>>>>It amazes me how smart they are and how careful they can be of someone who is not a trained rider.<<<<
I used to take my free horse ‘Nikki” and go through the woods, off trail and go around trees and then just let him find his way back - It was funny to see him when he wasn’t quite sure on one of the trees to go around, and he would pause, look around and you could almost feel him saying ‘Ah I remember now left of this tree and right of that one.’
When we would pasture our sheep on pasture that wasn’t fenced, and we wanted to keep them out of the garden area, I would ride Nikki along the border and tell him to keep the sheep in there - I would lie back (bareback of course) on him and enjoy the warm sunshine and if the sheep would start to get near the border I had set out, he would very very slowly start moving till I would sit up, then he was off at a trot to herd them back where they belonged - I was more or less a passenger, enjoying the ride. He took that job very seriously!
Economy Spurs the ‘Urban Chicken’
‘Maybe we should allow chickens’
February 17, 2009
By Brenda Schory
Kane County Chronicle, Illinois
GENEVA – Chickens are egg-laying, bug-eating, compost dropping, occasional squawkers that might make a fine addition to the city’s urban neighborhoods.
And as a way for people to cope with the current tough economic times. Fifth Ward Alderman Paul DesCoteaux said he will bring up the idea of approving an ordinance to allow city residents to keep chickens as a hedge against rising food prices.
“I feel that times will be tougher than what they are now before they get better,” DesCoteaux said. “Nobody knows when it will get better. Some towns allow the raising of chickens without a rooster to wake people up. Maybe we should allow chickens.”
In that vein, DesCoteaux said, he would also suggest that Geneva cultivate an area of the city where residents can have community gardens. This would also allow them to cut food costs by raising their own vegetables.
Mayor Kevin Burns said the city could consider community gardens – but he did not embrace the idea of chickens.
“Anytime a project benefits the community, it will receive all consideration and support,” Burns said. “But chickens? Really? I’m going to start raising cattle. I spent the last eight years with chickens. They’re called aldermen. They’re annoying, and they smell.”
But chickens being smelly and annoying are myths that Craig MacLean hopes to counter once the issue is discussed seriously.
MacLean, owner of the Pure Gardener Inc., 502 W. State St., Geneva, which specializes in organic and natural products, brought both issues to DesCoteaux and asked him introduce them to the council. Areas he suggests for community gardens are the green space on Peck road and the inmate garden at the former jail site.
As for chickens, MacLean said, many cities including Madison have introduced ordinances to allow residents to keep them.
“Urban chickens – there’s tons of [ordinance] models in place,” MacLean said. “We’re not asking them to start from square one, we’re asking them to consider what others have put a lot of thought into. People who are interested ought to be allowed to do it, in a responsible way so it’s got little or no impact on neighbors – except they might get free eggs out of it.”
Cities in Colorado, Washington, New Mexico, California and Wisconsin have approved ordinances allowing urban chickens, MacLean said.
Madison, Wis., has a 2004 urban chicken ordinance that requires the birds to be in enclosures at least 25 feet away from neighbors, chickens not to be slaughtered and roosters not to be allowed, MacLean said.
“Chickens are a natural insect control and their droppings are good for the compost pile,” MacLean said. “We really believe the people of Geneva are forward-thinking people. And once you get the information out there and disinformation and fears out in the open and deal with the facts – it becomes a clearer issue. It’s a doable thing no more complicated than raising dogs and cats.”
http://www.kcchronicle.com/articles/2009/02/16/36191528/index.xml
and if the sheep would start to get near the border I had set out, he would very very slowly start moving till I would sit up, then he was off at a trot to herd them back where they belonged - I was more or less a passenger, enjoying the ride. He took that job very seriously!<<<
Yes, they do take the safety of a rider into consideration.
My Lady, was that way.
I got careless and didn’t check/tighten the cinch strap on the saddle the third time, got on and rode up up a mountain, with loose rocks, back down and went to the coral to let the Appaloosa out, so he could go with us, he was only 2 and not broken.
When I went to get off Lady at the gate, the saddle went underneath her belly.
I wasn’t hurt, but I also learned in a hurry why a Wyoming friend kept ragging at me for “just going for a ride and no one knew it or what direction I went”!!!
I tried to tell people that Lady was a trained show horse, and they would say “Uh Huh”, and think “she is just an old kids horse”.
On Sundays, I set them free and would while doing things in the house watch them and Lady was teaching the Apa to dance and keep to the program, I swore that I could hear music, she was so perfect.
In front of the mobile was the best flat land, so there is where she did her teaching.
When it came time to sell her, friends bought her and the older daughter had a friend who knew how to dance Lady and they said that Lady was fantastic to watch.
The first time that I let them out, they took off running, down the driveway and all I could do was watch and think “well they are gone now, that is the end of my horses”.
I knew the gate was open to my land, and it was several hundred feet away, the property line and old barbed wire fence was on the far side of a 200’ deep wash.
The horses ran to the fence line, stopped dead and turned around and raced back to me.
I think the weeks that they were penned up, they kept making bets on who would win the race.
Their corral was over an acre, it wasn’t a small pen.
I miss that good feeling of being on a horse and just ‘riding’.