Yuck.

Ok, so I pulled out an issue of... a big stock horse breed association's journal. (is that vague enough so as to not point fingers at any certain breed?) I was flipping through it yesterday while waiting for the truck to get some work done. I remembered the sense of horror that I usually have when flipping through this publication. There were several full page ads bragging about such-and-such multiple World Champion stallion. These poor horses look like those freakish men you see on the covers of bodybuilding magazines. (sorry, I'm not a fan of THAT MUCH MUSCLE) I really felt sick looking at the pictures of these horses.

I just do not understand WHO can look at pictures like those and think that the horses look GOOD?? And who can do that to a horse and think that it's ok?? I see plenty of other ads in this magazine that feature "stocky" stock horses with muscle, but they look nothing like these poor... "freaks" (??) I see in other ads. I just don't understand it and I don't think I ever will. I've been told that Bo would do well in Halter and I plan to enter a few classes with him, just for the heck of it. But I will never, NEVER subject a horse to looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Does that mean that I'll never, never have a World Champion Halter horse? I guess it does, but I don't care. I'm not surprised at all when I think back of how I've heard that many top halter horses succumb to things like laminitis at an early age.

Perhaps no one cares what I think, but since this is my blog I'll say that I like my horses to have muscle, but I like them to be FIT and ATHLETIC. The purpose behind a "stock horse" is to work "stock". So for those breeds, I want a horse that looks like he could run cattle all day. I can't see how these overly muscle-bound Halter champs could even get out of their own way. Maybe they can, but could one of those extreme human body builders compete with a marathon runner in a race? I don't think so.

It's things like this that make me even more thankful that I'm now getting involved with a more "natural" breed. I hope the day will never come that a Spanish Mustang is expected to look like a body builder to be competitive. I can't see that ever happening... but maybe the people involved in the early days of Quarter Horses and Paints thought the same thing...

Checking In

*sweeping away the cobwebs*

Hello all my faithful readers! *cough, cough* It's dusty around here...

OK, yeah I'm a little odd.

It's been a couple months or so I guess since I last posted here. I got a wild hair up my butt just now and figured I'd write something.

I've been keeping busy with my horses and various projects. Right now I only have two horses of my own. My faithful Paint stallion, Bo and my newest addition is a yearling Spanish Mustang colt I call Cazador. (Spanish for "hunter" - or so the online translation sites tell me) I actually got him back in... late February/early March I believe it was, while I was still training Onyx. He was pretty rough when I first got him - shaggy, skinny, wormy, covered in ticks and pretty wild. He didn't want much at all to do with people. He's changed quite a bit and is now a slick, shiny, friendly young stud. He is a flashy dun overo and seems to turn heads wherever he goes. That's good, because I have quite a career planned for him. His main purpose will be to serve as an ambassador for the Spanish Mustang breed. There are only somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 Spanish Mustangs in existence (depending on which figures you read). They are descendants of the Conquistador's horses, the first horses brought to this country. In addition to being from a rare breed, my young Cazador also carries a rare bloodline within the breed. His dam has two doses of a stallion called Scarface. I've been told there isn't a whole lot of Scarface left in the breed. I certainly haven't been able to find him in more than a couple horses in my searches so far. So I plan to campaign Cazador quite extensively and use him to spread the word about the breed. Big plans! So far he's already been out in the world a handful of times and he has gotten rave reviews from everyone who's seen him - horse person or not. The future is looking bright!

The latest development in my horsey life is I believe that, for the first time, I'm going to hang out my shingle for horse training services. It's definitely something I LOVE and I suppose I'm pretty good at it. I don't consider myself an expert and I certainly don't know everything (NO ONE does, no matter what they think) but I can train a horse for sure. For many years I've resisted the idea of training for other people because, quite frankly I like horses more than I like people. But when my adventure with Onyx came to an end, I was pretty bummed not to have a training project anymore. Bo is far from "finished" and there is a lot more I can do with him. I do have Cazador, but it will be a couple of years or so before we get to do any riding. I've found myself missing the days years ago when I had SEVEN horses of my own, all youngsters and all in training. I used to spend hours everyday on chores and training and I loved it. I think it would be great to have more horses to train now, but my finances certainly don't allow having my own herd again quite yet. My business has been stagnating for a little while and I have my feelers out for a 9-5 job (yuck) but until the right one comes along I have a whole lot of hours in the day I could be spending with more horses. So, I think the time is right to dip my toe in the waters or training for other people. I've spent the last several days editing and re-editing a contract, picking other trainer's brains on what to charge and what to expect and composing an ad. I'm a little nervous, but I'm also looking forward to seeing how it goes. Wish me luck!! :)