Patches the Horse!

Patches the horse passed away on September 1, 2006, at the age of 24-1/2. He died where he was born, on a Northern Florida ranch owned by Herbert Thompson and his family.

Mr. Thompson had trained Patches to not only ride in the car, but waterski, play the drums, count, and do other tricks. He said that Patches liked to learn things and was highly intelligent, which I'm sure was true. When I spoke with Mr. Thompson a little over a year before Patches' death, he didn't once mention his own skill at training--in his opinion, the project was all about Patches' talent. I would say both of them showed a lot of talent.

Just in case you were wondering, Patches WAS spotted in his youth, which is why he was named Patches.

The good news is this: before Patches died, he sired a son whom the Thompsons named Chip (I am guessing they were hoping for a chip off the old block). Chip's training is coming along nicely and as of December 14, he had been in 11 parades, winning his first trophy November 6, 2006. I am waiting for a new interview so I can find out Chip's birthday and what color he is.

The Thompsons want everyone to know they appreciated all the emails they received after Patches' death and will keep his fans posted as to Chip's progress. And if you want to see Chip for yourself, keep an eye open for events involving parades in the Northern Florida area!

Nothing should stop you from what you Love!!!

To say that Bettina Eistel is an accomplished dressage horse competitor with a disability is a huge understatement. With 2 silver and a bronze medal at the Vice-Europe in Portugal, 3 silver medals at the Vice World Champion in Belgium, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, 3 German Championships, and a bronze and silver medal in Hong Kong at the 2008 Paralympics, Eistel has quite the resume for any rider, let alone one with no arms.

Eistel was born with the birth defect when her mother was given Thalidomide, commonly given to pregnant mothers until it was later learned the drug was responsible for birth defects. Having no arms from birth, Eistel learned to do everyday tasks such as eating, drinking, putting on make-up, etc with her feet and toes.  As a child, Eistel was enrolled in horseback riding lessons and taught herself the balance required to ride a horse as well as how to saddle, bridle, wash, and brush her horse with her feet.

Competing in horse dressage; a sport that features competitive horse training whose fundamental purpose is to develop, through standardized progressive training methods, a horse’s natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse, Eistel taught her horse to respond to a combination of voice commands, leg aides and head movements. Riding with boots that have cut outs for her toes, Eistel rides Fabuleax 5 (her horse) with two sets of reigns; one in her mouth and one in her toes.



Eistel hasn’t stopped with being a top of line horse dressage athlete. After high school, she completed college and went to work as a graduate psychologist in Hamburg, Germany. To add to her long list of accomplishments, her upbeat optimistic attitude landed her a job as a popular TV Talk Show Host with a weekly show.

Horseback customer turned away at tim horton's drive Thur!

Mr Corman a horse trainer in Alberta often was found taking his horses through towns to get them use to traffic, this one day on a Saturday he decided to go to Tim Horton's drive thur after ordering a double double he his service was denied and told to leave. He was told that only cars are aloud through drive though not people on feet, bikes and even horse which r not aloud through town even though many other people have done it in theses towns. Once this story was sent all over the news and people got a hold of this there was a lot of unhappy people who did not agree with this. So the manger apologized to Mr Corman, and he was able to ride his horse Elmo through the drive thur and he finally was able to get his double double. He must of been a huge Tim Horton's fan LOL never catch me in that drive thur haha!!

Tiny the fat cat!!

Tiny is a 30 pound cat that was put in a duct tape box with a normal size cat and left out side of an animal shelter in Fredericton. He is now with a foster until he finds a new home, he is now playing with laser lights, toy fishing poles and bring dead moles to his foster. The shelter has Tiny on a weight loss program to raise funds for the shelter. So far he has only lost 3 pound and that was due to stress from being dumped off in a strange place. I think to myself want kind of person would of did this to this lovely wonderful creature, but the world is full of some heartless people who just do not care. Well I hope Tiny finds himself a really good home and does lose some weight like really I thought my cats where fat they sure do not compare to him. Good Luck Tiny!!