Flaky Person Rant

Alright, I understand that sometimes things just happen, but something that really chaps my ass is a flaky person who will straight up lie to your face, stringing you along with lie after lie, cancelled appointment after cancelled appointment. I have zero time to waste on this kind of person. Do not call me crying some sob story, complete with crocodile tears. At some point in life, it's kind of common practice for a person to grow into a mature, responsible individual, capable of handling business transactions, relationships, and responsibilities like an adult. If you can't, well just move it on along and don't bog down MY schedule with your bullshit. Maybe that makes me cold, but really, who wants to coddle some near stranger with an "oh-that's-ok" attitude just so they can try to string you along in the future again? Their failure to launch at life is not my problem.

Oldest living Secretariat stallion rescued

LOVE IT!  I love horsey happy endings :)

Oldest living Secretariat stallion rescued

By Susan Salk on November 2, 2012

Verifiable in his new home

A chestnut Thoroughbred identified as the oldest living Secretariat stallion was rescued this month from a stall where he had been confined for the past six years of his life.

Verifiable, 27, identified through Jockey Club records as the son of legendary Secretariat, was taken in by The Exceller Fund, a horse-rescue organization, on Oct. 15, after the animals’ owners contacted them seeking help, according to lead volunteer coordinator Nicole Smith.

The lightly raced stallion was reportedly abandoned on the farm of a family not equipped to handle a stallion, according to Smith, who says they had confined him to a large stall, only moving him to an adjacent one so they could clean it.

“The owners contacted me directly and said they had a Secretariat. But at this point, I just knew there was a horse in a situation he needed to get out of, and that was the main concern,” Smith says. “The people who had him were doing the best they could for him —he’d been abandoned by his owner on their property, and they weren’t set up for a stallion— so we did our best to get him out of there.”

Even before his grand lineage was confirmed, people came out of the woodwork to assist with the effort to rescue the horse, and give him a chance at a better life.

Sallee Horse Vans Inc., of Lexington shipped him for free, asking only reimbursement for the cost of gas. And a trained stallion handler volunteered to assist with his transport, Smith says.

Race name: Verifiable
Sire: Secretariat
Dam: Veruccua
Foal date: April 28, 1985Once loaded onto the trailer, the underweight animal was taken to the famous KESMARC Rehabilitation Facility, a world-class equine sports medicine facility in Kentucky, to receive treatment; again, free of charge.

“Both KESMARC and Salle Vans were fabulous to us!” Smith says.

Once safely ensconced at KESMARC, Smith began researching his bloodlines. After supplying photographs of the careworn animal to the Jockey Club, and through additional research located in a stallion registry, he was positively identified as Verifiable, a lightly raced son of Secretariat who was turned to stud.

“Because he still has enough unique markings, and there were detailed notes about him in old stallion registries, they were able to determine that he was the oldest living son of Secretariat,” she says.

Though the once fiery progeny of perhaps the world’s greatest racehorse had seen better days, the best was yet to come!

Well-known horsemen Kentucky Jackie and Ercel Ellis officially adopted the horse from Exceller last week, and are keeping him in grand style on their 22-acre property, with a promise to do so until the end of his days.

Photo courtesy Exceller Fund

Now he is gaining weight by consuming a specially formulated pellet feed, which dissolves in his mouth, and allows him to absorb nutrition without having to chew, Jackie Ellis says.

By eating about two and a third quarts daily, he is quickly putting on weight, she says.

“His condition is looking so much better already!” she says. “This old boy is sound, and he jogs around and it’s just wonderful to watch.”

And, he possesses such a calm and agreeable demeanor that she and her husband are able to lead him around with a cotton rope. “

Ercel Ellis, the host of radio show Horse Tales, and an official clocker at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, has a deep and diverse background with Thoroughbred racehorses. The couple bred and trained Thoroughbreds for years, and when they learned of Verifiable’s circumstances from Thoroughbred trainer Lisa Molloy, the agreed right away to give him a new home.

“We just felt sorry for the old horse,” Ercel Ellis says. “Both of us have been in the horse business … and I can’t imagine a horse being confined for six years in a stall. That must have been hard.”

He doesn’t look like his glamorous father, but Ercel Ellis is quick to point out he’s a “very young 27” who gets around very well, and eats everything they put in front of him.

“He’s just a nice, old horse who deserves better,” he says. “I think he’s enjoying life now, and the way he gets around, he may outlive me!”

Great lesson for the mama mare

I am super proud of my mama mare and my Pippa filly today :) Classy Lady was super patient and wonderful about babysitting two friends of mine today. My friend's daughter LOVED getting ponied around on my big mare, and she didn't want to get off to let her dad ride or to even go home! Classy Lady was a doll for both of them. Pippa pony was a trooper today with the changes I made down at the barn. Poor baby lost her stall because I converted it into round roll storage, so she's getting moved to one of the new stalls. She took it all in stride, and she's just so darn smart! I love that baby :)

New Boarder!

We are welcoming Manolo and his mom on Tuesday! Manolo will be here for two months for reconditioning. We'll start off by lunging, adding hillwork, and working under saddle in the arena doing lower level dressage.

Busy Sunday :)

Having a decent day :) Space in barn converted and ready to receive our reserved round rolls finally! I met with a new short term boarder who is bringing her TB over for reconditioning for two months. Now a friend and his daughter are coming over to ride the mama mare and hang out a little with Mark and myself, and I'm going to end the day with a ride on the big, dark monster I think :) May or may not work the babies depending on how much daylight I have.

West Nile Virus Report: WNV Rears Its Ugly Head

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57500089-10391704/whats-making-the-2012-west-nile-virus-outbreak-the-worst-ever/?fb_action_ids=501835313177900&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=fbrecT&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=246965925417366

By 

RYAN JASLOW / 

CBS NEWS/ August 24, 2012, 4:14 PM

What's making the 2012 West Nile virus outbreak the worst ever?

CBS

(CBS News) The West Nile virus outbreak of the summer of 2012 is on track to be the worst ever in the United States. Health officials said earlier this week that there have been 1,118 reported cases of the disease reported in 38 states, including 41 deaths.

Forty-seven states have seen some sort of West Nile virus activity, be it in people, birds or mosquitoes; the only exceptions are Alaska, Hawaii and Vermont. Since the first time West Nile Virus was detected in 1999, there has never been as many reported cases through the third week in August.

West Nile virus outbreak: How to protect yourself
Watch: Living with the effects of West Nile Virus
Pictures: West Nile virus outbreak 2012

Dr. Dr. Lyle Peterson, director of the division of vector-borne infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control, told reporters on Wednesday that the country is in the midst of "one of the largest West Nile outbreaks ever seen."

But why is that? Why are some areas, such as Dallas County in Texas, being hit especially hard? 

Texas accounts for about half of cases in the entire country. Dallas County alone has 270 cases of West Nile virus, with 11 deaths. Previously, from 2003 through 2011, Dallas County only saw 10 total West Nile deaths.

"We don't really know why it's worse this year than in previous years" Peterson said Wednesday. However he noted that the unseasonably hot weather from the mild winter and early spring and summer may play a role.

Three experts interviewed by HealthPop agree that this year's weather is likely a driving force in the current outbreak.

Dr. David J. Dausey, chair of the public health department at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa. and director of the Mercyhurst Institute for Public Health, said higher temperatures and fluctuations between rainfall and drought provide ideal conditions that have biological impact on mosquitoes, thereby increasing the chances of a West Nile outbreak.

He contends that the mild winter the country experienced, followed by the early spring, extended the mosquito season past when they typically would have died in the winter. That allowed mosquitoes to repopulate themselves quickly come spring. Also, for a spring and summer that's seen high temperatures and drought across the country, the warm weather speeds up the life-cycle of the mosquito, allowing them to reach a biting age quicker, Dausey said.

High temperatures also speed up the multiplication of West Nile virus within a mosquito, said Dausey, and humidity actually stimulates them to bite. At the same time, high temperatures are driving birds into populated, urban areas in search of water, with the mosquitoes following them closely behind. All these conditions, he said, may be contributing to the 2012 West Nile virus outbreak.

"For us to sit around and say it's not weather, is I think, foolish."

But why is Texas experiencing such an influx in cases?

"Well in Texas, the severity of the drought was probably greater than anywhere else in the United States," said Dr. B. Graeme Lockaby, associate dean of research and professor at the School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences at Auburn University in Alabama. His team just received a $240,000 grant to study the link between poor water quality and increases in the mosquito populations responsible for West Nile Virus, known as the Culex mosquito. He hopes the research will lead to improvements in risk prediction models for a West Nile outbreak.

Lockaby said during a drought, there is a greater likelihood to have polluted water because, as water evaporates, pollutants remain. Therefore in an area like Texas where there are ponds and urban streams that may be polluted to begin with, the water reduction and subsequent pollutant and sewage increases stimulate growth of nutrient-rich bacteria that provide conditions where Culex mosquitoes thrive.

Dausey concurs, noting that on the surface it may look like there's less dry water. But underground sewers and catch basins that contain stagnant water also provide the nutrient-rich conditions mosquitoes seek. He also speculates that the economic and housing crisis may play a role in some urban areas, if people have abandoned homes with swimming pools or other sources of stagnant water, allowing mosquitoes to breed.

What may be more frightening is that drought conditions may also lead to an increase in other mosquito vector-diseases, said Lockaby.

Dausey agreed that in the future Americans may see malaria resurface, for which the country is likely unprepared. He said officials should have been able to predict a West Nile virus outbreak this year because of this interaction between mosquito biology and the weather, and preventative efforts should have been in place all year.

"Everyone is caught off guard," Dausey said of the outbreak. "To me, it's not a big shocker at all."

Dr. Clifford Bassett, an allergist and immunologist in New York City who is also a clinical assistant professor of medicine, at NYU Langone School of Medicine, highlights that New York City has a program in place to monitor mosquito and West Nile virus trends each year.

The 2012 Mosquito Surveillance and Control Plan includes spraying areas of New York City that previously had been at high-risk for disease transmission and using outbreak data from previous years to come up with surveillance models and other plans with a primary emphasis on prevention

"Although mosquitoes are most active in New York City from May through October, our strong mosquito prevention, surveillance and control efforts are year-round activities," the city's Health Department wrote of the program.

"And it works, because we're doing better than other areas," said Bassett, who researchers mosquitoes as part of his allergy practice, which treats people who are allergic to insect bites.

Bassett emphasized the call that health officials have been making for Americans to wear insect repellants with an EPA-registered active ingredient such as DEET.

He said compliance with this advice is problematic because some Americans might not take their risk seriously, given that 80 percent of people infected won't show any symptoms while the other 20 percent may experience a form of the disease that presents as fever and flu-like symptoms.

But the major risk lies in the one in 150 people with West Nile will develop severe neuroinvasive illnesses that may lead to meningitis, encephalitis, paralysis, coma and death. Bassett said by taking measures such as wearing the insect repellant or wearing long clothes at dusk and dawn during prime mosquito-bite hours, people may greatly reduce their risk this summer during mosquito season. 

That's especially important because the season, which typically ends in September, has yet to even peak.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Bassett said.

22 PHOTOS

West Nile Virus outbreak 2012

Stubben Saddle Trial

So, I've had this Stubben Tristan saddle here on trial for a few days, and I REALLY like it. It fits Captain better, it fits my hiney better, and the only thing I don't like about it are the billets. It's in decent condition, but will probably need reflocking in a year or two, and it desperately needs to have its leather conditioned and cleaned. However, it's reasonably priced and they might come down in price some if I make an offer. Now if I could just get my Albion sold, I'd be set.