I've discovered the thrill of a gaited horse!!!!

[Chaos Ranch]

I am so thrilled with the ride I took last night that I still have a silly grin across my fase.

A good friend and neighbor of mine has two gaited mares. A sorrel and a flea bitten grey. I ride his grey mare. Well, I can't see in the dusk/dark hours and it was already 8 p.m. when we got over to his pasture to saddle up. I was nervous because I knew I wouldn't be able to see much longer, but I wanted so badly to ride anyway.

We loaded up and took off. It was great and I was so thrilled with the ride of that mare. I had trouble keeping her in her gait, but that was more my fault than hers. Well,... then we cut off into the woods and it was darker in there... I was nervous, butI trusted my horse to follow the other horse. She did... I could see my friends white hat, and when I seen him duck, I ducked... problem is I always came back up just in time to get a branch in my hair, mouth, forehead, or neck. lol... We got out of the woods for a bit, then back in. I could see nothing, but I trusted my horse again. She crossed a big ditch with a giant leap... that was fun. Then we went through a deep creek for a ways and came out on the gravel road..... and WOW did they ever rack em' off when we got on the road! It was a BLAST @@

We came by my house, tightened the saddles again, and took off towards the barn down the road... when we got on the pavement I could see the white lines, and my horse's head and neck. I could still see the white hat my friend had on, but my mare kept herself right alongside his mare and we just clip clopped down the road side-by-side and it was WONDERFUL fun !!!!

I have found a gaited horse that I am going to have my friend "test drive" for me and I may end up buying her. I have truely fallen' in love with the gaited horse.... now I just need to get some gaited appaloosas and I'll be tickle ten shades of pink !!!

 

[Jill]

Gaited horses are really neat.

How are the rescues that people were donating towards deworming, etc. doing?

 

[Charley]

I would love to have a gaited horse....my dream horse is a paso fino. I love to watch them.

I was wondering about your rescues also. Have any been rehomed? I bet it is hard to see them go.

 

[jrae]

Welcome to the gaited horse world! And I have good news for you...there are people who are breeding for walkaloosas. Gaited appys. I rode one years ago, he was neat horse! We own, raise and show walking horses....

 

[minie812]

I sold my gaited mare (Missouri Fox trotter) as I was not able to ride the biggies anymore. Her gait was simply the best and MFT have the kindess nature

 

[Shari]

Welcome to the Wonderful world of smooth riding horses!!!

If it wasn't for me having an Icelandic...doubt I would ever be able to ride again. But she is sooo smooth.. I can.

Yes,, they do have gaited Appy's out there...though it might take some looking.

 

[Chaos Ranch]

Thanks for remembering my rescues...they're doing great. Three of them are still looking a bit poor, but there's a huge improvement in them from just a month ago. I am almost ready to start rehomeing them. I am having the farrier out in a week, and the vet also to pull blood for new coggins papers on the horses. Can't sell or give them away without a coggins within 6 months. I have a guy we're waiting on to hear if the herniated mare can come live in his shelter. It's a no kill, no rehoming shelter. The government pays this guy to take care of rescued horses. Have to get down to the neighbors to ask about that situation again.

We were able to trim the feet on some of them, but there's 3 that I will have to let the farrier do because I can't keep ahold of their feet while trimming them so I'm hoping the farrier will have better luck with them than I did.

As far as weight goes they are really starting to look much healthier. The tick problem isn't gone, but it was greatly reduced because of the yellow salt block...whoever recommended that sure did us a huge favor. It will be hard to see the horses go to new homes... I will worry that they could end up right back where they were if they go to the wrong home... it's hard for me to trust people because they can really feed you a line of malarkey and make you think they will give a horse a good home... and it not be true.

I know we are keeping 3 of them for ourself. Donnie claimed the black pinto mare, I claimed the black bay mare that was out of the appaloosa mare he wouldn't let us get, and my son is keeping the black pinto gelding and he's named him Dobie.

If anyone on here lives within a resonable distance from us (We're in NE Ark.) and is interested in getting one of the rescue horses from me I'd be glad to hear what you have planned for one of them.

 

[tnovak]

I had a Tennessee Walking Horse mare-what a DREAM ride!!!!!! Would love to get another just like her!!!!

 

[Chaos Ranch]

WAH HOOO... that's what I'm getting... a Tennessee Walker. We're going over to ride her tomorrow morning wtih a good friend of mine. He's going to take his two gaited mares, my husband will ride one, he'll ride the other, and I'll ride the new mare. I'm really excited about it !!!

 

[CyndiM]

Oh lucky you!

I have been looking at and drooling over gated breeds now for a little while. If I could find a gated Appy I would be the happiest person in Iowa. I had no idea there were any, does anyone know who might have one/some? Jrae do you?

 

[Kellie in OR]

I LOVE my gaited horse. Here is a video of Radar, he is a Tennessee Walker.

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b194/kra...nt=3c54f0ec.pbr

 

[RainSong]

I met some people here in OR who have gaited apps. Not walkaloosas, either. They've got the gait some appy lines have had for a long time- The Indian Shuffle, I think it's called. I didn't get to ride one.

I want a Paso Fino for riding. I HAVE ridden some of them- whooooo. Smooth...

 

[mininik]

Okay, I'm confused. For months and months you've been posting about your family's financial hardships. After moving and being Miniature Horseless for a bit you bought a couple big horses a few months ago (2+2=4), then you were literally begging for money at the end of May due to the costs of rescuing seven more big horses in poor condition (4+7=11), plus groceries for five kids out of school, then you posted about wanting/needing to buy a motorcycle a couple weeks later in early June to save money on gas, followed by the purchase of a couple new big horses a couple weeks after that in the middle of the month (11+2=13), and now at the end of July you are buying yet another big horse (13+1=14). I understand that you are planning on rehoming four and keeping three of the rescues, but you haven't yet, right? Is my math wrong? Don't you also have like eight Dachshunds that you breed? And weren't you looking into getting a Maine Coon Cat, too, a couple weeks ago? The last few posts in which you've "discovered" something (a new liking for motorcycles, Maine Coon cats, gaited horses) all end with you preparing to go out and buy whatever it was the very next day. So I wonder, did you win the lottery and decide not to post about it? What gives?

I'm sorry that I'm not all kitties and rainbows about this thread, but that's because I know what it's like to be strapped. Strapped and also not on here begging for donations to help with the mare I rescued because I have over-burdened my family, yet a couple weeks later posting about buying three more horses, and so on.

 

[Jill]

Nicole is right on how I've been feeling.

You posted that when you bought these rescue horses, you had no money and as a grown woman had to call your parents and beg them for $200. Then after you got them home, you posted that you didn't have money to deworm them... you could buy enough generic ivermectin to deworm all 7 for less than $25. How does that compare to the cost of feeding them for a day or two????????? I felt at the time like you were using the forum to subsidize something you wanted for yourself.

Since that time, you've posted that you were going to go motorcycle shopping because they are so much fun to ride, you've bought a couple/few big appys as some kind of a foundation for your breeding program (since we all know that when you have financial hardships, breeding horses is the solution -- not), and now this...

If you hadn't hit "us" up for handouts, I would feel you were making odd personal choices but wouldn't say a word. But you did hit us up for handouts and I'm sorry, but that changes how I feel about the entire situation.

 

[Chaos Ranch]

Wow... had no idea people were keeping such close tabs on me. As far as the motorcycle goes, I decided against that idea when Marty asked me not to get one. After knowing what she went through there was no way I could chance putting my family through the same thing. No motorcycle.

The reason I asked my dad for the 250. was because he had the cash on hand to give the guy and it was too late for us to get to the bank and we had to strike while the iron was hot. My dad got his money back the next day.

Many of the horses will be in new homes soon. I have to get thier coggins tests done before I can rehome them. I also have two of my own horses for sale as they don't suit the family. (One is a booger, the other is too small.)

A large part of the reasoning behind selling my miniature horses was because back then I didn't have a decent place to keep them. My friend was letting me keep them in his pasture, but it was 3 strand barbed wire with big horses on each side of the pasture, two of which were stallions... my little ones weren't safe in that pasture. At that time I didn't have the 30 acre pasture that I have now.

As far as winning the lottery, no... I didn't do that. It would be nice, but I don't play the lottery. What did happen is we eliminated several of our monthly bills. Got rid of two trucks that was costing us over 500. a month in payments and 160. per month on insurance. Now we have an older suburban that we keep liability insurance on (not full coverage) and it will be paid off in a week or so. We are situatied where we do not have a house payment every month.. we pay by the year with our tax refund. The only bills I have (other than groceries) is commin bills, phone, satelite, and electric. We've worked very hard to get ourselves in a good position like this, and it's all coming together quite well.

Also, I got my disability approved after 2 and a half years, so I will be getting close to 10,000. within a week or two. That's pretty personal business, but I am willing to disclose it to ya'll so you know that my horses will be in good care. My husband and friends help me a lot with the horses. We go over to the pasture every single day and pet them while we grain them.... sometimes two or three times a day just to brush them and rasp their feet.

My horses are safe and sound...they are well provided for...and we got over the initial heavy deworming so that now we can just keep them maintained on dewormer. My hay supplier has plenty of hay for us, we're going to buy our supply of hay when I get my money in. My husband brings home over 400. per week and that does well for the family. My kids are also all safe and sound.

I am willing to disclose any personal information that someone might want to know.. I have nothing to hide from anyone. I'll tell you anything you want to know... just simplly ask and I'll answer. I don't want anyone having hard feelings towards me, I wanted to help these horses and I did. I didn't think it was a bad thing to keep 3 of them since they fit into our family very well. We are assuming the bills on all of these guys on our own, and only needed help during the very beginning. The help was greatly appreciated and no further help is needed.

Edited to add that I placed all of my daschunds in good homes a long time ago because I didn't want to breed dogs when there are so many out there now without homes. I never said all of my life decisions were good ones... I've messed up here at there. I only have a Basset hound now. Yes, I would love to get a Maine Coon cat, but when I began seriously checking in to them and seen that they cost around 400. I decided that a Maine Coon cat would have to wait until later in life when I could more easily justify spending that kind of money on a cat.

 

[Charley]

I'm glad to see you getting your disability and working things out financially for your family. Good for you. I do wish you the best. It is just so expensive to raise kids these days and plan for their futures. We can never have enough savings set aside for all the things that pop up with kids.

I just hope that rehoming horses and horse sales work out quickly and well for you. We all know what the market is right now. It is expensive to keep horses that don't sell and it is hard to find good homes for horses with problems. With the price of household necessities going up like they are, most people are having to cut back things like horses making them really hard to sell. I see so many down here in Georgia for free.

I really feel for horses now a days. I hope all the ones you want to rehome or sell, find good forever homes.

 

[Jill]

We sure have different perspectives.

That's interesting that you qualify for disability yet can tend to a herd of horses and ride horses. Hope that's not SSI disability (and I wonder why my taxes are so high...).

I hope you won't be asking LB members for anymore hand outs. I still do not see how someone took in seven big horses and the next day had to beg the forum for contributions to purchase dewormer. Apparently you have no plans to rehome a good number of them (so why should other's charity contribute to your hobby)? And then so soon after panhandling for the dewormer and other things for your rescue / purchases, you bought multiple additional horses.

$10,000 doesn't go too far in my neck of the woods expecially with so many animals and children.

 

[mininik]

Very well said, Jill. I agree completely.

 

[Chaos Ranch]

I'm not going to sit here and keep defending myself. I know I did the right thing by getting those horses when I did. They needed me, and I needed a little help starting off with them but now we're ok. The initial cost of deworming them was a bit more than I could handle at that point in time but now we're in a better position to handle it all.

Obviously you've formed your opinion of me and nothing I say will make a difference. I have 13 horses right now, I plan on selling and/or rehomeing 6 or 7 of them... and I have a right to keep any that I choose to keep. I do not, nor will I ever again ask the forum for any help. It's quite obvious to me that the forum members are happy to help some people, as long as you're one of the popular members...but when you're not one of the clique you shouldn't dare ask for any help. I used the entire 140. that I got from 4 different members entirely on the dewormer for the horses. Oh wait... I also bought a bag of alfalfa pellets. I bought the big 5 gallon buckets of dewormer and kept them on those for the first two weeks.

Anyway, think what you will of me. I needed a small bit of help in the beginning... but I am not ashamed of my decision to help those horses nor am I ashamed that 4 forum members helped me financially to help them. I have a right to whatever I choose to buy in my life... and I shouldn't (and won't) have to keep defending myself over what I thought was best for those horses.

And yes, since you are so worried about it.. I did get SSI disability. I am going blind, cannot drive, and I have bipolar disorder and degenerative disk disease in my back. YES... I can ride a horse. Yes, I can take feed to the horses. Yes, I can tend to the horses. But no... I cannot fullfill a job position. My husband and my kids help me ALOT with the horses... in fact I can't even get to the pasture without having one of them driving me over there. You do not have to be a totally incapacitated person to get disability. The judge that gave his determination on my disability had access to all of my reecords, and he asked me all the questions he needed to make his determination. I am disabled... not dead. Your not the only person that pays taxes so to get all ruffled up over my disability seems a bit much to me.

Whatever though... you're entitled to your opinions and you've stated them quite well on here. I am not going to keep arguing like a child. I will withdraw myself from the lil beginnings forums and say farewell to the many on here that has become my friends. I just don't have the time nor the interest in bickering.

I make my life decisions myself. Yes, sometimes I get ahead of myself and have to stop and regroup, but I have taken on the FULL bill on these horses... not dumping them in an already over-crowded shelter, where they would just be sold...or "adopted" for 600. each. I pay 50. a week for their grains and other feed needs. I have not asked for any additional help. We're doing fine right now. Yes, initially the burdon seemed like it was going to be very difficult to carry... but after a little time I seen that it was not going to be as hard as I thought and we could do it on our own. I won't apologise for saving those horses... and if I had to choose again, I would most definately get them again... the only thing I would have done differently is I would not have came to the forum and asked for a small bit of help. Dont worry though, I won't be on the forum again, and you can rest assured that you'll hear no more about the horses, or my life at all.

Farewell... I don't have the time or interest in fighting over something I am proud of doing.

OH!

Edited to ask how do I delete my account on here?

 

[mininik]

"It's quite obvious to me that the forum members are happy to help some people, as long as you're one of the popular members...but when you're not one of the clique you shouldn't dare ask for any help."

Or perhaps most forum members simply aren't interested in being enablers.

"YES... I can ride a horse. Yes, I can take feed to the horses. Yes, I can tend to the horses. But no... I cannot fullfill a job position."

Don't forget that you can also get on the computer and type...

"I have 13 horses right now, I plan on selling and/or rehomeing 6 or 7 of them..."

"Yes, sometimes I get ahead of myself and have to stop and regroup, but I have taken on the FULL bill on these horses... not dumping them in an already over-crowded shelter, where they would just be sold...or "adopted" for 600. each."

It sounds like the only difference there is that good rescues are financially stable, experienced at screening for good homes and will take the horses back if needed.

P.S. How do you grain and provide "other feed needs" for so many big horses for $50. a week?!

I believe Mary Lou can help with your account.