The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 11

[CindyDawg]

Yeah. I learn a lot from her but I hate it when she tells me I'm "not listening" I try. I really do. I hear what she says but, my brain doesn't always process it. She can say something like circle and I keep going forward thinking, "circle, circle, oh crap. She said circle":')

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Evening:)

I sure enjoyed all the pictures. Thanks for posting them.

The only horse news I have is Harley lost a shoe:(.....I'll call Chris first thing in the morning....and I believe I'm going to start hunting a new one for the next cycle...I just want to see if he will loose shoes as much with a differnt farrier...is it the horse, or the farrier????? I don't know:\

Becky

[AnAmericanMother]

Not much horsey stuff going on, so doggy stuff will have to do . . .

. . . it's a little technical, but Shelley has gotten up to the hunt test level where it DOES get rather technical. Not as technical as field trials, thank goodness (that scares me so much I won't even THINK about entering the Shell for a field trial).

But it's really fun, a great bunch of people, everybody helps out. We have professional trainers in the club who give freely of their time and advice to everyone (two of them loaned their farm for the day!) and a professional judge came on Saturday and explained how upland tests work. He was all embarassed to tell me Shell wasn't ready to try upland -- I was fine with it and told him so, I'm an amateur and I'm here to learn! And Shell got to do a walkup in upland, not to mention catch a stray partridge all by herself.

[CindyDawg]

Congratulations:')

[Duchess47]

Explain to her that you aren't ignoring her or disregarding her instructions. It's just a matter of trying to deal with too many things at one time. She might be more patient that way. Also, does she stand in the middle of the arena? That would help, along with hand signals - :) Bob never gives instructions unless the rider can see him as well as hear him.

[Duchess47]

Boy, he's losing a lot of shoes lately. Is Chris in a hurry when he's shoeing?

[CindyDawg]

I've told her that She just looks at me. She moves around. I never look at her though. Should I? I'm always watching the horse and where we are going.

[Duchess47]

If possible, you want to look to where you are going, otherwise, your body language might send the horse in another direction. But it would be nice if you could see her out of the corner of your eye or glance at her.

[HairOfTheDog]

Aw jeeze :~\

Aw jeeeeeze.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Good morning.

Yeah, Harley has been loosing shoes a lot lately...and there always seems to be some reason to why it "might" have happened, that keeps me wondering why it is happening. This time, well the mud has been terrible. But then again the shoes have only been on a week. I just don't know what to do.

It's raining here today, so the mud will be back:\, but the temps aren't as cold as they were the last few days.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Yeah - that's the thing, he shouldn't have lost one after a week. It shouldn't have happened! You haven't even been riding right? He's just been knockin' around the paddock?

Drizzly and muddy here too. And ~almost~ warm enough to plant grass. Still getting down to 40 at night... need it to stay above fifty.

[FrogInABlender]

'Mornin y'all! Everybody's had such great pictures over the weekend!

AAM, your hunt pictures were really cool. Thanks for 'splainin all that.

Hair, the pics of the kitties playin in their box were so cute. I'll bet they have a ball ambushing each other and the dogs out of there.

I did manage to get in a ride on Saturday. I took Bob and Hope out to my cousin's son's barn and we rode for a few hours. He has just finished a new boarding barn at his place that joins a Forever Wild preserve so that's where we rode. It was 30-something but sunny so it was pretty nice out there. Here's just a few pics I took on the ride and back at the barn...

This is my cousin's son. He's riding a young qtr horse gelding that he's only had for a few months.

This is the creek that runs through the preserve. At first, when I saw it from the top of the hill, I thought it was a big lake, but it was just a big wide bend. That water right off the bank there was DEEP and cold.

This was back at the barn. That's Bob looking back at me. I think there's 14 stalls, a 40x40 indoor arena, a common tack room, a wash rack, a restroom, an office and a kitchen, plus equipment storage on the outside. The arena is on the far end from where the picture was taken.

This is the arena...

This is looking back the other way from the arena...

[HairOfTheDog]

Beautiful ride, beautiful boarding barn! I always like looking at how other people design barns, always pick up at least one good idea for how to do something :~)

[AnAmericanMother]

Wow! What a gorgeous barn! I might have made the center aisle a touch wider, but it may be a function of the girder span up above, the stalls are built in under the girders rather than the front stall wall supporting the roof. Ya have to consider cost in these things . . . < g >

How large is the arena? Nice to have a place to ride while it's nasty outside!

Don't see how anybody could call that a "creek" - "river" maybe!

[MissTargets]

Good Morning.

Gosh Becky, sorry about him losing a shoe again. He does guarantee them to stay on for awhile, doesn't he? So happy to hear it is warming up. We have light snow today.

Frog, very nice barn. All brand new and shiny!

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Wow....that's a heck of a creek!

Looks like a nice place to ride. Beautiful barn.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

No, I haven't been riding yet.

Be careful when you do plant your grass. Make sure that there is no chance of a late freeze. My feed store guy told me that if the seed germinates during a warm spell then you get an unexpected freeze it will kill the grass/seed and you've lost the entire sowing. Around here I need to wait till the beginning of April before there is no chance it will germinate and then freeze.

Becky

[FrogInABlender]

Well, this building didn't start out life as a barn. My cousin's son Ron bought it from a neighbor who had bought it from somebody else who had disassembled it and gotten a bigger one. It was originally 150' long but I think they're only using 100' of it. I'm not sure how wide it is, but the isle and stalls run down the middle and all the storage is between that and the outside wall. And come to think of it, the arena has got to be wider than 40' because it uses the entire width of the building. I guess I got it mixed up with my other friend's barn that has a 40x40 arena in it. Anyways, Ron and his Dad and FIL reassembled it, and did all the insulation, wiring, plumbing and carpentry work themselves. I was really impressed with their work. I think it took them most of last summer to get it done. But now that he has, it's filling up pretty fast. He's already got several boarders and a girl who gives lessons out of there too, so he should do pretty well with it. I think my cousin said that he only needed 7 boarders to pay the bills for the place, so that's good I guess.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Chris will come out and put them back on for free if they loose one quick. That's not a problem.

Becky

[FrogInABlender]

Don't see how anybody could call that a "creek" - "river" maybe!

Well, that particular place is a little deceiving. There was a big sharp bend right there, so it was wider there than it is in the straight places. Also, it was getting close to it's mouth, where it joins on to another river, which very shortly joins on to The Tennessee River, which is a BIG river (over a mile across in most places around here). So now you understand why this one only rates as a creek.