Conference noted::equitation

    WE, HERE IN THE CONNECTICUT DISTRICT, HAVE A MACHINE CALLED AN
    ARCTURAS.  THIS MACHINE TAKES INFORMATION THAT COMES ACROSS A MONITOR
    AND MAGNIFIES IT ONTO A MOVIE SCREEN.  PERHAPS YOUR DISTRICT HAS
    ONE YOU COULD BORROW.  IF NOT, GIVE ME A CALL (DTN:  255-5377) AND
    I'LL FIND OUT WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO GET OURS.  TO PURCHASE ONE IS
    OVER 5K - SORRY.
    
    WHILE ON THE SUBJECT, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO WORK OUT GETTING OUR
    EQUIPMENT TO SHOWS MY BIGGEST PROBLEM HAS BEEN THE ENVIRONMENT (DUST,
    ETC.)  ANY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO GET AROUND THAT PROBLEM, SOFTWARE
    PACKAGES THAT HAVE WORKED FOR YOU, PARTICULAR SYSTEM QUIRKS?
    
    ANY HELP WOULD BE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.
    
    THANKS.
    
    ANN IZZO

    The machine that was mentioned in the first reply to your note that
    takes info from the monitor to a movie screen sound like a good
    idea.  To possibly help with the bright sunlight situation glaring
    on the screens - if the movie screen had it's back to the sun and
    maybe even a temp. wall a little higher than the screen was put
    on both sides and the back of the movie screen it might shade it
    enough.  I know I've seen the VCR's at shows in a booth type structure
    which seemed to provide enough protection from the sun for viewers.
    In your case, you seem to have a large audience viewing the screen
    at one time and a smaller booth wouldn't do.
    
    Pat
    

    Sometimes, at horse fairs or large shows, horse owners will bring
    monitors and vcr's to show stallions/mares/etc at liberty.  The
    best setup I've seen has been in a large stall.  Put stall curtains
    or sheets on the walls, a woven-reed rug and plants around it. 
    Place your monitor in one of the back corners.  Putting a sheet
    on the ceiling a la Arab tents cuts the dust tremendously.
    
    A table outside the stall with flyers, photo album, etc., and a
    cooler of lemonade draws a lot of interested people!!
    

    HI !!  WE DID HAVE A COMPUTER SYSTEM THAT REALLY WORKED OUT WELL
    THIS YEAR AT THE N.E. YOUTH OLYMPICS !!  WHAT WE HAD TO DO THOUGH
    IS REALLY CLEAN & AIR CONDITION THE ENTRY BOOTH AT THE NORTHAMPTON
    FAIRGROUNDS - I DO NOT KNOW WHAT PACKAGE THEY USED BUT IT WORKED
    OUT SUPER - WE HAD A PRINTOUT FOR THE ANNOUNCER AND GATE MAN AS
    TO WHO WAS ENTERED, ETC.  I WILL FIND OUT MORE INFO IF YOU ARE STILL
    INTERESTED.
    
    SOMEHOW YOUR NAME IS REALLY FAMILAR ??  ANN, HAVE WE SHOWN TOGETHER??
    

    Re .4
    
    Yes, I'm definitely still interested since we hold our show at the
    Northampton Fairgrounds too.
    
    I don't think we've ever shown together per se...but you probably
    know my name from the Connecticut Appaloosa Association.  Until
    last month, when I bailed out, I was V.P. and was involved with
    out Youth Team two years ago.  A couple of the kids showed my mare
    at the Youth Olympics in '85 at Forest Cabins.  Since you're involved
    in NEHC as well, you may know my name from the judge's list.
    
    Ann

    I wouldn't know who to ask about it but DEC has a traveling show
    that goes to state and county fairs to demo PC's to farmers. They
    must have a way around the problems. I think I heard about this
    from a DEC video but don't really remember. At any rate marketing
    would probably know about it. Liesl

    Yes, Liesl.  _At one time_ there was such a DEC group.  They went
    in mobile computer rooms (vans) and demo'd equipment all over the
    place.  
    
    However, over the past year or so, Digital has changed it's focus
    and position on the PC marketplace.  It is no longer a market that
    DEC is concerned about, and former PC groups have literally
    disappeared. 
    
    That brings us back to peg one. (sigh)
    
    Ann

    Does anyone out there know of a program that includes a kind of
    calender that you can use to keep track of when a horses' routine
    maintenance (shots, worming, shoes etc.) needs are due?  It seems
    to me that this would be a good thing to have especially if you
    have more than one critter.  
    
    Thanks in advance
    
    Pat

    Pat - can you clarify what you meant by 'program'?  If you meant
    a software package for a computer, I know of a couple.  One of them
    is the Microsoft Windows software that runs on the VAXmate (IBM
    pc compatible machine).  Microsoft Windows has a program called
    Calendar, and it allows you to highlight days on a calendar and
    write notes/memos associated with that day.
    
    The program displays the calendar in two forms - one is the 
    traditional days of the month format of wall calendars, and the other
    is the days of the week format of your traditional desktop
    weeky minder books.
    
    I don't know of anything like this that runs under VMS. 
     You can also set alarms on
    certain days that you want to be reminded of appointments, etc.

      Sorry I wasn't clear in my first note.  What I was looking for
    was a computer program that would have a menue so that you could
    bring up each horse and have all of its biographical data (sex,
    age, breed, etc.) and also have a way to enter a field or fields
    for special medical problems such as allergic reations, ties up
    when worked hard, tends to colic, and a place to enter the routine
    stuff such as when shots and shoeings are due.  I would try to write
    something like this except that my programing ability is limited.
    I work in field service and have never need to be program much beyond
    a few machine language routines to check out basic hardware functions.
    This program is just something that I thought would be nice to be
    able to use if it existed. 
    
    Thanks, Pat
    

    There is an outfit called Equine Associates which is a DEC OEM that
    sells an equine management program but it is fairly expensive (more
    than $2K as I recall).  
    
    I've been meaning to put together something like this using dBase
    III but I've never gotten around to finishing it.  If I get going
    on some cold winter night, I'll make it available here.  dBase III
    is a program which runs with MS-DOS so it would be compatible with
    most PC's, Rainbows and Vaxmates.  
    
    Regards,
    
    Bob
    

    
    
    Hi Bob - what can we do to encourage/help you undertake this
    project?  CC and I have spent many winter nights talking about
    it - but that's as far as it has gone...  I bet there are many
    folks (me included) who would love to be a "test site" for your
    product!  The package prices which I have seen quoted were way
    out of our 'cost effective range' and didn't run on DEC equipment.
    Let us know - I at least want to help.  Regards - h

    If you have an IBM pc or compatible, I know of a package that is
    fairly inexpensive, called PFS:Professional File.  It is a information
    mangement package that allows you to create a form to hold information
    you want to store.  You can then search on certain key fields (in
    this case the horse's name) to make updates, print out various types
    of reports, etc.  You can also perform certain calculation like
    adding two or more fields together to get a total or something.
    
    A sample form could look like this:
    
    Horse's Name:                                    Age:
    Height:           Sex:             Breed:                 Color:
    Sire:                              Dam:
    Date of last worming:                   Cost:
    Date of last shots                      Cost:
    Rhino:                 Flu:                Tetanus:
    E/W Encephalitis:                          Coggins:
    
    Date of last Shoeing:            New/Reset:            Cost:
    
    {any other info you want to track can be included.  There
    are 30 'pages' to a form, and after the last page of info
    you have there is a place for additional notes.}
    
    You can print out a listing of info with column headers as follows:
    
    Horse's Name     Age    Last Shoeing Date    New/Reset    Cost
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    Sam               6          11/02/87            N        $60.00
    Corks            19          10/15/87            R        $40.00
    Natassia          2          11/12/87            R        $30.00
    Sebastian        12          10/10/87            N        $55.00
                                              ----------------------
                                              TOTAL           $185.00 
    
    
    You can send me mail on TOPDOC::NAJJAR if you want more info on
    the package.
    
    -Julie
    
    

    Sounds like Julie may have an acceptable answer.  I'll definately
    start looking at putting together something this winter but for
    now the weather is still good enough to continue fixing fences,
    painting bare surfaces, and getting other maintenance stuff done.
    When its time to go into hibernation I'll start on this project.
    My programming efforts are always modular so I'll make modules
    available as I finish them and do some level of testing first. 
    I've already played around with some screens so I should be able
    to have something done by mid January.
    
    

    I've used dBase for several years and its always been a pain to
    use.  Never used dBase 3, but if it's anything like its predecessors
    I wish you all the luck in the world.  Wouldn't a spread sheet type
    system work better?
    
    I seem to recall that there were several companys listed in Tack 'n Tog
    magazine and book that provided programs for horse farms.  I'll
    look them up tonight and post them in this topic.
     
    Larry.

    I guess one persons meat is another's poison.  dBase is a data base
    management program which can be tailored to your specific needs
    (either poorly or well depending on the programmer).  Keeping records
    like this is a classical data base problem.  Spreadsheets try to
    do database things but fall very short because they are not designed
    to do this task.  My guess is that if you had problems with dBase
    it is because the procedures were written poorly since you can write
    them to match the best standalone programs.  Like I said we all
    like different approaches but for me I'll take dBase.
    
    Bob_who_is_a_dBase_fan
    
    

    re: .8
    
    The orginal dBase documentation was an afterthought.  I wrote a
    complete mailorder entry system for my mailorder busniess back in
    the early 80's.  It kept track of order pending, labels, accounting,
    database purging for duplicate (but not exact) entries and taxes.
    Once I got is working, I have only detected 2 programmer errors
    during the last ~5 years.  Certain field names blew dbase away along
    with variable names.  You have to remember, this coding was all
    done on IMSAI S-100 system (CPM).  I have since got it converted to run
    on my pc xt.  I did try to convert it to dbase 3 one day, but dbase's
    convert file blewup on one of my database's structure.  I works
    good enought on dBase 2, but slow when sorting.  Of course, dBase
    is still the base thing available.
    
    Larry.
                                    

    There are programs out there. I have a couple of demo disks that may be
    just what you are looking for. Some are expensive and some are
    reasonable.  Send mail to MPGS::DENTINO and I will fill you in.
    
    nick.
    

Does anyone have any history with PC based applications which 
could be used to manage a show, a barn for boardingetc.
I could always create the database,spreadsheet etc. from scratch 
but I was wondering if anyone had already gont to the trouble or 
are aware of any that you can buy?

		thanks
			BC.

    I've seen several ads for such things over the years, but I can't
    remember any names off hand.  
    
    -ellie

    I've seen ads for them to over the past 5 years or so. I think there is
    an ad for one of the products in the current(Jan 92) issue of EQUUS...
    (I get more out of the ads in EQUUS lately than the articles)