RANDOM SHOTS - January 2013 School Shooting The Media Won’t Report, and More

Obama Wants To Be King or Dictator?

 

First it was “Yes, we can!” Then it was “Pass this bill!” Now the latest slogan from President Barack Obama is “I proclaim!”

Expressing his frustration with Congress and our checks and balance system of government, Obama has now decided to declare edicts from the Executive Office instead of going through the process of going through the legislative process.

Back on October 24th of 2011, Obama declared, “We can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will.”

And with the attitude of a Dictator who really wants to be King for life, Barack Obama signed a huge list of Executive Orders to bypass Congress and the Senate and pronounce new laws for his subjects.

The list of executive actions Obama has declared are all supposedly to address anti-gun violence. The problem that Obama has is that he cannot do what he is trying to get away with.

He is trying to circumvent the Constitution of the United States, specifically the Bill of Rights, the legislative authority of the Congress - something that the Executive Branch does not have.

The following is a list, provided by the White House, of executive actions President Obama plans to take to address gun violence:

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

Since all of these actions are being illegally taken, I say impeachment proceedings are now a necessity.

Power has gone to his head, and for really the first time in American History, an American President is assuming power and authority that is not his. Because of his actions to willfully disregard the process of which he must undertake to try to pass a law, he is criminal in his actions and should be removed from Office.

SECOND SHOT!

One PA County Hires Armed Guards For All Schools

On January 11th, it was reported that all of the schools in Butler County, Pa., has hired Retired Pennsylvania State Troopers to serve as armed guards at all 14 of their facilities.

The move by school officials is not unlike that in several other states where school districts have looked to beef up security, reported the Washington Post.

The school board has designated $230,000 to pay for 22 armed guards — one at every school and every after-school event — and is only hiring retired troopers with at least 20 years experience who own their own gun and can pass a 60-round shooting test.

“We might not like it, but the modern reality is our kids are vulnerable, and they need our help,” said Frank Cichra, who already has been hired to patrol one of the schools. “Nobody’s doing this job for money.”

Superintendent Mike Strutt said he added the guards because he felt that security drills and lockdown plans would not be enough if an armed shooter approached one of the schools for which he is responsible.

With a similar thought, some groups in Utah are specifically training teachers to carry weapons, some in Tennessee are hiring “security specialists,” and the National Rifle Association is readying a program to help schools either train or hire armed guards across the country.

“This could happen here,” Strutt said about why he pushed the members of his school board to approve his plan. “Armed guards are the one thing that give us a fighting chance. Don’t we want that one thing?”

That leads us to our main story ...

A January 2013 School Shooting The Media Won’t Report

Early this month, Thomas Richard Cowan loaded 13 bullets into two handguns, left his German shepherd chained to the fence and drove eight miles from his home in Kingsport to Sullivan Central High School. Whatever his mission.

This was no kid, Cowen was a 62-year-old Vietnam Veteran.

For about an hour, Cowan’s armed invasion spread panic throughout the school before a burst of officers’ gunfire brought him down. No others were injured.

No one knows why Cowan pointed his Honda in the direction of the Blountville, Tennessee, high school, where his brother is a janitor.

Cowen was later described – both in court records and interviews – as a peculiar man with a history of erratic sometimes criminal behavior.

He parked his car in a handicapped space just in front of the school’s main entrance.

Second period was just getting under way at 9:10 a.m. when Ashley Thacker, a junior, arrived at the main entrance of her high school.

Thacker, 16, had been at a doctor’s appointment and was on her way to a music theory class as she approached the locked doors.

She noticed a man standing in the 10-foot waiting area between the two sets of doors, waiting to be buzzed in. His bald crown was framed with brown hair. He had a mustache, she remembered, and he was holding a cane.

He told her to go on ahead of him. But she never made it through the doors.

Instead, Melanie Riden, principal of Sullivan Central, came striding through the locked doors.

“He pulled out his gun and started pointing it at people,” Thacker said.

Cowan trained his small .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol at Riden’s face, said Sullivan County Sheriff Wayne Anderson.

Carolyn Gudger, the school resource officer, was armed. She was there and immediately drew her gun, then shielded the principal’s body with her own.

Thacker remembers Cowan shouting something – possibly including the words “10 years” – but she isn’t sure. She turned and ran out the set of public doors to the mulch pile in the front of the school, and hid behind bushes.

“He might shoot someone,” Thacker remembered thinking. “I just wanted to get out of there.”

Riden fled and Gudger inched back into the school, leading Cowan through the scattered pastel chairs in the empty cafeteria. It was a tactical move, meant to lure the gunman into a more contained place, Anderson said.

Sullivan County dispatch sent out a chilling alert: “Man with a gun at Central High School.”

Riden, reached later by phone, said she could not comment without permission from Sullivan County Director of Schools Jubal Yennie.

Gudger told him to drop his weapon; he demanded she drop hers. It was a standoff, something Cowen didn't anticipate. His plan if he had one was unraveling in front of him all because there was someone there armed and ready to defend the school.

He did not count on resistance. Like most who want to do harm to others, Cowen was thinking twice about what he wanted to do because there was someone there to stop him.

At one point, Cowen tried unsuccessfully to lunge for Gudger's gun. But no luck, all of a sudden his plan to rein terror on the school children and those working there was not that simple anymore now that he was confronted with someone with a gun that will be used for good instead of evil.

Cowan repeated one thing only, Anderson said. That he wanted to pull the fire alarms.

“I don’t know why, we can only speculate about that and I think everyone will speculate why he wanted to pull a fire alarm,” Anderson said. “Either to get the kids out of class or, I don’t know. We don’t know.”

Flattened against the bushes, Ashley Thacker waited two minutes, she thinks. “I didn’t hear anything else, so I thought Officer Gudger had arrested him.”

She was wrong. As she approached the school, two assistant principals opened a window and yelled at her to run away. Crying and shaking, Thacker ran to her car and drove a half-mile to her parents’ business.

At about 9:15 a.m., a shaken voice came over the intercom.

“Code red. Lockdown.”

There was profanity in the background. This was no drill, students realized.

With the announcement, teachers sprang into action – locking doors and papering over windows, turning off the lights and closing window blinds.

Students huddled in the corners of classrooms, sitting in the darkness and searching for information with a storm of text messages.

Casey Deel, a 17-year-old senior, was on his way to a doctor’s office when his girlfriend, Alicia Edwards, sent him a text at 9:15 a.m.

“There’s a code red lock down. im scared,” the 16-year-old junior texted from her government class.

“r u serious?” Deel texted back. He skipped his appointment.

In Kayla Nichols’ cosmetology class, students squeezed into a storage room the size of a parking space, and locked the door, the 17-year-old said.

Ryan Kendrick was in algebra class, just off the main office. The 17-year-old senior thought he heard the gunman making threats – about not leaving the building alive and taking others with him – and Gudger urging him to calm down.

Then he heard a volley of gunshots.

Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang.

Kendrick and his friend, Andrew Ray, began to pray.

Landon Sillyman was in his honors biology class, where the teacher had instructed students to put their heads on their desks in the darkened classroom. The 14-year-old freshman estimated the suspense lasted about an hour.

But it was all over in minutes, Anderson estimated.

One hundred and twenty seconds after Cowan drew his gun, two deputies, Lt. Steve Williams and Sam Matney, arrived.

They entered through separate doors and met Cowan and Gudger – still in a moving standoff – as they reached a science pod behind the cafeteria.

Cowan wavered, then he jerked his gun from Gudger to the other deputies then back again. The three officers told him, again, to drop his weapon. Cowen should have, but didn't.

So they opened fire. Some students counted five shots, others counted six. Sheriff Anderson would not say how many rounds hit the gunman.

Cowan fell to the ground, his shoes just feet from door to the library full of teenagers.

The pistol in his hand had seven bullets in the magazine and another in the chamber. He had a second handgun in his back pocket, loaded with five rounds.

“That’s how close he was,” Anderson said. “We all know this could have been much more dangerous.”
In a file at the Kingsport General Sessions courthouse, there is a handwritten note by a police detective:

“This is the fellow we discussed,” it reads. “He needs a mental eval.”

The note was written in 2001, after Cowan was charged with stalking. According to court records, a newspaper carrier said that twice he followed her as she drove her route.

When she turned, he turned. When she stopped, he stopped.

“At one point, he followed [her] into a driveway and would not let her pull out,” the affidavit reads. “Both instances put [the carrier] in fear as she does not know the defendant.”

The case was later dismissed because a witness did not show up at court.

The same affidavit also recites an incident from the previous year, when Cowan produced a gun at the Kingsport Police Department.

According to court documents, he arrived at the police station in February 2000 to talk with officers about “a problem that has been discussed with him several times in the past.”

Cowan confessed that tucked in the waistband of his blue jeans, he had a loaded .380-caliber Jennings handgun – the same type of small hideaway gun used in the school standoff.

He was convicted of unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon, sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to seek a mental evaluation and counseling. But court records show, Cowen did not do either.

His brother, Rodney Cowan, a janitor at the high school, declined to elaborate on his brother’s history or character.

“Right now, I haven’t got a comment,” he said. “We’re just trying to get everything figured out.”

At an afternoon news conference at the Board of Education building in Blountville, Yennie, the director of schools, read from a prepared statement that lauded police, staff and students for following their emergency protocol.

“The students were never in any danger,” he said. “And Carolyn Gudger performed her job admirably to ensure the safety of students and staff.”

Sheriff Anderson also said the school’s protocol worked perfectly. He hailed it “textbook” and “perfect.”

“These officers saved children’s lives today,” Anderson said.

And yes, the previous story has everything to do with the NRA's proposal to put armed guards in all schools ...

Why Not Ask The Kids At Sullivan Central High School If The NRA's Proposal Wouldn't Help Keep Them Safe?

They just lived through the test that proved for fact that indeed it would!

When the NRA made the suggestion to have armed guards at all of the schools in America. President Obama instantly ruled it out.

Democrats instantly called it absurd and insane.

But what do the kids at Sullivan Central High School think about the idea now that it has been proven to work well?

Camry Collins, a 17-year-old senior, wonders about the effectiveness of the second set of locked doors. She said she does not feel safer despite the outcome of the intrusion.

“Tomorrow, the same thing could happen again,” she said.

And tomorrow, Carolyn Gudger, the school's uncontested hero, won’t be there.

“Gudger is the “bomb-diggity,” Collins said. “She goes out of her way to protect us.”

Gudger and the other two deputies involved in the shooting are now on administrative leave as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation concludes its investigation of what took place.

So while the State investigators try to piece everything together, the school is defenseless again.

In the meanwhile ...

Utah Town Wants Every Household To Have A Gun


Officials in a Utah town want to make sure every head of household has a firearm and knows how to use it. They also want to give school teachers training with guns as well.

Spring City Councilman Neil Sorensen first proposed an ordinance requiring a gun in every household in the town of 1,000.

The rest of the council scoffed at making it a requirement, but they unanimously agreed to move forward with an ordinance "recommending" the idea.

The council also approved funding to offer concealed firearms training Friday to the 20 teachers and administrators at the local elementary school.

"It sends a statement that criminals better think twice," Sorensen told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "If a teacher would have had a concealed weapon in Sandy Hook, I think the death loss would have been fewer. If sane, trained people had guns, they could have shot back."

The measure, which will go before the full council in February for further review, seems to have the support of the council's five members and many residents in the farming community about 90 miles south of Salt Lake City.

But school administrators don't think arming teachers is wise, and they are not encouraging teachers to participate in Friday's training.

"The more guns you have in the school, the more dangerous it is," said Leslie Keisel, superintendent of the North Sanpete School District.

Councilman Noel Bertelson said making guns in every house mandatory was too much, but he agrees the town would be safer if everyone was armed. With only a part-time police force, he said, response time is not like it is in a big city.

"If a person is able to take care of themselves for a while, it would probably be a good thing," Bertelson said.

The community is still reeling from the double-murder on New Year's Eve 2011 of an elderly couple in nearby Mount Pleasant. Sorensen said what used to be a peaceful, quiet town has been sullied by increasing criminal activity.

Thefts of metal for scrap and other property also have become a problem, Councilman Boyd Mickel said.

"We are kind of tired of people breaking in and taking stuff," said Mickel, explaining why he voted to urge every house to have a gun.

Tim Thompson, a coal miner and father of four girls who lives in Spring City, backs the council's measure.

"People think small towns are a good place to live," Thompson said. "But there is more crime and drugs than you can imagine."

Thompson, who owns 78 guns he keeps locked in a safe, doesn't want teachers to act as police officers. He said some kids are "hooligans" and could overpower teachers for the guns.

Sisters Katy Harmer and Caroline Lott, however, say arming teachers would make them feel better about sending their children to the Spring City Elementary School. The co-owners of the town's coffee shop, Das Coffee, said most Spring City residents keep guns for hunting, leaving only a handful without weapons.

Angela Johnson, owner of the Sinclair gas station, said she doesn't like guns but backs the council's proposal.

"If criminals knew they would be fired against, I think it would cause pause," Johnson said.

Because the Spring City Council is stopping short of a law requiring gun ownership, elected officials won't run afoul of state law, former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told KSL.com.

Shurtleff said that when the Washington County town of Virgin enacted a local law in 2000 requiring households to keep guns, he warned them against trying to enforce the measure.

Spring City leaders say they got the idea from a city in Georgia that passed a similar law. In 1982, Kennesaw, Ga., made headlines by requiring heads of households to own a gun and ammunition. On its website, Kennesaw boasts that its burglary rate declined after the law took effect.

Teachers at Spring City Elementary School won't be required to attend Friday's concealed weapons training, but can if they wish, Principal Mark Thomas said.

"I don't think there is anything wrong about being educated how to use a gun," Thomas said.

But Thomas doesn't believe having more armed teachers would necessarily prevent or mitigate the damage in mass shootings. Utah law allows teachers to have concealed weapon in classrooms, but the district doesn't advocate for that, Thomas said.

"By bringing weapons into school, are we creating more problems than we are solving?" he asked. "It could create a new problem. We don't want to deal with that problem."

The proposed ordinance will be discussed at the Feb. 7 City Council meeting. A public hearing will be held three weeks later.

LAST SHOT!
Quentin Tarantino yells at interviewer when asked about movie violence

So now a story about those who love extreme violence ...

Hollywood's favorite son Quentin Tarantino flips out when asked about movie violence

Interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy found himself faced with a fuming Tarantino when he tried to discuss movie violence with the “Django Unchained” director.

Their conversation got heated when Guru-Murthy questioned Tarantino’s stance that movie violence has no impact on real-life violence.

“It’s a movie. It’s a fantasy. It’s not real life,” the director said.

“Why are you so sure there’s no link between enjoying movie violence and enjoying real violence? “ Guru-Murthy pressed on.

“I’m not biting. I refuse your question,” Tarrantino fired back. ““I’m not your slave and you’re not my master. You can’t make me dance to your tune. I’m not a monkey….I refuse.”

The ever-persistent Guru-Murthy tried again, citing a Jamie Foxx statement that suggests “we can’t turn our back on movie violence.” But an animated Tarantino jumped in before he could finish the question.

“Well, then you should talk to Jamie Foxx about that,” he quipped.” I don’t want to talk about the implications of violence!”

Guru-Murthy explained he wanted to “flesh out” Tarantino’s well-known stance on movie violence. But the director wasn’t having it.

“I am shutting your butt down,” Tarrantino said firmly. “It’s none of your damn business what I think about that!”

The issue of gun violence in movies and video games has been a front-burner topic since the tragic shooting of 26 people including 20 school children by a lone gunman in Newtown, Conn. in December. The Los Angeles premiere of "Django Unchained" was canceled shortly after the shooting.

Obama agrees that Hollywood has no part in promoting needless violence in our society, I just assume that since he has been so quiet on Hollywood's role in influencing people to do such horrible acts.


Story by Tom Correa

How Horse's See The World

How come we have two eyes but only see one of everything? And really, have you ever heard the phrase "two are better than one"?

Having two eyes is certainly better than having just one because two eyes provide us with stereo vision and depth perception - two things that just eye can not give us.

With 2 ½ inches separating our two eyes, each eye views an object from a slightly different angle.

For instance, if you hold up a finger and look at it with just your right eye, the image is different from the image of when you look at it with just your left eye.

The right eye sees more of the right side of your finger while the left eye sees more of the left side of your finger.

If you placed the two different images on top of one another, they would not match and our vision would be out of focus.

But, the fact is that our brain sorts out these varying visual messages from our two eyes - then it combines the images and recreates one three-dimensional image.

This is referred to as "binocular vision." Just like your look through two lenses in binoculars, humans view the world through two lenses.

The eyes of many other animals are placed differently than ours. Many birds have an eye on each side of their head. Each eye sees a completely separate area stretching out on the left or the right.

Viewing the world through two eyes provides us with depth perception. When you look at your finger through just one eye, it looks a lot flatter.

So now, have you ever wondered how your horse's vision differs from yours? How he or she sees the world?

Well, while we see in binocular vision, a horse sees in both binocular and monocular vision with a much greater percentage being monocular.

Fact is that our horses see better than us in some ways, and worse than us in others. Because our horse's eyes are positioned farther apart than ours are, he has a much wider field of vision.

Unlike our parents, a horse doesn't have eyes in the back of his head - but it sometimes seems that way. In fact, a horse can see nearly 360 degrees. Of course, with the exception of a blind spot directly behind him and one directly in front.

The equine eye is the largest of any land mammal. Its visual abilities are directly related to the animal's behavior and the fact that the horse is a flight animal.

Like most prey animals, the horse's eyes are set on the sides of its head, allowing it close to a 350° range of monocular vision.

And yes, it is true that horses have the largest eyes of any land mammal - and are lateral-eyed, meaning their eyes are positioned on the sides of their heads. This means horses have a range of vision of more than 350°, with approximately 65° of this being binocular vision and the remaining 285° monocular vision.

What this does is provide a horse with the best chance to spot predators. That's one of nature's defensive gifts to horse, of course the others being speed of flight and an ability to see at night.

While most of us know that horse have a wonderful ability to outrun those they see as predators, many might not realize that horses have superior night vision. Because of this, they also have better vision on slightly cloudy days, relative to bright, sunny days.

However, horses are less able to adjust to sudden changes of light than are humans, such as when moving from a bright day into a dark barn.

Both the strengths and weaknesses of the horse's visual abilities should be taken into consideration when training horses.

And yes, a horse's superior ability to see at night is a consideration that should be taken into account during training, as certain tasks such as loading into a trailer, may frighten a horse simply because it cannot see adequately.

It is also important in riding, as quickly moving from light to dark or vice versa will temporarily make it difficult for the animal to judge what is in front of it.

And as for color? Well, horses are not color blind. They have dichromatic vision. This means they see two of the basic three color wavelengths of visible light, compared to the three-color (trichromic vision) of most humans.

In other words, horses naturally see the blue and green colors of the spectrum and the color variations based upon them, but cannot distinguish red.

Research indicates their color vision is somewhat like red-green color blindness in humans, in which certain colors, especially red and related colors, appear more green.

The horse's limited ability to see color is sometimes taken into consideration when designing obstacles for the horse to jump, since the animal will have a harder time distinguishing between the obstacle and the ground if the two are only a few shades off.

Because of this, most people paint their jump rails a different color from the footing or the surrounding landscape so the horse may better judge the obstacle on the approach.

As for being near or far sighted? Almost all domestic horses tend to be near-sighted, with few being far-sighted. Interesting enough to note is that wild horses are usually all far-sighted.

The horse's wide range of monocular vision has two "blind spots," areas where the animal cannot see.   One is right in front of the face which comes to a point at about 3–4 ft in front of the horse, and the other is right behind its head which extends over the back and behind the tail when standing with the head facing straight forward.

And imagine this for a moment, as a horse jumps an obstacle - the object briefly disappears from sight right before the horse takes off. That is called amazing!

Most people don't realize that a horse's big nose actually gets in the way of vision.

Have you ever noticed how a horse stretches out his nose to meet another horse or to check out what you have in your hand?

Friends, he's not just acting defensively by keeping a distance from you. And he's certainly not "respecting" your space.

Fact is that he's arching his neck and pointing his nose so he can both smell the object and focus on it. Other than that blind spot directly in front of him, a horse's close-up vision is excellent.

The wide range of monocular vision has a trade-off:

The placement of the horse's eyes decreases the possible range of binocular vision to around 65° on a horizontal plane, occurring in a triangular shape primarily in front of the horse's face. Therefore, the horse has a smaller field of depth perception than we humans do.

A horse uses its binocular vision by looking straight at an object, raising its head when it looks at a distant predator or focuses on an obstacle to jump.

To use binocular vision on a closer object near the ground, such as a snake or threat to its feet, the horse drops its nose and looks downward with its neck somewhat arched.

A horse will raise or lower its head to increase its range of binocular vision.

This has everything to do with his distance vision. And yes, it is a different story from what he sees close up.

Horses depend on sound, smell, and his excellent memory for shapes and movement to help him make sense of things he sees in the distance.

A horse's visual field is lowered when their head is held perpendicular to the ground. This makes the horse's binocular vision focus less on distant objects and more on the immediate ground in front of the horse, suitable for arena distances, but less adaptive to a cross-country setting.

An example: Riders of jumpers take their horses' use of distance vision into consideration, allowing their horses to raise their heads a few strides before a jump, so the animals are able to assess the jumps and the proper take-off spots.

The horse is very sensitive to motion, as motion is usually the first alert that a predator is approaching.

Motion is usually first detected in their periphery, where they have poor visual acuity, and horses will usually act defensive and run if something suddenly moves into their peripheral field of vision.

What does that mean? Well, horses are mentalists!

It's very true. While some say horse are dumb, I've always believed the opposite in that they are much smarter than we are in most cases.

The reason I say this is because as an Instructor in the Marine Corps, I saw what it took to get Marines to preform. Repetition, memory, concentration, and an ability to react instinctively to training responses. And yes, it's tough to learn.

Fact is that horse do all of that and more. A horse can't literally see the halter you're hiding behind your back when you enter the pasture, though through experience and a keen power of observation, he can recognize your characteristic halter-hiding walk and movement.

Subsequently he responds in one of two ways: He either responds has he has been taught, or as he sees fit to avoid an unpleasantness. And friends, to discern between the two takes a great deal of intelligence.

Because the picture that each eye sees doesn't overlap as much as ours does, his depth perception - the ability to judge distances - just isn't as good as ours. So he may get frightened of something that's quite a distance from him.

Like us, a horse's visual abilities are directly related to their behavior. In their case, the fact that the horse is a flight animal.

Both the strengths and weaknesses of the horse's visual abilities should be taken into consideration when dealing with horses. An understanding of the horse's eye can help us figure out why horses behave the way they do in various situations.

When a horse sees something unfamiliar, he'll raise his head suddenly, scanning the horizon with nostrils flared and ears turned like satellite dishes trying to catch familiar sounds. And yes, we should recognize their actions to help us understand how they see the world around them.

Some folks might say that horse can't see very well, that their vision is not very good at all. But really, we should all accept the fact that seeing is not only done with our eyes. And for horses, well that's even more true.

The way I see it is that with the help of their other senses of sound, and smell, and instinct, their ability to "see" their world around them is truly excellent for their needs.


Story by Tom Correa

Horse Care In the Winter - It's Not That Tough!

When it comes to caring for horses in the winter, since I'm originally from Hawaii, the worse thing that we had to worry about during our winters was too much mud.

While mud is still a concern, it is certainly not my only worry these days.

Being attentive and caring for your horses through the winter months will help to ensure that they get through the season with relatively few problems. And yes, they do need attention and care.

Horses are reasonably hardy in cold temperatures and grow a winter coat for additional warmth. But even though that's the case, care still needs to be taken to ensure that they cool down properly after being ridden, that they're not wet and subjected to wind chill, and that they're being fed properly through the winter months.

First Things First.

As an owner, we have a responsibility to give our horses the right shelter needed to get them through the winter. Unlike where my grandpa had his ranch in Hawaii, here in Glencoe, California, it snows in this part of the Sierra Mountains.

We must provide our horses living outside, or being turned out, during heavy cold rains or snow with a simple three-sided, roofed shelter to provide them protection from the weather.

We must make sure the roof is angled away from the entrance and there is adequate drainage as muddy holes tend to develop in the front of run-in shelters as horses go in and out repeatedly. The shelter should be large enough for the horses in the pasture. If you have many horses, you may need to provide more than one shelter.

Because it snows this time of year here, my first responsibility to my horses was to focus on their shelter, their housing, first.

The first winter that I was here was tough because I didn't have my small barn built yet. The following year, with the help of my Dad and my brothers and a nephew or two, we worked very hard to prepare a stable, basically a small barn, for my horses for the coming winter.

Once it was built, I was able to get my horses in out of the weather. After that, all I had to do was make sure the barn was clean, somewhat warm, and well ventilated yet free from drafts.

We should check our barns for drafts. We want to have good ventilation in our barn, but unnecessary drafts just stir up dust and can give your horse chills.

It is just a fact of life that cold, strong winds combined with wet conditions pose the greatest danger to your horse's health in winter.

When the wind tousles your horse's hair it takes away all the heat trapped by her thick winter coat. Wind can pull surface heat away from a horse's body quicker than your horse can generate more heat. When she's wet and the wind is blowing, its even harder for her to stay warm.

Clean bedding is a priority and regular changes of the bedding should be prioritized. Remove anything that might injure or tempt the horse, such as low-hanging lights, nails sticking out, toxic cleaning substances, that sort of things.

A good example of that was a small medicine cabinet that I had in the breezeway. Bored horses will get into everything and anything, and because of such the small cabinet was on the ground after only having to keep one new horse in the breezeway for just one night.

If your horse is wintering outdoors in a temperate winter climate, be careful of rain.

Wet cold is far less tolerable than dry cold, and you should consider blanketing your horse, as well as ensuring that there is access to some form of shelter such as a shed, to allow the horse to get out of the rain.

Bring your horse in at night and turn him out during the day when the sun is up and the temperature is a little warmer.

It's Up To Us!

Someone once wrote, "Mother Nature gave horses the very best insulation available-their own thick winter coat. Under normal circumstances a horse starts to grow a thick winter coat when daylight decreases. His coat is all he needs to keep him warm. But human interference, body clipping or changing climates, can cause your horse to be unprepared for extreme weather. He may need a little extra help keeping warm."

So yes, it is recommended that we feed our horses additional hay or grain this time of year to keep up their body weight and keep them warm.

I'm a big believer in feeding our horses additional feed this time of year. For a horse, digestion generates more heat than any other body function.
  A horse typically requires 1% of his body weight in good quality roughage per day to function. Up this amount to help keep your horse warm as the weather becomes more severe.
I always try to make sure that our horses are getting enough grain. In the winter, horses burn additional calories. Although you have upped his hay, it may not be enough to keep him warm.

Though I don't blanket our horses, some should consider blanketing your horse if he is clipped, has recently been relocated from a warmer climate, does not deal well with cold or your area's weather is particularly frigid.

For horses in temperate winter zones, ensure that there is still access to a shelter even when they're left outside, such as a lean-to shed or a grove of trees.

Be sure to give horses kept in stables or barns plenty of outdoor time during winter. This helps to keep them healthier because they breathe fresh air and can adjust to the temperature changes on a regular basis.

Encourage lots of movement and exercise to keep warm; this is how horses keep warm in the wild.

Be aware of possible winter ills. Just like us, horses get sick during winter and it's important to know what to be on the lookout for, and how to manage the problems that human intervention can cause.

Horses are susceptible to respiratory illnesses during winter. The ammonia build-up, mold, and dust inside barns and stables can bring on a variety of respiratory illnesses.

Do your best to prevent this by ensuring adequate ventilation and giving your horse plenty of outdoor opportunities to breathe in fresh air. Clean out stalls regularly.

Horses are also susceptible to skin conditions during winter, such as rain-rot, bed itch, ringworm, lice, and infected scratches. Keep the horse clean, groomed, and medicated appropriately.

I do have a blanket. It was a blanket that I bought for an ol' Mac two years ago. He was pushing 40 years old and I had a horrible time keeping weight on him. Older horses or horses that have been ill may require blanketing. Layer your horse's blankets adding and removing them as the weather changes.

Young, fit, sheltered horses probably don't need blanketing. But if your horse is blanketed, please don't forget to remove it daily and check him over for any cuts, rubs or scratches.

For horses with heavy winter coats, it is very important to be sure to check them over every few days for cuts and scrapes that may be hidden by their long hair. This is also a good time to check their body condition - long hair can make it hard to tell when a horse is losing weight.

And yes, winter is the time of year that a horse will burn off a great deal of weight.

Now I know that some folks have written to ask why water is so important in the winter when they are not sweating as much? Well, when horses drink water they reduce their risk of colic brought on by dehydration. 

I always try to make sure that our horses have water available to them. If water is there and not frozen, then a horse will drink.

When the water gets cold, some horses don't like to drink. A water tank heater can help keep the water warm enough so that horses will drink.

If your horse still doesn't drink enough, you might want to feed soaked beet pulp or soaked alfalfa cubes. Remember, horses need to drink to reduce their risk of colic brought on by dehydration.

Be careful not to blanket a wet horse or to use blankets that do not breathe but cause moisture build-up.

Clean out your horse's hooves well. Thrush is a serious problem this time of year.

I've read where some folks who want to ride no matter what will actually add a layer of non-stick cooking spray or petroleum jelly to your horse's hooves so that it will prevent balls of ice and snow from forming in the hooves.And remember, clean hooves have a better grip on icy surfaces than neglected hooves do!

But whether riding or not, it is extremely important to take good care of your horse's hooves in the winter. Mud can cause serious thrush, and clean hooves help prevent it. Besides, if your horse has thrush, the only way to find out is by cleaning its hooves.

See your Vet promptly for treatment of things that you know you can't doctor. Pride and stubbornness has stopped many a person from calling a Vet sooner than the finally did.

So OK, You Want To Ride!

Of course knowing how to care for a horse that is ridden during winter is very important. Riding in winter brings up two issues. First, preparing the horse adequately for the ride, and second, cooling the hot horse down safely in the cold after the ride.

Some will say that there is no temperature bar to riding a horse, providing that your horse has adapted to the temperature - which of course means that your horse is used to regular rides.

My rule of thumb is this: if it's too cold for me, its too cold for my horse.

My recommendation for any horse owner is to be aware of the weather and use common sense. Why put your horse or yourself through horrible weather conditions, and maybe getting sick, just to do it.

It's obviously different on a working ranch where you need to be out in the worse of conditions, but if you don't have to put your horse or yourself through bone chilling conditions - then why do it?

Whether we like it or not, fierce cold winds are not ideal for riding. And honestly, neither are severe thunderstorms or blizzards. So use your common sense when judging the riding conditions.

Winter means longer driving times, longer preparation times, and shorter days. Be aware of the time constraints affecting your ability to ride your horse and care for him.

First rule of riding in the winter is this: If you ride throughout the winter, make sure to warm your horse up slowly and cool him out slowly and thoroughly before putting him away.

Riding is especially important if you're a competition rider, as well as ensuring that young horses get used to the work required of them.

So if you must ride, plan well ahead. it is recommended that a competitive rider should aim for four to six hours weekly of riding during winter months.

Prepare your horse for riding. Even before you get your horse ready for riding, check the terrain and pasture where you plan to ride your horse. Look for ice or deep mud hazards that could cause your horse to slip or trip or fall.

If you see that the terrain looks bad, make plans to avoid those areas or scratch the ride.

In terms of caring for the barn, well I've heard about folks who use de-icing agents such as salt or sawdust to help eliminate slippery areas around a stable and hitching posts, gateways and doorways, and such.

For me, it seems that like everyone else, I fight mud everywhere during the winter months. What do I use? I use gravel.

When there is a break in the weather - such as right now - I go down and get a truckload of gravel to spread around. For example, tomorrow I'm going to town to get a load of gravel so that I can take care of the walking area around my barn - and the entrance to the breezeway. Anything left can be used around the house.

I find my wife is a lot more understanding when I don't track in mud into the house. Gravel will help that.

In terms of the horse? Well, I've heard some say they warm a horse's bit before they put on the bridle. Some say they use hot water and others say they just keep it rolled up in a towel until it's time.

One ol' Cowboy that I knew some 35 years ago used to keep his bridle and bit up on the dashboard of his truck where the truck's heater defroster would blow hot air on it until he was ready for it.

Another ol' Timer that I knew back when used to say, "If it's that damn cold, than I'll use a hackamore! And if that don't work, then my horse can join me inside in front of the fire out of the weather! Some weather just ain't smart to ride in!"

During riding, take care about where you choose to ride. Pitfalls for riding during winter are varied depending on whether you're riding in snow or in more temperate muddy, cold temperatures.

Things to watch out for include:

Deep snow, especially where it conceals holes, tree wells, and crevices where your horse could slip down.
Any ice is potentially dangerous as your horse has no grip or traction. While a little mud is fine, a lot of mud can cause the horse to become bogged, or to trip.

Mud can also conceal objects that might harm your horse. Large areas of mud are best avoided.

And yes, wet slopes are no different. Take care riding a horse down a wet slope, as it is easy to lose grip, especially when going fast, and moving over wet stony or rocky areas.

Never canter or gallop your horse in snowy, muddy, icy, or slick terrain. If you do, you'll just be looking for trouble for you and your horse.

This is really important. It is the same with driving a car on roads that are wet or icy. Many drivers don't respect the ground under them. They don't slow down and take caution. Of course these are usually the people we see on the evening news or in tomorrow's paper when their crash is reported.

Post riding, cool down your horse properly. This is a time when the horse can get a chill, moving from being very hot and sweaty, to being cold.

The following procedures form an important part of sensible post-riding care during winter:

If his ears are hot, walk him around a bit. Feel his ears again. They should be cool, not cold nor hot. Cold ears mean a cold horse.

Dry your horse. A wet horse should be dried after riding in winter; there can be snow, rain, and sweat combining to make for a very wet horse.

Take a towel in each hand and rub the towels over his coat in circular motions. Roughing the hair up will help dry it faster. If your horse is used to a blow dryer, you might consider using this as well.

Any snow that has attached to your horse (especially his legs) should be brushed off. Try to do this outside to prevent taking it indoors where it can melt and become slippery.

Brush or curry your horse once he is dry. This will separate the hairs and help to keep him warm, as body heat warms the air between the coat and skin.

If you do add a blanket, just make sure it is a breathable blanket that allows water vapor to pass through.

Return your horse to his stables, barn, or field. Ensure that there is adequate food and water. Give him hay to eat, as eating roughage warms him quickly, releasing heat as it's digested.

Be sure to check that the drinking water supplied is not frozen.

And lastly, spend time with your horse during winter.

Sure it's cold and wet and the air is crisp enough to make blades of grass. But really, none of those reasons should stop any of us from spending time with our horse - or horses.

Bundle up! Put on your long johns and layer up! Grab your Carhartt coat, pull down your hat, and slip on those gloves, then get out there between those times when you have to be out there to feed.

You see even when the weather is foul and bleak, we have to be sure to go out and see our horse in its shelter. For me, I talk to them while I look them over and check them for cuts, scraps, and such.

When I go out to see my horses, I talk with them about everything under the sun. It's true. As I look them over, I talk to them about what Obama is doing to the country and how we have to fight against it.

I tell them about the world looking sort of crazy these days. And yes, I do all of that while I check their hooves and give them a little more feed to help keep them warm.

So after giving them some grain to help them make it through the cold night, I've been known to take a brush to them - but never ever do I brush so hard as to take away their winter coats.

Horses appreciate your company and it keeps you connected to them.

It will also help you to look forward to the better winter riding days, and the warmer days to come.

If you can't get to your horse as often as you'd like because of winter conditions on roads, and such, then I recommend you have someone else check in on your horse regularly to make sure he's fine.

The responsibility that goes along with owning a horse is great. As their owner, a horse is completely reliant on us.

When we got our horse, we made a deal - an unspoken agreement with our horse. We affirmed that we would not let them down. We agreed to do our part to be ready, willing, and aware of all the correct care that our horse requires.

If we don't do our jobs, hold up our end of the deal and follow through with regards to our responsibilities as horse owners, then our horse's health and overall well being will suffer.

As for this article, well I hope this information will enable folks to do what it takes to meet their horse's needs.


Story by Tom Correa

Angus Cattle - "The Business Breed"

One of the most successful English breeds of cattle, the Angus has long been the cattle industry's “business” breed.

Its black color is highly sought after in crossbreeding programs as a potential seal of Angus quality. Perhaps the most representative breed in cowherds, the Angus holds a well earned spot amongst all beef breeds.

In the northeastern part of Scotland lie the four counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine, and Angus. These counties touch the North Sea and all extend inland and have some high or mountainous country.

They have been favored through the ages with a temperate climate and good crops, although the topography of the country is rough.

It is a fact that pastures do well in the area because of well-distributed rainfall. Plenty of grass, plus a nearly ideal temperature for cattle production, has made the area very suitable for some of the greatest improvement that has been made in our purebred breeds of cattle.

The county of Angus was early noted for its production of potatoes, grain crops, and feed. Counties are known as "shires" in the Great Britain, and this shire contains a fine expanse of highly cultivated land known as Strathmore - one of the very fine valleys in that part of Scotland which has become famous in the history of the Aberdeen-Angus breed.

The county of Aberdeen is the most productive agricultural region in Scotland and depends largely upon crops and livestock for income.

While the fishing industry is stressed along the coastline, the tiny counties of Banff and Kincardine have long been known as livestock centers.

Northern Scotland, although in a more northern latitude than the United States, has a more uniform temperature throughout the year. The Gulf Steam tempers the climate in the winter, and the summers remain cooler than weather commonly experienced in the United States.

This all lends to ideal land for cattle.

So where did Angus cattle originate?

There are three distinct and well-defined breeds of polled cattle in the United Kingdom. These breeds are the Aberdeen-Angus, the Galloway, and the red polled Norfolk and Suffolk breeds that are found in England.

Polled cattle apparently existed in Scotland before recorded history because the likeness of such cattle is found in prehistoric carvings of Aberdeen and Angus.

Historians believe that there were hornless (polled) cattle in Siberia centuries earlier. And believe it or not, there is believed to have been a hornless race of cattle in other parts of the world such as what was depicted in Egypt by sculptors and painters of that ancient civilization.

Some historians feel that the Aberdeen-Angus breed and the other Scottish breeds sprang from the aboriginal cattle of the country and that the breeds as we find them today are indigenous to the districts in which they are still found.

Although little is known about the early origin of early Scottish cattle which later became known as the Aberdeen-Angus breed, it is thought that the improvement of the original stock found in the area began in the last half of the 1700's.

The cattle found in northern Scotland were not of uniform color, and many of the cattle of the early days had varied color markings or broken color patterns. Many of the cattle were polled, and some did in fact have horns.

The characteristics that we commonly call "polled" was often referred to in the old Scottish writings by the terms of "humble," "doddies," "humlies," or "homyl."

Two strains were used in the formation of what later became known s the Aberdeen-Angus breed of cattle.

In the county of Angus, cattle had existed for some time that were known as Angus "doddies."

A local Rev. James Playfair wrote in 1797, "There are 1129 horned cattle of all ages and sexes in the parish. I have no other name to them; but many of them are dodded, wanting horns."

This seems to be the first authentic reference to polled cattle in the county of Angus, apart from ancient sculptures.

In the area of Aberdeenshire, other polled cattle were found and were called Buchan "humlies," Buchan being the principal agricultural district in Aberdeenshire.

These cattle were apparently early valued as work oxen, as were most of the other strains of cattle that later acquired various breed names. It is believed that polled cattle were found in Aberdeen in the 16th century.

The presence of polled cattle in Aberdeenshire, 400 years ago is proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, and it may generally be taken for granted that they were co-existent in various parts of northeastern Scotland, their purity being contingent on the degree of care exercised in breeding.

Improvement in Scottish agriculture started to take shape in the middle 1700s.

Apparently little attention was given to the breeding of cattle before the middle of the 18th century, but in the last half of that century, great progress was made in Scottish agriculture. And yes, it is not strange that as farming practices were improved, men likewise sought to improve the livestock on their farms.

Fact is that it was only natural that breeders, in improving their cattle, would buy cattle of similar kinds from adjacent areas. As a result, the cattle of the Angus doddie strain and the Buchan humlie strain were crossed.

This crossing and recrossing of these strains of cattle eventually led to a distinct breed that was not far different from either type, since the two strains were originally of rather similar type and color pattern.

By the beginning of the 19th century, the polled cattle of the Buchan district had attained considerable favor as market cattle for the production of carcass beef.

Among the polled herds of Aberdeenshire that were famous for such production in the early 1800s were those of Messrs. It was those of Williamson of St. John’s Wells and Robert Walker of Wester Fintray.

The Williamson herd later supplied the herd of Tillyfour and, through it, the Ballindalloch herd with some of their humlies.

In the world of Angus cattle, the herds of William Fullerton, Lord Panmure, Lord Southesk, and Alexander Bowie contributed many of the Angus doddies that later became prominent in the breed. Robert Walker of Portlethen seems to have been the principal cattle breeder in Kincardineshire.

But no, they were not the only ones contributing to the breed. In fact, it is said that if any one person can be singled out as the founder of a breed of livestock, Hugh Watson of Keillor, who lived in the vale of Strathmore in Angus, is worthy of that distinction.

If not the first real improver of Aberdeen-Angus cattle, he was certainly the most systematic and successful.

Both his father and grandfather had been buyers and breeders of the Angus doddies. The family is known to have owned cattle as early as 1735. Hugh Watson was born in 1789 and, in 1808, at the time he was 19 years of age, he became a tenant at Keillor.

When Hugh Watson started his farming activities at Keillor, he received from his father’s herd six of the best and blackest cows, as well as a bull.

That same summer, he visited some of the leading Scottish cattle markets and purchased the 10 best heifers and the best bull that he could find that showed characteristics of the Angus cattle that he was striving to breed.

The females were of various colors, but the bull was black; Watson decided that the color of his herd should be black and he started selecting in that direction.

Mr. Watson’s favorite bull was Old Jock 126, who was awarded the number "1" in the Herd Book at the time it was founded. The bull was bred by Watson in 1842 and was sired by Grey-Breasted Jock 113. The bull apparently was used very heavily in the herd from 1843 until 1852 and was awarded the sweepstakes for bulls at the Highland Society Show at Perth in 1852, when he was 11 years old.

Another very famous cow also made considerable history in the herd at Keillor. This cow was Old Granny 125, who was calved in 1824 and was killed by lightning when past 35 years of age. She is reported to have produced a total of 29 calves, 11 of which were registered in the Herd Book.

A very large percentage of our living Aberdeen-Angus cattle trace to either Old Granny or Old Jock, or both of these very famous foundation animals, and most would trace many times if their pedigrees were extended to the foundation of the breed.

Hugh Watson practiced the fitting and showing of his cattle more than was common by other breeders of his day. He made his first exhibition at the Highland Agricultural Society Show at Perth in 1829. During his long show career, he is said to have won over 500 prizes with his cattle and did a great deal to increase the popularity of the black polled cattle over the British Isles.

And yes, there were other early contributors to the breed.

Lord Panmure established a herd of polled cattle in 1835, and not only operated a private herd but also encouraged his tenants to breed good doddies.

William Fullerton, who was born in 1810, began to breed cattle in 1833. His most important early purchase was that of another Aberdeen cow named Black Meg.

Black Meg 43 is sometimes referred to as the founder of the breed, since more cattle trace to her than to any other female used in the origin of the breed. She is the only cow to surpass Old Granny in this respect.

Robert Walker of Porlethen founded his herd in 1818 and continued to breed cattle successfully until his death in 1874.

In 1810, the Colling brothers of England sold the famous Shorthorn bull Comet at $5,000. The publicity resulting from this sale naturally spread throughout Scotland, and many breeders looked with favor upon the use of Shorthorn blood in improving the native cattle.

Subsequently good herds of Shorthorn cattle were established in Scotland, and the cattle were used in the improvement of native stock. The use of the Shorthorn cattle on the black native cows was a very common practice of the period for the raising of commercial stock.

And yes, if you're wondering, this practice of crossbreeding did in fact threaten the Aberdeen-Angus breed with extinction. Yes, extinction.

It is often suggested that some Shorthorn blood found its way into the Aberdeen-Angus breed prior to the time the Herd Book was closed.

Alexander Keith, secretary of the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society from 1944 to 1955, takes exception to this opinion by writing:

"The statement has been frequently made that shorthorn blood was introduced into the Aberdeen-Angus breed at an early stage of its existence. There is no foundation whatever for such a statement. The tribes from which the Aberdeen-Angus breed were drawn were supplying England with beef cattle for generations before what became the beef Shorthorn was taken across the Border into Scotland and improved into what is known as the Scotch Shorthorn. Of the Aberdeen-Angus pioneers, Hugh Watson had a certain number of Shorthorn cattle, but it is quite evident from his won remarks and his insistence upon the blackness of his Aberdeen-Angus cattle that he would never have permitted mixing them. And McCombie: when one or two farmers introduced the Teeswater or Shorthorn breed into his neighborhood he drove them out by completely dominating the local shows with his Aberdeen-Angus black polls. The feeling of the early improvers of Aberdeen-Angus cattle may be gathered from the fact that my own grandfather, who was one of McCombie’s friends and associates, would not allow anything but a black beast on his farm and in his old age when I was a young boy he would insist that if I ever became a farmer and wished to be a successful feeder of cattle I must stick rigidly to the Blacks."

William McCombie of Tillyfour came along and is regarded as the preserver and great improver of the Aberdeen-Angus breed.

Fullerton and others had started the blending of the two types of cattle, which later became known as the Aberdeen-Angus, but this success was enlarged at Tillyfour.

He was an excellent breeder. Known as the Master of Tillyfour, he was born in 1805 and died in the spring of 1880.

Like his father before him, he had been a successful dealer in cattle before he began his operations in 1829 as a tenant farmer. Mr. McCombie is distinguished in the history of the Aberdeen-Angus breed because of his great foresight in planning matings, his careful management, his unparalleled success in the show ring, and in publicizing his famous cattle.

Probably his crowning success in the show ring was at the great International Exposition held at Paris in 1878. There he won the first prize of $500 as an exhibitor of cattle from a foreign country and also the grand prize of $500 for the best group of beef-producing animals bred by any exhibitor.

But not only did Mr. McCombie show in breeding classes, he also exhibited in steer classes at the market shows.

Probably the most famous steer that her produced was the famous show animal Black prince, who won at the Birmingham and Smithfield Shows in 1867 when he was four years of age. From the latter show, he was taken to Windsor Castle for the personal inspection of none other than Queen Victoria.

It's said that later, Queen Victoria accepted some Christmas beef from the carcass of the steer. And yes, I'm almost sure she had a great Bar-B-Q afterwards.

The English Crown has long been interested in livestock improvement, and Queen Victoria paid a personal visit to Tillyfour a year or two after the visit of the famous Black prince to the castle.

Remember that we're talking about a time when having a visit from the Queen was looked at as a huge tribute. Since her visit was made to an outstanding breeder, naturally it attracted great attention to the already famous herd.

Later, McCombie had the further distinction of being the first tenant farmer in Scotland to be elected to the House of Commons.

According to the historian Sanders:

"Aberdeen-Angus history may fairly be divided into two periods; the first, before William McCombie’s time; the second, since. That is as good as any other way of saying that the Master of Tillyfour-recognized cattle king of his day and generation in Aberdeen-Angusshire and of all Scotland-stands a very colossus upon any canvas which accurately portrays the original arrival of black cattle as a factor of world importance in the field of prime beef production."

William McCombie always had utility in mind when producing his cattle, and his ideal animal seems to have been one with size, symmetry, and balance, yet with the strength of constitution and disposition to accumulate flesh.

Because of this, there were some important developments at Tillyfour.

Although his original stock was gathered from many sources and his purchases were many, Mr. McCombie’s outstanding acquisition was probably the good yearling heifer Queen Mother 41 at the Ardestie Sale.

Mr. McCombie purchased the bull Hanton 80, calved in 1853, from the breeder Alexander Bowie. This bull was a grandson of Old Jock 126 and was said to have weighed a ton at maturity. Despite the fact that he had scurs, which is a partial or deformed horns in livestock, he was a great show bull and was exhibited widely by Me. McCombie.

The bull’s success, however, was more pronounced in the breeding pen, and he probably made his greatest contribution to the breed through his double grandson, Black Prince of Tillyfour 77, calved in 1860.

Few, if any, cattle of the breed are living today that do not trace at least a dozen times to Black Prince of Tillyfour.

It is difficult to say how much contribution Mr. McCombie made to the Aberdeen-Angus breed through his successes in the show ring, but he outstripped all of his competition in England, Scotland, and France. Consequently, the name of Aberdeen-Angus became known on an international basis.

It was on the farm of William McCombie where the Aberdeen-Angus breed really took shape. Prior to his time, people spoke of the cattle as Aberdeen and Angus.

In his herd was found the justification for leaving out the "and" and replacing it with the hyphen that has become familiar. At Tillyfour, the master breeder molded the two original strains into one improved breed superior to either of its components. There is no question but to state the fact that William McCombie, "the Great Preserver of the Angus" cattle, left the breed far better than he found it.

Another very famous Aberdeen-Angus herd in Scotland was that of Ballindalloch, but the origin of this herd is lost in the mists of antiquity. It was probably first founded by Sir John MacPherson Grant, but it was not until the time the farm came into the hands of Sir George (George Grant), a son, that systematic breeding was started.

Sir George drew heavily on Tillyfour cattle in establishing his herd. And yes, it was very fortunate for the breed that the Ballindalloch herd was kept in the family for over three generations.

The main herd was dispersed on August 8, 1934, but it had already left a great imprint on the Aberdeen-Angus world.

Not only was the Ballindalloch herd the outstanding herd in Scotland but it mush also be given credit for having furnished a great deal of very valuable foundation stock to the herds of the United States and other foreign countries.

So now we come to the first Angus in America.

When George Grant transported four Angus bulls from Scotland to the middle of the Kansas prairie in 1873, they were part of the Scotsman's dream to found a colony of wealthy, stock-raising Britishers.

Grant died five years later, and many of the settlers at his Victoria, Kansas colony later returned to their homeland. However, these four Angus bulls, probably from the herd of George Brown of Westertown, Fochabers, Scotland, made a lasting impression on America's cattle industry.

When two of the George Grant bulls were exhibited in the fall of 1873 at the Kansas City (Missouri) Livestock Exposition, some considered them "freaks" because of their polled (naturally hornless) heads and solid black color (Shorthorns were then the dominant breed.)

Sir Grant, a forward thinker, crossed the bulls with native Texas longhorn cows, producing a large number of hornless black calves that survived well on the winter range.

The Angus crosses wintered better and weighed more the next spring, the first demonstration of the breed's value in their new homeland.

The first great herds of Angus beef cattle in America were built up by purchasing stock directly from Scotland.

Mostly to the Midwest, in a period of explosive growth, a heavy importation of Angus cattle direct from Scotland followed when 1200 cattle were brought in from 1878 to 1883. 

As a side not, remember that this was the peak of the boom of the American Cowboy.

By 1877, the largest of the cattle-shipping boom towns, Dodge City, Kansas, shipped out 500,000 head of cattle.

By the 1880s, barbed wire was sectioning off rangeland because overgrazing stressed the open range. With railroads ever expanding to cover most of the nation, and meat packing plants were built closer to major ranching areas, making long cattle drives from Texas to the railheads in Kansas became unnecessary.

Though Cowboys were used on small local drives and in feed lots and on some ranches, the age of the open range was gone and large cattle drives were over - and so was the need for so many Cowboys.

As for Angus cattle, well over the next quarter of a century these early owners, in turn, helped start other herds by breeding, showing, and selling their registered stock.

The American Aberdeen- Angus Breeders’ Association was founded on Nov 21, 1883 in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1950, it was renamed the American Angus Association. Today, it holds the distinction of being the largest purebred beef registry in the world.

Angus beef hardly needs an introduction anywhere in the world.

During 2003 and 2004, the American fast food industry assisted in a public relations campaign to promote the supposedly superior quality of beef produced from Angus cattle - “Angus beef”.

Back Yard Burger was the first such large scale product sold in the US, dating back to 2002. Angus burgers are also menu items for chains such as Hardee's and Canadian-based Harvey's.

Beginning in 2006, McDonalds began testing hamburgers made with Angus beef at a number of its restaurants in several regions in the US. The company said that customer response to the burgers was positive and began selling the burger at all US locations in July 2009.

At the same time, McDonald's Australia also began selling two variants of the burger, the Grand Angus and the Mighty Angus, using Australian-bred Angus, in their outlets

Today, Angus beef is renowned for its fine marbling texture and superlative eating qualities.

For Angus cattle, if given a minimal amount of days on feed, they will manage to repeatedly turn out Prime and Choice grade meats.

The Certified Angus Beef (CAB) program was the first of its class. It provides Angus beef producers, ranchers, an increase in the marketability of their stock directly leading to higher premiums. And for consumer, it provides a consistent eating experience and the assurance of knowing what one is purchasing.

The surge in the Certified Angus Beef program has led to a wide-reaching escalation of breeding black into cattle stock, most often using Angus bulls.

The goal of the Certified Angus Beef brand was to promote the idea that Angus beef was of higher quality than beef from other breeds of cattle.

In order to qualify under the phenotype requirements of the Certified Angus Beef programs, the cattle must exhibit at least 51% black coloration as well as the absence of non-Angus traits - such as Brahman humps, dairy cattle conformation, that sort of thing.

Cattle are eligible for Certified Angus Beef evaluation if they are at least 51% black and exhibit Angus influence, which include black Simmental cattle and crossbreds. However, they must meet all 10 of the following criteria, which were refined in January 2007 to further enhance product consistency, to be labeled "Certified Angus Beef" by USDA Graders:

• Modest or higher degree of marbling
• Medium or fine marbling texture
• "A" maturity
• 10 to 16 square-inch ribeye area
• Less than 1,000-pound hot carcass weight
• Less than 1-inch fat thickness
• Moderately thick or thicker muscling
• No hump on the neck exceeding 5 cm (2")
• Practically free of capillary rupture
• No dark cutting characteristics

Besides the Certified Angus Beef program, Angus bulls are an excellent crossbreeding option. In fact, they are used as a genetic dehorner as the polled gene is passed on as a dominant trait.

And also, Angus cattle are widely used in crossbreeding to reduce the likelihood of dystocia (difficult calving).

Breeding to an Angus bull virtually eliminates calving problems. The resulting calves are born polled minimizing injuries in feedlot situations.

The Angus’ black coloration also serves as “sun block” of sorts, helping to prevent cancers and sun burning of the udder.

The ChiAngus (Angus x Chianina) and the SimAngus (Angus x Simmental) are only two examples of Angus hybrids that carry the qualities of both breeds making leaner, more efficient grain converters with higher performance numbers.

While the high quality traits of beef are not exclusive in the Angus, their numbers increased due to their consistency in producing quality.

There is little lacking in the Angus breed. The breed, as a whole, meets the needs of a demanding cattle industry on a wide range of points.

Angus is a docile breed which is pretty hardy. Angus cows calve easily and have excellent maternal instincts. And yes, for producers, at feedlots their meat quality proves its superiority time and again.

There is a reason that Angus is called "The Business Breed."

It is a commonly held believe among many cattle ranchers that when in doubt "go black." It is a time tested strategy that really has served many a cattle producer very well.