FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 12

[HairOfTheDog]

We’ve got morning fog, but I think it will burn off and be sunny. We’ll see!

[BladeRider]

We have a lot of weeds and undesirable grasses in the pasture that they won’t eat. We have a lot of weeds and undesirable grasses in the pasture that they won’t eat.

The Pasure Plus we bought at Tractor Supply worked well and it is designed for horse pastures so you don't have to take them off when you spray. I bet you could get a soil test done with your county agriculteral extension or something. The guy at the co-op said that Alabama soil is real high in phos and even though the soil test said 1/2 ton per acre he recommended 1 full ton per acre. The co-op has all that. Do you have co-ops?

[HairOfTheDog]

I don’t think we have co-ops that act like yours do. Is this like the county extension office? Ours is useless, I called and asked them some questions once and I could see their blank stares through the phone.

[BladeRider]

Is this like the county extension office?

I replied once and it just disappeared so if this comes twice-sorry. Our Co-Op is like a feed store. We have county extension offices to but we get more info from the guys at the co-op, mot of them are farmers anyway, not county employees. You can Google Alabama Farmers Cooperative and it kinda tells you what they are about.

[HairOfTheDog]

Ah - I see. I don’t think we have those. Not right here in town anyway. Maybe in the more agricultural areas.

[BladeRider]

Ah - I see. I don’t think we have those. Not right here in town anyway. Maybe in the more agricultural areas.

There aren't any Co-ops in Jefferson County where I work, only City folk. The more rural counties have them. Luckily we have on right on my way home.

[HairOfTheDog]

Kitten and feral kitty update! I think I've now seen both feral cats, Momma and Sister. I think I saw Sister last night, running across the yard to the barn, but it was dark so I couldn't tell for sure which one it was. And I know I saw Momma today when I was cleaning stalls, she walked in through the back door, as I think they do sometimes, to escape detection of the dogs. She took off when she saw me there, of course, but she's around. :~)

And kitten update. Kittens are still here, and feeling rather cooped up in the rather cramped back room the last couple days. We're now dog sitting Rosie's dog for a week, so that just one more animal to juggle.

And I do say I think the cuteness of the kittens is wearing thin on Gidget, or it now hurts when they claw and bite tail, she snapped at them a couple times lately, not hard, and it's probably good for them to not be so familiar with dogs. Not all dogs will be as tolerant as she's been. A fair dose of caution is a good thing.

But I'm letting her play with them less, they're just getting so rambunctious! The kittens do get out to play, but they have to take turns, all dogs outside while kittens play, all kittens in bedroom when dogs are in.

So I tried to make some new toys for them back there, I thought these two chairs would be good for climbing on and pouncing from. Of course, they were most interested in the strings I used to brace them up with than the chairs... Figures!

After that last picture, I decided they were at risk of slipping and getting hung on those strings, so I added a rolled towel to keep them from doing that.

Course then they were mostly interested in the towel. ;~)

I feel like my dad use to joke about us kids, that they'd buy us presents when we were little, and we'd seem more interested in playing with the boxes they came in than the toys. :~)

But this is an awful cute picture.

[Duchess47]

ROTFLMAO...Instead of or in addition to the boarding facility you plan on operating one day, best make plans and room for a rescue center for dogs, cats, chickens - might as well make room for sheep,goats and llamas too. I speak from experience :)

[FrogInABlender]

Hey y'all. I'm just catching up here from the weekend, but I wanted to share a little bit of good news. I got an e-mail from the girl who bought little Miss Ellie last Christmas. She sent me this pic...

And here's what she had to say...

Here is a pic of Elektra at our show last night. She propped her foot up on the side of the trailer and just stood there like she was resting her leg!! We entered 4 classes and she got a blue, a 2nd and 2 thirds. (In my eyes that was at least 2 blues because we won that trail pleasure class. We never broke and we were the only one using one hand!!

And by "never broke" she means that she didn't break gait, and keeping her in gait with just one hand is really impressive to me because that tells me that she's not having to work at it, just doing it naturally. So it sounds like she's doing great and the girl is enjoying her, sSo I was pleased to hear that. Looks like she's managed to get all that old sunburned red out of her mane and tail too. It looks a lot better. I don't know if she's just been keeping her up during the day or if she dyed it. I e-mailed her back and asked so we'll see what she says.

It must've just been a countryboy show, judging from the tack she has on her, but it's not a fancy saddle that makes a good horse. As long as she's happy with her and good to her that's all that matters.

[Duchess47]

That’s really great to hear, sounds like both of them are happy with each other :) Miss Ellie sure looks good in the picture.

[FrogInABlender]

Well thanks! She was never the most well-put-together horse, with her big head and somewhat ewe neck, but she’s a sweetheart and rides like a dream, so that’s good enough. Real beauty is on the inside!

[HairOfTheDog]

Well that’s great that she’s doing well. What a fussbudget though, with her foot on the trailer!

I’d love to reach through the screen and slide that pad forward a bit. :~)

[FrogInABlender]

Yeah, she’s such a short-backed little thing that most western pads and saddles just swallow her whole. She’d look better in a black, rounded skirt, barrel-type saddle, but I guess the girl just has to make do with what she has. I thought it was great that she was showing her though. I’ve never had the nerve to try it.

[HairOfTheDog]

Is it nearby? You think you could go watch her show if you had warning?

[HairOfTheDog]

I’ve never had the nerve to try it.

To heck with showing, you actually ride ;~)

[FrogInABlender]

Nah, not really. She lives north of Chattanooga, which is about 150 miles from me, and with the cost of gas these days it’d be an awful expensive outing. It took $130 in fuel to deliver her back in December. I shutter to think what it’d cost now!

[FrogInABlender]

Speaking of riding, HaveFaith and I had a nice short ride yesterday evening at her place. She gets home early on Mondays and my hubby tends to work late on Mondays so it worked out well. I went home and changed and fed everybody, then hauled Goose over there around 6 and we rode until almost 8, just in woods and fields around there close. It was nice. We'll have to do it more often.

Our trip to the Amish was a great success too. We came home with all sorts of stuff and have other stuff ordered to be made and picked up later by some of the Old Farts who go up there all the time to have their horses shod.

The thing I was most tickled with was the biothane breast collar I had made while we were there. It's just like my Ortho Flex one only it has stainless steel hardware instead of brass. I carried my old one up there so they could see how it was made and he kept it about an hour and made two of them, one for me and one for Kari, while we shopped somewhere else. And they only cost $20! The only catch was that he didn't have the neoprene to make the tubes to cover the shoulder straps, but we carried them to another guy who did and he made those while we waited and they were only $10, so we got the whole breast collar made for $30. They would cost $170 if you order them from Ortho Flex!

I also ordered a 22” nylon and neoprene english girth to be made for that treeless saddle I've got. It's got a dropped rigging and the 24” elastic Wintec girth that I bought for it is just too big and stretches too much. You just can't find that small of a girth in most catalogs so having one made was about my only option. I also had some more nylon bit straps made for my trail bridles, and some nylon throat latch straps to use on the muzzles. Kari got a snap added to her existing leather breast collar and had some broken hardware replaced on her existing leather trail bridle. She also ordered a couple of new biothane trail bridles in some loud colors. I like basic black myself. ;o) Then we just picked up miscellaneous other stuff like brass snaps, bucket straps, some new black nylon saddle bags for BladeRider, a new 28” western Weaver Smart Cinch for me and a couple of small straps of brass harness bells for Kari and I to use in the Christmas parades. I think that's all, but I'm not sure. We had the back seat full in any case. So as much as I would have liked to have ridden, I guess I'm glad we got rained out because I sure enjoyed the shopping trip.

[HairOfTheDog]

Sounds like a terrific shopping trip. We don't have Amish shops around here... We do have a good saddle repair shop where I think he could make darn near anything, but not that cheap!

I may be skunked on pasture mowing today... it started raining on me just now. I did get this weedy stuff tidied up in the paddock though.

That yellow flowered stuff is Buttercup, and is supposedly toxic, though I've never seen a horse eat it, I don't think it should be encouraged. It would be hard to eliminate, it's all over the back forty, wherever it's shady. Do you have that in your wet areas down there?

[FrogInABlender]

I can’t see the pics from here, but I do know what Buttercup is and yes we do have it. BladeRider was talking about having it all over her pasture. That’s a large part of what she was spraying to get rid of. Like you say, it seems to like to grow in places with poor drainage, but it doesn’t have to be shady. I’ve got it in my pasture too and there’s not much shade to be had. I think it’ll grow most anywhere it can get a toe-hold.

[HairOfTheDog]

Ah - so it’s the wet, not the shady... That makes sense. I don’t have it out in the pasture, but it’s sandy and dries fast out there... it’s just thriving in the soft deep dirt around the paddock, and out in the woods.