- This topic has 40 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 15 years, 3 months ago by .
-
Posts
-
I’ve had horses for the last 15 years but my Welsh stallion Manyara (aka Frodo) was my first breeding animal. I have three mares as well for him 😳
He’s currently #2 in the nation (YAY!) and we’re fighting for getting him back to # 1! He does western pleasure, english pleasure, driving, hunters and trail…
Not bad for a little guy!
I’ve loved horses ALL my life though and have tons of useless facts stored up!I just bought a Horse Encyclopedia; even though I don’t ride, I’ve always loved horses. My favorite breed is the Andalusian.
purpledragonclaw wrote:I just bought a Horse Encyclopedia; even though I don’t ride, I’ve always loved horses. My favorite breed is the Andalusian.
Then you yourself might also like the Alter-Real, they derive from the Andalusian.
I was fortunate enough to ride a Lippizanner once. I was very shy when my mother suggested that I inquire about a ride. They were demonstrating their mad Lippizanner skillz for us, ‘Tiny Tots’, at my show grounds. But she reminded me, ‘It never hurts to ask and you’ll never have an answer unless you do.” So um, she asked on my behalf!
What a magnificent experience, including the absolutely amazing person who let me up on their Lippizanner. I was allowed the reins and a tool around the ring under their watchful eye.
Cloud nine? Meh, I was all they way up there in Heaven.
~Hoofer, reminiscing.
Phoenix wrote:HYPP is a gene that some breeders think causes the Quarter horses to be more muscular. Since the disease causes the afflicted horses to sieze and spasm, the breeders believe all that “excercise” makes the horse more beefy. There have been shows where these + horses fall over in the ring. It’s very very sad.
It happened to the gorgeous black halter Quarter Horse (QH) that my acquaintance bought from the kiddie show, lesson, sales etc. barn down the road. I kept my QH at the acquaintances place for a short time during a changeover in places. The QH gelding was your typical small hooved, large muscled, halter Quarter Horse; they bred the hooves small so that the body appeared even larger (umm, can we say duh? A horse with no hoof is worth what?)
The owner saw some signs, but really had no clue that she possibly had an HYPP QH. The fact that he was a, ‘bred to look pretty in a halter’ type of confirmation (body style) was enough to clue me in, but I never thought to ask her if she double checked for the HYPP gene. She was kind of a know it all type.
I had moved my girl on to her new home by the time the signs started to manifest themself. It didn’t take long once the signs started to present themself and that gorgeous sweet, now trail horse for the kids, keeled over and the autopsy showed …… that the heart muscle exploded.
I’m not sure who to blame, the ingorant owner or possibly the not so ignorant seller. Oh I know, the Toopid not ignorant American QH Association. They should be maintaining the integrity of the breed with all those fees they collect. Yeah, I know, I’m a dreamer! At least they finally moved off their duffs on that one. I would not consider breeding my mare with even one Y in the HYPP n/n test results.
>>>Herda is a disease in which the skin of the horse sluffs off?
Ayup
>>>It’s really gross from what I’ve heard. THe horse suffers tremendously.
I could only imagine, I myself have never seen a case. The signs start showing up as early as the moment you start to halter them. For those wanting to better understand the condition and the affects of it, think of yourself always being rubbed raw by your clothing.Phoenix wrote:Whew! Sorry to bore you all, but it’s a needless waste to breed these diseases into the horses and education should be passed on!
Boring? Neva! Knowlege is Power! What we do with it is even MORE powerful. Course, that always must be followed with the warning, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, heh. Anyway, had I known that the above acquintance had NO clue about HYPP nor what to look for, I would have taken it upon myself to educate her about it and I would have suggested the test. But really, what would that have solved? He was a gelding, perhaps she would have at least had a better clue instead of the absolute shock she must have went through when he up and keeled over.
I think the only thing we have to worry about is whether or not Ms. Melody minds that we (I) seriously keep hijacking her thread. 8) Some boards have major issues about that.
Me? GUILTY!! I can not tell a lie, I ate the apple AND the carrot. Neigh!! I’ve been teefing taglines and hijacking/combining posts for …. soma tima. 8)
~Hoofer nickers at you and you notice some apple and carrot bits in her teeth and yes, some hay in her hair and dirt on her clothes.
Wow, very interesting posts here. I don’t think Miss Mel will mind….some of us are actually learning new things here. 😉
purpledragonclaw wrote:Phoenix, Hoofer, Nightcrow, Melody, how long have you been raising horses?
Gosh, my joke is, “My first words were in this order, Mommy, Daddy, Horsie!”
I have lived, slept, ate and breathed (still do!) horses. Though in much smaller doses these days.
I’ve never actually raised up my own bred for me/by me baby horse. I have rode, excersized, trained and taken care of a large amount of them in my day.
I was extremely fortunate, the man that raised me (aka my father) saw this in me and he’d been there, done that by the time he met my mother, I was just past a year in age. He saw that spark in my eye when I first saw one and meh, it’s all HIS fault. 8)
He used to race Quarter Horses, actually, that’s an understatement, he did a lot in his life by the time he met my mother. So whenever he could, he’d take me here and there for a ride. I was your typical natural. I started out with a good seat/balance and no fear. He got me my first pony when I was eight.
We boarded my first pony with his mare, moms gelding, etc., then later they figured nuh uh, so we moved further out and did the farm thing aka ranchette. I gained an enormous amount of hands on, here’s how you do it kiddo, from him, right down to natural hoof trimming.
No, he didn’t stop at horses. We had chickens, cows, goats, pigs, a few geese, your standard dog/cat and the most amazing garden. Since he was 25 years older than my mother, (as an aside, she had NO idea he was that much older than her he had somehow fudged this and that, here and there until the records started to all come together much later in life, he was from the time period that SSNs were still a new thing) he had a wealth of information he had gleened growing up in North Dakota on the real ranch.
Once I struck out on my own, I never stopped learning about them, working with them and having them in my life. It’s an enormous sacrifice, I’ll not tell you otherwise, but it’s known as a labor of love. 8) So the sacrifice is so worth it. I have always referred to horses as, “My sanity in an insane world.” “My drug of choice, my prozac!”
Again, I personally have never bred or raised anything from scratch like Phoenix is doing. Laurie aka 2 Huberts knows a thing or two about horses herself. Well, ok, Mom and Pop did do some breeding with Qhorses and I got to have fun with that working with the babies, it’s a horse, a baby horse, but it’s still a horse!
I also did several years working at a TB racing farm as a kid where he had his own breeding program. That owner niggled in my ear about how I could become a Jockey, like the other girl who worked for him for a number of years. I’ll never forget the days I would go down to the Track with him and I KNEW that was not going to be my niche. I used to tell him, “Umm, I know I’m a squirt (late bloomer), but I’m not done growing yet.”
Somehow the folks went over to breeding Arabs after I went off on my own, but I never managed to settle down long enough to actually start any kind of breeding program. Again, my one girl is not shy about wanting a baby, the other one, she just isn’t into that. Meh, as I see it, she probably hasn’t met the right man yet. LoL 😀
Me, my specialty was that I did a lot of climbing on nags. Fixing stubborn, spoiled problem horses, but what I really needed to do was fix a lot of the owners. Meh, it was a side yob. I also did what was called starting them (getting on them for their first times aka green breaking. Yes, I did some showing here and there. My thrill was always jumping. I was so lucky that I actually had my own timber course to go and do anytime I wanted and yes, my jumper and I had a blast. Which includes the one girl I still have, she was a natural jumper.
She’s a Connemara crossed with a Qhorse, she was an oops, but is one of the best all around horses anyone can get on and she has had tons and tons of newbies on her back. Same with the QH I let a young girl have/buy, he was a racing QH that Pop picked up and tried to breed with, he later became a graduation gift for me. I traded him up for a much bigger QH and the racing one went on to be a young girls hunter/jumper show horse. All my horses jumped what was in front of them, no matter what it was. No I didn’t do crazy stuff like jump cars or boats like some of my friends. I just always figured, why go around, we can fly over it instead and my horses accomodated my wishes.
I eventually opted to go into Polo with my partner. Now that was fun. The perfect niche for someone like me. No, I never had a desire to actually play Polo, though my partner used to ask me all the time to join in the practice games. I was pretty awesome with that mallet while stick and balling. But, I was very stubborn about things like that, I preferred the husbandry and training side of things; poor fella, he tried so hard to keep putting me into those games! 🙂
I remember one night looking out over the gate at the barn that I ran. I was staring at the full moon talking with a friend and I thought to myself, “Wow, you have your dream, this is great!” Which was soon to be followed the next morning with, “Wow this is TOUGH werk!” LoL When the partnership was obsolved, I figured it was time for me to finally enjoy my own horses again; it was his gig when we met and I had no problem quietly stepping out of the picture.
My true pleasure is just getting on and going into the middle of nowhere, what I always enjoyed doing and being out there seeing what nature has to offer. I am so lucky again that I have several thousands of acres available to me to get lost in. A couple of months back, I finally got to see a Bobcat on the trail. The three other women my girl and I were riding with did not notice it at all. I stopped them and had everyone hush and just wait for it, I knew it would eventually move and when it did, we all got to ooh and ahhh in awe at it.
By the way, you gain a lot of skills just from taking care of pets. If you adore animals, I suggest a field like Veterinarian or there’s the Certified Veterinarian Technician and there’s also the emergency care for animals (large or small) and don’t forget the more simple things like pet sitting. People are very happy to know that their furry (scaley, finned) babbies are well taken care of while they are away doing whatever.
~Hoofer, always glad to spread the horse virus, it’s seriously infectious you know and some people are BORN with the infection. 8)
P.S. PurpledragonClaw, I know you actually asked how long I have been playing with horses, but um … I’m not tellin’!!I will say that I have a major milestone in age this September, well, milestone to some, it’s just another day for me. 😉
Let’s just say …. I remember drooling over Ms. Melodys Pegasus line of statues when I was a squirt working at that TB farm and as I like to say, “I am not that old, I am perpetually young at heart, some days I feel 12 years of age and some days I feel 30++.” And for that matter, neither is Ms. Melody! When I think about it, I am probably just taking after my Pop, remember, he lied about his age too! 😀
Hoofer wrote:P.S. PurpledragonClaw, I know you actually asked how long I have been playing with horses, but um … I’m not tellin’!!I will say that I have a major milestone in age this September, well, milestone to some, it’s just another day for me. 😉
Let’s just say …. I remember drooling over Ms. Melodys Pegasus line of statues when I was a squirt working at that TB farm and as I like to say, “I am not that old, I am perpetually young at heart, some days I feel 12 years of age and some days I feel 30++.” And for that matter, neither is Ms. Melody! When I think about it, I am probably just taking after my Pop, remember, he lied about his age too! 😀
LOL, I just wanted to know how long you’d been working with horses! I never would ask for an exact year, I know some people are sensitive about their age. I can tell from your post, thank you for sharing, that you have been around horses for many happy years! By the way, I used to want to be a veterinarian.
purpledragonclaw wrote:LOL, I just wanted to know how long you’d been working with horses! I never would ask for an exact year, I know some people are sensitive about their age. I can tell from your post, thank you for sharing, that you have been around horses for many happy years! By the way, I used to want to be a veterinarian.
Actually, I really am not senstive about it, when people ask me, I’m the type of person I actually have to stop and think about it. It’s weird to explain. I don’t keep track. Maybe it’s because I am that bad at math. No, I’m not bad at math, I’m actually bad at remembering dates. Just ask my mother, it frustrates the bejesus out of her. She’s super duper about remembering dates.
My theories:
1) Pop fudged his and I emulated him, unbeknowest to me.
2) Mom was fantastic with them, so I chose not to be, unbeknowest to me.
3) I shoulda worn a helmet all those times I took a dirt dive, there were a few doozies.
4) I really am a brainfart and can’t remember dates, including my own year.
Number four might be a result of three. 8)
Wow! I’m getting quite an education here on horses–so much information that my poor brain just can’t absorb it all. I’ve always loved horses and ridden a fews times when I was in my teens. I am afraid of them–such a big animal can stomp this little body of mine into mush! But I think they’re beautiful and often considered taking riding lessons but if I isn’t time I’m lacking it’s the funds! Thanks for making this thread so interesting, Hoofer! 😀
LadyFirebird wrote:Wow! I’m getting quite an education here on horses–so much information that my poor brain just can’t absorb it all. I’ve always loved horses and ridden a fews times when I was in my teens. I am afraid of them–such a big animal can stomp this little body of mine into mush! But I think they’re beautiful and often considered taking riding lessons but if I isn’t time I’m lacking it’s the funds! Thanks for making this thread so interesting, Hoofer! 😀
Aww, I’m blushing. You’re welcome. Imagine how big that one post woulda looked had I used the font size that I like to normally use … this size. In case anyone is wondering the why behind that, I found it helps alleviate eye strain when viewing posts with the larger font size. 8)
As for that fear thing, it’s a good thing to have. Horses can be quite scary. They don’t have to be, but if you don’t have confidence around them, no fear, they will know it and yes, there are those horses that will take full advantage of you/your fears.
Putting people on horses for the first time in their life, if they are even slightly fearful, is such an important thing, well to me it is. I’ve seen to many people matched with the wrong horse and it usually ended up kinda badly. If I see that the person is not comfortable (scared), but is afraid to speak up (for whatever their reasons), I stop the activity right then and there. They’re usually quite relieved and tell me later how scared they were after they relaxed a bit. I just nod and pat them and let them know they did fantastic, considering that they were scared.
Happy week all, what a HUGE and BRIGHT moon !!
~Hoofer
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
