hi everyone, well good morning just thought you might like to check my two babies out, well they are not really babies anymore but , i'm typical I think , should have been born a Bantam hen lol I want to mother everything oopsy I still have to figure out how to get the pics happening in here so i'll just tell you about them , Spark is a one eyed paint , about 14.3 arabx quarter and some draught lol he's such a good boy and gentleman and there Tirramissu , she's one I raised ,about to turn 6 an arab , she's a chestnut with the flaxen main, tail very short in the barrel and throatlash which is handy for bush work , lurves rounding stock up with the dogs ....on her own , lol can be a tad norti at times but amuses me ..
enough rambling for now ..I should go do somethnig constructive lol after I thaw out ...oooh goddy i think I've worked the pic thingie out ....let me know if it's right lol xx

Yep, they worked for me. What stunning looking horses you have. I'm a bit of a sucker for what I call 'semi-draft' horses. Before Christmas I was offered an elderly Clydesdale x QH who was bred by UQ (apparently the last Clyde or part Clyde they produced - when my dad went to school there in the '50s they bred lots of Clydesdales) who has spent his whole life at the Gatton campus as a schoolmaster. It wasn't the right time for me to get another horse and it was pretty easy for me to decide not to get him, but he was my dream horse...sigh...

...and I was feeling sorry for myself in the cold weather in Brisbane lol. And Mushoz, bet it's cold where you are too.

oh yeh it's cold but it kinda makes you glad to be alive lol all nice and fresh in the mornings ...when I visited brissy last year I was the only one to shove a jacket on in the evenings there ....I love the heat but adjust really quickly ..best of both worlds here ...but have to admit loved Darwin and do miss it ...the dogs don't though lmao ...yeh guess you made the right choice at the time about the horse ...I only came home to Tassie to be with my horses .....dam ponies and dogs ...lmao can't live without them oops and kids oooh and music xx u'd love the frost here this morning hahahaha

Love your horses. What sort of farm do you have? It has been cool here in Newcastle with temps at night down to 12° - ha ha!!! Days still around 20°!! But when the sun starts to go down around 4pm the temp drops fast. Paxy has a jacket for when will we go to visit my Mum in Bowral where the temps go down to 0°!

Always wanted a Clydesdale (or a Shire!!!) probably the only horse that could carry me thesedays!!LOL

I really really hate the cold. And the rain. And definately the frost.

hi um well it's really a rather large back yard lol only 25 acres I used to breed my sheep but they were way to much trouble in a bad season if I was here on my own ...might get some Dorpers um hope thats spelt right but i find myself in the nextdoors dairy all the time something about it , I love the hard honest work and it's good stress relief .....ooooh NewCastle haven't been there yet ..been to most places in aus though , Paxy sounds like my lot lol jellybean has a purple hoody for going out lol and a pink coat for the weather , I'm so glad they make weatherbeater ones for them same as the giddyups , hmm yeh I know where your comming from I seem to have accumilated a couple of extra pounds must get moving and shift it to other places or my ponies will grunt at me when I next ride lmao Bowral brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr mind you you can always rug up but it's hard to cool down sometimes without offending people
anyways back to the coffee i think ooh and we also have a goat called Erkle and it's a sorta managarie here

Aaww, Jellybean's cute in her coat!

love that name jellybean, i have had a butterbean but that was a yellow fighting fish LOL and i like you love the cold weather much more then the hot weather yes i know that i live in qld and it sucks lol one day i will make it back down south

yep cold here too, had -4 thismorning & looks like a bit of snow this year YEY!
Already snowed here in April LOL.

Lovely horses! I recently sold my Clydesdale filly, didn't want to but she was impractical for the land we have feet too big & ground too slippery & she was like an oversized bambi on ice, too dangerous & high maintenance.

I instead am breaking our Perlino filly to harness for carriage, at 14hh & feet smart much better choice.

We hope to get a Pyrenese Mt Dog at some stage for goat protection & security, but I do like the Maremmas (plus they are a fraction of the price), but they are usually more of a solo work dog, how do you find yours Karen?

I like Lilli but I have always been partial to the Mareema's beautiful dogs. And Spark's photo made me say "ooohh" quite loudly, my OH wandered in to see what I was oohing about rolled his eyes when he saw the horse. lol. Coldest so far in my area 5 degrees. So not really cold by your standards. One of my friends have a horse that rounds up the cows on her own too, brings them in and all with the help of the dogs of course. Very funny to see, just like looking at a very large dog. lol.

How interesting. I've been told that my horse had good 'cow sense', wonder if it's a version of the same thing? And that cutting ability can be bred for. I wonder whether it is some kind of herding instinct similar to what dogs have? It could be just a higher level of responsiveness to cues that is actually being selected for.

Kooliemum makes sense, the horse is a quarter horse and from a history of horses that have been bred for their mustering ability. She is retired from mustering but I guess she must miss it.

I wonder whether it could be a development of behaviours they use to move other horses around? Although my observation of horses is that they do a lot of scowling to move each other around, don't think they do that when they're mustering.

I had the opportunity many years ago to be the "cow" for a quarter horse and rider! The reins were loose and the horse anticipated my movements, pivoting on its hindlegs. So well balanced and always alert and watching! It was great fun but I couldn't outrun it!

Hi yes the maremma's are gorgeous but are well and truely missunderstood . lol you should of seen Spark when they unloaded him on the road near our driveway my Hubby asked me "What are you gonna do with this one lmao . He had been stabled for a couple of years , owners trying to save his eye ...a bit of a mess , but you know i fed him up and off I went for a ride ........a late ride ..nearly got hit by a huge harvester ...I leaned forward holding Sparks neck ...and he didn't make a wrong move , I closed my eyes knowing full well what was to come , braced myself and just let him go , wasn't anything I could do to help , he had more guts than i ever expected , didn't even flinch , steady all theway ..made me cry , I came home in the dark with him and really gave him a good rub then came inside and said to hubby , well that bright spark will never leave this property ....worth all his weight in gold .....and the Maremma was beside us all the way too ... gosh I ramble

Hey I know what they say about Maremma's but they are not a solo working dog it all depends on how they are raised and if they are socialised , mine were all bonded to people and just instinctively seemed to want to look after anything that was of importance to me , I always loved it when there was a problem with the ewes I would always see one or two of my Maremma's sitting or lying near the lamb keeping it warm and when the horses if any got slightly crook as they do at times if they get into something they shouldn't , you could guarentee there would be a big white dog guarding it ... they do love the goat and I have had a few over the years but only one now , I could spend forever talking about Maremma's , they are born with a brain , by six weeks usually can, sit drop crawl stay ...magic dogs ....the draw back is they need to be introduced to new stock , so they know they belong on the property , cause they will put stock out if it's a threat or they think it isn't ment to be there , guardian by name and nature ... such a loyal dog , but since madison died we decided not to have another one ..the first one was given to us called mischief then a friend wanted a pup from their male which is where madison /maddi comes into the picture hmmm that was 8 years ago maddi decided our little property was far better for him lmao and got quite distrestressed each time I took him back to his town owners ...to the point of them ringing up and asking me to take him full time ...i started saying when people come to visit ...this isn't my dog lol it's a friends but he would sit at my feet and follow me every where guess he picked me ...lmao they would just smile and say yeh Karen sure lol anyways maddi died at the age of 14 and mischief died when welping a litter she shouldn't of ever had but lili was out of her first litter , mistchief didn't like her pups and took the big male under the house , made a den , i picked lili up and fed her ...yeh i demand fed her lol lili is nearly 7 now ...i better stop rambling on about the life of Karen and her beloved dogs ..might give you some insight to the Maremma , hight matinence coat grrr lol have a great day

That would have been fun. Maybe I shouldn't encourage it lol but have you ever been a sheep for a Koolie? (guess you could do the same with a Kelpie - a Border has such a different working style that I don't think you'd get the same feeling with them). Before I decided maybe it wasn't a good idea I used to deliberately run with Wal to get his herding instinct to kick in, then deliberately run away from him, and you could see him get frustrated and it would only take about 3-4 short little runs with him trying to 'head' me in a different direction, before he'd come in and do this 'bite' on my upper leg with the side of his open mouth - I'm not sure if that's something that dogs do when herding livestock or whether he was, despite being in herding mode, remembering his bite inhibition. It didn't hurt at all, no bruise. And it was soooo much fun.

Any time I see his herding instinct, it delights me. The other day I jokingly said told him to 'go get' our one remaining chicken (she was right there in front of us) and he went round the other side of her and got her and 'put' her back in her yard - although maybe she just went 'b****y dog, if I go home he'll stop staring at me' and he just followed.


Now that's interesting. Because that's the 'thing' about herd guarding dogs, isn't it - that much of their behaviour is caused by being much less neotonised and consequently having a much more specific process of socialisation than most breeds. So I guess early development of learning ability makes sense.

yep it does indeed ,,you gotta love them don't you .....lol they are so beautiful to watch when they sorta just know what your thinking .b****y chooks grrrr mine make me so mad sometimes jellybean usually sorts them out though ..

Watching them following their instincts is one of those moments when you get to peek into their world and see how different it is from ours and how fascinating.

Gorgeous horses Karen! Especially Tirramissu, she is lovely.. I love Arabs, one of my favourite breeds. :)