Other Blogs Worth Checking Out

Today's the last day of May, which means that it's the last day of the Blogathon that I've been participating in (and successfully completed, by posting every day this month)!

I will still post on my blog, but it will probably be more like once or twice a week instead of everyday.

If you're worried about going into withdrawals you are welcome (and encouraged) to visit old blog posts. But some of you have already read them all (several times and commented) thank you!

So I wanted to end this month with links to some blogs that I follow that write about similar topics.

Extraordinary Dogs and Extraordinary Horses are two blogs written by the same person. They are full of resources: research to back it up, grants in case you're interested in working with those animals, and charities if you're looking to sponsor someone else. The author of the blogs is a fabulous person that helped me get set up on linkedin and offered me practical advice for my blog.

Animal Friends is a great blog for cat and dog owners looking for more information about their pets. They've posted about such topics as wet food vs dry food, animal allergies, and understanding cat behavior. They also often post about animals that are up for adoption if you are looking for a new pet.

I stumbled across Coop and Cottage when I was doing research for my Respect for Chicken Day post. And I am so glad that I did! The author is a wonderful writer that shares her stories about her chickens, her children, and most recently some horses. You should definitely check her blog out!

If you want to know what it's like owning a service dog, Life With a Hearing Dog is a good blog to read. This is another blog that I discovered while looking for information for one of my posts (Hearing Ear Dog). I appreciate that she writes as herself and not her dog so you really get to know what it's like.

Assistance Dog for Autism is a fun blog by the mother of a young boy with Autism. She writes about her son and his dog's adventures. I think I also enjoy this one so much because they live in Ireland so I get to learn about what it's like there.

Dog Nerd 101 is written by a woman that trains her dogs so it's a good resource to learn about training behaviors beyond the normal "sit. stay. roll over." She also is a psychologist so she goes into some of that as well.

Do you have any cool animal blogs that you follow?

Memorial Day

What do Rifleman Khan, G.I. Joe, Simon, and Upstart have in common?

You might think they are all cartoon characters from the popular 80's t.v. series but, they were all very real heroes. Heroes that happened to be animals.

These animals have all been awarded the Dickin Medal for "conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving or associated with any branch of the Armed Forces or Civil Defense Units."

Photo from wikimedia

Rifleman Khan was a one of 27 dogs to receive the medal. He was a part of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and paired with Corporal James Muldoon. One night in 1944 the two of them were on a boat together on their way to an important battle when they were spotted and fired upon. Rifleman Khan was able to swim to shore, but he discovered that Muldoon was not a swimmer. The dog went back while still under fire and brought his handler to shore, dragging him far enough out of the water to be safe.

G.I. Joe was one of 32 birds to receive the medal. This pigeon saved an entire town in Italy from being bombed. Calvi Vecchia's bombing was scheduled for October 18, 1943 but G.I. Joe brought the message to the Allied Troops that the town had already been taken by some British Troops just in time. His speed saved over 1,000 lives including both the villagers and the British Troops.

Simon was the only cat to receive the medal. He started as a sickly stray cat that was stowed away on the HMS Amethyst. He quickly earned his keep on the ship by keeping the rat population in check. After an attack by the Chinese that killed Lieutenant Commander Skinner and seriously injured Simon you'd think that he'd retire. Instead Simon raised the men's morale by continuing his job of catching rats.

Upstart was one of 3 horses to receives the medal. He was a police horse on duty when a building was bombed near him. With the glass and other building parts flying around, not to mention the noise, you'd think that the horse would spook. Not Upstart. He was recognized for his ability to remain calm at that time, allowing his rider to direct traffic and maintain order.

If you're interested in reading about the other Dickin Medal recipients, wikipedia has a great list. Keep in mind that the award has been given out 63 times, so if you prefer a shorter list BuzzFeed has chosen 15 they think are the coolest. I previously wrote a post about Roselle, another dog that received the Dickin Medal, after helping her owner get out of the Twin Towers and to safety on September 11th.

Lastly, in my research for this post I found a beautiful poem called "The Soldier's Kiss". It's about a war horse dying and how the soldier responds. Here's a stanza from it:

"Only a dying horse! he swiftly kneels,

Lifts the limp head and hears the shivering sigh

Kisses his friend, while down his cheek there steals

Sweet pity’s tear, "Goodbye old man, Goodbye"."

Please go here to read the whole poem.

Today is a day to remember all of our fallen heroes both human and animal.

Exercise With Your Pet- Balance

This blogathon (and my friend and fellow blogger, Veronica) are pushing me to do things with my blog that I've been wanting to do. Today's post is the beginning of a once a month series "Exercises You Can Do With Your Pet". Please let me know what you think!


Balance is an important aspect of fitness. Deficits can be an indicator that someone has a high risk of falling and will likely experience hip fractures.

As with other fitness related aspects, balance can be improved through practice, but who wants to stand on one leg for several minutes?

There's an easy way to integrate your pet into your balance workout making it more fun for both of you.

Balance can be practiced many different ways; I've listed some from easy to hard. I'd suggest starting with the easier ones at first especially if you are doing them with your pet. Once you both get used to it, you can move to the harder positions.

1. Stand with feet together.

2. Stand with feet in half tandem

3. Stand with feet in tandem.

4. Stand on one leg.

You can also make it more challenging by changing the surface that you are standing on. Find a foam cushion or rounded surface and go through the positions again. NOTE: when you're on uneven surfaces, make sure that you are barefoot, and start out with your feet shoulder width apart. Work up to the harder positions.

Now it's time to add your pet!

If it's a pet dog, play fetch while in the different positions. Throwing a ball is going to add to the workout and make it more challenging to balance.

If it's a pet cat, wave a stick with a ribbon on the end for your cat to chase while you're in the different positions. Again, moving the stick will challenge your balance.

If it's a pet horse, brush the horse while in the different positions.

Get creative if you have other animals as pets!

As you work on balance you are activating your core muscles to keep you upright. If you get to the point where you are standing on one leg, you are strengthening that leg. So you get increased muscle strength and balance and the best part is that you get to spend time playing with your pet!


Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. Use your best judgement when you are participating in these activities. Do not try if you are already at risk for falls unless cleared by a health care professional.

Care Farming

My friend posted a really cool infographic about how much land you would need to be able to support your family.

If you choose, you can use that same amount of land to not only support your family but also help others heal along the way.

In the UK, they call this "care farming".

Basically it involves using your farm to "provide health, social, or educational care services" to people.

I love that the UK has a website devoted to it. Even more exciting is that Prince Charles held a recognition luncheon for National Care Farming Initiative's 5 year anniversary. Having that kind of support probably helps farmers find funding, which makes the choice to become a care farm a little easier.

Here's a video from one care farm called Highfields Happy Hens that works with kids involved in the court system.

I wish that we had some kind of directory of care farms here in the US.  The ones that I am aware of are:

Green Chimneys (I've posted about them before here)
http://greenchimneys.org/

Tranquility Farm
http://www.tranquilityfarmequestrian.com/

Forget Me Not Farm
http://forgetmenotfarm.org/index.html

McKenna Farms
http://www.mckennafarmstherapy.org/

Sanctuary One
http://www.sanctuaryone.org/about.html

Gentle Barn (I've posted about them before here)
http://www.gentlebarn.org/

Please feel free to add any that you know to the list. Maybe we can create our own care farming webpage for the US and then eventually around the world!

Seeing Eye... Horse?

Most people have heard of seeing eye dogs, but what about a seeing eye horse?

For some, having a dog is not an option because of a fear, allergies, or even because they are considered unclean. But that doesn't mean that they have to miss out on the independence and comfort that a service animal provides.

The ADA revised the provisions on service animals to include the use of miniature horses. This is a victory for people that can't use dogs for whatever reason.

Horses are good choice for a service animal for several reasons. The average working life for a service dog is 6-8 years. Since horses in general have a longer life span than dogs, the same is true of their working lives, 25-30 years.

The sound of the horse's hooves also do a better job alerting someone of the changing ground cover than a dog's paws. Hooves echo differently on tile, wood, and carpet.

Another plus to miniature horses is that they don't get fleas.

I'm not suggesting that miniature horses are overall superior to dogs as service animals.

The horses require enough space for outdoor living when they aren't working. (Otherwise they can get health problems from being inside all the time.)

They also don't look for companionship in the same way that dogs do normally. And they aren't as playful as dogs.

Dogs have been trained to be service animals for people who are blind, deaf, diabetic, prone to seizures and the list goes on. Currently miniature horses have only been trained as guide animals for people who are blind.

I was able to get a lot of information from The Guide Horse Foundation who actually supply guide horses free of charge after the person complete the training course. Unfortunately, they aren't taking any new applications right now because they are overwhelmed with requests.

But you can watch this video of Panda a miniature horse that was clicker trained as a guide horse and see how this works.

I Know it's Cinco de Mayo but...

There are so many options of places to volunteer or intern to do animal assisted therapy around the world, I didn't want to just limit this list to Mexico. (although one called Casi has a fabulous photo gallery you should check out)

I do want to put this disclaimer out there, I've not used any of these companies nor am I being paid by any of them. I just thought it would be something interesting to post about since summer is coming up. Maybe you haven't figured out what you want to do in your time off. Maybe you're due for a vacation. Here are some options that you can look into.

You can travel to Chile and practice Equine Facilitated Learning as you work with children with mental and emotional disorders. (Make sure you can speak Spanish well and have at least 4 weeks that you can commit to being there.)

If you want to focus more on the physical benefits of working with horses, Argentina has a good project in place for you. They focus on movement, posture, and muscle control of the rider, to aid physical recovery. Another plus about this one is that you don't have to commit to a full month.

Maybe your Spanish isn't so good. Then Aldeas de Paz in Venezuela might be more your speed. They also work with horses, this time with disadvantaged youth, and they allow volunteers with limited Spanish. You can also go through Frontier to set this placement up.

Working with horses might not be all that you want to do. In Ecuador, you work in an orphanage in the morning and then assist with "Horse Guided Empowerment" lessons in the afternoon. The cool thing about this one is that the money you pay ($500 per month) to volunteer there, actually finances clients who can't pay.

Costa Rica sounds more like a vacation destination for some people. You can volunteer there too! Eden Ranch teaches you all about horses, as well as gardening. On their website they mention "each year Eden Ranch provides riding lesson, day camps and adventure trail rides to children who are at risk, disabled or have special needs." You can stay for as short as 2 weeks.

Speaking of disabled, Cape Town offers equine therapy to physically disabled children. This program have been in place since 1983 so it is well established. If you're looking for something to do for the majority of the summer, this might be it. The time span can be anywhere from 8-26 weeks.


I know not everyone is interested in working with horses. The Institute for Cultural Ecology has an animal assisted therapy placement for you lovers of other animals. Some of the animal shelters that you can intern at have visiting pet programs, where they take the shelter animals to nursing homes and health care facilities. I'm not sure which locations offer this but the company has placements in Fiji, New Zealand, France, Thailand and Napal to name a few locations.

And of course, for some of you the US is "abroad". Here's a list of Animal Assisted Therapy volunteer, internship, and educational opportunities available in the United States.

***Update: I just got an e-mail back from CISabroad. They advertise that they can create internships to fit you so I had asked about animal assisted therapy and this was their response:
Hi Sarah. It's very likely, but we can't know for sure until we know your credentials and can begin the search process in our placement networks! We customize each internship based on your background, relevant skills and what's available in our host locations. That may be a new placement type for us, but nothing is impossible! In the case we can't find that specific type of placement, you don't lose anything. It might be easier to correspond via email/phone, so please visit the following link to start the process:http://www.cisabroad.com/contact-advisor
Thanks!

They too have placements all over the world, so check them out if you don't see what you want already listed.

The Gentle Barn

If you haven't heard of The Gentle Barn before, you will know all about it after watching this TV special.

I find the story incredibly inspiring. Ellie Laks found a way to accomplish her dream of working with animals as healers while they are receiving healing themselves. And she was able to do it with no business background or even a well thought out plan (at least initially). Not only has she been able to accomplish this, but she's been extremely successful. The Gentle Barn will be celebrating it's 12th birthday this summer.

I want to do something similar and I've felt that my dream is out of reach because I don't have any business or entrepreneurial experience. Ellie Laks gives me the motivation to keep on believing in my dream, and more importantly, to actually jump in and get it started.

Let's Get Moving!

The first time my husband went horseback riding he was warned, "You're going to be so sore!"

Riding a horse works muscles you didn't even know you have. This makes it a perfect animal for strength training and some physical therapists are doing exactly that!

If you are intrigued by the idea that riding a horse helps build core muscles, balance, and stamina you can easily search for a place that uses hippotherapy near you. PATH International, formerly NAHRA, is a the accrediting body over all therapeutic horsemanship groups and they currently have about 800 centers around the world registered.

I checked out  websites from a few of the many accredited groups that listed "backriding/tandem hippotherapy" as an activity they offered. Here are a couple that stuck out to me:

Bit-By-Bit explains the usefulness of hippotherapy in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.

Canyon Ranch Physical Therapy, Inc. is a physical therapy clinic that happens to be in a barn. They treat all of their patients using hippotherapy.

Haven Hills Therapeutic Riding Center introduced me to this wonderful poem by John Anthony Davies:

I saw a child who couldn't talk or walk

Sit on a horse, laugh and talk

Then ride through a field of daisies

and yet, he couldn't walk unaided.

I saw a child, no legs below,

sit on a horse and make it go

through woods of green

and places he had never been

to sit and stare, except from a chair.

I saw a child who couldn't crawl

mount a horse and sit up tall.

Put it through degrees of paces

and laugh at the wonder in our faces.

I saw a child born into strife,

Take up and hold the reins of life

and that same child, I heard him say

Thank God for showing me the way.

Little Bit, don't let the name fool you, all ages are welcome. This organization was started by a women with Multiple Sclerosis when she discovered that riding a horse was slowing down the progression of her disease.

TREAT is a program that is a part of Tarleton State University; something to think about if you're interested in going into hippotherapy when you finish college.

Windridge conducts research as they are providing hippotherapy which could lead to a wider acceptance of the practice, and maybe even the discovery of more uses for horse therapists.

This is his first time riding a horse. What a natural!

My husband ended up loving the experience and has been looking forward to going horseback riding again ever since.

National Horse Protection Day

 Horses and human have been working together for over 5,000 years. We have used horses for transport, farm work, and even for their milk. And while these beautiful animals are smart, powerful, fast, and strong willed they need us to be their advocates when they are in trouble.

With the economy in the state that it's in, people are finding it harder and harder to provide their horses with the care they need. The Colorado Horse Rescue estimates that the average cost for a horse is $15 a day, and they normally live 20-30 years. When people are unable to take care of their horses the options are limited due to their size, leaving many horses to become neglected. The American Veterinary Medical Association website has a Q&A page about unwanted horses and horse slaughter where you can learn more about the issues involved.

Horse Protection Day.com has come up with a list of ideas if you are interested in helping protect these magnificent animals. I think the best way to become an advocate is to become educated and that is the mission of the Unwanted Horse Coalition; education.

To do my part, I'll be spotlighting the different ways that horses are used in healing in the next few blog posts.