Last Chance to Buy!

Friends in the Western Island (Australians). I see Kiwi horses came 1st AND 2nd at the Melbourne Cup. Want the best horses in the world, by test? Post Y2K horses may be a great (maybe the only) way to travel. Get yours from New Zealand while you can ship it out.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), November 03, 1998

Answers

Ponies are hardier, eat less, have less disease and are cheaper all the way around. Course if you weigh more than 190 or so you need to loose weight or feel sorry for the pony - but thats between you and the pony.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), November 03, 1998.

Bob Barbour,

ROTFLMAO! I love it![. . .the Western Island (Australia)"]

I was living in Melbourne when the Aussies took America's Cup and they sure know how to dish it out.

Let's see if they can take it!

Congratulations to all Kiwis on the winning performance.

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), November 03, 1998.

A question for the masses: regarding horses and courses, of course. Is it the number of horses on the course, the number of courses in the horse, or the number of courses from the horse that is critical when one is looking at the horse for courses?

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 03, 1998.

And to add ridiculous to the sublime.and for all those from 1960s television land:

(SING) "A horse is a horse, of course of course..and no one can talk to a horse, of course. That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed,......(the horse speaking:) I...am Mr. Ed"

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 03, 1998.

Talking about horses (I used to ride British style but lost my nerve) why are American horses so safe/hardy/sure footed compared with British ones, seems you can ride over rough hard ground with them and otherwise go boldly where no Brit horse could go. I don't mean just stunt riding. Or is this a (rural) myth? I know you don't do much jumping over there is this true.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 04, 1998.

In the merry days of my youth, my brother had a Standardbred and I had a Morgan. His horse, Abbe's Charm, was a retired pacer, while mine, Cookie, had been born and raise on a small dairy farm.

He rode British, I rode "Western". His horse was a fussy witch, mine was placid and accomodating. Abbe required special grain and feed for her delicate constitution, while Cookie was happy with hay and oats. Yes, naturally Abbe could run faster and jump better than Cookie, but Cookie could jump when I needed her to. Plus, if I fell off Cookie, she would patiently wait for me to climb back on, happy for an opportunity to grab a grassy snack. Abbe, however, would kick, run off, or both, so my brother's helmut was more than just for looks!

I don't know if you could really say American horses are better or worse than any others, but I do believe I'd rather have a sturdy ol' farm horse than a pretty show horse any day.

PS. Cookie would stand outside in the snow, sound asleep, covered with a blanket of white frosting. Abbe needed a heater and a blanket. Thin skinned, I guess. Funny how the differences in our horses reflected the differences between my brother and I....

-- Arewyn (nordic@northnet.net), November 04, 1998.

I thought Western horses were trained differently to be able to stop dead and turn quickly etc. Yes some horses are primadonnas, others are dependable, same everywhere.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 04, 1998.

My father had a pony named Dolly who was a big pet. If anything she was over trained. One day my mother goes out to milk and the milk cow stayed out in the field because the early summer grass was more enticing than some corn and getting milked. So mom jump onto Dolly bareback (just a string around her muzzle - no bit) and instead of saying "lets go get the milk cow" says "Dolly, lets bring in the cows". A half hour later my father comes in from the fields to find out why all the cows are mooing and what all the yelling is about - he figures they have found a hole in the fence and gotten into the kitchen garden or something. Mom was pretty mad when he spent about 5 minutes laughing at her trying to stay on that pony while the pony was trying to herd every cow on the place into a barn with closed doors. He said she was almost touching ground first on one side and then on the other - but Dolly had brought up every cow and calf on the place (50 or so cows, with calves) out of good pasture and was holding them at the barn. Makes me laugh to think about it.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), November 04, 1998.

Sir Richard,

Your reference to "western horses" indicates you were probably thinking of the breed known as "quarter horses" - they are bred for being very quick sprinters with relatively little "running" endurance (fast in the quarter mile, hence the name, but can be ridden all day at a walking pace), but also quick at turning, stopping, moving & twisting - all needed for cutting out cows in a small corral or yard..

Compared to other horses - relatively smart. But that's not saying much about the competition.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 04, 1998.

Yes thanks Robert, I'll have to bestow some title on you what would you like (guess you don't have them out there) but if you want "by the power invested in me I dub you ????". I think quarter horses would be good for general hacking out, especially for novices. I'd like to do more riding but in the UK there are invisible barbed wire fences, not much suitable riding country, too much roadwork etc.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 05, 1998.

Yes I'm told that the larger they are the thicker (brit for dumber) horses are. Shetland ponies are the smartest, shire horses the dumbest. See I'm tailoring my language for the audience. Wish Diane would (no only kidding).

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 05, 1998.

Richard

You Brits have been speaking English a lot longer than we Americans have, so, how come you haven't gotten it right yet?

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), November 05, 1998.

No you Yanks speak a sort of archaic English language some words like "gotten" (whatever that means) are olde englishe, interspersed with new (age) babble. OK I'll speaka da kings engleesh henceforth or forthwith or notwithstanding.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 05, 1998.

Richard, you'll just have to be careful to use words that are defined the same both in the UK and US. Avoid spanner, boot, wings, and other car-type (sorry, auto-type) words. Never spell 'z' as zed or color as colour. My sister lived in London for 6 months when she was young and foolish. She had a conversation with a date that went kind of like this: She - Sorry I'm late. He - No problem, the film won't have started, we'll only miss the trailer. She - The trailer? He - You know, the advert for the coming films. She - Oh, we call that a preview. A trailer is a vehicle that a car pulls. He - Oh, you mean a caravan. She - No, that's a queue of camels in a desert... And it's all called English!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), November 05, 1998.

Richard, we had a wonderful vacation (holiday) in England about 2 years ago. We discovered many variations in language and customs. Just a few: elevator (lift), shopping cart (trolley), lobby- as in hotel lobby (reception), for rent (to let), freeway (motorway), divided highway (dual carriageway), yield (give way), driver's ed. (school of motoring), trucks (lorries), fast food restaurant (take away food), and of course traffic circle (roundabout). One of the funniest things that happened to us: we checked into our hotel and were given the key to our room- 122. We walked down the hall until we found 22. We were unsure why it only said 22, but we were on the first floor, so we tried to unlock the door. A very nice gentleman answered the door and told us we needed to take the lift up one floor. Didn't know the hotels there have floors that are "0!" :-)

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), November 05, 1998.

Usually the ground floor is called G, the first floor 1, as you would expect! Glad you like the UK, its going downhill fast, ascendancy of yob culture, poor education, increased violent crime/drugs, you know it all. Don't have too many new agers though, well not yet, that'll be the next thing I suppose.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 06, 1998.

I wonder if Diane rides, I have an antique depicting "Diane the Huntress".

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 06, 1998.