Conference noted::equitation

    How about those people who ask when your pony is going to become a
    horse...
    

	How about this one... I was riding a young horse working on
	dressage basics one day, when a barn spectator asked me if 
	I could show her a passage.   I replied with 'the horse is way too 
	young and not trained to do that.'  She responded with 'But, I've 
	*seen* him passaging in the field.'

	At least this person can feel happy in knowing that all her horses
	are 'grand prix' horses since they "do it in the field."

	Melinda

    Sorry for not being as knowledgable,  what is "passaging"?
    
    My daughter wanted to know what that sound was when our gelding is
    cantering...  I said what sound is that?   You know, that hollow deep
    sound,   OH........

    My college roommate wanted to know what kind of meat my
    horses ate...  
    
    I was kind... :-)

	When I was a kid in Pony Club, one of the parents (a father)
	was in charge of getting two out-houses -- one for the girls
	and one for the boys.   He thought it would be a nice touch
	to label them in a witty/horsey kind of way.  So he labeled
	them MARES and GELDINGS.    He honestly didn't know what was 
	so funny.

    
    I have a photo in my office of two colts playing, they were romping
    all afternoon and I was taking their pictures as they jumped, kicked,
    reared and put their front legs over the back of eachother.... 
    I'm still AMAZED at all the folks that come to look at the photo's
    I have and always ask............ 
    
    HOW'D YOU GET THEM TO DO THAT?   {Could you please rear up and put
    your front two legs over the other colt so I can take a photo? ?
    ?}
    
    They really mean do ask!
    
    Nancy      ;^} .......
    

    I had a sweet little 6 year old girl upon meeting my horse for the
    first time ask "but where is his mane and tail?". This being the first
    real horse she had ever seen, she thought that he should look like a
    My Pretty Pony toy!
    Sandy
    

    Once when I was riding my mare in the indoor arena at the barn I
    used to board her at, a woman in her early 20's went up to the
    instructor (there was a lesson going on at the time) and asked
    which horse was "Plympton's Pride". The instructor pointed me out
    and the woman motioned me over to the rail to cheerfully tell me
    she has seen the name sign on my stall and that she had known my
    mare's dam. She had worked at the breeding farm where my mare was
    foaled. Her comment was "It sure looks like the same horse, she
    used to be a Standardbred, right?"....er, USED to be??? I bet
    she was a REAL help around the breeding farm! :-)
    
    Linda
    

    Or, when people ask what kind of horse you have, and you tell
    them it's a QH gelding, or Arabian gelding, etc.
    THEN they ask; Whats a Gelding?  And you tell them it's a
    neutered (castrated) male (stallion/colt) horse.
    
    And then they have that "I don't understand" look on their face.
                                                 
    So you get a little more "descriptive", and now have totally
    embarassed this person by talking about this subject in the first
    place!
    
    L- 

    I could not belive my ears when I herd this one.
    I was takling to a guy that lives down the road from me. He seems like
    a knowledgable guy, after all he trained three of his horses to drive.
    So i'm chatting with him and telling him how I just started putting a
    snaffle bit on my yearling, and he is doing really well ect..
    
    He asked me if I had wrapped a piece of baling wire around the bit to
    give him a soft mouth!!  
    
    I just stared at him and said to myself those poor horses of his!
    I would have said somthing real nasty to him but it wouldnt do 
    me any good for he is about 50 and has had horses all his life and
    I am 27. Just a kid in his opinion.

    Well, I've been told "those bits that are jointed in the middle
    (I could only assume they meant snaffle bits) are the SEVEREST
    bits they make".  
    
    I kinda wondered about this one... This was also from a long-time
    horse trainer/horse type person.

    Re: .12
    
    > Well, I've been told "those bits that are jointed in the middle
    > (I could only assume they meant snaffle bits) are the SEVEREST
    > bits they make".  
    
    Actually, because they are jointed, they are more severe that straight
    bar bits.  If you use both reins at the same time, you get a nutcracker
    type of affect in the horse's mouth which is more severe than the
    effect of a straight bar bit.  However, bits with curb chains and long
    shanks, I believe, are more severe than jointed snaffles, so I think
    the person was partially right.

    It also depends on who's using the bit and how, I think.  Personally,
    perhaps the most severe bit I've ever seen was a mule bit, which a big
    name arab trainer used on a friend's horse (needless to say, she pulled
    her horse outta that stable in a hurry!).  The bit was basically a saw
    and left the horse with bleeding cuts all over his gums.  Also, I think
    curb bits with high ports, long shanks and chains can be quite severe.
    
    Jointed mouths are not limited to snaffles.  The differentiating factor
    between a snaffle and a curb is a single ring/no shank/no leverage of
    the snaffle vs the leverage action of the curb.
    
    Mary

    	My blacksmith is forever asking me if I want to put my horses 
    shoes on backwards! (To screw up the indians). 
    
    He thinks he's a comidian!

    Someone in the barn last weekend asked if one of the horses had lost
    of a lot of weight.  We said, "No. Why?"  He said, "Well look at those
    stretch marks!"  We looked at the mare and said, "Huh?  Where?"  And
    he pointed to the hair whorls between her hip and barrel... 

    overheard when in barn...couple walking down aisle, and they passed 4 
    or 5 metal sweat scrapers hanging on a nail.  "What are those?  They must
    be tongue
    depressors -- and see the groove in the center -- must be where you
    pour down the medication."
    

    These aren't really questions, but just typical of some of the 
    conversations you get in with non-horse people.  
    
    When you mention that you're sore or tired after a lesson or a show,
    or that you exercise by riding a few times a week, people say, "I
    thought the horse did all the work!" (Oh, yeah, he goes over all
    those fences because he likes to!)
    
    Or, when you meet someone new and they find out you ride horses,
    and they say, "Oh, yeah, I rode a horse...ONCE."  And then they
    proceed to tell you about the time they went to a rental stable, rode
    an incorrigible lug who proceeded to buck/roll them off/whack them
    off on the side of a tree.  It's amazing how many people this has
    happened to!
    
    Is this true or what!
    
    Jennie

back when I was a tyke I had a horse which I rode in a Kimberwick... One day
while on a ride, I met up with a couple of guys from school... They saw the
curb chain on the bit and wanted to know if all horses wore bracelets like
that ;^)

    I had my trailer hitched to the back of my truck at work, the other
    day,  and several people asked my if I had brought my horse too????

    My 19 mo. old daughter was "helping" me brush my gelding, when she
    looked up at his sheath and said " eers a dydee"?  (Where is your
    diaper)!!!
    
    I still get hysterical when I think about it!!

In all honesty, this happens EVERY time a non-horse person asks me what kind 
of horse I have. I say "I have a Thoroughbred" and I always get, an eye roll
and a somewhat indignant (and knowing) "a thoroughbred what?", as if I have just
insulted them by implying that they don't understand the concept of BREED :-)

Another question I get is "How smart are horses? Are they as smart as dogs?" How
do you answer that question?

I also love it when non-horse people say "Well riding isn't really EXCERCISE, I
mean, you just sit there don't you? It's not like GOLF". My usual response
is just a chuckle and to say "I wish I were good enough to make it *look* like
I am just sitting!"

	;-)

    
    
    I was down at the nurses office here at the plant in CXO the other day
    and saw a calory chart that lists the number of calories that are
    burned by different activities.  It was divided into three major
    catagories with several activities under each one.
    
    Low-leval 			Calories		Time to burn
    				per hour		350 calories
    
    Sitting			  90			3 hrs 48 min.
    Driving an auto		 168			2 hrs.
    House work			 180			1 hr. 56 min.
    
    Moderate
    
    Golf			 250			1 hr. 24 min.
    Bowling			 270			1 hr. 18 min.
    Swimming			 300			1 hr. 10 min.
    Walking ( 4 mph)		 348			1 hr.
    
    Intense 
    
    Ice skating (10 mph)	 400			      53 min.
    Tennis (singles)		 420			      50 min.
    HORSEBACK RIDING (trotting)	 450			      47 min.
    Cross-country skiing	 900			      23 min.
    Running (8 mph.)		 975			      21 min.
    
    Pat

    re .23 and .24
    
    Yeah, I always tell people "You're right! Riding isn't like golf.
    Riding's a LOT more work!" .24 shows riding is about TWICE as vigorous
    as golf. And that estimate assumes you are walking the course instead
    of using a golf cart.
    
    The line we usually get from non-horsey folks who ask "what
    kind of horse is that" goes more like this:
    Them: "Gee, that's beatiful horse. Is it a thoroughbred?"
    Us:   "No, a Morgan"
    Them: "You must mean a thoroughbred Morgan!"
    
    I have never successfully explained that Thoroughbred is a bred name
    and the term they want is purebred! Or that a Thoroughbred Morgan would
    be a crossbred where one parent was a Thoroughbred and the other a
    Morgan!!
    
    John

    re. 25
    
    
    Yea I like the 450 caolories for 45 min... ??
    yea sure ..... I do it all the time :*)
    
    		wendy o'
    

    
    
    	I forgot to put this in last week, 
    
    	The other night I went to bring lady in from the pasture 
    	and I could smell a skunk (boy was it bad).  Any way as
    	I got closer to lady I noticed a I was getting closer to the
    	skunk smell..   Boy does she stink.. 
    
    	She is always chasing dogs out of the pasture - a dog must
    	have been chasing the skunk and she got it.. 
    
    	Donna

    Last Saturday night about 8:30PM, I was called by a member of my church
    who asked if I had a horse trailer.  I told him yes and agreed that he
    could borrow it to haul two miniature donkeys to a live Nativity scene
    at our church the next morning.  After discussing his vehicle, a Jeep
    Wrangler with a hitch about 18 inches off the ground and a four pole
    connecter with no brake controller, I reversed my decision and told him
    that I didn't recommend him borrowing it.  I would have pulled it
    myself, but my van was in for repairs at the time.  I offered to call
    around to friends to see if I could find a volunteer.
    
    He said, "No, I have a 4X8 utility trailer that I can use."  When I
    asked him the details, he said that he would nail plywood on the front
    as a wind break and tie the donkeys to the front to keep them on the
    trailer.  
    
    Thinking that he might know what he was talking about, I asked him if the
    donkeys loaded well and if he had a plan to get them on the trailer.  He 
    didn't know what loading was and after I told him, he said, "Well, they're
    really friendly, I doubt it would be a problem."  After a moment he said, 
    "Anyhow it's a dumping trailer, so I'll just tip it to the dump position 
    and they can walk right on."(my head was spinning at the thought of it)
    
    At this point, I was worried about the donkeys, but trying not to laugh
    at the guy, so I asked him how he planned to get the trailer back to
    level (hydralics - manpower - what???) and he told me that the donkeys
    would make it go back to level after they walked forward.  At this
    point I told him to come get my trailer, but he refused...  apparently,
    he was getting more confidence in his plan as he described it to me.
    
    When I couldn't convince him to rethink his idea, I asked him if I
    could call him back after I thought about what we could do; he agreed.
    
    So, remembering a friend who had two miniature donkeys near the place that
    was near the location of these two donkeys.  I called her, interrupting
    her Christmas party to ask if she could haul them for my fellow church
    member.  After I told her this guy's plan, she advised me that the
    donkeys belonged to her friend and that she would haul them at 8AM the
    next morning.  (Pretty nice, huh!)
    
    It all worked out for the best, the donkeys were safely transported,
    and my fellow church member learned a lot by the experience.  The
    donkeys were very stubborn and difficult to load, but were no problem
    for an experienced person.
    
    I can't help but imagine this guy trying to get two donkeys to walk up
    a dumping trailer together and tipping it back to level, while being
    tied to the front.  I'm not bragging, but I'm glad he called me for help.  
    
    Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
    
    JW
      

    
    thanks for the story.  it made my day!!
    
    Louisa