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RE: [RC] [RC] - Jim Holland



Well, I'm grouchy just READING this.....IMHO, this post is so ridiculous and
full of unsubstantiated suppositions it doesn't even deserve a reply....

I'm gonna go feed the guys and work on training them to pee on command.
Perhaps I could just leave them on the trailer, attach a hose and run it out
the bottom of the trailer.  When I push a button on the console and they
will PEE! Whoopee!  Ain't technology wonderful!

Jim, Sun of Dimanche+, and Mahada Magic

Not trying to get grouchy, Jim--but yes, this IS about a different
philosophy.  Yes, horses are big on routine.  But by expecting to be
gotten off, if at some time they get ON with a full bladder, and you don't
get them OFF for four hours, they could get damned uncomfortable.  Yes,
some horses will "hold it" until they just about burst, and it doesn't do
them any good!  I've met many horses so inhibited about peeing that they
will go clear through a 50-miler without peeing, and you think they're
trying to colic, they hurt so damn bad.  My point is that I'd rather have
my horses uninhibited about where they pee, so that they pee BEFORE they
get uncomfortable, no matter WHERE they are.  Under saddle, in the
trailer, whatever.  If they always EXPECT to have an "ideal" pee spot,
then if they don't get it for some reason, they ARE creatures of routine,
and they WILL hold it.  Not good, IMO!  As for going while bouncing down
the road--they usually go when we stop, but I'm sure glad that they feel
that they CAN go while bouncing down the road, rather than maintain a
painfully full bladder.  They don't have a little message system up to the
driver's seat to tell me that they need a potty stop--and I have one
stallion who drinks so well that he would go every hour or two in the
trailer, or on the trail, or anywhere else.  It is PRECISELY for his
comfort and well-being that I prefer he go anywhere he pleases.

That said, if one is hauling in areas where one can't get away from the
asphalt jungle (the greater Los Angeles area comes to mind), many of my
male horses (stallions and geldings both) do NOT like to splash their
legs, and are FAR more apt to relieve themselves in the trailer where
there is a bit of hay on the floor to dampen the splash than on the
asphalt outside.  (It has been at asphalt unloadings that I've had the
instances where the horse would get back IN the trailer to pee, even
though I unloaded him--and can you blame him?)

I AM talking about my horses' comfort and well-being here.  Most of mine
are as at home in the trailer as they might be in stalls, if they lived in
same, so it isn't exactly like "holding it" until you pee your pants.  Far
from it--many of mine will pee the very first time I stop, so they haven't
been "holding it" long enough to be uncomfortable.  They are simply
sufficieintly comfortable with their surroundings in the trailer that it
IS a safe and comfortable pee stop to them.

So again, this is just an issue on which we will have to agree to
disagree.  You have your philosophy, and it apparently works for you and
yours.  Mine seems to be in the best interests of my guys.  And I suppose
I could make the same wisecrack about being glad I'm not one of YOUR
guys--I'm just glad mine are uninhibited and WILL go before their bladders
get full and uncomfortable.  That's the point of what I'm saying here.

Heidi



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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

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Replies
RE: [RC] [RC], heidi