FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 12

[HairOfTheDog]

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - (very out of date) Who's Who *pics*

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!

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Riding during hunting season can be a bit scary:\

I’ve always been told that for bow and black powder hunters, the have to be really close to the target to hit it, so will “know” what they are shooting at. Rifle hunting they can just see something moving thru the trees and may shoot without really knowing what they are shooting at. That’s why it is more dangerous during rifle season, so I don’t ride at all then except maybe in the arena. I hope this is true:)

Becky

[Duchess47]

Good morning, anxious to see the pictures of the new horse.

[Duchess47]

I’m going to have to do some research and see what I can find out about the ladies. That is going to be an interesting club you are joining. We have the Rendezvous here every year which is mountain man/civil war/etc. reenactment and period costumes. Very interesting and fun to watch.

[HairOfTheDog]

I think it’s true the distances during rifle season make it more dangerous. Bow hunters take their shot at 25 yards. I don’t know about black powder, but rifles with scopes on them, they may shoot at things that are as much as 150-200 yards away. Not that they always should, but they’re tempted to.

Of course, in our country, and even yours, there aren’t many places where you can actually have that long of a field of view. Even rifle hunters have to get closer than that to find a deer. It’s not like my dad hunting deer in AZ where they can see for miles unobstructed. Still... there’s a chance that a hunter taking a shot and missing could send a round a loooooong ways into the woods if it manages to miss all the trees. It’s a long shot, so to speak, that you might be in the way of one of those shots, but that’s the risk.

[Duchess47]

That’s my problem with the modern costumes. I can’t imagine indians riding with essentially the best gear on their horses, carrying fishing baskets and buffalo hides. And all the rest. It’s a combination of a bunch of aspects of indian life all at once, all on the same horse. I’m surprised someone hasn’t figured out how to carry a tipi also. No one cured hides, went hunting, fishing, foraging and visiting all at the same time on the same horse.

[Duchess47]

You’d think Lady Godiva knew some self defense if she was going to ride around naked wouldn’t you? :)

[HairOfTheDog]

Still, it would be kind of cool to ride a horse in dragging one of those bundles on long poles... whatever they are called. In traveling clothes of course :~)

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I’ve always thought the biggest problem with this area around my home is that being so close to town, we get a lot of wannabee hunters. Hunters that don’t really know how to hunt...They go out to a place close, for one day, during the afternoon, and just shoot at anything that moves. We’ve had them before.

The guy next door that is obviously a real “hunter” I don’t worry so much about him. During the week days he’s at work except during rifle season. I think he takes that time off, because I hear him leaving early early in the morning everyday on his 4wheeler then.

He’s told me he doesn’t mind my riding thru there...gets the deer use to seeing horses and people there...am I bait:)? Even so tho, I won’t go back there during rifle season. The trees can be good shelter, but also can obscure the view, and then, you’re right, the missed shots have a slight risk.

I don’t know, hunting season rather pisses me off...this is after all a housing area, lots of kids run around out there. I’m not against hunting, I just don’t think for most of the hunters this is really a very safe area, altho there are a lot of deer and they do need to be thinned out...there is definitely two sides to it. I just get really aggravated when during hunting season the weather is great, but I can’t ride because of fear of getting shot:). I’m rather territorial about this area...this is “my” mountain, I spend more time out there then anyone around here...they should have to come and get my permission:)

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

I understand! It’s made difficult that it’s not really an area whose use is defined. On public land like Capital forest, there’s a trailhead and warnings and rules. People are told it’s hunting season and when to wear orange, they’re also warned to look out for other users. Your place, it’s not defined at all. More and more people come in and do what they want, but who owns it?

[AnAmericanMother]

This is a lot like the Rendezvous, but everybody shoots!

They're really bugs on safety (which I like a lot), a few people are really serious about getting a high score, but mostly it's for hobby shooters to get together and have a little fun.

Potluck supper next month -- I'm going to try to have something to wear before then. This past Saturday, I just wore my jeans, my old roping boots, a Western belt and shirt, my breaking chaps and my Aussie drover coat, along with the moth-eaten old Stetson that I bought when I worked on a ranch in Nebraska back in '67. The feather hat band was dead, dead, dead when I took it out - the feathers had just decomposed to dust - so I brushed it off and wore it without a hatband.

But I'd like to be more period. If I'm a lady marshal, I'll probably wear mostly man's western attire (one blurb on Ms. Miller said that she aspired to be another Calamity Jane, but on the side of law-and-order instead), if I'm an Indian scout, I'll have to delve into what would be correct for a Crow woman - but one fighting as a man, and on horseback, and as a scout for the U.S. Army. Lots of room for interpretation there. I have a photo of 4 scouts from Custer's unit, between the four of them they have just about every possible combination of Western and Indian attire.

[AnAmericanMother]

It's like those decorators who have to include EVERYTHING in one room whether it serves a function or not.

You make a really good point that you would go out to do one thing at a time, not load everything on the horse for a whole week's work! It's not like the poor thing is a pickup truck and you can just keep everything in the back until needed . . .

[AnAmericanMother]

One way to reduce the risk is to encourage the hunters to use tree stands.

Then they are UP in the trees, shooting DOWN, so that if they do miss, the bullet will travel quickly and harmlessly into the ground. THE most dangerous situation is where the hunter is down in a draw and shoots at a deer silhouetted on the skyline. If he misses, that darn bullet could go ANYwhere (another rule, 'know your backstop', that's more honored in the breach than the observance.)

[MissTargets]

The new horse. A 12 yo Reg. Paint mare. Her name is Flashy by Design. They bought her at a sale in Michigan. She is real quiet and gentle. Amy showed her today and won a 4th in jack-pot walk trot pleasure. The mare had some issues with the bit and we are going to have her teeth checked. I was surprised they bought a Paint, but the price was right. Alison showed PJ and won 1st in Showmanship, 2nd in Horsemanship and a 3rd in Egg&Spoon. The show was indoors, but it sure was cold.

[MissTargets]

Good luck on getting a costume ready. Those SASS events look like so much fun. At the show today, a friend was telling me about the clinic held yesterday for Mounted CAS. I wish I would have known and I sure would have went.

[AnAmericanMother]

I would LOVE to do mounted SASS . . . although Gracie and I would look pretty silly (she's 16 hh, not to mention my English tack) we would have a ball. She's steady to shot, I'd just have to make sure she wouldn't freak out if I shot off her back. I've trained two retrievers now to be steady to shot, starting with a cap pistol at a distance while feeding, so we could probably work it out.

But the closest SASS mounted event is in FLORIDA!!!!! It's just not gonna happen, folks!

[AnAmericanMother]

Now that's a cute looking horse. Pretty head. She does seem to be unhappy with that bit (or maybe she's just making goo goo eyes at the photog). Can't hurt to check her teeth though. We had the vet file a few tags off Gracie's teeth a couple of weeks ago.

It does look COLD and gray there . . . it's a little chilly here (30s early in the morning, high 60s by afternoon) but bone dry. We sure do need rain!

[tuffydoodle]

What a gorgeous horse!!!! Whose horse is that?

[MissTargets]

You were the first one I thought of, when I saw this mare. This is Amy's new horse. She sold her QH about a month ago and had been looking for a more finished horse to show for her and Alison.

Thanks! She is pretty cute and has a really nice way of going.

[tuffydoodle]

Woweee she is a knock out.

[CindyDawg]

She’s gotgeous. She blooks like Okie except for that beautiful tail.