The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread NINE

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
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread EIGHT

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

[tuffydoodle]

Look what I found in my forest this morning, Mr. Coyote. He wasn't afraid, either. Since the cougar sighting, I'm carrying my camera when I drive in and out of the property. One pic is with the window up and one is with the window down.

[HairOfTheDog]

I'd YELL at him :~)

[tuffydoodle]

On a bigger pic, he looks like he has a raging case of mange.

[ShakeNJake]

Actually, I WANT him before those early life experiences happened. I'd like to be the one to raise and break him. He is a very sensitive and gentle soul. His early upbringing and the person who rode him was, shall we say to be tactful, NOT very tactful and was a forceful, poorly educated rider. It took me 2 years after buying him to get him to actually touch the bit. He had been made afraid to touch it by bad hands and poor riding/training.

If I had been the one to start him, we could have gone so much farther together. He would have been a Grand Prix dressage horse long before now. He'll never get there because we started too late.

Jake is like Bay in his heart. He will give you everything he has. There is no quit in him. He would make an awesome CTR horse.

[HairOfTheDog]

I was gonna say, "he doesn't have any hair!" Looks like a Weimeraner. - Or the pics I've seen of mangy coyotes... remember that "mystery animal" that circulated around the internet? I think that ended up being a coyote with mange.

Mine have more hair:

[tuffydoodle]

that looks like a small wolf!

They do have more hair around here in winter. It's supposed to be 102 today.

[HairOfTheDog]

It'll be interesting to see, and I do think we'll see it... It will settle the "nature or nurture" questions of what has the most impact on personality.

For now, we just appreciate them, and mourn them greatly when they go. Is Jake 19? I hope you have a lot of years. I don't know, but I fear I will mourn Bay sooner than later. He's 24. He's not ready to go this year... but...

[HairOfTheDog]

They do look like small wolves... gorgeous, really. and probably... hmmmm.... 30-40 pounds max.

My dad shot some once... on a coyote control hunt in AZ... He said their coats were just gorgeous. At a distance, it blurs to gray, up close, it's a bunch of colors, white, black, red..

[BladeRider]

I thought about that with my Bay. He's got the best heart of any horse I've known. Would I take another one just like him? you bet. I fear though, that people who do clone beloved pets (and we know they will, one day) will be disappointed when they aren't the same. There's such a myriad of factors that make a personality... Would Bay be Bay without all the unknown events he had for the first ten years of his life before we knew him? Would he be the same if he hadn't gone through the hands of the backyard guy, Bob, the endurance racer, my landlord, and then to me?

There was a made for TV movie about a family that lost their 6 year old son when he was hit by a car. They had him cloned and he was the same until he hit the age of 6, then he got weird, started having memories that were not his, started behaving evil. It was a pretty good movie. You are right, without the same life experiences would they be the same? Would I make the same choices? Destiny and fate can change in an instant.

[HairOfTheDog]

Heh - sounds like the unintended consequences there might be!

[HairOfTheDog]

Mowing report...

I opened up the ungrazed part of the pasture last night, blocked off the part they've been on, and put them out there this morning after breakfast. You can see the patch on the right that I've mowed already, going to finish that up today. Mostly mowing the weeds they wouldn't eat (mostly that red topped stuff) and cleaning it up. I think if we get some rain this week, it'll come back up one more time before it dries up for the summer.

I worry about them on grass, but I fed them hay first, so they're hopefully somewhat full and not gorging themselves. It'd be nice to be able to trust and not feed them hay when there's that much forage, but I still worry, and like to feed them hay just make them eat something bland compared to the grass. I will probably leave them out there for the day, then close them out at night with a hay dinner. We did switch them to dry COB mixed with just a little senior feed (2:1) instead of the sweet 12% grain, and I'm only feeding a little of that so I can get Bay's meds in him. Guesswork... Live and learn...

In the biggest leap toward efficiency I've had since I moved in here, I've now got an aisle on the ~outside~ of the fence clean enough that I can run the mower out there and keep the scotch broom and tall grass off the fence.

In past years, I had to do all that with the weedwacker, and it'd take me all day to do one fenceline and it didn't look as nice when I was done. Now I can do the whole perimeter in fifteen minutes. :~D

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

It's really looking good:). I still haven't gotten any gas to finish up my mowing and I need too. Probably be next week, then I hope to get in a routine of riding, mowing, housework:)

You know your horses, of course better then anyone, but:), I've been puzzled by your fear of letting your horses eat grass. Your horses aren't obese, your on a pretty small acreage???, and even tho you have nice grass, it doesn't appear to be "lush". Horses around here are kept on huge pastures of really really lush bermuda, and do fine. Do you know something I don't:)?

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

I fear founder. I don't know if there's enough out there to founder them or not. You're right, it's not nice cultivated lush pasture, it's a mixture of whatever wild grass and weeds are out there. Heh... and to be particularly schizophrenic, earlier I was talking about fertilizing it because it wasn't growing enough. (It did grow though, once it warmed up)

But horses founder here all the time in the spring. Bob's pony foundered on 2 acres that was not as lush as mine.
Right now I wouldn't want it any more fertile.

Maybe it's the varieties of grass we have. Horses didn't run wild in this area. Maybe it's the weather. I see horses grazing on hundreds of acres of really green grass elsewhere, like where you are, or elsewhere in the plains area, and I scratch my head, because Mark tells me Bay's feet are too warm and a bit sensitive last time he was here, and I'd better limit his grass.


Oh dang... the rain came too soon.... Hard shower just started. Guess I won't be mowing today.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well.... that shower didn't last long... maybe there's still hope ;~)

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Well, ponies are very very prone to founder. I don't think that would be a good standard to judge by:)

How much feed to you give. Since grass is a more natural food for a horse, I'd cut the feed. That's what we do with the horses down on our pasture. They just don't get feed in the summer. But it could be your types of grass. I don't know. I was just curious.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

I measure with a small 1 pound coffee can, and right now the horses are only getting 1 not-quite-full can of dry COB mixed with a little Senior feed mixed in morning and night, about 1/2 can or less for the pony. I feed about twice that in winter, and usually bump it up to all Senior blend. And hay - the current hay is a first cutting Orchard grass that looks like it's got some Timothy in it.

It's really only for Bay that I'm giving grain at all, he needs to have a little to mix his meds and joint supplement into. Any less, and it'd be all meds and he won't eat it :~D

I give some to the others just to keep them away from Bay's. Cyn can use it, I don't worry about her, the pony's not getting much.

The pony is probably the most prone, I've always sortof considered her to be my canary in the mine that would founder first.

But Mark tells me that at Bay's age, he's probably the most vulnerable. Pony's nice and lean, shouldn't be at added risk.

[HairOfTheDog]

I do want to share a story about your horse this morning. I walked out there with the fly masks, intending to put their fly masks on and turn them out.

Well, your horse-who-doesn't-like-to-be-caught evades me, won't let me put her fly mask on. So I put Bay's on and turned him out.... Off he trots to pasture :~D. The pony walks right up to me at the gate, put her fly mask on and turned her out, off she trots.... Cyn walks up, but pins her ears and spins off when I try to put the fly mask on. I start to walk back inside, and she's furious that she's left in the paddock. I walked back to the gate still holding her fly mask. I said "you cooperate, you get turned out... you don't, you can just watch them graze all day~"

She did decide to be caught :~D

Cyn's funny in a bitchy kind of way... I don't like horses that can't be caught. Ticks me off :~D But she's funny in that if you don't have a halter in your hand (or a fly mask that looks like one) you can't get rid of her, she's right on top of us following us around. It's not us she doesn't like, it's work :~)

[HairOfTheDog]

Went out and mowed through a tank of gas... didn't get done, still another couple hours worth to do. I might do more later, but I've gotten some good exercise, and I've been doing so well with my feet I don't want to push it ~too~ much.

When I sat down on the ground to have some water and a break, Cyn came over to see me.

And offered this:

Two feet from where I'm sitting! You can't see her eyes, but yes, she's smirking. I love you too, sunshine :~)

[HairOfTheDog]

As you can see in the pic above where Cyn's smirking... the horses all apparently got a fill of grass and are now just standing and dozing... so I'm not so worried that they'll get too much, as I would be if they stayed out there never picking their heads up.

[BladeRider]

As you can see in the pic above where Cyn's smirking...

Payback for putting that fly mask on her!