Health and Horses

Health

I've been fairly ill this week. My shoulder/Neck problems have resurfaced because I was not doing my excercises as diligently as I should. (read that as "only when I hurt"). This means that my neck has again gotten weak and has been causing me problems. I've lost at least three days to this this week due to pain, which of course, puts me even FURTHER behind.

I'm hoping tonight, and this weekend will be better nights.

Teke Horses

Saturday Afternoon I will have the rare opportunity to see real, "honest to gawd"
Akhal Teke Horses at the Kentucky horse Park. Since these horses reputedly originated in Turkmenistan (or around there) in ancient times, they are very rare in the world today. Only about 1500 are estimated to exist world wide. Only about 300 are in the U.S. and the majority of those are in Texas on one russian guy's farm.

Akhal tekes are as old as arabian horses. The arabian people will tell you that arabian horses are older and the teke people will tell you that Teke's are older. And gawd help you if you start that conversation with a teke person or an arabian person!

Both breeds are desert bred and developed and both breeds have incredible endurance. Tekes are longer, and slimmer than the arabian however. Many people think that they're ugly, but they remind me of an "art deco" style of horse, very elegant.. only living and breathing! The most wonderful thing about akhal tekes are their coats. They have a metallic shimmer to their coats because of how the hair has developed over the centuries. I don't know a lot about it scientifically, but its very cool to look at!

The story of the leading akhal teke breeder in their native Turkmenistan (which used to be a part of the USSR but is now it's own country)

Geldy Karyizov is a very sad one. The current ruler of Turkmenistan is the usual Dictator story and because Geldy's teke herd threatened the government's control over Teke horses, he's been imprisoned. His family's land has now been seized by the government and they are going to build a chocolate factory. (Turkish Chocolate!?!)

The horses are in dire straits as there is no money coming into Geldy's family to feed them. (You know.. that whole "Women have no rights" in that country thing)There is a lady here in the U.S. who collects money and sends them what she can to help sustain the horses but that is barely enough. I've given her money on occasion. I wish I could do a lot more. If you'd like to help, you can join the Akhal Teke Yahoo group here:
http://goups.yahoo.com/group/Akhal-Teke/
And then read through the archives or post asking how you can help.

I plan on taking as many pictures as possible!

U.S. Arabian horse Nationals tickets

I bought tickets for the U.S. Arabian Horse Nationals today. This is the last year this show will be held here in Louisville, KY. Apparently the Arabian Horse association bought all of the reserve seating tickets for the last Friday and Saturday Night classes which means us poor schlubs that don't own arabian horses are SOL.. Thats ok, as long as I get to go and there are 10 days worth of classes that I won't be missing!

And can I just complain about Ticketmaster? OY that was painful.. two $10 tickets ended up costing me $28! And lets not talk about the 4 $10 tickets... (Ouch!)

But at least I've gotten tickets and I'll be able to go!