The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread!

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. In the previous threads we have had a great time talking through lessons, training, horse lamenesses, illnesses and pregnancies... and always sharing pictures and stories.

I always have a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts… look for it there and wake the thread up!

I also have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and Becky pings everyone most mornings. Let Becky (Paynoattentionmanbehindthecurtain) and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list. As FreeRepublic is a political site, our politics and other issues will probably blend in…. There are many issues for horsemen that touch politics… land use, animal rights/abuse cases that make the news…. Legislation that might affect horse owners.

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. There are lots of ways of doing things and we all have our quirks, tricks and specialties that are neat to learn about.

New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!

Thanks for the compliments about Biscuit...we really like her, even with the challenges of working with a horse, that had not much work. A lot of horses do change colors from season to season, as Hair and Becky stated.

Frog, I did see the video...lol Pretty cool. My camera takes them also, but I would have no idea how to post them. We all need to get one of those blogs. ;')

I have been packing and getting ready to take off to Tennessee in the morning, for my mountain cabin retreat....get that, Sharn. Bad thing is, I have a sinus infection. I feel like crap. Not going to stop me thou.

On the way back, we are stopping in Lexington and going to the Kentucky Horse Park. I would like to stop at Three Chimmeys Farm and see Smarty Jones.

Becky & Cindy, I hope Rusty & Okie are ok. You all take care of yourselves and your ponies.

Hi all! Inspired by FrogInABlender... I went out today and took some littl digital movies of the horses today. They are a little (OK they are a lot) shaky, but I'm new at this and I thought they might still be fun. I sortof look forward to taking more of these of us riding, or crossing a bridge or creek on trail. They tell a lot more than a still picture does! My camera has always had this feature, I've just never tried it before.

Instructions... must have QuickTime to play these. If you don't have it... QT is free from Apple - QuickTime - Download Uncheck the silly offers.

If you have a slow connection you'll get the best viewing if you right click the links and "Save target as..." to save it to your desktop, rather than trying to stream it. This also gives you the advantage of being able to resize the window nice and big if you want.

Since the goal was to show the pony in full afterburner, I went out with this orange signal flag to flap around, and later a bag of cans, which is guaranteed to freak our my Arab horse... and the pony doesn't usually need much of an excuse to run either. ;~D

The part that turned out to be funny was Cyn. I have often said she is "bomb-proof to a fault" and this is a good example. Being an Arab owner my whole life, and with Arab being half her blood, I am just surprised at her unflappability. Maybe all your stock horse types are like this and it's no big deal, but check these two clips out.

In this first one... I am flapping the flag at Cyn, and she is annoyed, but only because she wants to see and sniff the flag and I'm moving it too much. Bay is seen pacing in the background. That's about as close as I can get to him with a flapping flag in my hand ;~D
01bombproof cyn bay ..>

In this one, I rub the flag, and a trash bag, and a plastic bag full of noisy pop cans on her face...
001rubbing flag and ..>

Now.. in getting the horses to run, I'd go out and flap my flag, and they'd run into the paddock. At least that's what they did today. So I'd go run them back out and do it again. ;~D And Cyn usually just stood right by me the whole time. Go figure.

Here's a shot of mostly Bay....
02bay pretty trot an..>

Here is the best pony afterburner shot I got today... and this isn't all there is to her... she has another speed setting higher than this one but I guess she just wasn't in the mood ;~D
03bay and pony run i..>

And here's one more... where I turn around at the end and focus on Cyn... She just wasn't playing the reindeer games today.
04bay pony run in - ..>

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