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The news horse owners need to know--published eleven times a year. Read by 30,000 horse owners in Pennsylvania and beyond. Don't miss another issue, subscribe today! |
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Reach our 35,000+ readers as they prepare their farms for the riding and training season. Bonus DistributionThis issue will be distributed at the Brandywine Carriage Driving Show and at all Lancaster Polo Association events and Brandywine Polo Club events This issue will also include a special feature on Pastures & FencingPasture & fencing-related advertisers who take a 1/4 page ad or larger will receive a FREE article about their business, written by our award-winning staff, in the June issue and featured on our website through July. Advertising Deadline
May 12, 2008 |
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Mutliple Factors Cause Cost of Keeping Horses to Skyrocket
by Suzanne Bush
As prices of fuel, feed and bedding rise simultaneously, stable owners in Pennsylvania are grappling with what might be called a perfect storm—a combination of events that is demolishing profits and wreaking havoc with business plans.
Fuel prices have tripled over the past three years. Grain prices are rising. Hay prices are rising. Bedding prices are rising. It might seem that fuel costs are the common denominator; but a closer look reveals another culprit that could bring even worse conditions for horse farms and those who depend on them.
Fuel prices are rising as supplies are shrinking. And worldwide demand for diminishing supplies of oil will likely continue pushing prices higher. Renewable energy sources are gaining traction because they seem to represent viable alternatives to oil and because people see them as less harmful to the environment. Whether so-called biofuels are actually more efficient and less polluting remains an open question. One thing is clear, though -- The effort to replace oil with biofuels is generating its own unanticipated crisis.
Thousands of acres of Midwest farmland are being
converted from producing grain for food to producing grain for fuel. And
that fact will radically alter the future for the equine industry here
and elsewhere. According to Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute,
"the food and energy economies, historically separate, are now merging.
In this new economy, if the fuel value of grain exceeds its food value,
the market will move it into the fuel economy. As the price of fuel
climbs, so will the price of food." And so will the cost of feeding
horses.
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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
How are rising prices and a slowing economy affecting you? What are you doing to cope? Email us at PAEquest@aol.com and let us know -- we will share your comments in a future article. |
Back From the Brink, Castle Rock Savors Hard Fought Success
by Terry Conway
Like many Pennsylvania horsemen, four years ago Pete Giangiulio was in debt and losing traction quickly.
On a cold and dank February afternoon he met his sister Barbara and her husband William Geraghty for what Giangiulio calls a rather grim business lunch at the Marshallton Inn. A practicing attorney in West Chester, Pa., Giangiulio laid out three scenarios for their Castle Rock Farm near Unionville that his father had purchased in 1957, and doggedly built it into a full-service thoroughbred operation.
"We could fold the tent, and have the value in the land where we never would have to work again," Giangiulio observed. "We could go through that season and minimize our cost by not breeding. Or we borrow the money and stay the course."
They voted to marshal their efforts for one last ditch effort so Giangiulio met with a local banker and tendered his pitch.
"I told them if the slots bill doesn’t pass I would sell, period, " he recalled. "I can live with a bad situation, but I can’t die with one. Hey, with no slots, Philadelphia Park and Penn National go out of business. Where are you going to run your horses?"
Read full article >>
Track Injury Reporting: Intriguing Numbers, Lots of Questions
by Suzanne Bush
Since last June, racetracks across the United States have been gathering statistics on race-day injuries to horses. This pilot study, initiated by the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, and underwritten by grants from the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Jockey Club, was designed to identify the frequency and types of injuries to racehorses, using a format that would standardize the data. The data presumably would yield clues that could lead to strategies for reducing catastrophic injuries to racehorses. At the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) meeting in December, preliminary results of the research were presented.
Are Synthetic Surfaces Safer?
One of the most talked-about features of the research focused on the ways racing surfaces might contribute to injuries.
"We all pretty much agree the book is still out on synthetic surfaces," says Dr. Jerry Pack, a Horse Racing Commission Veterinarian at Penn National Race Track, and a member of the AAEP’s Regulatory Veterinarians group. "I think the question remains, is this track going to be consistent throughout the year? Nobody knows that."
Read full article >>
Horse of the Year Donato Hanover Returns Home to Start Breeding Career
by Stephanie Lawson
It's the Coolmore of Standardbreds, the Three Chimneys of Pennsylvania. It's home to all the greatest stallions in that other race world of trotting and pacing.
Hanover Shoe Farms lies just outside Hanover, PA, just beyond the Adams/York County border. The buildings have a historic feel. Not palatial, but functional and solid, with the feel of history -- not only past but also in the making.
Horses bred by Hanover Shoe Farms have led the annual money earnings totals since the US Trotting Association started compiling figures. The babies born at the nearly century old breeding farm have gone on to win all the greatest Standardbred races -- the Hambletonian, the Kentucky Futurity, Little Brown Jug and Breeder's Crown.
Read full article >>
Barn Safety Expert Offers Fire Prevention Tips
By Suzanne Bush
Since the beginning of 2006, hundreds of thousands of animals—horses, cows, dogs, pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats and sheep—have died in barn fires in the United States. Nearly 500 of those animals were horses. Laurie Loveman, an expert in barn safety who is also a firefighter, has dedicated much of her life to helping people prevent barn fires. Loveman, an avid horsewoman, is a member of the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) Technical Committee on Fire Safety in Animal Housing Facilities.
For several years she has been keeping statistics on barn fires, their causes and their devastating consequences. "My original intent was to see what factors were involved; to find patterns. What I found through keeping this chart is that animals were dying in preventable fires, and the cost of prevention was very low when compared to the economic consequences of fire or other disaster. But, economics aside, the emotional toll we suffer, and often carry with us for the rest of our lives, is incalculable."
That toll manifests itself as a mournful litany of questions, as well as boundless grief. Haunted by the what-ifs and the what-might-have-been scenarios, people who have lost animals in barn fires often find it hard to recover the sense of balance and optimism they had when their animals were alive.
Loveman believes that horse owners can buy precious time with their horses by carving out a small amount of time to develop fire prevention and emergency evacuation plans. "Fire prevention, for the most part, consists of practices, the things we do on a day-to-day basis to maintain a fire-safe building. Knowing fire propagation requirements will help you to keep an eye out for possible hazards," she says.
New Equine Organization Empowers Cancer Patients and Their Families
by Suzanne Bush
Can horses heal broken spirits? Can they lift the troubled souls of human companions and set them on trails toward peace and reconciliation? Are horses miracle workers, or are they stoic teachers that lead humans to unleash the power of their own imaginations and spirits? If you ask Shiree Sansone of Chester County, PA, the answers are emphatically yes, yes, yes and yes. Sansone and her business partner Barbara Rosoff turned their lifelong love for horses into an opportunity for cancer patients—and their families—to experience the therapeutic benefits of working with and riding horses.
"Several studies have explored the positive therapeutic effects of horses on people," Sansone explains. "They’re known to be great healers." Rosoff agrees. "To me, horses are the most therapeutic creatures in the world."
The two women started Horse Power for Life because they are convinced that horses can lead humans to places where they can find answers, hope and healing. "We are offering free horsemanship programs to cancer patients and their families," Sansone says. The idea is that over the course of the 16-week program, students will focus on the horse, instead of the devastating illness they’re fighting.
"Everyone has lost someone to cancer," Rosoff says. "In the last year, I lost someone close to me, and it all just came together when we started talking about this idea."
Take The Reins Supports Melanoma Research
by Nancy Degutis
When an owner loses a battle against her horse’s melanoma, it can seem the odds of finding a cure are the same as they were for David when, in Biblical times, he took the field against Goliath.
Melanoma is a slow growing skin cancer that is usually fatal to its equine victims, most often grays. But one woman used her misfortune to found an organization that educates about the disease and is backing research to find a cure for it someday soon.
That woman, hunter rider Karen Witter, was on the verge of beginning her show season with her gelding, Smokin’ Magic, aka Chili. A veteran of three races when Witter bought him, she knew the five-year-old had tumors on his tail that wouldn’t affect a ring career. He was to have been her daughter, Meagan’s, amateur owner hunter, but she moved out West after college graduation, leaving Chili without a job. So Witter decided to show him herself. She started him in the schooling hunters, moving on to the suitable hunters and was on the verge of going into the adult amateurs. Then a large tumor emerged at his jaw line.
"He was having a hard time flexing his neck and jumping; it was affecting his entire balance," said Witter who tried in vain to find someone to work on the problem. "I came up empty, basically."
Remembering Jean King: Never Say Never
by Stephanie Lawson
Jean King was an extraordinary woman.
The daughter of big band leader Fred Waring was a noted microbiologist who contracted tuberculosis of the bone in 1976 through her work as a researcher. Confined to a wheelchair, she founded Independence Dogs to help herself and others in her plight. Through that work, training and placing dogs to help the disabled, she touched hundreds of lives. Through her close friendships she touched many more.
I met Jean in May, 2003. It was a trying time. Pennsylvania Equestrian's cover story – a big one – had fallen through just days before the paper was to go to press. In scrambling to find a story good enough for page one, I contacted the Nokota horse rescue group in Chester County, which put me in touch with Jean.
At age 72, Jean had adopted a wild Nokota horse that had mistakenly been included in a load shipped east from North Dakota. Unwanted and impossible to reload back on the truck, he was deposited in the barn of Jean's friend, Betty Lester. Though Jean was a relatively inexperienced horsewoman, she had adopted the completely unhandled three-year-old, and over 18 months had forged a bond that allowed her not only to control his every movement from her wheelchair but also to ride him, solo.
NEW: Free Online Directory of Public StablesThe Pennsylvania Equestrian website, www.pennsylvaniaequestrian.com, now includes a directory of stables offering services like boarding, lessons and training to the public. There is no charge to be listed."Not a day goes by that we don't receive multiple inquiries from people trying to find a place to board a horse, take lessons, etc.," publisher Stephanie Lawson said. "This free service will make it easier for riders and stables to connect." Click here to apply for your free listing >> The Sylvia Sidesaddle
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Pennsylvania Equestrian Wins
First Place Award for Editorial Excellence
Pennsylvania Equestrian won first place honors for editorial content at the American Horse Publications' annual Awards Competition. The awards competition, for material published in 2003, was part of the AHP's annual convention, held June 11-13 in Lexington, KY.
The article, "He Put the Life Back in Me," was the highest placed entry in the 'Personality Profile--Circulation Under 15,000' catagory, which drew 30 entries. Written by editor and publisher Stephanie Lawson, it appeared in the June, 2003 issue of Pennsylvania Equestrian.
"What a neat story this one is, about a handicapped lady and her wild horse," the judges, a panel of publishing industry executives, journalists and college communications professors, said.
