The mythical art of Howard David Johnson

If you love a touch of the fae in your art, this gallery may be right up your alley:

Modern scholars tend to believe that the Valkyries were actually mounted on wolves, rather than flying horses. Does the second pic ring any bells? It should:

It’s based on Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, painted by van Dyck around 1637. I’m not sure how well the trappings of absolute (albeit doomed) monarchy translate to a portrait of a mounted Valkyrie, but the horse is a definite classic. Check out the shank on that bit!

Top posts, 2007-02-28

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Most-viewed posts according to WordPress stats:

1. Dutch rescuers try to save trapped horses
2. Starving horses were part of an unusual breeding program
3. World’s smallest horse
4. Lorenzo and his Camargue horses
5. World’s largest horses
6. Barbaro immortalized by Breyer
7. 16 reasons to date a horseback rider
8. Barbaro update, and a challenge to those who say they love horses
9. Horse Lovers Blog Carnival II
10. TWH inspection group adopts tougher rules
11. Girl killed during rodeo parade
12. Apassionata with Andalusian stallion
13. How to tie a rope halter
14. Why we care…or not
15. Breeding out the usefulness?
16. Horse Lovers Blog Carnival
17. How to French braid a long mane
18. Barbaro roundup
19. New Zealand horses doing their part for charity
20. Horse rescue photo wins Zilveren Camera Award
21. Horses in the earth

Have a look through the archives, if you’ve time to browse them all; lots of good stuff there which you may not have seen.

The fourth Horse Lovers Blog Carnival

014roanqlookhorselakesideqmaxshpoilturesaminitlite, originally uploaded by Pixel Packing Mama.

…is now up at Experiments in Training Equines, with lots of good things to read.

Pony Friends on their way

From Gamersquad:

Nintendogs, the massively successful virtual canine simulator on the Nintendo DS has caused a sudden surge in third-party developers wanting to cash in on the title’s extensive popularity. Thus far we’ve had Catz, Dogz and Hamsterz from Ubisoft, and then there’s Purr Pals, which is inbound to the DS, and November last year saw Eidos Interactive announce that it was working on Pony Friends – also for the Nintendo DS.

The title, developed by Tantalus, a company based in Australia, features six pony breeds for lucky players to care for. The animals need grooming, petting, and feeding to remain contented, though there’s no mention in any press releases that the chance to muck out stables using the Nintendo DS stylus is on offer. Fear not, because the stylus is instead used to, and we quote, “remove stones from your pony’s shoes.” Oh, yes.

The barn of your dreams?

Check out this story from south Florida regarding some swanky barns:

They’re estates for pampered horses, places to enjoy a glass of wine and secluded retreats. These horse mansions have very human comforts: marble floors, imported European chandeliers, antique fox hunting prints, granite tile, pecky cypress, leather armchairs, landscaped courtyards, humidity-free hay store rooms, tongue-and-groove ceilings, flat-screen TVs, security cameras, sound systems, automatic bug spray systems.

Let’s think about this a moment…

• Marble floors: can’t be good for their legs
• Imported European chandeliers: be full of spiders and wisps of hay in no time
• Antique fox hunting prints: presumably not in the stalls, but you never can tell with some people
• Granite tile: around animals with hard yet vulnerable feet?!
• Pecky cypress: wtf? Is it hungry?
• Leather armchars: horses prefer to stand. Oh, all right. Think of the mice
• Landscaped courtyards: I could go for that
• Humidity-free hay store rooms: ooooo nice
• Tongue-and-groove ceilings: whatevs
• Flat-screen TVs: because you need to put your muck boots on to watch some of the current offerings on TV
• Security cameras: deffo
• Sound systems: I could see this getting obnoxious rather quickly
• Automatic bug spray systems: in Florida? Hell yes!

Do any of these things really add to the horses’ wellbeing? A few of them do, certainly, but it sounds like the rest of it is for people who want to enjoy being horse owners with all the grotty bits left out. This isn’t to say that horse ownership has to be a grubby ordeal, obviously, but…A friend of mine was boarding her horse at a place where some of the boarders never seemed to leave their stalls. When I asked her about it, she said the people would come out with their friends, pull the horse out of its stall, brag about it and bask in their friends’ coos of admiration, then leave again. That was about the full extent of their involvement with the animal. Maybe that isn’t what’s going on here but I’ll take good arena footing and a climate-controlled, secure tack room over pecky cypress any day, and that’s only partially because I don’t know what the hell pecky cypress is.

(I wonder if any of these barns are in Basura)

Another Arizona parade, another equine tragedy

What’s going on down there? “Whatever spooked a horse named P.J. remains a mystery three days after the 7-year-old male American Paint was put down at the Parada del Sol in Scottsdale.

P.J. reared back and impaled himself on a hay wagon pole early Saturday in the parade staging area, just south of Oak Street near Scottsdale Road.” Link

8000-year old horse figures found in Anatolia

Horse figures painted on rock formations in Eskişehir are the oldest in Anatolia, according to new archaeological research.  The research revealed that the first known horse figures date back to 6,000 B.C. and that the area was settled in the early Neolithic period.  Read more

License plates to help wild horses

Sally Summers displays the original painting that will be used for a wild horse plate before testifying Jan. 22 before the commission on specialty license plates. It was created by wildlife artists Jim McKew and Kelly Six.

Not content with merely honouring wild horses on coins, Nevada has gone a step further and added a wild horse and burro design as an option on state license plates. Proceeds from the plates, which should be available in a few months, will go to the nonprofit group Horse Power. Link

Knights in shining armour

The Roving Medievalist posted this great photo of equestrian armour at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Love the plumes!

Downloadable demo of horse racing game

From Kotaku: “The Post-Time website has a new downloadable sample of Post-Time Horse Racing available on their site.

The horse racing simulator includes a system that allows horses to evolve over a race season, multiplayer support, 200 horses, real-time changing odds and a new jockeying system.” If you like this sort of thing, give it a whirl.

Jenny the uncatchable donkey

A donkey named Jenny runs away from Kevin Hall, of Newport, Maine, Sunday, as Hall and his mule attempt to capture the donkey that escaped from a nearby farm.

Jenny the donkey has been leading everyone a merry dance for the past month. She took off from her new owners and has been wandering around in the woods behind their farm. Lacing her food with sedatives, bringing in a horse psychologist and attempting to lure her in with a male donkey have all failed. And you thought your equines were stubborn. Link

A horse the whole family can ride at once?

This might be your big chance. According to Way Out Auctions, “[at] 7 feet tall, 800 pounds, Freya happily carries 3 and 4 children, or 3 adults at a time! Her brother, Vlad, is Guinness Book of World Records Largest Rocking Horse at 1,200 lbs., 7 ft. 8 inches!” Bid on her here (auction ends March 1).

“One horsepower can give you the ride of your life”

Part of a series of advertising photos for an ad campaign for ATG, Swedish Horse Racing. Link (warning: lots of Flash)  (via Coolz0r)

Old man or young rider?

Link

Horse festival in the Philippines

This seems to have been a good weekend for horse festivals. Horse carriages and their drivers race to the finish line during the annual Festival of Horses in Cebu city, central Philippines February 24, 2007. The Festival of Horses is a tourist promotion activity in the island resort of Cebu. The winner of the event will get 3,000 pesos (US$62). (Link)