For those horse folks under 16...just a fun little survey. Anna has me blocked..you can play too. Let's see who can be really really mean.?

Why are you comparing your experience to a teenager's? That's very odd for a man of your age. Of course they don't have the same experiences, your over twice their age.

I cannot say that I've done any of this besides teaching a few beginner lessons. I think that as an "under 16" it would be pretty irresponsible for my trainer to let me or anyone my age do anything like this. Maybe if I was raised on a ranch it would have been different but I'm being raised in the suburbs so I don't have exposure to horses 24/7.

Well, I'm older than 16 but I'm pretty sure I've been accused of being a spoiled teenager by those making false assumptions.

How much "experience" do you actually have? Well... The more you learn about horses, the more you realize that no one is truly an expert and that there is ALWAYS more to learn. I have experience, but I still take lessons and ask questions for a reason. I have been taking lessons since I was 11. I am now 27.

Owned a ranch? No. I just bought a small-ish agricultural lot that I can put up to two horses on, but the place is a bit of a work in progress. All I have is a house that hasn't been updated since 1972 and a small barn that hasn't been updated since 1910.

Taught lessons? Yes.

Packed in mountains? No... though I don't live in a mountainous area.

Years of large animal education (post secondary)? I have a bachelors degree in pre-professional biology. (That's just another way of saying pre-vet.) I started out as an Equine science major, and took quite a few equine science and large animal science courses in college. During college, I worked part time at two different veterinary clinics, a large and a small animal. After graduation, I decided not to attend vet school, and instead worked as a microbiologist for an agricultural veterinary laboratory. I did that for 5 years, before relocating and getting into food safety.

Can you set a shoe or trim a hoof? I do trim, but have never set a shoe. Both of my horses are barefoot.

Can you inject medications in horses or cattle? Yes.

Ever broke a colt? If you want to get technical, it was a filly, but yes. I did take one horse from birth through 5 years, from halter breaking to jumping small courses. I had my hand in the training on many other horses throughout various stages of breaking. I've backed at least 5 horses, and started or finished a number of horses in various disciplines. I halter broke quite a lot of foals when I worked for the equine vet. He had a client that boarded nearly 30 thoroughbred brood mares, and because the foals stayed until weaning it was my job to halter break them all.

Ever fixed a crazy horse headed to the meat packers? Sort of. My own horse was found emaciated in a mud lot. Another young woman bought her out of that situation before she ended up at auction. I purchased her shortly after this, since the initial rescuer had some health issues and was unable to keep or ride her. The horse was an unregistered draft cross, green broke to saddle and halter (not sure how anyone ever managed to ride her if she could hardly be haltered). She was already 5 years old, and nearly 17 hands tall. Initial veterinary exam indicated severe scaring from wounds that had gone untreated, including a puncture wound on her right hip and a laceration on her neck. I wouldn't call her crazy, but she didn't have much handling and it's not easy starting nearly from scratch with an animal that big. Her original owner was known to ear twitch her and drag her around by her ear instead of haltering her. She still won't let strangers put hands anywhere near her ears.

Put down a horse? Yes. Because I worked in the veterinary field for so many years, I have personally euthanized horses, cattle, dogs, cats, squirrels, bats, mice, rats, raccoons, chickens, etc. I wound't say I enjoyed it, but it was necessary in each situation, and I would do it again if the need arose.

Broke a horse for gun fire? Yes. I have a neighbor that does mounted shooting, and I have ridden with her.

Worked with a hypnotherapist? Nope. I have worked with an acupuncturist though... Does that count?

Kept more than 20 horses on a training string? Nope. I have never owned more than two horses at a time.

Trained dressage or English prospects? Reiners? Draft teams? Of the handful of horses I've trained, all were cross trained English and western (pleasure but not reining), with extensive ground training for showmanship and halter, and though I have not trained teams, I have driven horses and broken horses to ground driving and single hitch. I helped a friend of mine break her horse for logging. I introduce all of my horses to obstacle trail.

In response to your update. My husband is a chemist now. He didn't know jack squat about horses before we met, but he does have a degree in environmental biology. He could tell you all about the bugs in your barn, and the quality the soil in your pasture!

How much "experience" do you actually have?

been in 4-h 4 years, going into highschool program soon. had horses for 3 1/4 years. been around horses 4 1/2 years. went to horse camps before that. I do english and western, done gaming, dressage, jumping, LOVE trail riding, shown in 4-h and got reds first year, and all blues the next (white is lowest, then red, then blue) didnt show after that, but did clinics and such.

In between those times i worked with personal trainers and went to educational classes, i like to educate myself, even if i know stuff already.

Owned a ranch? No, but boarded at some and been a part time helper at one.

Taught lessons? not consistantly. But i have taught friends how to ride and some little kids how to handle mini ponies

Packed in mountains? Im not sure if this counts but, went on a 4/5 ish hour trail up in the mountains...it was fun!

Years of large animal education (post secondary)? no

Can you set a shoe or trim a hoof? I can use a file to trim yes, but i dont like to cut because my horse has sensitive feet and if i cut them too short she will come up lame. :(

Can you inject medications in horses or cattle?

OH GOSH YES!

long story short:

my horse got super sick and had to have 2 shots in the morning and one at night. she got pneumonia 2 times back-to-back! worst time of my life. had to use tools and contraptions that my family completely disagrees with (mostly a twitch, gahhh, hated t see them put it on her, but it was that or death...killed me!) just to give shots, she thew out her back and almost died....the vet still calls s to see if we want to put her down, maybe we should tell him she is better?

she still has bad allergies and a lung condition.

haha, yes, that was the short version!!!

Ever broke a colt?NO Had a great opportunity to, but a mentally ill woman who owned the barn my mother and i kept our horses out lashed out and we ended up moving our horses, and we arent able to accept the offer because of circumstances :( so no

Ever fixed a crazy horse headed to the meat packers? She wasnt really that crazy... but she needed some work... and she was headed to the kill buyers at 8pm, we picked her up at 5:45 pm that night...

Put down a horse? you read my story above about my horse, we didnt (thank the lord, truly an act of GOD!) have to put her down! but when complications happened, i told my mom that if the vet said she was suffering in a way that couldnt be prevented or fixed, YES YES YES to put her down, my friend lost her horse tho, but it doesnt count...

Broke a horse for gun fire? no

Worked with a hypnotherapist? no, i dont believe in that kind of wacky stuff, sorry :/

Kept more than 20 horses on a training string? no

Trained dressage or English prospects? trained my horse to preform dressage, not professionally though, and i had a trainer to giude me. so i will take it as a no? idk?

Reiners? no

Draft teams?no

Jerk

Let's see. I'm not under 16 and never will be again, but I'll answer this anyway because the responses so far have been so interesting to read.

So here goes:

Have I owned a ranch? No, because I don't make enough income from my job to buy one. Being a public employee ( I won't say in what state, only that it's east of the Mississippi) has its drawbacks, and one of them is that the salaries tend to be rather low. And unless things change, ranch ownership is out of the question for me. I did, however, grow up in a rural area. I was raised in the Midwest, and my parents bought a small horse farm when I was a teenager. Got my first horse at the age of 16. He was no fancy show horse, either- in fact, he was a totally green broke 4 year old half Arab who'd only been ridden about 4 times in his life when I got him as a birthday present that year. I spent all of my teen years with that horse, and only sold him during my senior year of college. Wouldn't have done it then, but since my parents were divorcing and the farm had to be sold, I was left with little choice except to find another home for that horse and another horse that I'd acquired when I was a senior in high school. So I guess you could say that I "broke" this first horse in a way. I certainly taught him a lot, and he also taught me a lot of lessons, both about horse care and about life.

Have I taught lessons? Yes. In fact, I hold instructor's certification from the CHA. Did a lot of teaching at a Y camp and Outdoor Ed center in the Midwest, back in the late 90's and early 2000's, Taught both English and Western lessons, led trail rides, and did all manner of other stuff.

Can I give shots? Yeah, If they're IM. I leave the IV stuff to the vets, because that's what they're trained to do and get paid for. But I know how to recognize when a horse is going into shock, and what to do about it. Never injected anything into a cow, because I have never really been around cows. They don't interest me much.

Packed in the mountains? No, But I've sure trail ridden in the mountains lots of times. I'll be doing that again later this summer, when I go up north, in fact.

How much "experience" do I have? Well, I sat on my first pony at the age of 6, and started lessons at 9. I'm in my 50's now. I've had my own horses since I was 16. I grew up riding western, but my main riding interest for a lot of years now has been dressage. I jumped a lot as a teenager, too, before I had a bad fall (I was nearly kicked in the head by a horse) in college and lost my nerve over fences. I still do dressage, though, and trail ride when I can. I can't trail ride around where I live right now because I'm surrounded by subdivisions on 3 sides, and on the 4th by a large military base. The subdivisions all have anti-horse covenants in place, so that the few people in the area who own horses can't ride them across or in the neighborhoods. On top of this, all the farm land in the area is dotted with "No Trespassing" signs, and the landowners are rather anal when it comes to enforcing them. Plus the road that runs in front of our place is not a safe place to be, whether on a horse or off. People drive like maniacs on that road, and the word "stop" ain't in their vocabulary, Jeff. And starting right after college, I went into the horse business full time and worked there for over 20 years. I held lots of different jobs in different states and places. Only reason I left the business was because I got tired of the low pay, lack of job security, and of being treated like sh*t by people who had more money than they did brains or common sense. And once I went past my 40th year, I wised up some and realized that I'd never be able to retire if I stayed in the horse industry. Retirement takes $$$$, Jeff. Lots of $$$$. And spending my days shoveling sh*t for $8 a hour wasn't going to let me save anything for it. So I had to get out of there. It didn't help that not long after that, one of my grandparents developed dementia and had to be put into a home for people like that. I saw what happened to him and what happened to my grandmother, who nearly ruined her own health trying to take care of him. It wasn't a pretty picture. So I left the business for good in 2000, took some classes in medical coding, got certified, and then eventually moved to the state I live in now and went to work for them. I'm not a huge fan of office work- I'd much rather be riding or working outside, the way I did for so much of my life- but at least here I have job security, real benefits, and I'll get a pension when I'm too old to work any more. So you win some and you lose some.

I personally never have put a horse down, but I've been there when the decision was made to do this lots of times, and I've been around to watch horse carcasses being loaded onto the render's truck lots of times too. I don't hold with the notion that in order to be a horse person you have to be able to euthanize a horse yourself. That's another thing they pay vets for, you know. Yeah, I can understand that people who take horses into the back country need to know how to use a gun to shoot their animals if need be, but not all of us are fortunate enough to live near or in the wilderness, Jeff. And it's pretty mean spirited of you to judge other people and put them down because they don't have the same opportunities that you do.

Broke a horse to gun fire? Nah. Don't have access to firearms, Jeff. My stepdad kept weapons when I was growing up, but I was never allowed to touch them. If I tried, I got my hide tanned with his belt. After that happened once or twice, I sorta lost interest in weapons.

I pay our farrier to do my mare's feet. He does a great job, we've had the same guy for years, and his prices are reasonable. I don't feel that I necessarily need to know how to shoe in order to be considered a responsible horse owner. Yeah, I have pulled shoes off in an emergency, but I've never set one on.

I've never had more than one or two horses myself. Sure, I know people who've had more than that- I worked for a woman once who had 80 horses on her place. Course, she was a breeder and a trainer, and she also boarded horses for a bunch of people. Don't know if that counts or not.

Have I worked with a hypnotherapist? Do you mean for people or for horses? Never heard of anybody trying to hypnotize a horse- that must be something to see, if it can even be done. For myself, I can say that I've never allowed anybody to hypnotize me. If you're talking about hippotherapy, then yeah, I've worked at a couple places that had therapeutic riding programs. I've been a leader and a sidewalker, if you're wondering.

Ever fixed a crazy horse that was headed to slaughter? Not exactly. We had a couple PMU horses that we rescued as weanlings off the truck and raised, but I don't know as you'd call them crazy. They really weren't. One of them's back up in Canada now, and is serving as a vaulting horse. The other horse died some years ago from a real bad colic.

Trained prospects? Not really, unless you count what I did with my first horse as training.

Do I have years of large animal education? No, not really. I do have a college degree, and I come from a family with a bunch of people who have or had doctorates in different fields. I've also got a relative who's an MD. So I have a strong background in science, for sure. And my relatives all GOT their degrees, Jeff. There was none of this "stopping two semesters short" stuff in my family. To give you an idea of the fields that some of them are in, here's a quick list:

Psychology (2)

Ag.Economics

Electrical Engineering ( one relative works for NASA)

Neuroscience

Internal Medicine ( MD)

Other areas include Divinity School and an RHI ( restaurant, hotel, and institutional management) degree.

So yeah, you can say that I have some smart people around me. I'm sort of the oddball in the group, in fact, because I never went further than a Bachelor's degree. I did get my certification as a medical coder, however, and have held that for more than a dozen years now. Coding's a great field for people who like to work alone and set their own schedules. That would be me. People who have good memories and can do a lot of abstracting make good coders, too.

PS: Have you figured out who I am yet by reading this? Just curious.

And now I'm adding a question of my own. Do I ever get tired of being around people who use their intellect as a weapon to put me down and treat me like I was gum on their shoe? You bet your boots, pal.