Cats And Horses

I usually think of dogs and horses, not cats and horses. At every horse show I've attended, I've seen plenty of people bring dogs along. I've never seen a cat at a horse show. Granted, that could be because cats are less labor-intensive than dogs. A cat can be left on its own longer than a dog. It could also be that cats owned by horse owners are working animals and have a job to do at the barn or stable.

The April/May 2011 issue of Western Shooting Horse magazine, in its list of ten barn essentials, had a barn cat at number six. A barn cat came ahead of lighting, wall-mounted feeders, wash rack and grooming caddy. Barn cats help keep the rodent population under control. Rodents not only get into feed, but they can also carry disease. A good mouser can help solve both those problems.

At the MAQHA (Minnesota Amateur Quarter Horse Association) Corporate Challenge this year, the MYQHA (Minnesota Youth Quarter Horse Association) is having a silent art show auction. Two pieces by the same artist feature paintings of cats and horses. One is titled "Comfy" and shows a cat curled up and sleeping on a horse's back. The other is titled "Scratches" and shows a horse using its nose to rub against a cat's back as the cat arches its back up toward the horse's nose. I can almost hear the cats in those two paintings purring.

I've seen photos of cats with horses on several of the horse-related pages I like on Facebook. Both animals have a sense of curiosity and it does seem fitting they'd be curious about each other. That's not to say that every horse will like cats or that every cat will like horses. But the same is true about dogs and horses. Not every horse will like dogs and not every dog will like horses.

Dogs may be the animal most people think of as being friends with horses, but cats can be friends with horses just as easily.

Here's a toast to the friendship between my two favorite animals!