Free Republic

Kansas City cops are not horsing around. A woman suspected of striking “Dan” the police horse during last week’s Donald Trump protest in Missouri was arrested Friday night. In an attempt to spook a member of the city’s mounted patrol, April Foster, 29, allegedly yelled at the horse as its officer pushed through a crowd of protesters. She then slapped it with an open hand, according to the Kansas City Star.

A woman in the midst of the protests outside the rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump on March 12 was arrested on Friday for abuse of a police service animal. According to a police report, an officer mounted on horseback was involved in police crowd control outside the Midland Theatre when protesters began moving into the street and blocking traffic, approaching officers on foot. After police verbally instructed the protesters back onto the sidewalk, the crowd continued moving forward and mounted officers moved into position to block the crowd. Police said that’s when the suspect, April J. Foster, 29, approached...

FREMONT, Calif.--California firefighters rappelled down a steep ravine to rescue a days-old horse that was trapped for two days with a broken pelvis. The San Jose Mercury News reports the horse is less than a week old and is recovering after its ordeal. The colt, dubbed Valentine because it was rescued on the holiday, was stranded in a pool of water when animal control officers and firefighters fished him out Sunday. Valentine will be taken to the University California at Davis for surgery. The operation will cost about $10,000 and the Tri-City Animal Shelter is taking donations to cover the...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Just days ago, the nearly 1,300-pound, powerful jumping horse with a shiny chestnut coat named Phedras de Blondel arrived at his new home in the U.S., a farm owned by a champion rider in Florida. On Sunday morning, his owner discovered a horrific scene near his stall: the 12-year-old gelding had been slaughtered and butchered, most likely for his meat. Only his head and neck were left intact. Now, detectives are trying to find the perpetrators. “What they did to this horse had nothing to do with his value,” Debbie Stephens, who owns the 27-acre...

Slaughterhouse owners, employees accused of torturing animals, selling meat on black market.LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. - Authorities in Palm Beach County raided three illegal slaughterhouses Tuesday morning in Loxahatchee with the help of officials with the Animal Recovery Mission. The operation resulted in the arrests of the slaughterhouse owners and employees. Authorities said the owners were involved in the underground and illegal slaughter of horses and illegal sale of their meat for human consumption.<>

A horse believed to be oldest in the world has passed away. Orchid died aged 50 this week at the Remus Horse Sanctuary, in Ingateston, Essex. She celebrated the milestone birthday in January this year and was showered with cards from well-wishers. Sue Burton, founder of the sanctuary, said: “Orchid was a beautiful girl.

Hope you like increasing prices, everyone! #ForTheMiddleClass https://twitter.com/WSJPolitics/status/627796768328183808 … It’s not like Americans weren’t warned. All in the name of fighting “climate change,” of course. Has that ever really been a barrier for this administration?

American Pharoah became the first horse in over three decades Saturday to earn the Triple Crown, placing 1st in the Belmont Stakes after winning the Preakness and the Kentucky Derby earlier in the season. In one of the sporting world's rarest feats, the bay colt with the unusually short tail defeated seven rivals in the grueling 1 1/2-mile race, covering the distance in 2:26.65 to end the longest stretch without a Triple Crown champion in history. American Pharoah is the 12th horse and first since Affirmed in 1978 to win three races on different tracks at varying distances over a...

Scheduled race time: 6:50pm (ET)

For the third time in four years, Belmont Park will play host to a Triple Crown hopeful when American Pharoah attempts to add the 147th running of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 6, the final and most demanding leg of the series, to his victories in the Kentucky Derby and in yesterday's rain-drenched Preakness. It will mark the 14th time since Affirmed swept all three races in 1978 that a horse has had a chance to join the 11 Triple Crown champions; none have succeeded. Three of those attempts have been by American Pharoah's Hall of...

The king of Bahrain has apparently snubbed President Barack Obama to attend a horse show with Queen Elizabeth. According to Reuters, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has elected to attend the Royal Windsor Horse Show, which begins Wednesday, at Windsor Castle outside London.

“San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon ordered an immediate internal investigation Thursday into an arrest by deputies after a horse pursuit caught on camera by NewsChopper4. Deputies appeared to use Tasers to stun a man and then beat him after the pursuit in San Bernardino County Thursday afternoon. Aerial footage showed the man falling off the horse, and then being stunned with a Taser by a sheriff’s deputy. The man appeared to fall to the ground with his arms outstretched. Two deputies immediately descended on him and began punching him in the head and kneeing him in the groin.” “The...

Gotta hear this Strech Call the Far right edges out the truth or else @ the wire..... http://www.kentuckyderby.com/prep_races/2014/southwest-0 The Truth or Else and Mr. Z, who had been battling before Far Right swept past them both, were separated by a nose at the wire. Runner-up The Truth or Else banked five Derby points and now has a total of six, while Mr. Z's third-place effort (two points) gave him 14 all told.

The strange, forgotten World War II mission that involved Americans and Nazis cooperating to save a rare breed of prize horses from extinction. It was late April 1945 when the Americans first heard about the white horses. It happened near the Czech-German border, about 90 miles east of Nuremberg. Capt. Ferdinand P. Sperl, an officer with IPW (Interrogation Prisoners of War) 10, was examining a cache of items he’d just confiscated from a Nazi colonel known only as “Walter H.” They were typical intelligence documents: memos, maps, charts. But something in the colonel’s personal attaché case caught Sperl's eye: photos...

Illinois' only two harness horse racing tracks kept their promise to the Illinois Racing Board as they filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday to continue operations into 2015 and protect themselves against property seizure. Balmoral Racing Club Inc. and Maywood Park Trotting Association Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a state court handed down a $78 million lawsuit judgment earlier this month for the tracks' ownership's role in an extortion scandal involving former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. **SNIP** The ruling stems from a federal racketeering suit that claims that John Johnston acquiesced to Blagojevich's request for a $100,000 campaign contribution in...

During the first world war millions of animals were used for transport, to carry vital communications and as companions to the troops. This week, the PDSA posthumously awarded an honorary Dickin Medal – the ‘animal VC’ – to the horse Warrior, on behalf of all the animals involved. Warrior served throughout the whole campaign with General Jack Seely, surviving machine-gun attacks, shells and the mud of Passchendaele. One of the millions of horses used during the course of the war is winched ashore at Thessaloniki, Greece. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis Dogs were often used by the British army to pull machine...

Moving up from seventh last month to fourth in the list this month is the three year old CALIFORNIA CHROME (USA) [124] who justified favoritism in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) in impressive style. Always prominent he sprinted away from the field from the top of the stretch and was winning so convincingly that his rider could start to celebrate well before the finish. California Chrome thus becomes the highest rated three year old in the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings although he may have that position challenged as some of the major European Group 1 races...

A site in southwestern France found to be rich in the bones of horses and other large herbivores has provided important insights into the hunting and scavenging habits of Neanderthals. A team of archaeologists from the French archaeological agency Inrap have unearthed hundreds of bones at the Middle Paleolithic site in Quincieux dating back 35,000 to 55,000 years. The work was started due to roadworks in the area, with the outstanding discovery prompting local authorities to extend the time available for excavations. The excavation of the prehistoric site, on a hill overlooking the old bed of the Saone River, revealed...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- California Chrome sustained a bloody gash to his right front foot during the Belmont Stakes, an injury that may have hurt his chances in his failed bid to sweep the Triple Crown for the first time in 36 years.</p>