Choosing a livery ought to be easy but it may take a few moves to find the right fit of cost, location, horse care and people. It’s a tricky thing, finding the right place for you and your horse. If your horse and riding are a large part of your life, the decision of where to board your horse may be even more important. Asking your friends is a great place to start, since you may want to know someone at the livery and have a friend to start out with.A second choice may be the classified ads, word of mouth or local tack shop.

What Kind of Riding Do You Do?
Each discipline has its own philosophies and also prejudices about other riders and their horses. Its best to find a livery with compatible values; if you have a Thoroughbred who needs lots of turnout, don’t go to a saddlebred livery where turnout is limited or unheard of. Liverys that are geared towards showing may have different requirements for their horses than liverys that are primarily for trail or pleasure riding; they may want their horses inside more or give them a performance grade grain.

Do They Have a Trainer?
If you want to take lessons and don’t have a trailer, it may be best if you also see if there’s a trainer available for lessons. Ask around and find out what clients think of her teaching, experience and personality.

What Is the Condition of the Livery?
Find out how long they’ve been in business and that will usually lead into a discussion about the livery and its upgrades. You can tell alot by looking for loose boards, rust or poor fencing. Make sure to check out your horses stall or shed and see if it’s in good shape or needs repair. Is the livery clean and tidy? Is there a board for notes, contact information and a schedule for turnout?

What Kind of Turn Out Is There?
Find out how many acres are used for turnout. Some liverys like to have as many horses as possible to increase their cash flow, so the horses might not really get out much. The ratio of horses per acre is important to check out. Also find out what kind of grass is it – new or well established? How often do the horses go out; many horses prefer to go out every day. Do they get rotated from a paddock to field or just stuck in a paddock? If your horse needs a lot of turnout to stay sane, its critical to know he’ll be turned out on a consistent basis.

And, don’t forget the humans. If you go to a new livery by yourself, you’ll probably want to have some friends to ride with. Find out, if you can, how often people ride at the livery and if they meet socially outside the livery for get-togethers. If the livery is large enough, they usually have holiday parties and celebrate birthdays. The right livery can become an extended family; and providing friendships for you and your horse for many years.
 
Edna X Wilson is a writer for www.HorseClicks.com

Scientists have discovered DNA causes fast ageing in horses

White horses, such as racing’s Desert Orchid or the Lone Ranger’s Silver, are actually mutants whose defective DNA carries a gene that accelerates ageing and rapidly turns their coats grey, scientist have discovered.

Such horses would probably never have survived in the wild but for one particular white horse, born thousands of years ago, which so caught the eye of ancient humans that they protected it and did their best to breed more, according to a new study.

They were so successful that the same horse became the ancestor of almost all white horses born since. It means that Silver and Desert Orchid, which won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1989 and the King George IV Chase four times, were probably related.

The key finding of the researchers, at Uppsala University in Sweden, is that almost all white horses seem to carry an identical gene, implying that it originated in a single common ancestor.

White horses are unlikely to have survived in the wild. The white colouring makes them easy prey for predators, while the gene sharply raises the risk of such horses getting skin cancer. This implies that humans probably intervened to make sure they flourished.

“It is a fascinating thought that once upon a time a horse was born that turned grey and then white and the people that observed it were so fascinated that they used the horse for breeding so that the mutation could be transmitted from generation to generation,” said Leif Andersson, who led the study. The research will be published in Nature Genetics today.

Today about one horse in 10 carries the mutation, dubbed the “greying with age” gene. Such horses are brown, chestnut or black when they are born but their coats turn white within about six years.

They are distinct, however, from the rarer albino horses, which are white at birth.

Samantha Brooks, a geneticist and equine expert at Cornell University, New York, said the mutation in the “greying with age” gene meant that the pigment cells – or melanocytes – in the hair follicles in effect “dried up” early in life. The hairs keep growing but without any pigment they become white.

The absence of the pigment means the skin is less protected from sunlight and so is at greater risk of skin cancers.

“About 75% of grey horses aged over 15 years have a benign form of melanoma that may develop into a malignant melanoma,” said Andersson.

The discovery could shed light on ageing and cancer development in humans, too. White horses appear to be going through an ultrafast version of what happens in people.

Historians believe wild horses were first tamed by humans about 10,000 years ago on the steppes of central Asia. It was probably there that the first white horse was born. Since then, white horses have become associated with legend and kingship. Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek myth, is usually depicted as a grey.

King Arthur is said to have ridden a white horse, as is William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings in 1066.

“They have this mythical image of purity and sanctity about them,” said Brooks. “They have this innocent trait about them.”

Sonya Webster, who keeps a grey mare and a stallion at End House stud farm near Clitheroe, Lancashire, said she liked them because they stood out from the crowd. There were, however, drawbacks: “They are difficult to keep clean and more likely to get sunburnt.”

source: timesonline.co.uk