Horses! Who are my horse-loving friends?

[Rumors]

LOL... at this point I have no idea, as it was going on 20 years ago, and just 1 quarter out of 2-4 years of schooling. Through one of the universities. A selling point, to be sure, but nothing branded into me’ brains. I just remember it was across the border into bluegrass & bluebloods.

TBH, I don’t event remember the name of the Trainers & Farriers school in West Virginia. Just where it was, and that it had been one of four I’d been considering. For a long time, when I closed a chapter on my life? I locked it and tossed the key.

Must have been pre vet program bc oddly enough Kentucky doesn't have a veterinary college. You have to go to University of TN, Auburn, or someplace else to get a vet degree.

 

[Friday]

Must have been pre vet program bc oddly enough Kentucky doesn't have a veterinary college

In 2002?

Because it was billed not even as large animal, but equine specifically.

 

[Mee]

one of my career directions was equine industry. My garden grew partly around fruit my beloved mare loved best as treats . We bought this house for our two old mares.

I’m too ‘broken’ and overweight to ride safely or fairly now but as I was adjusting to horseless life quite well and before ptsd a friend turned up on my doorstep with a rescue pony with a goal at foot. We do plan to have them trained to harness ( something beyond my sphere even before) but - a few years of me disassociating more often than not - And having more immediate priorities have meant that’s pushed aside.

they are very plain ‘gypsy cobs’ but small . I haven’t measured them but the mare is probably around 13 hands at most . Her daughter about a hand bigger. This week the ‘baby’ ( a fully grown mare now and woefully undereducated ) is going to experience a bit for the first time. I only have about ten minutes on my feet at a time , so I’ll take out a garden chair and groom her while sitting down as she gets used to the idea.

 

[NotTooLate]

@Mee enjoy your grooming time. Hope it goes well!

 

[Rumors]

In 2002?

Because it was billed not even as large animal, but equine specifically.

No, Kentucky, as much as an oxymoron as one may think this is, has never had a school for veterinary medicine.... Home of the grand Rood and Riddle, Hagyard (which back then was Hagyard, Davis, McGhee), Woodford Equine, and a plethora of other smaller individual vets that are world renown, not to mention all the rehab facilities and swim centers for horses, but no veterinary school. They have animal science programs and likely pre-vet programs and more specifically a few colleges, like Midway, have equine programs. Pre vet would actually be similar to pre-med with an animal science genre but you have to transfer out to go to an actual vet school. University of Tennessee and Auburn are around the Kentucky area. Vet schools are incredibly expensive and burdensome to run. They require constant upgrade. I know UT went through a few years where unless they made extensive upgrades to their program and facilities, they were at risk of loosing their accreditation. Auburn exceeds expectations, but it is incredibly expensive. Both are incredibly expensive.

 

[Mee]

@Mee enjoy your grooming time. Hope it goes well!

I didn’t get out there but the girl got her bit for the first time with a friend I trust who keeps her horses here , and I got video of it (so weird to get video from outside my house to inside - the plague year WhatsApp logs

so proud of the little cob - Hopefully I get to do it tomorrow and I don’t want to push to hard but I will take the harness out so she can see it and look at it while being fussed , not in a rush to get it on her .

it’s cold this week but dry - we could teach her about the joys of wearing rugs - so that she is ready for that when it’s next wet. But it’s something that is never going to be a necessity with her - only a nicety and ease for people rather than pony- so I’d rather press on with tack and harness and think about rugs another time ( though I have bought her one).

 

[SeedMan]

I can see why when Jonathan Swift, when he wrote Gulliver's Travels made horses (Houyhnhnms) the most noble of beings Lemuel Gulliver met in his adventures.

During my teenagerhood, a sibling had horses and I went along for many adventures. I had learned that geldings were gelded to make them more compliant and kind than if they were left as stallions. As we grew up in a physically and emotionally abusive family, and the males especially violent, I considered gelding myself so I wouldn't become like one of them. Learning, also, that my voice wouldn't change and other things, I knew I'd get in trouble when I got found out. Fortunately, I didn't try to "fix" myself.

I have no horse contact now, but I'm looking forward to taking in some equine therapy once/if COVID gets under control. My wife (not acquainted with horse language) got me a Christmas card with a picture of a white Arabian poking its head out a stall door, ears forward, nostrils and eyes wide open as if it were saying, "Hey, I'm ready. Let's go somewhere!" Without getting "woo-woo", it seems the horse on the card thinks I have the capacity to take action and to handle whatever comes my way. I'm wanting to think so too.

Hopefully a happy 2021 to all, and thanks for reading.

 

[NotTooLate]

I didn’t get out there but the girl got her bit for the first time with a friend I trust who keeps her horses here , and I got video of it (so weird to get video from outside my house to inside - the plague year WhatsApp logs

so proud of the little cob - Hopefully I get to do it tomorrow and I don’t want to push to hard but I will take the harness out so she can see it and look at it while being fussed , not in a rush to get it on her .

it’s cold this week but dry - we could teach her about the joys of wearing rugs - so that she is ready for that when it’s next wet. But it’s something that is never going to be a necessity with her - only a nicety and ease for people rather than pony- so I’d rather press on with tack and harness and think about rugs another time ( though I have bought her one).

way to go Miss Cob! @Mee I hope you get out there tomorrow :)

I can see why when Jonathan Swift, when he wrote Gulliver's Travels made horses (Houyhnhnms) the most noble of beings Lemuel Gulliver met in his adventures.

During my teenagerhood, a sibling had horses and I went along for many adventures. I had learned that geldings were gelded to make them more compliant and kind than if they were left as stallions. As we grew up in a physically and emotionally abusive family, and the males especially violent, I considered gelding myself so I wouldn't become like one of them. Learning, also, that my voice wouldn't change and other things, I knew I'd get in trouble when I got found out. Fortunately, I didn't try to "fix" myself.

I have no horse contact now, but I'm looking forward to taking in some equine therapy once/if COVID gets under control. My wife (not acquainted with horse language) got me a Christmas card with a picture of a white Arabian poking its head out a stall door, ears forward, nostrils and eyes wide open as if it were saying, "Hey, I'm ready. Let's go somewhere!" Without getting "woo-woo", it seems the horse on the card thinks I have the capacity to take action and to handle whatever comes my way. I'm wanting to think so too.

Hopefully a happy 2021 to all, and thanks for reading.

Yes, you can do it! Horses are the best therapy. Keep us posted!

 

[Mee]

I’m outside sitting in the hay barn which is between the cobs and the two horses living here right now.

I’m sitting by the horse mare , hand feeding her hay from freezing hands because she is upset the other horse has gone out without her . She tends to box walk and as she is unsound that is not helpful to her right now. Before that I sat with moon bunting cob and her mother , who for the sake of the internet I’m going to call ribbon . Ribbon got very jealous of me brushing Bunting, so I brushed each a stroke at a time. Because I’m with ‘the smart mare ‘ now they are eating bedding and playing up for attention .

it’s a beautiful, freezing day , the sun is low and golden, but the parts of the farm yard and fields and the hills I am looking out on that did not see the sun are still frost encrusted.

it’s the raw physicality of horses- the cold hands and feet. The smells the warmth of sweet horse breath . The ease of prioritising .

 

[NotTooLate]

Beautiful, @Mee I'm so glad you had that moment. There is nothing sweeter.
I'm hoping the sun comes out for a bit today. We haven't seen it for several days now. We have an ice storm moving in tonight so I will be making the most of my ability to get out today. After running some errands, I plan to hop on 2 of my boys bareback and hack around the property.

 

[One step at a time]

Thank you for this thread. It feels too much like identifying info for me to talk about my work with horses, but - yes, yes, yes.

 

[Friday]

more specifically a few colleges, like Midway, have equine programs. Pre vet would actually be similar to pre-med with an animal science genre but you have to transfer out to go to an actual vet school. University of Tennessee and Auburn are around the Kentucky area. Vet schools are incredibly expensive and burdensome to run. They require constant upgrade. I know UT went through a few years where unless they made extensive upgrades to their program and facilities, they were at risk of loosing their accreditation. Auburn exceeds expectations, but it is incredibly expensive. Both are incredibly expensive

Makes sense.

It wouldn’t have been pre-vet, that’s a serious degree. This was literally just 1 quarter... the closest thing to it would be a 1 quarter EMT cert or CNA. It ran about 6k if I’m remembering correctly. It was the most expensive term in the program, but that’s not a candle on a 40k per year vet quarter, so I couldn’t really even begin to guesstimate where it would have been held. The runner up was normal term cost + $1,000 yearling budget to be held in escrow. The first couple years you worked with the school’s horses, but your last year you bought your own, trained, and sold them, as your final project.

I probably wouldn’t even remember about it (the vet school quarter) at all, except that it always bugged me that I didn’t know why some shots were pinch neck skin whilst others were intramuscular, or that blood-doping is seriously bad ju-ju, and a thousand other things I’d be tasked at doing at one barn one way, at another a different way (or OMFG, they had you do WHAT??? // I was 12! How was I supposed to know that’s wildly illegal & outright dangerous???)... and I wanted to learn the “right” way things were done & for what reason(s). 3 months isn’t a long time to learn anything, but anything medical usually moves at Mach speed (non-medical? You have 3 months to learn 100 things. Medical? You have until tomorrow. At which point you need to learn the next hundred. Kiss your life goodbye, put your pets in a kennel, & prepare to buckle down). So I wasn’t overly concerned. I already had my EMT, and before that the military version of “learn this now”, so I was mostly just excited. The business quarter / barn management quarter, on the other hand, freaked me the hell out. My math is wobbly. Science I grok, maths not so much. I’d had an accountant since I was 18 or 19 for a reeeeeeason.