...the saga continues

The IDHS NA board liaison for registrations emailed me after reading these entries. She proceeded through a timeline of this registration which was of course not news to me. I'm not sure but I think she thought it was a defense for the length of time it was taking for this registration. The email didn't explain why it took a month and 2 phone calls from me for them to perform a 5 to 10 minute task. It was in their timeline as 1 month- really. The email indicated that it was the sire's dna that was 'lost' not the mare's as I was told at least twice and maybe more on the telephone. I believe that customer service is not number 1 when it comes to this organization but I guess I knew that already. Once I get this registration completed I still have 2 more to submit and suffer through. O joy. Please pray for me and my continuing sanity....

I was watching my Maggie eat tonight -- looking at her & how she is showing her age - getting gray (not as in a gray horse but as in aging). It reminded me that one of the owners of a Maggie offspring asked me about some white hairs in the flank of their horse and wondered if it was most likely from Maggie's dam. I don't remember answering and I don't remember who asked me the question. It is my opinion that those few white hairs come from Maggie's sire actually. Maggie has some white hairs on her flanks and the telltale white at the top of her tail. If this Maggie offspring also has white at the top of the tail as well it is most likely the same thing. I never had Maggie tested but I believe this to be the rabicano gene. You can do a search for more information in any search engine.

Latest

After the last post I made on Friday I received a phone call from IDHS NA office. They were closed but still there. They received the results from the DNA. :) They said they would make up the book and mail on Wednesday. Not sure what that means since website indicates office open MTW F when I looked last week sometime. Time will tell

I had waited before mentioning the three legged cat since I figured he was just stopping for a rest and some food. Once he had been here for a long enough period of time I felt safe mentioning him. Of course he disappeared a few days after my post that mentioned him and hasn't been back. sigh

Office closed

The IDHS NA office is closed for the day and I have nothing else to report. I guess I'll call again on Monday and nag. For any of you that think I'm being really hard and unfair to them, this is just the newest problem I've had with registration and this organization. I won't bore you with all of them. I will say that the last registrations I submitted took A YEAR and A HALF for them to process and deliver to me. So all and all, I think they've gotten off really easily. Bruce will probably spit when he hears of today's events.


I was working on getting burrs out of Brian's mane and tail last night - oops -- ummm-- I don't really have burrs at my place. What am I saying? ;) Let me start again. I was combing out Brian's mane and tail last night -- it took some time since he had it all twisted up. He turned around to see what I was doing with his tail. I swear his head and expression looked exactly like his momma's. It was kind of a shock because I hadn't noticed the resemblance at all previously. He is a wonderful guy. He is a bit uncomfortable with new people or things. He takes a while to adjust. I suspect that he will be a one person horse and that he'll prefer women to men ... but then I've been wrong before. :-) Time will tell.

The saga continues

News! The registration officer has now resent the dna info of the mare to the lab! The excuse I'm given is that the lab made a big move recently and seemed to have misplaced some horses' dna results. It's been happening a lot to her lately. She says that the last one she resent only took 26 minutes for the results to come back.

Now what does this tell us? This wasn't a new or unique problem. It took a very short time to pull the dna info for the mare and send it. Hmmmmm perhaps this could have occurred last week when I called instead of requiring me to call yet again to get the status on this registration.

I won't rejoice once the dna results come back though because that won't be the end of it. I wish I could scream at work but they would probably frown on that. :(

Registration update

I called the IDHS NA yet again today. When I called last week I was told by the registration officer (who I was talking to) would call the lab and find out what was going on. Today, I was told the same thing so nothing was done about this problem in that week. I'm about to the point that I think I have to call them and badger them every day until they solve this problem

The IDHS NA dna typed and registered my mare
The IDHS NA dna typed and registered her previous foals
The IDHS NA says the mare isn't dna typed so the newest foal can't be registered as a purebred

When did paperwork become rocket science? I must have missed something...

grrrrrrrr grumble grumble grumble

Painted noses

I managed to get photos of the painted noses -- Brian didn't have enough to bother photographing. Here we have Banner and Calum -- 3 or 4 days after the contact with the wet paint.

Registration

One is always told that you need to keep your sense of humor in difficult times. I try very very hard even though a rain cloud seems to be hovering over me when it comes to registering my horses with the IDHS NA. I don't know if I have been cursed or if there is a voodoo doll of me or something but it is a neverending debacle. I won't entertain you with all of the problems I've suffered over the years, I'll just mention my newest.

The hair of the yearling was submitted to the IDHSNA and they sent it to the lab for DNA testing. It came back as sire verified but that they reported that they don't have the DNA of the mare on record. Sigh. The mare was registered with the IDHSNA and DNA verified when she was foal. She has since had 3 foals. The first two were DNA verified and recorded. Now all of the sudden they don't have her DNA so the 3rd foal isn't eligible to be registered as a purebred.

I need to sign off and weep now............

It's fall

I noticed that a few of the horses sported a little fuzzy hair today. The onset of winter coats.

I had my usual trunk in the barn but hadn't needed anything from it for quite awhile. I opened it up the other day and discovered that it was moist and moldy inside. There was nothing liquid in it, it was just waaaaay too humid this summer. It felt just like after the flood of 2008 -- get the bleach out and start cleaning. At least it was sunny today so things could be put out in the sun besides. I ended up having to toss a lot of stuff but saved most of it.

All of my horses want something to do -- they are bored. Bruce paint a bit of a new section of fence. We use asphalt paint-- it's black and actually has some asphalt in it. It helps to preserve the wood so it will last longer -- and it tastes yukky so the horses will leave stuff alone. Well.... Brian, Banner and expecially Calum thought they would help Bruce to spread the paint . Poor Calum got so much on his nose he was snorting and sneezing trying to remove it.

We have had a three legged tomcat move in. All our cats are neutered of course so he isn't here for anything other than food and company. And of course both of us are suckers for cats. Bruce calls him Charlie and I call him K.C. (for kitty cat). I don't know how this guy has survived. He is large and healthy (for a nomadic tomcat). And he seems to have avoided the coyotes all this time because he isn't a young cat -- he's full grown. Our neutered male cat Derek is not very happy at the moment. The two of them have had a few stand offs already and all the females swat him.

Conformation

The September/October 2010 issue of Warmbloods Today includes the regular conformation column by Judy Wardrope. Ms. Wardrope has taken a high level horse in each column and discussed the points of its conformation that allow it to exceed at whatever sport he/she competes. The focus of this issue's column is the 20 year old Selle Francais stallion Cabri d'Elle. He has jumped in "33 nation cups, two European championships and one World Cup Final, and is still competing in the 1.60-meter division at the age of 20". She discusses the parts of his construction that enable his ability and longevity.
I find her insights enlightening to say the least and hope that I can retain at least some of what she has to offer her readers!