The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 11

[HairOfTheDog]

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - (very out of date) Who's Who *pics*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
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!

[FrogInABlender]

Good Morning! I didn't get to ride this weekend after all. BladeRider's truck was still in need of repairs and Shirley's wife had been sick, so rather than go by myself I just hung around the house and goofed around in the yard. It was pretty cold Saturday morning, so it wasn't real comfortable to be outside, but I decided to try out this chiminea out that I bought 3 or 4 years ago and had never used. I lugged it outside from the storage shed and fired that baby up and it was NICE! But I spent most of the day scavenging around for firewood. One good thing about it though is that I made a sizeable dent in the pile of dead limbs that I'd thrown across the fence over the last couple of years.

In between firewood scavenging hunts I managed to get all my old flower pots cleaned out and several pots of marigold seeds planted and set around against the south wall of the house in hopes that they'll stay warm and come up pretty quick. Hopefully I'll have quite a few that'll be ready to transplant into my beds by the time that the pansies play out.

Then yesterday after lunch I got my nephew to load up the bed of the old truck with 4 or 5 loader scoops of crusher-run gravel and I spent the rest of the afternoon shoveling that out between the house, the storage shed and my rock pansy bed. It had needed leveling ever since we moved there because it was a couple of inches lower than the driveway concrete and made hauling my little garbage wagon over it kind of a pain. I got it done, but I sure am paying for it today. Seems like I manage to fine some new place to be sore every weekend! ;o)

While we were down at the farm loading the gravel, I got to see the new baby jenny that my FIL's old jenny had. I don't know how old she is but she's just the cutest thing I've ever seen. They must've bred the jenny to a different jack this time because this baby is really black, whereas all the other ones had always been brown. Here's a couple of pics I took of them...

Is this not the cutest face you've ever SEEN?!...

[estrogen]

Your suggestion of a donkey is interesting.....do you ride them? How easy of a keeper?

[BladeRider]

Good Morning! I didn't get to ride this weekend after all. BladeRider's truck was still in need of repairs and Shirley's wife had been sick, so rather than go by myself I just hung around the house and goofed around in the yard.

Not only is the truck still in need of repair but we were dealing with a very sick 12 year old Irish Setter, Fancy. She was fine Thursday night, playing with her toys, ate dinner, etc. Friday when I got home she could not get up. We spent 2 1/2 hours at the vets Saturday and my husband has to take her back in today. I am hoping it is pnuemonia as first suspected but I am worried it might be lung cancer. I am sitting here with sweaty palms waiting for "the call". She is my best girl, so sweet and a favorite with the grandkids.

[Beaker]

During the commuting rush, it's really not all that bad, because it's mostly every-day joes and college students trying to get to and from work and school. After hours is when you have to be more careful, but if you use your head and pay attention to your surroundings, you're ok. I only occasionally have a problem, but I don't know why the crazies tend to attach themselves to me! The crazy on the subway this morning starting babbling to me that he was the president of the united states, and had got kicked off the other train... how dare they, "I'M The President of the United States!" ...For the first 3 seconds he SEEMED normal, because he had asked if the train stopped at such and such a stop. I had said "Yes it does" My mistake.

Only once have I been actually physically cornered by a weirdo, and luckily I was with a friend. She pulled me away and we ran I hadn't seen him coming. I just turned around and he was THERE.

But Boston isn't scary at all, don't get me wrong. It's very tourist-y. If anyone is Boston, ever, I'd be happy to take them around.

[BladeRider]

Is this not the cutest face you've ever SEEN?!...

That is soooooo cute!

[Beaker]

Look at that face and those EARS! How adorable.

[HairOfTheDog]

Is this not the cutest face you've ever SEEN?!...

It may very well be!

[HairOfTheDog]

Oh dear... prayers for you and your Fancy. Let us know when you find out, I sure hope for good news.

[Beaker]

Oh Dear, Blade! I hope that it is something that's easy to fix!

[FrogInABlender]

A donkey might be just the thing for ol' Waylon. Here's a pic of Bob and the little jack that we had last year. He had managed to worm his way through a loose place in the fence between the cow pasture and my horse pasture and got in with all the horses. Of course all the mares thought he was really interesting since he was an intact young jack, but Bob took him as an rival for "his" girls. Bob never really tried to hurt him seriously, but they "played" quite hard for the couple of days that he was there until we could get him taken to the sale, and the little jack gave every big as good as he got. They're tough little buggers! They were quite funny standing next to each other, kinda like Mutt and Jeff...

They're not hard to keep at all. The main thing is not feeding them too much and foundering them.

[BladeRider]

Oh dear... prayers for you and your Fancy. Let us know when you find out, I sure hope for good news.

Not good new. Vet confirmed lung cancer. Fancy has crossed over to the bridge.

[HairOfTheDog]

Oh dear. ((Bladerider)) I am so sorry.

[Duchess47]

I am so very sorry.

[BladeRider]

Thank you. It is so hard to let them go, she always gave me 110% and looked at me with so much devotion.

CH.Rusticwood Fantacy In The Sky, NA, OAJ.

[FrogInABlender]

Aw Man! I hate to hear that! But I'm not suprised, based on what you told me Saturday night. It sounded like she was just miserable. You did the best thing for her that you could possibly do, even if it broke your heart.

[FrogInABlender]

WOW! She's a beauty! I was hoping that you had a picture of her that you could share.

[HairOfTheDog]

Such a beautiful dog... I feel for you today. These are a couple passages I've always liked about our relationships with dogs... Hope you like them. Lots of people have written great passages about loving and losing dogs and these always help me.

I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we knew better.

They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love without moral restraint and they do not for all their instincts appear to foresee or dwell on their own death. Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying.

There will be an occasional clash of intents if not of wills, and you must work this out without loss of intimacy.
~George Bird Evans, Troubles With Bird Dogs

MISSING OUR DOGS

Old Men (and women) miss many dogs.
They only live a dozen years,if that,
And by the time you are sixty, there are several
The names of which evoke remembering smiles.
You see them in your mind,heads cocked and seated.
You see them by your bed, or in the rain,
Or sleeping by the fire by nights
And always dying.

They are remembered like departed children
Though they gave vastly more than ever they took,
And finally you're seeing dogs that look like them.
They pass you in the street but never turn
Although it seems they should,their faces so familiar.
Old men miss many dogs.

[CindyDawg]

Has she eaten any of the dog food they are talking about?

[CindyDawg]

Groan. I'm so sorry. I should have read all of the posts before I sent that.

[BladeRider]

Aw Man! I hate to hear that! But I'm not suprised, based on what you told me Saturday night. It sounded like she was just miserable. You did the best thing for her that you could possibly do, even if it broke your heart.

I was glad to have the extra 2 days with her, but if I would have known Saturday I may not have put her through the discomfort she was in. I wish I would have insisted he take an xray Saturday.

Here she is in agility. My house will not be the same without her stuffed toys laying all about