The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE

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[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Wow. Things like that just always makes you wonder WHY.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I'm in the mood to take pictures:). Thought this would be of interest.

This is a picture of the brands on Belle. The first is an AR, stands for Allen Ranch, where I bought her from. The one on her shoulder is a 2. AR, brands the last number of the birth year of the horse. Belle was born in 92. Their theory is (I don't know if I agree with it), is you wouldn't mistake a ten year old horse for a 2 year old, or a 20 year old, so it makes it easy to keep track of the age. I don't know why they would do this on a papered horse tho, but they do.

Then Harley was standing there so pretty, I took one of him:)

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, with Ramtha thrown in the mix.... it just got even weirder...

The horse needed an exorcism I think :~D

[HairOfTheDog]

The brands are interesting! Do they breed and manage so many horses that they need to identify them that way by year? "Go out and collect all the two year olds" or something?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

No they don't do much breeding of their own. Back when we bought Belle they were a dude ranch. They usually bought horses at the sale, bring them to the ranch have the hands ride them some then put them in their dude string. If they happen to come across a really nice horse at the sale they bought it, then one of the sons. Joe, the one that Charlie is such good friends with and taught him to rope, would ride it. If it turned out really nice, they would brand it, and keep it for family use. Why they wanted to keep track of the age like that I really don't know. Even the family horses were sold from time to time as with Belle. Belle was bought for Joe's son, TJ, who is Charlie's age. She was sold because Joe was mad at TJ, and this was his punishment.

I think most of Belle's problems come from TJ. Joe breaks horse in a way I wouldn't, but he doesn't abuse them. He will get pretty rough with one, if they are broke well, but misbehaving. I think Belle got mistreated mostly because of TJ tho. I know some bad stuff happened to her, I'm just not sure of the why's and whatfore's. I think TJ was telling Joe stuff about the horse that was not the whole truth, so for a while Joe believed him and responded in kind, the tying up for hours that I've mentioned. After a while I think Joe figured out the problems were being caused by TJ, and not necessarily the horse being bad out of meanness. It's a foggy picture, and I've never really gotten a clear picture of what was going on with her, I just know it was bad, and left permanent problems with her.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

It's another mystery in life.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

OH, and Joe's father, who was the orignal ower/founder of Allen Ranch sold it to his older son Stanley the one who runs the saddle shop that made my saddle. Stanley shut the public access to the ranch down. It is now pretty much a goat farm. He raises and sells goats and still runs the saddle shop. Joe still rides horses and ropes. They use to have a public practice roping every Mon. night for years, but it is now by invitation only. Joe is not a people person at all. He has always been very kind to us, especially Charlie and Kristy, but he is one of the most crochety men I've ever met:). But I have truely seen him take very very very rank horses, that should have gone to the killers as they were so dangerous and make them in to very nice horses, and sell them for alot of money. After I gave up on Belle, Charlie tried for a year with Joe's help to fix her, but even Joe said she was too dangerous. He half way admitted too, that TJ was the problem with her. But he and Charlie believe her problem is she is a bitch, and say I'm blinded by sentimental feelings for her. So who knows.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

I didn't remember that you had sent her back there and that they tried to fix her. So she must have blown up with them too then.

There are rank horses, and when you have one, you need to be able to call on those kind of trainers that can take on anything and force it to work. But I wouldn't want to start out one of mine that way... The lady that had the pony 30 days said she didn't want anyone watching the first few sessions. And I don't think it was because she was shy. I don't think she abused the pony either, she just knew we might not want to see how bad the fight can get. The only thing I KNOW she did that we didn't see was tie bags of cans to the saddle and let her run in the round pen till she exhausted herself. I can't imagine the amount of terror that caused... the risk of that pony panicking herself into really hurting herself was high. But really, it's a pretty passive solution to let her sack herself out. Better than just beating the crap out of her.

Those guys are the last chance salvage choice, when nothing else works.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

A few more pictures:)

Yesterday, I was in the yard and Rocky came close to the fence and I noticed a huge lump on his tummy. I climb in the fence and felt of it and it was hard and pretty hot. I went to get Mack. When we came back out to look at it close I put a halter on him and went to the other side then I was on the first time I looked at it. Turned out it was cause because he had a huge tick stuck there. It has gone down quit a bit today, but you can still see the lump and the spot where the tick was. It really scared me when I saw that lump.

Well, I've been killing time, waiting on the mail lady. She just got here, so I'm off to ride. Harley has been out there saddled for a while, and it's getting warm, so I need to go. See ya.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Hmmm.... still has some abcess there, but it's in a good location to drain... might not hurt to open it back up again and flush it good with something like iodine, and keep it open till it doesn't want to swell any more.

I'm killing time too. I want to strip the stalls down while it's still reasonably cool.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

To tell the truth, I wasn't real happy about Charlie riding her. I don't think Joe really put alot of effort into fixing her. He knew Charlie wanted to ride her, and I think he was worried about him. Belle went down a few times in the box.

Joe won't let anyone around when he is Fixing a horse either. I think he gets pretty rough. I know one time he bought a horse from some people we knew. This horse was really really bad about not wanting to move away from the arena gate. You'd get him a few steps and he'd rear straight up and spin around and run right back to the gate. From what I've been told Joe would never try to get the horse to move away from the gate, he just made standing by it so unpleasant, it moved away on its own, and I guess then the unpleasantness stopped.

The horse was a really pretty, nice size black and white paint. Joe landed up selling it for $12,000 as a heeling horse.

I have very mixed emotions about Joe and his methods....I've got Belle....but I've also seen him take horses like the paint and turn them around. He's hard to figure.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

How would you go about keeping it open?

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Does it feel like it's an abcess with puss in it that would drain? or is it more of a meaty swelling? If you can peel the scab off and get it to drain, I'd just keep taking the scab off... If he'll let you do that of course... might help to wet it down to soften it, either just with a hose or with a warm sponge or towel. I wouldn't work it too hard, but if you can peel the scab off and push on it and get it to drain and stay drained the better. Being on the underside, it would drain on it's own if you can get it open without major surgery.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Ok, I'll check it later. I noticed he needs his sheath cleaned really bad, so I'm going to do that in a bit.

I only rode Harley about 15 minutes...Big :). He was perfect. He was so perfect in fact that I even loped it once, and it was perfect, lead changes at the right time, perfect turns, and nice smooth stop at the end. I guess I didn't ruin him. What a relief. He's earned the right to be done now till Mon.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Oh, I forgot to add, I took my spurs off. I've meant to do that for a while with him. I don't think he needs them at all. I did, and he moved so much smoother. I think the spurs made him over respond, even tho, I swear:) I don't gouge with them, just press. But I guess he doesn't even need that.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

I would have recommended that! Some horses are just sensitive... The apprehension of them may cause him to over-react.

[HairOfTheDog]

And BTW.... I am really glad your ride when well on him. I didn't want you having to fight that right before the clinic.

[N. Beaujon]

Duchess, it's made by Merck and starts with an "R", I think. I wish I could get my vet to carry it but I'm a little reticent to broach the subject. I hear you have to order at least 50 vaccines (which I'm sure they can do.) How did you get a hold of the vaccine? I really no longer want to use anything from Fort Valley.

[HairOfTheDog]

WOO HOO!

We got the lawnmower running... or rather... we didn't, the guy at the john deer place did. It needed a new plug, and we bought two more :~D

[CindyDawg]

I am having such a hard time writing a 360 dollar check for boarding this month (plus the 5 dollars a day I put Sarah Lee in). In two days I have to decide if I want to write 30 days notice on it. We are negotiating and working out details. My BIL says if I buy the feed he will feed then for me for riding and trailer privileges and if the vet says they are still contagious we can hot wire an area off for awhile. The only drawback is that for now I won't be around them as much but when I am I'll have entire days with them. It may not be where we want to be all the time later but it would be an investment.