FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 12

[HairOfTheDog]

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - (very out of date) Who's Who *pics*

This is a horse chat thread where we share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share, usually about our horses, sometimes about our dogs, gardens and other stuff we do. :~)

I have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will ping everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list.

So... like the previous threads, this is intended as fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends.

Previous threads:

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - thread ONE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread TWO!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread THREE!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FOUR
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SIX
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SEVEN
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread EIGHT
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread NINE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread TEN
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 11

New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!

[MissTargets]

Happy Thanksgiving!

[HairOfTheDog]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

It’s sure been slow here since my other forum took off... I’m sorry about that!

[CindyDawg]

Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

[FrogInABlender]

Happy Thanksgiving to y’all too!! I miss talking to everybody over here. The other forum is great, but this one is so much simpler, just having one thread to keep up with and all.

We’ve had a couple of rides this week. Nothing special, but fun none the less. I’ll post pictures after Thanksgiving.

[CindyDawg]

Thanks , you too. Family all gone home now. Fun day.

[FrogInABlender]

Here's a few pics from Wednesday's ride with HaveFaith. She rode Sassy and I rode Whirl, so we had a 2yr old outing. We rode a little over 16 miles. It was a little farther than I thought, but then I'd never taken the the GPS on that trail before. There was still a little color to the beech tree leaves but all the others were pretty much gone...

Kari & Sassy on TheCrookedBridge...

The view from the middle...

A cute pic of Miss Whirl at our lunch break. She was wanting to know where her share was...

And this is a pic of Grace from the week before. She's gotten a lot lighter and more dappled since last year. A lot heavier too coz I hadn't ridden her since January! This girl needs some RIDING!..

She did really well and was really smooth too. I was actually kind of amazed since she hadn't been ridden is so long and was barefoot to boot. So there's really no excuse for me not to ride her more, now that I've one less horse to ride.

[MissTargets]

Love the picture of the creek under the bridge. Looks cool, but sunny. Interesting bridge too.

Been rather cold here, but we did get the decorations up. I really dont like to do it this early, but the kids wanted them up. I get tired of them before Christmas. I will have to get some pictures of the walk way now that I put lights along it. I was excited about that.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I went to my friend, Judy's for dinner.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Nice pictures:) That bridge looks scary tho!

Miss Grace has put on some pounds...I can’t remember, did I ride Grace or Hope? Do you think she will darken back up next year, or is she a grey...her tail is pretty light?

[FrogInABlender]

I always love seeing pictures of everyone’s decorations. I got my tree up today, but haven’t decorated it yet. That’s a task for another day. I have to move furniture to put it up and that’s about got me whipped. Lee’s been down with a stomach virus since Thursday so I’ve been doing it all by myself. I did get the little ceramic houses up on the entertainment center and a couple of end tables though, so it’s beginning to look a little like Christmas around here anyways.

[FrogInABlender]

You rode Hope. She’s looking pretty good right now, aside from being a brown horse right now, but she’ll lighten back up come springtime. Her weight’s pretty good too.

Grace is a grey, so she’ll get lighter every year until she turns completely white. I’m planning on riding her in the Christmas Parade on Friday night. She’s definitely the prettiest in the wintertime. The rest get so dark that you can hardly tell that they’re roan. I’ve got a garland of silk poinsettias with little battery powered lights made up for her and I found a christmas tree skirt that looks like Santa’s cape for me. It sounds funny, but I swear if you didn’t know it was a christmas tree skirt you’d never guess it. It falls right at my elbows so it doesn’t get in the way of the reins. Should be interesting anyways. There’ll be plenty of pics so y’all can be the judge of whether it looks goofy or not. ;o)

[FrogInABlender]

Well, they’ve finally done it to me. I can’t get to FR at all from work anymore. From what I gather, the internet traffic at work has increased to the point that important things weren’t getting out so they’ve started blocking a lot more stuff. But at least I can still get to Baywind (for now anyways) so there’s that.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well here’s hoping you don’t get shut out of Baywind!

Hey Becky - what are you up to? Haven’t seen you around in a few days!

[FrogInABlender]

Well, here's my favorite pic of Grace and I at the Christmas parade this past Friday night. My cape didn't look half bad if I do say so myself{for a christmas tree skirt}. I was real proud of the way the poinsettia garland turned out too. It was actually two garlands twined together and I added two strings of little battery powered LED lights. They had two settings, steady on and random flashing, and I was glad I had them when we were riding through town from where we parked to where the parade was staging coz it was dark and traffic was still moving at that point. At least somebody could see me from the front. I also had two straps of harness bells hanging from the rear D's of the saddle that I bought at the Amish, but they hardly made any noise at all, so I was a little disappointed at that. One of the drawbacks of having a smooth-gaited horse I guess. ;o)

We had a blast, but about froze our butts and everything else off. You can't really tell it but I had so many layers on under that cape and those pants that I felt like Ralphie's little brother in A Christmas Story. I seriously couldn't feel my feet by the time I got back to the truck, but I'd do it again tomorrow, so it couldn't have been too bad. ;o)

[MissTargets]

Aw, dont you look great! The outfit looks very nice. Good idea with the cape. Was Grace a good girl in the parade?

It has been cold here too. We did get about 6" of snow on Saturday night. Roads were really bad when I went to the store and they canceled the 4-H party the kids were going to go to. Alison was disappointed, but we had to be safe. Lots of cars were in ditches and we didnt want to take the chance.

[FrogInABlender]

Yeah, Grace did real good. This was her 2nd parade so I guess stuff was a little less strange. But then she did real well at her first one too, so I can’t complain.

I’m glad it doesn’t snow much here. It scares me, so I don’t blame you for staying home from the party. I would have too!

[MissTargets]

With gaited horses, at the walk, are they smooth too?

When I was 14 and my parents bought me my first horse, he was a racking/single foot horse. Little that we knew at the time. For 4-H shows, he was not suited and we traded for a grade QH. I just dont remember if he was smooth, when walking.

Rain the last few days and all the snow is gone. Sure did look pretty with all the Christmas lights in the neighborhood.

[MissTargets]

Finally finished the computer/office/gun room. This room had real dark wood paneling and ugly green carpet before. So much nicer to be in there.

[HairOfTheDog]

Very nice! ~applause~

When we have our own place we’ll be putting in hard wood (or some other non-carpet) floors too.

It’s just so much easier to clean with our lifestyle and pets. At least it can be made clean.... carpet... just not so much.

[MissTargets]

Thanks!

Sure is a lot easier to keep clean, thats for sure. A daily swipe with the Swiffer and the hairs get picked up much quicker, than dragging around the vacuum.

[FrogInABlender]

With gaited horses, at the walk, are they smooth too?

Depends on the horse. Some of them are "swingier" than others, and by that I mean that they tend to pace at the walk and that rocks you from side to side, or they have a real long stride in the rear and that rocks you from front to back, both of which are hard on your lower back. But I think both of those problems can be corrected by proper collection. You can't just let them slop along on a loose rein.