Homestead mailing list

[Leslie <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>]

100% agree with everything you said.
 
 
 
You'll get a kick out of this story.
 
I had a lady bring a horse in from one of those big well known show barns.  
He was a 17'2" TB Gelding, large boned for a TB, and severely underweight - 
close to reportable levels.  She only brought him because she was leaving for 
3 months, and wanted my daughter to ride him while she was away.  (How?  You 
couldn't get a saddle on him without hurting him....)
 
I had known this horse for 6 years and was shocked at his condition.  Asked 
what he was being fed.  12 qts of grain a day and 2 small pads of T&A... 
Insane.  This was a hyper horse to begin with.  Naturally the minute the 
owner was away, I changed his diet, which included lots of turn-out.  Of 
course he was "smart" and loved grain, so would refuse to eat the hay.  All 
he got from me was tough love, and hand feeding of hay until he realized the 
game wouldn't work.  By the time she returned he was eating mostly hay and 
less than 2 qts of grain (much later next to none).   
 
Turned out the owner didn't return for 6 months. One afternoon, she and her 
husband banged loudly on the door..  They were angry - demanding to know 
where their horse was.  They couldn't find him in the barn.  Ha!  He was in 
the same assigned stall the whole time when he was inside, and was actually 
in his stall eating hay. They didn't recognize him (and to me he was still 
underweight.)  His coat was shiny, and he had gained a lot of weight, and he 
was calm, instead of his usual pacing all over.
 
They did not go back to the big show barn, and left him in my care for many 
years, as did others who wanted sane, happy horses.  I'm convinced people is 
the problem with most horses.  
 
 
Show people are not evil --- but a lot of them are really stupid and cruel - 
some very visibly cruel, and others very subtly.  'Tis a long story, but I 
worked with "O" Judges for years.  One in particular, an older German Judge, 
actually teared up while judging and refused to give a score - for a 
competitor nearing the international level - for the kind of cruelty that 
most people can't see.  Boy did that cause a lot of behind door arguments 
between a couple of "O" judges since 3 scores were required.
 
 
 
 


--- On Wed, 1/7/09, Lynda <lurine AT com-pair.net> wrote:


Susan, the advise so far has been sort of good.  As with everything else, 
something a certain someone needs a continual reminder about, there is no 
one size fits all.  The same applies to horses, as it does to those that 
raise and show them.

I'm one of those evil folks who showed horses.  Hauled them 35,000 miles a 
year.  However, they weren't locked in stalls, fed micro-managed diets or 
fussed over.  With a bit of common sense one can haul, show and beat the 
pants off the big boys with all the big bucks and did it with horses 
straight off a pasture.  Straight off the pasture we won in halter, 
including futurities, cutting, reining, hunter hack, saddleseat, pleasure 
driving, fine harness, hunters, jumpers, hackamore, pleasure, barrels, 
poles, trail.

The number one thing to remember about horses is that they need quality, let 
me repeat, QUALITY feed.  You can toss second rate hay to cattle and not 
have problems.  Do that with horses and you will end up with problems 9 
times out of 10.  Yeah, there is always the guy who gets away with it but 
that is the exception, not the rule and you don't want to spend hundreds,
if 
not thousands, to find out you aren't the 1 in 10.

Good quality hay doesn't = big bucks.  It equals hay that is clean, no
mold, 
no vetch, no foxtails, no star thistle.  Horses rarely need grain.  If you 
have an old horse, extreme cold, hard work, growing out a foal, grain will 
sometimes be needed.

When and if you decide to get a horse, spend some time with someone who 
really knows what they are doing.  And, to some degree, James is correct. 
Stay away from the fancy barn where all the folks board their horses.  Those 
folks are in business to make money, not in the business to make sure the 
right person gets the right horse.  Go spend some time around horses.  I 
realise that there is something in the DNA (sorry, James, there really are 
differences) of most females that makes them crave owning a horse but horses 
aren't for everyone.  We never sold a horse to a newbie until they spent 
some time on the ranch.  We frequently found that the temperment of the 
person didn't match the termperment of the horse and some folks found they 
really didn't want a horse after all.

And contrary to popular belief, horses are very smart but not in the way 
most folks think.  Horses will figure out how to get into mischief and how 
to manipulate and out smart humans very quickly.  Unfortunately, horses are 
smarter than most folks that own them, just not in the most healthy way. 
yeah know, kinda like humans <g>

We did lots of rescues and found the problem was generally the owner and a 
lack of horse smarts and not the horse.

Oh, and I don't know where you are but just incase, I'll save you a big
vet 
bill.  Most people won't warn you about sand.  Sand is one the horses worst

enemies.  If you have sandy soil, do NOT feed your horse on the ground!

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Trickett" <gmasue AT inbox.com>


> That's what I thought:-) I have my eye on a place 12 miles out of
town, 7 
> acres, fenced pasture and a beautiful old barn. No money so it's only
a 
> dream for now. If I am ever in a position to get a horse I will really 
> think about the responsibility and ask more questions!

_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/cayadopi%40yahoo.com
View the archives at:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead






>From mmcharry AT gmail.com  Thu Jan  8 21:57:34 2009
Return-Path: <mmcharry AT gmail.com>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix, from userid 3002)
        id 8935C4C016; Thu,  8 Jan 2009 21:57:34 -0500 (EST)
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.3 (2007-08-08) on malecky
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled
        version=3.2.3
Received: from yx-out-1718.google.com (yx-out-1718.google.com [74.125.44.156])
        by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1E39C4C015
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu,  8 Jan 2009 21:57:34 -0500 
(EST)
Received: by yx-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id 3so2946668yxi.60
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:57:33 -0800 
(PST)
Received: by 10.231.16.74 with SMTP id n10mr1078761iba.44.1231469853566;
        Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:57:33 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.231.15.77 with HTTP; Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:57:33 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <18c9df6e0901081857j6cbff6edi4e70ac7a5ccd8aa AT mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 20:57:33 -0600
From: "Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
In-Reply-To: <8CB3FD4665D3218-179C-9BE AT webmail-db15.sysops.aol.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
References: <49652CEA.8090506 AT bellsouth.net>
        <8CB3FD4665D3218-179C-9BE AT webmail-db15.sysops.aol.com>
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Cutting back
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
Reply-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: <homestead.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:57:34 -0000

Ray turned off his TV a couple of years ago.  I just quiit watching
sometime after the Gulf War. If a series turns out to be terrific, you
can always get it on DVD through Netflix. I read about  the Sopranos
fior years before I finally got the first season and watched half of
it in a single sitting.

I get my news via the Internet, so I probably get miore news from
foreign sources than most do.

Marie