[Tom S]

Lonestar3373,

Welcome from AZ.

You didn’t say where you were from. You were in my old “stomping ground”. I lived just 25 mile from Montgomery for over 40 years. I have never went to the big sale, but they say it is something to see. They started putting it on after I moved away. I have been back and I have been to the usual Friday sale.

[Tom S]

Knepp Collar Shop; David G. Knepp; (812) 486-2862; R.R. 1, Box 325, Montgomery, IN 47558 (one of the sons name is Vernon)

I bought a very good quality leather buggy harness at a very reasonable price from them. They are Amish, they have no commercial electricity nor telephone. so the telephone is a pay phone out at the road. Vernon usually answers.

[Tom S]

I am only a casual member of the group, and I don’t post very often, but I do read the threads about every day and I enjoy the discussions very much. I am older than some, but I learn new and differant methods of making things work everyday. I appreciate the diverse group of open minds and differances of opinions. Keep up the great threads that have been provided through this forum. 🙂

[Tom S]

No, you do not put a needle in the mouth, just use the syringe without the needle. Works fine.

One of my mules gets sand colic quite often. I use the banamine to help relax the animal and use the mineral oil to help her pass the sand. I have never run into any problem with necrosis injecting I.M.. Did a lot of it on several animals and never had a problem. Never used an I.V. and wouldn’t know how. I must be lucky or too ignorant to know any better, but it works.

[Tom S]

When one of my mule or horses colics, the first thing I do is use a large syringe and inject mineral oil in their mouth. I usually start out with about 8 oz. At the same time, I inject them muscularly with banamine as per the label describes

[Tom S]

Highway,

I believe I am understanding the extending of the head to be what I call “head bobbing”. I only horse to pull a buggy so I don’t has much experience driving, but I have been riding as long as I can remember. If it is head bobbing, the horse is attempting to gain some slack in the reins. Possible some issues with the reins being too tight or even when the reins are tight the bit is resting on the wolfe teeth or the headstall may be fitting to tight. If the mouth is okay, the way I do it is I start practicing slack on the reins and “check” them if they move out too quickly, otherwise the reins stay loose. With a riding horse you can also use a single rein to slow them up and that will prevent you from having your reins tight. I use the single rein pull with my buggy horse. As they learn it, the hand gets lighter with the rein and there is very little to no change in direction.

[Tom S]

I just called them. We are looking for a small percheron (13.2hh) to match up with another we have. Looking for color too (light sorrel to golden with flaxen mane and tail). I asked them if they would post pictures. She didn’t know but did say there would be an adoption fee. I left my Ph# with her.

[Tom S]

Thanks Nearhorse for the information on the pictures. I had used and image rather than a direct link. Try it now.

The vet’s onlly concern was heat (infection), and tearing the stitches. She did a great job of field surgery. She worked on one of my horses face after it collided with a metal pipe. Bone all splintered in the nasel cavity. Never had a post op problem.

She believes Autumn will be ready to use again in about 3 weeks. She made a follow up call last night to see if Autumn was having any problems. Real personal service.

[Tom S]

I have always run my stud with my mares, geldings, and mules. I have never ran two mature studs together in the same pen. I keep all of my animals in a one acre pen together. I have had as many as 19 in the same pen. There will be some initial establishing of pecking order as always and the mares will usually be forced by the stud to stay with him, but overall, I have not had any traumatic problems. Some scraps, and bites, but overall not much problem. When I run them together, I always take off the rear shoes.

I also had a mamouth jack that I used for breeding that I ran with my geldings. The geldings, mares, and mules were higher on the pecking order than the Jack, but somehow, when the mares were in season, the Jack would get the job done.

I always take the mares out of the pen and put them by theirselves or with other mares when they are about due. I am not sure if there will be any problem, but the mules have a tendency to want to take the foal away from the mother.

I currently have a yearling stud running with the herd. He is the lowest (below the mules) right now. I am sure he will gain he seniority as he develops. I bought him about 6 months ago, and to date he still hasn’t moved up in the herd, but does buddy with one of the gelded yearling mules.

[Tom S]

Yes, even though they are beyond getting pregnant, they do come in heat.

I had a neighbors 28 year old mare that was sick and ready to be buried that I took in and nursed back to health. Once she got to feeling good again, she would come in heat just like the younger ones.

[Tom S]

Ira,

I don’t have any big horses, mine are riding horses and mules. I have trailered 4 & 5 horses on several long trips over the years. Usually from IN to AZ. or OK to AZ. I have primarily trailered 20-22 hours without letting them out of the trailer. I have went as far as 32 hours and they were only out for a few minutes, I am not sure it was even necessary for me to take them out at all, but it was my first long trip hauling horses. When I got them to our house, they were in good shape.

I don’t do anything as far as getting them ready, nothing special. I feed them the night before, make sure they have water on the trip, some hay, but most don’t drink or eat unless I stop. I stop for fuel and eating. I take care of them first and then go eat. They usually wait until I stop and then they urinate.

If I am going to use them right away when I get to the destination, I usually stop overnight a couple of times so they are not exhausted when we get there. Most of the “straight through” trips are on the way home after a 3 or 4 day outing.

You shouldn’t have any problem.

[Tom S]

I always cut mine as soon as I can. All of the mule testicles are down either at birth or right after. I do it right hear at the house. I usually cut them at 2 weeks to 2 months. Never had one that held a grudge. I believe that is an “old wives tale”. The last one I cut is 10 mos now. As soon as he got up, he was as friendly as he was before it was done. He still is the same. I use some demosadan to numb up his mind a little.

[Tom S]

Robert,

I think you are making a good decision. You are more likely to find the type mules you are looking for in MO on in TN. Out here they get real expensive, real quick. Most worth anything at all will sell well beyond a $1000 even as a 2 yr old. Last July, I sold a 6 yr old for $3000 and he was not perfect. Good luck.

[Tom S]

Robert,

I believe I have been lucky with the mares that I have bought from BLM. Like any horse, there are going to be some good ones and bad ones. Mine calmed down real well, but I had to spend a lot of time with them. I didn’t expose them to gaming events. I used them for road, street, and trail riding. I wanted them to be settled. If someone wanted to “hot rod” them, they got off them. Trot and occasionally lope, yes. The mares I had were very passive once I got them past the scarey introduction. The babies from them are also like mom and dad. I do not like/want a hyper horse nor a hyper mule. If I am unlucky enough to have one, they will be like the one J-L had, it will hit the road. There are too many good ones out there to put up with a bad one.

Over the years, I have bought 7 mustangs, a couple were geldings. I have alsohelped other people get their mustangs started. I believe I have somewhat of a solid understanding of how to tame and break a mustang. The 1 yr old and up that have roamed the range are going to be a little tougher to settle down. I have bought a couple 6 yr olds and rode them in city parades, but it takes a lot of time to get them to that point and it is hard to get the wild instinct for survival out of them. A young one raised in captivity is your best choice. We still have a top notch gelding (black 15.3hh) that was born on the range, that is absolutely great, but not all are not going to turn out that way. Most people only hear about the good ones. All of them, on the first days of training will absolutely hurt you if you are not prepared to handle them. A good quality domestic mare will be a lot easier to deal with if you don’t have a lot of time and they have not been exposed to the preditor survival attitude.

In my opinion, before getting started with your breeding program, if you are going to use mustangs, get the mares “dead broke” to handle and catch (not necessarily to ride). Get them to accept you and want to come to you. If not, you will have a terrible time with the foals trying to teach them be your partner. The mare will instead teach it survival, which means running from you every time you come to the corral. I didn’t start the mule program until my mares were with me for some time. Even then, the bay mare would still not come to me, and it showed up in the beginning atitude of the mule foal. It caused me to have to spend extra time with the foal to convince it that I was not the enemy.

Sorry about the long prelim, but I don’t have you a good answer. Would my mules make good mules to pull? I am hoping they are good prospects, but I came up in the riding world. By no means, do I know anything about pulling or driving, so I can’t give you a good answer. My only experience with pulling is that I have trained an old mare and an old gelding at differant times to pull a one horse buggy around the neigherhood without any problems, but that is “childs play” compared to what most of these guys are doing with their animals. The old horses didn’t have any issues and they were already bombproof. I just can’t give you a honest answer with my lack of knowledge on pulling. I can tell you that I am riding and packing the two year old mule and exposing her to everything I can. To me, I need to be comfortable with her, before I expose her to the carriage, wagon, etc. She is very passive now, and doesn’t get excited, except once in a while she will still see a “booger” or two. I want to give her a little time yet before I start the pulling. I like to expose my animals to parades, cars, running childern, and etc. We still have a ways to go with her.

[Tom S]

Where are you in AZ. I am in Sierra Vista.

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