Mark Kolbe / Getty Images
A horse is washed down with a hose during preparations for the Sydney Royal Easter Show on April 4, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. The annual event is Australia's largest, attracting around 900,000 visitors over the duration of the two week agricultural show.
Paul Miller / EPA
A duckling slips down a slide in its enclosure at the Royal Easter Show.
Mark Kolbe / Getty Images
A ram has its wool trimmed in preparation for the Royal Easter Show at the Sydney Showground.
Andres Stapff / Reuters
A gaucho rides an untamed horse during the Patria Gaucha Festival in Tacuarembo, Uruguay, on March 8, 2012.
Andres Stapff / Reuters
A gaucho is thrown off an untamed horse.
Andres Stapff / Reuters
People carry a gaucho out of the field after he was thrown off by an untamed horse.
The Fiesta de la Patria Gaucha is held each year in the Uruguayan town of Tacuarembo to celebrate the preservation of the country's rural traditions.
Gerry Broome / AP
Megan Chance and her son Alex visit with Burma. left, and Lulu in Washington, N.C., Jan. 31. Megan rode Burma as a child in New Jersey and planned to bring her to North Carolina where she was starting a new stables. But, after leaving her on a year breeding contract, Burma vanished. For years Megan searched in vain, eventually deciding her horse must be dead. Last summer, Burma was rescued from the "kill pen" at a New Jersey auction and test facility and the two were recently reunited.
Gerry Broome / AP
An old portrait of a young Burma is shown in the home of Megan Chance.
The mare was tall and spirited and a joy to behold, galloping across the pasture with her head high. Everyone thought Burma was a beauty — no one more than Megan Chance. For six years, she and the thoroughbred she received at 16 were inseparable. But after college, Chance needed to board her beloved horse while she went away for a few months. That proved a turning point in Burma's life, which then followed a twisting path from a breeder's barn to an equine medical lab and even to the "kill pen" at a horse auction, from which a Connecticut rescuer spared her just in time, then posted her picture online. "Oh my God, she's alive," exclaimed Chance when a friend sent her the photo. Last month, after years apart, they were reunited in North Carolina. And now, said Chance: "I intend to spoil her and love her and pamper her and watch her grow old."
-- Reported by the Associated Press
Related content: Animal Tracks
Gerry Broome / AP
Megan Chance rides Burma for the first time since the two were reunited, Jan. 31.
Daniel Zupanc / AFP - Getty Images
Fu Hu, a panda born at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo plays in the snow in his enclosure on Jan. 17.
Robin Loznak for msnbc.com
An American robin leaps from a snowy fence post along a pasture on a farm near Oakland, Ore., on Jan. 16.
Dean Lewins / EPA
Adelie penguins making their way towards the fast ice near Mawson's Hut in Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica, on Jan. 15.
Robin Loznak for msnbc.com
A sheep on a hillside in rural Douglas County near Elkton, Ore., on Jan. 15.
Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images
Gulls sit on a partially frozen lake in in Berlin on Jan.15.
Jim Schulz / AP
A pair of Mexican gray wolves enjoy the snow around their outdoor habitat at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago on Jan. 12.
Darren Staples / Reuters
Horses rear on a frosted field in England on Jan. 16.
Jim Schulz / AP
Sarani, a 1 year old female snow leopard, enjoys the snow around her outdoor habitat at the Brookfield Zoo, in Chicago on Jan. 12.
Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
Khan, a 2 year old male rare Bengali white tiger, licks snow inside an open-air cage at the Royev Ruchey zoo in Russia on Jan. 11.
Pedro Armestre / AFP - Getty Images
A horseman jumps over a bonfire in the central Spanish village of San Bartolome de Pinares to open the celebrations for the feast of Saint Anthony, patron saint of animals, on Monday Jan. 16, 2012.
Daniel Ochoa De Olza / AP
A man rides a horse through a bonfire in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012.
On the eve of Saint Anthony's Day, hundreds ride their horses trough the narrow cobblestone streets of the small village of San Bartolome during the "Luminarias," a tradition that dates back 500 years and is meant to purify the animals with the smoke of the bonfires and protect them for the year to come.
Paulo Santos / Reuters
Riders try to thread a wooden needle through a ring during a horse riding competition as part of the festivities known as the Marujada in celebration of St. Benedict, who is also known as the "black saint", in Braganca, Brazil, Dec. 25. The Marujada began in the 18th century when a group of black slaves were allowed by their owners to form the Fraternity of St. Benedict, and decided to dance through the streets as an expression of their gratitude.
Julie Jacobson / AP
Will Lowe, of Canyon, Texas, rides in the bareback competition for a score of 82.5 and fourth place in the event during the eighth go-round of the National Finals Rodeo, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011, in Las Vegas.
Julie Jacobson / AP
Matt Bright, of Azle, Ariz., is thrown from his horse during the bareback riding event in the eighth go-round of the National Finals Rodeo on Dec. 8 in Las Vegas.
Julie Jacobson / AP
Bullfighters try to lure the bull away from J.W. Harris of Mullin, Texas as he rolls underneath after riding for the required eight seconds in the eighth go-round of the National Finals Rodeo, on Dec. 8 in Las Vegas. Harris took first place in the bull riding event.
Get the complete results of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
Reuters reports from SAN ANTONIO:
The yearlong Texas drought is taking a heartbreaking toll on horses and donkeys, thousands of which have been abandoned by owners who can no longer afford the skyrocketing price of the hay needed to feed them.
Debbie Fincher / Safe Haven Equine Rescue via Reuters
An abandoned, malnourished horse is seen at the Safe Haven Equine Rescue in Gilmer, Texas, in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters on Dec. 3, 2011.
"We get 20 to 40 calls a week that horses are alongside the road and left; nobody's claimed them," Richard Fincher of Safe Haven Equine Rescue in Gilmer, in east Texas, told Reuters. "Sheriffs are calling us all the time."
Before this year, he would get more like three or four calls a week, he said.
The problem, according to Dennis Sigler, a horse specialist at Texas A&M University, is that the drought has dried up the hay fields, leaving horse owners having to pay double or triple the prices they are used to paying for hay, if they can find hay at all.
Horse abandonment is a crime, and state law requires abandoned horses to be held by the local sheriff's department for 18 days, Fincher said. After that, most are sold at a sale barn for whatever prices they can bring.
"People just can't afford to feed horses anymore," Fincher said. "They're too busy trying to feed themselves." Read the full story.
Related content:
Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters
A cavalryman of the British historical re-enactment team of the 17th Lancers reacts as his horse gets too close to spectators during the Fort Rinella Military Festival at Fort Rinella coastal battery in Kalkara Malta, Oct. 23. Fort Rinella was built by the British Royal Engineers in 1878 as part of a set of four equally designed coastal batteries in Gibraltar and Malta. Each fort was armed with a single 100-ton gun, none of which were ever fired in anger.
I'm not sure who looks more surprised.
David Goldman / AP
A horse and the wreckage of a car stand beside a cornfield in the village of Asmar, Kunar province, Afghanistan, on Sept. 5.
See more images of Afghanistan in our slideshow, Nation at a crossroads.
Brad Vest / The Virginian-Pilot via AP
A herd of ponies makes their way towards the shore during the Chincoteague Wild Pony Swim on Wednesday, July 27. The ponies swim from Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge to Chincoteague Island, Virginia to be sold at auction to benefit the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company.
Brad Vest / The Virginian-Pilot via AP
The herd of ponies rest and eat in a small pasture after reaching the shore of Chincoteague Island.
Jay Diem / Salisbury Daily Times via AP
Mason, the grandson of Saltwater Cowboy Walter Marks, pets Moe at the landing site before the 86th annual Chincoteague Wild Pony Swim on July 27.
Paul M. Walsh / The Country Today via AP
Cowboy Jared Keylon, of Uniontown, Kan., hangs onto his horse during the bareback riding competition, at the Spooner Rodeo, in Spooner Wis., on July 7.
This looks slippery. You can see more action shots in our weekly roundup of sports images here.
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