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The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - (very out of date) Who's Who *pics*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

[HairOfTheDog]

Oh fun... I loved building dams on our creek growing up. :~)

[FrogInABlender]

Well, I’m outta here for the weekend. Y’all have a good one. Good luck working with Kat and Cyn. I posted a reply to your thread about Cyn over on the other forum. Sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you.

[Beaker]

I could easily see him making 30 and beyond. He has no other issues besides the navicular, if I’m not mistaken?

[Duchess47]

:) Well - the RETREAT (that's definately in caps according to those who put it on) started off with our mission statement. Unfortunately, it wasn't our mission statement and when we pointed that out, they (including our director) said - well, this is the one we were given. By whom you ask, well, who the heck knows, no one asked us. We could have pointed out that the correct one is posted in the staff room.

The rest of the day went down hill from there. You'd be interested to know that I would probably die in the desert according to my score (and that of my TEAM) The experts don't rate water and a gun very high on the list which we did.

Did we come away with any solutions? No. The facilitator is going to type up something for our director. That should be interesting, he didn't listen to anything we said.

[Duchess47]

What cool pictures :)

[Beaker]

Retreat eh? I would have "Run Away! Run Away!" (Pardon the Python reference. Hair will get it)

I'd want the water to umm... oh I don't know... drink and the gun to pop off any snakes or other beasts. So I guess that I would die too. The thing that I'd be most terrified of are stinging bugs and biting snakes. What did they rate high up there anyway?

[HairOfTheDog]

You had desert survival at your library RETREAT?

Yikes... Is this their way of telling you about future budget cuts? :~)

Good morning everyone.

Rode Kat again. She did okay in the end, I was a bit of a chicken!

The scene is this, we get there and Bob has another saddle he wants to try. This one seems to fit OK. I had brought my saddle to use if we were going to ride again, but we left that new one on. That was the first thing that didn’t go according to plan.

And then nothing that I thought was going to happen, did. I thought Bob was going to ride Barney... Around the pasture and then maybe down the road. He didn’t make any moves to do that... Well, I started around the yard with Kat... I did want to take her away from that pony and see if she was going to be a problem. She did want to spin and back up when we went out of sight.

The scene was chaos really, Bob’s Kai was having absolute conniption fits. He was charging up and down the fenceline at me, the pony is calling, Kat calling back... Me not sure if Kai was really going to stay in the fence... He was leaning on it... he hasn’t had his electricity on in years. I’d say “is he gonna stay in there? Bob would say “oh yeah, he’s not gonna do anything”. Uh huh - I thought he might end up in my lap. My nerves were pretty frayed at just the unpredictability of everything.

I asked ecurbh to just walk down the drive with me, and lead her with me on, down the long driveway, she was a lot better after that. We walked circles around the front yard, out of sight of the pony, for a long time, and she settled down. The rest of the scene remained chaos ;~)

If I were bolder I probably could have slapped her butt and she’d have gone without ecurbh leading, but I didn’t want to push it. First off, I still felt a terrible disconnect in that saddle, it’s not mine :~) And second, I’m just not as bold on strange horses as I used to be. I used to go ride strange horses for Bob when he was horse hunting. Heh... Not now I guess. I told him that I think Bay and I have worn ourselves such a groove, I haven’t been on anyone else, cept once on Cyn... in probably 10 years :~)

Anyhow, Bob wasn’t really impressed that Kat was nervous and herdbound, but I said Bob, she hasn’t been asked to leave that group in a year, she’s not been ridden regularly, never been down the driveway before, let alone alone, and look at the rest of the horses... they were all running and carrying on, because I made one change to the herd and upset everything. I think she was pretty normal, but normal behavior can still make people nervous about putting a kid on a horse. I think his plan is that they’ll do some work in the pasture, Bob leading with Jessie on, he trusts her there, she’s only nutty when you try to take the pony away. And he’ll just lead her or lunge her till Jessie’s got some comfort and stability on her, then they’ll trailer her over to the arena and have Jessie take lessons on her. Kat’s been to that arena before, but I said I would go ride her in the arena first if Bob wanted.

We also thought, since he’d like to see her on trail, why not call Tiff? Tiff knows this horse, see if Tiff will go on a trail ride with Bob on Barney, me on Bay, ecurbh on Cyn... the same group she’d go riding with when Jessie finally goes. I’m gonna call her about that.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Huh...interesting.

I understand completely about being nervous about climbing on a strange horse, in a strange saddle, especially one that you have observed to be nutty:).

Sounds to me there are two reasons for the nuttiness, not enough handling since he got her, and herd issues.

Just for discussion purposes:), what I’d do...especially since this horse is suppose to be for a kid, I’d dang sure put her in a run by herself. And two, I’d get her out, saddle her and stand her tied everyday for a while for 3-4-5 hours.

I think getting Tiff to ride her would be a very good thing. Get her back in the working frame of mind, but Bob/Jessie will have to be consistent about keeping her that way.

Just goes to show how even well broke old horses can be a handful.

Becky

[tuffydoodle]

I haven’t been on here in a long time so I missed what’s going on with Kat and Cyn. Are you thinking of buying Kat? What’s up with Cyn?

[tuffydoodle]

Hey Becky, how are you doing on maintaining your weight loss? I’m having problems, I can’t figure out how many calories I can add back on and not gain weight back, consequently I’m still losing and starting to get that holocaust victim look. I like being ultra slim but I see I’m letting things get outta hand.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I loved building dams on our creek growing up. :~)

LOL...by the time we were done, I was surprised how much fun I had doing it:), and it wasn't just because I was doing it with JP. It just became a challenge to see how deep we could get the damed side, and plugging up the holes:)

Becky

[tuffydoodle]

I love watching my kids play in the water, building things. I can watch them for hours. Are you still getting a lot of rain? It’s raining nonstop here, not right now but nearly every day we get a gully washer. My barn has flooded twice and it really, really stinks.

[HairOfTheDog]

I agree with your suggestions, but I don’t think he’ll really do any of that. I think she ought to at least be put with Barney, since they’ll be riding together... let her at least bond with him.

I doubt he’ll do anything really regularly either. Except the lesson thing. If he can get her there, Jessie does have lessons every week.

I’m tempted to get really involved in what I think needs to happen, I could even bring her here and work her... but I haven’t really been asked to do any of this, I just keep volunteering things because I want it to work out.

He thinks really, Jessie’s not near ready to go out on trail as a rider till maybe late summer or next year. She’s just doing walk trot lessons on school horses now, still on the lunge. So there’s no rush to get Kat super ready either.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I’m maintaining with no problem. I have lost a few more pounds but about once a week or so, I splurge, and have some thing I don’t normally eat anymore, chips and salsa, a beer:), cake ice cream, that sort of stuff, and I’ll go back up a pound or two. So I’m staying within a 3 lb window either side of the weight I want to be. I weigh every morning, and that pretty much determines what I’m going to eat for the day. Most days I’m still eating like I was when I was losing. It’s funny tho, I think my body is still shrinking even tho I’m not losing anymore. I think I’m almost going to have to drop another size when I buy clothes. I’ve never really ate like I am now, and I’m becoming a firm believer that exercise is NOT the key to toning, but eating the right foods so your body can tone itself by putting on lean muscle rather then fat.

What do eat?

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Hi tuffy.... short version for those who wander off and miss several chapters...

Bob has Kat for his daughter Jessie to ride. She’s been there nearly a year now, but between procrastination and a fence injury, she’ hasn’t been ridden in all that time. I was just assessing where she’s at.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Yes, it’s still raining here everyday...I hate to complain after last year, and after hearing how bad Frog has it right now, but darn, I need some sunshine bad:), and my trails are in such bad shape it makes riding not fun at all.

According to the forecast (like they are ever right < /sarcasm >) today is the last day for awhile with rain in the forecast.

Becky

[tuffydoodle]

I splurge every now and then but it’s usually something low-fat and sugar free, like that new Dreyer’s fat free/sugar free ice cream. I have 2 eggs for breakfast, a weight watchers yogurt for a snack (or sugar free jello), some turkey lunchmeat on a corn tortilla for lunch (I can’t eat wheat products), lots of grapes and canteloupe for snacks and a small helping of whatever I make the family for dinner. I made a pot roast and potatoes the other day and I ate quite a bit of that. I usually have a diet coke or some crystal light during the day, as well. Sometimes I’ll have a rice cake with peanut butter for a snack if I’m getting really weak.

[tuffydoodle]

Wow, you are really brave. I probably wouldn’t have gotten on that horse, my confidence for stuff like that has gone right out the window.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Oh, well then, it’s probably a lost cause:(, which is too bad.

And as far as putting her in with Barney, JMO, but I think she needs to bond with Jessie. I realize she won’t really ever go off and ride by herself...but would there ever be a possibility of her going like say with you, and Barney not going? or want to just ride at home around...

Is Jessie even really interested? Does she spend anytime out messing with the horse or want too?

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, she’s not a complete unknown... my friend Tiff had her for a long time... Heck, ecurbh rode her for his very first trail ride ever. Down under all this noise, she’s broke as heck.

But all this time off, and the fact that Bob’s been feeding her up with Senior feed and alfalfa, she’s a little hot and rusty.