Horses ears - what are they saying?

Couldn't fit this into the 420 character limit on FB. Horses' ears are "what's on my mind". As in whether a horse is MAD or just paying attention to what's going on behind them.

Last night, we heard this comment from a young lady to her companion as they petted one of our horse's shoulders, "This horse is mad. Look at it's ears. My Grandpa told me that if a horse's ears are back, they are mad." Well, the horse's ears were back, the left ear idly listening to traffic, the right ear probably idly listening to HER. Not mad.

Here's the deal with mood and horse ears: animals with directional ears sometimes swivel them to listen, rather than turning their heads. You want to know what a horse's brain is probably focused on, look at their ears, not their eyes. They only turn their heads from the direction they're facing if they've heard something REALLY interesting.

How to tell if they are listening to something behind vs. sending a warning? Pinned ears = warning, irritation, i.e., speaking. Ears angled backwards = listening.

This horse is listening to it's rider.

They can pin those ears nearly flat to their heads when irritated or sending a warning. This is often accompanied by a snaked out neck, and distinctly ugly expression on their faces--curled nostrils (think Elvis) coupled with unmistakably glaring eyes. I have to admit, if no one is in biting, kicking, striking or bucking off range, this look has been known to crack me up, ... kind of like a 4 year old about to throw a big ole temper tantrum. (Otherwise it's not too funny.)

This horse has it all, pinned ears, stretched neck, glaring eyes, Elvis nostrils. Anything unclear here?

I think the confusion comes in because when horses turn their ears back to listen, they swivel on a downward diagonal. But they don't go flat. So that's the short explanation about horse ears. I wish humans had horse ears. Or dog, cat, rabbit, etc., ears ... so much cuter. Plus, you have to admit, human ears aren't exactly expressive by comparison.

Farrier Humor

Farriers have a tough job. We admire a good farrier's skill, knowledge and physical stamina. We've had a horse or two come to us without "polite" manners, ahem, and heard some wild/awful tales and funny stories from farriers. In honor of all the crazy stuff they deal with, we thought we'd pass along a couple of links to some farrier humor even non-farriers might find amusing.

Things Farriers Love to Hear by Tom Stovall, CJF includes these:
"He doesn't bite, he only nibbles ... ."
"You won't have any trouble catching them."
"He never did that before ... ."
"Its the bank's fault, run it back through."

You can picture the big whelp on the farrier's back from horse teeth, see horses gleefully galloping to the back of a 100 acre pasture with no one to help gather them, or imagine the Olympian gymnastics a horse can perform once they've decided that shoe is NOT going on! And to be sure, the bad check will be for a multiple-horse job, done in the mud, way out in Timbuktu, where all three of the former also occurred.

You're a Farrier If ... by Henry Heymering, CJF, RJF, and Jack Millman, CJF
This was published in 1995, but no doubt all are still true today ... plus some! Examples:

• You have more photos of horses' feet than all your other photos including vacations, pets and relatives combined.
• While working, you notice blood - both you and the customer are relieved to find it's just yours and not the horse's.
• You think that it is normal to come home to messages on your answering machine from strange women who say they need you right away.
• You're not a stripper, but the people who hire you spend more time looking at your buns than your face.

Because we have one horse who likes to see a farrier more often than the standard six-week interval (often unscheduled on a day he is to be the main attraction at an important event), we have a profound gratitude and deep appreciation for the remarkable kindness and generosity the farriers we know have shown us and our horses. One related to us that a client told him he was in her will. Said he didn't quite know what to make of that. Well, we understand. If we had riches to will to somebody, we would, too! Hats off to all the great farriers out there who know and love horses, and have to put up with horse owners.

Angeli Carriages at SXSW 2010

Love this photo of Cormier and the Cinderella in front of the majestic Driskill Hotel. Look at that pony posing! Later in the evening, this shot wouldn't have been possible because the entire street was PACKED with people.

SXSW was pretty cool for Angeli this year, except that the bigger it gets, the more of a challenge it is to get people where they want to go after 10 pm! There were bands playing everywhere, even on the sidewalk on 6th St. 

Taylor and Fiona managed to sneak in a look at a cool poster exhibit today. Great people-watching from the vantage point of the driver's box on a carriage. All the Coachwomen had bands stop and visit or ride with us to their gigs. 

A friend of "Cormie" stopped by early one evening with her Dad who snapped all these photos. Parker (cool name, huh?) sat on the driver's box to get her pic made with Fiona. Thank you Dad Dennis for these photos!

Between rides Taylor stood at Cormier's head while people petted him and got photos ... cuz he's gawgeous.

Some bands and their friends took some photos and video. Many gave us CDs so we're sharing the luv with each other. Great people, great music. We hope they ring us up for a REAL tour when they get back to Austin. We're developing a "Haunted Austin" tour that should be a kick!

From the passenger's perspective, the Cinderella Carriage is rather fantastique. We make sure our horses like their work. Cormier in particular is a social butterfly, nuzzling humans and whinnying at horse buddies.

Cormier providing the horsepower, Stacey driving, she met and/or drove several artists to gigs, including a Playing In Traffic Records founder (Los Lonely Boys label) to the Austin Music Awards. PITR won for Local Label and LLB for Rock. Stacey also taxied a group from Seattle called Run From Cover Friday and had a band member of Le Loup stop to chat. RegularJOE interviewed a singer while riding with her and Beats Antique posted this photo of them about to ride in style!.

Riding with Taylor:
Karmina, a folk/pop girl band from LA, Cali. They flagged down the Cinderella Friday, on 5th St, and wanted a ride to somewhere where they could "catch a cab". A horse taxi to a car taxi--ha! The girls filmed their carriage experience on the way to the Driskill and remarked that “a carriage ride is the best way to end the long trip of SXSW.” Tipped Taylor with a CD (that she says is badass). Somebody, let us know when they get their video of SXSW uploaded--we hope we're in it a little!



When Karmina got off the carriage they exchanged embraces with another rock-star group from LA, The Rescues, who promptly boarded the carriage. Although they didn’t tip via CD, Taylor checked out their music and said it was real cool. During the ride they talked about how being on the horse carriage was VIP status and that it made them ‘friggen awesome’. Of course, so many bands thought they were SO MUCH COOLER on the Cinderella.  

Finally, Drake & Truth, a rapper who is signed to Lil Wayne's label, Young Money Entertainment, rode with Taylor. This guy has no shortage of confidence. Check out some of his acting and music credits on Wikipedia.


Saturday, The Gin Riots used Taylor's horse as an advertising stand, putting a sticker on him (only barely attached horse-lovers!), then gave her a professional mix tape with their music on it.

Fiona fanned the film THE RUNAWAYS which opened at The Paramount Theater during SXSW. People promoting the film gave her and Taylor fliers and pins and had them pose for pics on their carriages holding the fliers up--that's surely creative advertising. If you see that they post those pics send us the link.

Some of the members of The Giving Tree stopped by Fiona's carriage to visit. She joked with them about their CD cover (the word is "obvious", not "devious" - ha!) and they invited her to see them play The Ghost Room. Too bad she was working!

Evergreen Terrace also rode with Fiona, going "green" for the day, but we don't know if there are any pics/vid posted.

We'll post more links as we remember more names of artists we met. If you took photos of us at SXSW, we'll link to them or you can send them and we'll post them here!

Angeli crew, happy to be in Austin, TX and celebrating SXSW.

A Newlywed's Surprise for Angeli

WeddingWire, just announced Angeli Carriages has been selected to receive the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for horse-drawn wedding carriage services!

From WeddingWire:
The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Angeli Carriages is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Angeli Carriages is among the very best horse-drawn carriage services within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™.

Sweet!

Each 5 Star rating we've received at WeddingWire has been unsolicited, and each a delicous pleasure for us to read. Having someone take the time, days or weeks after their wedding, to review us so highly, is a lovely compliment. Reading each one always brings back all our happy memories of their wedding. Every wedding, every couple is unique, and we feel the JOY of the occasion!

We work so hard to please our clients ... this recognition is a bit of icing on the cake!