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Posted on 06/19/2006 8:46:45 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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!
Well, we're going to hit the couch here... good night!
Finally suppose to clear up today, after 2 days of rain. There is still so much to do outside and time is going to run out. I bought lime and seed for the pasture, so as soon as we cut a place in the fence and make a gate, I will get the tractor out there and drag it a little before seeding.
Frog, very nice pictures. Colorado is an awesome place. So Beautiful!
Morning. our AC is out. We had a miserable night. Can you believe I can't wait to get to work today? Do you find that you are rushed? I only work 2 days a week now but it seems like my list grows on it's own and I am busier than ever:')
"our AC is out."
55* here this morning, AC not been on for a week. Fall is here already.
We usually start cooling off around halloween.
It is usually hot here during September, not cool like it is now. Must be Algore's global warming.
Did you check into the Mitsubishi AC unit?
Pat Parelli seems to have a soft spot in his heart for the handicapped. This is the 2nd paraplegic (that I know of) that he's mentored. The first was the German girl with the big black Fresian. I've also seen him helping a girl with MS on another of his shows on RFDTV. Also at the conference was a young Aussie man whose hip sockets were eaten away at a very young age by rheumatic fever but he started working with horses and working his way through Pat's program anyway, despite being in terrible pain. But he had finally gotten his hips replaced and was working under Pat's direction on starting a young colt with his first ride. He still had a pretty pronounced limp but seemed to be doing just fine. And now that I think of it, one of the twin sisters that were working with the draft team and the minis had had a stroke while working at another farm and he had heard about them and offered them both jobs at his place. And these are just the ones I know about. I'm sure there's more. I'm sure that soft spot comes from the fact that his own son Caton is handicapped. I'm not exactly sure what happened to him but he doesn't have a whole lot of use of one side of his body, but he goes with Pat on all his tours and rides with he and Linda in the show sometimes (Linda is not his mother). I didn't see him at the conference this time though so I don't know where he was.
The entrance to the park. I'm on the left.
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A nice view about half way up to the parking lot. It kinda reminded me of the opening scenes from Bonanza. And yes I'm showing my age by remembering that! ;o)
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The view from The Great Kiva at the top of the mountain. This was a ceremonial center for the Anasazi indians. If you look right on the horizon, in the cut between those two mountains, you can see a mesa that is 60 miles away, in New Mexico. Our guide told us that they used signal fires between Chimney Rock and that mesa and then from that mesa to another one that was 40 miles further still, where the main part of the tribe lived. Only the priests and their followers lived on Chimney Rock.
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Chimney Rock on the left and Companion Rock on the right. They were used as celestial observatories to mark the position of the summer solstice. The sun rises between them on that day. They look pretty close in this picture, but they are probably nearly a mile away from where I'm standing. If you look back to the picture of the park entrance sign, Chimney Rock is the spire on the left and Companion Rock is the one on the right and where I'm standing in this picture is near that little black dot, which is the observation tower you can see in this picture, between those two branches on top of the peak to the far left of them both.
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The hike back down was almost as bad as the hike up there because of all the loose rock. If you weren't careful, you could go rolling off the side of a cliff, and there were no guardrails.
Remarkable! :~)
ALL: I uploaded Frog's movies from the Parelli Clinic last night, they are on this page:
Here's Frog's captions for each one... if you watch them in order, they should be in order...
2. I thought I’d send you a few of the videos I took at the conference. The resolution on my little digital camera that takes video clips is awful, but it gives you an idea anyways. This particular video shows Pat working with two mares online while riding Magic. The more dappled of the two mares is the one that the paraplegic girl is riding in the pictures I posted. I’ve got some video of her too that I’ll send later. The impressive thing about this video isn’t necessarily the horses on the line, although they do extremely well given the amount of barely controlled chaos that they’re working in, but the horse that Pat’s riding. He’s controlling her without reins, since both his hands are occupied with the lines.
3. Here’s the same two mares working at liberty with Pat mounted on Magic. Pretty cool stuff. He’s got two really long whips that he was directing them with that were so cool. They were telescoping and were about 10 or 12 feet long when extended but collapsed down to about a foot or so when not in use. They had little white plastic flags on the ends of them too so the horses could see the flags but maybe not the pole. I’d like to have one of those…
4. This is a continuation of #2. In this one he’s making one of the mares take big steps like she’s doing the Spanish Walk, but I think she’s really just seeing the little flag thing darting around her feet and is stomping at that. It’s funny though.
5. This one is of the paraplegic girl working her horse at liberty before mounting.
6. This one is of the paraplegic girl mounting up and riding off at first.
7. Continuation of 6.
8. Continuation of #6. She’s at the trot some in this one. Her seat looks really good to me. She’s bouncing some, but I’ve seen regular dressage riders bounce worse.
There was one more, but it ended up too big to send, and she kept getting errors. Bummer, that.
Well, the hike to the peaks themselves probably wasn't even a mile from the parking lot, and the majority of the group were people in their 60's, so I can't take any great credit for that. It was pretty steep and rocky in places though, and the altitued had this ol' outta shape couch potato huffing and puffing like the Little Engine that Couldn't. But I couldn't let the old folks show me up now could I. There was this one little old lady from Denver who had no problem at all with the altitude because where she was from was higher than where we were then, which I think was somewhere in the vicinity of 7700 feet. She had a cool little collapsable walking cane and kept up with the guide pretty good on the way up. She did have trouble going back down though because her balance wasn't the best and her cane kept slipping in the rocks, so on the way down my friend Elizabeth got on the downhill side of her and held her arm and I got on the uphill side and was ready to grab her by the backpack if she started to fall. If I had slipped though, we would have all gone rolling down the mountain like a ball. It was kinda funny, but we made it and I really enjoyed it.
I ended up in a quandry about the apple trees. I picked up all the apples from around this one:
Which nearly filled my cart, much to the interest of the horses...
Who got a few ;~)
But the other tree is still loaded with them, and they aren't ready to drop yet, even when I shake the tree.
So I don't feel comfortable putting the horses out there yet. That temp fence in the first picture would keep them out if there was no temptation, we put that there when Becky was coming to keep Mia out of there. But the fence isn't working real well right now, we discovered that last weekend. We need to re-work the power supply or the grounds, or something. I don't trust them to not blow through a mere two strands of tape... The pony is not fazed by fences that are just for show :~\
So I guess I have to wait till those apples drop and I can rake them up. Too bad, I'd really like to get them off the pasture... they're just pounding it to dust, till we get some rain.
I want to get both those trees out of there by next year.
Wow, that's a lot of apples and a bellyache in the making for sure! That's a pain about the fence too. If it was working then you would have it made. Maybe you can get that fixed soon. That Pony sure does have an interesting face!
Fixing the power situation to the fence is on the short list for things to do this weekend. They aren't showing any sign of pushing the permanent fences. But I don't like fences that are just for show. It needs fixed!
Good afternoon.
I had a minor emergency this morning. I was just sitting here drinking coffee, and reading, and wham. I got something in my eye, and a few hours later, I was in the emergency room. They couldn't find anything, but my eye is all scratched up and the top layer of the cornea is peeled off....not a serious thing, just painful. I'm back now waiting for the pain meds to kick in, and then it will be on the couch for the day for me.
This is the same eye that had the posion ivy around it....I wonder if that had anything to do with this. I did not want to get into that with the emergency room...but I am wondering.
Becky
Aw geeeze!
You didn't see anything fly in there... just whammo? Hope it feels better with some meds and couch time. Did they tape it shut or anything to rest it so you aren't blinking all the time? My Zulu dog got her eye scratched by a cat, and they sewed it shut and she had to wear an Elizabethan collar.
Ouch! That kinda thing hurts. Back when I used to wear hard contacts, I fell asleep in them one night and when I woke up in the morning and took them out I felt like somebody'd poured acid in my eyes. I had to go to the emergency room too and they said the same thing, that my cornea was all torn up, so they put pain killing ointment in both eyes and put patches over them both to keep me from blinking and keeping them roughed up. I about went crazy, but they healed pretty quick and the patches could come off after about 24 hours. So hopefully yours will heal up pretty quick too. I know it's a pain to be out of commission like that. That's really strange that it happened so suddenly like that and you didn't see what it was. I'll bet it was a bug or something. Did you rub your eye or anything when it happened?
Man, I'm sorry. Hope the eye heals quickly.
Those glue ons look like a messy process! What do you think after it was done? What are the issues and tweaks?
Tuffy looks like he's waiting very patiently. I'll be interested to hear how those shoes do for him. Thanks for the update!
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