Forgot to add that she turns out to be a total in your pocket lovebug personality, too! I was expecting her to be aloof or firebrandish because of her athleticism & the Arabian blood. Not to build her up too much, but she really moves like a GPS horse that got shrunk in the dryer. It was fun just to watch her go. The owner took her over a line that was probably 2’9" or 3’ & the mare was like “Long takeoff? Minor chip? Whatever you need, I’ve got it.” She was totally unphased by the owner folding & dragging a Liverpool out of the ring, too. My trainer was a little disappointed she’s too tall to ride her for real 
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Not really dumb, but someone very unused to the English riding disciplines, and I laughed.
Decades ago, I lived in a very rural area where the local horses were mostly western breeds or gaited horses, except for one small time (but decent) hunter type barn.
When riding one of my at home hacks on my local dirt road under English tack, with a full bridle, I met a car coming towards me. The gentleman stopped beside me, rolled down his window, and while smiling in a genuine manner said " lady, that must be some horse, it takes four reins to hold him!" 
I had no idea what to say. An in depth explanation about the mechanics of a full bridle didn’t seem to be the thing to do, so I just nodded and smiled. The gentleman, and his family in the car, all nodded and smiled and seemed genuinely entertained by the novelty. 
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Same here.
I grew up riding Huntseat (which is what they called English in the 50s ; } )
I now live in WPLand, where 99% ride QH, but I swim upstream riding Dressage with my TGYouLive&TeachHere&ComeToMyBarn! trainer.
I also drive a mini.
Took my horse to a - mostly Driving horses - GTG at the local fairgrounds.
Where his mere 16h elicited a lot of “Oooh! He’s so tall!!”
& my dressage saddle got a “Nice cutback”
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Not horses today but chickens. Through a combination of my bad memory (ordered in December), backed up coop space, and Greenfire Farms’ generosity in sending extras, I have too many baby chicks. No problem, I figure I’ll post them for sale on a local chicken board. Omg. People are…not with it? Insane? A combination of the two? Of course FB doesn’t help because you have to dance around the mention of price. But if people know enough to get excited about Greenfire, they also have to have some vague idea of their prices. Especially if they breed chickens, too. Oy.
I could never sell horses. Someone would die in the first 5 minutes.
Eta: I’ve now got an anti-vaxxer yelling at me via FB DM regarding the Marek’s vaccine. Look lady, I don’t make the science.
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I feel your pain.
I sell eggs, breed and raise chickens on a very small scale. But the questions I get could have me posting in this thread every day:
1.) Do you have to have a rooster for the hens to lay eggs? (I once responded: Do you still ovulate if there isn’t a man around? See also: Why I don’t have a career in customer service or the diplomatic corps.)
2.) Well, then, why do you have a rooster? (Did I mention the part about breeding and raising chicks?)
3.) Does this mean these eggs are (gasp) fertilized? (Answer: These eggs are FERTILE; the only way to know if it’s fertilized is to crack it open or wait 21 days to see if it hatchs. And YOU won’t be able to tell if it’s fertilized unless I show you and give you a magnifying glass.)
4.) Do the green/blue/brown eggs taste different?
5.) Tractor Supply sells them much cheaper! (Yes, and if you want to buy with price as your only criterion, you should buy from them. If you want to buy locally bred, where you can see the stock they came from, and a better chance of actually getting the breed and sex you think you are, buy from me. And pay me at least what it cost me to feed them so far. Maybe if I called them “artisinal, small batch” people would accept the price?
I could go on and on and on.
What Greenfire birds do you have?
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We have primarily Liege Fighters & Svart Hona adults from Greenfire. This new shipment is more of the same. Plus I treated myself to some Hedemora & Isbar (love the latter & haven’t had any in a few years. The stock is $$$$, but I am consistently impressed at how hale & hardy the Greenfire babies are. They practically leap out of the shipping box & get mad when you try to dip their beaks in the water. Our adult Liege Fighter roosters are basically dogs. They answer to their names & are scary smart. Unbeknownst to me the door to their pen got shut. The boys rounded up the squad & got all 10 squeezed into the tiny rabbit hutch in the shed instead. Greenfire must also have an understanding with their local post office – babies checked in at Tallahassee at 6:18pm last night & arrived here in VA in under 12 hours. What breeds do you sell?
Lord, I feel your pain. I spent 10 minutes the other night trying to explain to my 49yo significant other that a fertile egg won’t just spontaneously hatch in the refrigerator.
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Buff Orpingtons and Easter Eggers.
I had a breeding pen of Blue Orpingtons and Black Copper Marans, but I gave them both up, partly because of space constrainsts and with the Marans, I wasn’t very successful in getting truly dark egg color so I thought I should leave it to better breeders.
So I have a big laying hen pen, a medium pen for the Easter Eggers and a breeding pen for the Buffs.
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Noooooooo hahahaha!!!
I have chickens, they are your typical farm store hatchery type. I tried to select for not broody, kind to first timers and kids (I figure as a first timer, kid-safe chickens and kid-safe horses are preferred), and hardy so I didn’t have to worry about heating my coop. I got 15 babies, one that I didn’t like anyway committed suicide, and then one of my Easter eggers fell over dead just last month, so I have 13 now. The Wyandottes are broody pains in the butt but I like the rest, and so far my two “why not get 'em” Anconas are my favorite and most reliable layers. I sell extra eggs and it keeps me in a little cash here n there, or trade them for other stuff like homemade bread. I actually really like having the chickens, they are a neat distraction.
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How big? Any pics (that we may or may not be able to open)?
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Who remembers the first pictures on the internet you uploaded them to some picture holding address and then posted a link to that?
Maybe that is what we have to do now, until they fix this glitch.
Someone just did that, posted their porch pictures somewhere else, then a link here, so we could see it, in a place that is open to all thru the link.
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Throw craft in there and you have a winner
Edited for grammar
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The big pen is 24 X 36, with a 10 x 10 annex that the coop sits in. The EE pen is also 24 X 36, no annex, and there’s a corner fenced off and reinforced with hardware cloth that’s the grow out pen. The Buffs breeding pen is ~10 X 24. They are all made of dog kennel panels, lined with chicken wire and in some cases, hardware cloth, with hot wire on the outside.
Kinda a rednecky set up, to be honest, but it’s predator proof and safe. I will try to find photos.
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I did a conditioning ride on a client’s horse this week. The horse was being barn sour and it took the entire ride to stop trying to drag us back to the barn. I used the whip, used the spur, used my body weight, used counter bending, and put the horse to work. I let the owner know what I did and called it a day.
The next day I get an in person lecture about popping the horse in the shoulder with the whip…
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We handcraft our birds in small batches!
Though I admit this is by far the smallest flock I’ve ever had at once. Used to keep 700-1000 at a time. I fuss over them like they’re my first borns & worry about things I never even noticed when I had 200 chicks at once. Lol.
Scratching my head over the whole thing. This is one of the wealthiest counties in the country. They buy $4000 coops & things like chicken swings & hi-viz vests. But $25 per chick is “toooooo much”? Then again, they also worry about all sorts of diseases but happily attend poultry auctions & swap meets & don’t quarantine their purchases. Meanwhile, when I found myself needing to bring in 500 laying hens from PA during the avian flu outbreak 5 years ago, I made the delivery truck & trailer roll through a tire bath of disinfectant coming in & the people suit up in disposable PPE. To this day I maintain a closed flock & don’t allow customers to come into direct contact with my breeders.
Eta: @McGurk, the Maran egg shades are very tricky. There was a silly couple here that advertised their hobby farm by the husband pretending to be looking for “real authentic French Maran” eggs & the wife offering up these spectacular eggs of hers. it escalated to the point of the hubby claiming their eggs were consistently a 9 on the Marans color scale. Uh, nice try buddy.
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Truly examples of penny-wise and pound foolish.
Hi-viz vests for chickens? I’m scratching my head over that…I mean …why?
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To take them on evening walks!
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@DYBC,
I no longer do poultry swap meets. There’s a great, active group of hobbyists here, but you simply can’t trust the health of the birds, even with quarantining. (I quarantine all new birds.)
I just bought some newly hatched Crested Cream Legbars yesterday that I’m very excited about; I met the seller at a public location. Most people don’t want strangers coming to the farm; and nobody should let strangers walk through their pens and coops.
The last time I did tour someone else’s pens, I disinfected a pair a rubber clogs at home, carried them in a paper bag and put them on when I got out of the car. Other times I have carried a pair of shoes that had never been worn outside/had no contact with poultry.
I settled on the English Buff Orps and the EEs based on two criteria - I really liked them, and there’s ALWAYS a market for them. I found I just didn’t like Marans very much, even though there is always a market for them. (New chicken owners first want laying hens, then colored egg layers, then exotics.)
I sell everything I breed though word of mouth and repeat customers which suits me fine. Compared to you I’m a very small operation - about 100 birds.
Fairfax or Loudoun?
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