Horsemen and Their Horses

Over time I have noticed certain breeds and dsciplines of horse are ridden by a specific type of horseman:

Saddlebred : Well heeled, perfectionist, generational participation, refined horseman.

Tennessee Walker : Cheap bastards. $50,000 truck - $30,000 trailer - $25.00 shoe job.

Hunter Jumper : Soroity chicks.

Dressage : Grown up soroity chicks.

more later...

Quarter Horse : There are some really competent horseman involved with QH's, but most are clueless and highly suseptable to horsecare fads. These are the ones who will buy anything with the word "Natural" stamped on it.

Pardon Me

I was out today shoeing a womans horse. The farm manager was holding the horse and not doing a bad job of it, administering discipline as needed. The owner was nowhere to be found until the task was nearly completed. When she showed up she was beside herself that she had forgotten the appointment and apologized profusely. I graciously accepted her apology and "aw shucks"'ed it as there really was no inconvenience since the manager was willing and able.
She would have none of it and said, "There just aren't enough men who are willing to do what you do. Blacksmiths and bullriders are a special breed.... I don't know if you're crazy or just really brave, but I sure appreciate it."
Being the humble soul I am I replied, "It might just be we're stupid." That got a laugh and a cold beer.

Blacksmiths and Bullriders.

Pardon me. While I crow....

I'm gonna be hard to live with for awhile.

Just Another Saturday Night In Kentucky

For the Austrailian Copperhead: Jamie

Massacre is a Breakthrough in Americans/Isalmic Relations

While the US media wrings it's hands insincerely in another "ugly American" story binge, the ragheads sumbitches are figuring maybe the US is getting serious finally. The population of Iraq finds brutality nrmalized in the course of daily governance and is not so much upset as comforted in a twisted sort of way by the deaths of an entire household.

Hanging Tomato Plant Update

EP put in a request for pics of my innovative hanging tomato plant progress.

As you can see we are at a 50% yield rate for survival. I think the rainy weather has hosed 'em down pretty good resulting in the right plant croaking. I didn't want to fool with having to take care of them so I left the lids off just to see. I covered them last week when they were both starting to look pitiful. One came back like gangbusters, but the other is history. I am quite impressed with the one on the left as it is outgrowing the plants we have in the ground.

The Glory

Welldigger and I got our shit together about noon yesterday and headed out for lunch and a ride to parts unknown. We're not takin' about far flung exploration here, just some little traveled roads and out of the way places ya' pass by driving from point A to point B.
We pulled into a gyro resturant and stuffed ourselves. Good call by 'Digger there though I'm not one for cullinary exploration.

Update: Pics at Nate's Peep Paradise!

We ran some backroads on the way to meet up with Nate in Chapel Hill and it became quickly clear that Digger's sportbike was not confidence inspiring on the gravel strewn and rippled blacktop curves. Not a problem for the SwampThing as it loves to slide. I passed him and upon reaching the next stopsign got the quote of the day:

I don't think draggin' your foot is hardly fair.

I'll harrass Nate into postin' some pics.

GONE RIDIN'

Since little bro got sprung from babysitting, Saturday, we three C's will be out and about lookin' for sights unseen in Tennessee. I'll take pics of Nate droppin' his bike this time.

Wide Band Response: Farmer Tom

1)I don't know about the XL125.

2) I mowed 6 days ago and will be spraying Monday.

Sorry took so long to respond.

Mainstream Fiction Authors Shouldn't Preach

I red alot. Sometimes. I go on binges of 3 to 5 novels and then won't read anything but blogs and Drudge for weeks. One of the effects of having read so much is that I am continually looking for new authors for fresh material.
There is no fresh material in my favorite genre: military fiction. I began reading military fiction when I realized SF had gone to the tree huggers (Micheal Crichton excepted) and so escaped to the alternative of battlescape prose.
Alas, these have become formulaic with the authors not-so-subtley preaching one social issue de jure after another and the protaganist being a white male of redneck perspective.
I guess it figures considering the crap our military academies fill young leadership with these days. The officer corps is where most of the military fiction (thriller) authors started and some never shook off the brainwashing. The services must be gettin' relly good at it.
The last book I read was called TYPHOON by Robin White. Preachy as hell. Women in the service. Women in SUBMARINES. What an idiot. Red October rip off.

Rumors and Legends

There is a rumor going round these parts that a certain champion stud aptly named....W'ell just call him GZ, made an honest attempt with good progress to kill a certain highly acclaimed "natural" horseman called in to work on his aggressive tendencies. The 'natural' horsemanship movement has done a lot to increase the general horse owning population's grasp of equine psychology and how we can relate to our equine partners, but it only goes so far. A racehorse is a different animal from a quarterhorse. Thoroughbreds can be extremely aggressive. We are taught that horses are basically cowards and tussle to determine a herd order. They don't care who is in charge; they just need to know who it is. Well, some DO care; they mean to be in charge no matter what's before them.

Horse people are wont to exaggerate about horses almost as much as fishermen are about fish, so take that with a grain of salt, but I've been hearing tales of this critter for some time now. Things like using tranquilizer dart guns to get close enough to him to work safely......

Personally, I heard a man that has handled thousands of horses tell another (both men at the top of their profession) visiting the stall where the beast resided not to go in there.
"He'll kill ya'."
The second fella thought he was exaggerating so the other restrained him until he understood the situation was serious. Deadly serious

Barbaro Down. Sucks.

It seems the Triple Crown has become an insurmountable obstacle lately. Whether or not luck, some dumbass not seeing to the proper operation of the gates, or a pure wild eyed wanna-kick-somebody's-ass stud bangin' hell out of everything in sight brought on the injury to the bones making up Barbaro's pastern joint (near as I can tell from the bullshit the vet had to say) I don't know, but I am getting tired of seeing these babies (they aren't much more than that) hurt at every turn. If they don't kill this horse I'll be shocked.

How about we race five year olds. Horses would be stronger. More sound. They could actually have a career. Racing would be well served with some continuity from year to year, training could take place over a longer span of time, the physically unfit could be weeded out, and times would come down. Why can no one run with Secretariat? After 35 years of advancement in equine nutrition, training, genetics, and care and while human performance records are broken daily, it seems.

I'm not sayin' horses should not be trained in their early developement - there is research to suggest that early training done properly actually initiates strengthening of equine bone structure and connective tissue. Perhaps, though some thought should be given to letting the developement of stonger bones continue before we let them stampede over a race course with their buddies.


Update:

Richardson outlined Barbaro's medical problems: a broken cannon bone above the ankle, a broken sesamoid bone behind the ankle and a broken long pastern bone below the ankle. The fetlock joint — the ankle — was dislocated.

Folks, that is bad. The sesamoid bones are two bones wrapped in connective tissue at the back of the fetlock joint and together they provide a fulcrum for the propulsive forces transmitted to the foot by the Deep Flexor Tendon. Think of it as a bridge on a stringed instrument. It takes a lot of tension to break that thing, and it will complicate the chances for recovery. No one has said if the bones were simply fractured or actually displaced.
Remember horse racing is a business and they may decide his insurance is a better bet than his breeding prospects. Let's hope the owners take off the accountants hat and put on their horseman's cap.

Girls in Charge

Girlcop Arrests Couple  For Asking For Directions



This is what happens when the feminine mind aquires authority. Add menopause to the mix and it's anybody's ballgame. The girl convict is reported to have both her parents on another police force. Catfight anyone? One good ass whoopin' would fix this little problem and have girlcop running back to the kitchen. Might even save her life.

In saner times it was common to describe a man's thinking as having a "feminine mind"
if he was one to let emotion rule his decision making above logic.

"The New Pollock" or "Buckeye's and Gravity Don't Mix"

BREITBART.COM - Tape Shows Man Fell Overboard From Cruise

Buckeyes - wankers from ohio who talk through their noses and are assued, all evidence to the contrary, of their own superior intellect.

It seems whereever they go in this wide world they find some dumbass way of getting killed.

We have a problem here in the Bluegrass with invading vacationing buckeyes.  They are drawn to the Dan'l Boone National Forest in droves to drive the scenic routes, jet-ski upon the recreational lakes, hunt the woods, and climb the rocks.

The former examples are annoying owing to their rude nature and conduct, but  that last one is what gets 'em into trouble. Buckeye's know that the yankees conquered gravity long ago and if one watches the Discovery Channel and smokes enough dope one can do just about anything. Like, say, free climbing, or amusing one's friends by shitting off a cliff (oops! the toilet paper got away.... I'll just catch it........ Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  ... splat), or repelling Aussie style down a 300 ft rock house.

Y'all may think I'm kiddin', but one of the wife's former patients who was the owner of an ambulance service in the Red River Gorge (part of the Dan'l Boone National Forest) remarked to her he could not make an appointmet on a selected date. It seems that was in the busy season for his business as yearly, around that time, buckeye activity in the gorge increased and with it a resulting spike in climbing (falling) infuries. He further remarked that he wouldn't be able to stay in business were it not "for all the buckeyes fallin' off rocks."

Next time y'all hear of somebody gettin' eaten by a bear in the Smokies or runnin' his jetski under the bow of a barge take note of his/her native state. 10 to 1 it's a buckeye.

Tomorrow we will be discussing minnesota soccer fans.

Nobody in the Village People was Wearing a BMW Suit

I have an uncle who rides a Road King (yes, he really does ride it) who was telling me about one of his riding buddies showing up on a BMW GS1100 for a group ride. He said he informs bystanders when they arrive at a stop that the BMW rider is not gay.

My comment: "Do you tell them that while you're wearin' leather britches with the ass cut out of them?"
Reply: "Sometimes."

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I pulled up next to a group of cruisers (Hardleys and whatnot - they all look alike to me) while on a ride with the wife last Friday on the KLR. As is more and more common these days, there were some females in the group on their own rather large cruisers instead of on the back like they belong. At a stoplight the wife and I said, "Hey" to the nearest rider (a girl) as is common when riders meet.

A second rider (on the other side from us next to the girl - no helmet, dark glasses - must protect from UV rays!) revved his bike and looked aorund at the SwampThing and said, "That's cute."

I stood up and yelled over the farting elephants:

"Did you ever play soccer?"
loser shakes head
"So how come you're ridin' a chick bike?"

Motorcycles: One's too many, and a dozen is not enough.

Vincente Fox Needs to Look Elsewhere For Trouble

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Police enraged by the kidnapping of six officers club unarmed detainees. A bloody battle between steelworkers and police leaves two miners dead. Drug lords post the heads of decapitated police on a fence to show who's in charge.

So, Who thinks VF is using our border to deflect a little light from reaching the cockroaches? Excuse me, that should be "cock-a-roach".

No wonder folks are leaving Mexico in droves. I can't help thinking that the old adage applies: "Sell when everyone else is buying, and buy when everyone else is selling" might apply to Mexican real estate....

Notice

Nothing pithy today.

Move along.

The "Inter"national Guard" or A College Education at Work

Another link from Drudge to a Washington Post Story on using the National Guard for border security.

"We have to be very careful here," Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said yesterday on ABC's "This Week." "That's not the role of our military. That's not the role of our National Guard. . . . That's a short-term fix, and I'm not sure that's a very wise fix."

Did you read that? He said, "That's not the role of our military." If I recall correctly from 10th grade civics and kindergarten reading comprehension, that is the ONLY role for our military. Granted, they are not to be used to screen immigrant applications but protecting our real estate through the use of and the threat of the use of deadly force against those who seek to abuse the goodwill of the american citizenry (and in some cases aquire through sedition ownership or influence over some of that real estate for a foriegn power) is the be all and end all of our military's constitutinal authority.

I reckon we should rename the National Guard to the International Guard to better describe what the high flyin' intellects in the senate percieve as the Guard's duty.

I thought surely the senator would have to be a juris doctor to make such an assinine statement, but it turns out he is merely a graduate of St. Bonaventure High School, Columbus, Nebraska, the Brown Institute for Radio and Television, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha.


Disclaimer:
Y'all know conquest is my stated preference for our military's use. It is also well known that I have no problem with giving california to mexico outright; in 10 years they would be begging us to take it back. But facts is facts.

Un-Reconstructed

The horror. The horror.

Drudge linked up this story of a teacher in South Carolina who has committed the ultimate sin and stated the obvious. History is settled on the issue of north american slavery and its cost/benefit to blacks, yet a man makes some pretty innocuous comments and the PC crowd is in a complete tizzy. What fun!

The place I find disagreement with this fellow is with the idea that one has to be very intelligent or white to be able to implement, understand, and responsibly function within a constitutionally limited republican government. Short of lacking the mental acuity of being able to wipe the spittle from one's own chin it's not too complex to fathom. Sure, a succession of genius level intellects occupying learned, inquisitive, and observant minds was required to formulate western political philosophy, but the hard part is done. Understanding what they laboured to conceptualize hardly requires even a shadow of their intellect. We are intellectually standing on their shoulders and not required to be able to bear their burden.

Where we have fallen short is in succumbing to the temptation of what is (at it's root) marxist philosophy, which appeals to the less motivated among us of any colour, coupled with institutional enforcement of indoctrination.

It is worthy of note that the fearless reporter went straight to the school district and "informed" it of Dr. McCuen's comments. Note the use of "informed" rather than the most journalistic "when asked about". A look into the motivation of the reporter, wouldn't you say?

Do watch the video. It is informative of the goals of modern journalism in that the reporter does not ask questions pertinent to the subject being discussed, such as asking for comment on the espoused views of those making a living off inflammatory remarks "on behalf" of black folks, but continuously asks leading questions to generate a maximum level of controversy.

The Bag Trick

Seems some things are universal.....

A KLR in action - bear in mind an XR650L was pulled out from this same hole moments before. I don't think that's much deeper than some of the mudholes we rode through Satrday.

The Twelve Miler – Minibike heaven, KLR hell.

This is where a KLR has no business being anytime after wet weather, though sections of it were the most enjoyable. Lots of water holes and creek crossing, some pretty fast and high splashin' fun. There were however a lot of tight sections that the KLR is just too big and long (for my skill level anyway) to negotiate. We started out on wide gravel for a few miles then transitioned onto singletrack. It didn't take long to find lots of wet, slick rock outcroppings and eroded roots in the trail. SwampThing prefers plain old mud to this stuff and communicated this to me by some serious pounding through the handlebars that it was displeased. At the (ahem) stately pace I was maintaining it was easy to either lose traction altogether and thus control or kill the engine negotiating a particularly steep sided obstacle. I began to feather the clutch in tight maneuvering or application of throttle when negotiating steep obstacles. This seemed to help a lot, but got me into trouble on the only real even half-assed hill climb I attempted as I feathered when I should have been used the stick on SwampThing. No matter, it only took six guys, with the engine helping to get the beast moving up hill again.

We were denied much further exploration due to high water and a low bike The Kid brought, but found a long wide beach near a creek that served as a bullshitting stop and gave everyone a chance to ride each other's minibikes. I tried out Dr. Jekyll's KDX200 and found it amazingly user friendly with supple suspension, of course you have to shift every half second when on the gas.... No thanks.

Throughout all the riding Saturday, The minibikes periodically would “shed” parts and pieces. Inevitably, they would look to me for a solution. The KLR has a lot of parts that are extraneous for trail riding and became the designated fastener donor for at least three of the minibikes. I will note the only other Kawasaki had no such issues, even after the saw-briar patch with Brer Larry.

Babysister and stopped on the way home for a chocolate shake at a nearby burger stand and while we were there with his RM250 minibike and the SwampThing in the trailer a fella stopped on the highway to how much that Kawasaki cost, because he really had always wanted one. Babysister remarked there must be something wrong with people in those parts 'cause the Suzuki's were the good bikes to which another bystander explained, “KLR's are awesome!”

Like I always say when it comes to the KLR: “No matter what you ride, I can ride with you but you can't ride with me.”