This message is from: "Barry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I mostly lurk but wanted to respond to a few recent posts:
We have a MD barn that was purchased used from a used barn dealer. It is a 2 stall shedrow, insulated, has windows, hay racks, feed doors, waterers and even came with a misting system for $2500 delivered and installed. It is high quality as it looks very nice after many years of use. Our vet took one look at at and said it was built by MD before they changed their name to MD. We have gone to their showroom in Ontario, CA and the new barns are amazing. MD is top of the line. This barn is at our old house, here in Nuevo we have a tongue and groove wood barn and while it is nice it does not have the insulation factor the MD barn does. You should look into the purchase of a used barn. With regard to light colored eyes; I think they are common in dun horses. I have a red dun mare who has almost amber colored eyes, and another red dun mare with dark eyes. I had a beloved appy gelding who was a dark dun with brown points, mane and tail. He did not have leg striping but did have a dorsal stripe and a shoulder stripe. He had very light gold flecked eyes that were beautiful but unusual. I don't think eye color matters much. We had a bay arab with a brown eye and a light blue eye, and I have a POA pony with a gray eye and a brown eye. No problems with any of them. We feed primarily top notch, heavy, purple stemmed oat hay. Those stems are not straw, they are sweet and tasty. The only horses we bed are the ready to foal broodmares and we use straw. They wouldn't consider eating such a lowly substance as straw but will stand in it while eating all their oat hay. We also feed some alfalfa/grass mix but the horses prefer the oat hay. The oat hay is local, dryland (non irrigated) hay that we purchase farmer direct. There is oat hay and there is oat hay. A lot of times I just scan the list because frequently the tone is not positive. Too often the NFHR representatives on the list are harangued over small details--the latest has been extravagant action. These posts that should be directly sent to the representatives are instead posted on the list complete with a lot of shouting (all caps) and demands. I would not want to engage in a verbal conversation with a shouting, demanding person, nor do I want to read posts expressed that way. A constructive way to post on the list about extravagant action would have been to ask an open ended question for all to discuss and then a collective group of questions could be sent to the BOD. We need to look at how newcomers to the breed view us; this list is representative of us, and often there is too much bickering. Those of us who post to the list need to act more like our Fjords--friendly, calm , and sensible. Most of us are, but some are spoiling the fun.... Margaret Strachan Village Farm Nuevo, CA 50-80 mph Santa Ana winds today and cold, car was sandblasted the whole way home from work--supposed to be back to our usual 70-75 degrees with no wind for the weekend.
