Raising Horses - An Introduction

My wife and I have raised horses for several years. We started first on a five acre parcel down along the Gulf Coast, and then an 11-1/2 acre farm up here in Central Texas. Our goal has always been quality not quantity. We wanted to ensure well behaved foals with good manners and conformation so we didn’t look to be being a large operation. Some of the larger ranches specialize in just turning out foals & horses and let someone else worry about training them. Our foals have been sent to Michigan, Louisiana, California, Florida, Texas and elsewhere. They are involved in everything from ranch work to show work and even the Border Patrol.

The cost of keeping a horse can run $1,000.00 a year or more, depending on acreage or stable costs. Therefore, it is almost mandatory to ensure the horse you get has a good attitude and training.

To our way of thinking, it’s better to acclimate foals to people and what’s expected in good behavior while they are small and manageable rather than wait two years and try to train the basics when they are large and can severely hurt you through a rebellious attitude.

We have several brood mares that double as riding horses of very good bloodlines and conformation. We carefully pick the studs to breed these mares to, in order to ensure intelligent, well conformed foals.

Once the mare is in foal, we regulate the diet and exercise of the mare to ensure an easy natural childbirth. Most births happen in the wee hours of the night although a mare may exhibit signs of labor hours before the main event. Most of our mares have been pretty considerate and foaled while we were able to be there.

Raising Horses - Foaling

At approximately two weeks before an impending birth we place the mare in a small paddock or corral with shelter and the ability to communicate with the rest of the herd “over the fence”. This allows the mare to adjust to her new surroundings and limits her options for birthing. Usually a covered area is included for weather and seclusion. In the wild, a mare will go off by herself or with just her herd buddy when she starts feeling labor pains. This is to ensure the foal doesn’t get hurt by the other horses. The mare won’t go very far from the herd for protection. We perform the same service in a controlled environment.

During the birthing process, the foal is arranged with one forefoot extended ahead of the other and the head lies extended and tucked between the legs. It’s really important not to interfere with the birthing process unless something drastic is happening. As the mare proceeds, she may get up and down several times and pace around a lot and may even refuse food. Endorphins are flooding her system and the labor contractions are making her uncomfortable. This is natural and should be closely observed without interference. Observation will allow you to see the forefeet emerge from the vulva as well as the “breaking of the water”. Ensure the feet are emerging with the soles down, with one foot slightly behind the other. Anything else could signal a breech birth or other serious complication requiring the services of a veterinarian.

Human interaction is really not required during a normal birth and can even be harmful to the mare, foal or yourself. Best to just stand back and monitor for complications while observing the process.

Once the foal has completely slipped from the mare, the umbilical cord is still attached to the placenta inside the mare. The placenta drains the remaining blood through the umbilical cord into the foal at this point and slowly collapses. So don’t do anything to interrupt this process.

Don’t be surprised if mare and foal rest for a short while as the umbilical cord collapses. After the mare has rested, she will probably get up and the cord will break off naturally. The mare will then smell and lick the foal to clean it of the amniotic fluid, blood and other residue. She will also nuzzle the foal to get it to stand. This may take a couple of hours as the foal gets its balance and discovers where the faucet for the milk is. During this time, the mare will slip the placenta. Gather up the placenta and take it away to a place and examine it. It’s not going to be light weight. A five gallon bucket is handy for this.

The placenta should be spread out without folds or twists into two “wings”. One “wing” will exhibit a tear where the foal emerged while the other “wing” is not torn and exhibits a gray, robust appearance. Any missing pieces should be identified and looked for as they may still be inside the mare and will cause septicemia. If in doubt, call the vet.

After the foal has had a chance to nurse for the first time, it is advisable to sterilize the umbilical stump with a Betadine or Providine solution. This is simply a very weak solution of iodine and prevents transmission of bacteria through the stump into the foal. The umbilical stump should collapse into a “string” within a matter of hours with just a slight “bump” next to the belly of the foal. As the area muscles develop, this will become the “belly button” and the “string” will fall off.

Now is the time to acquaint the new foal with people. Some people cal this “imprinting” the foal. Be careful of the mare at this point as some mares can be very aggressive and protective. It’s best to place a halter and lead rope on the mare and have a helper to watch the mare closely. When in doubt, tie the mare with a quick release knot. All actions you take will be right at the mare’s side so she can see what you do. Don’t get aggressive and remain calm and confident.

Take an old towel, the larger the better and wipe the foal down like you were drying it. This gives you the smell of the foal. Don’t be surprised if the foal attempts to elude you. It may even walk under the mare to the other side. If you exhibit patience and even humor, it will de-stress the mare. Take it slow and easy. If you or your helper has to restrain the foal, place your arms around the foal. One arm wrapping the foal in front and one arm wrapping the foal behind the rear. Just hug the foal lightly as the mare constrained it feels, the more terrified it will become. You don’t want a battle here; you just want to make friends. Rub you hands all over the foal while talking to it in soft gentle tones. It doesn’t matter what you say, just say it in soft gentle reassuring tones. The quieter you remain, the quieter the foal will be.

After a couple of minutes of handling the foal, release it and walk away. Repeat this during the next 72 hours, every few hours. The foal is experiencing the world and is open to new ideas so keep it gentle and it will come to identify you as a friend instead of as a predator.

You will want to “make friends” with the foal for at least 72 hours or even the first week before moving on to the next step of introducing the halter. We will cover this next time.

YeOldFurt

New Member - YeOldFurt in Central Texas

I’d like everyone to give a big Texas welcome to YeOldFurt from the Central Texas area as a new member of the Texas Preppers Network. YeOldFurt has actually been an honorary member of TPN for some time but has decided to make it official. He will also be a contributing member to TPN.

You can contact YeOldFurt at: yeoldfurt@gmail.com

His e-mail is located in the side bar for future reference.

His personal blog can also be found at Old Lightning.

YeOldFurt looks forward to sharing ideas and information with everyone and has agreed to do a series of informative posts about raising horses.

Be aware. Be informed. Be prepared.

Riverwalker

New Member - SG in Dallas

I’d like everyone to give a big Texas welcome to SG from the Dallas area as a new member of the Texas Preppers Network.

You can contact SG at: draego454@gmail.com.

His e-mail is located in the side bar for future reference.

SG looks forward to sharing ideas and information with everyone.

Be aware. Be informed. Be prepared.

Riverwalker

New Republic Magazine

In our continuing mission to bring you the latest news, info and research to keep you in the know...and prepared...

Here is the link to our newest issue #17:
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"The Politics of Innovation"!

Please share it with others and make sure you get your copies to distribute locally in waiting areas and to friends/family.

http://www.republicmagazine.com/previous-issues/issue-17-politics-of-innovation.html

Because we freely give away our magazines and the research online and in educational webinars, we rely on subscriptions and activist orders of 25, 50 & 100+ to keep funding the magazine.

Please help us and Lady Liberty by visiting our website and getting your copies. Thanks in advance for your support!

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Sincerely,
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P.S. Here are 2 resource links that you'll want to save & pass on:


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The Jobless Recovery, So Called

Agora Financial’s Founding Father Bill Bonner, writing in his Daily Reckoning, says there are approximately 131 M jobs in the USA.

Justice Little, Editor of Taipan Daily, also out of the AF stable, says that 26 M jobs have been lost.

The Federal Government says that the unemployment rate is 9.8%. Traditional methods of accounting make the answer right at twice that much, recognizing that people are still jobless even though they have exhausted (expanded) unemployment compensation or been on the rolls more than six months.

Another source claims one million jobs were lost last month, as opposed to the government reports which will fluctuate for a while and finally show up on the back pages as 475,000 again, at a good guess.

Rocket scientists used slipsticks and Cray computers which have been replaced by fancier models, while split second “trades” are executed algorithmically on the floor of the stock exchange to garner half a cent a share, but let’s get back to good old tried and true methods which don’t even require an abacus.

If there are 130 M jobs, net, in the USA (rounding slightly to keep the arithmetic simple), and 25,000,000 have been lost (again, rounding to keep matters simple) then we can either say that the job market has shrunk on the close order of twenty per cent. (a ploy the government should have thought of but didn’t, and if we go with 26 M that is precisely 20% of 130M), or we can say that the jobless rate is approximately twenty per cent., which is exactly the same result I got when I told you in the second paragraph what the true rate probably is. Inconvenient truths do not really disappear just because someone mumbles mystical new accounting parameters.

It is possible that the wizards were trying to tell us that there are currently 131M jobs in the USA, down from a previous high of 157M. In that case, the job loss is 26/157 which is an awkward number to reduce by division while typing, so let’s multiply, instead. The figure is one-sixth, almost exactly. (6 x 26 = 120 + 36 = 156. That is definitely close enough for government work.)

By that view, 15% + 1.66% (a quick way to deduce 1/6, since multiplication is far simpler than its upside down view, division. Perhaps no one ever told you that, or that addition is only backwards subtraction.) = 15.66 % total destruction of the portion of the economy known as employment. That is even worse news than that 20% of those who need jobs can’t get them. It means that a sixth of our economy has disappeared to foreign lands or been destroyed by the fall of the stock market, banking instutions, and real estate.

Even a large factory starting up isn’t going to produce more than a few thousand jobs (and it is not guaranteed to succeed, particularly with such horrors as cap and tax, more regulation, and the guarantee of many other new taxes ahead of us), and who has the capital for such an undertaking, other than foreigners with a surfeit of falling dollars? Do we really want an economy dependent upon the good will of those chortling over the demise of the dollar as the reserve currency? I guess assorted governments in Washington this century shouldn’t have borrowed so much money from them. They did, though, and in some ways the best thing that could happen is for the whole sleazy fraud of fiat currency and the Fed to crash around their deserving ears.

It is possible to jigger figures in any number of entertaining ways, but that won’t change the facts. All it does is disguise them and lead to more palatable annual corporate reports and soothing statements from Bernanke, Geithner, and Obama. If our measure of “recovery” is getting back to the slippery ground we were on five years ago–not a pleasant place to stand, as events have revealed–then it follows that 25,000,000 jobs must be created, one or a few at a time. These cannot be temporary jobs, such as census workers or seasonal workers; that is the equivalent of putting a bandaid on a ruptured appendix and saying that time will heal it. Time is going to cause us to bleed out and die of septicemia if we don’t do some surgery, here.

Mind, all creating twenty-five million real jobs in manufacturing, construction, agriculture, and education would do is restore the status quo ante. As daunting a task as that would be, it would not solve the problem; it would merely stanch the bleeding. Until we work our way through the devastation of all the bubbles there is no way to clear the decks for rebuilding.

I don’t think it can be done. I’m feeling nautical, so let’s say that we have been hulled between wind and water. Our masts are down in a tangle of rigging, the sheets are snapped and tangled, and our lower decks are awash in blood and loose cannons rolling over the wounded. All the surgeon has in his chest is salt and rough canvas. In this case, Geithner and Bernanke are terrified of using the bone saw.

Oh, occasionally the Captain and senior officers will throw a bank overboard, but pretty much the fix is in for those who are connected. We are witnessing the greatest transfer of wealth in the last two hundred and 233 years, and it is all going to special interest groups. Other than what they dole out on luxury goods and buying more power that money is not going back into the economy to create new businesses or expand old ones which is the only way that genuine, long-lasting, productive jobs come into being.

Can there be a recovery without jobs? Of all the idiotic suppositions that only Keynesians would promulgate! Of course not, any more than those who are not employed can pay bills, eat, and provide tax recovery.

Jobs are not an intangible, save in one increasingly dangerous sense. Jobs must produce something. By its very definition, a job is labor which produces something the employer wants more than he wants or needs his money. It always seems to surprise Statists, but the purpose of business is to create profits, not to create products, and certainly not to create jobs; indeed, technology is reducing the need for human workers, to the understandable delight of entrepreneurs. Creating profits involves risk, forethought, knowledge (or hired experience), and it isn’t something just anyone can do. In particular, it is not something which can be done under shackling regulations, increased taxes and cost, insecurity over fuel availability, and capricious governments dedicated to non-science and paying off themselves and open-handed constituents.

The biggest problem I see is not fiat money (which is collapsing from its own lack of substance), or the purported “global” economy, which is composed of numerous countries none of whom are doing well. (Prosperity in China? Oh, my, tell me another one.) The big problem, which is being exacerbated, is that something like 40% of all “jobs” are in government. Yup. Four out of every ten “workers” are paid lavishly (in general, twice what counterparts in business make for similar tasks) are engaged primarily in the business of making our lives more difficult, our businesses less profitable, and our ability to plan for the future almost impossible. This country has grown bureaucracy and chased manufacturing jobs off shore. It has increased regulation and deleterious “services” at the expense of freedom and capital to create real business which include real jobs and genuine products which can be sold instead of buying shoddy merchandise from China. We’ve seen the cycle…from Taiwan to Japan to Sri Lanka, and now to China. We have sent our money overseas for many decades rather than fight to reduce regulation, reduce taxes, and reduce costs. A fork lift operator simply isn’t worth $86,000 a year, even if he works for the ci devant “Big Three.” Not many of them do any more, and it serves them right. Greed at all levels of the unions made American products too expensive to buy. Manufacturers–whom, I will remind you again, are not in business to employ “workers,” but to make profits–picked up their blueprints and went elsewhere. We cannot blame them. We would do the same if we were able.

No, friends, there will be no “jobless” recovery. There will be no recovery at all until we are so much farther down that October of 2009 looks like “the good old days.” The “green shoots” are the slime growing up the North wall of government, the bacteria of corruption, and of parasites such as governmental Spanish Moss and Pharma and Agribiz mistletoe.

What is to be done? You’ve got your choice. Destroy Carthage, or opt out. Pull back into your own perimeter. Produce nothing that can be taxed or regulated.

That’s what we have come to. State revenues are down 17%, which looks like a pretty close correlation of 1:1 for enterprise destruction and joblessness both. Every job destroyed is another blow at the Nanny State which cannot survive without continuous economic growth, because such as they never curtail their own spending and urge to shackle and harry those who produce the funds upon which Statists thrive. Perhaps you are not in a position to do so, but if you are…just quit. This isn’t new advice; Ayn Rand gave it to you sixty years ago. Do not lend credence to your oppressors and do not support them…and do not look for any genuine green shoots representing real growth any time soon.

Regards,
Linda Brady Traynham

October 19, 2009

An Exhausted Nation Cries for Help

Pickdog comment:

I for one will never surrender. I believe there are many millions just like me out there. A band of brothers and sisters who will never live as slaves. It is soon upon us. Prepare yourselves physically, mentally and spiritually for what is to befall us. For we are the Remnant.
___________________________________________________________

An Exhausted Nation Cries for Help
17:20 by Administrator. Filed under: Whatever
by John Galt

http://johngaltfla.com/blog3/2009/10/02/an-exhausted-nation-cries-for-help/

October 2, 2009

As the empty homes and farms become a blur throughout my drive across the middle of Florida I notice the little things that tell me that our society, our people, our nation is tired, beaten and worn down after a decade of incompetence, conspiracy, criminal activity and an almost surreal level of wealth extraction and destruction. From every other cyclical down turn our nation had a moral compass that allowed us to rebuild, restore and renew our system yet this time it feels as if the unique character that allows the decadal restoration to occur is being obstructed by a new, unique power structure determined to divert our society down a failed path of socialist utopia, leaving the average citizen enslaved to the nation state.

As I passed through the small village of Wahneta, Florida I noticed a twenty something year old unshaven and worn man sitting on the back of his old SUV holding a hastily made cardboard sign that simply said “I need work” yet the traffic kept flowing as nobody could help. You see similar scenes throughout the Southeastern states in the small and large towns, where the grocery stores are often backed up with lines of women holding their crying children attempting to pay for their groceries with the government food stamps or sitting in the parking lot asking for handouts. It begs a question to the ivory tower economists and their ilk; is this the ‘recovery’ you claim is under way or is it just because you were able to scalp another 15% by manipulating retiree stock accounts for one more churn and putting more citizens out into the streets?

Meanwhile the government of some of the people designed now to profit a few of the people is attempting to assault the remaining freedoms under our Constitution and diminish the ability of the masses to remove the corrupt souls from their positions of power. The opposition is embattled and assaulted verbally and via various goon squads be they private community organizers, trade unions or the ultimate power, the IRS and their gun carrying Gestapo like police force. Thus speaking out or defending your freedoms now is no longer a no-risk proposition, you have to accept that just by reading or speaking out is no longer a luxury it is a danger which will only become more perilous as the grip on a new supreme power center tightens. The period of heightened danger has arrived, but will those in control listen to what the masses say and others warn?

A Large Dangerous Giant Slumbers but for How Long?

As the statists continue to poke and prod at the giant, they fail to realize who and what this giant consists of. The mainstream media would have you believe it to be a vast right wing conspiracy. The left wing would have you believe it is nothing but a bunch of kooks. The Republican Party would have you believe it is nothing but a group of disgruntled anti-government types who must be minimalized to insure the status quo remains. Yet this game all parties play ignores the fact that tens of millions of Americans are begging, pleading, beseeching these fools to not awaken this giant from its slumber, to allow it to sleep and satisfy its need for freedom, prosperity and peaceful existence.

They have not and will not listen though.

This giant holds true to the original intent of our nation, our traditions, our freedoms and the ideals of its founders. Parts of this giant stand on the wall, protecting these elites from enemies both foreign and domestic. Other members of this giant just work, pay their taxes and create or expand our society via economic expansion though these members are tiring from the acceleration of the assault on their freedoms. To attempt to destroy the heritage and history this giant believes in will awaken this giant and yet the statists persist in tormenting the beast.

I warn you now:

Do not wake up this beast.

Allow it to slumber. Allow it to live under the beliefs, freedoms and original intent of our founding fathers. Allow America to stay a free, Constitutional God fearing nation.

If you do not abide by these wishes, I warn you based on the history of our country and the resolve of the citizens when their ire crosses the border of resolution via traditional manners.

The giant is vengeful.

The giant is merciless.

The giant is righteous yet wicked in its methods.

The consequences of forcing our nation to change against its will is not a swing in the pendulum of history; it is the destruction of the pendulum and rebirth of a new nation.

The giant will end all discussions, all contemplations, all neutrality and settle all matters and any scores without logic or reason if need be.

I beg you elites to quit prodding, poking, attacking and taunting the giant before it is too late.

Actions and Words Have Consequences

If the elites fail to heed these warnings, which they usually do throughout history, the giant will finish its work and resume the task of living and working. It will no longer be a socialist or corporatist utopia. It will no longer be a union as we recognize it today, but a new confederation of nations, each with differing beliefs, governance and economies. The words and actions of those in the positions of the elite are playing the people as suckers yet the fail to realize that if the choice is between enslavement and the deconstruction of the Republic, many will choose the latter while many others will have other options imposed upon them.

As the new creation emerges as a confederation of states and nations, some might elect to unite with other nations almost as colonial subjects, be it a “world” entity like the United Nations or Commonwealth style subjects to continue the Marxist fantasy of world Socialist domination and unification. The union will be irrevocably shattered as many nations and powers will elect to profit and benefit from the dissolution of our country. Alliances will be created out of thin air as mercantilists and geopolitical strategists understand how the new nations will function, much like the destruction of the U.S.S.R. or Yugoslavia.

Many individual Americans will probably reap huge profits from such a historic event by trading freedoms for peace and alliances for funding and power. Think not of this period as just an economic event because it shall be one that shapes two generations of our neighbors and friends, and survivors in democratic countries throughout the world. The arrogant claim of “it can’t happen hear” shall be silenced like the voices of the suffering Jews during the Nazi engineered holocaust of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Yet so few understand that this will cross many borders and eradicate many myths of superiority and invincibility propagated by decades of peace, slothfulness and ignorance of world affairs.

1861 or 1991?

This begs the question that we must all pray someone is paying attention to; will we dissolve as our ancestors did in 1861 or as modern day Yugoslavia in 1991? I fear that we will first test the waters of economic and political incompetence much like Argentina did then proceed to the dreaded outcome as our people suffer greater and greater inequities and the freedoms are destroyed state by state, soul by soul. I thus propose that in our current time line it is 1860 and the mixing cup is being filled. It will be shaken, stirred and poured out on top as a noxious cocktail of gasoline and kerosene on top of a raging fire, which explodes in the face of the elitist cooks.

Remember that throughout history great empires and nations were rarely conquered, most imploded from within. The self-immolation usually consisted of slaughter and pillage that most civilized souls rarely imagined with the elites escaping through the back door like Roman rulers fleeing the barbarians before they arrived at the gates, leaving the nation open for the worst of consequences.

Only God and the victors know what the new evolutionary outcome will be and what it will mean for all individuals who survive. The is no honor in a victory when one surrenders their freedoms to achieve it and that is what makes most Americans unique to the era we are entering. Thus you have to decide whether or not to engage and work with those that only believe in the Founders vision and use God’s guidance in your decisions to come. Compromise in times like these is nothing more than politically correct phrase for appeasement; never trade your values to these vultures, ever.

I remind you that capitulation to tyrrany will result in a modern American holocaust far worse than anything experienced in human history. Thus this is my one and only bugler’s call to action. Prepare as if there is no tomorrow because now, there is not. Remember how tired you are now and the cries for help you hear about you? America is crying for help, exhausted, unable to lift her arms to the heavens with the torch of freedom. You will have plenty of time to sleep though when you are dead. Rest not for we are at the crossroads of history where corruption is the rule of the day, unseen since the times of Lincoln, Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt and FDR. Thus you must move beyond “hope” as that is nothing more than a request of others to prepare for you; evil is in full mobilization now and the powers of purity and good are so, so sadly far behind.