Remember a few days/weeks ago I posted a contest with an untitled poem?? "A little contest"
well first of all OOPS! I forgot all about it ! So sorry . The title I chose , just felt right "A Guy Like that" Suggested by Ann Nichols .Thanks to all for your suggestions, and I hope you wont mind if a few of them have possibly triggered my muse and may get poems of their own in time. I will give whoever's title inspired the poem credit of course.
So Ann , email could you and we will work out how best to get you your prize.
On to the next thoughts.Interesting insights on the last post, and certainly some excellent points. As far as breeding/overbreeding ,I agree to a point , a breeder myself ,I do not think we need to STOP all breeding , but we do need to be mindful of the situation and the state of the horse market in general . While I strongly believe Hybrid Vigour is a very positive effect of cross breeding , I am not sure part bred stock ,unregistered etc is quite as marketable, unless well trained.
That said , neither of the parties I talked about in my last post are currently breeding, nor have they for the past few years. The purebred breeder, has only 1 that I am aware of under the age of 3 and has not bred again this year .They have chosen to background their stock( raise them get them going under saddle )prior to sale .
Anyhow, I am still working on things and if anyone wants further info , email me K? fernvalleyappaloosas@hotmail.ca
What would you do
If you saw someone needing
on any given day
Would you reach out a hand? or
just turn away?
Would you question the right to be who they are
would you step up and help
or frown from afar
Would you leap straight to
judgement
without asking why
assume they are failing,
from failing to try
When you see someone needing
what would you do
ask yourself now
if that someone was you ?
Have a wonderful Wednesday , and as always ,stay safe
9 comments:
wow, strange you post this particular poem, I read an article this morning saying that poverty level in the US is on the rise and it freaked me out.
Nicole- they were talking about it on the radio here too. Only they were talking about the percentages of 'poor families' that had plasma tv's, wii or Xbox's, one or more computers, cable or satelite tv...
Of all of the things on the list- we have one compter. No plasma or big screen, no Xbox or Wii, no satelite or cable- hell we don't even get the local chanels right now and haven't for over a year now. Instead we have horses.
I think they said the average poverty level income for a family of 4 was $22K. Scary times ahead for us all.
I really like this thought-provoking poem.
~Lisa
Sherry, I love the poem too. Very nice...I would like to believe that I'd step up and help anyone in need, regardless of the reason. That said, I am guilty of always having my opinion and occasionally being judgemental without knowing all the facts. I don't like this about myself, but it's there nonetheless. About yesterday's comment, I realized when I wrote it that I'd likely be the offender of prickling some feelings...but those are my opinions. I see so many people still breeding horses, and every single one of them without exception believes they are justified in doing so. I just keep thinking that if every one of those people adopted or bought an animal already living, instead of creating another horse (however good/valuable etc.), that worldwide it would make an impact, thus lessening the need for people everywhere to try and clean-up after the fact. That's how I believe we could really help. Sorry, I don't mean to step on your or anyone else's toes...just something to think about I guess.
But, in answer to your question, I always feel good when I can be useful and help someone else. I always wish I had more time and energy to do more. Thanks for trying to get people to think...
C-ingspots, I had a comment all typed up and ready to post yesterday, several times over. But then I would go back and edit it, edit some more, edit again until I finally posted what I did.
Many people know me to be the thick skinned kind of person who asks the difficult questions nobody else wants to. But we all know everyone is thinking it. Like these:
-Is the money better spent shipping one horse somewhere else, costing say $500 or do you use the money instead to
a)buy feed for the whole herd?
b)get a farrier in to work on the worst of the bunch and the rest as money allows or
c)buy wormers and vaccinations to get them all caught up?
-Surely there are horses nearby who could benifit from our same money or our time, so why send it to someone in another state?
A complete cease to all breeding sounds reasonable, but these people HAVE stopped long before some others might have. It still doesn't make things any better or worse, they just still have too many and life has dealt them a hand full of shit lousy luck...
Nobody plans for major medical bills or serious illnesses, job loss or anything else that can spin things out of control in nothing flat. Toss in the crappy economy, the rising cost of everything including hay and sometimes you can't even GIVE good horses away.
Right now we are down to 10 of our own. I would like to see that number drop further. There is a horse in Texas, free for the taking, wonderful breeding behind it, everything I have wanted- but it is another mouth to feed, feet to trim or shoe and I need that WHY??? Besides- the $750 to get the horse here could do a lot for the horses we already have. Seems that horse may be staying put for a while.
Another good poem, Sherry.
A thoughtful post fv...and as usual an eloquent poem.
Forgive me for intermingling the topic of your post with C-ingspots comment...
Over-breeding may have been the problem that got the horse market to where it is now...poor economy and massive droughts/feed shortages not withstanding, but it wasn't the only reason.
The other end of the spectrum is...the final owners of ancient, crippled or otherwise 'useless' horses...aka...pasture ornaments.
The equine market really used to be about people who owned horses that could be used and had the potential to be useful. That is not so true today. More and more owners refuse to let go of these pasture ornaments and replace them with younger, more useful stock. THAT has seriously affected the equine market turnover and has affected the market nearly as much as over-breeding.
So while some might say, 'I can't believe you would raise a foal.', my thought is, 'I can't believe you think there is any reason to keep a 30y/o with no teeth...or a permanently crippled...or blind horse.'
But that's just me. I don't do pasture ornaments.
I will say one other thing though...Getting a horse broke these days has to be the toughest thing to accomplish. My gosh, there used to be all kinds of people who would take a few colts, put miles on them and give you back something you could ride. Now all anyone wants to do is work them in a round pen and wave flags at them. Not to mention how outrageously expensive it has become. I thought I was going to get out of having to start anymore horses, but even I can't afford to send horses away and still not have a rider when they come back. Everybody I know has at least one horse that needs started or miles on them. So I really feel for people who cannot do that themselves and are struggling to get horses trained to a level where they can be sold for a reasonable price.
Great poem, thank you Fern!
I like that poem too! I think it is great you are out there making us all think about what we should be doing with our horse, rather than just stewing on it, you are doing something.
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