RiverOtter's pony and thread drift thread

[Peaches Lee]

@RiverOtter No, they were never exposed to cows. I imagine her stallion and gelding would have liked to harass some livestock, but I think the mares were too gentle and nurturing--and would much rather eat LOL!

 

[RiverOtter]

@RiverOtter No, they were never exposed to cows. I imagine her stallion and gelding would have liked to harass some livestock, but I think the mares were too gentle and nurturing--and would much rather eat LOL!

Seems like once mares have had their first foal, they realize they have a JOB - it is to eat and be fat so they have plenty of milk. That and protect the foal. If you're very lucky, she'll treat you like her foal. I'd rather ride a good mare than anything else.

 

[Peaches Lee]

Yes I agree @RiverOtter The best mounts I've ever had have been mares! Eat and get fat seems to be all Andys prerogative! LOL!

 

[RiverOtter]

Yesterday was a good day.
Now, I've worked with sheep a lot when I was working on other people's farms, but these 4 Jacobs are the first sheep we've owned, after years of wanting and planning and breed research. And yesterday Snapdragon gave us our first little lamb. A little ewe.


And she's skinny. She's dirty. She's 3-legged lame. But after her 5.5 week ordeal, Bessie is consistently up and walking around the hay barn. She greeted me standing yesterday and walked to meet me for her bucket.

 

[Peaches Lee]

What a great update! Does your ram have the extra horns?

 

[RiverOtter]

What a great update! Does your ram have the extra horns?

He does! I just now realized I lost a lot of good pictures of him with my phone, but you can just see them in his lamb pic. He's the third one in line, head up, and the black is not his ear, but horn 3.
He nearly lost one when a goat objected to his courtship, so they haven't grown as perfectly as they started, but they're still pretty impressive! I'll have to get more pics

 

[black_cat]

Is this the horse thread that you mentioned or am I way off?

 

[RiverOtter]

Yes, @black_cat , this is it.

 

[littledog]

Most people aren't going to the Olympics. Neither are my horses (you also don't need a syndicate to buy one, which is nice, lol). My horses can, and happily will, take most people up the levels as far as they want to go, then switch disciplines and do it again and they will be a safe, happy, healthy pleasure to be around while they do it.

I love your attitude about breeding - healthy, willing horses for today's riders.

The way the horse industry has been evolving for the past couple decades, so much land is getting lost to development so normal people can't afford good horses anymore. Show venues, especially eventing venues because they require a lot of land, are going under because training-level and under riders are finding it harder to afford to event, and the pressures to develop these lands keep getting more dire. This makes it harder for the top-level people as well, because let's face it, the fees from the 75% of lower-level riders is what allows the show to be paid for, so the top 25% have a place to go.
It seems like the horse industry, more and more, consists of mostly the extremely wealthy with their 17h imported Warmbloods who can only do one discipline, and the backyard-breeders who don't geld or train their grade colts and fill the auctions with poorly-conformed and untrained colts and fillies.
I know, I'm exaggerating somewhat - there are plenty of people still who responsibly breed nice ranch, trail, 4-h, pony-club horses, but horses like this seem to be getting harder and harder to find. In my area, a 14-15h mare or gelding suitable for a child to do Pony Club and take the kid from Beginner Novice to Training level, is like a Unicorn. And priced accordingly. These horses and ponies get passed from hand to hand as each child grows older and the horse gets outgrown - and who knows where they end up in their old age, probably the local auction, where all the throwaways go who got too old, or injured from doing the same thing year after year.

What you're doing with your breeding, is providing horses suitable for a lifetime. Not the type that's that only suitable for one discipline and gets passed from owner to owner every couple of years. Your horses, when the owner is young, they can take them to lower-level shows, and sometimes even higher-level if the rider puts in the work and has a bit of luck. Then as the owner ages, the same horse can teach their kids to ride, go around the trails and to new places in the wilderness, and later wear a harness and till the garden, or take Grandma for a ride in a cart.

And all the while, they stay sound, vet bills are normal, they have good hooves that don't require special shoeing, they are easy keepers who stay healthy on decent hay, vitamins and mineral salt, a scoop or two of grain when they're working.

And they're happy to do whatever you ask, at every stage of your and their lives, truly a partner horse and a family horse. We need more of these.

 

[RiverOtter]

Thank you @littledog , that is EXACTLY what I'm trying to do. So far I'm pretty pleased. Gandalf gets gelded this month, which I hate to do, but I have his father, who throws Gandalf after Gandalf. I'm so thrilled with our current foals. They're not a year yet, and two of them, Rio and Rohan, you can already tell will be ready and willing whole family, multidiscipline horses.
The only reason I can't say it about Zephyr is she's fast. Sweet and responsive, but alert and lightning fast with catty reflexes. She'll be more surprised than anyone when she leaves her rider hanging in the air somewhere, Tom and Jerry style. She'll mature into what I want, but I fully expect someone very into showing will snap her up.
Sitka is an outcross, only lightly related to the other 3, and has a stronger temperament, but has stone hard constitution and international level skill up and down his pedigree. He won't be everyone's horse, but a common trait in his family lines is dog-like loyalty to *their* person. I think he'll be a valuable addition to the breeding program.

Fun story about Sitka's mother, Sequoia. We, being mostly my daughter, her main handler, showed her in-hand as a 3 yo. She can be bold and opinionated, and will spend her life never quite being a baby sitter. But, this one county show we took her to, they set up some carnival rides RIGHT outside the arena. Less than 10 feet. No big deal, everyone thought, shows are in the morning, the midway doesn't open for hours. But sure enough, they were having some trouble setting up and decided to turn on this ride to test it. A massive engine started up and a gondola swooped down and up feet away from this ring full of 3-4yos, who exploded. But Sequoia jumped straight up, saw that DD was calm ... and put her head on DDs shoulder, stepped a little closer and just watched the scary thing, while other horses dashed and panicked.
Her person said it was ok, so it was ok.
She kept her chin on DD's shoulder the rest of the time she was in the ring, except when she was asked to move, and then she'd try to keep her nose lightly touching. She got points off for it, showmanship, but she actually got an audible "awww" from the crowd, too.