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!
Dang! I’ve heard of kids hanging on to their ponies too long, but I think that one takes the cake!
We got horse problems!
Poor Gracie has been having more and more trouble with her knees, stumbling and so forth. She went down with me again (I didn't come off and she didn't land on her head this time) and we had the vet out -- she's got severe arthritis in both knees. Dang! The vet tried various things, including injectable glucosamine/chondroitin and so forth, she's still rideable for walk-trot and little kids, but no more galloping or jumping.
The bad news is that we haven't sold our house and moved to the country yet . . . so I have no place to park her. We are looking around for somebody with a corner in their pasture, or else a family with little kids who want a pet.
She's the calmest, sweetest-tempered horse I've ever had anything to do with. If we can find her a temp home for a year or so I'll be able to take her.
Well, I hate to hear that about Gracie! I guess we all get that way eventually in our old age. I’m glad you or she didn’t get hurt when she fell. Believe me, I know all about that here lately! I’m glad you’re planning on keeping her and hopefully you’ll be able to find a nice pasture that’s close by so you can check on her.
LOL! You gotta do </I> to get it to stop.
No, he’s a great grandson - Sonny, “Secretary Gold” our stud is a grandson of his.
You're very welcome. Red still has huge numbers of fans out there, including many who weren't even born when he raced. If Disney does a good job making the movie, I think they'll have a box office winner on their hands. :)
I saw the match race in which Ruffian broke down. I was quite young, and it was the first time in my life an event caused me to get literally sick to my stomach. (I brought up my lunch.) She was a great, great filly, and so beautiful. The match race was a drastic mistake on the part of her owners, and she paid for it with her life.
As for a mating of Secretariat and Ruffian, it would have been close inbreeding to Bold Ruler so it likely never would have taken place if Ruffian had lived.
Ruffian's sire was Reviewer, who was sired by Bold Ruler.
Secretariat was sired by Bold Ruler.
Until Secretariat came along, Bold Ruler was considered a speed sire whose progeny lacked the stamina to go a distance much beyond a mile or a mile-and-an-eight. The staying influences in Secretariat's pedigree comes from his dam, Somethingroyal, who was by Princequillo, an important sire of stayers.
Bold Ruler's dam, Miss Disco, also gave Red's pedigree some staying influence. She was sired by Discovery, also a noted stamina influence. Discovery was a grandson of Fair Play, the horse who sired Man o'War.
Although Bold Ruler was the #1 sire of his era, he never sired a classic winner until Secretariat. ("Classic" in thoroughbred racing has the same connotation as "major" does in pro golf.) Then he had a Triple Crown winner in Secretariat, and his sire line had another one four years later in Seattle Slew, who was a direct male great-grandson of Bold Ruler.
What I wouldn't give to pet Secretariat or any of his babies or descendents. When my time comes to pass on, if it's my destiny to go to heaven, I hope to see Secretariat racing across the meadows up there. :)
Red's genes live on through this era's two greatest sires, Storm Cat and A.P. Indy, both grandsons of Secretariat. There are a number of other top stallions who are his grandsons, and many of their sons are doing well at stud.
Oh no! I’m sorry - old age will take us all though, and I hope you’re able to get her someplace where she can be happy.
Meanwhile, my trainer has put me on a young Oldenburg mare who is a real head case -- we'll see if 30 minutes on the longe line will readjust her thinking.
I’m so sorry to hear about Gracie - wish I was closer so I could help. Hoping you find a good temporary home for her for awhile.
It’s been so long since I looked at any of the lines; I had forgotten that. Also, wasn’t Ruffian somewhere along the line out of Native Dancer. The one problem with that line that had those long spindly legs.
Now that’s a pretty horse. LOL
It may take more than 30 minutes. :~)
I've been lurking - so sorry about your accident.
I haven't been on my horse since I fell off a couple of months back, not entirely because of the fall but just a busy summer. Today was the first time I've been home on a Sunday in 5 weeks, and I just got home yesterday. I've been babysitting, laying sod, taking a teenager to the beach, went to Tennessee with my sister, painting, doing things for my mom, and tomorrow I'm driving to Texas with my sister for a funeral.
And it seemed like the only time I posted I had some big question and then off I went until the next crisis.
Hannah's horse's baby sister is looking better, though. I can still see her ribs just a bit, but she isn't emaciated anymore. She's filled out in the hip bone area, too, I fed both the mares strategy, and put a little cooking oil in their feed, and it helped.
That little one is rotten though, and rather hard to handle, she paws whenever she doesn't like something.
I've been working a bit on my husband's photography stuff, trying to set up a website to sell some of our pictures, but I'm having trouble understanding the "tree" of the system the particular company we went with uses. I need time - like hours - to talk to them on the phone, and I don't know when I'll have "hours". He's sold a good many on istockphoto.com, but only the files, and we'd like to sell prints.
Oh oh oh - I forgot, I sold my first print!! I got $130 for it - it was of a horse coming around this big oak and looking down at a fox coming out of a hole under the tree - the owner of the horse bought a print.
Gosh - I wrote a book, didn't I? Sorrry...
Hope your leg heals quickly!
What about TheBigDumbBlonde? You still riding him?
Glad to see y’all are getting out on the trail more! Have you heard anything about the bridge there? Are they going to build it back or just leave it a ford? Looks like there were some more people on the trail with you too.
This is like deja vu all over again. When Gracie was first broke (10 years ago!) I would put her in side reins and longe her 30 minutes before I climbed on her. She HATED it (and getting her to longe in an open field was an adventure in itself - we kept winding up facing each other, and she learned to run backwards . . . . ) but it was the best thing in the world for her.
Gracie got tangled in a barbed wire fence awhile back, but being a lady of good sense she stood perfectly still until somebody came with the wire cutters. Got away with a superficial wound on her hock.
I'm tempted to say that's the difference between boys and girls -- but the B.D.B. is a particularly dense horse, and Gracie is particularly intelligent . . . . sigh.
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