Diamond Painting Basics, Accessories and the Problems They Solve - Table of Contents

Every question you ever wanted to ask and some you haven’t even thought of yet
The Ultimate Diamond Art FAQ with Links
(A continuing series of excerpts from my Amazon Kindle Book)

Previous Question Answered: Diamond Painting Basics - Table of Contents
Next Question to be Answered: Diamond Painting Basics Introduction

Table of Contents

Introduction
Disclosure
Diamond Painting Lingo
Choosing a Diamond Art Painting Kit
 How do I choose a canvas that will look like the image they are selling?
 Before I get started, and lock myself into something, which drill shape is best? Square or Round?
 What is the difference between 3D drills and 5D drills?

Drill Trays or Boats
 How do we get the drills to lay flat in the tray?
 What is that single line for that is perpendicular to all the other grid lines in the boat?
 Can’t I just use cellophane tape, painter’s tape or duct tape as the STOP line in my tray?
 Is there a trick to not spilling the drills when we empty the tray into our storage container?
 We’ve noticed that the little green tray slides around too easily on a table. Is there a way to keep from spilling it or knocking it off the table accidentally?
 Is there something better than the little green tray that is either larger, or has higher sides, or that doesn’t get spilled so easily when we shake it?
 I have heard that there are trays created specifically for square drills and they line up better than they do in the standard round drill trays. Is that true?
 What can we do with the 1001 little green trays we’ve been collecting with our kits over the years?
 Help! We are being overrun by little green trays! How can I use them rather than purchase the item in the solution above?
 I use square drills and they don’t always line up well in the trays I have. Is there any tray that is specifically designed for square drills?

Drill Picker Pens and Styluses
 This pink pen looks very simplistic, like it’s made from a plastic straw
 Is there something more comfortable than this ubiquitous pink pen?

Pink Clay, Wax, Putty, Mud, etc.
 How do you get the putty from the pad into the pen?
 Help! I’ve run out of sticky pad before I’ve finished my project!! What did I do wrong?
 Is there some other tacky medium we can use besides constantly poking this little pink pad of “sticky stuff”?

Drills – the Heart of the Art – Part 1
 Is there some easier way to work with these drill packets that are connected in the kits? They slip and slide before you can cut them apart, and you can’t stack them in any useful order.
 Why do some drills stick to the inside of the bag, or the lid and sides of my storage containers, or even to each other in the tray? How can we stop this from happening?
 What can we do when we come across greasy looking or sticky drills or ones that defy all the static removal methods?
 I washed my drills like you suggested, but some are still stuck together. What do I do now?
 What do we do when the kit doesn’t have enough of a particular color drill to finish the project?

Drills – the Heart of the Art – Part 2
 How many styles of drills are there and where can I find bulk collections of them?

Drills – the Heart of the Art – Part 3
 How do I find the special shapes styles?
 Is there such a thing as special shapes for square drill projects?
 Do they make black light drills?
 I don’t want to buy 447 different colors when I only need one to finish the project. How can I find the right color and style of the missing drill?
 If we run out of a particular color, how do we know if we have that same color somewhere in our stash or storage?
 I am totally stumped trying to figure out this drill color code! What do you suggest I do? 

Canvas Issues – Part 1
 Did you know that it is possible to take the plastic film OFF the canvas incorrectly?
 Did you know that it is possible to put the plastic film back ON the canvas incorrectly?
 How do we section off the canvas so that we can work in those smaller areas?
 How do we get the creases out of a canvas that was folded in transit?
 How do we flatten a canvas that came tightly rolled and refuses to unroll?

Canvas Issues – Part 2
 How can I keep a canvas from losing its stickiness?
 What can we do if the project is missing the stickiness in random areas or even on the whole canvas?
 My canvas arrived with no glue! Should I return it?
 What of my drills keep falling off even after fixing the stickiness?
 How do we keep our hand from sticking to the canvas when we accidentally rest it on the project we are working on? It’s both hard to remember and tiring to keep our hand in the air.

Work Area Organization
 All my tools are cluttering my workspace. What do you suggest for organizing the mess?
 How can we work on a large canvas if we have a small area that’s not big enough for the canvas?
 Is there a way to tilt the tray in a more ergonomic position rather than constantly bending over it flat on a table?
 Is there a more ergonomic way of working on a canvas than bending our backs and necks over a table?

Workflow for Efficiency
 I work out of the slippery packets and do not save any leftovers. How can I sort the open packets in case I miss a spot of the color I was working on and thought I was finished?
 What if we have a project with a large number of colors and want to be able to simply grab a tray that already has our diamonds in it rather than constantly pouring them out into the little green tray and back into storage?
 Are there any other accessories that can help us with our workflow?

Visual Aids for Diamond Painters
 How do those of us with poor eyesight work on a project if our glasses keep falling off?
 What if we like to work on our diamond art in the bedroom, but our partner doesn’t like us having the light on?
 What if the pattern on the canvas is so dark that you can’t see the symbol for the color you need?
 I am so obsessed with working on my diamond art that power outages drive me crazy! How can I work on my project when it’s dark and there’s no electricity?

Alignment Techniques
 Why do we have to be so precise to put a drill in exactly the right spot? Why can’t we just slap it on and move it over the correct spot later?
 How can we make sure that we have put a rhinestone exactly on the coded spot? This is especially important if our hand tends to shake while holding it in the air, if we’re not using a release paper covering.
 How can we make sure that our gems are aligned perfectly, both horizontally and vertically, once manually placed?
 I seem to have trouble with putting the wrong color in the wrong spot. HELP!

Multi-Placer Tools and How to Use Them
 Are we limited to tediously poking only one drill at a time onto our canvas? Working on solid backgrounds feels like a nightmare.
 I’m sorry, but 8 is NOT enough! I want to place more, More, MORE drills at once!
 Why is my multi-placer not filling up straight?
 I am good at getting the drills straight on my multi-placers, but for some reason, I STILL can’t get them to line up on the grid correctly on some projects.

Drill Storage After Kitting Down
 How can we store our leftover drills?
 I’m not interested in sorting my leftover drills, but I don’t want to throw them in the trash either. Any ideas? 

How to Use Extra Drills
 How can we use up the extra drills if we really don’t want to continue buying kits anymore? Can we use them for something else?

Traveling with your Diamond Art
 I have three locations where I work on projects. Is there an easy way to carry my tools back-and-forth to each one?
 I’d like to be able to move my canvas to another part of the house when the mood strikes without too much of a hassle. Any ideas?
 How can we carry our projects with us to do when we travel or at work or somewhere other than home?

Finishing Your Diamond Artwork
 Is there some way we can keep the gems from falling off the project long after we’ve completed it?

Sealants for Diamond Paintings
 Is the ink on the commercial canvases water soluble?
 What can we use to seal a diamond art painting that won’t harm the sparkle?
 I do NOT like the idea of sealing rhinestones, but I'm working on my first acrylic suncatcher, and the drills are sliding around much more freely than they ever did on a fabric canvas, so I guess I have to bite the bullet and seal this one. How can I put the sealant on AND wipe it off the top without the drills moving out of position during the process?

Framing Your Diamond Artwork
 How do we frame our finished projects? They don’t appear to be standard frame sizes.
 What kind of glue should be used to mount a diamond art canvas to a stretched canvas frame?
 That was a lot of information to absorb! Can you please shorten that a little bit?
 What about mounting on MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard)?
 What about mounting on Foam Core board?
 Can I put a piece of glass, plastic or acrylic over the framed diamond painting to keep dust off it?
 I would like to pre-frame a canvas before I give it to my daughter to compete. Are there any caveats?
 Should there be a backing of some sort so that the pre-framed canvas doesn’t stretch when the drills are pressed on?
 Can I also put the mounted canvas into its final frame before I work on it?
 Would it be better to mount a diamond art painting after the work has been done?
 What if we have too many diamond art projects already finished, but we don’t want to hang them all over the house. Is there a way to store them and keep them clean and safe?

Cleaning Up the … What Mess?
 I am not getting the hang of shaking the tray yet, is there an easy way to pick up frequently spilled drills?
 I found out that the cat had been sleeping on my project while I was gone. How do I get rid of all the cat hair?

Creating Custom Diamond Art from Photos
 Can you create new canvases of your own design? Turn a photo into a diamond art picture?
 Is there any way to create your own designs that give you a color grid to work with?
 How do the professionals do it?
 Can you purchase unglued diamond painting canvas?
 Are there any apps for iOS that can create a diamond art painting grid?
 Are there any apps for Android that can create a diamond art painting grid?
 I have seen blank diamond art canvas; how do you put the image on it?
 Are there any businesses that can put a photo on a canvas for me that is larger than what I can print at home?

Fashion Statements
 Do any T-shirts exist that promote the hobby of diamond art painting?
 What about diamond painting mugs, tumblers and water bottles?
 I’ve heard that you can make wearable jewelry with diamond art, is that true? 

Miscellaneous Leftovers
 How does pearl painting differ from “standard” diamond painting?
 I’ve seen canvases where the image looks like it was made from a pile of stones. What is that kind of painting called?
 If I decide to sell my finished diamond paintings, how much should I charge?
 People are always asking where I bought my projects, or what I paid, or how long it took to complete, but I can never remember all that. Is there a way to keep track of such things?
 I have so many kits I don’t know which one to start next. Any ideas for choosing my next project?
 I am looking for a more complex project, something that will challenge me more than a door-sized canvas. Any suggestions?
 Where are the existing diamond art painting kits assembled?
 Are we limited to just canvases, coasters and magnets?

Diamond Painting Resources, Websites and Discount Codes
 Are there any other sources for diamond art kits besides Amazon?
 Acrylics, sun catchers, tabletops, and other non-canvas projects, these sites have a lot of variety
 Canvases only, but some have accessories as well as replacement beads
 Suppliers of various drill styles, shapes and colors
 Specializing in miniature diamond art painting kits
 Not dedicated diamond painting sites, but have an extremely large selection of canvases and are worth checking out

Final Words<
 I would like to teach a diamond art painting class, but I don’t know how to go about it. Any advice?

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I have been doing diamond art for over 10 years. My book was published under my pen name. You can contact me through my blog here at https://ei-kan.blogspot.com if you have any additional questions to add to this section or to notify me of any dead links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases. This book is available in its entirety on Amazon Kindle and there are some discount coupon codes for up to 15% off your purchases at select websites near the end of it And yes, I earn a few pennies from a few other sites mentioned as well, but not all.

 How to Survive the Summer Heat Without Air-Conditioning

There was a time in my life when I spent several years without air conditioning and I live in the state of Texas. Anyone familiar with this area knows that it can be hotter than Hell when it wants to be, and even when we don’t want it to be. When people found out I did not have air conditioning, they were totally aghast! However, I was comfortable, because I had figured out some tricks for how to survive without A/C. 

Friends have suggested that I share these tips with you, just in case you find yourself in a similar situation either due to financial concerns, storms, homelessness, or if the power grid goes down, and in Texas, well, we do have a little bit of a flaky power grid at the moment.

Now, before you freak out, remember, people had to live with out air-conditioning for CENTURIES, and in some areas they still do, so there are ways to do this. Even in these days of global warming, no matter how unpleasant it may seem to our modern lives, you CAN do this!

So, here are my 10 tips for living without air-conditioning:

1. Live wet. Keep your clothes damp.  Wet your hair.  Soak in a kiddie pool under a shade tree or an umbrella and don’t dry off. Take a brief cold shower a few times a day, with your clothes on, or run through a sprinkler with the neighbor kids, who obviously have the right idea. Keep a large sprayer bottle of water handy, and mist yourself as needed. Keep one beside your bed at night and aim it at the ceiling, because when the mist falls down onto you, it will be much colder. 

2. Drink a LOT of water.  Yes, WATER. Ice is nice, but I had no ice last year when the fridge died, so had to give up on that luxury.  Putting a bag of ice in a giant cooler, really didn’t work very well, because it was hard to slide that monster out the door to empty it every morning, but it’s an option. Oh! Here’s an ice water trick I used before the fridge died: fill a large/gallon jug half full of water. Put it in the freezer at a 45 degree angle. This gives maximum surface area for your giant ice cube when you put your drinking water into the jug with it. It also melts slower than standard ice cubes. Keep several of these in the freezer, and put them back before the giant cube totally melts, so that it will freeze faster. I currently have a 2.5 gallon jug with a spigot in my fridge so that my gardener can have ice water when needed.

3. Remember that sugar dehydrates, so limit sweet soda drinks and other sugary foods. If you feel you need an electrolyte drink, choose a “Zero sugar” brand. Or, drink a LOT of WATER.

4. Salty foods will help you retain water and stay hydrated. Try to use sea salt whenever possible because it has 80+ trace minerals in it that can help your hydration. Stay aware of your sodium/potassium balance, and add a potassium-rich avocado, banana or Swiss Chard to your diet when eating a lot of salty foods. (There is also a calcium/magnesium balance to be aware of to avoid leg cramps at night, but that’s a topic for another blog)

 5. Acclimate!  Meaning, do your best NOT to be in A/C during the day, or you will ruin your acclimation to the heat.  For example, do not turn on the car A/C. Just sweat it out and you’ll be able to acclimate to higher and higher temperatures and be more comfortable as summer progresses. If you work from home, this is a lot easier. Your air-conditioned office is your enemy, so sweat your way home without the car A/C so that you will be better able to sleep in your miserably hot bedroom. That being said, limit your time in air-conditioned stores. Get in, buy, and get out fast! If you can do curbside pickup that would be great, and if you can afford home delivery, go for it!

6. Fans are good.  I have a rather large collection of battery-operated or USB rechargable fans in many sizes. My collection grew over time: and as my budget increased, I purchased  better fans. I even have some that I can wear around my neck or hang on my computer monitor. I also have several very large USB power banks (20000 mAh) that I can plug these fans into for charging or for directly running them if the power goes out and I have run out of batteries for those versions. And I can also charge the power banks from my car. It’s actually quite amazing how power efficient these fans are! Make sure you keep your fans and power banks fully charged at all times. Especially if you see a storm coming. If you have only one little 3” fan, like I started out with, have it blow on your face at night. You’ll be amazed as to how much cooler it will make you feel than if you have that single fan on your body. Having an 8” or 10” fan blowing up from your feet rather than from the side of your body will keep you cooler as well. I had to fasten mine to the foot of my bed because I kept kicking it over. A remote controlled one for that location is best.

7. Open your windows on both sides of the house, apartment, or room to allow for cross breezes as much as possible. If you are wet, then a breeze will really help, no matter how small the fan is or how little the outside breeze is, if you are lucky enough to even have a breeze. It may seem counterintuitive to open your windows on a 100° day, but when you consider that your house without air-conditioning is probably already the same temperature as outside anyway, you’re only going to gain comfort if there’s a breeze.

8. If you still MUST have A/C, build a DYI air-conditioner out of a Styrofoam cooler, a small fan, a PVC pipe, and a bag of ice. There are many affordable ideas on the Internet, with video instructions, some are even as cheap as $8! Pick one that works for you. Mine worked only in a very small space, (the back seat of a Toyota Yaris) so take that into consideration as well. You pretty much have to be sitting next to it for it to do you much good, but a lot depends on the size and power of the fan you use, and how well you can seal your ice compartment.

9. And finally, if you are a nomad in the desert, wear light weight cotton clothing in light colors; stay in the shade (be watchful above if you have to sit under your camel); look for a breeze; near a stream or pond; or find a big palm leaf and have someone wave it at you. Oh, and did I say, drink LOTS of water?

10. By the way, this all works for your pets as well. I’m not sure if a hamster or a rabbit would approve, but I have had cats that I’ve had to wet down, and who actually enjoyed sitting in front of a fan while they were wet once they realized why I was torturing them this way. They didn’t get sick either. You don’t catch cold by being cold, contrary to what your mother may have told you when you were growing up.

And, I am happy to inform those of you who may know me from that trying period in my life that I have moved out of Hell House and I now have a well-insulated paradise house on Avalon that has air-conditioning. I have it set at 80°, both to save money and to help keep me at least somewhat acclimated if the power goes out, and I’m comfortable, and grateful to the Lord for getting me here! Thank you, everyone, for caring.

How Your Marketing Video is RUINING Your Internet Campaign

All the internet marketing gurus have told you that you need video on your website to get sales, right?  But did they bother to tell you HOW to create a sales video that will grab and hold your visitors' attentions, not bore them to tears within the first 30 seconds of  clicking PLAY?

Thought not...

Especially considering how many horrible marketing videos there are out there.

You may have noticed in your hit logs that visitors are MOVING ON to your competitors' sites after only remaining briefly on yours.

Yes, CHEAP, amateur videos, are CHASING your visitors AWAY before you ever get to the important parts, by not holding their interest long enough to get the cash that is in their hands away from them that they WERE thinking of spending on your site, before you ran them off with that  $5 video purchased from a popular slave labor site.

You see, just like you, when you have the TV remote in your hand flipping rapidly through the channels for a good TV show to watch, most people will not watch past the first 30 seconds of a long, boring, talking head, cheap webcam  video with cluttered background and poor sound quality!

Especially when they have NO IDEA how long the video will run, and are prevented from "cutting to the chase" and fast forwarding past all the doctored shots of checks and faked "live" affiliate account logins (yes, live can be faked!) with blurred areas hiding where the money REALLY came from that they have all seen before and that take up WAY too much brag time...past all the time-consuming fluff to get to the MEAT of the program being offered, because your video is wasting their time.

On top of those issues, the quality and style of your video tells the world exactly how much you are making with the program you are promoting!  And people won't buy into your program if the video quality and style is cheaply filmed and and more cheaply edited.

If you shot your video with a webcam or a cheap camera using amateur, ambient room or outdoor lighting, without paying attention to shadows, windscreens and cluttered backgrounds, your visitors are going to know it is nothing more than a "home movie" and they will know you aren't making a dime with your program.

If it is nothing more than a talking head sitting in front of a webcam or even a professional camera, or driving a car (complete with distracting road noise because it is in a cheap car), visitors are going to be very bored, because that is all they are going to see and they are aren't going to wait around very long for the scene to change. And if you aren't particularly attractive,  then you might as well have made an MP3 audio instead of an MP4 video, because it may be simply unpleasant to look at you, and others may be distracted by your garish or unkempt hair style or your choice of attire.

Additionally, "face readers", such as myself, can tell a lot more about YOU by not only watching your body language as you talk, but by the actual physical characteristics of your face. It's downright spooky how a stranger pegged a very personal part of my life just by the way my eyebrows are shaped!.  Google it, it's extremely revealing what your face says about you, moreso than the words you are speaking that often contradict what your face is actually saying.

Now, do you still want people to see your face after THAT revelation?

And please, please PLEASE stop using miles of simple plain text on a plain white background  without borders that make it hard for a viewer to actually FIND the video they are hearing. 

And please stop reading it verbatim to your customers as if they are illiterate!  It is extremely offensive to insult your viewers' intelligence like that.  If you want them to READ it, put it in your sales page or sales letter. If you want them to HEAR it, make an MP3 audio that they can click or download if they want, after reading compelling ad copy on why they need to listen to it.

Oh, and videos that start playing as soon as the web page is opened, not only startle your visitors who were peacefully surfing quiet pages for hours, perhaps listening to their own music or TV, and who are now scrambling to find the MUTE switch or the STOP button, but they annoy most people who are trying to READ your three-mile-long sales page hype without someone babbling more useless nonsense into their ear at the same time.

And finally, a webpage with video and audio that a visitor cannot control themselves, is a frustrating experience for your visitor and potential customer, and they will move on.  Trust me, I move on a LOT on these marketing sites, but I move faster, about 10 seconds, because I can tell immediately that there is no money to be made from  your program.

Ok, enough of what NOT to do.

Here's how you can fix the problem:

You need to give your videos a PROFESSIONAL look, so that you can create the ILLUSION that you actually ARE making money online.

Without the professional touch, people will KNOW that you are really NOT making a single dime, or you would be able to afford a videographer who understands lighting and interesting and varied camera angles, and a video editor who can add the pizzazz to the entire shoot.   Better yet, stay out of the video yourself, except for your voice.  But if you are not a trained voice talent, your video will still lack that necessary professional quality that also comes from having a proper sound studio rather than a PC mic on your webcam.

The best approach is just to check out the video styles of the sites that already have professionally created videos, such as Ashmax, GDI, IBS, and others, that have no people in them, just stock footage, sound effects, graphics and music, and that have creative titling that is not ever read verbatim by the voice talent. They are also less than 2 minutes long, 1 minute is best, action-filled and packed with just enough info to get your veiwers begging for more information!  Not 11 minutes of here's my Clickbank check, and my Paypal account that I have never taken any money out of (ask yourself why??) and other info that just bogs your viewer down if they last that long in PLAY mode...

Now, remember, these site affiliates may actually not be making the money their video style implies they are making, and that is whole point.  Use video as the ILLUSION that you are successful, rather than as the PROOF that you are not...

Even if you are NOT making enough money with your promotion to afford a professional quality video that can actually HOLD their attention and interest in your program enough to buy into it, you can find semi-professional video editors for a little less who would love to take your footage and give you the best creative and entertaining video they can from it. Stock footage sites abound, where you can purchase single 10-20 second clips for $30 - $100 and there are also FREE SOLUTIONS, such as free footage collections of clips that are available for the price of shipping. or sign up for 7 days of free downloads. Add some free royalty-free music from either site, or get a free song here, and you are rocking and rolling!

Yes, professionally shot footage and creative video editing CAN make a HUGE difference in whether people watch your video or not, or think your program is making money, or not...
And that is how to make your marketing video more enjoyable to watch to the end ..so that you can realize better conversion rates.

About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.elance.com as well as other freelance sites. The Footage Firm is an online provider of FREE royalty-free licensed stock video footage, sound effects and royalty-free music for professionals

The One Bug in PostworkShop 3 that Xycod REFUSES to Fix!

Yes, folks, it's true! Xycod, KFT has actually refused to fix a bug that is in every version of PostworkShop, from the very first revolutionary release, to the latest offering of the new and vastly improved PostworkShop 3.

Xycod has always been very responsive to users' requests for features and bug reports with excellent, fast, friendly, customer support, and the PostworkShop 3 development team is no different. Customer feedback is their driving force when it comes to making PostworkShop feature rich, yet this latest version is now easier to learn, simpler to use and much, much faster.

Within barely a month out the door from the PostworkShop 3 official public release, Xycod has released the latest software update "bug-fix" that makes the best even better! More powerful features, more workflow options, as well as accelerated styles. But what you won't find in this release, or in ANY future bug-fix release, is the "Creativity Bug" fix.

You all know it. You all have it. It's part of every PC and MAC owner's PostworkShop life. It's responsible for every first sale, and every upgrade purchase. As soon as you start the program for the very first time, you suddenly notice this bug, and you also notice that it just doesn't go away, either! Even after you shutdown the program, that bug persists! Even when the computer is turned off, and you have left the building, that bug is there, like a contagious virus, ready to infect the next person who opens the program for the first time, or the next time...

The Creativity Bug grips you every time you look at an image that you just downloaded out of your camera or that stock image you just bought off the internet. It's that age old "Wow! I think this image would look fantastic with that "Random Paint" style! I'll just add a little sepia over there, mask that section there for a more Antique look, and...oooh, I can't wait to get home and start working on this photo!"  You even find yourself wondering which PostworkShop Style, or combination of styles, was used on that painting in the doctor's waiting room, or on the restaurant wall, and you can't wait to get back to your computer to try to recreate that same effect.

So, why in the world would Xycod want to fix THAT bug, anyway?

The Creativity Bug...a necessary part of the artist's world that's reinforced in every PostworkShop 3 session...and a PostworkShop bug that no one has ever complained about.

With both a Standalone version, and a free plugin mode that works with Adobe Photoshop and as well as an external editor to Lightroom, along with over 300 adjustable style presets (and growing!) and  the ability to create custom styles, as well as sell your own original creations through Fotolia or other stock image sites, or even your own framed fine art prints, you can't IMAGINE the possibilities!

Check out the website below and start using the newest, easiest, fastest,PostworkShop 3 today. Get infected by the Creativity Bug that Xycod refuses to fix. :)

Clipped from: postworkshop3reviews.pixelclickspicks.com (share this clip)

About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on vWorker.com as well as other freelance job sites. She has also been an avid PostworkShop fan since version 1 and uses it in video production. The Footage Firm is a popular stock footage website that periodically gives away HD and SD video collections as well as royalty free music, After Effects templates, and now Red One footage.

A Short Course in SEO Marketing

I know that a lot of people charge high prices for their SEO and marketing services, but you may need some background on what it all entails that may help you to understand what is involved and why prices are so high:

First of all there is usually an initial flat rate fee for going over your site with a fine-tooth comb and optimizing every bit of code for SEO purposes. Then there are comparisons with your competitors' sites to see what they are doing with their code, and then your site/marketing campaign is tweaked even more, so as to outrank them.

Then there is a monthly keeping-an-eye-on-your-site-and-on-your-competitors'-sites fee, to make sure that if they move ahead,  we can figure out why, and make your site overtake them again. However, one morning you may find a competitor, who was on page 22, suddenly showing up on page 1...and where the heck did YOU go? Dang! You're now on page 14! But why?

Well, Google has a nasty habit of periodically changing its algorithms and rarely says a word about it. And they most certainly will never divulge how ANY of their algorithms or indexing methods work, since it's all proprietary.

So, internet marketers and SEO gurus keep an eye on such Google trends, and when something happens that causes the rankings to get suddenly scrambled like eggs, the panicked buzz starts, and the experts start speculating on what the change was that mighty Google implemented, and then they react accordingly: creating test sites,  tweaking them in various ways...until the ah-ha moment arrives and they can say "Ha! This is what they did! You now need to... "  So, the professional SEO marketing service providers are paying members of this network, too.

Now add to all this, that you can usually only rank highly on a single keyword,and it's usually a longtail one these days, since all the single word ones were taken long ago and bidding is fierce for them on Google Adwords.. I did my own SEO on my site, and for years I was number 1 for "sequential interlocking articulated wooden puzzles" but I just checked last night, and.now I am number 4, due to no activity on that site for that keyword anymore, as well as others figuring out how to outrank me in their own code now.

Plus, you have to be careful with the % of your keywords vs the rest of your written text. This is yet another part of the algorithms that can change. Get this wrong and you can be sandboxed for "spamming the engine".  Oh, and if you use "black hat" methods or services that promise to get your site on page 1 in 2 days, well, by the 3rd day, you could find yourself banned from Google completely.

So, as you can see, it's very tricky stuff! 

Another thing to consider. Google offers their own SEO services. Sounds good, right? Well, think about it this way: trusting Google to do the SEO on your site for their own search engine is like trusting the medical insurance provided by the hospital you are in.... there can be a severe conflict of interest.  As they change algorithms, and drop your rank, they can keep you tied to them for life, money-wise, to get you back to the top of the heap and stay there...only to drop you again at the next algorithm change which they probably already know will be coming up as they are working on your site. (Oh, and you might want to read Robin Cook's "Fatal Cure" for that insurance comment I made. It's scary what a conflict of interest can do to you.)

But it's not just tweaking your website code that is involved in SEO marketing services. It also involves dealing with Facebook, Twitter, other social sites, different videos everywhere, not just on YouTube, backlinks that need to be from the right places, press releases, blog articles, forum posts, email marketing etc..

As you can probably guess, it is very time intensive to set all of that up in the beginning, as well as keep up with it every month so that the site does not "go stale", You will lose rank if your site "stagnates".  This blog of mine was ranked high in 2010-11 for the keyword "horse" because I posted an in-depth article about horses every 2-5 days during that time.  It has gotten stagnant now, with no posts for months and now I have dropped. And as I said above, my stagnant wood puzzle site is now lower, too. Oh, well. I just haven't got the time to promote either, since nothing is for sale anyway. But they have been good practice for me in the SEO world where I work now.

Anyway, I hope this "short course in SEO marketing" helps you somewhat while you try to decide on who to hire for your SEO marketing services. I'd like to recommend that you check out our company, FrancySolutions.com for all your web design, SEO and internet marketing needs, both online and offline, before making your final decision.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on vWorker.com as well as other freelance job sites. FrancySolutions.com also uses her services in many ways. She has also been an avid PostworkShop fan and uses it in video production. The Footage Firm is a popular stock footage website that periodically gives away HD and SD video collections as well as royalty free music, After Effects templates, and now Red One footage.

Website Review: Sean Donahoe's Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC)

I really wanted to write a great review of Sean Donahoe's Internet Marketing Success Center, (IMSC) Inner Circle because he's such a nice, helpful guy...but sadly, I cannot.

The site, Internet Marketing Success Center, (IMSC) is more often down than it is up, pages are slow to load, many links do not work properly, and the navigation of the site is frustrating at best, assuming the site doesn't die on you in the middle of a page change.

Sure, the IMSC site looks good, with a splashy background and an excellent sharp picture of Sean Donahoe, along with professional looking icons and very nice, eye-catching pages to display a ton of great informational videos and PLR software and article downloads, but unfortunately Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC) is a navigational nightmare. So much so, that I did not last through my one dollar 14 day trial of the site. I cancelled after 5 days of struggling with the slowness, the errors and the downtime.

For example, in the download section, the "Download Now" button does NOT mean Download Now, so you can't do the "right click.save target as", like I can on Mark Austin's Resell Rights Weekly No, "Download Now" means click here and go to yet another page that has exactly the same description information (and some useless download stats). THERE you can download by using "save target as", etc. But I did not find this out until I had gotten frustrated by the "Download Now" button constantly telling me I had already downloaded the file, which turned out to be an .htm, not a .zip.

However, even after you click into that additional page, many of the downloads do not give you the zip file. but rather you end up downloading the jpg or png image of the item instead. There is also no way to get back to the page you were on, other than using the back button, and for some of us who have randomly double-clicking mice/touchpads, this means NOT getting back to the page you were on, and having to waste even more time waiting for page loads to get back to where you were.

Additonally, there are only 4 or 5 items per main download page, and a lot of self-advertising banners that are the same on all pages, that makes the pages slow to load. If the pages were cleaned up better, to be more like Mark Austin's Resell Rights Weekly that has over 100 downloadable items per month on a single page that loads in a blink with direct click links on all items, I would have stuck around on Sean Donahoe's Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC)

In the section that has the "Ask Sean" videos (which are not available at the cheaper price), it is not obvious that the videos can be downloaded for later watching offline. There is a barely noticeable and non-intuitive "download" link called "Read more" that leads to a page where you can download the video. However, right click/save target as, often gives an .htm file to download, NOT the mp4 video. This .htm page is an error page that says "This page demonstrates link redirect with "WP-NoExternalLinks" plugin. You will be redirected in 3 seconds. Otherwise, please click on this link"

Clicking on the suggested link however has the browser just sitting and spinning for long minutes until the browser finally admits that it cannot display the page. Nor can you get back to the video page once this error occurs, as the site has just dropped dead on you.   Not even a cached page at Google will get you back to the Inner Circle, it just sits and spins also..
.
There is no way to contact Sean Donahoe to tell him about these issues. I could not find a Help Center link to put a ticket in to tell him his links don't work. I can only hope he stumbles onto this post while he is searching for his latest contest winners. I know I won't be a winner with such a negative post, but I had hoped to write a more positive one when I first joined his Inner Circle.

All in all, Sean Donahoe's Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC) is a great idea, but for $47-$97 per month, it's poorly implemented for the target user. There are too many clicks when one click should do, the site's pages are way too slow to change, and then too slow to load, and it goes offline frequently, several times a day, for an hour or more, so you barely have time to download more than 5-10 items before it crashes out on you, or after about 2 or 3 main page changes, the browser is sitting and spinning again, and down for the count. One thing I noticed, whenever it comes back online, there is a new item to download, so when he is adding things to the site, apparently several times a day, it's offline to everyone but Sean Donahoe.

By comparison, Mark Austin's Resell Rights Weekly is only $19 per month (with a FREE option that still gets you a lot of useful content) and a whole lot easier to navigate, with most of the same PLR and MRR downloads that Internet Marketing Success Center (IMSC) charges twice as much for, with no free subscription option at all.

It's only a $1 for a trial subscription to either one of the two sites, so check them both out for yourself. I've already made my decision about which is the best value for the money and the least waste of my time.

FREE Downloadable Stock Footage and Royalty Free Music for Video Editing!

It's finally here! What everyone has been asking about, wanting to get their hands on, and looking all over the internet for!

Check out the first subscription-based resource for downloadable royalty-free stock footage, music, sound effects, special effects and looping motion backgrounds.

Free Stock Footage

And, to promote their site and make people more aware of it, they are giving away 7 full days of FREE downloads at the link below, so you can see just what sort of footage is available behind that home page.

Free Stock Footage --> FREE TRIAL

Then after your 7-day trial is over, just select a subscription length, and within minutes you will have UNLIMITED ACCESS to thousands of multimedia files for use in all types of projects, either personal or commercial - and all royalty-free!

There are currently over 30,000 clips on the site, with more being added each month!

Seriously, if you don't check this free trial out, you will be kicking yourself for missing out on the best video stock footage resource for that perfect clip or sound effect or music that you need right now on your current, or on your future, projects.

And if you aren't into downloading, which does take a lot of time when you are after a LOT of files in the same category, or if you just happen to prefer your clips on an "official" DVD, like I do because I use them for commerical purposes, then you can take advantage of their FREE DVD collections on their companion site below.

Free Stock Footage --> ON DVD

Among the 143 free DVD collections that are currently available, you can also get Adobe After Effects templates for green screen, or the AE templates for titling, as well as their new Animated Lower Thirds collections, all of which come with alpha channels.

Don't miss out...check it out!


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on vWorker.com as well as other freelance job sites. The Footage Firm is a popular stock footage website that periodically gives away HD and SD video collections as well as royalty free music, After Effects templates, Red One slow motion footage, and now animated lower thirds with alpha channel.

Keep Up-to-Date with Ei-Kan Productions' Press Releases

This cool scrolling ticker will let you see all the press releases I write.

Or you can just subscribe to my blog, since I will always put a thumbnail of my latest press release here for you all.


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Press Release: Red One 2K - 4K Plates Being Given Away

Reston, Va – Well-known stock footage and royalty-free music website, The Footage Firm, is giving away 500 copies this month of their new Super High Resolution footage, known in the industry as 2-4K plates.

This free stock footage was shot on the well-known and loved, RED One camera! This is not your typical amateur YouTube material. This is professional footage shot on THE camera that the big-time Hollywood movie producers and directors use for their blockbuster box office hits. To be able to get such ultra-high quality footage shot from a camera of this caliber, for this cheap, is not just a steal…it’s downright criminal! This is the ultimate in High Definition stock footage for the HD afficionado.


To read the rest of my article , please go to Video Footage Extravaganza! Red One 2K-4K Plates being Given Away!

About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on vWorker.com as well as other freelance job sites. The Footage Firm is a popular stock footage website that periodically gives away HD and SD video collections as well as royalty free music, After Effects templates, and now Red One footage.

Press Release: Huge Royalty-Free Stock Music Collection Released

Reston, VA - May 2011 - Well-known stock footage site, The Footage Firm, has just released another free production music set and it is their largest offering yet. Usually they limit themselves to only 10 or 11 DVDs in a set, but this time there are 18 DVDs packed full of royalty-free music for video editors, web designers, busy musicians, etc. This is the Footage Firm's third set of royalty-free production music. The previous two sets have proven to be very popular for the company, the first of which has already sold out.

To read the rest of my press release, click here.


You can also watch a video I created for it by clicking here, if it does not embed for you below.

About Crystal Eikanger
Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on vWorker.com as well as other freelance job sites.The Footage Firm is a popular stock footage website that periodically gives away HD and SD video collections, as well as royalty-free music and free templates for Adobe After Effects.

Press Release: Free After Effects Templates for Video Editing

Reston, VA – April 2, 2011 – Well-known stock footage site, The Footage Firm, has just released a brand new 10-DVD set of After Effects Templates for video editing. This is The Footage Firm's first foray into the After Effects special effects template world and they have done a fantastic job with this first offering.

Not only are the templates in the set backwards compatible for After Effects CS3 and higher, but those who do not use After Effects can access the templates through greenscreen versions in .mov (photojpg) format that are provided for where the modified graphics and text would go for alpha channel/chromakey users. Multiple composition sizes in HD (high definition) and SD (standard definition) are also available for the user’s convenience, along with pre-rendered plug-ins, so you don’t have go out and buy a plug-in that was used in the template. They are drag and drop dead-easy!

Additionally, in order to promote this new venue they are stepping into, they are giving away 500 copies ONLY of this After Effects Template set for the price of shipping and handling. But just because they are free, well, that does not mean they are cheap. No way! These are broadcast quality templates for commercial use and in feature films.

They have extensive special effects for different kinds of text and logo intros as well as many styles that are long enough to be used as complete videos in themselves. Just add your own images and text and you’re done. When compared to cost of other After Effects templates out there, this set from The Footage Firm is a real steal for the armchair video editor as well as the seasoned broadcast TV editor.

About Crystal Eikanger
Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on vWorker.com as well as other freelance job sites. The Footage Firm is a popular stock footage website that periodically gives away HD and SD video collections.

The Horse No One Wants to Talk About - The Hanoverian

For generations, the Hanoverian has been recognized as one of the most prominent and successful breeds of riding horses in the world today. Yet for all its prominence and success, including being touted as the best known of the German Warmbloods, there is very little useful information to be found about this 400-year-old variety, either on breeders' websites or on any of the six international registry sites. Piecing together machine translations from the German language is woefully imprecise, but there is very little information in English.

Known in Germany as the Hannoveraner, or Hannöverschen Horse, the origins of selective breeding can be traced back to 16th Century to the Kingdom of Hanover in northern Germany, which is now the state of Lower Saxony. Breeding in Hanover at that time was a major livelihood of farmers, and the Hanoverian was bred for agriculture, carriage, and for the cavalry. Originally developed as a draft horse, the breed has been enhanced by the Trakehner, with imported Thoroughbred stallions. regularly crossed with domestic "war horse" German mares for improvements. The result is the modern Hanoverian horse.

The State Stud in Celle, Germany, was founded in 1735 at a time when the individual reining German sovereigns wanted to be independent of importing horses. Since horses were of prime military importance, the goal of the State Stud was to offer good stallions at low fees to individual breeders. This goal remains, although the horses are no longer used for war.

Those unfamiliar with the Hanoverian tend to think that the State Stud at Celle and the Hanoverian Society are one entity, but they are not. Both are separate organizations that co-operate to the benefit of the Hanoverian breed. The Hanoverian Society e.V. is a private co-operation financed by members’ dues, whereas the State Stud Celle is a wholly state-owned institution. Currently, 130 stallions are stationed there and during the breeding season, between February and July, from two to ten stallions are stabled at each of the 42 breeding stations that are spread out over the region. Out of 12,060 services registered with the Verband in 1997, about 7,444 were carried out by state-owned stallions. Currently the Hanoverian stud book has approximately 19,000 mares and 540 stallions registered.

Sometime after 1870, breeders consolidated, taking into account the indigenous tribes, in which the coach and military suitability of the Hanoverian stood in the foreground; and the Hanover Chen Stutbuches (Hanoverian Studbook) was officially begun in 1888 and in 1899 the Chamber of Agriculture took over the stud-book as keeper. Verband hannoverscher Warmblutzuchter, e.V. (VhW), (The Society of Hanoverian Warmblood Breeders) was later founded in 1922 in Germany through a merger of breeders and abolished the requirement for a centrally controlled, uniform breeding and evaluation of all recorded breeding operations.

During the time between the two World Wars special emphasis was on use in agriculture.Since the end of World War II, the breeding goal has been a redevelopment of Hanoverian breeding to exclusively produce a more versatile performance horse.

The Hanoverian is a rideable, noble, big framed and correct warmblood horse, which, on the basis of its natural abilities, its temperament and character is suitable as a performance horse as well as a pleasure horse. Breeding stock is very carefully inspected and selected for correct conformation, athletic ability and inner qualities such as disposition and trainability.

Hanoverians are large but refined, with long necks, sloping shoulders and pronounced withers. The Hanoverian is characterized by a strong build, muscular hidquarters, and hard hooves. The head should be medium sized, and the eyes should be large and expressive. The horses can be 15.3-17.2 hands high, but most are in the range of 15.3-16.2 hands. The colors of Chestnut, bay, brown, black, and gray are the most common. Regulations prohibit buckskin, palomino and cremello horses, as well as horses with too much white, from being registered. The Hanoverian is a well proportioned warmblood horse with natural balance, impulsion and three elegant, light, elastic gaits described only as a ground-covering walk; a floating trot; and a soft, round, rhythmic canter. No further information is available.

The Hanoverian is calm and level headed, even in difficult situations. The horse has an honest and trusting disposition, and gives in willingly to the rider's commands. They have been bred to be willing and trainable.

A large number of top competition horses have been branded with a special "H" brand of the Hanoverian trade mark on their back left side. Its inspiration came from the crossed horse heads that still decorate the gables of the breeding farm house in Lower Saxony and is a relic from prehistoric times.

In the United States, the American Hanoverian Society (AHS) was incorporated in 1978 in Kentucky with only 40 members, for the purpose of gathering the Hanoverians in North America into a registry to preserve and promote the breed. While the AHS is an independent organization, it maintains a close relationship with the German VhW, regarding inspection, registration and licensing procedures and educational activities.

But not only top riders who engage in Olympic calibur dressage, eventing, hunting, jumping and driving benefit from Hanoverian Horses. The Horses with the "H"-Brand also delight pleasure riders in many countries throughout the world. Hanoverians, elegant, strong, and robust, excel in dressage, show jumping and cross country.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.rentacoder.com as well as other freelance sites. www.HorseClicks.com is a popular website filled with classifieds of horses for sale, horse trailers, tack, and horse related properties.

The Haflinger Horse - Tyrolean Charm in a Chestnut Colored Package

The origin of the Haflinger can be traced back to medieval times when writings told of an indigenous Oriental breed of horse that was found in the Southern Tyrolean Mountains on the border of present day Austria and northern Italy. Many villages and farms of the Tyrol were accessible only by narrow paths requiring small, agile, rugged and surefooted mountain horses for daily transportation and packing supplies. So, for centuries, a line of these native horses was bred in southern Tyrol. They were general riding horses, light draft and harness horses as well as pack animals. Regional artwork in the early 1800's shows a noble chestnut horse with riders and packs traversing steep mountain trails.

In 1874, in the village of Hafling, Austria, (which after WWI is now in Italy), "249 Folie", the first registered Haflinger was born. He was sired by a royal half-Arabian stallion named "133 El' Bedavi XXII" and out of a refined native Tyrolean mare.

All modern purebred Haflingers must trace their ancestry directly to Folie through seven different stallion lines: A, B, M, N, S, ST, and W. Folie inherited his mother's strength, disposition and stamina and the refined, elegant grace and bone structure of his father. A year later, an influential count persuaded officials from the Austrian Imperial Ministry of Agriculture to establish an objective Haflinger breeding program. After the stallion Folie, crossing with a horse from another breed is not permitted on either side of the stallion or the mare. Pure breeding is the primary guideline of the American Haflinger Registry(AHR) in Rootstown, Ohio, which is the official breed association and studbook registry in the United States.

The Haflinger came to North America in 1958 when Tempel Smith of Illinois, imported them from Austria to begin a breeding program. Soon others began importing Haflingers and today there several importers and breeders throughout the United States and Canada. While Haflingers can be imported from Germany, Holland, England, and Italy, most continue to come from Austria.

The modern Haflinger is now found all over the world, active in such varied disciplines as dressage, jumping, vaulting, packing, pleasure driving, CDE, western trail riding, CTE, endurance riding, draft work and therapeutic riding programs. Haflingers hold their own in competition with other breeds, often showing surprising athletics and strength for their size.

A desirable appearance of the horse is one of elegance and harmony. A harmonious balance should be strived for that is suitable for an all-around pleasure horse. The Haflinger should have a lean and expressive head with large forward pointing eyes and wide nostrils, well formed neck and supple mid-section, a good croup not too divided and not too short, a distinct musculature as well as correct, defined limbs with good joints. The tail should not be set too low. Stallions and mares for breeding should have clearly defined masculine or feminine features.

Haflingers are generally pony-sized standing about 14 hands on the average, although the "modern" variation can reach 15 hands. The desired range however is from 54 in. to 60 in, or 13.5 to 15 hands. Failure to attain the minimum height at 3 years means the animal will be strongly discouraged from breeding. The maximum size may be exceeded if the horse has an excellent or outstanding exterior evaluation.

The most notable characteristic of the Haflinger is its striking coat color; it is always chestnut with a white, or "flaxen," main and tail. Color may range from pale chestnut to dark liver chestnut, but always with pale flaxen mane and tail. The paler, golden versions are often identified as palomino. Color impurities in the base color such as roan, or black spots are undesirable, as are color impurities in the mane and tail, and any excessive color deviations will be considered very negatively and breeding will be strongly discouraged.

Head markings are desirable, but not a prerequisite, although too many markings are undesirable and can end up becoming strongly discouraged for breeding. Leg markings are not desirable and are penalized in the breed standard of the AHR as follows: "One white leg will not be penalized, two white legs will result in a one point deduction, three white legs will result in a two point deduction, and horses with four white legs or white above the knees or hocks will be strongly discouraged from breeding. A white leg is a white sock that extends above the fetlock joint. White markings are signified by a change in skin pigment."

The basic gaits of the Haflinger are distinctive and energetic but smooth. They are rhythmic and swinging, and consist of a 4-beat Walk, a 2-beat trot, and a 3-beat canter. The movements at a walk should be relaxed energetic and elevated. The movements at the trot and gallop should be supple, swinging, light on the feet with a noticeable swinging phase and with a natural suspension. Some knee action is desirable. In particular, the canter should demonstrate a clear forward and upward springing sequence. The horse should have a good long-reaching swinging stride with an elastic gait, showing good impulsion from behind. The stride should be correct, supple and of a pure rhythm without serious faults.

The Haflinger has a Willing, Docile and Uncomplicated temperament. In particular, it has an excellent character without vices or bad habits and an even temperament.

Currently, there are two different types of Haflinger -- a short draft style good for driving or farm work, and a taller, more refined version bred for riding and jumping.
Basically, a Haflinger is a horse with strong character and good-natured. He should be strong all-round and both eager and able to perform, as well as easy to acclimatize to being useful for all purposes. In particular this is true for riding, driving and jumping in the sport sector, but also as a working horse for pulling and carrying.

The Haflinger continues to capture hearts and enrich lives in North America as it has for over two centuries in Austria.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.rentacoder.com as well as other freelance sites. www.HorseClicks.com is a popular website filled with classifieds of horses for sale, horse trailers, tack, and horse related properties.

From Feral to Friendly, Meet the Mustang

Mustang horses are probably the most well known wild horse in the United States. The name "Mustang" is derived from the Spanish words "mesteño" or "monstenco" which is synonymous for "stray", "ownerless" or "wild." Mustangs come from domestic horses which reverted to a wild state after becoming separated from their human caretakers. They currently roam primarily on public land in the southwestern United States of Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, California, Arizona and New Mexico, but mostly in Nevada, where the majority of the country's remaining feral horse population resides. The Mustang is often called "The Symbol of the American West" and is known for their rugged endurance. Other names you may hear are: American feral horse, Range horse Indian Pony, Cayuse Pony, American Mustang, Spanish Mustang, meste’os and BLM horse, which refers to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that oversees their protection and adoption.

In 1492, Columbus discovered there were no horses in the New World, so today’s Mustang horses descended from the domesticated warmbloods brought to the New World by Spanish explorers, and by Columbus himself on his 2nd voyage. Some of these horses ran off; or swam to shore from wrecked ships; or were left behind as the Spanish came and went over the years. When European settlers came farther west they brought their horses with them, including draft horses. French horses were introduced to the gene pool from French settlers in the region around New Orleans. German horses may also be among the genes of the Mustang. During the late 1800's and early 1900's, the U.S. Government purchased 150 old-style East Friesian Warmblood stallions from Germany each year, over a 10 period, to pull artillery or heavy wagons for the U.S. Cavalry. A few of those may also have escaped to join the wild herds where survival of the fittest and natural selection over 4 centuries has built the breed.

Some horses were lost to Indian raids. Others were freed by feral stallions tearing down fences to steal the tame mares away to their own harems. Tame horses escaped from the owners, or were left behind as owners died on the trail, or in battle, just as the original horses in North America had escaped from the Spanish. It is possible that some horses The Indians often bartered horses between tribes as well as captured horses from other tribes, making the distribution of the various bloodlines more diverse.

While their Spanish genes have been diluted, many of the Mustangs have Spanish and Andalusian characteristics. For decades, people believed that there were no pure Spanish-type horses remaining in the wild on the ranges. But a few small isolated herds were found by the BLM in 1977, and blood and DNA tests show them to be strongly related to the Spanish horses of the 16th century. The BLM has separated these "Spanish Mustang" herds out to preserve their purity. Among these are the Kiger and Cerat Mustangs. Kiger mustangs carry the breed color traits, which include dun and gruel, among others, along with markings such as a dorsal stripe, zebra stripes or a facial mask. Horses of draft conformation are also kept on separate ranges by the BLM.

In other words, the Spanish mustang is a descendant of the horses brought to the Americas by the early Spaniards; while the American mustang is the descendant of escaped light riding horses and draft horses, mixed with the Spanish-bred and others. In general, American mustangs are thought to have little-to-no remaining Spanish blood.

From an estimated 2.3 million horse at the turn of the century, the population of Mustangs has dropped rapidly. As settlers started ranches in the arid west, they started to kill the wild horses because they were competing with cattle for grazing land. Horror tales about the cruelty of their removal abounds. From missionaries' journals in 1807 is a report of two herds of 7,000 mustangs each that were driven into the ocean at Mission Santa Barbara to drown. And at the San Diego Mission, Mustangs by the hundreds were shut in corals to starve. Another tells of horses being shot from moving trains for sport, and left to die.

By 1926 there were only about 1 million Mustangs remaining, and by the 1950's their numbers were reduced to an estimated 25,000. The population continued to decrease until 1971 when the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro act was passed to protect these animals. Unfortunately, this caused the population to rise to dangerous levels; livestock could not get enough to eat again, and the horses were a nuisance - again. The BLM's Adopt-A-Horse program began 1973 as a humane way to distribute these excess animals to concerned citizens.

Currently, less than 33,000 Mustangs remain, with many herds already below the minimum population levels necessary to sustain healthy populations and preservation of the species, according Dr. Gus Cothran, the equine geneticist at the University of Kentucky. The minimum number of horses in each herd management area (HMA) needs to be at least 150 animals, says Cothran. But under BLM plans, about 70 percent of the HMAs will have fewer than 100 animals.

Mustangs come in all sizes and body types, and also in the full range of colors. Their average size is 14.2 hands but it is not uncommon to see one as short as 13 hands or as tall as 16 hands. They are very hardy, healthy horses, rarely suffering from any kinds of leg or hoof injuries; or ailments that so often affect other domestic breeds, and they tend to live a bit longer than the domestics, too. Their lifespan is 25 to 30 years.

Mustangs that have been removed from the wild require experienced handlers, but they usually become as tractable as any horse that was raised from birth on a farm. But properly gentled Mustang can be a willing partner and a great family horse. If an American Mustang bonds with its owner, it will bond quite strongly, as that is a survival trait in the wild -- to bond with the herd. They are very intelligent and will do as they please, but if treated well they will quite often comply. Mustangs can be trained, if they want to be trained, and they learn quickly. With patience, they can be trained by experienced handlers to excel in many disciplines including English, Western Pleasure, Dressage, Driving, and rodeo, among others. It is not unusual for Mustangs to win in equine shows and competitions, and, in fact, many have.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.rentacoder.com as well as other freelance sites. www.HorseClicks.com is a popular website filled with classifieds of horses for sale, horse trailers, tack, and horse related properties.

The State Horse of Alabama is the Racking Horse

The Racking Horse was proclaimed to be Alabama's State horse in 1975 and is a naturally gaited horse known for its beauty, stamina, and calm disposition that originated on the great southern plantations before the Civil War. Plantation owners cherished the breed for its smooth, easy, natural-born gait. It was a horse that could be ridden comfortably for hours, allowing the great distances between and on the great plantations to be covered painlessly. The name "Racking" comes from the term "rack" which was the rural country word for the single-foot gait.

The Racking Horse has its origins rooted deeply from within the ranks of the Tennessee Walking Horse, and this explains much about the breed. Some people have debated whether or not the Racking Horse is a stand-alone breed, but the designation of "breed" was given to the Racking Horse by the USDA in 1978. So what is the difference between a walking horse and a racking horse? Well, the major difference is the gait. Racking Horses only allow one foot to strike the ground at a time. The Tennessee Walking Horse, on the other hand, generally performs three distinct gaits – the flat-foot walk, the running walk, or the canter. They can also rack, but this is not a desirable gait. So, simply put, the Racking Horse breed began from Tennessee Walking Horses that rack naturally.

The movement to form the breed known as the Racking Horse was started when a group of Alabama horsemen, who were involved with the Tennessee Walking Horse, split off from the parent club. The primary reasons were economical and political so a carefully studied program for getting the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to legally designate the Racking Horse as a distinct breed began in the late 1960's.

When the USDA Horse Protection Act went into effect in 1971, which targets the practice of soring within the Tennessee Walking Horse industry, many people in the Tennessee Walking Horse breed opted to get away from the problems that were plaguing the Tennessee Walker breed. On May 23, 1971, the USDA recognized the Racking Horse Breeders' Association of America, thereby allowing a registry to be established to perpetuate the Racking Horse breed. Prior to the formation of the RHBAA, the Racking Horse had been the only horse in the show rings of the nation that was not protected by a registry or a uniform set of rules, even though the Racking Horse breeders could have formed an association at any time prior to 1971 for the purpose of registering horses and creating that set of rules, just like all other U.S. horse breeding associations before them.

The primary function of the Racking Horse Breeders' Association was to establish a registry to protect, preserve, and perpetuate the breed in a natural state with little or no artificial devices to enhance its natural-born gait and to ensure that the horse's tail is naturally raised without nicking. But some show classes, such as open shod divisions, still allow special shoes that enhance action and a new class allows the use of chains, 6 ounces and under as action devices. Horses entered in these classes wear either flat pads or wedge pads made of leather, plastic or other pliant material on their front feet. Weighted shoes are also allowed, the purpose of which is to provide an artificial extension to the hoof and to encourage the horse to lift its feet higher in the show ring. The RHBAA has laid out strict edicts covering the size and thickness of the pads and also addresses the issue of soring, stating "Abusive treatment and/or training techniques designed to produce an alteration of the gaits shall not be condoned." Racking Horses are also subject to the DQP (Designated Qualified Person) inspections as outlined in the Horse Protection Act, as are Tennessee Walking Horses and Saddlebreds.

One banned practice is the application of caustic chemicals just above the hoof, in a process known as "soring," which gets its name from the fact that a horse alters its gait due to discomfort or sore feet. Soring, however is also seen within the Racking horse world even though it is illegal under the Horse Protection Act, and is a federal offense within the United States.

The Racking Horse is attractive and gracefully built with a long sloping neck, full flanks, well boned, smooth legs, and finely textured hair. The breed is considered to be a light horse, averages 15.2 hands high and weighs 1,000 pounds. It comes in many colors such as black, bay, sorrel, chestnut, brown, gray, yellow, cremello, buckskin, dun, palomino, roan, champagne, and even spotted. Spotted Racking Horses are often dual-registered with the National Spotted Saddle Horse Association NSSHA as well as with the RHBAA. Some Racking Horse events are now offering classes specifically for spotted horses, although the coloration is also permitted in regular classes and is commonly seen.

The gaits performed by the Racking Horse are the same on the trail ride and in the show ring. The breed is shown under saddle, in hand or in harness, either flat shod or with pads. The rack is a fast, evenly timed, bi-lateral four-beat gait in which each foot strikes the ground separately at equal intervals which is neither a pace nor a trot. It is often called single foot because only one foot strikes the ground at a time. There is no head nod, but the shoulders and hindquarters are very active. The horse appears to jump from one foot to the other and there is some overstride in the gait, but not as much as in the running walk. It is similar to the running walk of the Tennessee Walking Horse, but with more collection in the Racking Horse's movement. The ride is so smooth that the rider appears to remain motionless as the horse racks. It is not the same as the show gait of other breeds in which the "rack" is an artificially achieved gait resulting from special training, though soring does illegally occur within the Racking Horse breed.

Eligibility for registration is determined upon the performance of the gaits natural to the breed, and in the beginning horses of all ages could be registered by gait performances. Horses are registered by inspection by a qualified licensed RHBAA commissioner to determine if the horse is capable of performing the rack, but all horses born in 1994 and after must be blood-typed to be registered.

The Racking Horse has an unusual friendliness and affectionate nature toward humans. It is intelligent with a willingness to learn, an eagerness to work and an ability to perform in more than one function. Beginning riders cherish the smooth gait and the calm temperament while veteran horsemen admire its beauty and versatility from the work field to the show ring.

There are 80,000 Racking Horses registered by the RHBAA throughout the United States and several foreign countries, but Tennessee and Alabama have the largest number of Racking Horses in the United States. At this rate, it won't be long before the Racking Horse is a common sight in show rings throughout the equine world.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.rentacoder.com as well as other freelance sites. www.HorseClicks.com is a popular website filled with classifieds of horses for sale, horse trailers, tack, and horse related properties.

Aye, Laddie, The Largest Pony is the Irish Connemara

The Connemara Pony is considered to be Ireland's only native breed and is part of a group of equines known as mountain and moorland ponies. It originated in Connemara, county Galway on the rugged mountain coast of western Ireland, although the exact origins are obscure. It is known that the Connemara lived in Ireland for thousands of years but that they were brought there by the Ancient Celts, who were skilled horsemen.

One belief is that the Connemara Pony descended from the Spanish horses that swam to shore after the Spanish Armada sank off the rocky coast of western Ireland in 1568 and bred with the native ponies that were running wild in the mountains. However, it is certain that Thoroughbred and Arabian blood were introduced in the 1700's to refine the breed. The Connemara, in turn, was also used to influence the fine Irish Hunter.

In their native Ireland over the centuries, the Connemara was popularly used as a pack pony carrying loads of seaweed, peat, corn and potatoes to market and was also used for farm work. Local racing was also popular and the Connemara competed equally with the larger Irish Hunters and the English Thoroughbreds. But in such a poor area, families could only afford one good pony, and that had to be a mare that could foal each year so that there was something to sell so the family could survive through the long, dark winter.

But by the beginning of the 1900's, the purity of the indigenous Connemara breed was being threatened by the random cross-breeding with other breeds of horses. By the 1920's the Connemara Pony, as a viable breed, was very much endangered, so the local breeders formed the Connemara Pony Breeders Society in 1923 for the purpose of preserving and developing the breed. The first volume of the Connemara Pony studbook was published in 1926.

A clue to the excellence of the Connemara Pony is the extreme environment in which it lives. When turned out to survive in the harsh weather on rough pasture, only the strong of the breed survives. However, many Connemaras were being kept in stables and thus inferior examples existed, so in the 1920's, a group of owners chose a dozen quality ponies and turned them out into the wilds to live and reproduce. Those that survived had retained the excellent qualities, and it is believed that were the ones that preserved the great stamina, sure-footedness, hardiness, adaptability, and purity of the breed. Therefore Connemara as we know it today is still a product of its original environment; centuries of natural selection with a bit of human interference, followed by 72 years of selective breeding.

The Connemara has since been exported to all European countries, New Zealand, and Australia. In the United States, the largest market for the Connemara Pony is middle-aged women.

The body of the Connemara is compact and deep, yet not bulky with a fine sloping, rounded shoulder, strong back and well developed quarters. Its legs are short, clean, and have ample boning. The Connemara Pony has a handsome, well-shaped head with a fairly lean, medium-length neck, and an abundant mane and tail. Connemara Pony was originally dun in coloring, but this color is now rare. It is most frequently found gray, but also in black, bay, brown and occasionally seen in roan, chestnut and palomino. Black points are often seen, but piebald and skewbald are not considered acceptable for registration. Full maturity is not until five years of age, and can sometimes be a bit later, but they can live well into their 30's.

The Connemara is the largest of the pony breeds and stands from 12.2 hands to over 15 hands high, with 14 to 14.2 hands being the average. Yet in spite of its relatively small size, the Connemara Pony is known as an excellent hunter and jumper and it regularly competes in such varying events as distance riding, driving and dressage, also. Connemaras should move underneath themselves without reach yet covering a lot of ground. The over all impression is of an animal that is hardy, strong, free and actively moving.

The Connemara pony is renowned for its versatility as well as its gentle, tractable, sensible and willing disposition. The Connemara has an ability to bond with their human handler that is unique to this breed. The breed is mannerly and manageable, kind, responsive and possesses good sense along with basic intelligence; all characteristics that make it ideal for show or as an excellent child's or adult's pony.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.rentacoder.com as well as other freelance sites. www.HorseClicks.com is a popular website filled with classifieds of horses for sale, horse trailers, tack, and horse related properties.

The Most Popular of the Mountain Horses - The Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse

For over 200 years, the saddle horse has lived in the hills and valleys of many parts of Kentucky. Originally bred by the Appalachian mountain people in Eastern Kentucky for the demanding needs of farm life, the horses had to be tough to survive the rugged mountain lifestyle, and versatile enough to work the land, be ridden in style and comfort and perform multiple tasks with a stable, and willing nature. These were the roots of the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse.

When roads improved As the United States entered the motorized transportation age and new means of travel were created, gaited horse populations in the United States started to decline as the horse lost its position as a necessity of daily existence. One exception was the less-developed area of the Appalachian Mountains where gaited horses were still necessary for travel where there were no roads, and so breeding continued and several early breeders were determined to maintain records on the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse because the unique, surefooted, four-beat gait was still essential for getting around the rugged mountain terrain where no other vehicles could traverse.

The exact origins of the Mountain horses are sheer speculation, but the Narragansett Pacer, Spanish Jennet, Mountain Pleasure Horse, and ambling Galloways are all ancestors of the modern Kentucky Mountain Saddle horse. Old Saddlebred stock and Tennessee Walking Horse bloodlines were also used. These breeds were well known for their comfortable gaits and willing attitudes which were essential for spending long hours in the saddle when the horse was the primary mode of transportation.

The traditional belief is that around 1890, a family on their way back to Virginia brought a young, gaited colt with them that was the foundation to a line of horses that has been treasured in the area ever since. He was called "the Rocky Mountain Horse" by the local Appalachian people because of the area he had come from. Little is known about this foundation stallion, but the oral history indicates that he was chocolate-colored with a flaxen mane and tail, and that he possessed a superior gait. That stallion was instrumental in the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse breed, and sired two influential sons that settled in Estill and Clark Counties in Kentucky.

In Spout Springs, Kentucky, Sam Tuttle purchased a mare in 1918, Lucy, and bred her to one of the descendants of the original chocolate stallion. The mare was eventually bred to the Hinz Stud, located at Hinz Farm, and the resulting foal was Tobe. Mr. Tuttle tapped into the Mountain Horse Heritage by crossing the native Mountain Pleasure Horse stock with Tobe. Tobe was the sire of Old Tobe, his favorite stallion, and was also his primary breeding stallion and sired foals until the age of 34, and lived to age 37. He had the perfect sure-footed gait and a calm, gentle temperament and was the one that carried the young, the old, or the unsure over the mountain trails in Natural Bridge State Park for 10 years without faltering, even though he was a breeding stallion. Everyone who rode the stallion fell in love with him and his offspring were always in demand. He passed on his gait, disposition, and other great qualities to his offspring but one outstanding trait passed on was longevity, and many of his offspring are still breeding in their late twenties and early thirties. It has also been said that his offspring followed in his perfectly-timed footsteps.

Even through the hard times of the Depression and World War II years, Sam Tuttle kept a sizable herd of thirty to forty horses on his farm. In the 1950s, when the horse populations in general were rapidly declining due to tractors and farm machinery available, breeders still bought their mares to Old Tobe from several different states and he was always in demand for stud service. Old Tobe was a virile and prepotent stallion who became a "breed shaper" for several Mountain horse breeds. Many of the present Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horses and Rocky Mountain Horses can trace back to Old Tobe. One of his sons, also named Tobe, became an influential foundation sire of the modern type.

Tobe became well known for producing various hues of chocolate with a flaxen mane and tail in his offspring and his outstanding sons include Sewell’s Sam, Maple's Squirrel, and Yankee, the last stallion that Tuttle stood at stud. All offspring sired by these stallions were consistent in type, gait, temperament, and quality and it became obvious that there was a need for a registry to showcase the breed. So, in 1989, the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association (KMSHA) was formed to document and preserve the ancestry of the breed and in 2002 the Spotted Mountain Horse Association (SMHA), a subsidiary of the KMSHA, was formed to register those Mountain Horses that had large areas or spots of white that were considered to be too much coverage for any of the existing Mountain Horse registries that followed solid color standards.

But there are several breeds of Mountain Horses that have been developed in the Appalachians of Kentucky around the same time and sorting them out can get confusing when all the breed association sites say much of the same thing, but in different ways. For example, in writing this article, I came across this comment from the Mountain Pleasure Horse Association (MPHA) website: "Horses registered in the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association are often referred to as Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horses. Several gaited breeds of horses are included in the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association's registry, the Mountain Pleasure Horse being one of them. Whereas, the Mountain Pleasure Horse and the Rocky Mountain Horse are "breeds" of horses, the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse normally refers to the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association registry. [...] many horses registered with the Mountain Pleasure Horse Association are also doubled registered with the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association." However, on the website of the KMSHA, it states that "the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse and the Spotted Mountain Horse breeds, each with their own distinctive characteristics and genetic DNA markers, are recognized by the University of Kentucky, Equine Parentage Testing and Genetic Research Center as their own unique breed of Horse."

Both the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse and the Spotted Mountain Horse have the same conformation standards. They must be of medium bone and substance and stand no less than 11 hands high. There is no upper height limit but there are two size categories. Class A horses stand 14.2 hands and above and Class B is for horses that are between 11 and 14.1 hands at maturity.

The head of the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse is attractive and cob sized, not too long or wide, with a broad flat forehead. The profile is neither severely Roman nor dished. The neck is of medium length and thickness, with the top line being longer than the underline. Traditionally, the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse has a compact, well-muscled and close-coupled frame. The tail set should be natural.

The Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse may be any solid body color with minimal white markings that should be limited to the face, the lower legs, or on the belly not to exceed an area larger than the size of a hand. Any horse that does not meet the limited amount of white requirement, or that carries tobiano, overo or sabino, may be registered as a Spotted Mountain Horse with the SMHA if other criteria are met.

The Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse should be able to demonstrate a smooth, comfortable and natural four beat gait, with four distinct hoof beats, when under saddle. The breed should present an overall appearance of athleticism and the ability to perform useful work as well as have a gentle temperament with a willing disposition.

In Kentucky alone, there are at least 9,700 Kentucky-owned Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horses with several hundred Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse and Spotted Mountain Horse stallions, mares and geldings being boarded and trained in Kentucky that are owned by residents of other states. The breed can be found in all 50 states, Canada, and is rapidly growing in Europe.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.rentacoder.com as well as other freelance sites. www.HorseClicks.com is a popular website filled with classifieds of horses for sale, horse trailers, tack, and horse related properties.

Missouri Fox Trotter - The Versatile Gaited Horse from The Ozarks

The Missouri Fox Trotter is a breed of naturally gaited horse from the Ozarks that is most famous for its fox trotting gait of walking with its front feet while trotting with its back feet in a broken, yet gliding motion. Trail riders are rapidly discovering what U.S. Forest Rangers have known for years -- Missouri Fox Trotters have no equal when it comes to an easy, sure-footed ride on hazardous or mountainous terrain. They are especially common in their native Missouri, but have world-wide appeal. Missouri Fox Trotters are very versatile horses found in a wide variety of disciplines, including jumping, pleasure and equitation. These horses are historically tied to the grazing cattle industry of the Ozarks and continue to be used on working ranches and farms. In 2002, the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse became the Official State Horse of Missouri.

The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse was developed in the rugged Ozark hills during the 19th century out of a desire to have a sure-footed, smooth-gaited horse that could travel long distances through this mountainous region quickly. They also needed the ability to do whatever was needed such as plowing, hauling logs and working cattle; yet be able to double as a stylish buggy horse or riding horse.

Their pedigrees can be traced to the horses of early settlers coming to the Ozarks from neighboring states of Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee and Arkansas. Bloodlines from several other gaited horses, such as the American Saddle Horses and the Tennessee Walkers along with the American Quarter Horse are in their ancestry. It soon became apparent that horses with the, broken, sliding gait were the most useful in the rocky hills, and selective breeding for the fox trot gait began. Later the horses became known as Missouri Fox Trotters, though other names have been used such as Missouri Fox Trotting Horse or simply, Fox Trotter.

A breed association was formed in 1948 by fifteen men who were concerned with preserving this unique breed before it was irretrievably lost and maintaining an accurate stud book. Much progress was made, but in 1955 the Secretary's home burned and with it the stud book and all the records they had. In 1958, the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association (MFTHBA) was reorganized and reincorporated as a stockholder company. In 1973 the corporation was changed from a stockholding company to a membership organization. It became a "closed book" registry in 1983 and foals have to have both parents registered in the MFTHBA. This is designed to preserve the breed standard and history of this American horse. Currently, over 90,000 horses have been placed in the Official Record with more than 42,283 registered Missouri Fox Trotters living in the United States and Canada.

In May of 2004, MFTHBA Board of Directors recognized the need to specifically register and record Fox Trotting horses that were between 44" and 56", and The Missouri Fox Trotting Pony Registry (MFTPR) was created as a part of the MFTHBA. No further information is available at this time on what the ancestry of these smaller Fox Trotters may have been.

The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse comes in a wide range of colors; and. generally stands between 14 and 16 hands in height, with a pony version between 11 and 14 hands. Individuals may average 900 to 1200 pounds. The neck should be graceful with a neat, clean, symmetrically shaped head of medium length; pointed ears; large, bright, wide-set eyes; and a tapered muzzle with large nostrils. The back should be reasonably short and strong, the body deep and the ribs well-sprung. The foot should be well made, strong and in proper proportion to the size of the horse. Good conformation permits their special gaits to be performed in the proper manner.

Unlike a lot of gaited horses, the Missouri Fox Trotter is not a showy horse with high-stepping flashy gaits, but rather a steady, dependable, sure-footed animal which often nods its head in time with the pleasant gait. The head and tail are slightly elevated and the rhythmic beat of the hooves along with the nodding action of the head give the appearance of relaxation and poise. The movement is smooth and consistent with no noticeable up and down motion. No special shoeing or training is required for these 3 natural born gaits.

The breed's signature Fox Trot is a broken diagonal gait performed by walking in front and trotting behind, with reach in each stride. The rhythm begins at the tip of the nose with a characteristic headshake and continues back through the ripple of the tail. There is no excessive animation, nor exaggerated knee motion but the back feet have a sliding action resulting from the horse breaking at the hocks. The front hoof of the diagonal pair strikes the ground just before the rear hoof, and one front hoof is on the ground at all times in the correct fox trot. The head is slightly elevated with a rhythmic motion matching the rear foot movement. The raised tail emphasizes the rhythm naturally. The gait is extremely comfortable and surefooted, and the horse can maintain it for long periods of time with little fatigue.

The Flat Foot Walk is a rapid flat, four beat gait performed in a square, stylish manner. It is distinctly different from the fox trot which has a broken rhythm. A correctly performed flat foot walk has the sound of an equal four beat cadence produced by the hooves. The head shake is more animated than in the fox trot and it gives a smooth ride.

The Canter is a three beat gait and is performed in a straight, collected manner with head and tail slightly raised. The three-beat gait is has a rocking, or rolling, motion, starting from the outside rear foot, to the inside rear-outside front landing together, and then to the inside front foot. The head is at its lowest point when the inside front foot is on the ground. It is not fast moving gait, and the horse should appear relaxed.

Missouri Fox Trotters make excellent mounts for children and beginning riders because of their friendly, quiet, gentle dispositions and willingness to please. A person who is inexperienced with horses can ride a Missouri Fox Trotter with confidence since these horses are quite attuned to their riders and the smooth gait makes them easier to ride than the hard-trotting gait of a standard horse.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.rentacoder.com as well as other freelance sites. www.HorseClicks.com is a popular website filled with classifieds of horses for sale, horse trailers, tack, and horse related properties.