Posted on 08/07/2007 7:33:14 AM PDT 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, 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!
NW Alabama: We had tornado warnings and the alarm going off and phone calls till 2 AM, but just alot of thunder & lightening and only 1/2 inch or rain. It is very windy today, but so far the sun is out.
There were some bees along with the 3 or 4 kinds of butterflies. The spot where they were looked a little wet and where there was a campfire, so we figured someone must have poured something sweet out.
Your pictures are beautiful. That is fantastic country were you live. Glad you had a sucessful first ride. I like your saddle, too. Looks a little more secure than my all purpose English.
Thanks for letting us know - you stay safe today and have a great Mother’s Day.
It’s been neat to see other parts of the country through all our trail riding pictures. We’re good at tall trees and green mossy things up here :~)... I always marvel at your cliffs and rocks, because I just never pictured the south to be like that!
I’ve been real happy with that Wintec. It does have a pretty deep seat for an AP. What have you got?
Oh - and I take it you’re OK this morning... was their trouble in AL or did it skip over you?
Ah - I see your posts now about the weather overnight... I really can read! ;~)
Happy Mother’s Day to you too... but don’t jinx me! ;~)
Good morning - hope you have a great Mother’s Day. I love all of the beautiful graphics you come up with for holidays :)
Plan on spending my day planting my garden. Son is BBQing for us today.
Happy Mother’s Day to you all, also.
I just got a basic AP dressage when I first got a gaited horse. I thought I might go to a country boy show with Daisy. I just really didn’t know how to get started.
I’ve only used it around the house and in parades. The kind of trails we ride I need something more substantial. I also have different fitting issues for most of the horses, so they all pretty much have their own. Daisy gaulds on her right white underarm pit (no matter what kind of girth), so I have a Miller Plantation that girths further back. Faith was getting white hair all over her back with the trooper I loved, so I got a couple of flex panel saddles for her and they work on Sassy, too. Hal’s horse was getting white spots over where the girth rings were on his western Tucker, so he got the new Tucker that has the English style girth. I still use western on the quarter horses, but not going up hills to get gouged by the horn. That’s a long boring answer to your simple question.
No - I understand all those issues! I had to trade in the old Stubben that I’d ridden in since high school for the Wintec, because the Stubben just couldn’t fit bay... too narrow at the spine, too wide in the wither.
But even with the Wintec, he’s got a custom Cashell pad that is inside the white pad that helps fill his old sway back.
And he galls REALLY easy, now that he’s gotten older. If it helps you, I’ve solved it by making sure his girth area is VERY clean (hose before every ride) and I show sheen his armpits so they’re extra slippery, and I ride with the girth on the loose side. If I don’t to all those things, he gets rubs. The smooth leather girth works best too, better than when I had the fleece cover on it. Last year, he even got a rub under the back of the saddle pad because it wasn’t clean enough. So now... he gets a bath before every ride, and I’ll wash the pad every ride too.
Wow, that DOES sound like a cool machine! I’d like to see one of those work. Definately handy to have around.
WOO HOO!!!
It's about time! I hope y'all had fun. I'll keep reading for a report.
Yeah - I don’t know if they’ll replace it or not! Usually the only time they can get big things and equipment in there is when it’s logged, so I don’t know if/when they’ll replace it.
But it will mean that trail won’t be as popular for the hikers and bikers any more, unless they want to get wet.
I thought the one of the butterflies was exceptionally good. The place where they were swarming looked like an old campfire site, but they're must've been something sweet there because there were honey bees swarming it too. Maybe somebody used Coke or something to put out their campfire. There's at least 3 different kinds there. There were common black swallowtails and yellow tiger swallowtails, but there were also some smaller black and white swallowtails. The only place I've ever seen them is out in the Forest. It looked like a butterfly bouquet.
We made it through ok at my place, but it was bad enough for us to go move the cars out from under the trees around 11:30. The worst of it split and went around us. We’ve been blessed that way quite a bit here lately so I’m very thankful.
Glad to hear you’re OK... I understand the bit about moving cars out from under trees.
On the bridge... we’re having more thoughts this morning about it... We didn’t take pictures because both horses were being a little fruity about the whole thing and needed our full attention... it’s changed and all, I guess!
But we think a lot of the big trees leaning over the water in the above picture of the bridge are just ~gone~. We want to look better next time we go and compare to old pictures. I think if there was a flood and a lot of big trees coming down from upstream, those may have taken out the bridge, or dammed it up enough that the whole thing went. And the bridge is ~gone~. No wreckage of it except the footings. We didn’t see it downstream either... it must have been pushed downstream quite a ways because I don’t think they could have gotten it out of there either, without cutting it up.
And that won't necessarily be a bad thing. Sometimes they're a hazard on a horse trail if they don't know how to act when encountering a rider.
The rules and etiquette stuff is well posted, so most of them are good, unless they have loose dogs that don’t know how to react... but yeah, it will definitely mean less traffic on the trail. Might even be why the trailhead was empty on a saturday, though there was no newsflash or warning posted that the bridge was out.
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