Guest Author - Susan Hopf
A column that will appear once a month on the Horses Site.
See anything that you would like to know more about please post in the forum and let me know.
Hold your horses
Keep her on a tight rein
You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink
“Horse sense is the thing a horse has that keeps it from betting on people.” W.C. Fields
“If the world were truly a rational place, men would ride sidesaddle.” Rita Mae Brown
“A dog may be man’s best friend but a horse wrote history.” Author Unknown
“Never send a man to do a horse’s job.” Mr. Ed
“Riding – the art of keeping the horse between you and the ground.” Author Unknown
“The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare element of grace, beauty, spirit and fire.” Sharon Ralls Lemon
Fairy knots or witch’s knots – these are the tangles that you find in your horse’s mane that seemingly come from nowhere. It has been said the fairies and witches ride horses at night and wind these knots for a foot or handhold. Many cultures have legends that include these nightriders.
No foot no horse – of course anyone that has suffered through hoof abscesses knows all about this.
“If God gave us a larger brain to outwit the horse, He also gave a sense of morality to guide us in how we treat them.” Author unknown
Pegasus – the winged stallion and offspring of the mating of Poseiden and Medusa – was granted the prestigious honor of carrying Zeus’s lightning bolts. On the steed’s last day on earth Zeus turned him into the constellation Pegasus that we can (with a bit of difficulty) still see today.
The luck of the horseshoe – there is much debate about this – does the luck come from the shoe or from the horse? Some believe it is the shape, which seems protective. Others believed that those that work with iron were magical so the iron shoe was hung in doorways to ward off witches and evil spirits.
Snakebites and tooth aches can be cured by riding backwards on a horse or donkey.
Inhale a horse’s breath and you can cure whooping cough.
A horse can become crippled if it steps in a wolf paw print.
Surrounding a wart with horse hair can cure the wart.
