Cowgirl for Christ

•  Dancer is doing well and is still in the isolation stall until the college recieves her Coggins Results. I think I got it, but it s a yellow slip of paper with her markings and numbers on it. I'm kinda of embarassed to say that I still miss her. I think about her all of the time and I can't wait to see her again. I feel bad for leaving her in a place where she dosen't know anyone. I hope they let her out and people come and visit her and she's not lonely. I wonder if she misses me too and is always waiting for my voice or the truck to pull up and take her away.

                It's dull here without her. The barn is a mess as I put her things away for winter, and I haven't had time to go out there thanks to college and my allergies. My riding areana is covered in tracks ( I think my brother was doing donuts in there again) obsurcing Dancer's hoofprints.

Dance is safely at college. It took us 2 hours to get there, but I think she enjoyed every min. of it. We stopped at a rest stop and I let her stick her head out and she was frightened by all the traffic, but I stayed there with her. The funny part was when I left, she would neigh! I even made sure she had water, but I think she was too interested in her new enviroment to drink.

 We got to the college stables just fine and when we unloaded dancer, she got the attention of some fancy English horses looking down at her from the stable. We put her in a nice stall with hay and water and it was heartbreaking to leave. She didn't want us to go either.

 Today I leave for college and like Dancer, I don't want to leave, but I have too. It's time for a new begining.

College Update: Tommrow we take Dancer to the college equestrian center. It's a 2 hr. drive, but I hope its worth it! The place sounds nice and the staff also, but I didn't know we had to do a Coggins test and thank God the vet was able to get us scheduled for one yesterday. Now all we have to do is await the results (let them be negative!).

Equine Mind Reading is it worth the money? I got my issue of H & R and I saw the article on Equine Mind Reading. I had to laugh, though I didn't really read the article yet. I did read Sue Copland's piece on it when she hired a mind reader to see if the mind reader could read her horse's mind. It sounded more like an analysis then an actual reading and I'm wondering if she wasted her money. I'm quite skeptical of it and it sounds to much like those ppl who r pet mind readers... I know I'm not dropping any money. I can read my horse's mind through her motions. Let me know if anyone had it actually done and if it works.....

Those Horse Novels... Ok, someone needs to change the way horse novels are written. It's either about racing or English (there's not wrong with those displines) but there's nothing about showing Western. I would love to read a horse novel about showing western, be it western pleasure or cutting. I tink noone really outside the horseworld knows anything about the western disipline and I think it would be neat to see someone's face when they read about our showsaddles dripping in silver or how sparkley our show colthes are. It would be even better if it somone did a movie about showing western. There are sooo many racing movies out there, lets think outside the box once and wow the crowd with our silver showsaddles, big hats, and outrageous colthes. I have read one book about riding western, It's called Hearts of Horses, but it was more of healing horses and ppl, but it was good. If anyone hears of any such book that exists that has the western displine, please let me know. Thanks!

Can't we just get along?

 For awhile, I've been frequenting the slaughter threads here and I'm both frustrated by and interested in everyone's viewpoints. I like how one person said that overbreeding is the problem and another said that most of the horses that go to slaughter are pretty young. Frustrating part? You write a good post and then someone ignores it or we're attacking eachother because we think a  person's got a sucky opinion or its not right. Arggh! It really makes u mad and u just want scream "CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?!!!

 My Opinion on Slaughter

     I'm proslaughter, but I'm open to other options. Here is what I believe, taken from two of the slaughter topics:

What is Your Opinion of the Slaughter Ban?

I'm against the ban. I used to be for it, but my trainer changed my view when he explained that we can't save all the horses, he put it this way: "If you save one horse because you don't want it to go to slaughter, then other people will begin dumping their unwanted horses on you until you'll become broke" or something like that. I know, it would be great to save all those horses who are slaughter-bound, but the reality is you can't save them all & with the slaughter ban, I think it's causing problems within our industry. We have the goverment telling us we can't slaughter our horses in our own country so we have to close down our slaughter houses, which cuts jobs, so we have to send them down to Mexico and Canada where the horse's right to be transported in decent trailers and humane execution  is questioned, but now there is talk that the goverment  wants to ban shipping slaughter-bound horses out of the country, which could affect our horse industry even more because we could be clogged with more unwanted horses and that could affect the value of wanted horses and it could change our breeding standards. We need to tell the goverment to get the heck out of our industry and to quit listening to ppl like PETA because they think its so cruel to slaughter unwanted horses. They don't understand what they are doing to our industry, and we need to persaude our goverment leaders  to get rid of the ban. Representives from our industry should try and work with our goverment leaders to correct this issue or provide alternatives besides slaughter and we need to educate the public more about slaughter and horse buying. Hopefully it will get some attention. But the most important thing is we need to better eduacate new horse people. I think some of the root of the unwanted horse problem is they buy a horse for looks then temperment or they don't have that much info on horses and they buy a horse because it's cheap, they find out its dangerous and then they're stuck with something they don't want.

H.R. Act

As for the overbreeding thing, I think we need to educate ppl more about horse ownership. I know there are some ppl who treat their horses as if they were a dog and theyr'e not! I know one girl who won't disipline her horse and she's just asking for trouble or the next owner could and that horse could be a candidate for slaughter... but if we educate ppl more on horses, then the number of those who are unwanted could/maybe go down. I think we need to lay off the breeders and focus more on better educating ppl. The breeders are getting all the rip and I don't think it's their fault. They're just doing their job bc there's people out there who want good quaility horses. The horses that are the surplus, I believe, some of them are  unwanted. Maybe slaughtering them gave them a purpose and they were free from abuse and neglect. That's my theory and if I may have disturbed anyone, my apologies.

YES!!! We got a call from the university where we are going to send Dancer and they are going to take her! I'm so happy because I can keep her and not worry about her sitting in her stall doing nothing, not to mention the money me and my family can save. The lady who contacted us said Dancer gets her own stall, she can be turned out with other horses and they have a vet on the premises, not to mention, she'll help a fellow horse lover get a taste of the horse life. I'm a little sad though because I'll miss riding her in the fall and I know she won't be there when I come home on weekends from college, though I can say I won't miss the winter riding. I hate riding in the winter since its so cold and you can't wear thick gloves to protect your hands from the cold. I just hope they treat her right and she can get along with other horses, since she's the only horse I have. I couldn't bear the thought of selling her because I've had her ever since she was 3 (that was a real trip) and we've been through so much together from fairs and horseshows to really bad days when I just needed a shoulder to lean or to cry. I know I'll miss her quirks, such as how she always will squeeze her rubber feed buckets with her butt, how she'll charge at the cats, her mare days, and how her  ears perk when I open up the wrapper of a Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Cookie or a peppermint and how she gobbles it down.[:'(]

   I guess I didn't properly introduce myself since your reading the blog of a stranger. My name is Ash and I'm a 19 year-old horsewoman. I've been a horselover all my life, but this is my second time owning and my first time showing (I've been showing for 3 years). My first horse, I got in the 4th grade. She was a spooky horse we were leasing from a local University and we didn't know squat about her. That horse lasted 2 weeks at my place. My dad ended up falling off her and breaking a couple of ribs. I witnessed it and it killed my love of horses for about 5 years, that is until I met a horse-crazy girl and she slowly got me back into horses, but a relative's suicide really quickened the pace since I've been begging for lessons and after that relative's death, my dad thought I should have it since my mom was trying to keep everyone busy (the sucide happened in my backyard) so he contacted a firend who had horses and I began riding. My first riding lesson, I gripped the saddle horn and I wore tennisshoes and I rode a Quater pony. As I got better, I learned to ride one-handed and I got a pair of decent boots. In the fall of my sophmore year, I met Dancer, a pretty 3-year old mare with a great temperment. My dad's firend thought we would be a good match. He was right. We were perfect together and a few months later we purchased her and brought her home. That was a real trip. We had some boundary issues "Space Wars" where she would try to get in my space and then there was the infamous time where she squeezed me against the wall... but we ended up getting along fine and I showed her in my first fair. We did great, scoring a 2ond in first-year showmanship and a 1st in first year horsemanship. However, things fell out with my horse-crazy firend (I learned never to board a horse with your firend, it could = problems) and Dance was my rock. When I had a bad day, I would hang out with her and it seemed to make it easier since I knew she was always listening and she would always make me laugh with her quirks. We showed at fair for 2 more years, then I graduated from Highschool. We tried to go to one more horseshow this summer before I went off to school, but there was nothing locally. So I guess I'll have to wait till next year. BTW, I show western (I'm a western junkie). I do Western Pleasure, horsemanship, trail and I've added reining and Western riding, but we have a lot of work to do!

 When I'm not showing or ridng, I love to read, hang out with firends, be outside, discuss religon or current events, watch movies, or work at a nursing home where I'm just starting (they turned us loose on the floor today after 2 weeks of classes). I love horse books and horse magizines ( my favs are Quater Horse Journal, NRHA, and Horse and Rider) and I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan too. For pets, I have 4 cats: Fiesta, Frodo, Mandy, and Max plus 5 kittens. We used to have a dog, but she went missing last year. Horses run in my family as I had an aunt that used to show and a great-grandpa who was a horse lover. Both of my parents had horses or had a sibling that had a a horse. I have 2 great parents and a younger brother who loves motorcycles and sports.

College and Horses, it's something that dosen't go together since they both cost $$$$, but one can't have both...or can they? I know most girls my age are selling their horses, whether they want to or not, so they can have extra dough for college. Others r keeping their horses home so a younger sibling or parent can take care of or leasing them out. I've already figured out what my horse's fate is, after some thinking and talking to my parents, we've decided to send her down to a college equestrian program where she will be ridden and taken care. The best thing is we don't have to pay a cent (which = more money). I think it's a wise choice since I'll only be home everyother weekend and I'm the only horseperson in my family. I know my parents won't have time for her and my brother isn't a horse person, so i think it's better that she'll be in a place where she can be ridden and not standing around in her stall if she were kept here. I'll miss the horselife, though I won't miss winter riding! but I'll still stay active in the horselife. I'll keep a picture of her in my room and some copies of my horse magizines. I'll watch horse videos on Youtube and get more exercise and when spring rolls around, I'll get some riding lessons and when May comes and I'll be ready for horse show season. It sounds like a good plan.