^^I was wondering the same thing. I got two thumbs down on my post.
Surely the thumbs down is meant for rude/unnecessary/insulting responses, etc, but for something harmless? Seems a bit over the top to me. Someone just having a bad day or something?
I know, isn’t that just stupid? That’s why I stopped even looking at my notifications, because half of them are thumbs down, including on my OP!
I just ignore them. My guess was someone with strong opinions and too much time on their hands, that can’t actually express those opinions in a civil manner.
Even facebook doesn’t have a thumbs down. I wonder why COTH thought it was a good idea…
LOL, I just noticed I got two thumbs down to counter the two thumbs up on my post on page 1!! Too funny and easy to do, I guess, when no one knows who gave them. On another board, they actually state who gave you the “thumbs down”.
[QUOTE=kewpalace;6700230]
LOL, I just noticed I got two thumbs down to counter the two thumbs up on my post on page 1!! Too funny and easy to do, I guess, when no one knows who gave them. On another board, they actually state who gave you the “thumbs down”.[/QUOTE]
I could almost live with the thumbs down if they were accountable to someone. The cranks would become pretty obvious (and reportable) if they abused the system.
Hahah 2 thumbs down for asking if the acronym TOF stood for turn on the forehand. That’s pretty funny :lol:
Where are you seeing thumbs down? I can see where I could click the green thumbs up if I appreciated a post, but see nothing that would allow me to dislike a post?
The TD has been removed 
[QUOTE=JB;6729847]
The TD has been removed :)[/QUOTE]
My goodness, but you are sure right!:lol:
Dare I say, good riddance?
Also, my thumbing notifications were somewhere around 1000 and now they are GONE.:yes:
[QUOTE=Fillabeana;6696790]
I’m not a cutter or a reiner, or even a roper.
I have a real ranch.
I spent 2 hours this morning cutting actual cows out of a real herd in a pasture so I could AI breed them.
I’ve roped a wee bit, and will continue to do so at brandings.
For handling a (loose) cow, your horse absolutely MUST know how to shift his weight back and turn over his haunches. This is SO important that I can get people that might teach their horse that they never want horse to offer turn-on-forehand while ridden. I don’t think it’s right, but I can get that people might train a show horse that way.
The horse also has to know how to face the cow, and move in a leg yield, if you are ever trying to move the cow somewhere. (A cutting horse is defense only, they’re not really supposed to push the cow anywhere, just keep it from going back to the herd.) You can direct a cow more accurately when you are pointed directly toward the cow, and any horse I’ve ever had needed to know how to turn-on-forehand before I ever asked for leg yield.
But if you go to a branding, and you can’t get the horse to step over with his haunches (a step or two of TOF), you are quite handicapped.
If your horse isn’t in a straight line with a weight-loaded rope, you’re putting unnecessary strain on the saddle and the horse. (Not to say you might stay still and dallied up, sideways to a rope, in some particular predicament.) But you can’t effect ‘getting straight’ by turning on the haunches, without either tightening or loosening the rope. The rope is attached to the saddle horn, the saddle horn is pretty much anchored over the withers and front feet. You have to get your horse straight by moving the horse’s HIND feet, so you can keep control over the rope.
You really don’t want to over-tighten a rope, the other end of that calf is attached by another rope to another horse- so if you tighten it either the poor calf ‘levitates’ between you, or you dislocate legs. And if you loosen the rope, the calf can get loose.
Now, reining…that’s another thing altogether. Modern reining is so full of hyperflexed/ rollkur-ed horses and bang, banging on curb bits that I can’t watch.
I want a cowhorse that’s super sensitive, that will stop on a dime, do a rollback into a gallop, flying changes and stay quiet. But if I’m working cows, really, that long, sliding stop? The cow will have gone around you a long time ago. A sliding stop is all fluff. And the fast reining spin is just silliness to me. A fast reining spin puts the horse on the ‘wrong’ pivot foot- if you look, it’s like a pirouette on the wrong lead, with the wrong bend. They do that so the spin can go really fast. But someone long ago asked Ray Hunt why his horses didn’t spin like reining horses, and his answer was simply that he’d never ask a horse to turn like that if he was trying to control a cow. If you want to look closely, watch a bullfighting video- the horses spin DARNED fast and get the heck out of the way of the bull’s horns, and they spin like the ‘working cowhorses’ do- exactly like a dressage pirouette.[/QUOTE]
This x 1000. 
