Miscellaneous

I am getting married two weeks from today. A few months ago, my fiancee' bought me a horse. I think about her now almost as much as I think about him! Is this normal?

Miracle was her name she was born premature and she had a caring owner (me). I loved her and for he rfirst birthday we vaccinated her for west nile and gave her a treat and the following week she was put to sleep for west nile. I collapsed after school when i found out my grandpa put her to sleep but i knew she was in a better place. 2 months later my grandpa my beloved grandpa was diognosed with life threating bone marrow cancer he also died and for then on i thought God was punishing me because so many bad things were happening to me.

Hey every body!

Im Baleigh and i need your help.
Im looking for a Saddle Bread for sale.
It must be Trained and good for shows.
Email me if you can help.

All of these things happened yesterday, when it was 96 at my house.

Your horse pulls the hose out of the trough so it's on the ground spraying up, and he stands over it so it's spraying his chest and belly. (true!)

You don't really mind scrubbing the trough.

You (as a normal late sleeper) get up at 6:00 am to get a ride in.

The dog goes swimming...in the trough.

Your three year old, who normally doesn't like baths, follows her friend's lead and stands over the hose, too. Then she puts her leg in the trough.

Ah... So, the weather has finally begun to disrupt our training/re-training of Missy. And if I can't be with my horse, where else would I be than on my favorite horsey website?

Sometimes in my day job as an equestrian (and sometimes business) journalist, companies send me "schwag"—freebies or samples of their products. Usually these items are quite small and don't cost much, which is fine. I get uncomfortable when the freebies are too expensive. Sometimes these items are awesome (like the recent Ultimate Hoofpick (shameless plug) by Thornhill, with a big handle and a place to thread through bailing twine to hang it up, and a nice, sturdy, but not too point pick end, or the Burr-out, which we are using to shed out the goat, but which is probably meant for burrs in horse tails. We have no burrs here in New Mexico, but the goat loves the thing).

My 4 year old fjord loves trailers. To her they are fine restaurants and fun places to go, at least if they aren't moving. When she was little, I trained her to go in a trailer by tapping her behind. Eventually she loved trailers so much I didn't worry about loading her. She just went in. There is often food there. But I didn't take her very many places and driving made her so nervous she ended up dripping sweat. I recently had to take her to a saddle fitting clinic about an hour and a half drive away. We did a short trial run with her a few days before and she ended up dripping wet. Then I decided to get her a mild tranquilizer from the vet.

I don't know why it took so long to discover Nicole. After all, she's been coming here for clinics for six or seven years, and its only in the last four that I've become a devotee.

Call me stubborn, but I've never wanted to be a "disciple" of a trainer. I know people (and have seen it up close) who become devoted and then drop their trainers like hot rocks, hurting the trainer's feelings and interrupting their horse's training. I've not been one of those people. I always kepy a good distance, clinic-ed with people here and there, remained friendly to everyone, taken some lessons, kept my horses at home away from the trainer-disciple problem at boarding stables.

Down the street from my modest barn is a farm that breeds reiners. Across the street from him is a hunter/jumper establishment. Next door to her is a guy who buys and sells the occasional racehorse. Next door to him is the backyard Appaloosa breeder. And so forth. We all like each other, and we all talk horse over the fence. We share the same help and when Larry's horse died from West Nile a few years ago, he called everyone in the neighborhood to tell them to get their horse vaccinated.

We're a neighborhood of horse lovers.

On a large scale, why can't we all get along, like we do in my small community? As a former event rider, I've taken serious lessons with dressage coaches and hunter jumper trainers. But never the twain shall meet. The snobbery we each carry in our separate disciplines does nothing for the horse industry as a whole, and frankly I'm sick of it. Are endurance riders any less serious than dressage queens, even though the two are fashionably disparate? Would I want to ride 100 miles in my leather full seat breeches? No way. I have great respect for endurance folks. Nor do I think hunter riders are any less serious riders than dressage queens, even though some think their trainers do all the work (common misconception). After all, it's tough to get an exact twelve foot stride and meet every fence cleanly and gracefully. Over the years, I've gained respect for all the disciplines (even roping. I once tried it. I roped my head and fell off my horse). Fox hunters have their rituals, but fundamentally they have to be able to ride, red coat or not. We all have to learn to be good horse people.

Miss Belle doesn't like the hose. At least not when I'm at the end of it. But tonight I left the hose running in the trough while I finished the chores. Periodically I'd go out to check it was still filling--I came out and Belle had the hose on the ground, and the nozzle was pointed straight up at her chest. She was just standing there, letting the water spray her. Go figure.