Can't let your kids go 2 hours away from home these days. All the places we used to ride now have housing developments on them anyways.


Cathy
when she first came home

But everything else sounds about right! Gone all day with a good friend, or most often just off by myself. I loved riding, no matter who was or wasn't with me:-) Bareback, halter and lead rope. Oh yeah, that was living:-)

Amy and Sophia

and she had foundered so no jumping. That was OK though because at 8 I weighed about 60 pounds and she was plenty for me to handle. She was my first horse, and I was SO THRILLED! At first we kept her at a barn right behined our house. My dad, and my neighbors(my friend's) dad helped the guy put up the fence and build the barn, and me any my friend cleaned the stalls and took care of all the horses to trade for boarding. We were in like 3rd or 4th grade, it was a lot of work! There were 6 stalls, I had one, my friend had 2, and the rest were the property owners. We used to ride bareback only, I didn't even get a saddle until I had her for a few years! (She HATED that saddle!) Sometimes I didn't even use a bridal, just a hay rope around her nose. She was SUCH a sweet sweet horse. We'd wake up real early, clean the stalls, then go for the day. We'd drink out of the creeks, didn't get hungry much anyways so didnt' bother with food, go swimming in the ponds when it got hot, ON the horses, (which is one reason why a saddle would just not work) we wore bathing suits and had bare feet and would spend around 8 hours on those horses! Sometimes we'd be 2 hours away from home! We rode the trails, saw all kinds of neat old things, like an old just about completely collapsed group of slave huts on one old farm. The farm house was still up, kinda, also. When we got tired or it got too dark to see we'd find a road, tie the reins in a knot and drop them on the horses' necks and they'd take us home. It was the BEST childhood! We moved them to the big farm after a year or so, don't remember exactly why. We live in NC so winter was not an issue, and they could always throw them some hay if they needed it. We had way too much fun just riding in the woods to really think going around a circle in a ring would be a fun thing to do. I need to find a picture of my Robin.

Cathy
when she first came home

If my younger boys get playing, Tucker wants to play too. They will come by at a gallop and grab whatever part of horse they can get and that can get tricky if I am a PART of the horse at that moment:-) Or if the horses all come running up behind us...Tucker wants to take off with them. But usually it is lots of fun:-)

Amy and Sophia

in a group of riderless horses. What a wonderful experience that must be.



Beth & Jasper

Yes, if you have really good pasture, you don't have to grain them at all unless you have a hard keeper or it is winter.

I love pintos, most of them have such pretty markings. Did you show, event, trail?? I trail ride on my guys...I figure most of mine have already led a tough life, no sense in making it harder for them by trying to show them or jump, etc.

Amy and Sophia

Robin. She was a pinto Quarter horse. I loved that horse! She was grass fed only for years. We did have an 80 acre farm to board her at, it was great. They had a barn but most of the horses avoided it like the plague!

Cathy
when she first came home

I like that:-)

Missy is due February 21st, 2011. A long time from now, but worth the wait.

Yep, they are generally happy to be fed apples (A favorite of my herd too.). Mine all love to be groomed....it makes them feel so good. I groom each horse daily as well as clean feet and spray down with fly spray. I feed at 8 am and 7 pm. They are free to graze or hit the hay bale all day. I don't have any pasture really, just grass that has grown up around the trees and on the property some. I would love about 50 acres of good grazing pasture though. Someday....

Amy and Sophia

hmmm learn something new all the time
thanks for taking in these horses
you have a huge heart Amy
I would be happy to just look at them..
find them soo graceful

we had a fairly tame one down around the corner here. I used to feed him apples..he loved them. you could pet him and he liked that too..

I guess you have to groom them all the time right?
that would be a huge job..

so when is the baby due??

so many questions but this is too cool
I love learning new things like this and horses amaze me..

the size really made me read it twice...did not think they weighed that much

I have a saddle if you have a tough backside! We could ride for hours! hey would love it!

Amy and Sophia

Well, lets see. They eat a 1000 pound round bale of good hay once every 6 days. They eat pelleted feed that is not cheap twice daily, about 12 pounds twice a day for my Thoroughbred mare, then slightly less than that for Tucker, Ginger and Lyon. Cider gets about 8 lbs a day, Doc gets about 6 lbs, and Rosie gets about 4 lbs. I go through a 50lb bag of feed in two days.

My biggest horse is Tucker. He is 19 or 20 years old. He is a Percheron/Thoroughbred cross and weighs in at a whopping 1600 pounds or more and stands just under 17 hands high (a hand is 4 inches). I haven't weighed him this year yet. He was a fox hunter his whole career, and was Field Masters horse, so that made him the lead horse in each hunt.

Missy is a Thoroughbred. She was a race horse as a youngster who lived in the race barn of Ralph Lauren, the clothes guy. She was injured on the track and sold off to a dressage farm, where she became a National Federation of Dressage registered mare. She was a good jumper until she developed hollow walls in her hinds, so she was sold several times to many people and passed from hand to hand. She finally came to me when she was 10 years old. She is now almost 15. She stands at 16.2 hands high and weighs in at about 1200 lbs. She has just been confirmed in foal to a son of one of the greatest of race horses, Secretariat. I am very pleased with this breeding!

Cider is a Quarter horse. He was only 4 months old when I got him from a slaughter auction. He and my Mustang Doc, who was 10 months old, were going to be slaughtered. We pulled them out for 20 and 40 bucks. Cider is now almost 4 years old and Doc will be 5 in August. Cider stands 15.1 hh and weighs in at about 1100-1200 lbs. Doc is small, only 14 hh. He is maybe 900 lbs.

Lyon is an Appendix, which is a cross of Quarter horse and Thoroughbred. He is 12 years old. He is 15.2 hh and weighs about 1100-1200 lbs. He was given to us as a last resort by a lady who no longer could ride him. He is a sweet boy, my favorite on a trail ride.

Ginger came to me last August with a catastrophic wire wound on her left front foot, just above the hoof and just under the fetlock in the back of the leg. It cut clear to the bone, through muscle and tendons. She may never heal and be sound, but she is a lovely girl and I enjoy just looking at her:-) She is 10 years old and weighs about 1300 lbs. She stands 15.3 hh.

And now we have Rosie, who came to us Friday last week. She is an Appaloosa/Mustang cross. About 19 years old. She is only a pony at 13 hh, but she is a pistol of a pony! Wild child:-) She weighs about 500-6-- lbs. I hope to get her up to about 700 lbs. She is going to be a pasture pal for her remaining years:-)

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Amy and Sophia

i'm available!! haha looks like such fun!

such a georgous animal and i do not know much about them at all.
like they must really eat lots ..and lots..lol
how old are the ones in your herd??

Ha ha!! You know it!

Amy and Sophia

Well, not really...only if it is Missy or Tucker I ride. The others are so attached to them because they are my herd leaders. If I ride Cider out, maybe Doc will follow along, but the others don't. Cider is low on the totem pole in my herd...like maybe 3rd from the bottom. If he was up higher, the others would maybe follow him more.

Poor Sophie, yes, these are big horses! She has good reason to be afraid of them! They could stomp her but good!

Amy and Sophia

have you trained well...lol
thanks for helping those poor babies they have a great life with you guys

hugs

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I seem to come to them when they call me:-)

I love each of them in a special way...they are all so different, such great personalities in my herd. But really, they are who they are because of what they have each been through in their lives, just like our special rescued bullies babes. They appreciate and love a kind hand, and that is what they stick close to when they have the chance:-)

Hugs to you and that beautiful gang!

Amy and Sophia

that is way to cool
would not think they would just follow like that
pretty neat

can see Sophie being afraid since they are pretty large really...

great videos
nice to see them all
very very beautiful animals

and a beautiful property too

that is something that I never did in my life..was ride a horse..thought of it once but just never did it.


thanks for sharing Amy

you are the horse whisperer....
great videos
hugs
hope that you guys are well and had a great Easter


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