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Posted on 01/02/2007 9:57:39 AM PST 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
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread TEN
New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!
I am going to try my hand at hunt test this fall. I have a friend in Barnesville that runs her dogs in the field and she starts training in September and invited me down. We have to do pointing tests not retriever tests.
She needs to bulk up a trifle to fit her rather massive head -- she's probably always going to be a rangy girl though. Her daddy is EXTREMELY leggy. What I can't get over is how far let down her hocks and knees are -- great length of forearm and stifle, almost no cannon bone by comparison. Shelley's upper and lower leg bones are much closer in length.
That’s right, y’all’s hunt tests are different! The Lab-Golden-Chessie crowd in UKC do a sort-of-pointing test called “Upland Hunter”, the dogs quarter and flush but don’t point, all they have to do is whoa before you shoot. I don’t think AKC does an upland test for retrievers.
I could not BELIEVE the JH test that we went to (our very first one, down in Sparta GA.) Both Saturday and Sunday had extremely difficult retrieving problems for junior dogs. This is probably speaking in tongues, but the first land mark on Saturday had the dogs driving up a STEEP hill about 75 yards and over an overgrown ditch, with the birds falling right in front of a tree line (uphill, ditches, and tree lines are all young dog stoppers - the dogs perceive them as a boundary and quit before they get there). The water test on Saturday required a channel swim for the first mark, then for the second required the dogs to swim all the way across the pond and then drive uphill about 20 yards -- again the shoreline tends to stop the dogs.
The Sunday land test was awful -- the first bird fell PAST a narrow tree line and ditch, so the dogs had to see the bird for the instant it was falling between the bottom branches of the trees and the top of the ditch -- then the second bird was a live flyer that was shot over an overgrown mound of weeds and dirt. The dead birds shot out of a catapult always fall more or less in the same place, but you can never predict how a live flyer is going to fall. Some of the birds fell beside or behind this huge mound, so the dogs had to look all around for them. Shelley's bird fell on the front slope of the mound with its white breast feathers up, so it might as well have been a big flashing neon sign < DUCK > < DUCK > < DUCK >
I probably way overtrain my dogs before I put them in a trial (that's why it took Shelley so long to get to Excellent), but it's lucky that Shelley had a couple of UKC Seasoned tests under her belt before we tried AKC JH. It was frightening! Of the 32 dogs that were entered on Saturday, only 19 went on to the water test. In UKC they let you go on to water even if you fail land, but in AKC once you're out, you're out.
Hey - that’s really neat Becky!
Just catching up here myself! I didn’t know you’d all been chatting away this morning! Congratulations on your new Champions!
Nice lookin’ dogs all around!
14.2 as a two year old though - she’ll get a bit more size on her. She probably won’t quit growing until she’s 4-5yrs old.
I haven’t made up an ad on her yet - Bob is still “thinking” about this :)
(that's two thank yous from the brown dog and the black dog.)
Just got back from the barn . . . took a nice easy ride in the fields to stretch Gracie’s legs and then took a lesson. Cathy (trainer) moved all the jumps around again . . . a tight course with some killer turns and concentric circles so that it’s easy to get lost on course . . . one pattern took me 3 times to get right! Gracie was elegant and obedient as always, but my lesson last week was cancelled due to rain (it’s pouring here again now, but it held off until after I had her in the barn getting her her supper and putting her to bed). I can really tell when we miss a lesson, because it takes me 15 minutes to get Gracie’s head down and put her in frame.
That is a great picture, and what a wonderful thing to have available for descendants. It looks like it was quite an expensive photo also.
Such a beautiful dog :)
Do they have any kind of security on the train? That's really scary. You never know what someone that unstable is going to do, or what might set them off. I think maybe I'll add you to the prayers for safe traveling.
She just loves her toys, doesn’t she?
What a serious look in her eyes. Am I doing okay???
It sounds like you had a good ride anyway. An easy ride through the fields sort of makes the lesson okay :)
Our plain old bays and blacks don't do that sort of thing. It's pretty neat!
(I love the pattern on her, it's really eye-catching. SOMEbody's going to want a hot horse with a pretty coat, so don't put the ad in if you don't want to sell her.)
I 'nannied' her too much while she was learning, so she's a little anxious about making a mistake. When you get up into the higher levels, it's better to have a dog who goes full throttle and occasionally faults out by knocking a bar or missing a contact, instead of a dog like mine who never makes a mistake but goes slow because she's afraid of making a mistake.
She can also read my mind well enough to tell when she doesn't qualify . . . she's really too sensitive to be a Lab. Must have been a changeling or something.
It was hot as Hades in the ring though. Thank goodness I keep a bottle of sunscreen in the glove box of the car! The clouds didn't blow in until later this evening!
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