Salt makes cocoa sweeter.

Fat Horse No. 3

It’s the year of the horse and I’ve always been a horse girl at heart, so I’m finally taking advantage of the excuse to fill the world with fat little horses! These felted friends are about the size (and shape!) of an apple, and if you happen to have any apples to share I’m sure they’d help you out!

Fat Horse No. 4

It’s the year of the horse and I’ve always been a horse girl at heart, so I’m finally taking advantage of the excuse to fill the world with fat little horses! These felted friends are about the size (and shape!) of an apple, and if you happen to have any apples to share I’m sure they’d help you out!

Mule packers in the Mule Days parade

The first group is from Rock Creek Pack Station, one of several pack stations that still run in the Eastern Sierra. The second group is from McGee Creek Pack Station, another local Eastern Sierra station. I didn't get the name of the third group, but they are another pack string in the Sierra tradition.

And one of these is not like the others!

That last photo is the US forest service's pack string, but you'll notice that the packs look much different than the previous three photos. These mules are using a Decker pack saddle, which is more associated with pack strings in places like Montana and Wyoming.

Above: Decker Pack Saddle (not my photo, image sourced from Outfitter's Supply)

Here in the Sierra Nevada, the vast majority pack strings traditionally use a Sawbuck style pack saddle. These have a wooden frame that sits across the back.

If you ever see a horse wearing these padded 'shoes' (called stacks) on its feet, you are looking at an abused horse

Stacks are used in a riding discipline called padded performance, or more commonly known as big lick. In this discipline, the goal is to create as big and flashy of a walk as possible.

To get a big flashy walk, big lick trainers put weights on the horse's front feet (to make it lift the legs higher) and use action chains, which smack against the ankles every time the horse moves (making it lift the legs faster to try and escape from the painful chains). Though it's technically illegal, many trainers also use soring, where they rub mustard oil or kerosene onto the horse's ankles (to cause pain so it has a stronger reaction to the action chains). Soring is widely accepted in padded performance, and trainers will apply chemical irritants to their horses at shows, out in the open for everyone to see.

Horses naturally carry 60% of their body weight on the front legs. When the front legs are sore, they'll carry more weight on their hind legs, which causes rapid joint degeneration. It's not unheard of for retired big lick horses to have completely deformed hind legs

There is no ethical way to do padded performance. Big lick riders will talk about how stacks don't cause issues (often citing one study that looked at padded horses slowly walking on a treadmill without rider), how soring is illegal, how hard-working their farriers are, how closely they work with veterinarians, how their horses live like kings, how beloved their horses are, etc., but it's all talk.

If you see a horse with stacks, you are looking at an abused horse.

I'll add a few relevant videos under the cut (from least to most graphic)