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Thread III: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1311311/posts |
Posted on 04/26/2004 12:06:41 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Free Republic has a lot of horse people that have found each other on other threads…. And since we all like to talk horses, how about a thread where it is not off-topic, but is THE topic?
A few of us thought it would be interesting and informative to have a chat thread where we can share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share. We may not ~always~ have a lot of activity, but when we do, it will be fun. I will put a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts… look for it there and wake the thread up!
I will also develop a ping list for horse threads that are of interest. As FreeRepublic is a political site, our politics and other issues will probably blend in…. There are many issues for horsemen that touch politics… land use, animal rights/abuse cases that make the news…. Legislation that might affect horse owners.
I am hoping this thread will be a fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends. There are lots of ways of doing things and we all have our quirks, tricks and specialties that are neat to learn about.
She was suppose to get them today.
I forgot to call, but I will tomorrow. I'd like to go see them. I think mules are cute.
Becky
Looking forward to your pictures:)
Becky
My most immediate concern was Tiffney's loose barbed wire fencing, and the odd trailers and piles of junk she has out in the area where the baby is. ~Shudder~ I hope that baby doesn't get caught up in it. She says she wants to fix it up, but she won't in time. The baby will either get into it in the next week, or she'll luck out.
Babies are so cute.
In the first picture she looks like her front legs might be a bit bowed???? or is just the way she is standing?
Becky
I don't think they do that very often, just for practical considerations... Better to have a smaller male and a bigger momma.
I love looking at the babies:'). When we went to look at the land my BIL wants us to go in with I saw a horse that got into some barbed wire. Shw was ripped open bad, poor thing. Is that the reason for the hot wire? Not to keep them from getting out so much but to keep them away from the barbs?
I don't believe in barbed wire at all for horses, but loose, sagging low barbed wire like she has is the worst, and especially for babies. They all test a fence at some point. It just tears up horses. Wire fences are only safe if they are electric and the horse won't touch them.
This 50 acres BW but not electric. They have cattle and horses together. At my stables there is wire but not barbed and then the electric wire at the top. Okie bumped it once. Poor thing. Now he stands way back and stretches his head to the feed buckets.
Well, Okie won't touch it again, which makes it the safest kind of fence.
I understand why people use barbed wire, especially on a large area, because it's cheap. And they can probably get away with it as long as there isn't something on the other side the horse wants more than on the side they are on.
The loosest worst fence at Tiff's is on the side facing the house, which is the one they are going to push when it is feeding time. She spends money and time on many things, nice house, nice new deck, nice new fish pond, but she needs to spend a couple hundred dollars on that section of fence. One vet bill would cost more than fixing it, and maybe ruin a horse. I don't get it!
Well, maybe she will now that you brought it to her attention. Y ou said she had only been doing this a couple of years? Sometimes we get so used to seeing things that we don't. To get ready for inspections and for PR we would bring someone in to our unit from the outside and just ask them to rport what they saw that needed fixing or sprucing. Sometime it was a surprise. Things you went by every day but never noticed.
I should have taken at least one picture that showed the section fence I am talking about. ~oh well~. It just worries me.
Maybe. I hope so. Babies just get themselves in trouble so fast.
LOL. She will probably not have a problem. But your or I who know better would have a major disaster if we tried to keep a baby in fence like that. I have a friend who lets her horses run loose in pastures with their halters on all the time. Never had one get hung up. I had a horses in the front yard grazing for about 10 minutes once with the halter. Didn't get hurt just broke it. I knew better. God protects the ignorant most of the time.
Heather coming today to ride. I'll talk to her mother about that "give away". I didn't get an English Saddle yet. Jenny's won't fit Harley. I forgot about that. Her cinch is too long, can't be pulled up enough. But I will take pictures today of our ride and her riding Harley in the arena.
Becky
Her legs look alot better in these pictures. I've seen two babies that had bowed legs at birth. One of them really bad and even after she grew up they stayed that way, but I think some of that was due to the fact that the people didn't take care of it consistently at the start.
The other one straightened out just fine. I learned that if a babies bow out like that it's because the tendon is to tight that runs down the back of their leg. Probably, because they were a bit crowded in mom. The best way to treat it is keep the baby in a very small area to where they can't run around alot. Keep them as still as possible so the tendon will relax. The more they run the tighter it gets.
That's what the people with the first baby didn't want to do. They liked see the baby run and play. The baby belonged to a young girl, and everyday she let it out to watch it, "just for a few hours:)".
I know it's hard to keep them confined because they are fun to watch, but after watching the two, I know how important it is to get it fixed while they are young. The second one the owners never let it out of like a 12 x 24 ft run till it had straightened. And it did in a few weeks.
I'm a worrier too, so you might tell Tiff to keep an eye on her legs. If they start to bow even just slightly, pen her up. If that tendon is tight it will show more and more if she is loose. If it's just slighly tight now, she won't have to penned for long.
We had a baby once that had too weak of pastern tendons. The treatment of that was just the opposite. Let 'em run. That tightens them up.
Becky
Did she get to see it be born? Had she heard about the thing babies have in their mouth at birth. I don't know what it's called, do you? I heard if you find that thing and throw it up on your barn roof you will have good luck with the baby. Have you heard this? I found Dot's and threw it up there, and so far she has turned out to be a wonderful horse. Might mention this to Tiff too, might help with the loose fence:)
Becky
She missed the birth.... She had a baby monitor hooked up so she could hear, but she missed it. Baby was up and dry when she came out in the morning.
Interesting about penning baby up if that leg really does have a bow in it. She is in at night now but out all day. I'll mention it to her!
I planted a red bud in my garden last year. I was told at the nursery it was a slow growing variety. I want a small ornamental type tree. Well this thing has just gone crazy. An yesterday we had a storm go thru with alot of high wind. And now it even looks worse. If it was out it would be OK, but in the garden it is looking a bit wild. I pruned it some this spring after flowering as good as I could understand from internet instructions. But it keeps growing out this long long branches that stick out. I want a more round, tight look. Before the storm yesterday the long branches at least stood up pretty straight, but now they are hanging all droopy. I was wondering if I could/should prune it again now, and how much, and how:), or do I need to leave it alone till next year.
Becky ... I just want to say ... your Redbud looks absolutely beautiful to me (as does the rest of your landscaping).
Did your Redbud bloom for you this spring ?
My experience, to date, with Redbuds has been pretty checkered.
I've had one (two years in the ground) just up and die on me just as it was starting to look good.
I've got another now (in the ground a year) and it's got a ways to go before it starts to look nice.
Anyway ... what I know about Redbuds (they're native here in Indiana) ... is that they are a relatively fast-growing, ... but, ultimately, small-sized tree.
Your Redbud looks typical of most of the trees I've seen ... with almost a "weeping" characteristic.
Redbuds are definitely not a "round, tight" type of tree. They are more open and irregular than anything.
You can definitely prune it (practically anytime) ... although you may end up doing a lot of pruning to keep it like you want.
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