  We provide a combinatorial condition characterizing curves that are short
along a Teichmueller geodesic. This condition is closely related to the
condition provided by Minsky for curves in a hyperbolic 3-manifold to be short.
We show that short curves in a hyperbolic manifold homeomorphic to S x R are
also short in the corresponding Teichmueller geodesic, and we provide examples
demonstrating that the converse is not true.
