Blog Give away

One of my favorite Blogs Adventures in Self Reliance moved to a new page and had a name change. It is now Food Storage and Survival. And to celebrate the move, They are hosting a giveaway as well. If you are interested in all the neat stuff Like some of those really cool Tatler Plastic Reusable canning lids then check out this link and see what they have to offer.

Operation horse trailer in progress

One of my New years goals was to replace my 2 horse Bumper pull horse trailer with a gooseneck that has a dressing or living quarters in the front.  Well I have found a nice gooseneck that is suitable as the replacement.

It has a nice dressing area and that white box on the top is the AC/Heater unit that can be run from a generator or an electric extension cord. The plexiglass in the horse area is removable for times when you need better air flow.

So I have my old trailer for sale.  It's a 1988 Hale and is an open sided stock type trailer not fully enclosed.  Floor has been replaced and is in good shape. I also have a 1/4 inch thick floor mat for it.  Totally rewired with new lights and light covers. Also wired for light in the interior if you have one of those night blind appaloosas that needs a little help in the dark. Totally repainted but does have some minor body damage that won't affect anything. It does NOT have a center divider and it has a stock horse back door. I normally use it to haul only one horse or a mare and foal at a time. I don't normally pull two adults in there unless they are small. Title is clean and it has permanent NM plates so once you transfer the title (in NM) you won't have to pay to re register it again. The title says it was silver or gray, but it really was mostly pealed paint and surface rust so we sanded and repainted it hunter green and black with a white interior and white roof. We also replaced the little plexi glass windows as well.

It has a lot of DOT approved reflective stickers and can be seen from all 4 sides in the dark when you shine a light on it.  I'll be posting photos later today. But If you are interested it is located in Thoreau, NM and I'm asking $2000 slighly negotiable.

I'd be willing to haul it to locations within about 150-200 mile radius so that includes locations like NE AZ, SW Colorado, or SE Utah If you know anyone in those areas.

Updates on ApHC Ruling

Last year I posted this message about certain rules violations for registering a colt who was sired by a Paint registered stallion. The ApHC decided that the stallions Paint papers and Paint background essentially don't exist. For the moment, the protest filed regarding this colt has been denied.

The ApHC published a Notice of Decision that basically states that there is " No persuasive evidence that the horse in question has Paint breeding".

The Issue at hand is the VIOLATION of THIS Rule:
205 C. No horse shall be registered with the ApHC that has draft, pony, Pinto, or Paint breeding. 

Well here is MY evidence of Paint breeding.

1. The stallion in question Seriously Secure, was born in 2002 and at the time of his birth he was NOT eligible to be registered as a quarter horse because his dam Powerful Elegance who was born in 1994 had to much excessive white on her belly. Additionally she also produced 9 foals with excessive white. The stallions' sire also had to much excessive white the the AQHA and was registered as a Paint.  The ONLY reason this stallion got AQHA papers was because the AQHA changed their ruling on excessive white.

2. This stallion was registered with REGULAR paint papers not breeding  stock papers. And he's been shown as a Paint and earned three Paint Reserve Championships. 

3. This stallion has produced Paint marked foals.

Just wondering how these facts are not "persuasive evidence of paint breeding"?

Additionally I have several other problems with the way this protest was handled. 

1. The registrar who originally accepted the Colt in question for registration owns and breeds Paint horses and she is also responsible for making the decision on the registration protest filed against the horse in question.

2.  According to internet chat and scuttlebutt, the colts owners were told by ApHC office staff to ONLY submit a copy of the AQHA registration papers for the sire when they sent in the registration papers for the the colt in question. Basically it appears that ApHC staff don't care if a horse is dual registered.

So according to this, A registrar who breeds and raises Paints certainly should be somewhat familiar with Paint bloodlines and breeding. Having a registration for an Appaloosa that contained Paint breeding within the pedigree should have raised a red flag when the registration was first sent in on the colt. 

Second, The individual who made the decision to allow the registration to be processed in the first place should NOT be the same individual who evaluates and reviews the decision if a protest is filed. A judge is not allowed to preside over a case where he might be either the plaintiff or the defendant, so how can a registrar evaluated and review their on decisions?

Finally the last problem I see is that although the ApHC has a limit on non appaloosa white markings on foals from Appaloosa to approved cross breed horses, the do NOT have any limit on excessive non appaloosa white markings from Appaloosa to Appaloosa registered horses. So by continuing to allow horses who have the genetics to produce Paint/pinto markings is not going to help the breed. A pinto marked Appaloosa has already been shown in ApHC shows, and several others have been registered. Without limiting pinto markings in ApHC bred horses we will soon have more pinto marked horses showing up in the breed. 

A breed STOPS being a breed when you can no longer identify multiple individual horses as belonging to that breed. That means either by bloodlines or by what ever characteristics they have. The ApHC is basically the perfect example. You now have a solid non characteristic horse crowned as the National champion weanling halter colt sired by a stallion who was not even eligible to sire ApHC registered foals until after the 2004 AQHA rule change. The Colt now represents the Appaloosa breed but no one can recognize that he's even an appaloosa. On the other hand I've got a very nice loud leopard mare sire by an ApHC stallion out of a mare sired by an ApHC stallion who cannot get registered because that mares dam was not registered or identified with the ApHC back in the 60's. People don't understand why my obviously appaloosa looking mare can't be an Appaloosa when that solid non marked colt can. The ApHC as a "breed" registry is dead because you can't tell what horses belong and what horses don't. ApHC is nothing more than a blood line registry with no breed standards and no breed identity.

Ouch!

About a week ago now I went out to feed and saw Poor Ladybug with her eye almost swollen shut and excessively draining.  She managed somehow during the day to either bump her eye or get something in it that scratched her cornea. 

In horses there are certain injuries that I'll easily treat without getting a veterinary opinion. Eye injuries are NOT one of those things. I do keep antibiotic eye ointment on hand all the time for those cases when something happens and I'm not able to get in to see a vet right away such as on a weekend when the vet is out of town, but I ALWAYS have the vet look at eye injuries as soon as they possibly can. 

This is what it looked like just before I loaded her up in the horse trailer to take her to the vet. 

We had to flush her eye and stained it with the fluorescein stain to see exactly where the problem was located at. She had a small corneal ulcer up there in that bluish area of her eye. We caught it really early so it has been healing quite well. We are still putting in an antibiotic eye ointment but after just one week you can't even really tell that there was a problem. Her eye now looks like this. 

The blue color is gone, the weeping eye is gone and she's feeling much better. I think one more week of the antibiotic eye ointment and we should be good.  Since we were already at the vet, I had him go a head and pull the new coggins test for 2011 so now Ladybug is good to go hauling around to all the competitions I want to go to all year long. 

New Years Goals

Well the new year has rolled around and it's time to set some goals.  I have goals for the horses and goals for the house this year. The following goals are for the horses. There are quite a few so I think the house and garden goals will take another post.

I would like to enter many more competitions, but we have a few obstacles to overcome first.

1. My poor old truck either needs a complete overhaul of both the engine and transmission or else we need a newer, better truck to haul the horses to the competitions. So the first goal of the year is to make one of those two happen.

2. Currently I'm borrowing a friends horse trailer to attend all my competitions. I've got a smaller two horse bumper pull trailer without a center divider that works well when you have to only haul one horse somewhere, but it doesn't have a dressing/camping area and you can really only haul one horse in it. So my second goal of the year is to get that trailer replaced. I can still use my friend's trailer so I still have that as a back up when I need it.

3.  Open show points programs to track my horses points earned in competition is also another issue to look at. All but one of the horses are currently registered with the ApHC and are allowed to enter the ApHC ACCAP (open show points Program). All of the horses but one are also registered CRHA (Colorado Ranger Horse Association) and are eligible for CRHA open show points programs. The difference between the two programs is a matter of cost. ApHC has an initial fee and then once you reach 10 events/judges you have to pay additional fees for each event attended. If I want to increase the numbers of events I go to that means in the end I could end up paying double or triple the fees to the ApHC. CRHA has a flat fee that covers all events entered in a year.  So I will have to decide which program is better for each horse at this time.

 Once I get those three things figured out, I'll have to decide what events I want to attend and how many of each I can go to.

I will continue to compete in ACTHA competitive trail competitions through out our area as they become available. Ladybug and Baby Girl already have some experience and can only get better as we work more on the obstacles. 

In addition to the ACTHA competitions, I believe that Ladybug is ready for some tougher and longer competitions in the form of either AERC or NATRC  distance competitions. We will start with some 25-35 mile rides at first. Baby Girl won't be ready for any of these competitions this year. She will turn 4 this year and will be eligible for the shorter distances based on her age, but she's not been ridden long enough distances yet to be in condition to try them. So she will get some of the conditioning rides with Ladybug, but won't go on to the competitions yet.

Keith also wants to get back into the Cowboy Mounted Shooting events now that he has his saddle to ride with. So we are looking at starting back with one of the sort of local clubs and attending practice matches at least once per month. Ladybug has already been trained to have shots fired from her back, but we don't have any of the other horses that far advanced yet. So a goal of getting horses used to gun fire from their back is also in place.

And I found the American Stock Horse Association with affiliates here in New Mexico. They are looking at hosting a few competitions here in NM this year and I'm interested in attending them. 

In addition to all of the competitions goals, I'm also considering breeding on mare Topper this year for a 2012 foal. I'm trying to find her the right stallion and that has proven quite difficult with the criteria I have set. I have found one stallion within a driving distance that fits several of the criteria but not all. The remaining stallions would all have to use with shipped semen.  The problem with using shipped semen is I would have to take Topper to a reproductive specialist more than 100 miles away for the insemination. So I'm looking at weather shipped semen or live cover is the way to go with Topper as a maiden mare. The local stallion is one I know about since he's the sire of my other colt Bright Snow Eagle. The remaining stallions have only been evaluated based on photos, pedigrees and competition records.  I have until about mid April to make my final decision because I'm not going to have a foal born here until late spring due to all the bad weather we have here.

I have quite a few competition goals for the horses and I hope we can attend a few of each type of event. It will all depend though on getting a good and reliable truck to get us to and from each competition. 

Happy New Year

Well what a way to start 2011 It got down to minus 20 last night and even with the water running we have frozen a pipe somewhere. The cold water still runs, but the hot water isn't working. Sure good thing we haven't planned on going anywhere this morning. We spend the day trying to find the right pipe to unfreeze and as of right now still no luck. We at least have water just cold water so we can boil some up for warm water for baths and stuff. but I hope that pipe unfreezes soon. It did get above freezing here today, but the hot water tank and pipes are on the north side of the house so I'm sure it didn't get very warm over there.

The horses are doing well in spite of the cold weather. We have a water tank heater out there for warm water and they have plenty of hay to eat.

Meeting a Hero

Keith got to meet a Hero today. Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura a Korean War Medal of Honor Recipient is selling personalized framed photos with replicas of his Medal of Honor as a fund raiser for a scholarship program.  Lasting Gifts from a Hero is the title of the full story and can be found at the Gallup Journey website.

Keith's father and brother are associated with a VFW post in MA and their post donated money for this scholarship program. Keith also added some personal touches to one of the framed photo displays.  Here are some photos of Keith's photo display and his meeting with Mr. Miyamura.

Winter ACTHA Ride

Well this past weekend was our last ACTHA ride of 2010. Keith since he finally got his own saddle that fits him also decided to come along. We took Ladybug for Keith to ride and I took Baby Girl on her first ever competition. Ladybug now has quite a bit of experience with camping over night, being tied to the horse trailer over night and riding out with a lot of different other horses.  Keith also got in a few firsts since this was his first competition and his first time out to any of the events.

Baby Girl however got all her major firsts all in one shot this past weekend. This was her first time to ever be tied to the horse trailer over night. We put her on the side closest to the dressing room door just in case something happened and we needed to get out to her fast. Well she stood perfectly all night long and she's now banned from being on that side. Her present to us for taking her along was to nicely deposit all her manure right in front of the dressing room door.  She is now banned from being on that side of the trailer. Ladybug is nicer about depositing presents away from the door. 

This was also her first ever experience being blanketed. It got quite cold overnight in the mid 20's and even with all the hay we fed she would have been cold standing tied to the trailer. The only time the blanket bothered her was the first time she had to lift her tail to relieve herself. 

Another first was that she had never been out on a trail ride with more than two other horses. She was not used to having horses behind her and horses in front of her. We spent the first couple of miles checking backwards and forwards. Once she got used to horses coming up behind her and passing her she was fine with everything. 

Her final first was that this is her first competition of any kind. I believe she did extremely well for a young green horse and all those first experiences to deal with.

The obstacles went like this.

1. Canter a large circle. I didn't make Baby girl do this one as she was still really nervous and as a young horse, we haven't really worked on cantering yet. I've only been working her training mainly in a walk and trot so we trotted the big circle. Keith and Ladybug also trotted I think mainly because Keith hasn't had much time to get used to riding Ladybug and just didn't feel ready to canter.

2. Jump a small log. For the pleasure division we had the option of trotting or cantering to the jump and then jumping. Baby Girl trotted up to the log, but got distracted by the judges. Once I got her attention focused, we ended up stepping over the log. She didn't jump and we also haven't practiced that one. Ladybug followed and she also kept looking at the judges before she stepped over the log. Most of the other horses in our group ended up going around the logs completely instead of going over them. 

3. The Gate. This was a big metal gate with a heavy chain that made lots of noise. Baby girl didn't mind the noise as much as Ladybug. Both the girls got through the gate, but Ladybug acted up more than Baby Girl. I think Ladybug was flexing some muscle to see how Keith would react. He did good and made her work like she should. 

4. The Log drag. Since we had been practicing this one both Ladybug and Baby Girl did really well on this one. There was no fussing at all. I hope we each get scored really well on this one.

5. Garland on the Christmas tree. This obstacle was quite a challenge for many horses. We were supposed to ride up to  a person holding a coiled strand of garland, pick up the Garland and ride over to a small tree and string the garland around the tree. Baby Girl did fairly well. She did get a bit goofy at the tree because she wanted to rub on something so she walked right into the tree. After she was done her rubbing we finished decorating the tree. She wasn't spooked by the garland though and that's a really good thing. Keith did well with Ladybug also except for one thing, she slowed down and got behind the garland and spooked a bit. Keith had to drop the garland and come back around and pick it up and continue. 

6. Side pass to Santa. We were to step across a log and side pass over to the Santa (real human) standing on top of a water tank. Baby girl did well but bumped a log. We are still working on her side pass so my cues were pretty obvious, but she did it and did it calmly. Ladybug is not good at sidepassing in the first place and Keith doesn't really know how to do the cues to try and make her either. But she wasn't scared of the Santa and walked right up to him for the candy cane. 

So that was the last ride of the year. Both Keith and I need to work on things but we had fun, and did well for all those first time experiences. Poor ole Beastie (the ugly blue truck) is really in trouble though. We had some major difficulty just getting up the 9 mile hill into Albuquerque. I don't think Beastie will make it much longer unless we prolong his life with a replacement engine and transmission. It's either that or buy a complete replacement truck which is currently out of the budget range. We will have to see what happens for the rest of the winter and decide soon what we want to do. If we want to keep competing, we will need to do something.

Stray Puppy

Today I had to haul a horse to the vet to get a Coggins test and found this cute puppy at the gate. He's about 6 months old and looks like a sheltie mix. From a distance he looks in pretty good shape, but that's because he's got a lot of hair hiding how skinny he really is.  He needs a new home because I just can't keep three dogs. I've already got two other strays and I still need to get Buddy neutered. So if you know any one looking for a cute sheltie mix let me know.

 The bigger red dog here is Buddy. He's the last stray to show up here at the house. As you can see the puppy is half his size. I don't expect this puppy to grow much more, his paws and legs are tiny and with his full set of adult teeth in the front, he's already about 6 months old and fairly well grown.

  I guess we will find out shortly if the puppy has ever been house trained. He's currently here in the house with the other two dogs and the two cats. He's doing well and isn't chasing the cats or harassing the other dogs. Nice and quiet and probably just enjoying the warmth and the comfort of his now full belly.

After Thanksgiving Ride

My older sister came by for a visit and we went for a lovely short ride in the snow.

Ladybug is sporting Keith's new custom saddle that he finally got. It really looks good on her I think.