The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread EIGHT

See our "who's who" page! ^

[HairOfTheDog]

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - Who's Who *pics*

This is a horse chat thread where we 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. In the previous threads we have had a great time talking through lessons, training, horse lamenesses, illnesses and pregnancies... and always sharing pictures and stories.

I always have 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 also have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will now be pinging everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list. 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.

So... like the previous threads, this is intended as 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.

Previous threads:

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - thread ONE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread TWO!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread THREE!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FOUR
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SIX
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SEVEN

New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!

[FrogInABlender]

Since I'm home with the crud, I thought it'd be a prime opportunity to watch the LOTR trilogy I got for Christmas last year. It's not the extended version, coz it wasn't out at that time, but it's better than watching it on network TV. I'm almost through the FOTR and it's really cool. I read the books years ago, in high school, and was really hooked on them. It's amazing how they've been able to adapt the books to movie form and still retain most of the detail. Well, I'm back to it. Talk to ya later...

[Inge_CAV]

Not found the mansion pics yet but I did find some horsey pics from a few years ago.

[HairOfTheDog]

Glad you're enjoying them :~D

[FrogInABlender]

Hey cool! There's Babe and SweetPea on the left, Suzi the Percheron in the upper part, and the old black mare, I can't remember her name, in the middle. I can't tell, but the other two have to be the mama donkey and the mule.

[Inge_CAV]

And the cows lined up at the fence in the background. Green with envy about the fresh grazing that they did not get........... : )

[Inge_CAV]

Just came in from running errands. Going to rest awhile then look for the mansion pics again.

[Beaker]

I've seen little tiny women that are great horsemen.

I'm not a great horseman ;-) But that comment made me think of some tussles that I've gotten into. And around horses is the only place that I have any type of self confidence, just because I have to. I'm about 5' tall with my shoes on, and more than once I've had some big horses try to push me around. Usually it'll start out with them eyeing me thinking: "Can I?" My trainer, who is only an inch or two taller than I am, is fearsome when it comes to a horse that steps out of bounds with her. She's never physical, but they know they've done wrong :-)

[Beaker]

What area of science are you working on, and how old is your son?

[FrogInABlender]

I just finished the Fellowship of the Ring. Now I'm going to feed the hosses, then I'm loading up the Two Towers. It's cold and has been raining. Bad for feeding hosses, good for watching movies.

I can't get past the guy they picked to play Elrond. He was the main bad guy (can't remember what they were called) in The Matrix so he seemed a real strange choice to play an Elf Lord. And Pippin plays the heroin addict in LOST. Oh well, gotta go with it I guess. Later......

[HairOfTheDog]

I've never seen Lost, but many had a hard time not seeing Agent Smith in Elrond :~D

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Jenny and Blake have gone home, JP is napping and I'm catching up:) The weather has turned cold:). It was very nice till about 1:00. But it is suppose to warm back up on Wed.

Speaking of watching shows, what did you think of 24:). Did you see the threads that were talking about how some towns the local news cut in 10 minutes before the end. That would have really made me mad:)

Looking forward to tonight.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Yeah - saw that about cutting away... I'd have hated to be on the switchboard at the local station!

It was exciting, as usual! Looking forward to tonight too :~D

I'm about to head out to the barn to do some cleaning and re-organizing... gonna take the kittens with me. I can close them in with me while I putter. First time they've been outside. They really need it. They're tearing around here like monsters. :~D

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Oh that should be fun. Be sure to take the camera:).

Becky

[dandelion]

My son is seven, and he swears he is going to be a Weapons Systems Engineer in the Army. (He wants to build giant robots - yay!) That means we have to go heavy on the Math and Science - of course, he might just change his mind to Acting or something, but good ol' math and science never go to waste!

Since we did Earth Science last year, we continued on that same thread with studies about the greater universe; "Infinite Space" and "Stars and Planets" (DK Books) and a Galileo Telescope serve as the backbone for our curriculum. The telescope (our Christmas present) has a really nice "virtual planetarium" software program that came with it, and a "Mars Eye" finder that makes it easy to find your target. That (plus the Old Farmers Almanac") is our discipline for the year.

Since we're having a drought in the middle of winter, the night sky viewing has been superb!

What are you all working on?

[Beaker]

Nope math and science never go to waste at all! I'm happy to hear that you are putting so much emphasis on it. Robotics is fascinating. Seven is a great age to be fostering an interest in science. Keep at it. :-) It's sounds like you're doing a "stellar" (I had to use the pun) job with your astronomy unit. I'm really impressed.

What are you all working on?
I don't homeschool. In fact, I'm still in school. :-) I'm finishing up my last semester in chemistry/physics and what not. (It's really hard to say that without sounding like a really big snob.) I also work on our school's observing deck for public viewing nights. We cater to the general public and small groups like boy scouts and girl scouts and we've even had a homeschool group. We do planetarium shows too. If your son really gets into astronomy, you might want to look and see if there are any local astronomy clubs in your area (there must be) and see when and if they do star parties that are open to the public. If it's your cup of tea, you might even want to join. (Though astronomers can be a little weird)

Also have you ever tried lego's Mind Storm kits? They're a bit expensive, and probably not good to use until he's a little older, but they're a lot of fun. You basically build a robot out of legos.

[dandelion]

Hey, you're normal sized just like me :D I'm 5 ft tall too, but my inner height is somewhere around 6'4" or so.

I'm always shocked at how "short" I am when I see myself in a group photo. I didn't realize I was eye-to-eye with the colt until my husband mentioned it, and he thought it made ME feel more vulnerable subconciously. He's probably right. I look at someone from across the corral and you think "Oh, cute baby" then the little horse sidles up to me and I'm eye to eye...

Anyhow I really can't wear high heels in the round pen. I guess. Hmmmm...

Today was a really good day, though. First of all: IT RAINED. THANK GOD!! For the first time, I was able to give the colt a really good rub all over his face, neck, and back.

He was really freaking out at first because our wonderful resident wise old cowpoke (the owner of Ranger's daddy) came over to check him out and give me a few pointers about haltering the lil' fella. That, and the resident furry loudly meowing kitty decided to make her debute in the round pen. Poor colt was torn between his suspicion for wise old cowpokes and his curiousity about furry kitties, so he settled for coming over to me and getting a stress-relieving rub.

Ol' cowpoke is very gentle with his own horses, and he's known for his good hand with everyone's horses around here. He hung up the halter on the edge of the round pen and left it where the colt could smell it and see it. We're going to try to halter him this week, and then the fun can really begin...

Becky: you talked about haltering. I had wanted to put the halter on and leave it on so I could get him used to it. Do you think it's a bad idea just to leave it on so he can have the rope attached easily?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

No, don't ever leave a halter on a horse if you're not leading one. They can get those things hung up on stuff, fence posts, even their own back foot scratching their heads, and really hurt themselves.

Letting horses run with halters on is a big no no. .

Becky

[dandelion]

I wondered about it too, but one of the guys at the barn suggested it and I didn't know if it would be a problem if he was just in the round pen. The old cowpoke didn't say how long to leave it on, so I just assumed he'd take it off when he was finished.

I've even had people tell me to leave a rope on there and let him drag it around for a day or so, but that makes me REALLY nervous...

[ShakeNJake]

Micro had the BEST labs! I especially enjoyed the one where we picked a tube with 2 unknown organisms in it. Then, using the procedures we had learned, each of us had to process those organisms and identify each one. One was gram positive and one was gram negative so you knew what to do to separate the 2.

Now, that was a cool lab!

The hardest part for me was to remember all the scientific names for tests.

[CindyDawg]

Mositure too. We use metal trash cans but I lost a couple of bags I put in the trailer that got wet.