A quick update and a request
Mar 20 2010
Please feel free to continue the dogs thread, I know some of you haven’t had a chance yet. However, I may slack on the approvals tonight as it’s pretty hard to add code when approving stuff on the phone and I won’t be home. It’ll all go up tomorrow morning if not tonight!
#1 – The owners of The Hump, that lovely restaurant selling endangered sei whale and horsemeat, had enough business sense to close the restaurant. Hooray!
#2 – I’ve got a really good home looking for a horse and she is having a little trouble finding what she’s looking for. This is in Washington but she’s willing to consider anything on the West coast. Seeking an Arabian mare, 15.1 or above (and that means really – you own a stick with a level and you know how tall it is for sure), good bone, sound, and a good enough mover for the Arabian shows as a Western Pleasure horse. Must be at least green broke, age somewhat negotiable (let’s say under 15) and it’s ok if it’s a show horse who has been on hiatus having babies for a while if she has stayed tucked up and looks good. Buyer has no problem seeing past “pasture condition” and can ride a sensitive horse well but no rodeo stuff. She has a particular liking for Polish horses but will consider all. This is the home you all want to sell to – a permanent home with immaculate care, no abuse and lots of cookies, which is why I mention it here. If you know of a mare like this, let’s hook them up! Email me with ARAB MARE in the subject line – pics a must, video a huge plus.
I’m running out the door so I don’t have time to make a new ad, but SOS Equines in Kennewick, WA has a new rescue that I would want for myself if I could – she’s a Mr. Prospector bred mare, for those of you who are fans, a 15 year old named Tapatia. Someone go get this mare! The MP’s are as kind as the day is long and this mare is no exception. I’m told she is a total sweetheart. This is not a track broke mare – she neck reins and has some advanced training, and she rode like a rock star when they tried her out!
The dog day of spring!
Mar 19 2010
OK, I promised it, and here you go! We’re off topic for the rest of the day to talk dogs, dogs, dogs and nothing else!
Do you show? What do you like/don’t you like? What events do you compete in? How does a total noob get into something like obedience?
HILARIOUS dog show fashion group on Facebook…OMG people. Do not wear short skirts when you are going to be bending over working with animals!
Do you breed? What do you want to say to people who think they are going to breed dogs? (Muahahahaha…I know this is going to be good!)
Do you rescue? War stori
es welcome!
Do you train? What do you think of the big names like Cesar Milan and all the dog training TV shows? Are these folks giving good advice – or the Pat Parellis of dogs?
I know this is going to be a loooong thread. Have fun! I increased the threading levels so that you have more opportunities for replies before things get bumped to the end.
And since we are talking dogs today, here is mine. She is most likely a Yorkie-Chihuahua mix and she came out of Bakersfield, California, one of the purse dog breeding capitals of the U.S. She must have made a run for it, because she got hit by a car and wound up in the shelter. I got her for $10 and put an end to her puppy-making days and now she sticks to me like Velcro and gets smacked by the cats occasionally. They do not think a 5 lb. dog is to be taken seriously. 
If you are going to post pictures, PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE ANY CODE. Put in ONLY the direct link. No IMG tags. It’s just stuff I have to strip and that makes more work for me. The pics won’t show up til I moderate. I cannot make pics from Flickr or Webshots show up. The link must end in .jpg or .gif to be made visible.
Have fun and happy dog day and TGIF!
It’s silly question day!
Mar 18 2010
We started this topic while we were temporarily over on the old site, but I want to continue it!
Let’s celebrate silly question day! If you have been thinking about trying a different show class or going to a certain kind of event for the first time, but you are afraid of looking silly and think you might have a silly question, post it here and get it answered with no shame! Whether you’re wondering what kind of saddle you need for AQHA competition, whether a bit is legal for training level dressage, or what you’ll need to know before going to your first team penning, let’s post those questions here and help each other out!
Posts about good places to get value priced tack to try a new discipline are always welcomed. Feel free to promote your benefit tack sale if you have one coming up!
And don’t be shy about sharing your stories about your own mistakes when trying a new discipline or showing for the first time. I’ll share mine. I went to my first open show with a standing martingale on my horse in flat classes. I was 17 or 18 and had NO clue that wasn’t allowed. I had never been in anything but an in-barn schooling show, where it was allowed. So of course I got disqualified, not that I was going to be in the ribbons anyway with my hotheaded TB-ASB cross who saw a lawn chair and teleported laterally at light-speed, almost taking out the judge and ring steward. I felt really, really stupid! I think almost all of us have been there.
Here’s another source of potential error: If you haven’t shown in many years, guess what, they freakin’ change everything to confuse you, LOL! When I was showing, you stuck to that rail like glue. Only the real beginners ever cut their corners – we blue ribbon winners hugged that rail, going deep, deep, deep into the corners in Western Pleasure to make our horse look ever slower and give the illusion that everybody else was flying by like a rocket ship. Now, I’m told this is out of style. Now, the winners ride off the rail to show that they can and avoid being “pinned” in the corner by others trying to ruin their ride. Likewise, all the bits have changed. When I was showing in the early 90s, every QH hunt seat horse wore a kimberwick. Now that is totally unacceptable and the only bit seems to be the huge D-ring snaffle, the bigger the D the better. If you aren’t quite sure what is trendy, ask today and find out so that you don’t look like you got lost on your way to an 80s party in the show ring.
If you show or rodeo or do competitive endurance or whatever, feel free to hand out some tips for a beginner in your discipline! What do you WISH someone had told you?
Try to stick to topic everybody…yes, I know there have been a few new neglect busts, I’m well aware of them, and we’ll talk about them soon but once in a while I like to have a topic that ISN’T depressing, so let’s enjoy that today. I’m going to be kind of strict on this today – your posts about starving horses on Craigslist or the news aren’t going to make it through today.
The child porn of food…
Mar 17 2010
‘Cause God knows you can’t stick to what is LEGAL in your dining choices…
Santa Monica Restaurant Serving Whale and Horse Meat
Read the story. I could write about the restaurant, The Hump, which really should be closed down in shame but probably won’t be as they have plenty of money for lawyers at $85 a serving of endangered animal, but I also want to write about the diners!
What the hell is wrong with you?
You don’t have enough dining choices from all the LEGAL food options out there? Look, I’m ADHD and I bore very easily, too, but we live in a town full of every ethnic specialty on earth. Whether you’re in a mood for Peruvian, Sicilian or raw food, you can find it within 10 miles or have it delivered to your doorstep. There is a virtual bounty of exotic fish and fowl and of course the best vegetarian and vegan food on earth for those of us who choose that path. WHY do you need to eat a WHALE or a HORSE? What’s next, breaded dog? Braised kitten?
GROSS!
“…the famous Pulitzer Prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold, calls the place “gimmicky and weird.” Jonathan explains that “restaurants resort to gimmicks generally because their chefs just aren’t very good,”
That’s probably right on target. But again, what is wrong with you as a human being if you want to eat animals on the endangered species list, animals that are ILLEGAL to eat, and animals that are kept as pets in your culture? I understand that other countries eat horse. But in the U.S., they are pets. Anything you buy a tropical print sleazy hood for and spend $15 on cookies for is a PET. I’ll argue that with anybody. I don’t see catalogs of cutesey stuff to buy for your cow or pig, do you? In our culture, it’s a PET and it is not okay to EAT it. Especially in California, a state in which the slaughter of horses and the sale of horsemeat for human consumption has been ILLEGAL for twelve years!
Apparently they could lose their lease. Let’s hope so. The restaurant’s owners should also be prosecuted.
California Penal Code Section 598d:
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, horsemeat may
not be offered for sale for human consumption. No restaurant, cafe,
or other public eating place may offer horsemeat for human
consumption.
(b) Violation of this section is a misdemeanor punishable by a
fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by
confinement in jail for not less than 30 days nor more than two
years, or by both that fine and confinement.
(c) A second or subsequent offense under this section is
punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two
years nor more than five years.
Who’s with me on that? If you are, call the Santa Monica District Attorney and demand action! Be polite but clear – everybody involved NEEDS to be prosecuted to send a message that the prohibitions against selling horsemeat and whale meat are laws — not suggestions! The number is (310) 260-3648. Make sure to have this blog entry in front of you and be able to read off the law about horsemeat to the person you are speaking to, in case they are not familiar with it. We want a prosecution and jail time. These people are scofflaws who KNEW that what they were doing was illegal.
If you want to tell the Hump what you think, here is their web site. As always, remember that a profanity-free letter devoid of threats is the way to go. Expressing your opinion is, of course, legal and I encourage you to do so, as well as posting the link to the news story to any Los Angeles area forums you may be a member of!
I think we ought to picket them, myself. Disgusting! Now I have to think about the fact that some of our poor little racehorses from Santa Anita may have ended up here. Ugh.
The wrong kind of before-and-after pictures
Mar 15 2010
Sunsational Review is a lovely APHA stallion who earned 7 halter points. Click here to see how he used to look.This is what poor Sunsational Review looks like now. A great big WTF! to Jessica because it’s not like this is a little skinny because you’re in Ontario and it’s midwinter and you weren’t paying attention enough. This is damn near dead. 
Jessica had another stallion, Eternal Tardee. Eternal Tardee also started out a happy, fat horse, and it looks like a very sweet-tempered one, too as, can be seen in this picture at his former owner’s. He was a HYPP N/N son of Superior Halter Horse Eternal Impressive, and he was a decent sire himself, siring several halter ROM’s and performance point earners.
Then Jessica got him.
Thanks to a small group of concerned citizens who ignored Jessica’s threats and started a Facebook page and bugged the SPCA repeatedly to take action, finally we have it! Two horses, Sunsational Review and CJ’s Image, were removed on March 9th by the SPCA. I am told they are doing well, eating and perking up and it looks like they are going to make it! But many of the other horses have gone poof and no one knows for sure where they are.
Are you illiterate, or just asshats?
Mar 15 2010
I was at another schooling show this weekend. It drew a large crowd and most classes had over 20 participants. It was your typical mix of trainers on green horses and youth/adult amateur riders getting practice for the show season ahead with a smattering of true beginners (some frighteningly overmounted) on their shaggy backyard beasts. However, there was one thing that really got my goat and I’m going to talk about it today.
The classes included a Novice Walk-Trot pleasure class, which was very clearly marked as being for horses who have never won a blue ribbon. This information was not buried in the fine print of the show’s rules – it was actually written out in plain English directly after the title of the class in the class list. Imagine my surprise when I saw a girl entering the ring that I myself had just seen win classes at the last show just a few weeks ago, a girl on a beautiful Appaloosa who was clearly broke to death and then some, sideways lope, wringing tail and all.
(Actually, it wasn’t wringing this show. Clearly someone had had their little shot! This show, it was dead as a doornail.)
Is she lost, I wondered? Surely her trainer will see that she has entered the wrong class and signal her out. Maybe she’s schooling? But she was wearing her number.
Yep. Ms. Breed Show Appy proceeded to win yet another blue ribbon, taking a chance for a ribbon away from the kids in nylon bridles, the genuinely green horses and the adult riders who were in there for the very first time. So you know what we’re gonna do today? We’re gonna talk about how much that sucks on this blog!
This particularly offender is a client of Capstone Farm. (You really shouldn’t wear your barn jacket while do unethical stuff like this, just a hint). Although you can always recognize the riders from this farm with or without their jackets, as they are endlessly violently snatching on their poor horses’ faces. The horse’s name is Too Good To Pass and the rider is Kim Dyberg. The trainer is Sarah Aron. Sarah, Kim, are you two illiterate so that you can’t read a show bill, or are you just jerks? Which is it? I’m curious. I don’t really think you’re illiterate, because it’d be hard for illiterate people to afford a horse like this one. I’m sure he cost a lot! And I am pretty sure at least one of you had a show bill in your possession, and from your web site, you are not color blind and do understand what a blue ribbon is, and that this horse already has many of them. So what the fuck is your excuse for going in Novice Walk-Trot with that horse? I notice you do not mention “good sportsmanship” in your expansive list of qualities training at your barn will teach a child. At least you are not hypocrites, I guess I gotta give you that!
Just for fun, I googled “Too Good To Pass” to see what I could see about his prior accomplishments. Well, let’s see. He got a 6th at the Reichert Celebration, OK, I guess that’s not a blue ribbon but common sense should tell you right there that’s not a horse you should be going up against 4-H kids with. Next thing I found was that he was all-around high point senior exhibitor Appaloosa at the Lope On In open shows…LAST YEAR! Yes, I had a feeling that the blues I saw him win before were pretty typical for the horse. Oooh, here’s a good one. He was the 2007 World Champion ApPHA Non Pro Youth 5 and Under Pleasure Maturity Winner! Kim, Sarah, did you REALLY put a WORLD CHAMPION PLEASURE HORSE in a class that was for horses who have NEVER won a blue ribbon? Yes, yes you did. WOW.
Gosh, I hope that blue ribbon was worth it!
So let’s talk about this in general today. How do we make this crap stop? I’ve worked in a show office and told people they couldn’t go in the class if I knew their horse had won blues. But I think a lot of times the show offices are staffed by volunteers who don’t recognize the names and know what’s up. So my take on this is that it’s the TRAINER’S job to ensure this doesn’t happen. You know what’s in your barn and you know what it’s won. It’s your job to be honest and ethical and not put it into classes it’s already won its way out of.
Thoughts?
OK, we have an update! Sarah says the judge told Kym it was ok for her to show in Novice! So now we get to play “who is lying.” I’m dying to hear from the judge whether she said it was ok to ignore the printed rules of the show. Sarah is claiming they donated the ribbons back to the show and that makes it ok. No, it doesn’t. If you were schooling and did not care about the ribbons, you should have flipped your number and not taken the ribbons in the first place. You still took a ribbon away from a deserving person who actually qualified to go in the class. I honestly don’t care if the judge did say that (which I bet they deny but we’ll see how this develops). YOU should know better. Common sense should tell you it is not fair to put your World Champion in the Novice Horse Not to Have Ever Won a Blue Ribbon class.
