Changing goals and speed

[Latestarter]

Beautiful kids and I'm sure you're proud of them all.

 

[AClark]

Thanks everyone! I do have some good kiddos, even the teenager who makes me want to strangle him!

I went to Atwoods yesterday and spent the national deficit. Came home with 8 12' corral panels and a 330 ft roll of woven fencing (good price on it, $125). That roll of wire weighs a ton, they used a forklift to put it on my truck and the truck bounced. That wouldn't be so impressive if it wasn't a 1 ton truck! 12 ft panels fit good in a long bed truck with barely any hanging over, with the toolbox I could only fit 4 that barely hung over the tailgate, the other 4 hung over another 2-3 feet so I had to tag them. For once, my welded in goosneck ball was handy because I tied them in with a ratchet strap to the hooks in the front, and then again to that so no way were they flying out.

I made a 30' round pen out of the panels. I guess I haven't mentioned it, but my bay horse is very hard to catch and not trusting at all. We started some round pen work yesterday and after about half an hour I got a halter on her. She's well broke to ride and has great ground manners once you catch her, but I'm not playing "catch me if you can" constantly. We're working on it. She won't face me in the round pen, keeps swinging her butt at me but isn't offering to kick - trust issues.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Congratulations!!....ya went out, bought stuff, got it home, and all of that without any other incedent taking place. Things are getting Better....and if anyone can get the bay turned around and tamed...you most certainly can. I can barely handle a 100' roll, so no way am I wrestlin a 330' roll. I follow the Clint Eastwood line, "A man has to know his Limitations". Oh, and about the teenager, they all reach that point and if ya are lucky....ya won't be staring in a mirror dealing with those yrs....ya only have to count to 18...

 

[Bruce]

Yeah those 330' rolls are too heavy for most of us. I got lucky when I had to take the one for the west line off the cargo carrier on the back of the car. Guy came down the hill (8 houses, private road the runs the south side of our property) just when I was going to deal with it, stopped and asked if I wanted help. We got it down the swale and back up the other side and left it there. I unrolled it by rolling it out enough to attach it to the corner post then used a piece of metal conduit to make an axle of sorts and wire to connect it to the garden tractor headed north. Not smooth, but it worked.

 

[Baymule]

I have a 30 year old Tennessee Walker mare that we've had for 20 years. She has never been trusting, no matter what I've done. She must have been treated badly, it's sad. All my animals are all over me, but not her. She finally decided that a brush is a good thing and will come to me for brushing. it only took 12 years for that.

Good luck with your mare, she is pretty and I know you can teach her better manners.

 

[AClark]

Congratulations!!....ya went out, bought stuff, got it home, and all of that without any other incedent taking place.

You just about nailed it there. It is a feat for me to go, do something, and come home unscathed! As for the teenager, he'll be 14 this year, is bigger than me, and when he tries my patience I just remind myself "4 more years" lol.
We are figuring out how to unroll that beast without killing ourselves, we don't have a tractor, just the pickups, and I know I can't run a pipe through it and roll it off like I do barbed wire, since I can't hold that roll up. We literally rolled it off the back of the truck and to the barn and left it.
I've had in mind a design to make a wire roller that goes on the insert for a hitch for awhile. One you can just yank off like you would a ball hitch. I might weld one up one of these days and see what I can do with it.

Belle (the bay mare) is off the track. I didn't know it when I bought her, but I see tattoo marks when she flips her lip up. Eventually I hope to be able to look at it and hopefully read it. So it makes sense why she's so easy to handle, as she's been handled a lot. It's just catching her that is rough. She's absolutely perfect to do her feet. I pulled that old shoe off and trimmed her feet and she had perfect manners. She's never offered any bad behaviors, like kicking or biting. The most she did was rest her nose on my back while I lopped on her ski feet. I finally brushed the lot sticker out of her mane and brushed her tail, and the rest of her. No issues at all as long as you don't touch her nose. I am getting where I can run my hand down her forehead and off the end of her nose without her flipping out though. She finally took a small bite of grain out of my hand, but jerked back like "OMG what have I done?!" - we'll get there though.
I have some theories on why she's so touchy about her nose.
1. someone got too gung ho with a twitch
2. someone sawed on her mouth with a bit, and if you can't put it in, you can't saw on her mouth

I see now that bitless riding is all the rage, which I find amusing because I used to get ragged on for using a hackamore as a kid. I'm a big fan of it, but it's all I knew growing up until i started showing. Even then, I hated being forced to use a bit because it was the rules.
The other thing that cracks me up being all new and trendy is leaving your horse barefoot. I get a good laugh out of that as we never shod horses unless they needed it. I wish I had known as a young teenager just how trendy I was with my bitless barefoot horse!

The two QHs are clowns, and completely all over me every time I go out there. Trav always tempts me to hop on him bareback, and then better sense prevails that I should put a halter on him at least before I do that. Dixie is putting on weight well and doesn't look like a skeleton anymore. Trav just looks comfy with his mutton withers, and I have zero thoughts of riding Dixie bareback since she is high withered.

Bay, TWH's are such nice horses, that's a crying shame. Though after seeing what they do to some of them for showing, I don't blame them for thinking people are sketchy. If I wanted a horse strictly for pleasure riding, I'd definitely look at them, that gait just looks super smooth and comfortable, rather than having your ribs jostled apart with a trot.

 

[Bruce]

Belle (the bay mare) is off the track.

Order more hay!!!! Those race horses burn hay just breathing. When we bought this house there was a lady boarding 2 horses and a pony, she stayed through the winter. One was a thoroughbred, BIG horse. She showed me a picture she took when she got him. Plenty of ribs showing. The people she bought him from said they couldn't get weight on him. She did though, just gave him more hay!

 

[CntryBoy777]

Throw a chain over a limb, or rafter in a barn, get the come a long out and hook it up and lift it out of the bed...pull out...and lower it. Rope and pulley will also work.

 

[NH homesteader]

My SIL bred thoroughbreds. They don't eat more than other horses the same size. All horses eat a ridiculous amount though. My husband calls them hay burners for a reason lol

 

[Mike CHS]

Every time I handle one of those 330' rolls of wire I give thanks for our hilly property. I always lay it out at the top of a hill and let gravity do the rest. I did learn to stay downhill of the roll with my rock bar to slow it down and stop it when it wants to go off direction.