New Technology

New Technology Meets the Needs of Horse Lovers

Written By: Bonnie Marlewski-Probert

It is hard to imagine when you are mucking out stalls and scrubbing water buckets that we are in the 21^st century and that technology is flying forward at the speed of sound. The good news about this fact is that, we as horsemen can take full advantage of this modern day timesaving marvel ? leaving us more time to muck stalls and scrub water buckets!

Katrina Dane Hoxie of Teton NewMedia in Jackson Wyoming recently sent me a collection of Cherry Hill?s new CD-ROM libraries. How amazing is this? Today, you can access several full-length books on a single CD-ROM. Even better, instead of dragging your expensive book out to the barn for reference, you can print out just the pages or exercises that you want to take with you and if you spill coffee on them or if your horse drools on them, you can easily print them again.

Another feature of this modern technology is the fact that you can utilize a search engine on the CD-ROM that will allow you to load key words and find everything on the CD pertaining to that topic. No more flipping pages in several books trying to find information on a single topic. Load in a word and waallla, everything you ever wanted to know about that topic is available at your fingertips. How good is that?

The artwork is one of the many standout benefits to this new technology. It is one thing to read about something in a book. It is a bit better to read about it and to see a picture or a line drawing, but what if you could read about it and then watch a video on your own computer explaining exactly how to do it? The value of this is that you can stop play, rewind, and watch it over and over again until you understand the exercise.

Cherry?s libraries come with a couple of bonuses. First, there is an extensive dictionary available where you can easily look-up horse related terms to help in your understanding of new material. Secondly, there is a coloring atlas of horse anatomy by Robert Kainer and Thomas McCracken included.

I rarely "review" products in this column, but Cherry?s libraries are packed with helpful information that are easily understood and are very cost effective when you consider how many of her more than 20 books are included on each CD-ROM.

Currently, Cherry has three libraries available to horse lovers:

The Rider Library ? retail price is 49.95 (US Funds)

Focused on improving your riding skills whether you ride Western or English. This library includes

720 illustrations and drawings

15 animations of arena exercises

3 videos: Bang the Tail Regularly/The Sidepass/Riding Concepts

This CD-ROM includes three of Cherry?s books:

Becoming an Effective Rider, Horse Handling and Grooming, and 101 Arena Exercises.

The Horse Care Library ? retail price is $49.95 (US Funds)

This CD-ROM would be a great help to anyone who runs a commercial barn or for anyone who keeps their horses at home. Included on this library:

650 illustrations and drawings

3 videos: Flush the Mouth/ Increase Roughage During Cold Weather/ Preventive Shoeing

This CD-ROM includes three of Cherry?s books:

Horse Health Care, Maximum Hoof Power, Horsekeeping on a Small Acreage

The Master Library ? retail price $169.95

This CD-ROM includes enough information to keep you in good stead throughout your entire life with horses. The information covered in this CD-ROM includes:

Ground training

Longeing Long Lining

English and Western riding Gaits

Transitions Arena exercises

Horse and rider development Health care

Hoof care Lameness

Buying Selling

Grooming Showing

And horse facilities design and maintenance

There are:

2572 illustrations and drawings

30 animations of arena and pattern exercises

12 videos from each topic area: Bank the Tail Regularly/The Sidepass/Riding Concepts/Flush the Mouth/Increase Roughage During Cold Weather/Preventive Shoeing/Feeding Treats Can Be Hazardous to Your health/Causes of Lameness/Making a Horse for Sale Video/Longeing/The Spiral/The Canter or Lope

1 instructional audio clip: Voice Commands

In addition to all of this, there are also copies of more than ten of Cherry?s books on the same CD-ROM.

The system requirements are pretty straightforward:

Windows

CD-ROM drive

Minimum 66-MHZ, 486 or higher processor

16 MB RAM

3 MB of available hard disk space

Windows 95 or higher

Color Monitor

Sound Blaster or compatible sound card and speakers

QuickTime 4.0 or recommends DirectX version 3.0 or later (if you don?t have QuickTime, it is on the CD-ROM and you can load it from there)

Mac OS

CD-ROM drive

68020 or better (power PC native)

16 MB RAM

4 MB available hard disk space

System 7.5.5 or higher

Color Monitor

I think one or more of these libraries would make a great Birthday, First Horse or Christmas gift for you or a friend! For ordering information, you can contact Teton NewMedia at 888-542-2647 or e-mail khoxie@tetonnm.com or visit Cherry's site at http://www.horsekeeping.com/
 

I want to hear from you! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions that you would like to share with the rest of us, drop me a line at:

Bonnie Marlewski-Probert

P.O. Box 548   

Yellville, AR  72687

Or you can contact me directly on the Internet at BRMP@AOL.com