The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread TEN

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
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread NINE

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

[BladeRider]

(she's a Lab, not a Border Collie),

Agility people call Mia a Border Setter cause she is so fast.

[AnAmericanMother]

Wow . . . you're very busy!

I'm spoiled, really, living in the Atlanta metro has some serious disadvantages (mostly the traffic and the way everything is spread out and the traffic . . . and the traffic . . . ) but there's just about everything here you could need from a dog point of view.

We have not one but TWO hunting retriever clubs (one UKC and one AKC) and three different agility clubs. I can't count the obedience and breed clubs. There are trials every weekend in obedience and agility if you wanted to do nothing but that all year round. Fewer hunt tests, but each of the clubs has a spring and a fall test every year, and there are plenty of other hunt tests relatively nearby (within 2-3 hours driving time). I don't do conformation (they would laugh at my little skinny long-muzzled girl) but if I did there are clubs all over.

[AnAmericanMother]

She is washing out a little on top from the sun right about now, but not much. As soon as fall starts, she'll darken right up again.

She gets Avo-Derm kibble and their coat supplement, she had a problem with a little dander in her fur as a puppy, and the food agrees with her so well we have never taken her off it. I guess it's the avocado meal and fish oil in the food that makes her coat so glossy, and after we started feeding it she got a little wave in her coat along the spine. Very crisp abundant coat, and she doesn't shed much at all (just blows her undercoat in April.)

[AnAmericanMother]

Border Setter! That's good!

My Lab hangs out so much with the BCs that she occasionally tries to herd things. Monkey see, monkey do.

[HairOfTheDog]

I've had it with that hay. All they do is stir it around and then go pick out in the pasture, and I know there's no nutrition out there. If I kept feeding it I'd have big deep piles of uneaten hay and horses with hips that stick out.

I'm going to stack what's left of it (18 bales) in the corners of the stalls and use it for bedding this winter and go get some edible hay today.

Got a trail ride tomorrow, they deserve a decent meal.

Tiff bought 700 bales of that stuff.

[Beaker]

That picture of Cyn is funny, yet terrifying all at the same time. :-)

Is it me or is she a contortionist too (taking lessons from pony maybe?) It looks like her head is all the way upside down but her neck is staying straight.

[HairOfTheDog]

Her head was the disturbing part. It looks like she broke her neck. I think she was about to roll and had started at the head :~) She rolled before getting up anyhow.

[Beaker]

Where can you find the mat with the water absorbing crystals? My lab/border collie is dying in this weather.

[AnAmericanMother]

OMG! That picture of Cyn is incredible! Bay and Pony look like a couple of rubberneckers at an accident scene.

She must be digging a scritchy place on her ears into the ground, with her head turned around like that.

[Beaker]

We had a baby coon get into our basement and up into our pantry. (Pantry is right at the top of the basement steps.) He was adorable, but he made the biggest mess! He tried sticking around for a while, but he was around one day when when my dog was lose, and got chased up a tree. Never came back after that.

[HairOfTheDog]

All that's missing is the yellow tape and the chalk line :~)

[FrogInABlender]

Speaking of picking at the pasture, I took a picture of Tennessee in his grazing muzzle. This was the first day I turned him out in it and the other's didn't quite know what to make of it. Everybody gathered around him like "What's with the Hanibal Lechter mask?!" and Ellie was making baby faces at him, but then she always does. So does Bob and he's 3 yrs old. The old guy's still got presence, even if he can't bite them anymore...

It took him a while to figure out that he couldn't graze with it on. He kept on nosing around on the ground trying to get a bite. I feel sorry sorry for him but at least he can get out and socialize and move around with the others even if he can't eat.

Tuffy, have you put Tuffy in one of these yet?

[AnAmericanMother]

I bought it at Dogs Afield -- the co-owners are members of our hunting retriever club, so I try to send them business whenever I can. One of our most avid members has Goldens, and she has several of these mats and highly recommends them. She just throws them in a cooler full of ice water when she starts off in the morning, and pulls them out when we get to the training site.

Dogs Afield - Crate Cool Down Mat

[HairOfTheDog]

Oh dear... I feel sorry for the guy too... Maybe the other horses were trying to see if they could "hey - get this thing offa me"

[AnAmericanMother]

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't think hers would be that big, or that graceful :~)

Well, I'm off to buck hay.

[AnAmericanMother]

Even my Lab is feeling the heat. When we got home last night she went straight to the study and lay down next to the air conditioning floor vent.

Husband walked in and said, "See we have our Lab floor rug back." She really was as flat as she could make herself.

And she was SO upset at having to sleep in a crate in a hotel room, instead of on the foot of the bed, that last night as soon as it was bed time she ran ahead of us, leaped up on the bed, puppy-bowed, and then flipped over on her back with a winning smile and thumping tail . . ."You WILL let me sleep on the bed tonight, WON'T you?"

[AnAmericanMother]

The only disadvantage I can see to the crystal-containing crate mat is that the surface will be somewhat wet, at least to start out with. So you couldn't use it on a wooden floor or a carpet. The blue one isn't as cool, but it's not damp.

[Beaker]

You WILL let me sleep on the bed tonight, WON'T you?"
Awww.. I hate it when they do that. It makes it so hard to resist them. Because my dog has a thick black coat we have strict rules about not letting him on the furniture. (Plus he has the tendency to sleep ON you, and will roast you to death, summer or winter. But he's very coy about being on the furniture, and tries to get up without you noticing. First he puts his head on the seat. Then waits. Then sneaks a paw up. Then waits. Then sneaks up another paw and waits. Then he wiggles himself up there, and slowly brings the rest of his back end up. Then he lays flat with his ears back and gives you the "Please don't make me move" look.

[AnAmericanMother]

I'm afraid ours gets up on the furniture whenever she wants . . . at least, she has a sofa and an armchair that are "hers" in the study/computer room - she stays off the living room furniture.

She only sleeps on the foot of the bed, and if we move around too much, she decamps and sleeps on her doggy bed at the foot of the bed. It was the principle of the thing last night -- being miffed at having to sleep in a crate.