Blogging Reflections

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1.  In your opinion, what was the purpose of this blogging activity? (Why did I choose to do blogging instead of more traditional writing activities?)

I think the main purpose of this blogging activity was to get us writing and thinking in an interactive way about what we write. Blogging allows your classmates to see what you have written; all they have to do is just go to your blog. You can do the same, just go to their blog and read what they have written. Reading other people’s blogs helps students who don’t know how to write. Because some bloggers are really good writers, their writing can be a good model for other bloggers. Students can get see good examples of each other’s writing; they can help each another to making a better entry by making comments, observations or just telling them what they think. In normal writing assignments, only the teacher gets to see it, but in blogs, everyone can look at what you’ve written and say what they think about it. Your blog can be read around the world by anybody and maybe they can be influenced by it.

2.  What have you accomplished during your blogging?

I have accomplished several things in blogging. First of all I learned about blog websites. I never knew what a blog was before this assignment. Secondly, I got to improve my writing; I am making fewer grammar and spelling mistakes. I think I now have a good idea about blogging; this is my main accomplishment.

3.  What key concepts have you learned while blogging? (This can be about writing, research or technology etc.)

Firstly, researching information for my blogs has helped me learn a lot about my topic, horses and ponies. Although I am a rider, I learnt a lot more about horses; now I know more information about certain breeds; for example, I never knew that there were only black Friesians. I think I learned a lot of about the breeds I researched. Another thing I benefited from by doing blogs was learning new things about the computer. I now know how to add pictures and videos to blogs.

4. Based on the skills you learned while blogging, how will this benefit you in the future? This maybe inside or outside of school.

Writing skills such as summarizing information, which I had to do when I was writing, will benefit me in future because I will be able to write summaries about different topics. doing research for my blog is also beneficial because all of our courses require research so these skills are also very useful. Learning how to insert videos and pictures will benefit me for future assignment or projects.

Lipizzaner

The Lipizzan is a beautiful and elegant horse famous for classical dressage and speicalised jumpts. Lipizzan breed originated in the 16^th century; the Hapsburg nobility of Austria-Hungary had it developed for royalty.  The horse is named after the village of Lipica (Lipizza) in Slovenia which used to be part of the Austrian empire.  The Lipizzaner has Barb and Andalusian ancestry: in the 7^th century the Arab Moors of North Africa brought the Barb horse to Spain and mixed it with native Andalusian stock.  This created a new breed called the Andalusian. In the 16^th century, Emperor Maximillian II brought the Spanish Andalusian breed to Austria and established a breeding stable in the village of Lipizza. The Andalusian breed was mixed with the native Slovenian Karst horse and then crossed with an Italian breed, the Neapolitan, as well as some other Baroque breeds.   The new breed was called the Lipizzaner or Lipizzan.

Today Lipizzaners are a rare breed with only three thousand horses registered worldwide. Very few foals are born each year. Breeders are very careful to preserve breed purity. Today they are bred in Austria at Piber Stud.   In 1983 a viral epidemic at Piber Stud killed forty horses and 8% of the foals died. Now there is a new veterinary centre which carefully monitors the health of the Lipizzaners. The Lipizzaner is the only horse breed developed in Slovenia and is a national symbol.

 Lipizzaners are not very tall.  They are usually 15 to 16.1 h.h. (hands high).  Lipizzaners are compact horses with short well muscled strong legs. They have small tough feet. Lipizzaners have strong backs and strong quarters. They have large expressive eyes and small ears. They have a long head with a straight or convex profile. The Lipizzaners have a wide deep chest and muscular shoulder

They are mainly gray although some can be brown or bay. Adult Lipizzaners can have a white haired coat but they are not true white horses. The foals are born with a brown or black coat which eventually turns grey. This greying process can take about 6 to 10 years. Gray is the preferred color especially for breeding. They have black skin and dark eyes.

The Lipizzaner is a very intelligent horse breed.  The Lipizzaner is docile and gentle. Most Lipizzaners work in the Spanish Riding School. Lipizzaners work as dressage and driving horses and are the only horses used in the Spanish Riding School in Austria. Lipizzaners mature slowly but they live long active working lives; some of them work to their late twenties or thirties.

 During WW II, the Lipizzaners almost disappeared. In 1943 Nazi Germany transferred most of the breeding stock to Czechoslovakia. Later, in 1945, when the Russians occupied Czechoslovakia, put the mares were put   because the Russian Army had started killing horses for food. With the help of the American Army the Lipizzaner mares were herded across the border to Germany and later returned to Piber in 1952 so they stables were able to start breeding the horses again.   I watched a part of a movie about this rescue called Miracle of the White Stallions on youtube. I found it very interesting and very informative.   

Welcome

Welcome to my blog, I hope you will learn enjoy a lot of things about horses!

Horses are my favorite animal and I want to show you why I am so fascinated by them. They are intelligent and strong (brains and bronze) and are very beautiful.