FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 12

[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The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - (very out of date) Who's Who *pics*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, usually about our horses, sometimes about our dogs, gardens and other stuff we do. :~)

I have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will ping everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list.

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.

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
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 11

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]

That pony is GETTIN’ IT ain’t she! The driver looks like she’s having a blast too.

[AnAmericanMother]

Heh! Why do you think that driver's wearing a crash helmet anyhow? I'd be wearing that AND a shock vest AND heavy motorcycle boots and gloves!

I wonder if you could start her in harness on long lines, and then sequence to a VERY durable breaking cart?

[HairOfTheDog]

I don’t own a harness, but I’ve ground driven her. If I had the stuff, I’d be very tempted to try.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Good morning.

MT. the dog looks great. What a nice thing you did finding him a home:)

Duchess: Tuffy is still looking great:)

Becky

[AnAmericanMother]

Maybe you could find a pony harness somewhere cheap! (I mean, talk about a specialized piece of equipment — somebody somewhere has a harness and no pony!)

[FrogInABlender]

Here's one on ebay that looks pretty servicable. I think new ones run somewhere between $100-$150.

[HairOfTheDog]

~chuckling~

I said if I had one I’d be tempted. I may not want to be tempted! LOL

[FrogInABlender]

Yeah, that’s all you need is another horse to work with. But you gotta admit, it would be fun. Some of my old riding buddies like to drive theirs to a little 2-wheel cart like that, but I imagine that getting the whole rig loaded up to take it somewhere safe to ride would be kind of a pain.

[Duchess47]

Good morning. This year there were four crashes at the air show, three pilots killed I believe. Kept expecting that the show would cancel but it didn’t. It’s possible though that some parts of it were canceled. I have to admit, I saw headlines but never read the articles.

[Duchess47]

LOL - I agree, I hate the tail. It’s funny - she’s put him in green and it looks good but so far, red looks the best. I think all black would look good on him too. He looks average in green - maybe because green is the in thing here this year and everyone is wearing/showing some shade of it.

[Duchess47]

We brought Tuffy home for the winter yesterday and the first order of business is to put some weight on him. We’re accustomed to halter weight and he looks anorexic to us :)

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, if green is the "in" thing, then that's OUT -- don't want him looking like every other horse in the ring. I understand that, it's the reason I went into strict black/hunting formal for hunter shows, because at the time everybody had the colored coats and matching saddle pads. We looked like a couple of crows among peacocks, but whatever gets the judge to look at you twice! (Also because I'm cheap, and that way I didn't have to buy any new stuff for showing, just wore my hunting habit.)

How about white and silver? (I don't know a thing about Western showing -- I worked one summer on a cattle ranch, riding fence, and I put my cow pony straight into a French snaffle out of my suitcase, much to the amusement of the cowhands, but he seemed happy. That's my total experience with Western!)

[HairOfTheDog]

I sure liked him in the red and beige. Was very striking... of course... she’s a striking woman. She’d look good in a feed sack :~)

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

She’d look good in a feed sack :~)

LOL...don't you hate people like that:).

I went with Jenny today to the vet. She had to take Travis' horse in for coggins and shots. While I was there I talked to her about if she was going to be around the weekend you all are here just in case.... She was going to check her schedule but was pretty sure she would be, and that she would be alert to her emergency line for any calls from me:) Bringing horses on such a long trip would stress me:), so I just want all the bases covered. Just letting you know:) Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Very good thinking. Just to be on the safe side!

Well, I've been working on an ugly job that needed done.

Yesterday we started digging out the lean to. It's an embarrassment. For six years now, I've had horses in that lean-to outside the barn, and fed hay out there, and the mares use it as a toilet, and the 'mare end' would at times become quite a swamp. I'd try to dig it out, but it would be one matted swampy woven mass. We'd try to dig the worst spots, would haul a barrow or two out of there once in awhile, but mostly cover it up and put more bedding and spent hay on top and call it good. It's been getting deeper, and swampier, and just wasn't the best way to handle it. Eventually, they were gonna bump their heads on the roof ;~)

So now we're going to mat it so we can clean it like the inside of the barn. But first wanted to dig it out. The pony is standing in the hole we dug yesterday. THAT's where the ground level should be.

I've hauled a couple more loads out since this picture. I'm resting before heading back out.

Plan is to dig it out, close the horses out of it so it can dry thoroughly, maybe put down something like ag lime or gravel, still undecided on that, and move the mats from inside the barn out, getting new mats for in there. It'll be a little spendy, but hopefully will be good piece of mind and healthier footing. I don't know exactly why Bay got thrushy now, but walking through that to get in the barn has not helped.

Bay and Cyn inside where it's matted. No bedding right now, but is kept bedded in winter when I want them to have a dry place to lay down. Lately we've just been keeping it stripped, feeding them in there, but no bedding which discourages peeing in there, but encourages peeing right outside in the lean-to. :~/ Also going to move the hay racks inside. They are wasting to much this way.

[Beaker]

It has been getting really chilly at night here. Last night called for a fire in the fireplace.

And in other news, I just discovered that there is a tack shop within three miles of my house. That's too close for my wallet's comfort. I've been looking for new boots, and they do custom cut downs and take ins, which is what I'm going to need for a pair that fit.

[FrogInABlender]

BladeRider and her daughter Amy and I had a good ride yesterday. BladeRider started out riding Blade and Amy was on the new horse Shane, but they swapped at the lunch break. Shane is doing really well and is REALLY smooth, but he wasn't real happy with his bit or something because he kept tossing his head. She had him in a curbed snaffle Wonder Bit, because that's what they said he had been ridden with, but when we got back to the trailer, she tried a hack on him for a quick spin around the camp and he didn't toss his head a time, so maybe that'll be all it takes to fix him up.

I rode Ellie and tried her in a mullen-mouth curb this time because when I used the hack last time she seemed to carry her head too high, but she REALLY didn't like that bit, although it's pretty mild and is what I use on all the rest of them. We started off a little faster than we usually do and I was holding her back some and I thought she was gonna dump me a time or two, but after some trial and error I figured out a way to stay out of her mouth but still maintain some kind of control and by the end of the ride she was doing MUCH better. But I guess I'll try something else the next time. Bitting issues are such a pain. You just never know what's going to work and what's not and you can spend a ton of money trying to figure it out.

Here's a couple of pictures I took at the lunch break...

Amy on Blade and BladeRider on Shane...

Me and my little shrimp Ellie...

Shirley on Spot. He's been riding her a lot more here lately, trying to get her back in shape to sell because he's got more horses than he can ride too. She's a TWH/SSH but she's so heavy-boned that she looks like one of those Gypsie Vanners. She's a really good trail horse too and anybody who can sit up straight can ride her, so if you know of anybody who wants a really nice calm smooth-riding horse, let me know.

[Beaker]

Talking about crows and peacocks in the show ring, the other day I was at a tack shop to pick out a shirt, just white, no frills, and the only dressage shirts that they had were pastel pink and blue and green. The sales girl was trying to talk me into buying one, saying that they were all the rage, but I flat out refused. I’ve never seen colored show shirts like that in the ring, at least at the shows that I’ve been to, unless they were on hunter/jumper riders crossing over into the dressage ring. Has anyone else seen this?

[HairOfTheDog]

Great ride pics... yeah, it can be an expensive trial and error to find the right bridle. There’s so many choices.

Glad everyone stayed on their horse! You’re looking thin Frog! Ugh... I had such high hopes of losing weight this summer, and I think I’ve actually gained. So I’ll be the pudgy one at our moot. I guess mowing’s not enough if I’m still not eating right. :~\

I sure like that horse of Shirley’s she looks STURDY!

[FrogInABlender]

I’m not thin, I just sucked it up and sat up straight...for once.

And Shirley’s horse had better look sturdy coz he’s a pretty good-sized man. She is overweight though and he’s got her on a diet. She really needs to loose at least a couple hundred pounds. I guess that the TWH easy-keeper tendencies were kinda nice back when times were lean, but it sure is a problem now that our horses don’t get as much exercise as they did back then. People used to plow with them all week and then hitch them up to the buggy and drive them to church on Sunday morning, so they were a pretty versatile horse. I wish I had more time to do more stuff with mine.