http://www.horsechitchat.com/equinearticles en-us http://www.horsechitchat.com/equinearticles N/A Ron@Emanindustries.com Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:38:45 PDT 20 http://www.click4equine.com/network.php We are looking for the next wave of equine enthusiasts in our Premier Equine Forum. We have a nice group of equine professionals, trainers, and new horse owners. Stop by and drop your two cents in and lets us know what you would like to see. With 12 Sites in our Equine Network you are sure to get all the exposure, information and items that you are looking for. We have even started two equine directories to help you drive business to your farm,store or site.Check us out Ron Petracek Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 PDT http://http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10448585 :00AM Friday June 29, 2007 One-year-old Eclyse the zorse looks as though she has been covered in white paint. Photo / Reuters Watch Video: Eclyse the zorse It has to be the ultimate zebra crossing. Eclyse the zorse is striking proof of how an offspring inherits genes from both parents - which in her case was a male zebra and a female horse. The result is shown in her amazing coat which looks like a zebra's that has been partly covered in white paint. While most zebra-horse crossbreeds have stripes across their entire body, Eclyse has only two such patches, on her face and rump. The 1-year-old was born after her mother, Eclipse, was taken from her German safari park home to visit a ranch in Italy. There she was left to roam freely with other horses and a number of zebras. One zebra called Ulysses took a shine to her and there was some horseplay. When she arrived home to Germany, Eclyse's mother surprised her keepers by giving birth to a baby zorse. Eclyse has become a major attraction at her home safari park at Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock, near the German border with Holland. In Africa, horses and zebras are often crossbred and used as trekking animals. Hybrids are an interesting curiosity. The mule is perhaps the most famous cross - a combination between a horse and a donkey - and an animal of economic importance because it is a hard worker. Hybrids are not easy to create, however. The mating pair's different number of chromosomes - the "packets" of DNA in each cell - makes a pregnancy hard to achieve. A horse has 64 chromosomes; the zebra has 44. The zorse that results from cross-breeding will have a number of chromosomes that is somewhere in between. The zorse can only result where the sire is the zebra. "The smaller number of chromosomes has to be on the male side," said Lesley Barwise-Munro, a veterinary surgeon in Alnwick, Northumberland, and a spokeswoman for the British Equine Veterinary Association. "If it had been the other way around there would have been no pregnancy. It's how nature works." And hybrids were invariably sterile, she added. -AGENCIES Ron Petracek Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 PDT http://www.onelocalnews.com/prescottherald/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=128294 Staff and agencies29 June, 2007 By TARA BURGHART, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 33 minutes ago CHICAGO - A federal judge Thursday refused a request from the nation‘s last operating horse slaughterhouse to remain open, but a legal dispute over a state ban on killing horses for food isn‘t over. The plant, about 60 miles west of Chicago, is the last in the United States that slaughters horses for human consumption. Except for a portion sold to U.S. zoos, the meat is shipped for overseas‘ diners. In late May, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a law banning the import, export, possession and slaughter of horses intended for human consumption — forcing the Cavel plant to close for about a week. Kapala extended the order once, but refused Thursday to allow Cavel to stay open longer. Kapala hasn‘t ruled on Cavel‘s original challenge. He said he will not do so until a related matter — whether the Humane Society of the United States can be a party in the case — goes through the courts. Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president of animal protection litigation for the Humane Society, said the group was "happy that the court is recognizing that Cavel has no legal argument for evading the state law." Cavel lawyers say the Illinois law violates the interstate and foreign commerce clauses of the U.S. Constitution. They argue the plant‘s closure would deprive about 55 people of jobs. Critics says the slaughterhouse process is inhumane. Some also argue the nation has no tradition of raising horses for meat, and shouldn‘t be doing so to satisfy foreign consumers.   Ron Petracek Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 PDT http://www.horsechitchat.com/equinearticles Barbaro was euthanized this morning, Monday, January 29, 2007. A series of downturns resulted in surgery again on Saturday morning. Forty-eight hours after the surgery, Barbaro could not lay down and his other hooves were becoming laminitic, and the difficult decision was made to not to put him through anything further.Nearly six months after the horrifying accident at the Preakness where Kentucky Derby winner fractured three bones in his ankle, surgeons were recently were able to remove Barbaro's cast. "He is using all of his legs quite well," Dr. Dean W. Richardson, Chief of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center George D. Widener Hospital, said then. Barbaro's left hind hoof had been afflicted with laminitis and while the hoof still needed to grow out, no new signs have been observed in hoof.In an earlier press release on October 24, Richardson noted that "Barbaro had another good week, and his appetite and vital signs remain excellent.”   The Thoroughbred racehorse winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby, Barbaro suffered serious injuries when he fractured three bones around his ankle at the Preakness Stakes on May 20. He has since remained in the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital.   Barbaro’s right hind leg was in a fiberglass cast, and, according to Dr. Richardson, they were “being very conservative with the right hind (fractured) limb in order to help protect the foundered left hind foot.” Richardson then said that the hoof had a long way to go before it was functional.   Barbaro was operated on the day after the Preakness, and initial reports of his recovery were favorable. However, setbacks began when he developed an infection in the broken leg in July, and, later, laminitis in the sound hind hoof. Barbaro was bred and is owned by Gretchen and Roy Jackson's Lael Stables in West Grove, Pennsylvania. The Derby winner was trained by Michael Matz, the three-time Olympic equestrian who was also a hero in 1989 when he rescued fellow survivors of a plane crash. Kris Equine Staff Sat, 28 Oct 2006 00:00:00 PDT