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Horses were first tamed at least 5,500 years ago, by peoples who not only rode them but milked them as well. Archaeological research has shown that the domestication of horses began at least 1,000 years earlier than thought, among the Botai culture that thrived in what is now Kazakhstan between 3700BC and 3100BC. A British-led team of scientists has discovered three lines of evidence that point to an equestrian tradition among the Botai, who lived in a region where wild horses are known to have been abundant. The findings, published in the journal Science, also show that the animals were...

To Hell with AP.

Chinese archaeologists probe origin of domestic horses through DNA www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-01 15:55:19 BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archaeologists are studying the DNA samples extracted from the bones of horses unearthed from ancient sites to probe the origin of domestic horses in China. It's still a mystery to archaeologists when and where horses were first tamed in China, said Cai Dawei, a researcher with the center of archaeological research for China's border area under the Jilin University in Northwest China. The DNA research will offer valuable clues on the study of migration, spread and domestication of horses, Cai said. A...

Scientists have traced the origin of the 'speed gene' in Thoroughbred racehorses back to a single British mare that lived in the United Kingdom around 300 years ago, according to findings published today in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The origin of the 'speed gene' (C type myostatin gene variant) was revealed by analysing DNA from hundreds of horses, including DNA extracted from the skeletal remains of 12 celebrated Thoroughbred stallions born between 1764 and 1930. "Changes in racing since the foundation of the Thoroughbred have shaped the distribution of 'speed gene' types over time and in different racing regions,"...

While you were preparing for Thanksgiving and President Obama was sparing the life of a couple of photo op turkeys, he also approved legislation that will result in the domestic slaughter of thousands of horses every year for human food. For the past half-decade the relatives of Flicka, Black Beauty and Seabiscuit have been spared the domestic livestock disassembly line -- the quick blow to the head, bleeding, eviscerating, slicing, grinding, packaging and cooking that comes with being edible around hungry Americans or shipped abroad as a delicacy for foreign palates.

There was a time when the saying “a man without a horse” was widely understood.  Its meaning may not be as quickly grasped as it once was.  However, the phrase certainly is applicable even in this age where many folks do not or have never owned a horse.  “A man without a horse” is one who is incomplete.  He is lacking.  Perhaps, a similar situation today would be a man without a car, a job, or his spouse.  Figuratively a man’s horse is that which gives him the desire to go forward and conquer in life and when it is...

Cowboy Mounted Shooting has a style of its own. Unlike any other Western equestrian sport, this one combines, fashion, leather and guns. No gender in the sport shows it off better than the girls. Meet some of the Girls of Mounted Shooting. Photos by Ken Amorosano, Lucinda Wood, James Cook and John Beckett Growing up, I was frequently told that I could do or be anything. I never heard there was a ceiling beyond which I could not reach. The American Dream was an open door to me, as it was to all Americans. We foster an ideal in this...

Ahead by a whisker: Stubborn stallion Alfie is Britain's most moustachioed horse... after refusing trim for 5 YEARS This is Alfie, Britain's most moustachioed horse - and he's so proud of his title he refuses to let stable hands meddle with his facial hair. The 15-year-old shire cross sports an astonishing seven-inch-long golden moustache.

On July 10, at 6:39 ET, the BBC ran a story with a headline that stated, "Pony 'beaten' into Hampshire lake dies".I am sure millions around the world had the same reaction as I did when I first read the accounts as reported by the BBC. We really do owe a debt of gratitude to the nameless reporter who informed us of this heinous act. Well, that is what many must have thought as they read the story first thing Monday Morning before they headed off to work. Then again, what if the reporter was telling a tale that...

A knight in shining armor isn’t always the key to a woman’s heart. Case in point: Jan Rudnicki, a 40-year-old Polish man who hopped onto a horse and plowed into a female’s house in hopes of sweeping her off her feet. According to the Croatian Times, a drunk and shirtless Rudnicki jumped on the equine, who galloped right through Gosia Domoslawska’s front door. As we all know, these sort of advances aren’t well received in instances of unrequited love, so an uninterested Domoslawska called authorities after Rudnicki stormed through her place. The faux savior could spend up to five years...

Animal-Welfare Groups Are Joining Ranchers in a Push to Revive an Industry That Died in 2007 Less than four years after the last equine slaughterhouses in the U.S. closed down, an unlikely coalition of ranchers, horse owners and animal-welfare groups is trying to bring them back. The group, gathering in Las Vegas this week for a conference called Summit of the Horse, aims to map out a strategy for reviving an industry that slaughtered as many as 100,000 horses a year in the U.S. before it was effectively shut down by congressional action in 2007. Advocates say the slaughterhouses could...

BAR staff at the Humpty Doo Hotel got a surprise on New Year's Eve when a patron rode a horse into the pub and ordered a beer. Riding bareback and wearing no more than shorts and a pair of thongs, Trevor Yeend steered horse Elvis through the crowd and went straight for the bar. The 48-year-old jockey said it was easier to ride to the bar than walk. "I think people were a bit stunned," he said. "But it was just another night at the Humpty Doo pub I guess." Newsbreaker Dave Grant snapped a photo of Mr Yeend and...

In the Galilee region of Northern Israel, a tourist captured this video footage of three horses galloping down the road in the opposite lane in front of them. The scene soon took a bizarre turn however, when a car came towards the horses. The two smaller horses swerved to avoid the vehicle, but the third horse decided to try his equestrian skills by jumping over the car instead. Unfortunately he was a tad bit low on his jump, because the horse leaped straight at the car putting his front legs through the windshield before jumping out and over the roof....

In the Galilee region of Northern Israel, a tourist captured this video footage of three horses galloping down the road in the opposite lane in front of them. The scene soon took a bizarre turn however, when a car came towards the horses. The two smaller horses swerved to avoid the vehicle, but the third horse decided to try his equestrian skills by jumping over the car instead. Unfortunately he was a tad bit low on his jump, because the horse leaped straight at the car putting his front legs through the windshield before jumping out and over the roof....

As a blind Muslim woman, Mona Ramouni has had to make do without a guide dog her whole life. The 28-year-old's strictly religious parents would not allow a dog in the house, considering the animal unclean. But then Miss Ramouni stumbled across a website article about miniature guide horses in April 2008. 'It was something that I never thought about for myself,' she said. The psychology student used three years of savings from her job at a Braille proofreading company to pay for a horse to be trained to act as her guide. Since welcoming three-year-old guide horse Cali into...

Back in 2004, when academics unearthed skeletons found at a house in the ancient Roman town that was covered in ashes in 79 AD, they thought it belonged to an extinct breed of horse... What happened really was that there seems to have been a mix-up in the lab, which led to horse DNA being combined with donkey DNA, creating an artificial hybrid that actually never existed. Six years ago, the skeletons of equids having belonged to a rich Roman household in Pompeii were analyzed. There were found in the stables of a probably wealthy politician, and all five of...

HAMILTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A teen's spirit week stunt has landed him in hot water. Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School Senior Dan Depaolis, dressed in medieval garb, rode a horse into the school's parking lot as part of spirit week. What he, and his parents, thought was a good-natured stunt, the school deemed dangerous. Depaolis was suspended from school for two days. The vice principal allegedly suspended the 17-year-old even after the boy’s father explained that the horse was brought in on a trailer and that no one was in danger. The father tells FOX25 the school compared the...

HAMILTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A teen's spirit week stunt has landed him in hot water. Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School Senior Dan Depaolis, dressed in medieval garb, rode a horse into the school's parking lot as part of spirit week. What he, and his parents, thought was a good-natured stunt, the school deemed dangerous. Depaolis was suspended from school for two days. The vice principal allegedly suspended the 17-year-old even after the boy’s father explained that the horse was brought in on a trailer and that no one was in danger. The father tells FOX25 the school compared the...

Visions of Judgment: The Horsemen of Revelation The "four horsemen of the Apocalypse"— this latter term being the Greek name for the book of Revelation—have intrigued Bible readers for centuries. What do they represent? The implications for mankind are staggering. In this first article of a series, we introduce the overall prophecy and look in detail at the first horseman. By Darris McNeely Few sights are as stirring as a scene of horsemen galloping across a landscape. Moviemakers use such scenes to add drama, mystery and power to their stories.In Revelation 6, Christ uses four horsemen to represent the first...

This is a first, and it's not something to be proud of, but I have to be honest: I didn't actually ingest this week's "I'm Eating What?!?" products. Yes, the whole aim of this column is to chomp down on unusual things, swallow, research and report. But when something smells so gawd-awful that it makes me want to wretch -- no gig is worth that. (My friend and fellow taster, a particularly vociferous bacon-lover, even pulled the Jew card as an excuse for not trying the products, claiming they weren't kosher. Girl, puuuuhhhlleeease.) However, we are pleased to report that...

Andrew O'Hehir of Salon is a critic I admire, but he has nevertheless written a review of "Secretariat" so bizarre I cannot allow it to pass unnoticed. I don't find anywhere in "Secretariat" the ideology he discovers there. In its reasoning, his review resembles a fevered conspiracy theory. In this example , we do not find proof that Obama is a Muslim Communist born in Kenya. No, the news is worse than that. It involves Secretariat, a horse who up until now we innocently thought of as merely very fast. We learn the horse is a carrier not merely of...

This article is about a young teen, a sophmore at a private school near Philadelphia, PA, who rides his horse, a 12-year old Percheron gelding, to school everyday. This is an interesting story. He seems quite able to handle the responsibilities of arranging to do this activity by getting out of bed before sun-up just to get to school, four miles away, on time every day. From getting permission to keep his horse at the school during the day, to building the corral there and doing the maintenance himself, and still managing to participate in after-school activities, I found this...

LEON—An Amish teen who tried to flee police faces charges of alcohol possession and “overdriving an animal” after he crashed his getaway vehicle— a horse and buggy.

Video: Kathy Griffin, on the July 13 edition of her Bravo TV show, trashed Senator Scott Brown's daughters as "prostitutes." CNN's John King and Dana Bash also appeared on the program. Bash can be seen laughing at Griffin's joke.

Mystery surrounds a man wearing a horse's head who has been captured on Google's Street View in Aberdeen. The man - who has become known as "horse-boy" - can be seen in the Hardgate area of the city. The sighting has become a popular attraction on Google's service, which offers a photographic map of streets. The man is wearing dark trousers, a purple shirt - and a brown and white horse's head. Dozens of BBC news website users have e-mailed from across Europe to say they know who horse boy is. Others have sent in images of the mystery horse-head...

LLANWRTYD WELLS, Wales, - As has happened almost every year since 1980, a horse won the annual Man vs. Horse race Saturday in Wales. Sly Dai covered 22 miles of mixed terrain on the edge of the Brecon Beacons in 2 hours and 7 minutes, The Daily Telegraph reported. The fastest human in the race was 10 minutes slower. "It's great to have won," said Llinos Jones, who rode her own horse past the finish line. "I'm a local girl and I've been coming to see the race since I was a little girl but this was the first time...

ELMONT -- You weren't going to get Sarah Palin to talk politics on Belmont Stakes Day. The former Republican vice presidential candidate was at Belmont Park to watch First Dude, a horse which was named after her husband Todd, run in the Belmont Stakes.

Liberty flourished and those who would defeat her pressed their wills on distant shores. Wherever Liberty was oppressed, “Free Men” rose and ruined the yoke that would constrain them; the world saw America as the shining star of freedom and its defender at all cost. Despot after despot dashed their oppressive wills against the walls of Freedom and time after time, continent after continent, they were defeated. With direct assault failing the oppressors of men would need a new tactic, if Liberty could not be controlled from without it must be stolen from within. Thus began the construction of the...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Cathy Moreland was in Dallas when her Pennington Bend home was submerged to the gutters by floodwaters over the weekend. Her only thought was that her animals be saved. Her brother, Judge Casey Moreland, and her son, Casey Weaver, made a desperate attempt: They got a dog out first, then moved on to Cathy Moreland's six horses. Three horses were saved, two died and one was missing. Casey Moreland and Casey Weaver battled off snake after snake in the pitch-black, chest-high water, Nashville TV station WSMV reported. Then, an old high school friend called Cathy Moreland and...

Apr. 28 - A newborn horse 14 inches tall and weighing just six pounds could be the world's smallest

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." — Abraham LincolnBarb Wire Johnny and I had a great adventure planned; we would ride East to the Alaska Highway, turn South and ride through Fort St John to Dawson Creek. There was a lady who had ridden in the Olympics or something who was going to do a riding exhibition. We knew this for a fact; a flyer had come to the main ranch and we had studied it for hours. Now this was a big deal in the Peace River...

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Prominent trainers Jeff Mullins and Doug O'Neill have been given suspensions and fines by state regulatory agencies after two of their starters tested in excess of the permitted level of total carbon dioxide.

I haven't figured out yet who will win the Kentucky Derby, but I have figured out how that horse will win -- by coming from way, way back. With the group that's set to line up at the starting gate Saturday at Churchill Downs, the pace for this Derby figures to be among the fastest in the history of the race. If so, any horse who gets anywhere near the lead is doomed to fail

New bill would make it near impossible to legally consume horse meat in FloridaEquine diners might find it hard to stomach the latest changes proposed to make it harder to buy and sell horse meat, but Mr. Ed is somewhere naying in approval. Additional restrictions on horse meat consumption have cleared the Florida House as part of an animal protection bill. The measure won unanimous approval Wednesday and will probably get similar support in the Senate. Current law bars the sale of horse meat for human consumption unless clearly stamped, marked, and described as being for that purpose. But that...

Driver Charged With Following Too CloselyThe man, whose horse-drawn carriage was smashed in downtown Atlanta when a car ran into it and sent multiple people to an area hospital, wants the driver of that vehicle to apologize to his horse. "I felt like I was shot out of a cannon," Donald Borchardt told Channel 2 Action News Action News reporter Linda Stouffer. Borchardt said the crash left him with seven broken bones and a chipped neck. Driving the carriage was something he did part-time because he loves horses and people. Now he needs weeks of full-time recovery. "I have a...

Paul Revere's Ride Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light,-- One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every...

Digger joins the Army http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7082137.ece

Secretariat Foaled 40 Years Ago by David Schmitz (Secretariat, shown as a 2-year-old, was foaled March 30, 1970) March 30 marks 40 years since the birth of 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat at Christopher T. Chenery’s The Meadow near Doswell, Va. It’s a date well worth remembering by any racing fan but especially by those who were around during Secretariat’s racing days and more so by those lucky enough to see the strikingly handsome chestnut colt with three white stockings in action. Secretariat’s magnetism was evident soon after the colt’s birth. Chenery’s daughter, Penny, was so overwhelmed after getting her...

This is the biggest challenge to New York racing in a long time. Monmouth Park, in New Jersey, will offer the highest daily average purses in America in what could be an elite thoroughbred meeting in direct competition with Belmont and Saratoga. The one-year Monmouth experiment, which cleared a major hurdle by gaining the approval of horsemen on Monday, runs from May 22 to Sept. 6 and offers daily average purses of $1 million. By comparison, Saratoga Race Course in 2009 offered $730,000 daily to lead the nation. Belmont Park this year runs from April 30 to July 18 and...

BAD weather conditions in Britain and Ireland have hit the fixture list, leaving no racing on Sunday in either country. The all-weather card at Southwell was the first to fall victim shortly after 9am, when clerk of the course Roderick Duncan decided to abandon the meeting on safety grounds. Duncan explained: "The track's fine but all the other roads around are covered in four inches of snow and it's extremely dangerous." Britain's other fixture at Sedgefield was the second casualty of the day. Officials were forced to cancel the card at 10am due to a frozen track.

My wife and I visited Midevial Times this week and found the horses and performances entertaining. Notice the horse kick backwards in midair. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osswh8pDjBo

LEOPARDSTOWN FROZEN OUT Sunday's meeting at Leopardstown, featuring the MCR Hurdle, has been cancelled. (More) SNOW-GO AT TAUNTON Monday's fixture at Taunton has become the latest meeting to have fallen by the wayside. (More) AYR GROUNDED BY HEAVY FROST Officials at Ayr have been left with no option but to call off Monday's meeting. (More) SNOW JOKE FOR RACING Wayne Hutchinson joins the rest of the racing world by longing for the big thaw. (More)

Former High Ranking Soviet Spy Warns of Dem’s Marxist Reshaping of America Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 11:44 AM Red Horizons Ion Mihai Pacepa, who wrote about the brutal Romanian Marxist Nicolae Ceausescus, fears the Marxism invading our shores.As democrats continue their backroom deals and billion dollar buyoffs to reshape the American economy and culture a former high-ranking Soviet spy sent out a warning this week on the dangerous Marxist policies of the majority party. Christian News Wire reported, via Transsylvania Phoenix: The highest-ranking Soviet and Eastern Bloc Intelligence Official ever to defect to America (in 1978) — who went on...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration said Wednesday it is going forward with a contentious plan to round up about 2,500 wild horses in Nevada. A spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said herds in the Calico Mountains Complex in northwestern Nevada are overpopulated and need to be reduced to protect the horses and the rangelands that support them. "The current population in the five Calico herd management areas is three times what the range can handle, so this gather will ensure high-quality habitat for the wild horse and burros and other wildlife while protecting the public rangeland from overuse,"...

PARIS - Many people love horses and traditionally, many French people have loved them even more with a side of salad. That passion, however, has slowed to a trickle in the last couple of years as crisis-hit French consumers buy less meat and years of campaigning by animal rights groups take effect. Looking to ram home their advantage, campaigners have launched a pre-Christmas blitz in Paris featuring posters of riding school ponies and graceful yearlings aimed at rending the hardest of hearts. "Every year in France, riding school horses like Caramel are sent to the abattoir," says one poster by...

(ENS, Rome) The Emperor of Rome, Gaius Caligula, announced yesterday that he had become a convert to Christianity, and that the Roman Empire would now become the "Episcopalian Empire." In celebration of this momentous event, he said that he would make his horse, Incitatus, a bishop in the Episcopal Church. "I have learned that the Episcopal Church is a very inclusive church," he said in an interview with Empirical News. "Their Presiding Bishop has said that she will take orders to consecrate any bishop elected in accordance with the rules. Incitatus has been baptized, and so now under the Church's...

The photo, dubbed 'Partners' was taken by photographer Bragi J. Ingibergsson on a Canon EOS 5D camera in Hafnarfjördur in Iceland. Judges praised Mr Ingibergsson's "vision and perseverance to give an ordinary scene significance and a sense of wildness". As well as winning the Planet Earth category, he also walked away with the overall prize as the judges commended the shot's "simple and quiet nature".

The Editors of The Fashion Time Magazine searching out for the most stylishly attired star of the day found… When Sarah Jessica Parker steps over the red carpet, you can be sure, she’ll inject a dose of Carrie Bradshaw’s sexiness.

Ancient DNA retrieved from extinct horse species from around the world has challenged one of the textbook examples of evolution - the fossil record of the horse family Equidae over the past 55 million years. The study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved an international team of researchers and the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) based at the University of Adelaide. Only the modern horse, zebras, wild asses and donkey survive today, but many other lineages have become extinct over the last 50,000 years. ACAD Director Professor Alan Cooper says despite an excellent...

It was, in a word, electric. Hialeah Park, after an eight-year slumber, roared back to life Saturday afternoon -- attracting a crowd of 26,874 eager to watch horses once again gallop down one of the world's most famous racetracks. The packed house cheered at the 1:05 start time, followed by another boisterous shout when, once the fourth race had ended, the track's signature pink flamingos flew overhead en masse.