quote:Originally posted by kwsni: Tatiana,If you're still interested in how this stuff works, I can blather on all day about it. Email's in the profile.
Ni!
I'm very interested! I love all animals, and I've only been around horses a little bit. I think they're awesome. I brought a bag of baby carrots to my niece Mary's barn once, and she and I went up and down the rows of stalls giving out treats. It's neat how they love carrots so much! You'd think we had brought something delicious or something. Mary taught me a little about how to bathe and groom them, and I was impressed with her horse's personality. So smart but also so gentle and cooperative.
The mammal species I am most familiar with is cats, and I can't emphasize enough that a 1200 lb cat that you strapped a saddle to the back of and tried to ride would be carrying you around right away, for sure, only it would be internally and only for as long as it took to digest you. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Breyer, I don't know enough about the bloodlines to really say. My education is mostly in quarter horses and arabs, because those are the two breeds MSU has farms of.
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I don't really know enough to know what to ask. I'm mostly interested in horses as people, I guess. What are their personalities like? Do they form close bonds to their humans? A cat when it adopts you is taking you for its mother. You are about the right size and your hand stroking is like a cat mother's tongue licking her kitten. We naturally seem to fit each other because they take the role of our children and we take the role of their parents.
Is something like that going on with a horse? What are we to them? We aren't the right size to be their parents. What is it that they feel for us? Are we taking the position of the dominant stallion in their herd or what?
Also, please tell me whatever you find interesting about horses. I don't know enough to know what to ask. I'm interested in anything you find interesting.
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Horses are herd animals, and they're prey animals. I learned that if you keep these two statements in your mind at all times, you can understand and predict anything a horse is going to do. I have days when I can follow this, and be dominant, and still leave the barn feeling like I had a really good connection with a horse. Other days, I come on too strong and scare them, or don't come on strong enough, and lose their respect. I think that's a lot of dealing with horses is, respect. You respect that they're big 1200 pound animals with sharp hooves, and they respect you like you were one.
Most people talk about being dominant, and I buy it. A horse is instinctively programmed to follow the dominant creature around, you just have to make that be you. In herd terms, that's more the lead mare, actually, than the stud. He handles outside threats, from other stallions, or predators, and threats to his harem, like bachelor colts that are old enough to start mounting his mares. Mostly the internal problems get taken care of on their own. When a new horse joins a herd, their place in the ladder is established relatively quickly.
Some horses, you can cuddle with, and play with their forelock, and kiss them on the nose, and some just won’t let you do it, in spite of all the treats and extra handfuls of grain and finding perfect places to scratch. The ones I like are big brats on the outside, they turn their butt to you when you go in the stall, they're hard to catch, they're constantly finding stuff to play with or chew on when you've got them on a leadline. But if it's just me, and them, and we don't have anything to do right then, those are the ones that will play games with you. They're also the ones that like goofy things to eat, like hot dogs and nachos. These horses I feel like I'm on even ground with. I take their crap, their mouthyness, their tendency to misbehave in little ways, but they always come through for me when I ask. And they take mine, talking, and kissing their nose, and holding onto their lip till they have to wiggle it.
Other horses I don't get along with so well, especially the ones at the bottom of the totem pole. They're too meek for me, they do what I say and don't give me any lip. And if they don't obey, it's cause they're scared or don't understand, and that's a failing on my part, not theirs. I like the overly dominant ones ok, I can throw my weight around when I have to, but I don't like it. I don't like my dominance challenged every time I do something new.
As for why I like horses so much, I don't know. I've always liked animals, and a friend got me hooked on horses in like fifth grade. The beauty is nice. I like how they can look at you and you see what they're thinking. I like making baby horses. I like making a breed better, making a faster, prettier, stronger, nicer, more athletic horse. I like the way their ears are shaped, and the soft skin on their muzzles. I like that in a well bred horse you can see veins and tendons and bone structure under the skin on their face and legs. I like the routine of a barn, feed, turnout,clean stalls, work, bring in, feed. I like the smell. I don't like the hay, especially stacking it, but that's only once a year, and I should learn to throw hay where it doesn't get down my shirt every time anyway. I like that I can stand there in the middle of a herd and have to shoo horses off because I don't want them to eat my jeans. I like that if all the cars and trains and airplanes broke down I could still get around without having to walk. I love the weird physiology, that what's so tiny in me can be so big in a horse. They walk on their finger and toe nails. How weird is that?
I guess that's more than you probably wanted, and way more stream-of-conciousness that i indended, but oh well. If you have things in here that spark your interest, fire away. This stuff’s all in my brain, and people’s eyes tend to glaze over when I talk about it too much IRL.
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I don't have nearly as much experience as kwsni, but here goes.
I started riding at 11, I was teeny, shorter than my current 5'0, and skinny as possible, plus I'd just had my tonsills out, so at the time still sort of weak. My instructor was a neighbor of a family friend, about 20, who in the summers taught riding at a church camp. She put me on her gelding, who was just an inch too tall to be a pony, and had a few bratty issues but was very sweet. I wasn't big enough for the saddle, he barely knew I was up there, but finally it clicked and he'd listen to my voice commands (mostly clicking) and reallize that that fly on his side was my leg.
For later lessons she put me on her ancient, very sensitive retired reining (a form of advanced riding, that involves spinning and stopping fast), horse who was missing one eye. He knew I was there, and occasionally I'd over command him.
I rode with her seriously for two years, then stopped because she was out of college and moving away. About that time I started volunteering with a riding for the handicapped program. It was lovely to see what love the horses could provide the riders, that the kids would go away happier, and at better touch with their bodies. That was mostly grunt work, cleaning stalls, grooming and tacking horses, and leading them in the arena. But I was the volunteer turned to if they needed to test a new horse, because my mom was also on staff, and I was a small enough person to ride even the ponies.
Through collecting breyers I've fallen in love with breeds, I'll sit and read breed encyclopedias for hours. Also colors, it's so fun to know what colors come in what breeds, and if you breed this mare to this stallion what color baby you can get.
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That's lovely, Breyer. I love the way horses smell as well, and the delicate part of their noses with those little veins! I also love the hay! It has been years since I have been around horses, but as a child, I would dream of having them, riding them, being Alec and racing Black along the beach...
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I read all the books. No movie for this old lady! I lived between Narnia and Alec's world, barely touching down into my own.
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Also, where I wanted to be the most was on the island with Flame. Was that ALec, though? No, but what was the boy's name? Do you remember?
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OOh, I am watching Barbaro on the news, and it is good news! He is lifting his foot up, and that is a good sign.
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Steve was the boy with Flame on a Caribbean Island. I loved those books, and they have an official website.
My favorite was always the Black Stallion's Filly, probably because I stumbled onto the books and the Kentucky Derby at around the same time, which also coincided with last Derby won by a filly.
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I've actually only read The Black Stallion and The Black Stallion Returns, but I have a bunch more my mom picked up at a garage sale. I watched the movies at so little that there was no chance of reading the books first, and they were the only live action movies that weren't so nauseating for my parents that I could sit through.
Liz, I don't know if you've seen it, and I forget what grade you teach, but you should read through this website, you might find something useful. http://www.bslp.org/ Black Stallion Literacy project.
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quote: Nell,i forgot that fillies could run it. they just..don't.
kwsni - Yeah, I figured you knew that. I just wanted to clarify that fillies weren't totally barred from the Triple Crown, for those who don't really follow racing. And I only follow it very casually. As in, I watch the Triple Crown every year, and that's about it.
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I think I've read some of the Flame books, but I don't remember them. My favorite Black Stallion books were Son of the Black Stallion, The Black Stallion's Ghost, and the one about the Black's sire, Ziyadah. I think it was The Black Stallion Mystery. And of course I love the movie! I think a lot of my racing industry knowledge came from reading those and stuff like Joanna Campbell's Thoroughbred series and the Saddle Club ( ) when I was a kid. Those books are cheesy, but there's still a lot of info in them.
I'm more a former-almost-horse-person, a few steps past a wannabe. I took huntseat lessons for 4 years when I was in junior high, but then I had to stop in high school when I got too busy with other extracurriculars, plus it just got too expensive. I never showed, other than a schooling show, but I was pretty good for the level I was at, and I intend to start taking lessons again as soon as I have the time and money for it....I've been saying that for years, and it still hasn't happened yet. Someday I want to own a horse and show in jumping and/or dressage, but at my current rate, that day is a long way off.
Until I was about 10, we had my brother's old Appaloosa living with us in horsey retirement, and then a year or so after he had to be put down (he was about 30 years old and had various health ailments), my dad bought me a POA mare at the county fair. A POA is a Pony of the America, which is a pretty new breed based on crossing Appaloosas with Shetland Ponies, but they occasionally have other bloodlines scattered in too. She was an ex-trail horse, overweight, very stubborn, and not really appropriate for the inexperienced rider I was at the time (I'd just started riding a few months before we got her), so she ended up being more of a pet than a riding horse. I showed her in halter classes for 4H, and rode her occasionally, but she had an attitude about riding that I usually preferred avoiding the fight.
And for some reason, when I was about 12, my dad decided to have her bred to a local Morgan stallion, I think with the idea that I could train the foal and have a good show horse. My dad has a good amount of experience with horses, but his is more of the Texas ranch from 50 years ago type - English riding wasn't his thing. So we ended up with a cute little colt, but I didn't (and don't) know how to break a horse for riding, and my dad knew a bit but couldn't do it because of his health, so we ended up with two pet horses. We had to sell them my junior year of high school because we couldn't afford to keep them, plus I was going away to college the next year, and my dad couldn't take care of them by himself.
So I've been pretty much horseless for the past nine years. I've gone riding occasionally, but only about once every two years or so. This summer I'm going to start volunteering at a therapeutic riding stable kinda similar to what Breyerchic did. I'm really excited about it because I'll also be able to do some exercise riding, in addition to the grunt work.
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quote: I think a lot of my racing industry knowledge came from reading those and stuff like Joanna Campbell's Thoroughbred series and the Saddle Club ( [Blushing] ) when I was a kid. Those books are cheesy, but there's still a lot of info in them.
I'm more a former-almost-horse-person, a few steps past a wannabe.
That's a perfect description of me. As a kid I was a sucker for just about any book that involved horses.
Some of my earliest memories involve horses, since my best friend lived on a riding farm and I got lessons from her family. I'm not sure how old I was - probably around 5, but I remember my first fall - I was cantering around some poles on a black pony named Jet and most traumatizing of all, when I fell, I almost landed in horse manure. Then my friend and her family moved away, which began a pattern of a year or two at one riding stable followed by three or four years with no riding then going back to a new stable. It's amazing how many of those periods with no lessons occurred after my mom would see me take a fall...
Anyway, it's been six years since I've been regularly involved with horses and hopefully once I have the money and am not living an hour's drive from an affordable stable, I can start riding again.
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I remember I had two little boxes filled with change. In one box I saved money for my horse. In the other, for my horse's paddock.
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When I was a teenager I read this series of horsey books. They weren't that well written, perhaps, but the main character was named Julie (like me) and her horse was named Bonny (I had a bird named Bonny) so I have have fond memories of the series anyway. Julie somehow gets this free horse and successfully races him. Or her? Anyway I've tried and tried over the years to find the series, but I can't remember enough of a title. Sound familiar to anyone?
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It doesn't, Theca. I also remember a book called "Harlequin Hullabaloo" which was about a "paint" horse who was not accepted in the show circuit. the girl rider dyed the white spots brown and showed him, and he won, proving that a paint could win!
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My first horse book was "Billy and Blaze and The Grey Spotted Pony" But I really wasn't that interested until 9 or ten, and started reading everything Margurite Henry had written (I think the only thing I missed was Wild Horse Annie, and that's because the library didn't have a copy). My graduation present was a trip to Chincoteague to see where Misty was set.
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King Of The Wind Brighty of The Grand Cannyon San Domingo the Medicine Hat Stallion Album of Horses Misty's Twilight (that's one of her last books) Brown Sunshine Sea Star orphan of Chincoteague Justin Morgan had a Horse The White Stallions of Lippiza(that may be it, but that may not be the title)
This is all I can come up with immeadiatly, but there were more.
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Oh, I forgot Marguerite Henry! I love her books! My mare's registered name was 'Miss T Milo,' but I nicknamed her 'Misty' after the book. Chincoteague is on my list of Places to Visit Before I Die, or hopefully in the next few years while I'm actually living on the east coast.
I also really liked The Dream Horse by Virginia Campbell Scott, even though (or maybe because?) that one leaned a bit to girly high-school romance.
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Chincoteague is gorgeous. We were there in June so the shops had opened up but the festival hadn't started so it wasn't crowded. We stayed at the Mariner, which isn't very expensive and is nice enough, it didn't appear any of the hotels on the island were "nice."
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Okay, cool. I'll make a note of that for when (if?) I get to the trip planning phase. How long were you there for?
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Two nights, but we also did Virginia Beach and Baltimore on the trip, sort of this circle thing.
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Despite having been born and raised in Maryland, which shares Assateague and the ponies with Virginia, I have never been to Chincoteague. I'm a bad "former-almost-horse-person, a few steps past a wannabe" from that area. *hangs head in shame*
I never read that many Margeurite Henry Books - I read Misty, King of the Wind and a couple others but that's all. I think I might have been a little too old for them when I discovered them.
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Breyer, did 2 nights there seem long enough to you?
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Risuena, I haven't read all the Henry books either. I think I've just read all the Chincoteague ones, and King of the Wind and Brighty. Those were all that my grade school, church, and local libraries had when I was little, and by the time I discovered the joys of interlibrary loan, I'd moved on to the cheesy teen horse books. But now I know what to add to my summer reading list!
As far as not seeing Chincoteague goes...I think it's really easy to miss going places when you live right there. I grew up near Chicago, and I've never been to the Cahokia mounds or a lot of famous places in Chicago. In the first semester I spent in London, I completely missed going to the Tower of London (but I made sure I got it on the second semester two years later). And even though I moved to Long Island two years ago, I've yet to go to the Hamptons or the Bronx Zoo, among many other things.
But since you're a "former-almost-horse-person, a few steps past a wannabe" - shame! Shame upon you! Illinois has no horsey equivalent, but, uh...I've never been to the Arlington racecourse, or Belmont/Aqueduct Park here in NY. Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Nell Gwyn: But since you're a "former-almost-horse-person, a few steps past a wannabe" - shame! Shame upon you! Illinois has no horsey equivalent, but, uh...I've never been to the Arlington racecourse, or Belmont/Aqueduct Park here in NY.
Oh, that's another one! Chincoteague/Assateague are a long drive from where I grew up, what with the Chesapeake Bay in between and all, but I was less than 30 minutes from Baltimore, and I've never been to Pimlico! Not even to get drunk and not see the horses running in the Preakness (or other races). To make up for that, I have gone to the Washington National Horseshow and some other equestrian events in the area.
See! I'm not all bad! Right?
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That puts you ahead of me then - I've yet to go to any horse show other than local 4H or county fair shows. I may try to get to the Hamptons Classic this fall, though. And I've been to Medieval Times twice! Does that count? Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I think 3 nights would have made Chincoteague better, but to see the horsie stuff it'd just take a day or so.
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We spent a week in Chincoteague when I was a kid, and that was about long enough. Of course, we went in august, after the festival, and we didn't really do any horsey things. My mom is not a horse fan. We stayed at a hotel that looks across the channel from Chincoteauge to Assateague. I remember thinking it was nice then, I don't know what I'd think of it now.
I've been on a horsey movie kick lately, and I've been really impressed with the Black Stallion movies. Kids movies today would not be allowed to be so good. I als to watched 'The Man From Snowy River' and 'Return to Snowy River'. Hidalgo and Seabisuit don't even compare to any of those movies.
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It was directed by Francis Ford Copalla (and I just comitted a crime spelling it wrong, sorry I've been up two minutes).
I only saw Seabiscuit because I was writing a book report while it was in theaters, I refuse to see Hidalgo because the company billed it as true, but there is enough proof that it isn't.
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Hidalgo was ridiculous on numerous levels. However, I did appreciate the historical setting, even if the film itself was clunky.
I loved Seabiscuit, but it can't compare to the Black Stallion movies. And when I saw it, I'd never heard of Seabiscuit the horse before, so maybe my opinion would have been different otherwise.
Dreamers was cute, but a bit cliched, and there were several times where I wondered if the director/screenwriter knew as much about racing and horses as he said he did. But it was his first film, so I guess it was pretty good in that light.
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Of course, my ideal trip to Chincoteague would be for the Pony Penning, but now that I think about it, it's probably a good idea for me to go at another time. If I'm there for Pony Penning, I'd probably fall in love with a pony and be heartbroken because I couldn't take it home with me.
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My senior year when my mom said we were going to chincoteague, before we made reservations my orchestra teacher said not to go pony penning unless you're buying a pony (she'd gone 19 and is still heartbroken)
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In case anyone's still following this, here is an update on how Barbaro is doing now. It sounds pretty promising. Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Yeah. So sad. I was just reading about it on another site and it is sure looking like Barbaro isn't going to make it. Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Updates from yesterday and today. Things are looking a bit better. It's probably too soon to get my hopes up, but I'm doing it anyway. Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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) when I was a kid. Those books are cheesy, but there's still a lot of info in them.![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Then my friend and her family moved away, which began a pattern of a year or two at one riding stable followed by three or four years with no riding then going back to a new stable. It's amazing how many of those periods with no lessons occurred after my mom would see me take a fall...![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Illinois has no horsey equivalent, but, uh...I've never been to the Arlington racecourse, or Belmont/Aqueduct Park here in NY. ![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
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