Dealers in Horse Flesh
Let's catch people up on the goings on in my life these days. This is personal life stuff and not my usual vitriol, so please feel free to skip this if you aren't in to that kind of thing.
Mila, the dog, got into another fight today. She doesn't like any animals that can't walk upright on two legs, so this wasn't a surprise. The owner of the other dog gave Mila a good kick, so Mila backed down...first time for everything. We aren't bad dog owners, Mila is almost always inside. She only goes outside a few times a day, for walks, potty breaks, and the like. The only time she is outside and not supervised, is when she's going potty. This is only an issue if there happens to be a dog right near our house, during the 1 minute she is outside. That happened to be the case today. She might have hurt her leg...again, but maybe she learned her lesson finally too.
Dylan, the first born, is doing great at 4 months old. He is in the 95th % for height, 90th % for weight, and 75th % for head circumference. So, he's kind of big, but deceptively skinny because of how much longer he is than heavy. He's really got into mumbling at the air about nothing, which is pretty silly to watch.
We're getting a horse. I hope that sounds as weird to hear/read, as it does to say/type.
How it came about:
Andrea has been involved in a horse related Physical Therapy program for a while. Once a week a bunch of kids with various ailments, usually muscular from what I know, go to a horse ranch to receive physical therapy while riding horses. There is something about horses that helps these kids relax, so they can make some progress...or something like that.
A few weeks back there was a fund-raiser for this program, because horses, horse arenas, horse food, horse travel, and all of that is not free. The fund-raiser included things like a team penning competition, bake sale, and silent auction. One part of the silent auction was studding rights to these 3 very valuable quarter horses. No one bid on them, even though the minimum bid was only $250, when I'm told that it should really cost thousands. I didn't understand what stud fees were, so I asked what you really get for bidding on one of these 3 horses. In my head I'm thinking I pay $250 for one horse to knock-up another horse, then 11 months later I get a baby horse. That isn't exactly right, because there has to be a mommy horse, which I would have to provide. Turns out that a stud fee is much like buying horse sperm...OK, it's exactly like buying horse sperm. I don't have a mare (that's what you call a mommy horse) so I dropped the idea...kind of.
I did some poking about the intertubes about horses for a couple of weeks. Maybe I could get some cheap mare (losing a lot of the value of the expensive sperm in the process), or rent a good one or something. Turns out that I could rent a very good mare from the same horse ranch that the stud comes from, only that costs about $10,000. Ha!
Last Thursday one of the women Andrea does this horse therapy with is talking to Andrea about this mare she has, named Muffins. Tiffany, the owner of Muffins, just can't afford to keep her anymore and is forced to sell her. This is unfortunate because Muffins has some good bloodlines herself, and could be a decently valuable horse too. So, Tiffany wants to keep Muffins, but can't keep her for various, and probably temporary reasons. If only there was someone who could take care of Muffins for a while. Meanwhile, wouldn't it be convenient if there was some high quality Mare somewhere that we could just borrow for a while.
If all went as planned Muffins got knocked-up yesterday with some very expensive sperm. Muffins will be spending the next year or more at Andrea's grandparents house (where there is an acre+ of pasture, a couple of stables and a very nice, if old, Arabian that would like some company. Next April we'll find a new foal that Andrea will learn how to train over the next few years.
Interesting things about our horses pedigree:
Muffins bloodlines include some famous horses. Including Doc Bar, Three Bars, and Poco Bueno. There is also the smallest little bit of Man o War in Muffins (Man o Ware should be familiar to everyone).
The stud's name is Isles Cool Chance. He's got some Three Bars, and Poco Bueno in him too. He was also the 2001 world champion reiner.
Mila, the dog, got into another fight today. She doesn't like any animals that can't walk upright on two legs, so this wasn't a surprise. The owner of the other dog gave Mila a good kick, so Mila backed down...first time for everything. We aren't bad dog owners, Mila is almost always inside. She only goes outside a few times a day, for walks, potty breaks, and the like. The only time she is outside and not supervised, is when she's going potty. This is only an issue if there happens to be a dog right near our house, during the 1 minute she is outside. That happened to be the case today. She might have hurt her leg...again, but maybe she learned her lesson finally too.
Dylan, the first born, is doing great at 4 months old. He is in the 95th % for height, 90th % for weight, and 75th % for head circumference. So, he's kind of big, but deceptively skinny because of how much longer he is than heavy. He's really got into mumbling at the air about nothing, which is pretty silly to watch.
We're getting a horse. I hope that sounds as weird to hear/read, as it does to say/type.
How it came about:
Andrea has been involved in a horse related Physical Therapy program for a while. Once a week a bunch of kids with various ailments, usually muscular from what I know, go to a horse ranch to receive physical therapy while riding horses. There is something about horses that helps these kids relax, so they can make some progress...or something like that.
A few weeks back there was a fund-raiser for this program, because horses, horse arenas, horse food, horse travel, and all of that is not free. The fund-raiser included things like a team penning competition, bake sale, and silent auction. One part of the silent auction was studding rights to these 3 very valuable quarter horses. No one bid on them, even though the minimum bid was only $250, when I'm told that it should really cost thousands. I didn't understand what stud fees were, so I asked what you really get for bidding on one of these 3 horses. In my head I'm thinking I pay $250 for one horse to knock-up another horse, then 11 months later I get a baby horse. That isn't exactly right, because there has to be a mommy horse, which I would have to provide. Turns out that a stud fee is much like buying horse sperm...OK, it's exactly like buying horse sperm. I don't have a mare (that's what you call a mommy horse) so I dropped the idea...kind of.
I did some poking about the intertubes about horses for a couple of weeks. Maybe I could get some cheap mare (losing a lot of the value of the expensive sperm in the process), or rent a good one or something. Turns out that I could rent a very good mare from the same horse ranch that the stud comes from, only that costs about $10,000. Ha!
Last Thursday one of the women Andrea does this horse therapy with is talking to Andrea about this mare she has, named Muffins. Tiffany, the owner of Muffins, just can't afford to keep her anymore and is forced to sell her. This is unfortunate because Muffins has some good bloodlines herself, and could be a decently valuable horse too. So, Tiffany wants to keep Muffins, but can't keep her for various, and probably temporary reasons. If only there was someone who could take care of Muffins for a while. Meanwhile, wouldn't it be convenient if there was some high quality Mare somewhere that we could just borrow for a while.
If all went as planned Muffins got knocked-up yesterday with some very expensive sperm. Muffins will be spending the next year or more at Andrea's grandparents house (where there is an acre+ of pasture, a couple of stables and a very nice, if old, Arabian that would like some company. Next April we'll find a new foal that Andrea will learn how to train over the next few years.
Interesting things about our horses pedigree:
Muffins bloodlines include some famous horses. Including Doc Bar, Three Bars, and Poco Bueno. There is also the smallest little bit of Man o War in Muffins (Man o Ware should be familiar to everyone).
The stud's name is Isles Cool Chance. He's got some Three Bars, and Poco Bueno in him too. He was also the 2001 world champion reiner.
posted by BugHunter at 9:32 AM
9 Comments:
Please tell me you are going to name your horse something cooler than "Muffins". With a name like Muffins and you guys basically borrowing her womb I feel like Muffins is a call girl! In case Muffin's owner reads this blog...I'm sure Muffins is a wonderful person...I mean horse.
I should have put Muffins full name in the post. I don't know what I was thinking. The Mare's full name is AO Muffins are Dun. The AO is the original ranch's brand.
You should hear what Andrea wants to name the horse.
I usually prefer my whores to be named after sweets rather than pastries.
candy, trixy,dabbs, yolonda (don't ask).
I had a friend growing up who's actual given name was Muffin. I think she's an exotic dancer now. I mean, what else could she be?
I'm really excited and I want to name the foal General Sweetpants. Which is what I go by whenever I play anykind of video game.
General Sweetpants! YES!! Classic! There is no better name. You have to go with that.
Man I want to watch that movie now...
My children make me laugh out loud.
General Sweetpants? You so jinxed yourselves out of that foal. No wonder Muffin decided not to get pregnant. I wouldn't either if you were naming my kid that!
Consider also dressage as a sort of psychological therapy...
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