And the BYB's just keep on coming...
"Rock placed very well in 2006 at the local shows in Halter. He took all 1st and 2nd places!"
Anybody want to take bets on the size of the classes?
"Rock has not shown in 2007, but was sent off to the trainer to be broke. He has came back now, rides in western with a hackamore."
I should be happy they're at least riding him and stop crying about the grammar, right? Yeah, I know. I do like the fact that he's got good sized feet.
Our friend Harmony here sells damn near everything. Sugar gliders, goats, barn cats, cows, horses, donkeys, Australian "Sheperds," llamas, buffalo, a dead zebra...you think I'm making this up? Go look for yourself. (Note the "wanted" list. Apparently she'd like to acquire a live zebra.) As she herself says "I might of left something out, because we have so many animals sometimes its hard to keep tracked of them."
This is one of those cases where I just know someone is going to pop up and say "but they're all well cared for!" I agree. I think they are taking good care of their animals, but at the same time, they're breeding yet more short, unmarketable, crooked legged Quarter Horses and we all know the world doesn't need any more of those. Don't even get me started on the barn cats and Australian "Sheperds"...
In other news...somebody sent me the results from a good registered QH sale in Wisconsin. The high selling horse was $30,000. This is why I will never tell you that we all have to stop breeding to save horses from slaughter. No, we don't. We have to stop breeding low-end horses that can't find homes. If you can breed a horse who auctions for $30,000, YOU are not the problem here. The guy running his half-dozen mixed breed weanlings through the low end sale for $75 each, he's the problem.
And this one is just a great big WTF? WTF? WTF? Apparently this lady believes in withholding feed one day a month in some weird attempt to detoxify the horses? I wouldn't even have understood that is what she was talking about here, but a local tipped me off. And WHAT IS WITH THE NAME OF IT????????? You all know I do not offend easily and normally tell people to get over it, but COME ON. This is not 1950, surely you can think up a new name for your moronic horsekeeping ideas.
"Weather permitting, One day per month horses are encouraged to drink water (with salt available). Since the year 1998 we have found this practice (combined with open space for horses to be able to move about freely) to be quite effective in the prevention of colic and waste. Although our herd size for an Alaskan Ranch is respectable, We also have never had a case of ulcer, or stocking up.We stand behind our feeding program.To date we've never had a complaint from any client about this practice we call picaninny (no racial slur intended). The horses here are happy, and so are the clients (who have been from different social, political and racial backgrounds)."
I realized after writing this their stallion, Hebe White Lightning (which also sounds like a racial slur, perhaps there is a pattern here?), sounded familiar to me. So I did a search and found that he'd come up in the comments last summer when we were discussion cremellos. I cannot improve upon OhForCryingOutLoud's commentary on this horse, so I will merely repeat it:
"oh_for_crying_out_loud said...
Yes, I looked at Hebe White Lightning.
I saw a horse who had two parents who did little to nothing.
I saw a horse with an exceedingly straight shoulder and short neck.
I saw a horse who is linebred Dry Doc with some Fritz Command, which would make him somewhat bred for cow and reined western events.
Guess what? He's not built for it. Why on EARTH would you breed a stallion who looks nothing like what his pedigree says he should look like? I'm confused. Isn't the idea that he would PASS ON the good traits? How can he do that when HE DOESN'T HAVE the traits he was bred to have??
And people riding both the stallions in the pictures... jimminy christmas, take a riding lesson or two or three... you look like a moron.
Morons handling stallions and breeding horses = the sad future of the stock horse breed."
Can I also add that it doesn't make your pony-sized stallion look any better to put a full grown man on him? If your horse is a midget, put a 5' tall girl on him for marketing purposes!
Final note of the day: To the asshat who refused to euthanize his pregnant mare as she was dying on the freeway because his dumb ass ran off the road...sir, there is a special place in hell for your greedy ass. (He was hoping HIS vet would show up and give her a c-section so he could save the foal) Again, this is where I think to hell with private property rights, someone needed to be able to say, sorry sir, but we are not letting your horse lie here and suffer, you're on a public highway and our vet is going to euth her right now.
