Aside from casual classes, I guess I'll fail out of principle.
Here is what I absolutely refuse to do with Peanut:
- Put shoes on him
- Clip his muzzle
- Clip his ears
- Clip his eye whiskers
- Clip his fetlocks
- Clip his body hair (except when medically needed)
- Put a bit in his mouth
- Feed sweet feed
- Blanket him (unless medically necessary - hasn't happened yet)
- Pull his mane (I want it to grow longer anyway, dammit!)
- Stall him (except when necessary - see below)
I don't know of anyone with a longer list of "will not"s than I, but what I'm currently doing works for us, and I have reasons for each and every one that make sense to me. Have I seen horses thrive who have undergone all of the above? Sure. But this is my horse. My rules.
No one at my current barn other than Rick knows the extent of my list of don'ts, and I don't plan to let on. I do tend to get a lot of... well... resistance when little bits and pieces of my list come up, but too bad. I don't tell you how to keep your horse, leave me alone with mine.
He has not worn a bit in 5 years as of next month. We currently ride with a Dr. Cook's bridle and it's fabulous. I have the book written by Dr. Cook, but I don't buy some of it and it had nothing to do with my decision about bits. It began with the fact that there are so many different bits in so many different sizes, and as a newbie I decided to just go without rather than get something that was wrong. It worked. I have not found a reason to go to a bit, and in fact my goal is to work bridleless entirely. How this will happen with a horse that thinks with his stomach is beyond me. Every time I ride I have to remind him to keep his nose out of the grass.
The reason that I don't buy some of Dr. Cook's book is that he makes a big point about bone spurs forming where the bit sits on the bars. I talked to my dentist - whose discipline of dentistry involves the study of a large collection of horse skulls - and she's never seen a single one.
As for stalls, Peanut has spent about 16 nights in a stall since I bought him in the fall of '04. Once was when he had a cold and a blizzard came in. Another time was when he had a touch of gas colic and was pulled off of grass for the night. Most recent, during the two-week quarantine at my old barn he was on full board, since that's how they did it.
No ribbon or title is worth me compromising what I think is best for my guy, which is just fine since I really have to need to show anyway. :)
*hopping down from soapbox*
I took Peanut for another walk today, a longer one (roughly 3 hours), and aside from a messy ascent of the one, rocky hill that he had a lot of trouble with before, he did great! I might just feel ok riding the bugger again soon!
As an aside, I'm getting pretty fed up by the fact that someone/some people at my current barn are sticky fingered. I have already watched my levels of cookies and fly spray diminish, the mane/tail brush that I had that didn't surrender at the challenge of Peanut's mane/tail disappeared this summer, and twice in one month Rick and I have gone there to find the lead that had been attached to our halters nowhere to be found. I have talked to a number of other boarders, and their responses are either that they keep all of their tack elsewhere (car trunk, trailer) due to stuff disappearing, or else they could go down their list of their stuff that had gone missing.
We've already started keeping everything we can in our tack trunk so that it's out of sight, but the halter thing is really, really bothering me. Another boarder and a leaser got to hear me rant about it today when I found it gone, and I left a note on the tack room board about it.
I have never been in a barn where I had to fear for the security of my own supplies, and it's getting to me. I've already bitched to Joan about the fly spray issue, but next time I see her I'm going to get into it further.
4 comments:
WHOA!!! Your list of "don'ts" is almost exactly the same as mine - Hey, we ride dang near matching soap boxes!
To yours I add: my horses will not wear iron on their feet; and my horses will not get slammed with several vaccinations at a time and will only have those that are the most essential.
With greatest regret I gotta admit to using a bit this summer. It really is a short term response a bigger training issue. Red started being spooky over silly little things - backing up, jumping around. Dumb. When we march back to the barn and switch to our Shrake full-cheek snaffle, he moves right past the formerly scary monster. The bigger picture is being buddy sour and we made alot of progress on it over the summer. I want to return to "no bit" asap.
I'm still surprised you don't clip fetlocks in the winter! Not super-short show clip, but I do trim Dixie's when it's mud season. Much easier to get mud off of short hair than out of those long feathery fetlocks.
I'm pretty utilitarian, as you know. I trim what gets in my way - bridle path and fetlocks. And I do admit to trimming the long goat hairs from her jawline, just because I'm rather vain about my pretty princess and she doesn't look so pretty with a beard! I make sure to leave all her whiskers, and I think I'll leave the whole jawline alone til I see how our winters up here are.
Sucks that you have thieves at your barn! It's all little stuff too, so it's not so easy to write your name in huge letters on it. Good luck!
Red - Actually, shoes are at #1 on my list. I will not shoe either of my horses, and I have yet to see a horse that actually required them (no matter the protests of the owners.) It is not up for discussion, and I think I gave a withering look to the incompetent farrier that I was forced to use between trimmers when he mentioned that Peanut would do well in shoes. I enjoy a functioning hoof capsule, tyvm. :)
As for vaccinations, we had a long list that were required at our old barn. Believe me, we now get a lot less! I was pissed that we were forced to get intranasal strangles. No longer!!!
That's really interesting with the bit vs. not. I rode Peanut in a bit once, before I bought him, and thus really have nothing to compare to. Gene will go back and forth, and Rick says that he is more respectful with the bit, but like me he prefers to ride without one. Out of curiosity, have you ever marched back to the barn and marched out again in the same bridle? Does he still get spooky?
Funder - Mud on his fetlocks really hasn't been an issue. Either it's dry and I can curry it off, or it's wet and I can hose it. What gets to me are the ice dreadlocks, but they don't bug me enough to do anything about it.
And don't worry, they don't include beards in the official portraits of royal princesses. The courting princes will never know until it's too late. ;)
As for the thieves, a lot more of my stuff has my name on it, but I hate it because I don't want to look at my name. Just leave my stuff alone. :(
Hi Sara,
I've got a long list of don'ts too!! I am so sorry to read that you're stuff goes missing!! I can feel your pain. I went to get Daniel last week and could not find his halter. Yes, I had another in Jill's (the barn owner's) house but that's beside the point! If someone moves his halter, they should put it back - it's not like I can borrow any other horse's halter - no one else's fits him! Where did I find it? All the way down in the indoor!!!! UGH!
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