Horse Talk

[Bunnylady]

ILL, I hope you recover your cattle without incident.

 

[WhisperingOaks]

Keep in mind health issues can effect trainability and young horses are more prone to things like parasites- I found parasiteprofessionals.com for manure worm testing. I sent in all my babies manure and saved a bunch on dewormers and have peace of mind!

 

[abigalerose]

I understand that people buy horses without knowing anything, I've even done it before by buying a horse that was too advanced for me, now I know better, and I never blamed the horse. But that's not a reason for someone not to train a horse how they like. The person buying the horse should educate themselves ahead of time. And I know realistically that it'll never be that way in the world, but it's not on the animal or the type of training it has. Now I personally would not train a horse to do those types of tricks unless I 100% planned on keeping that horse forever, and if I made sure I was well educated in all the other training leading up to those tricks first. And I know people will say "well you can't promise you're gonna keep a horse forever becuase you don't know what circumstances you're gonna be under in the future" no. I don't believe that. When you have kids you don't say "well I really love this kid, and I plan on keeping it, but you never know, I might lose my job in the future and need to sell it" and for me it's the same with horses and dogs, unless I buy that animal knowing beforehand that there's a possibility of me selling it. There's no possibility of me EVER selling June. She'll die with me and when she does she's gonna be buried on my property even if I have to did a 10 foot hole. So in other words she's a horse that I could teach Liberty tricks to if I wanted to, and if I ever have the skills to do so. I've also heard way too many bad things about clicker and treat training. To me, pressure and release is the only way to go.

And good luck with your cattle!

 

[kajira]

I understand that people buy horses without knowing anything, I've even done it before by buying a horse that was too advanced for me, now I know better, and I never blamed the horse. But that's not a reason for someone not to train a horse how they like. The person buying the horse should educate themselves ahead of time. And I know realistically that it'll never be that way in the world, but it's not on the animal or the type of training it has. Now I personally would not train a horse to do those types of tricks unless I 100% planned on keeping that horse forever, and if I made sure I was well educated in all the other training leading up to those tricks first. And I know people will say "well you can't promise you're gonna keep a horse forever becuase you don't know what circumstances you're gonna be under in the future" no. I don't believe that. When you have kids you don't say "well I really love this kid, and I plan on keeping it, but you never know, I might lose my job in the future and need to sell it" and for me it's the same with horses and dogs, unless I buy that animal knowing beforehand that there's a possibility of me selling it. There's no possibility of me EVER selling June. She'll die with me and when she does she's gonna be buried on my property even if I have to did a 10 foot hole. So in other words she's a horse that I could teach Liberty tricks to if I wanted to, and if I ever have the skills to do so. I've also heard way too many bad things about clicker and treat training. To me, pressure and release is the only way to go.

And good luck with your cattle!

I've had horses in my lifetime, and have had to sell them, in order to move and start life over. I've never done that with my children, but I have other livestock, including my bottlefed goats that I was particularly attached too.

It's nice to think when you get a horse, you're going to keep it forever. But the reality is, horses live for a long time, and odds are, especially if they get injured, or you end up wanting to do different sports, you'll need to rehome ones that no longer suit your needs down the road.
Unless you have unlimited grazing space to put older horses, or unsuitable horses to pasture and afford feed, vet, ferrier, floating, and other stuff for them... you will simply just run out of the money.

And, if you choose to just have 1 horse your entire life, then it doesn't matter how you train it to suit your needs. No one else will end up with it's bad habits, if it has any.

But, the reality is, very few people go into a horse, thinking they are going to own the horse forever. with the exception of adopting an elderly horse to begin with

Also - usually (at least down here) they burn cattle, and horses that die. Putting them in the ground creates a lot of bacteria that can get into water tables.

 

[I Love Layers]

I've had horses in my lifetime, and have had to sell them, in order to move and start life over. I've never done that with my children, but I have other livestock, including my bottlefed goats that I was particularly attached too.

It's nice to think when you get a horse, you're going to keep it forever. But the reality is, horses live for a long time, and odds are, especially if they get injured, or you end up wanting to do different sports, you'll need to rehome ones that no longer suit your needs down the road.
Unless you have unlimited grazing space to put older horses, or unsuitable horses to pasture and afford feed, vet, ferrier, floating, and other stuff for them... you will simply just run out of the money.

And, if you choose to just have 1 horse your entire life, then it doesn't matter how you train it to suit your needs. No one else will end up with it's bad habits, if it has any.

But, the reality is, very few people go into a horse, thinking they are going to own the horse forever. with the exception of adopting an elderly horse to begin with

Also - usually (at least down here) they burn cattle, and horses that die. Putting them in the ground creates a lot of bacteria that can get into water tables.

Good point.
For us when a horse reaches 15-16 they usually get a new cinch. Around 22 they get put out to pasture, but we would never sell an old horse. They've earned so much respect!! I can't tell you how many times Bert, who's 23, has saved my life. We will never sell her. And she'll be on our place til she dies.

 

[Bunnylady]

I don't know if any of the rest of you were around to remember a thread that created a lot of drama in this part of the forum several years ago . . . . basic story was this: Girl has a young horse that she has started under saddle, and he's progressing well. She's going off to college out of state, doesn't want horse sitting idle and backsliding on his training so she finds someone to lease him to. Comes back to find out lessee has absconded with her horse! After a few months, a miracle occurs; she tracks the lowlife down in another state, and it turns out he still has her horse (it seems he has given the horse to his uncle for his kid to ride). She then has to take the thief and his family to court in an effort to get her horse back. Lots of rigmarole and hoops to jump through; first judge recuses himself, etc. Finally, justice prevails, and she gets her horse back. After all that, you'd think this would have a "they all live happily ever after" ending, right? Nope; the coda is, a couple of years later, she gets married, moves out of state, and try though she might, she simply cannot fit the horse into the shape her life has now taken. Reluctantly, she sells him.

When push comes to shove, they are animals, not children. We are responsible for them, and responsible to them, but there is simply no comparison; you may have to be a parent yourself to really grasp that. You might just be one of the few who is so blessed as to never have to make such a choice, but that's very rare. Unless you write a will stating that your horses be euthanized in the event of your death, and set aside some money specifically for that purpose, events beyond your control could put these animals in someone else's hands. It's easy to say "never," but we all have events in our lives that we couldn't have anticipated.

Incidentally, responsible parents name a guardian for their minor children in their wills . . . .

 

[I Love Layers]

The ride went pretty well.

We got up to the water tank downhill of Linster hill, there were some cows that still had not gone through the gate, so I chased about 10 cows and 8 calves through while my dad watched above the gate.

We then went up to Linster quarter then onto Mike's. We went onto 2 separate points and looked did not see anything. Then we went down on some cow trails did not see anything but deer.
Then we went onto our other neighbor, Randy, who has a cow out, this neighbor is actually nice.
We found fresh cow pies on his land but saw no cows. We followed the trail for a little while. We decided to head back since Bert, our 23 year old mare, was really tired.
We had to cut some wires between Randy's and Mike's so that we could get home. We found some broken wires where the cows had crossed back over to ours, we found them maybe a quarter of a mile from the gate. Bert was to tired to help trail the 8 cows back so we or just I will go back and get them later.
We also had a good discussion on the best kind of ranch horses. How they should be mainly QH with no more then 1/4 arabian to add a little endurance

 

[abigalerose]

Wait so all the missing cows were on your land?

 

[I Love Layers]

They were on Mike's yesterday. Randy's this morning. And then yesterday my dad cut a hole in the fence between ours and Randy's and they were on ours at noon.

 

[abigalerose]

Well that's good. My grandpa had a neighbors bull get on his land a couple days ago and it was down in the pond fighting with his bull