Mustang

FOR SALE CHEAP throught the BLM: two tone Mustang with lots of extras.
Very fuel efficient, makes its own gas from weeds.

Show Horses.

I like pretty pictures of horses. I love horse photos. But I don't believe in breeding horses just to get more horses that look good in photos.

And what is a halter class? It is where a horse is led into the ring, and judged like a dog in a dog show, maybe even less judging, at least the show dogs trot.

After explaining how I felt, I asked one person why the show had halter classes? She said it was because it was so much easier (than riding the horse in the ring, where the horse's gait and handling can be judged).

The point of having a horse instead of a dog, is that the horse is a riding animal. If you quit judging how a horse rides and handles, you will get horses with rough gaits, that are hard to control.

She said that lots of the older horse show people don't ride. Many of the people who have lots of horses don't even break the horse (teach it to let people ride it). She said that training a horse to be ridden was too much work, too much to expect from horse show people.

I felt that breeding horses to win in a halter class was not a good idea.

After that, changes in IRS laws, made using horses as a tax shelter harder. And required broodmares be broodmares, not riding animals. I'm guessing that plenty of people got out of raising horses when they could no longer use it as a tax shelter. But what effect did that have on halter classes?

To me, there is only one way to judge a saddle horse, get off the horse, and let the judge ride the horse for awhile.

To me, there is only one way to judge a trail horse, have the judge ride a different horse each day. Because some horses have a gait so bad that after a couple of hours ,you hurt, just from sitting on them while they walk the trail.

But other horses, with the same saddle, can be ridden all day, and after you get off, you feel fine.

Some horse are in between,, riding them on a trail is exhausting, but not painful. There are horses with gaits so bad that I would rather walk than ride them.

You can't tell which is which by looking at them. You have to ride them. An expensive purebred show horse may have a walk that gets to you. A cheap horse, that was sold for a slight bit more than their price per pound at the slaughter house, can have a soft gait that makes you feel good.

The other factor is calmness. Maybe a little factor of willing to obey easily, and being an easy keeper. Certainly, not fighting with other horses is a factor. But these are not the things that can be seen in a ring, are they?

So what do shows judge? We aren't doing that "purebred" thing are we?

As far as I am concerned only a judge who has ridden the horses himself, is fit to pass judgement on them. I have no idea how you could put that into a show, but that is my opinion.

BLM horses & burros

Yes, I know that today, horses are NOT being shot on BLM land - who I was addressing are the people who think we should return to shooting wild horses and burros.

Although such people might say "Shoot horses so that the plants can grow better, or so that deer will have more food; the reality is, that if the horses are on land that is leased to cattle ranchers, then the more horses that are gone, only means that more cattle can be run there.

BLM horses? photo