soldiers learn to confront their anger, grief and unresolved feelings by working with these large, gentle animals. Simple acts, like walking into a field and having a horse “choose” a particular soldier to work with, can be the first step in creating a bond and building a foundation that leads to insights about their own psyches, she says.

The premise behind the Horses for Heroes program is that soldiers learn to reflect on different aspects of their own personalities. “Working with horses can help them see how their own attitudes may cause a horse to back off, or come toward them,” she explains.

And now Hammersmith is waiting for his chance to show a soldier or a child how to look past his “goofy” exterior to the gentle soul beneath....

<CLICK HERE > to continue reading Hammersmith's story on my friend Susan Salk's Off-Track Thoroughbreds

Hammersmith enjoys a nice hack on the property

A good boy!

Of Stars and Stripes: NASA Satellites Used to Predict Zebra Migrations

This is REALLY COOL!  ~Declan

Of stars and stripes: NASA satellites used to predict zebra migrations

Aug. 7, 2013

As posted on NASA

Zebra in the Makgadikgadi grasslands.

Image Credit: 

Hattie Bartlam-Brooks

One of the world's longest migrations of zebras occurs in the African nation of Botswana, but predicting when and where zebras will move has not been possible until now. Using NASA rain and vegetation data, researchers can track when and where arid lands begin to green, and for the first time anticipate if zebras will make the trek or, if the animals find poor conditions en route, understand why they will turn back.

Researchers used cues gleaned from GPS tracking of the zebras and satellite data to predict when the zebras will be on the move, a powerful tool for conservation.

Image Credit: 

NASA

Covering an area of approximately 8,500 square miles (22,000 square kilometers), Botswana’s Okavango Delta is one end of the second-longest zebra migration on Earth, a 360-mile (580-kilometer) round trip to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans—the largest salt pan system on the planet. Zebras walk an unmarked route that takes them to the next best place for grazing, while overhead thundering cloudbursts of late October rains drive new plant growth, filling pockmarks across this largest inland delta in the world. In a matter of weeks, the flooded landscape could yield ecosystems flush with forage for the muscled movers.

High above, Earth-orbiting satellites capture images of the zebras' movements on this epic trek, as well as the daily change in environmental conditions. Zebras don’t need data to know when it’s time to find better forage: The surge of rain-coaxed grasses greening is their prompt to depart. But now, researchers are able to take that data and predict when the zebras will move.

Pieter Beck, research associate with the Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, Mass., and three collaborators studied animal migration in a novel way, which they described in a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research--Biogeoscences, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. While tracking animal movement with satellites has been accomplished many times, Beck said, he and his team combined that information with in-depth use of environmental satellite data, using a series of images of vegetation growth and rainfall taken over days and weeks. This sheds unprecedented light on what drives animals to migrate, he said, what cues they use, and how animal migrations respond to environmental change.

Dr. Hattie Bartlam-Brooks collared a zebra with GPS to track their location along the migration route.

Image Credit: 

Botswana Herbivore Research

Zebra mind: A band of scientists earn their stripes

The Zebra Migration Research Project began in 2008 after Hattie Bartlam-Brooks and her team discovered the migration during field work for Okavango Herbivore Research. Anecdotal evidence—unverified stories—prior to the 1970s described a zebra migration from the Okavango Delta to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans at the start of the rainy season in September and continuing through April, but from 1968 to 2004, veterinary fences prevented zebras from making the migration. The veterinary fences—which had been built to keep wild buffalo from transferring diseases to cattle—were taken down in 2004. Within three years of the removal of the veterinary fences, zebra began making movements on the migration path toward the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. These movements were recorded by GPS collars that were fitted to zebra mares, allowing researchers to accurately record their movements.

Zebras in the wild live for about 12 years, so the migration path could not have been learned from previous generations, said Bartlam-Brooks. She and her team in the field observed that the zebras began their migration at the onset of the rains so she joined forces with Beck to see how extensive the environment's influence is on the timing of the zebras' journey.

Beck combined this GPS movement data with satellite imagery taken over the months of the migration. This allowed the researchers to see how environmental conditions changed over time and across the landscape. To track the greening of leaves, the researchers relied on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on board NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The MODIS sensors capture growing conditions by measuring the reflectance of near-infrared light from plants. The team also used NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission data to map daily rainfall, which gave the researchers an idea of how much rain was falling in three-hour intervals. The scientists converted the rainfall measurements to daily rates, and cumulative weekly amounts, and checked the accuracy by comparing them with ground-based rain gauges.

Beck and his team learned that zebras do not follow an internal clock, nor do they migrate at a steady pace. By examining daily rainfall and weekly vegetation data from satellite images and entering the data into migration models, the researchers were amazed at how well they could predict when zebras started migrating and how fast they migrated.

The Okavango Delta in Botswana.

Image Credit: 

Teo Gomez

“By comparing the results of the models, it was possible to determine which environmental variables are the most effective in predicting zebra movement, and then use this knowledge to try and infer as to how the zebra make their decisions,” said Gil Bohrer, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering at The Ohio State University, who collaborated on the project. “It shows we can figure out very closely what ‘makes the zebra move.’”

Bill Fagan, professor of biology at the University of Maryland, finds hope in the team’s discoveries. “Their discussion," he said, "was particularly intriguing as a demonstration of how important the consistency and strength of the rainfall cues were for migration success." He said that it may be possible for species that have had their migration patterns disrupted to relearn them from "exploratory walks" driven by environmental cues. "With so many ungulate migrations declining worldwide, it is nice to have an optimistic result about migration for a change."

Satellite safari: Guiding light among the stars

Having access to NASA's free satellite images that shed light on the environmental conditions migratory animals face is something that Beck finds invaluable. The models provided the team with the means to think like a zebra, which has practical applications in management issues that concern humans.

“We’re getting close to the stage where for some organisms, we can use satellite data in management,” he said.

Satellite image of Botswana's Okavango Delta and Makgadikgadi Salt Pans.

Image Credit: 

Terra MODIS/ NASA

He sees the capability of using the team’s research in the future to design models that will help game managers, conservation managers, farmers and tour operators predict animal migration, whether it’s zebras or other migratory animals. Understanding the mechanisms that drive migratory behavior is increasingly important, Beck said, in terms of climate change, as migrating animals rely on multiple habitats.

If migrating animals lose any of the habitats they rely on because the timing of their food—insect hatches, greening plants, for example—no longer coincides with their travel, this can have serious consequences for their continued survival. Under climate change, things are likely to accelerate, Beck said. Many of the major migrations on Earth, especially on land, have already been lost, he explains, and few landscapes are left on Earth where the migratory animals do not have to share land resources with agriculture and other human activities.

"We need to know what the fate of those migrations is under climate change," Beck said. "Understanding when animals might come through, what drives them, what they’re looking for sometimes. Being able to predict that into the future is very useful information to managing those landscapes so that migratory animals and humans can coexist." Helping zebras continue a journey—newly discovered by the animals and their observers—may allow them to cope with changes in their environment, an outcome that is not so black-and-white.

The environmental data sets from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and the MODIS sensors will continue into the next decade with data provided by their follow-on missions: the Global Precipitation Measurement mission to launch in early 2014, and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite currently in orbit.

Lisa-Natalie Anjozian

Breaking News: Iowa Plant Drops Horse-Slaughter Plan

This is amazingly GREAT news for horses!!!  ~Declan

Iowa plant drops horse-slaughter plan

APNewsBreak: Iowa Plant Drops Horse-Slaughter Plan

LINCOLN, Neb. August 13, 2013 (AP)  As posted on abc News

By GRANT SCHULTE Associated Press

An Iowa company is dropping plans to slaughter horses in the wake of a federal judge's ruling that temporarily banned the practice as animal welfare groups challenge it in court, a company executive said Tuesday.

Keaton Walker, the president of Responsible Transportation, told The Associated Press Tuesday that the company can't afford to wait for more deliberations in court.

A federal judge issued a restraining order earlier this month in a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States and other groups against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The case has sparked an emotional national debate about how best to deal with the tens of thousands of wild, unwanted and abandoned horses across the country.

Walker's company had been given federal approval to slaughter horses at the company's Iowa plant starting Aug. 1. Walker said his Iowa plant will instead convert to a beef-only operation and seek new federal approval.

"We just can't sit with our heads down," Walker said. "We have to get back to work. Our main focus now is going to be beef."

Responsible Transportation was one of two companies that have secured federal permits for horse slaughter. Valley Meat Co. of Roswell, N.M., has been at the fore of the fight, pushing for more than a year for permission to convert its cattle plant into a horse slaughterhouse.

The Department of Agriculture in June gave the company the go-ahead to begin slaughtering horses. USDA officials said they were legally obligated to issue the permits, even though President Barack Obama's administration opposes horse slaughter and is seeking to reinstate a congressional ban that was lifted in 2011.

Blair Dunn, an attorney for Valley Meat Co., said the company was "still prepared to stay the course." But he said the United States Humane Society and other groups have filed such lawsuits because they know the companies "can't afford to sit around and wait."

Some TRUTH about horse slaughter...  ~Declan

Horse slaughter compounds surplus equine problem, doesn't solve it

Holly Gann, horse slaughter campaign manager
Humane Society of the United States
Posted:   08/09/2013 03:17:19 PM MDT on Alamogordo Daily News

Horse slaughter is a cause of, not a solution to, any surplus of horses in this country. The option to send horses to slaughter perpetuates overbreeding of horses, and more than 100,000 horses are sentenced to die yearly in slaughterhouses.

Former show horses, family pets and racers are purchased at auction, often by people misrepresenting their intentions. Slaughter actually hinders rescue efforts, as rescuers are routinely outbid by kill buyers seeking healthy animals bringing the best price per pound.

We have found that so-called unwanted horses, if rescued from the slaughter pipeline and given a second chance, go on to win shows, ride trails and provide joy to people. Slaughter supporters wish to dismiss the role horses play in our society and detach us from our emotions for them as our companions.

But they can't shake the majority of Americans' belief that these loyal, noble creatures deserve better than a cruel death in a slaughterhouse.

Horses deserve our protection, and the solution we seek is a ban on the slaughter of American horses, not only in the U.S. but throughout North America. The Safeguard American Food Exports Act (H.R.1094/S.541) will do just that.

My friend Vickery Eckhoff has written another great article on the issue of horse slaughter.  This time she writes about the fraudulent GAO report that has been used as a reason to open horse slaughter plants again in the United States.  This is a GREAT article to share with legislators who have relied on the GAO report to make their decisions.  Thanks again Vickery, for standing up for horses and telling the TRUTH about horse slaughter!!  ~Declan

8/08/2013 @ 1:45PM 

  

Vickery Eckhoff, Contributor

Uncovering the underground horse meat trade since 2011.

As posted on Forbes

GAO Accused Of Fraud As Horse Slaughter Plants Fight To Open

The GAO chose data to show a 60% increase in horse abuse and neglect (red line) even though Colorado Dept. of Agriculture actually shows a decrease in abuse and neglect subsequent to the plant closings in 2007 (blue line).

A 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report came under fire last week for misrepresenting data that was used to push Congress to end a five-year ban on funding horse meat inspections.

In a new study, “How the GAO Deceived Congress About Horse Slaughter,” the Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) ties fraudulent GAO data on horse abuse and neglect to a campaign by three Congressmen to reinstate the low-margin, poorly regulated horse-slaughter industry, which lost funding for required USDA inspections and shut down in 2007 after a long and costly legal battle at the local, state and federal level.

The EWA is an umbrella organization representing 290 member organizations in 21 countries. The release of its study and an accompanying YouTube video coincides with a fight over the planned opening of two plants in New Mexico and Iowa, pending a federal court decision that could put them in business within a matter of weeks.

Several other plants are also seeking inspections permits from the USDA at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of $400,000 per facility. The meat would be exported, except for some going to domestic zoos. It will not be available to U.S. diners, in any event.

GAO report 11-228 (entitled “Actions Needed to Address Unintended Consequences from Cessation of Domestic Slaughter”) was commissioned in 2010 by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) and published in June, 2011. Within several months, the three Congressmen stripped out the defunding language from the 2012 agricultural appropriations bill during a conference committee session, citing the GAO report’s claim that a surge in horse abuse and neglect was tied to the plant closings.

But that’s not true. Horse slaughter didn’t cease when the U.S. plants closed; it simply moved over our borders. Regardless, horse abuse and neglect was a relatively small problem during that period that was actually in decline.

The GAO, however, cherry-picked data to create the appearance of a huge and widening horse welfare crisis. It then sold the U.S. Congress and the public on the idea that bringing horse slaughter plants back to the U.S. could curtail an epidemic of inhumane treatment of horses.

The Equine Welfare Alliance’s new study zeroes in on the only real statistic in the GAO report: a purported 60% rise in horse abuse and neglect in the state of Colorado between 2005-2009 that has since been brandished by legislators and echoed by news organizations as proof that a lack of domestic slaughter facilities causes horses to suffer immeasurably.

As the GAO report itself states, “Comprehensive, national data are lacking, but state, local government and animal welfare organizations report a rise in investigations for horse neglect and abuse since 2007. For example, Colorado data showed that investigations for horse neglect and abuse increased more than 60% from 975 in 2005 to 1,588 in 2009.”

But the plants closed in 2007, not 2005 and the GAO had access to data through 2010. “By fudging the dates, the GAO blamed two years of increasing abuse on something that had not even happened yet and conveniently got rid of one year of declining abuse by omitting 2010,” the EWA study states.

The GAO report ignored data showing that horse abuse and neglect declined in six states after the last U.S. slaughter plants closed in 2007.

Further, the GAO had access to data from five other states, which it did not include in the report, and all of it disagreed with the GAO’s claim that “state, local government and animal welfare organizations report a rise in investigations for horse neglect…”

In January, 2011, six months before the GAO report was released, former U.S. Congressman Charles Stenholm, a lobbyist for the powerful Washington D.C. law firm, Olsson, Frank, Weeda, announced at a Las Vegas conference dedicated to restoring the slaughter industry that the report would be favorable to them. The leak was first acknowledged and then refuted by the GAO...

TO CONTINUE READING AND LEAVE COMMENTS ON VICKERY'S ARTICLE ON FORBES

<CLICK HERE>

Segway Polo Is The Wheel Deal

This looks really fun!  I wanna try! ~Declan

Segway polo is the wheel deal

By Horsetalk.co.nz on Aug 06, 2013 

Action from the 2010 European Polo Championship, held in Hemer. Photo: Waddehadde/Facebook

People keen on polo but without the riding skills or the resources to maintain their own string of top-notch ponies should perhaps be considering a more affordable option: Segway polo.

Very definitely not ordinary...  I would of never thought a horse would befriend a bear.  I guess anything is possible because the word it self says "I'm Possible".  ~Declan

Pony makes friends with a young bear

Originally published on Horse & Hound 18th July 2013  By Flora Watkins

 Look closely — no, your eyes are not deceiving you.

It’s not a Shetland pony nuzzling up to the Connemara, it is, in fact, a young bear.

Bears are native to British Columbia, Canada, where this picture was taken — but it still took the pony’s owner, Ruth Moore by surprise.

Mrs Moore has owned her seven-year-old 14.1hh gelding, Jack Frost, for nearly a year.
These extraordinary scenes were spotted by a neighbour, who took the photos while she was out.

Mrs Moore told H&H: “This is an unusual encounter as horses do not like the smell of bears and gallop off to a safe place.

“Jack is a very inquisitive pony. He’s very laid back and I guess he just wanted to be friends!”

Although bears are a common sight in the hills near Mrs Moore’s town of Lavington, they rarely venture down into the paddocks.

“Deer often pass through our property, eating our veggies and flowers and coyotes travel by as well,” she said.

“Bears occasionally pass through, though they mainly stay near the orchards when the fruit is ripening.”

Jack’s new friend is a cinnamon bear, thought to be around a year old.
Mrs Moore explains: “”The cinnamon bear is a colour phase of the black bear that is native to Colorado, New Mexico, Washington, Wyoming and Western Canada.”

Para-Equestrians Join Denmark's Biggest Show

I hope they do really well.  I know they will!  Just because you are handicapped doesn't mean you can't follow your dreams.  Always follow your dreams no matter what! ~Declan

Para-equestrians join Denmark’s biggest show

By Louise Parkes on Aug 06, 2013 in Just Briefly as posted on Horsetalk.co.nz

Denmark’s Stinna Kaastrup, pictured here with her former ride Labbenhus Snovs who sadly passed away last summer, will be determined to put the host nation on the medal podium at the JYSK FEI European Para-Dressage Championships in Herning, Denmark next month. © FEI/Liz Gregg

Para-Dressage athletes will make history when compete alongside their jumping and dressage counterparts at European level for the first time later this month.

The para-equestrians are lining up for the ECCO FEI European Championships 2013 in Herning, Denmark, which will be Denmark’s biggest sporting fixture of the year.

Thousands of spectators are expected to enjoy a feast of equestrian excellence at the MCH and JYSK Arenas during the six-day fixture, which begins on 20 August. The para-dressage riders will compete on August 21.

The home supporters will have plenty to cheer about, because their para-dressage riders are in flying form, having enjoyed a successful team outing in Mannheim, Germany just two months ago. At the previous European championships in Moorsele, Belgium in 2011, the British were the dominant force, but Denmark’s Stinna Kastrup prevented them from making a clean sweep of the medals and Danish athletes will be sure to put pressure on the rest once again this time around.

A total of 62 competitors from 20 nations will line out, and the battle for the team medals in the JYSK FEI European Para-Dressage Championships begins on 21 August. Following their phenomenal success at the London 2012 Paralympic Games there is no doubting the extraordinary strength of the British contingent who achieved a record haul of 11 medals, while the German Paralympic squad also exceeded all their previous accomplishments when taking seven medals in total.

At the 2011 FEI European Championships in Moorsele, the British already had the team and three individual titles under their belt before adding four more on the final afternoon. While many of the British contingent were seasoned campaigners, the 2011 fixture also saw the emergence of many new names including Helen Kearney, who put her name into the record books when clinching Ireland’s very first medal. Kearney went on to Olympic glory last summer, taking a further three medals there, and, flying in the face of a progressive degenerative disorder, the 24-year-old who also graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin in 2012, will be back in action at Herning with her horse, Mr Cool, under the watchful eye of trainer Heike Holstein.

Kearney is just one of the very many athletes whose spirit, courage, determination and skill has inspired colossal interest in the sport of Para-Dressage, which has continued to go from strength to strength in recent years. Britain’s Sophie Christiansen is another. A three-time Olympian, the 25-year-old received an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) award following her fabulous hat-trick of Olympic gold medals won at Greenwich Park last summer.

From the host-nation perspective, all eyes will be on Kaastrup, who took double-bronze and Freestyle gold at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in 2010 before going on to team and individual silver along with Freestyle gold in Grade 1b at the Europeans in Moorsele a year later. From there, her sights were then firmly set on Paralympic honours last summer only for tragedy to strike when her wonderful New Forest pony, Labbenhus Snovs, just 145cms tall and the perfect partner for his talented rider, died suddenly in the lead-up to the Games.

The 18-year-old athlete, who lives in Fyn, the third-largest of Denmark’s islands, was devastated. She had been riding Snovs since she was 13 years old and always described him as her “very best friend”. But, demonstrating the awe-inspiring resilience that places Para-Dressage athletes above all others, she has re-grouped and re-organised herself.

With her new horse, Steffi Graff, Kaastrup finished third in Grade 1b Freestyle and individual competitions at the British Festival of Dressage in Hartpury in early July. Kaastrup got Steffi Graf only four months earlier, but the partnership established itself almost immediately. “She is the most amazing horse I have ever met! From the first time I sat on her back she just accepted me and understood my signals. She gave me back the joy of riding, because every training session with her is a thrill!” the Danish rider enthused.

Looking forward to Herning she continued: “I missed riding for our amazing team last year (at the London 2012 Paralympic Games), and it is so impressive that the people behind the show have made it possible to combine three Championships (Dressage, Jumping and Para-Dressage) in one giant show on Danish ground. Also, of course, I want to show everyone that I’ve still got it. I can’t wait!” she said. She sees Herning as one more milestone on the road to yet another goal, the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, but she knows there is a lot more work to do before she gets there.

And on the form they showed at Hartpury (GBR), the British squad is going to present formidable opposition to all others at the JYSK FEI European Para-Dressage Championships in Herning. They proved unbeatable at their home fixture and, with Christiansen, Natasha Baker, Ricky Balshaw, Sophie Wells and the evergreen Anne Dunham at their disposal, they will be the ones to beat.
But as Kaastrup recently pointed out, “in riding and working with horses everything can happen. I think almost everybody on the (Danish) team has learned that lesson. So nothing is 100 percent certain until you are riding down the centre-line at these great events.”

The JYSK FEI European Para-Dressage team medals will be decided on Tuesday, August 22, the individual medals will be awarded on Saturday the 24th, and the Freestyle medals will be presented on the final day of the Championships, Sunday, August 25.