The Pix Pixy

If you happen to know a horse lover or horse enthusiast, there are great horse gifts out there just for them. Whether it is a horse gift for Christmas, or a birthday, or just a little something for your self. The gift you choose will depend on the needs, accommodations, and personal taste of the receiver.

Sometimes horse equipment is the best kind of horse gift possible. For example: equipment like new saddles and bits etc. will make great horse gifts when they are needed. Another practical horse gift for any horse enthusiast who is not too fond of little horse trinkets would be a book about horses. A book about horses, whether it is fiction or non-fiction would be my favorite kind of horse gift. I love to read and learn more about horses, and so will many other horse enthusiasts out there.

Other great horse gifts for the horse enthusiast in your life include weathervanes, jewelry and t-shirts.

My mother grew up on a ranch in Montana. She has had much experience with horses, mostly riding. But she always loved to watch the trainers working with the horses. Therefore she learned a little about how a wild horse is broken in and taught to live on a ranch like hers, or how a new colt is trained. My mother watched the births of many colts while growing up, and even assisted in a birth once. We still visit the ranch from time to time, but it never feels like enough. I think that having little mementos of horses helps her miss the ranch less. Or, maybe it makes her miss it more. Either way, when she looks at her horse statuettes or jewelry, a little smile plays upon her lips.

Even though she has left her home in Montana and moved on in the world, my mother’s passion for horses has not diminished. She went to school for business and opened her own store, where she sells mostly trinkets and antiques. You can tell from the appearance of the store that the owner is a horse enthusiast, because so many items she sells have a horse theme, like the horse gifts we give her do.

She wears horse t-shirts all the time, many of which were gifts. And whenever she opens a horse giftupon seeing it she smiles more brightly than at any other time. The only other time I see that same smile on her face is when she is riding. She still has a horse of her own in Montanawhom she visits as often as she can. We have also dedicated time as a family to go riding every once and awhile here in upstate New York, where I grew up. Even though we do not have a ranch, it is better than nothingand it sure feels good to be riding again, for most essential and especially for my mother.

I find that that same smile (or at least the same soothing, passionate feeling behind that smile) appears on my face as I pet or feed a horse, as I ride, or as I watch them run. As far as horse gifts are concerned, it is really a matter of taste. Let’s face it, not everyone who likes horses likes little trinkets too.

The products available for the horse enthusiast are many. It is my hope that some of the ideas above will help you to choose the perfect horse gift for your friend or family member who loves horses.

I have tried to gather as much information as I could about what kinds of horse gifts are great ideas, depending on the horse enthusiast’s personal taste. I have identified for you some particular occasions where a horse gift might be most suitable, and I have done it all with great care, because I want you to be able to find the very best horse gifts for the horse enthusiast for whom you shop.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, fashion, and home decor. Her background includes teaching and gardening. For more of her articles on horse gifts, please visit Best Horse Gifts

The game of chess has many interesting moves and some that can only happen under certain circumstances. In order to play the best game you can, it is wise to know about all the moves so that you can best outwit your opponent.

In order to effectively talk about chess a special method of notation has been devised. This helps identify the squares and positions without having to have a board and pieces always in front of you to illustrate. In this notation the columns (or files as they are called in chess) are identified with a letter and the rows (or ranks) are identified with a number. If you are looking at a chessboard from the perspective of the white player, the leftmost file is ‘a’, the one next to it ‘b’ and so on until the last file which is ‘h’. The back or closest rank for white is ‘rank 1′, the next one (the one the pawns are on) is ‘rank 2′ and so on until the last rank, which is the back row for black and is ‘rank 8′. So the when using chess notation, the leftmost back square for white would be called ‘a1′, the square directly above ‘a2′ an so on. See how easy that is?

Now that you know how chess notation works and you have a chess board visualized in your head, we can talk about some of the special chess moves.

En Passant

If you have played even only 1 game of chess you know that pawns have some special rules. For example, they can only capture a piece that is placed diagonally in front of them. Also, on it’s initial move, a pawn can move up two squares instead of just one. However, there is a special case for this - if an enemy pawn could have captured it had it only moved 1 square, the enemy is still able to capture.

This move is called ‘en passant’ and can only be used on the very next move after the pawn is advanced 2 spaces - if you do not capture then, you cannot do it at a later move.

Here’s an example - BLACK has a pawn at d4; WHITE moves his e2-pawn to e4; had WHITE moved to e3m the BLACK d4 pawn would have been able to capture so now he can capture en-passant on his next move. But if BLACK decides to make another move instead, he gives up his right to capture.

Castling

The King can make a special chess move called ‘castling’ and it is, in fact, recommended that you do this during the opening phase of the game. This is a defensive move which increase thesafety of the King. Castling has two forms - ’short’ and ‘long’. Here’s how it works:

Say the white King is on e1 with the white Rook on h1 (this is the initial setup at the start of the game). You can make the move called short castling by moving the King to g1 and the Rook to f1. This move does have some restrictions - the squares in between the Rook and King must be empty, neither the Kind or Rook can have been moved before and the King cannot be in check. Note that even though you move two pieces, this is considered to be one move.

Long castling has the same rules and is a similar move but uses the Rook on the a file instead. In this scenario, the King ends on c1 and the Rook ends on d1.

Promotion

You might think the pawns are not very useful but if you can get your pawn to the other side of the board he can be promoted. This means the you can replace the pawn with any same colored piece you want with the exception of a king or pawn. Needless to say most people choose to replace the pawn with a queen.

There are some other situations in chess that novice players might not be aware of. For instance, a game can very easily end in a draw. This can happen when neither side has enough material to checkmate the opponent. This would happen if one player had a Bishop and King while another had only a King - no matter how many times you try you cannot get the opponent into checkmate so the game ends in a draw.

The chess game might also end in a draw if you have to repeat the same move 3 times as their are no other choices, if no advance or pawn capture has happened in the last 50 moves or stalemate. Stalemate can happen when a player who is not in check has no valid moves. If a player can continuously checkmate another player any time he wishes then he can claim a draw by “continuous check”.