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What is something you experiment with that worked out well?

Or fizzled out...?

Posted - November 30, 2018

Responses


  • 4631
    I designed and made a saddle safety belt.
    It has the same quick release as a car's safety belt.
    It is only for use on safe footing (never mud, surf, or stony ground) with a horse with its first saddle and rider, and during the first year when the horse is "green" or inexperienced and prone to unpredictable reactions to unusual stimuli eg car hooting on road or branch of tree cracking in wind, etc.
    It is not for use in situations such as jumping or high-speed activities.
    Some types of actions of a young horse can unseat any rider like extreme shying. Or the sunfish, when the back hooves kick up so high that the horse is doing a "handstand" on his forelegs: it catapults even the most experienced rodeo rider.
    Now that I'm old enough to break bones easily, the saddle safety belt has saved my life on three occasions.

    Most horse-people look on the idea with horror (as they once did helmets and safety vests.)
    They would rather be thrown. They fear that if the horse should fall they will be trapped beneath it.
    But a horse does not fall on good, safe footing at low intensity levels of exercise and training.

      November 30, 2018 9:49 PM MST
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  • 13395
    Good idea. I almost broke my neck one time back on the farm i decided to hop on our old work horse bareback no bridle and just ride a bit wherever he wanted to take me. He climbed up a hill , that was ok but going down nothing to hang onto I slid foreword and landed on the ground.  Smart old horse probably just wanted to get rid of me.

    A saddle with a seat belt could have probably saved me.  This post was edited by Kittigate at December 2, 2018 11:14 PM MST
      November 30, 2018 10:21 PM MST
    4

  • 4631
    Had his mane been cut off?
    A bareback rider can hold on to a large hunk of mane if they need a little security.

    Was the horse rather fat with a rounded body and a slippery back?
    Normally the withers (the bony arc at the base of the beck and at top centre above the shoulder blades) hold the rider in place while going downhill bareback, but horses are obese, the withers get buried in fat. 

    Old horses tend to become skeletally thin because they no longer have any teeth and can't chew their food
    (unless a kind and understanding owner uses a kitchen blender to turn their feed into soup).
      December 2, 2018 2:54 PM MST
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  • 13395
    Just a huge old workhorse. Was a steep downhill,  I tried to grab onto his mane but no way that would hold me.
      December 2, 2018 5:50 PM MST
    2

  • 4631
    Had his mane been cut off?
    A bareback rider can hold on to a large hunk of mane if they need a little security.

    Was the horse obese (no ribs showing and many ripply dimples on the buttocks)? - if so he would have a very rounded body and a slippery back - this is very hard for most people to stay on.
    Normally the withers (the bony arc at the base of the beck and at top centre above the shoulder blades) hold the rider in place while going downhill bareback, but horses are obese, the withers get buried in fat. 

    Old horses tend to become very thin - the withers become very prominent and will help to hold the ride on by stopping the forward slide downhill - but it's very uncomfortable in the you-know-what unless the (human) pelvis is tilted forward with the pubic bone lifted up.

    This post was edited by inky at December 2, 2018 11:14 PM MST
      December 2, 2018 2:54 PM MST
    2

  • 3523
    Today I finished building a waterfall in my backyard.  It looks and sounds great - very relaxing, especially with a fire in the fire pit.
      November 30, 2018 10:05 PM MST
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  • 13395
    Good 
      November 30, 2018 10:50 PM MST
    2

  • 4631
    A different kind of stables to suit a sub-tropical environment.
    The barn has a ceiling, and a solid wall on one side, but is otherwise open to the air. Horses need enormous volumes of fresh air to remain healthy. Damp enclosed environments like traditional stables encourage stale air and the spread of air born diseases and shin infections.
    The stables themselves are composed of pre-fab cattle panels. This means the horses can see each other, which increases their calm because they are social animals that instinctively need the feeling of one another's presence to feel at their safest and most comfortable.
    They can be made smaller and more numerous to accommodate more animals if necessary.
    I commissioned pre-fab to my design. They fold and hook back against the "walls leaving the stables permanently open between meal times, leaving the horse free to move around and interact and to move between grazing and the barn according to weather.
    The floors are made of road-base and shaped like a lens so that urine flows out and away. They are covered first with a layer of agricultural drainage sheeting, and then with rubber mats with good grip, shock absorption and drainage holes.
    The bedding is rice-husks, a by-product of the rice milling industry. They have neutral pH, so when the soiled bedding is collected it is perfect for composting onto the vegetable gardens.
    The combination results in permanently dry bedding and prevents hoof and foot infections.
    The roof collects rainwater in two vast tanks, with gravity feed to the water bins.
    One shipping container acts as the tack room, the other as a feed room. Each acts as a partial windbreak for bad weather.
    On top of the containers, large steel  RSJ's support a mezzanine level for storage of lucerne (alfalfa) hay.
    As far as I know, there is no other stable like it.
    It works exceptionally well for both the physical and the psychological health of the horses.

      November 30, 2018 10:05 PM MST
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  • 13395
    Excellent 
      November 30, 2018 10:52 PM MST
    3

  • 4631
    Thanks to Kittigate and MorningStar for kind words.
    There was yet more to the design, but I thought I was already getting too wordy.
      December 2, 2018 3:04 PM MST
    3

  • 7268
    Wow, Impressive! a lot of careful thought went into your design. Happy healthy horses, congratulations. 
      December 1, 2018 12:14 AM MST
    3

  • 4631
    My latest book of poetry has earned me an invitation to speak and recite at a writer's festival.
    Feeling both chuffed and nervous.
      November 30, 2018 10:06 PM MST
    5

  • 13395
    Great! 
      November 30, 2018 10:53 PM MST
    3
  • .

    7268
    Vegetable soup: everytime I make it it is different.  This batch is especially good, really am enjoying it.  Using many items from the garden made quite a difference. Thankfully I have more frozen items to use next time. 
      December 1, 2018 12:10 AM MST
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  • 13395
    Nice! 
      December 1, 2018 2:35 AM MST
    3

  • 4631
    Yum.
    Same here.
    Cooking is so much more fun when creative! :)
      December 2, 2018 3:05 PM MST
    1

  • 44175
    As a chemistry teacher, I created numerous experiments over a 20 year time-span. Yeah...a few of them flopped.
      December 1, 2018 7:52 AM MST
    4

  • 13395
    Pretty good. 
      December 1, 2018 8:46 AM MST
    3

  • 44175
    Thanx
      December 1, 2018 9:53 AM MST
    2

  • 10026
    SPAM!!  Big Giggles!

    Element,  You're Such a HAM!!
      December 2, 2018 11:17 PM MST
    0

  • 22891
    not nnuch
      December 1, 2018 1:57 PM MST
    1

  • 52903

      I tried to get every adult woman in America to make a sandwich for me and either deliver it in person or send it to me. Step two required an elaborate schedule so that millions of sandwiches would not arrive on the same day, and since I like them the fresher the better, I had it worked out to five or six sandwiches daily. I could discard the ones I didn't like or didn't want, and select the best two or three of them to eat that day. The schematic was too difficult to work out because I'd have to know which women had prepared which sandwiches, and also set aside time to receive the ones in person or accept the deliveries. Complications, complications, complications. I would have worked on it a little more, but for some strange reason, my wife was fuming. I don't know why she had a problem with it; she should have been relieved that someone else was taking up the slack for her. Grrrrrrrrr. 



    ~
      December 2, 2018 7:00 PM MST
    2

  • 13395
    Well it would have cost you a fortune in postage to send thank-you notes to all these women. 

    I knew this lady who was a binner and she would make her husband's box lunches for work from the good food she found in her travels, he knew where the food was coming from but trusted her judgment and never complained. Said she made about  $2000 a year cashing all the cans and bottles which paid her annual trip to Ontario to visit her family. 




      December 2, 2018 8:42 PM MST
    2

  • 52903

      Wait, "thank you notes"?   Wow, I hadn't even thought about that!  
      ((((What the heck does the binner's story have to do with this?))))

    ~
      December 2, 2018 9:03 PM MST
    2