has/been..<<..have you ever noticed..what great figures horse riding ladies have?>>

no..but i have noticed..
those..who love it..really love it
their figures..only look;great'..because the clothing..must be tight.

[its not complicated..i rekon nothing looks greater
than a woman..on horse back..anyhow..i wasnt going to mention..it

but..listen to the last ten minutes..[thats the sign..iwas told of
via the song ring a ring a rossie..[a tissue..a tissue..we all..fal
l down

[dont listen..to..the second hour..if you love milk..like me]

on tue/wed..alex jones talks of..how soils have been depleted
on..wed he talks of 'meat'..and ''milk'...[be warned..this cannot be true]
http://rss.infowars.com/20131218_Wed_Alex.mp3
[please..note the end..]

http://xml.nfowars.net/Alex.rss

I don't know much about campdrafting Belly. Rodeo is an entirely different thing to what I have been involved in. It is more from cattle raising & practical horsemanship.

I was more involved at local pony, & adult club level, until my eldest became fairly serious about Dressage, Show jumping & Eventing. She could have gone on with the Olympic training squad, but could not do that & still achieve the level she needed in Math & Physics to get into the university courses she wanted. She chose to study.

I can't say I was sorry, serious Eventing is quite dangerous. I was worried, & her mother near a nervous wreck when she was competing at top level.

Our quite brilliant stallion was retired about 3 years before he would have reached his peak, & since has done nothing other than learn how to eat the flesh of a mango seed, without getting the bitter inner seed.

He has been with us from 6 months to 27 years, & won't be around much longer, we lost his younger sister last month. I am going to really miss him when he goes.

HI there HASBEEN...

By 'eventing' do you mean the ceremonial equestrian events that are practiced as an Olympic event, and where the ladies and gentleman competitors wear a type of formal attire ? Despite not knowing anything at all about the ritual or rules of the sport, I enjoy watching, for sure. The horse and rider appear as one as they navigate around the course. There's a simply beauty too, almost a 'calm' that strikes me about the sport.

I remember a chap by the name of Andrew HOY from Holbrook, NSW won a Gold Medal during the Sydney (I think?) Olympics. Also various members of the Royal Family eg HRH Prince ANNE was an Olympic Competitor at one time ?

You also mentioned a Stallion you'd reared from 6 months and is now 27 years - Pardon my total ignorance, what is the average lifespan of a stallion ? Is there any significant difference between mares, stallions and geldings in terms of longevity ? I've heard that an Oz brumby has a considerably longer lifespan than 'tamed' horses ? I realize the ridiculousness of these questions, but if you don't ask, you'll never know !

The most ghastly thought associated with any animal that I'd grown close to, is their ultimate loss. That is a prospect that I cannot bear to confront under any circumstances.

Many thanks HASBEEN

PS: You've been around a bit for a Naval Aviator, or should I say, you've done a lot of positive things with your life, haven't you !

Hi o sung. Dressage is that bit where they wear formal attire, & compete in a 20 by 60 meter arena. It usually takes 6 to 10 years to get a horse to Olympic standard, & takes great skill to train them, & then reproduce their best on that one day.

Eventing is a 3 day event, with dressage the first day, followed by a quite severe load of work leading to the cross country. This is about 7 kilometers ridden at high speed, [but not a race], with over 40 quite large difficult & daunting jumps along the way.

The third day, to show the horse is still fit, there is a round of showjumping. This is not at the highest level, but is still pretty difficult. It takes a very good, but also very versatile horse to be good at all 3 disciplines, & very good & patient riders to train them to that level.

Locally our clubs run one day events, which are minor events involving the same disciplines, but much shorter cross country phase.

Small horses & ponies can make it into their 30s, but few thoroughbreds get past 25 or so. Our stallion is doing very well, but can't have much longer. My belief is that most brumbies, in the wild, have a fairly hard life, rather than a long one.

They may have developed a hardiness that gives them a long life in captivity.

Yes o sung wu, I've had an interesting life, but not really by choice. It has sort of driven me, rather than the other way around.

I was chucked out of the navy when a back injury was judged unfit for carrier arrested landings.

I finished my BSc, & was happily in the plastics industry, doing a bit of hobby sailing & motor racing, when my employer discovered my racing. I was told to give that up, as I was too valuable to turn up dead one Monday. I quit of course.

I established a suspension tuning business, which morphed into an exchange reconditioned components business.

When my marriage broke down, I bought a yacht, & lived on that at marinas in Sydney. The yacht was very slow, so I sold it, & bought a very fast one.

When I realised I was not the next world champion, I gave up motor racing, sold the business, & wondered what to do next. A mate said I was always talking about a cruise up to the reef, & now was the perfect time. He was right so I went.

When I got to Cairns I really could not see much point in returning to Sydney, so I got a 12 month visa for PNG, & the Solomons, & kept going north.

I discovered my visa included a work permit, unplanned, so I did, all sorts of work. Had a fair little business building jetties for isolated plantations.

8 years later, I felt a need to walk down streets, where people looked like me, & came back. [They tricked me with that one didn't they?].

Met a lady, got involved in tourist boats. 8 years later we had 2 kids, & sick of tourists, went cattle breeding. That was stupid. Never try to do anything useful like producing food.

Got head hunted back into manufacturing, for another 12 years before retirement.

My life had no plan, it just happened. Perhaps I have a low threshold of boredom & can't stick, but in many ways, I had no say in it.

Thank you HASBEEN for a most comprehensive answer to many of my questions, it's greatly appreciated.

'Eventing' per se, sounds to be a very demanding series of tests or serials, for both horse and rider. The third day appears to be the most difficult I should think, with the horse being asked to complete a jumping circuit, though not quite as hard as normal jumping, nevertheless quite challenging anyway given the poor beast has already had two days of 'trying' competition ? Even before being asked to deliver once more, on the show jumping circuit.

'Eventing' to me, suggests it's also a very social activity as well, with both human and horse interacting impeccably together, without any impediment whatsoever !

Wouldn't it be great if we humans could emulate, that of horse and rider, without the need to first, negotiate, mediate, and arbitrate without ending up in these interminable altercations of little significance ?

Thanks Mate, I appreciate your response.