I was participating with my Dalmatian at the national specialty in their working certificate, the Road Trials. Basically an obedience test from horse back and then either a 25 mile or 50 mile course with the dog being checked and graded on fitness. For those of us who didn’t want to bring our own horses, they had one of those Field Trial horse strings mentioned earlier. When I tried out the TWH I was given to ride (I have TB’s), I thought what a sluggish, uncomfortable horse. I’ll tell you by the end of those miles, I was completely sold on those horses and their training. I had major respect. That running walk and those saddles were my salvation and the fact they ground tied when you were potty breaking in the woods was a wonderful asset. :lol:
I see a lot of those kind of saddles at one of our local tack shops and have always wondered what the heck they were for. Now I know.
Sounds like a fun thing to do - hmmm, we must have a club around here somewhere, right, since Wild West sells all those funny-looking saddles?
Quail for fun & profit!???
What saddles are you asking about? Just curious.
Oh and Mr. Wateryglen is raising (shall we say “attempting” to raise quail for fun & profit) He imagines to make millions on selling quail to Wash DC swanky restaurants as well as the eggs. We got 55 quail chicks and have lost 16 since 8/18. I gather they are very difficult to raise. Goofy critters…they bang into the cage walls and commit suicide when they panic and they panic at EVERYTHING. Then there was the day they had a prison break and hubby spent 3 hours catching them on the porch where the cage is… They were squeezing out the 1 inch square cage holes!! When they arrive they are the size of fuzzy walnuts with pea sized heads. Fragile and of course what the hell is their sex???:winkgrin: Hey, not MY hobby!! This came 2 weeks after the chickens arrived…also not my hobby. So far a black snake has only eaten 1 chicken. Thats a story…
From our readings; you can’t release quail if they’ve been raised I thought. What ever!..I think I’d enjoy the riding a lot and watching the hound work too.
[QUOTE=wateryglen;3497310]
What saddles are you asking about? Just curious.[/QUOTE]
There are some good pictures in the article Griffyn linked in post #9. The saddles I’ve seen look just like that - Tucker makes them. I never could figure out what they were for, but now I know.
Gaited horse enthusiasts of all stripes, and trail riders tend to gravitate toward them, (trooper saddles)so probably not all sold are for field trialers! We raised a few quail- they are sort of suicidal arent they?? You might make a few contacts and off load some to trialers- that would be cool
My first TWH mare had been a field hunter all her life, and she was a fantastic horse. She was trained so beautifully, had the smoothest gaits, and loved to jump. I know she was happy in her job because whenever we’d hear gunfire during hunting season, she’d prick her ears up and start to quiver with excitement. She was a sentry type of horse, always looking and listening for what was going on outside her pasture. The only thing I found that I didn’t like about her training was that she would not drink out of a stream. Never. It seems she was trained to keep going and was not allowed to drink. It took me a long time to convince her that I say it is ok to drink on the trail.
I would always look for a field hunter when choosing the next TWH. I can only imagine how much fun the hunts were.
