Regarding the Horses in our lives...

[perchie.girl]

Make up a trail course... Bridge, poles, weave objects.... gates... keeps up the interest...

Katee and I would long line over the trail course at Willow Glenn... till the owner told me to stop... she was afraid Katee would break the bridge....

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

@paintedChix

Sorry about the pictures... I got a burr under my saddle a while back and almost quit BYC... I pulled an article and all my pictures... But slept on it and decided to stay...

So thats why you cant see my earlier pictures.

For what its worth I really like the fact that you use collar and hames for your harnesses.... With a collar and hames you can do so much more work with less stress on you horses. Breast collar harness while pretty when put in draft (pulling weight) they compress the shoulders together....

I once saw my mare who was totally willing to pull a two wheeled cart in a breast collar.... my trainers Protoge hooked her up to a sled for warm up... and Katee would NOT move... I fussed at the girl... and told her why. She got mad at me unhitched and did something else.

I am a fluffy person myself... at the time I was on crutches snapped ACL ligament and waiting for my surgery date. But The only one that "believed" that I knew what I was talking about was my Trainer Julie. this was back in 2001. People look at me and judge me. Thats why I love the draft horse venue soo much. No judgement because you cant wear high heels and an evening gown while you drive in the night classes.

Katee and me at the Del Mar Fair... Probably one of the photos that got deleted.




Notice the traces in the bottom picture... she was out of draft so they were hanging some. but when I built that cart I didnt want a single tree which would normally be on top of the shafts right in front of me. If the single tree had been on top I would have shown with a breast collar... but I didnt have one. So I hung the single tree under from the wheel axel. What that does is put the traces in the proper angle for the horse to be in draft.... (the collar wont ride up and stress the neck this way)

In the picture I was doing half halts trying to get her to relax and not brace on the bit.... just after the photo she reared and leaped forward. Almost taking the whole thing off the ground. After that I had someone scratch me from the class I was waiting for. Shes a hot girl and would have been great in a hitch class. But I dont believe in Scotch bottom shoes or shoes at all really. unless they are necessary. She was the only barefoot horse in the show. AND we were the oNly ones with a russet harness. Because my cart was all wood Russet is appropriate if you have it.

Yet we won enough money to pay for the stall and bedding.... and an incredible experience.

After looking at this picture forever I am realizing that the cart is too big for my girl... she should not have 52 inch diameter wheels or in the very least the springs should be set lower so that the shafts would angle up a couple of degrees.... Then the seat should be lifted up so I dont have to lift my hands to have a straight line to her collar.

The cart is one I built and I have no problems '"Redesigning" it. LOL.

deb

 

[paintedChix]

Yes, I finally found him! His name is R Khasper and he lives at Fern Valley Farm. She still calls him a Max Sabino as well as "Dominate White" the Arabian Horse Association has accepted Dominate White as a new and extremely rare Arab colour. They believe Khasper was the first (accepting that there may have been others.) I know there have been. Saw photos of 2 fillies born of the same bay mare in Australia. One was a chestnut Medicine Hat and the other was a bay. Both passed without offspring. I am sure there have been others in the past, but were not recognized. Especially before DNA Testing any "weird" colour pattern or too much white was suspect. If it happened they may have been registered grey. Some grey horses were registered as white way back when, the Registry admits that it is possible that some of those "whites" may have been Dominate White. Oh Dominate white is not related to Lethal white and always has a dark eye. Anyway, if you want to see some eye candy google R Khasper or Fern Valley Farm.

Wow, that's neat about the "dominant white" gene. Will have to do more studying on that one. He (Khasper) is sired by a son of Khemosabi. MANY of the Khemo offspring have almost as much white as Khasper does - I wonder if they are dominant whites or sabinos (or both?)? There are a few other lines out there too - mostly Crabbet type (can no longer remember the actual lineage of them, just know "crabbet bred"...). Still a farm in CO that breeds the sabino arabians too. Lots of Egyptian lines (not sure which ones specifically again - been almost 10 years since I was last studying those lines). LOVE the Pandemonium River bred horses. GREAT endurance/trail horses w/ substance, smarts and "pretty"... and the horses w/ HAAP prefix...

We had a mare that was distantly related to Khemo (actually several) - 2 of them had lots of chrome and both put "extra white" on their foals by our minimal tobiano Shetland stallion.

There are some TB lines that do the same thing. Used to be a stallion standing here in Southern Pines that was marked much like that - Puchilingui. He, too, was a bay. AH - just read that they are now considering him and quite a number of TBs to be Dominant Whites, not sabinos... COOL.

 

[paintedChix]

Deb, thanx for sharing those pics... They are really neat. I've been thinking about doing an axle draft "swingle tree" for my ez entry style cart and when I really go back to driving, need to see if we can put the single tree on the sulky cart underneath the bar it's currently on top of. It's too high and no matter how you adjust the shafts, the traces are well above the shafts in some cases (hence why it had the little hooks on the inside of the shafts right behind the circle bar & no single tree originally)...

Did you ever figure out what caused Katee to do that leap? I'm very curious...

When I was at the Mini Horse Nationals in 2012 - right before I came down really ill - I visited with several of the folks preparing their minis for draft halter and driving classes (that was a blast, btw!). The eventual winner in several events was a young lady I'd been in contact with BEFORE these shows and we met up there. She had just invested in new harness and scotch housing for this show and while she'd tried it on at home, she hadn't worked any of her minis long in it. I did not help her put it on, as I had no idea how to do so. I DID hold her horse while she made some adjustments and headed her while she remounted her cart before the class (we were in the warmup ring - Tulsa OK). She did a warm up but she stated how the little mare was just a bit OFF and she couldn't quite place it as to why. Then they announced the class and everyone else told her to lead in - her mare got almost to the gate and exploded! The squalling and airs above the ground were quite impressive - and she never managed to put a hoof/leg over the shafts or kick the cart behind her. O got out, took a hold of her head and looked her in the eyes - while everyone else went past them and entered the ring. She tugged on the scotch housing, raised the back strap a bit and remounted her cart and they calmly trotted right into the ring. The mare turned in a smashing performance - and took the Reserve Championship. They were almost out of the gate when she exploded again! I was right there - reached - but then asked "Want me to?" as she nodded and we pulled up to the side and she swung out of the cart and undid the scotch housing. It was putting pressure on her back/withers - there was a divot in the flesh that didn't pop back up when she removed it... But no "real wound". Go figure. Later when I called her (think she lives in MO or AR), she stated that she couldn't return the harness or the scotch housing due to them being a special order sized for her minis (Sampson Harness, I believe), but they did take it back and make some adjustments (not sure what/how) and she said that it fit/worked much better after that. From the pics, I'd say that she still has the scotch housing and that particular harness.

I found the pics of that day, but since they are copyrighted, I don't think I can post them... If you want to see - go to Casey McBride Photography.

Go to 2014 and previous horse shows, then 2012 Horse shows, then 2012 AMHR Nationals, then Sept 12, Wednesday, Evening, then class #212. Her pics are #s - 212-016; 022; 023; 043; 044; 047; 048; 049 & 50.

She took the Reserve World Championship w/ her draft pair as well... Thurs eve, class #270. Her wagon is black w/ silver hardware, the pair is not wearing scotch housing and she's wearing a white jacket & black britches. Let me look some more - think she showed Tandem and 4-up hitch as well? I was VERY sick by then and missed our own filly showing in the yearling futurity! I think I did see her in her halter class (it was a HUGE class - the winner looked like a 3 yr old, LOL. Our puny little girl had no chance! A late foal and while VERY nice, just not mature enough then to be competitive against her competition).

She didn't show in the 4 up hitch, but did in Tandem and there she took the National Championship... Friday eve, class # 327.

Some of those carts and hitch wagons are VERY impressive. Several of the folks in the AMHR that do the draft style driving have worked hard w/ several Amish manufacturers and have gotten some nice vehicles turned out. I went to dinner (BREAKFAST - after the classes on Wednesday nite) w/ a group that included the Bryants, another person and his wife and ... my acquaintance. this is really embarrassing as I can't remember the names of these folk!! My ASPC/AMHR magazines are packed or I could go thru them and find the names... UGH! Anyhoo - it was great - LEARNED a LOT (the Bryants were active big horse farmers at one point in their lives)...

And yes, Rural Heritage is fantastic... Learned a lot thru them as well. Went to Horse Progress Days in 2014 in Mt Hope OH. FUN.

 

[paintedChix]

BunnyLady -

YEP , seen weeds like that on some of our properties!! VERY familiar foe.

What you might try with Syd is several different things/angles.

Can do balancing side reins - start w/ them adjusted loose, then slowly take up more contact w/ her mouth. Use those to "control" her head tossing & her "snacking", believe it or not. Then run your driving lines w/o them being used as draw reins (I've seen so many problems develop from that - just be careful).

Also, if you need to use your paddock w/ the other equine it it - tie them up. Then use it.

When I'm working young horses, I often spend just 10 minutes at a time ground driving them. It's AMAZING how much you can accomplish in that amount of time. I sometimes didn't even hook up a surcingle, but just ran my lines back (halter is FINE, I've done with all 3 - halter, open bridle and blind bridle) behind the horse and ground driven them. No surcingle meant no time spent doing any grooming. Started out using 10' leadropes, then went longer and then went to driving lines as they got used to me being behind them. I kept the 3 youngsters I was starting in the barn and they were all tied at their buckets to eat. Then I'd take one at a time out - both leading and ground driving past their pasture buddies (while his own food waiting in his bucket). Practiced stopping and starting from lead positions on both sides, then same from ground driving positions. They were contained because we were in the barn. The area outside the horse area was about 12x36 and we wove around our trash barrels, the poles that supported the barn and backed into my two Xtie spots. Went back into the feeding area and right thru it out the "big" double barn doors and into the barn paddock. BEFORE the youngster got upset, turned around and drove right back thru the feed area, thru the Xtie area and out the big double doors on the front of the barn. Worked on getting them down to the drive way - but also on ME learning to keep them from getting upset (ie turning them around before then). I tried to do this with each one several times a week. Due to my schedule then, I often was able to work them both in the morning and in the evening before/after work. I tried to work it so that each pony got 4 works in a row - so eve, morn, eve, morn and then on to other ponies. It WAS easier then - didn't have as many as I do now, LOL.

To address the "snacking" - you can actually use either an over check or side checks (they make what they call 'grazing reins' for ponies and it's a side check that hooks to the saddle Ds... LOL.). That way you aren't correcting her other than asking for her attention - she's correcting herself for bad behavior. Even if she gets to the point where she's good all the time in that, as soon as you remove them, she may go back to "snacking" again.

For both her and the biggie - I agree with Deb.

 

[acl68025]

Nope, not spoiled, not one little bit

 

[Bunnylady]

What, no fly boots?

*sigh* I have tried check reins, in a number of configurations. Ever see a Western saddle do a "hornstand" on a horse's back? It can happen, when the horse has basically no withers (like a lot of minis)

Before we moved the "bigs" over here, BB2K and I had an obstacle course set up for the minis. We had pairs of 4x4's laid out in an L shape that could be walked across or driven through, other 4x4's held down a bunch of feed bags that had to be walked on (noisy!), a teepee of bamboo poles with bunches of rattly aluminum cans dangling on strings; a bunch of different things. But when I had to move Latte and Sunny here, I had to dismantle the playground. I moved a couple of my favorite elements near a play set that I built when my kids were small; I'm trying to get a trail worked up around it.

This bridge is 30" wide and 10' long; while a "big" probably could navigate it, I 'd rather not risk the weight.

The way this sparkles when the wind catches it can really get a horse buffaloed, but my minis learned to walk right through it. Flags still cause Syd's brain to fall out, though, so I need to come up with more things that flap.

And wow, how time flies. I knew Syd had a birthday coming up, so I dug into my records. Gads! She was born in 2006 - she's 9 years old; that makes The Mule 18!

 

[acl68025]

Her matching boots were in the washer

 

[Bunnylady]

And you took her picture with her not fully dressed? Horrors, how will she ever live it down?

 

[paintedChix]

Wow - don't ever bring that "horsey" out our way - our pony boys (and girls) would yank it all right off (once they got done with all the "horse laffs")... Takes forever for me to "teach" the ponies that they need to leave flymasks alone and never fails, I usually find several off in a week (or used to). Since we've moved here, for the most part, we don't have as many buggies around the eyes (yet?) so haven't had to use them. Good thing, 'cuz we've still got stuff packed and I have no idea where all the flymasks are. Sometimes it's quite depressing...

Pretty cool that your guy/girl is HAPPY w/ no buggies and has that nice large barn to take shade/comfort in.

Purple - YAY!