The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread!

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

Well, it's starting to get cool at night, we turned on the heat last night for the first time, but it has also just hit us that we need to do some projects before winter. We have fencing maintenance issues, sections that need replaced, and for whatever reason, the power on the electric fence is not getting to the end of the line. It needs to be re-worked. We have another month of good weather, and we think we better get on some of those projects.

5,441 posted on 09/14/2006 7:09:49 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog (Head On. Apply directly to the forehead!)

To: HairOfTheDog

Yeah, I have some of those projects to do too:\

Becky

5,442 posted on 09/14/2006 7:11:29 AM PDT by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

To: HairOfTheDog

Thought I'd show you a picture of the cut Rocky had in front of his ear. I have to admit to neglectful horsemanship, because to be honest we never got it doctored. When it was fresh Mack and I could just not get together and it was a two man job. It was healing so nice on it's own, I quit worrying about it. That's the main reason I'm showing this picture, how well they can/will heal on their own. I'm not advocating such neglect:), mind you, it should have been doctored, but I'm impressed how nicely it has healed on it's own in a relatively short time. Makes you wonder how much our help really helps:)

I'd say by next week I can put his collar back on, and turn him out.

Becky

5,443 posted on 09/14/2006 7:39:34 AM PDT by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

Are you talking about the Equine Fresh

Yes, I just checked the bags. Thanks for the input. A load of sawdust cost us $50 last time. We will go through that pretty fast now. I like shavings, depending on the size. It just seems like you throw too much good stuff out. A little harder to pick out then the sawdust.

5,444 posted on 09/14/2006 7:45:44 AM PDT by MissTargets (Get Better, Barbaro)

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

Hey Becky, congrats on the 1st place horse win at the CTR! That's absolutely awsome! You did a really super job getting him ready and it obviously payed off. That's a great pic of the both of you too. Harley's really got his radar on looking at that guy taking the picture.

5,445 posted on 09/14/2006 8:15:14 AM PDT by FrogInABlender (Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference.)

To: HairOfTheDog

Great pictures! Bay looks like a cuttin' horse in that first one. Cyn sure looks funny scratching herself in that 3rd one. She's obviously very flexible so Ecurbh better watch it if she ever decides to bow-up on him. ;o) The one of Bay and the Boogy-Bag was really funny too. I'll bet if you sneaked up behind him and goosed him he would've flipped over backwards.

5,446 posted on 09/14/2006 8:20:34 AM PDT by FrogInABlender (Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference.)

To: FrogInABlender; ecurbh

Cyn sure looks funny scratching herself in that 3rd one. She's obviously very flexible so Ecurbh better watch it if she ever decides to bow-up on him. ;o)

Doubly so, because while she's very flexible, she's also fairly clumsy. She got so intent on the scratchy itch she just about fell over when she tried to recover from it :~)

5,447 posted on 09/14/2006 8:26:21 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog (Head On. Apply directly to the forehead!)

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

Hey - that looks great, couldn't look any better!

True, some of the stuff we do really isn't necessary. And my old vet was a believer in that. Sometimes I'd have him out and he'd say, well, I could stitch that, or I could drain that, but it'll probably just clear up on it's own. I found it frustrating, because as long as he was there, I wanted him to do something! But he saved me money sometimes I know. Always good to have a vet that ~doesn't~ need the money.

5,448 posted on 09/14/2006 8:29:38 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog (Head On. Apply directly to the forehead!)

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

Wow Becky, that cut looks great. I'm glad it didn't turn out any worse than it did. The cut on Bob's knee is coming up on 1 year pretty soon and I'll have to post a before and after of it. It's pretty amazing how good it looks considering how bad it looked when it first happened.

5,449 posted on 09/14/2006 8:34:12 AM PDT by FrogInABlender (Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference.)

To: FrogInABlender

Oh yeah - I'd almost forgotten.... do post a pic.

5,450 posted on 09/14/2006 8:46:30 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog (Head On. Apply directly to the forehead!)

To: HairOfTheDog

I thought I'd post some pics of my trip to Colorado and the Parelli Conference. The conference was interesting and all, but I mostly went for the company and the scenery. I'd never been to that part of the country. I'm sure there were very few people there like me who weren't Parelli Club members and who weren't certified at some level or were at least working on one of their levels. It's pretty expensive so it's mostly only the most devoted that go there to his place. The only reason I went was because my friend Elizabeth is a Parelli Club member and got me discount earlybird tickets and even then they were $250. It is pretty impressive though what these people can do, but they must eat, sleep and breathe training with their horses and I just don't have the time for that at this point in my life.

The first day he came in riding his black mare Magic and driving these two big draft horses, a gelding and a mare named Thunder and Lightning. I'd never seen blue roan draft horses so of course I thought they were cool. He wasn't even touching Magic's reins, just guided her with legs and seat...

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After that, they went to work on training them to pull this sled. I was really impressed with the number of steps they broke it down into before they finally hitched them up. This is the final result, and even then they aren't really hitched to it. The girl in the picture has a rope in her hands that's hooked to the singletree and it has been dallied around the front bar of the sled and that's all that's holding it. If there was any sign of trouble, she could let go of the rope and they would just pull free of it. This picture shows Parelli getting Magic to put her front feet on the sled and walking along with it as it's moving. She is one more well trained mare I'll tell ya! Can you say "Closed Course. Professional Driver. Do Not Attempt this Yourself." ;o)

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There were some twin sisters who came out and did some really impressive liberty work. One of them worked with the Thunder and Lightning, the draft team, and the other worked with Barnum and Bailey, the two minis. They are SO cute!

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This is a picture of a paraplegic girl who's been training out there to try to make it to the olympics. This is one of Parelli's horses that he's going to let her use. The saddle is special made with a handle on the pommel and special thigh rolls and velcro straps to hold her legs to the fenders and her feet in the stirrups. They put her up there and got her set and she took off and you could absolutely not tell that she was any different than anybody else. She had such a good seat and posture. She had some special cues to get the horse to go or to change gates since she couldn't use her legs to do so. It was really neat and there was not many dry eyes in the place when she got done.

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Saturday night they fed us dinner and had a dance and here's a picture of it just getting started. There were 2500 people in attendance and this is just a fraction of them who were brave enough or drunk enough to get out there and dance. The band was really good though. We stayed for a while and watched and then went back to the room and crashed. We're pitiful old farts I think.

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Here's a view of the big covered arena where it was held. It's absolutely huge and is really cool the way it's built. If you've ever watched him on RFDTV, this is the building they show a lot. They were recording the whole thing so it should be aired some time soon and y'all may get to see me on there because as you can see, I was directly across from the camera the whole time. We even got to help make a Parelli/RFDTV Christmas commercial while we were there. It was so funny because Linda's horse Remmer kept freaking out when the crowd started singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". He was used to applause and crowd noise and stuff like that but I guess even the professionals can't prepare their horse for EVERY thing that might happen, especially mass SINGING. Pat's horse Magic never moved a muscle though. But he kept flubbing his lines so we got to laugh at him too.

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This is the view out the end of the arena. It was absolutly AWSOME!

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Here's a pic of our little group. That's Aleta on the left, then me, then Elizabeth and her husband Richard. We had a blast and they were really nice traveling companions.

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And here we are leaving the last day. It rained at least once every day and you could see it coming over those mountains, which are no telling how many miles away and are the same ones shown two pictures back, for 30 minutes or an hour before it got there. The mud was atrocious since everybody was parked in a field. They were having to push/pull cars out all the time. But it was fun and I'd go back, if only to sight see, in a heartbeat!

5,451 posted on 09/14/2006 9:34:01 AM PDT by FrogInABlender (Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference.)

To: FrogInABlender

Thanks Frog:)

LOL...he had his radar out most all of Sat.

Becky

5,452 posted on 09/14/2006 9:35:30 AM PDT by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

To: HairOfTheDog; FrogInABlender

Yes, it did heal nicely, despite my lack of care.

I do get very concerned when a cut like that is on a leg. Cuts on legs are so much more prone to being problems, proud flesh and all. Rocky has such a fat forehead, really meaty there, I think that makes a difference. Where the skin is thin I think healing is harder.

Becky

5,453 posted on 09/14/2006 9:38:11 AM PDT by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

To: FrogInABlender

Fantastic pictures:). Colorado is beautiful.

The conference sounds very interesting:) Especially the paraplegic girl. That is wonderful that she is able to do that. I'd bet she'll reach her goals.

Thanks for the pictures and report.

Becky

5,454 posted on 09/14/2006 9:42:52 AM PDT by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

To: FrogInABlender

Wow, cool! Thanks for the report and the pictures! Neat stuff! I didn't even know you were going to that! Did I not pay attention or did you not mention it?

I wish we got RFDTV, I've never seen any of the shows you guys get to see. Heard of Parelli, and Tiff was going to some lessons or 'games' or something from one of his followers, but I've never seen him work.

5,455 posted on 09/14/2006 9:43:12 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog (Head On. Apply directly to the forehead!)

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain

And blood supply.... heads at least have a healthy blood supply :~)

5,456 posted on 09/14/2006 9:44:13 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog (Head On. Apply directly to the forehead!)

To: HairOfTheDog

I mentioned going to Colorado and I think I may have mentioned the conference, but it was just in passing as I was getting ready to go. We flew out to Albuquerque on Thursday and drove 4 hours from there to Pagosa Springs, CO. The conference was Friday thru Sunday. On Monday we went to Chimney Rock and did the hiking tour of it. I got some awsome pictures of it too if you wanna see them. Then we went to Durango and had lunch and did some shopping until the stores closed. I'm definately going back there! There was so much I wanted to do that we didn't have time to do. My husband didn't go with us since he's not a horse person, but he'd like to do the other stuff so we may do that next year.

5,457 posted on 09/14/2006 9:50:50 AM PDT by FrogInABlender (Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference.)

To: HairOfTheDog

...Heard of Parelli ... but I've never seen him work.

You really need to if he ever brings his "Savy Tour" anywhere near you. The man is incredible and so is his wife Linda. They travel all over the country with their Savy Team giving demonstrations of "The Dream" and it's really awsome to watch. But, like I say, all that finesse and control only comes with lots of time and devotion. He's giving people the road map and the tools to do it, but they have to provide the blood, sweat and tears to get there and it ain't easy.

5,458 posted on 09/14/2006 9:56:04 AM PDT by FrogInABlender (Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference.)

To: FrogInABlender

Sure... we'd like to see pictures, you know that :~)

I'm about to head out and rake up all the fallen apples from the apple trees in the back forty so I can turn the horses out there. I'd like to give the pasture a break, it's just crusty and dusty now, but if we can spread the poop, get the rain we're supposed to get and let it rest a little, it might get a little bit of growth on it before winter.

Anyone have any tips for moving adult apple trees? There's two apple trees back there, and we want them out of there regardless. They aren't real big. We just thought that maybe rather than just cutting them down, we might cut them way back to bare minimum, pull them out of the ground with the truck along with whatever root we can get, and see if we can move them. Maybe they'll make it, probably they won't, but we'll give them a chance. They just can't be where the horses are. I end up not being able to use the back forty for most of the late summer.

5,459 posted on 09/14/2006 9:59:50 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog (Head On. Apply directly to the forehead!)

To: FrogInABlender

I'll keep an eye out if I ever hear of it coming.

5,460 posted on 09/14/2006 10:01:50 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog (Head On. Apply directly to the forehead!)

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