Why Does My Horse Hate Me? | Q&A

What this episode is about

The main topic revolves around the current anticipation and preparations for the upcoming foaling season, alongside the daily routines on a farm. The discussion includes a Q&A segment where listeners are invited to submit questions, and one of the initial topics explores hypothetical breeding scenarios involving favorite mare and stallion pairings.

Key takeaways

• Foaling season's delay: a reminder that nature doesn’t adhere to our timelines or expectations.
• If only breeding were as simple as dreaming up ideal combos; genetics likes to keep us guessing.
• Freeze branding: making horse identification cooler and less painful—who knew it could save rescues, too?
• The unexpected lull is a blessing; it’s nature’s way of prepping you for the chaos ahead.
• Nike’s brand relevance: is it fading or just transitioning from iconic athleticism to everyday comfort?

Who speaks in this episode?

• Katie Van Slyke (Host) · 25 min speaking
• Lindsey (Guest) · 6 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Invitation Only, Vital Signs Are Good

Notable quotes from "Why Does My Horse Hate Me? | Q&A"

• I have always said that Invitation Only is one of my favorite stallions of all time. I believe limited people can still get ICSI contracts to him. So, not saying that if they…

  about Invitation Only · at 1:58

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

Concepts & topics

• Invitation Only — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 1:58
• AQHA — Concept · 2 mentions
• Vital Signs Are Good — Concept · 1 mention · first at 2:32
  That I wouldn't still do that with a mayor like Kennedy or something. Yeah. But the mayor part I mean there are some greats out there, right? Like and I'm I'm trying to narrow…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Welcome back to Katching Up with Katie. So, foaling season has not started yet, and that's insane. We have not been, well, I have been, but the team has not been on one night of full watch yet, which I just did not see coming. And this is actually going to air a week after when we're actually filming it. So, it might be different by the time you're seeing this video. But yeah, I just did not expect that. I fully thought we would have a foal on the ground by now. We're also waiting on three heifers to calve. So, I have a feeling when like the floodgates open, we're just gonna have like four babies in a night. But other than that, life has just been kind of back to a a bit of a schedule, which I feel like a lot of our year is unscheduled. Um, but right now, we're just doing our our daily grind and waiting on this first foal. With that being said, because we have this like little lull time before again the floodgates open, we asked y'all to ask

1:01 questions and to ask for topics that we would cover in kind of just a Q&A type of catching up with Katie. Um, so if either one of you think of stuff in the midst of this, throw it out there. But Lindsey, I don't know what these questions are, by the way. Lindsey has gathered from y'all um over the midst of our social media pages and she has some questions written down. So, yes. All right, let's start with something. What is this? What is this? The comments with Katie. The comments with Katie. Okay, this is a good one. This is kind of just like a an if scenario. Uhu. Okay. If you could get any embryo of any mare and stallion alive or deceased, who you have to pick both? Pretty deep. I don't know. If you want to start with just one, we can just start with one and then we can kind of talk about the cross.

1:58 I have always said that Invitation Only is one of my favorite stallions of all time. I believe limited people can still get ICSI uh contracts to him. So, not saying that if they would allow me to that I wouldn't still do that with a mayor like Kennedy or something. Yeah. But the mayor part I mean there are some greats out there, right? Like and I'm I'm trying to narrow it down. Um obviously Vital Signs Are Good is iconic. That's Waylon's Dam. She is arguably one of the greatest mayors in AQHA history. And I know she was crossed with invitation only one or once or twice. Um that's so hard. I don't know. We can come back if we need to. Yeah, we might think about that.

2:51 But I guess right now I I would say the sire I really want an invitation only. I've never gotten to show a horse by Invitation Only. I've had some grandchildren, but yeah. Sweet. Okay. Um, will you We've had a There was a lot of questions about this. Okay. The freeze branding on some of your horses. Do you freeze brand? Why or why not? So, you see on Raven and Maggie and Lexy that they have brands on their shoulder, on their hip. Some people do their neck, some people do their cheek. So when you register a brand and it's freeze branding, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. Well, it the hair comes back white. It's not scarring. Okay. So there's a difference between hot branding and freeze branding. Okay. So So uh so freeze branding is frequently done with horses and they they shave the area. Um it's I believe like the brand is dipped in liquid nitrogen and then you hold it on for I think like 30 seconds and the hair comes back white. And so yeah,

4:01 um it's a lot less painful. And I I see a lot of pluses to branding and I we've actually talked a little bit about it. There's, you know, in the marketability sense, uh I have seen quite a few people in like the show world say they don't like it and they don't want a horse with a brand. But as a breeder, I could see how it's really really uh useful to a let everyone know, hey, I bred this horse. Yeah, this is from my program. And then the brand becomes recognizable. But also in a sense of like, hey, sometimes in an auction or whatever, a horse ends up in a bad situation and they don't have their papers attached to them. They don't But that brand is there forever. Yeah. And you could be like that that's a horse from my program. I'm going to save it.

4:47 or someone might recognize it and tell you, hey, one of your horses ended up in this bad situation. Yeah. So, um it's not something we've implemented. And I would love to hear, you know, those who own horses maybe would be buying a show prospect. Does does branding, you know, is it something that you try to stray away from? Uh would it bother you if your horse is branded? I I have thought about it a little bit, but um yeah, when you see the markings on Lexy on um Maggie has a couple and she's got like the Nike swoosh and uh Lexy also has like a number on her and Rave Does Raven have Raven has one on her hip, I think. Am I making that up? No, it's like the R.

5:31 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The R something. Is Is Nike out? Total side quest here. Is Nike like not I haven't really like I I was just I was not I was just noticing the other day and I'm like I don't ever see any famous people wearing Nike anymore. I'm not the right person to ask because I don't really pay I'm not trying to be that girl, but I just don't really pay attention to name brands and stuff. So, I don't I don't know. I just have like some Nike socks, Adidas socks, and you know, I whatever socks are on sale is usually the socks that I buy. I don't really care about my socks, but I was just like pondering the other day. I was like, is Nike still like a relevant brand?

6:12 Cuz I just never see I never see ads, right? It's like it's like they're turning into like a like a department store that Huh. I don't know. I haven't really thought same vibes to me right now. off of that. It's so funny how as a kid you get like socks for Christmas, you're like I freaking love a good sock as a gift. Like don't get me wrong. So like this year we always do stockings for everybody that works here. And this year we did was it alpaca socks? Yep. We did alpaca socks and um like net gators and like things for cold weather and like heated hand warmers and stuff and like there is just something about a good sock. And because Jonathan is so like he loves his clothing and he loves like all the different hunting brands and he gets on his specific stuff that he likes. And so I always go steal his socks because they're so good. The ones that are like made for hunting and they were like there's something about like a good compression and it's

7:14 like you know whether it's marino or alpaca and it like doesn't get wet and like you're so good. That uh that neck gator was one of my one of my favorite gifts of the year. Really? Yeah. It's a good one. It's really It's really warm. I hadn't had one before, John. Like y'all had given me But have you had to like work outside before? Never. Never. It's a necessity. It's a necessity. Um Okay. You wear a lot of different hats. Frankly, they don't know how you do it. Hats like Oh, you do a Yeah. like not legit hat. I was like I mean I guess I wear hats sometimes sometimes. Um which part of your business makes you the most excited for the future? Uh I think that's a good question. That is a good question and I think the root of like my goals are always going to surround the horses being within the industry of like AQHA breeding showing that is like the passion that's the root and then I think being educational and sharing that passion has also become a passion

8:23 in itself attached to it. So um I I think that is always what keeps me the most excited and like my own personal goals. I'm very much a like I give myself a goal and I give myself a timeline type of person. Yeah. And I generally try to like do it before that timeline. Like I it I'm a competitive person so I'm very competitive with myself. Under promise over deliver. Yes. Yeah. And and so I think that and I I'm a little psycho in the fact that I have like daily goals, I have weekly goals, I have monthly, I have yearly, I like I have five year like and so I just love crossing goals off.

9:05 Will I be doing enemas this year since I'm the newbie? Um it depends. Depends. You want me to be real with you a little bit? Is it because of the time that I tried to stick it up Jack's butt and I couldn't find it? Well, you you you do lack a bit of like self-preservation and awareness. Yes. And so it depends if the mom is being nice. Yes. And everything has gone as planned and it's like a calm situation where I think Sure. Um, there has been some times where it's a little it can get touch and go. Yeah, it can get a little Abigail almost got smashed into the wall by Happy two years ago. Yeah, like there has been some times where I was like she didn't see that. So, I'm like with her? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. You almost die like twice a week. I'm like, "Oh, I would move. I would I would move." Yeah. Not Not so good. Um, she has a she has a she's banned from the mini cows for a bit. I am because she has a bruise from like here all the way up her freaking

10:18 hip because we were showing her mama the mini cows and I think you were showing off a little bit. You went out there with them. I was I I was getting a little I got a little ahead of my and I was I was stayed in the thing. I'm like they're being rowdy right now. She was I was like okay. So, she got out and Poppy wanted a treat. One of the little ones scared Poppy and she like twisted her head and it like my mom thought she caught my rib because it looked like she caught my shirt or she did catch my shirt. Yeah. But she was like, "Is your rib okay?" And I'm like, "I did. I'm fine.

10:50 I'm fine." And then she comes in there, she's like I'm like Katie. So, you know, like the other day Wally and Waylon escaped. Um that video is on socials. And it was it was to the point where I knew to I'm so sorry. I don't mean to be just roasting you, but I was like, "Go get in the side by side." Yeah. She was like side. She She at one point was like, "Shelter. Find shelter." I was like, "Okay, I'm going." I did. I was like I think there was on camera me being like, "Shield yourself." Yes. Cuz they were calmly eating. Yeah. But then they started trotting around and I was waiting. I I've known when a horse gets loose, one is like two of them, they can feed off each other and especially two baby boys and like Wally's a little stud colt and stuff. And so I was like it's better for me if I stay calm, wait for backup and like let the plan unfold versus me just trying to like and I can make things worse. And so I was in the midst of like gathering halters calmly,

12:00 you know, putting myself in a space to cut them off and I was like, I don't know how to tell you what to do right now. So like I'd rather you just go be safe. I literally was just standing there with cuz like girl, I've seen a horse come at you like a Mac truck and you're you're just watching it. I'm like, all right, we're not moving. I gotta learn. I gotta So I I now know that about you. Yes. So we will take that into It's a maybe. That's a maybe. It's a maybe. Which I tend to be I tend to be the other end of the spectrum of like, oh, there's a horse coming our general direction. I should probably move. And she's like, you're fine. Not Not even near you.

12:50 You could be scaredy like me or have a little oblivious common sense. There's some call it boldness. Maybe I wouldn't say no common sense. I would say lacking of self-preservation. Like who I That's fair. That's fair. I'll give you that one. Um okay, let me go on to my next page. Oh, this one's a fun one. If you had to describe one of your horses as a character from either a movie or a TV show, who would they be? This is just a fun one. Bo is Sam Elliott. Period. Okay. Okay. I think Bo I think if he were to talk, he would sound like Sam Elliott. I'm like, he would just be that guy. Sam Elliott is that guy. I think so. Um, who else? I don't know why. No, I don't want to ruin y'all's image of Wall-E. Like, um Oh, no. I don't know why he makes me think of Paulie Bleecker, like son-in-law. I see it. Like, not necessarily in looks, but like I put Paulie Bleecker's voice as Wallys voice in my head a lot of the time. He's the guy from Juno. Jun. No,

14:16 he's not. Are you sure? Oh, my I'm thinking of Pauly Shore. Sorry, not Bleecker. Polyshore. P A U L Y or P O L Y. U L Y. Got it. Very different guy. Very, very different. Look this man up. Um Pauly Short. Like I put his voice behind Wally a lot and I probably shouldn't when he's supposed to be like this big bad stallion, but like in my head comedically that's what's happening. I don't think that fits personality. Probably Bleecker. No, I didn't mean that. I don't know why that came out of my head. Um I don't know. I think those are Bo's Sam Elliot I think is like nail on head. Yeah. Um, okay. Do mares ha ever have to be induced to start labor?

15:13 We have not. Um, I don't quite I don't I don't know because I have I know that they can induce cattle with horses. The longest I've had one go is only like 10 days over. I really haven't had one go past that year mark, which I know people have. I know people have had horses go into like the 380s before they fall. 340 is like considered their due date. Wow. And so I know that once you get overdue, you know, a week or two, maybe have the vet come like just check her out, do some blood work. Um maybe palpating sometimes can like move things along, but I don't know medically like with medicine or anything like that that is done for that. I mean, you I'm sure there probably is. Um, I would think just like a little oxytocin or something. Yeah, cuz that is what causes like started contracted. Oh my gosh. Contractions. But I don't know. I I haven't had to do it. So, if uh if Dr. Matthew comments, we'll pin it. Dr. Matthew does not

16:24 watch my content. I promise you. Well, no. I take that back. his little boy was sick uh months ago and he said that he asked to watch the videos with Dr. Matthew on YouTube and so they they laid there watching videos while he was sick. That's cute. So cute. Is he Is he coming out this week? Dr. Matthew? Yeah. I don't know. If he is, we could get him to answer the question and then we could just put him in the corner answering the question. He's not on the list to come out this week. It's next week. He has a couple appointments. Okay. Who was your hardest send off as in training or selling? Hardest send off out of Do you want to keep it to like ever or like FO that I've read?

17:20 What would ever include? Like you're selling my ponies when I was little. Nah. Feb bread. Um because my parents did pull the like, "Hey, we sold your horse. He's not even there." Like we already loaded him up and took him away. They did. They did that a couple times. Um I feel like that happened to a couple of fish I had. Like I remember one day they showed up and had like a chocolate milkshake waiting for me and they and I was like, "Okay, what died or what did you sell?" And they had sold one of my favorite horses. Um, and he was already gone. Um, they didn't even let you say goodbye. No, they sucked. Um, let's see.

18:05 Hardest send off like foal wise. I'm not going to lie, I like cried a little bit with Noelle this year. Sending her off. I loved Noellw and I love where she went. Like literally, she went to the best place ever. She's on the East Coast. No, she's in Texas. What? Who's on who's out east? Uh, in the east coast I'm think who am I thinking of? Maybe no one older horses are. So like Stevie's in Florida. Um, a couple of them are in North Carolina. That's who I was thinking. North Carolina, but um she's in Texas. One couple from Pennsylvania. Yeah, but she's in in Texas. So yeah, I had a hard time with Noelle. Um, I don't know. Like I I think maybe Gretchen n fine with it. She watching her try to get off with it. Uh, the not that I don't love Gretchen and not that I'm not going to miss her, but like I just don't get sad about horses going to training. Like I get excited. I'm I'm like super hopeful and excited for what they're doing. So I'm like, "Yeah,

19:17 let's do it." Instead of being like sad about it. Um, And I, you know, maybe if she was like my only miniature horse and then she was gone for a period of time, I'm like, yeah, that'd be sad. But like I always want, I always get every time I've gotten a dog in life, which has only been maybe twice, I'm always like, I'm gonna send them off to training and then I can't. Yeah, dogs are That's different, man. But I think a horse I'd be like, "Oh, sure." Yeah. And I and maybe it's because they're so big that it doesn't seem as like and I I think it does matter that like I'm not sending my only horse to training. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have a whole barn of horses to take care of and like my brain is busy, you know? Yeah. Um, but I also was just raised with like a ton of animals and a ton of like moving parts and they they leave and then sometimes they come back and sometimes things change and sometimes they die and sometimes like it it I'm not going to say it doesn't affect me.

20:16 But I think I just look at it probably different than a lot of people. Not if you only had one horse and it was your friend and you have one and then you go to zero. And like don't get me wrong, the loss of some horses has absolutely like tore me to shreds. Yeah. But I don't know. I don't see training or selling as that. I get super excited for them to go on to their new owner or go on to training. Like I guess the excitement for that like replaces the sadness of not having them. Yeah, makes sense. So, what is your plan for brood mares once they can no longer carry and really become just pasture pets? So, there are some mares that owe me nothing and have, you know, had their babies and been such amazing parts of the breeding program. Like like let's use Indy for an example. Indy is 18 now, foing this year. Let's say she doesn't have another baby. She's retired with me for life. I got her from a kill pin. I got her from a horrible situation. She I

21:23 committed to her. I'm keeping her. I committed to saving her and and to um like she has been with me for years now. Now, let's say Willow. Willow is a horse that I purchased to be a recip mare. That hasn't happened yet. and she um we're going to try again this year, but if it's another year of failed attempts, she's young or like she's like 10 or 11, sound, broke her ride, there's no reason she can't go be a riding horse for somebody. There's no reason. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'd probably sell her and, you know, even if she'd had a baby or two, I she's still absolutely able to go have like a fulfilling life with a partner versus just sitting in my pasture. Um, Gracie, I have other plans for Gracie. So, she's no longer having babies and we're going to try to bring her back into work a little bit and like have a little pony horse because we're keeping You don't even know what ponying is. No, it's when you like lead a horse while you're riding one and you

22:35 exercise them that way. So, like we're keeping the two-year-olds on property this year. We need a pony horse. She's gonna be smaller than all of them. Yeah. But she's meaner, so that also works. Um, so I think it just depends on the horse. If they don't really have other things to go do, if they have been with me for a long time and they've obviously like don't owe me anything, I have no problem giving them a retirement and them hanging out in my pasture and just keeping, you know, keeping care of them until they pass away. But if they have the ability to go be a therapy horse at like we have great therapy centers here in Nashville or in the Middle Tennessee area where they can go be loved on by kids or you know people with special needs or um you know there's like veteran um therapy centers, you know, things like that. If they can be utilized in that way, if they can be kids horses, if they can be um I I think there's

23:41 I think it depends on the horse, but I take it very seriously making sure they are like good wherever they end up. I will go to lengths to make sure they are like good wherever they're they are, whether it be with me or like somewhere past me. So, perfect. Okay. Um, this is another fun one. Your crew is going on a trail ride. Who would you put like who would you put us on and why? That is a good question. See, it is a good question because could be a reality. Actually, I'm trying to think how many horses do I have to do that with. If we bring Gracie back in, like who are the options here? We got Gracie, Ethel, Bo's out. Bo used to be the go-to. Yeah, that was out. Annie, she's probably not being rebred this year, so she'll be back into the riding rotation. Um Rikki, Kennedy. Um I would love to ride Kennedy. She a little hot. That's okay. Um that's that self-preservation. Choose is probably the worst one to get on as a beginner.

24:59 Um, I don't really have that many trail horses, but you'd be on Ethel. Okay. I like Ethel. You'd be on Ethel for sure. Um, she's the safest one. I don't know. I put you on Gracie, Nate. I like Gracie. I think you I think you'd be fine be on Gracie. Gracie is a cutie. Little little spice, little size, like a little small. Like your legs would literally be so close to the ground. Yeah. We'd be We'd be cooking. Oh. Um, well, what will you do with the mini cows when they are ready to give birth? Will you bring them up into the barn to keep an eye on them? I've been thinking about that because they're due in April. I don't think we're going to have any of the big cows at the cow barn. So, I think because it has a pasture attached to it right behind, I think it would be best to bring them up into the cow barn and maybe the other cows just hang out in that pasture because they have like a little lot as well. So when they're really close,

25:58 keep just popping Patunia up if we have to pre check Patunia soon. Um but then having the other mini cows right behind so that when they have their baby, we give them some time, but then we let them back out in the herd because I would I don't want to just keep them secluded from all the rest of them even when they have their babies. So I think for a time period, all eight of them will come up to the cow barn and at least be in the lot behind it so that we can keep a close eye. How small are the babies? It varies. I mean, Posie was itty bitty. Poppy and Patunia, I would I would say, are pretty I don't know. How big do you think Poppy Patunia were? I mean, you saw them probably You saw them like a couple of months into me having them. I mean, yeah. Like, so Posie was literally this big. Posie was literally that big. Posie was small. Do I get to hold one? Um. Huh? Can I hold one? We hold all of them. Yeah. Now, we're letting Poppy and Petunia,

27:01 if again, I'm saying this as if Petunia is still pregnant. We have to prep check her. Yeah. Um, we're going to let them raise their babies. And so, some people bottle feed so that they're like friendly. We're going to let mama because our mamas are all so sweet and like friendly. We're going to try to just be really hands-on um and let them raise their babies. So, Okay, last one. I'm curious if mares and stallions compete in the same class, and if so, is there a system in place for mayors that are in heat so there won't be any ruckus or problems in the arena or is there something the trainer or owner does to prevent heat cycles during?

27:43 I would say a lot and I say this I don't say this to be um so I think you'll notice a lot more inconsistencies in how mares and stallions behave together at more like lower level shows where maybe the knowledge just isn't there. Um but at higher level shows like so if I go to a quarter horse show not saying it doesn't ever happen but generally the mares are kept on you know regime mate or something to suppress their heat cycles during showing. Um and then stallions generally aren't brought to the shows and and shown unless they're able to like mentally handle it. And so in the halter classes stallions and mayors compete separately. So that's where you're handling them. We saw it with Denver. Uh so he's only competing against other stallions. Okay. But in the western pleasure, in the western riding, in the hunter classes, like sometimes that yeah, they have to be loping beside a a mare. They have to be right next to each other. And that's

28:53 why it's very important to have your stallion prepared for that. Um, so I would say absolutely it is on the stallion owner to make sure that their stallion is in check way more than a mare owner to make sure her mare isn't in heat. I think if you're bringing a stallion into that space, he needs to behave himself and he needs to be able to to cope with a mayor being in heat, right? I I mean, I would think to some extent one you can train, the other one you can't. And like like you can't really train a mare. You can't make a mayor not come into heat if they're Yeah. And and also like if you're a lot of these people that are showing these mares, they're they're trying to like pull embryos in the spring or something like that. And you got to keep letting them go into heat and and things like that. And so I think they also behave better if they're not in heat. And they you know just like women like they'll get kind of tender like

29:49 on their ovaries like on their back their lower back. Yeah. And so a lot of the times just for comfort people will keep them like on regimeate or whatever to keep them from cycling um and for the consistency and mood. But you know if you're trying to pull embryos and you're showing at the same time or you know you're showing your mare through the spring but you're wanting to breed her cuz I bred Annie and let her carry and I showed her through the summer so like I had to let her go through her heats. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think there's reasons to have a marinate at a show and it be completely okay. It's just, um, yeah, I think if you bring a stallion to a show, it needs to, it needs to know how to handle it. Yeah. Cool. Okay. So, let us know. Do you like these videos where we just kind of take the time to answer some questions? Sometimes we love to yap, obviously, but big yappers. I think mixing these in um can get a lot of answers questioned. A lot of answers

30:44 questioned answers. A lot of questions answered. So for the next time we do this, let me know if there's any questions you have, leave them in the comments. We pulled a lot of these from YouTube and Facebook. If you don't know, Facebook is where I post a lot more photos, statuses. Um, again, if you would like to know everything kind of first and see the FOs first, you can subscribe on Facebook, YouTube, or no, you can subscribe on Facebook and Tik Tok and Instagram. Those are all the options. You don't have to subscribe to all of them. They all get the same stuff within like minutes of each other. And we are also doing, I'm not joking you, like 120 to 150 Snapchats every day. Lots. And they go away after 24 hours. So, lots of behind the scenes footage there. So, go follow all those things. Let us know if you have any questions and stay tuned for the next episode.

31:37 Bye.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Why Does My Horse Hate Me? | Q&A"?

Katie Van Slyke (Host), Lindsey (Guest).

What is "Why Does My Horse Hate Me? | Q&A" about?

The main topic revolves around the current anticipation and preparations for the upcoming foaling season, alongside the daily routines on a farm. The discussion includes a Q&A segment where listeners are invited to submit questions, and one of the initial topics explores hypothetical breeding scenarios involving favorite mare and stallion pairings.

What is mentioned in this Katie Van Slyke episode?

3 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Invitation Only, AQHA, Vital Signs Are Good. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Why Does My Horse Hate Me? | Q&A"?

The episode runs 32 min; the transcript is about 5,404 words in 33 timestamped sections.

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