Chronicle of the Horse | Untacked | January February 2017

The Chronicle of the Horse

THE EQUESTRIAN LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

From India, With Love THE MARWARI HORSES OF RAJASTHAN

Winter Wonderlands

See stunning vistas with “Life Between The Ears”

LIGHTS, CAMERA, GALLOP

Movie horse magic with the Naprous family

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SAFETY FIRST

INNOVATIONS FROM HEAD TO TAIL

BELLE BEACH

History’s forgotten horsewoman A SUPPLEMENT TO THE CHRONICLE OF THE HORSE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS Seeing The World With

“Life Between The Ears”

ELANOR MOWBRAY JONES/@ENDURANCEELLA PHOTO

Contributors to the “Life Between The Ears” social media accounts transport us to the world’s most interesting and beautiful places—all viewed from the saddle. Each issue, we share a few of their images.

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BEINTA JÓGVANSDÓTTIR/@BEINTAJO PHOTO

SAKSUN, FAROE ISLANDS Beinta Jógvansdóttir grew up in the village Saksun on the island of Streymoy—where the picture was taken—but she currently lives in the capital city of the Faroe Islands, Tórshavn.

She’s the first educated farrier on the Faroe Islands. Jógvansdóttir learned the trade in Sweden and then returned to the islands. She keeps her horses in a stable in Tórshavn during the winter and moves them to Saksun in the summer. “[Saksun] is magical. I’ve ridden there almost every day for my whole life. It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the area is,” said Jógvansdóttir. “I mostly ride out in the nature. Sometimes I compete with gaited horses but only on a basic level, for fun.”

Jógvansdóttir got her first horse, a mixed breed pony mare, when she was 4. “I started hacking out on my own at the age of 6,” she said. “I’m the only one who was interested in horses in my village, so I rode alone for almost 30 years. It can get a bit lonely riding on your own, so I usually take my other horses along on the rides. They just run along.”

In this photo, Jógvansdóttir is riding Hrímir Frá Stafafelli, a purebred Icelandic horse.

“He was born and raised in Iceland but was sold to Austria, then Denmark, before he ended up with me on the Faroe Islands,” said Jógvansdóttir. “He is a very friendly and sweet horse. His gaits are excellent, so it’s a real treat to ride him, especially in tölt, which is one of the two extra gaits the Icelandic horses have.”

UPPSALA, SWEDEN The gray ears in this photo belong to Silver Dearest, an Arabian mare ridden by Elanor Mowbray Jones. The two completed Fédération Equestre Internationale 120-kilometer endurance rides together before Jones lost “Silver” to a stable accident in August.

“Silver was the most beautiful and sweetest angel ever lent to the earth, and she helped get me through my mom’s battle with breast cancer. I am so incredibly grateful for all the pictures and videos I took on our many adventures together, so that I can carry those memories along with me in my phone and look at them on my walls,” Jones said. “In the wonderful years she was mine, we had time to compete in three countries, ride in countless cities, get second at the Swedish young rider championships, twice we were awarded the prize for best young rider duo in Uppland, and she won a prize for best Swedish endurance mare.”

Jones, who lives in Uppsala, Sweden, often rides with her mother, Sherry. They breed horses and train and compete in dressage and jumping.

“I am an endurance rider with my heart set on someday taking part in the world championships,” said Elanor. “But my mom and I pride ourselves in how multitalented our horses are.”

Elanor and Sherry have four Arabians: Shahina, Arshaq, Nipeta and Popgun.

“The picture is taken on a riding path just outside of Uppsala,” said Elanor, 22.

“The path used to be an old railroad track that went between Uppsala and Enköping, but the city remade it to be a riding and bicycle path as part of the nature reserve.

This particular path is almost completely straight and moderately sandy, so it is perfect for training. Along it there are plenty of other different sorts of great riding paths that one can turn off to, so I used to start off on it every day. I would say that Uppsala is by far the best place to ride in the world.”

Uppsala is the fourth largest city in Sweden and home of Uppsala University, which was founded in 1477 and is the oldest university in Scandinavia. The Fyris River flows through the city, and there’s also a large park, Stadsskogen, which translates into “the town forest.”

Elanor combines riding and competing with her studies at Uppsala University, where she’s getting her bachelor’s degree in biology. She also blogs at enduranceella.wordpress.com.

“I want to become a scientist just like both my wonderful parents, who also love horses,” she said.

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LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS

MATILDE BRANDT/@MATILDEBRANDT PHOTO

JESSIE HALLSTROM/@RANCHLANDS PHOTO

MOSCA, COLORADO Zapata Ranch in southern Colorado is a 103,000-acre bison and guest ranch owned by The Nature Conservancy that borders the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

The ranch is home to herds of cattle and bison in different areas. The bison herd is managed as a conservation species, freely roaming 50,000 acres.

Jessie Hallstrom took this photo as she rode one of the ranch horses, Cinco, to help move the bison herd to the north side of the ranch before they were shipped to their sister ranch in South Dakota.

Hallstrom is the sales and marketing coordinator for Ranchlands, the ranch management company that co-manages Zapata Ranch with The Nature Conservancy. She’s lived and worked there for four years.

“Ranchlands is a large-scale ranch management company where we partner with conservation-minded owners to implement ambitious conservation programs that co-exist alongside our own cattle operations,” Hallstrom said. “In addition to our diversified cattle business, we run a series of complementary land-based businesses including hospitality, hunting and fishing, and ecotourism. We currently manage six properties. The Zapata is a very special place to call home.”

Hallstrom rides western and doesn’t compete, but she works the livestock on the ranch when necessary and has a Quarter Horse she rides for fun.

VESTBY, NORWAY Matilde Brandt and her Friesian gelding Batman are Instagram famous, with more than 222,000 followers, and Brandt chronicles their adventures there and on her blog at matildebrandt.no.

“The place [in this photo] is a forest close to my stable and my favorite hack. We have this amazing track with dense forest on both sides— perfect for a canter in the snow! I have had so many amazing rides on this trail,” said Brandt.

Brandt originally bought Batman to compete in dressage but then started focusing on bridleless and at-liberty work and trick training.

“I combine classical dressage with a tackless approach, but we both enjoy a hack in the Norwegian wilderness—with the bridle still hanging in the stable,” she said. “I do not compete, but I have tried endurance, dressage, jumping and show driving. No competition on the planet will give me the amazing feeling of being completely connected with my horse out in nature, or on a calm morning in the arena playing with collected trot and canter transitions side by side.”

Brandt, 23, works in digital marketing. She has owned Batman, 12, since 2009. “He is my everything,” she said. “I don’t focus much on the riding part, but I can tell you what I love most about Batman! I love his honesty; he is always 100 percent honest with me, and he is my mirror, the mirror of my soul. His personality is beautiful, and he is extremely intelligent and emotionally sensitive.

“We are very connected, and we have been through a lot together, so we know each other well,” she continued. “I can feel how he feels, and he really reflects my emotions. If I have a day with lots of bad energy, he will simply walk away.

If I’m sad, he will always be calm and protective.

If I’m scared and insecure, he is scared and insecure. If I’m brave, he will be brave.”

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LOUISA MURCH-WHITE/@WITHAWESTERNTWIST PHOTO

ALBERTA, CANADA Louisa Murch-White competes in cutting in Canada, and this photo is through the ears of Mates Special Lady, a 12-year-old Quarter Horse. “ ‘Lady’ is my first show horse, and for me that has been very special and has created a true partnership between the two of us,” said Murch-White. “Lady is so easy to be around and such a nice horse in general. She’s kind of funny. She’s the queen of the barn and demands everybody’s respect, including the humans. She’ll ‘talk’ at you a lot if you don’t feed her first! From the show pen to trail riding, and everything in between, she takes everything in stride and will do anything you ask of her, which makes her just so special and really one of a kind.”

This photo was taken as Murch-White rode Lady in a field behind the De Winton, Alberta, farm where she works.

“I took the photo during one of those misty, foggy, frosty mornings in Alberta, where you can’t help but think that the frost looks like diamonds on the grass and the trees,” she said. “I always love frost because it just sparkles and catches the light, and I came around the corner of the field to this sight, with the two fences paralleling each other, and how it almost looks like it goes on forever, and thought, ‘How beautiful is this, and how lucky am I?!’ and snapped the photo!”

Murch-White works for a professional cutting horse trainer as a loper.

“I assist in the day-to-day chores and work on the ranch, as well as preparing, grooming and riding the horses in training for my boss,” she said. “I go to shows, where I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to also show my own horse, and I also do all the social media and promotion of our Quarter Horse breeding stallion, Reys From Heaven.”

Murch-White blogs at withawesterntwist.com, documenting her life and adventures in showing cutting horses.

“With A Western Twist is a lifestyle blog that caters to anyone in the horse industry and is a super fun and creative outlet for me at the same time!” she said.

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CODY MULLENAX/@WASATCHWOODY PHOTO

LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS

SANDY, UTAH Cody Mullenax works a 9-to-5 job as a product specialist for an engineering company in the mining industry, but he spends every moment he can riding in the Utah backcountry.

“I mainly ride for pleasure; my father’s property sits on the edge of a recreation riding area called Bell Canyon,” he said. “So that’s the most common spot for us to ride, condition horses and break bad habits. When the warmer weather is here, you can typically find us getting lost in the backcountry of Utah’s many mountain ranges. Our favorite tends to be the High Uintas [Wilderness].”

The ears on the left in the photo belong to Woody, Mullenax’s 15-year-old palomino Quarter Horse.

“She’s packed with attitude. What mare isn’t?” he said. “My favorite thing about her is that she’s a mirror image of myself. She presents herself as stubborn, mean, tough and nothin’ to mess with, but on the inside she’s just a softie wanting nothing more than some good chin scratches and horse cookies.

“From the moment I put a saddle on her, she’s tested every aspect of my character, mainly my patience and persistence. But after years of one-upping one another, we reached an agreement that we are both equally stubborn, equally tough and equally resilient,” he added. “And since that agreement, we have made a lot of memorable trips together. Not to say that it’s perfect between us—she’ll still walk me into the occasional low-hanging branch just to make sure I’m awake at the wheel. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The other ears in the photo are Smoke (center) and Alley, and this photo was taken on Antelope Island, Utah, on the White Rock Loop trail.

“Every New Year’s Day my father Larry, fiancé Camille and I come and ride the loop as a New Year’s tradition. It’s typically a day of freezing temps, buffalo encounters and a little hair-of-the-dog from the night before, with plenty of laughable memories along the way.

But it’s a perfect way to start off the new year,” Mullenax said.

RICK DAHMS PHOTO

Sharing Life Between The Ears

Since 2008, Life Between The Ears founder Kristine Dahms has posted stunning photos shot by riders in all corners of the world with one hand on the reins and the other on the shutter.

Dahms mines photos with the hashtag #lifebetweentheears, contacts the original poster of the image, then features the photo, complete with educational details about the place that’s portrayed.

Life Between The Ears photos appear on a LBTE Facebook page, an Instagram feed, a dedicated website (lifebetweentheears.com), a Twitter feed and a Pinterest page (all under lifebetweentheears account names).

Dahms—who lives in Vashon, Wash., with her Welsh Cob, mini horse, pygmy goats, two dogs and two cats—rides dressage and takes quite a few photos herself on the picturesque Vashon-Maury Island.

Dahms has taken some of the Life Between The Ears images from cyberspace to print, creating three lines of greeting cards with selected photos from her social media pages. A portion of the proceeds from the card sales goes to the Equine Land Conservation Resource (elcr.org). Cards are available at lifebetweentheears.com/retail.

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