I agree--while it's not ideal, I think that once the weanling learns the pecking order, things will be okay. Is the mare just biting junior when jr is pestering her? Or is she savaging jr--attacking unprovoked? At the breeding farm where I work, we keep one or two mares that are still nursing babies in with our group of weanlings. The weanlings always try to nurse off the mares, and the mares will bite and kick at them when they are pestered. But the foals soon learn that they need to back off, and everything is okay. Has the mare been alone for a whole year? It could be that she has lost her socialization skills. It's almost never a good idea to keep just one horse alone without some kind of companion, be it another horse, donkey, cattle, goat, etc. They are herd animals, and really need companionship to feel comfortable (of course, there are always exceptions, but for the most part, this is true). I think in the long run, the weanling will learn to be submissive to the mare, and the mare will probably start to tolerate the weanling a bit more, and things will get better in the long run. If they don't, you should find a different situation for the weanling, because while your intentions are noble, junior really needs to live with other horses to learn social skills, and shouldn't be kept by herself in a field, in my opinion.

Okay, the wiring problem has been taken care of, but their was additional problems with either the brake or the clutch, possibly just the brake if the clutch kind of works the brake pad as well. On one occasion I pushed in the clutch, shifted into neutral and felt the gear shift come out of gear as put the gear shift into neutral. When I let off the clutch the motor seemed to bog down a little and I heard a squealing sound so I put the clutch back in. I shut it off and looked at the clutch and brake pad area to see if the brake looked to be in the braking position, it kind of looked like it was. I started it back up and messed with it some more, till finally it went into neutral or the brake came loose. I've always had to rock back and forth as I shifted gears at times, so that's one thing I did while it was in neutral as I slowly let off the clutch I rocked back and forth. That seemed to help. Sometimes it does this even if I don't use the brake but use the clutch to come to a slow stop.

To all. I feel alot like Zeke. My Brother took his own life in 2001, my Mom died in 2006, my Sister was murdered in 2007 and I found my Dad dead March of 2008. Im left with 50 year old Brother who is so selfish he asked if he could have Dads van before the coroner left with Dad's body. I have my Wife and Daughter but after all that death Im scared to leave their side. you see my Wife is only 36 and she has had 37 operations. Im scared if I turn my back somthing bad will happen. she has the strongest faith where mine has waivered. But then it dawned on me. I can think of nothing more terrible than having loved ones pass or suffer and be powerless to help or even save them. To me that is Hell. So remember this. For all the times life has thrown its worst at us, each day we get out of bed and have the courage to face another day, we are winning. god has a special place for people like us. Why else would he allow us to be tested so. We must try not to be selfish and realize that our absent loved ones are in a place so wonderfull that we left behind cannot comprehend. Time has no meaning for them now. When we rejoin them it will be as if no time passed at all for us our them. My family had alot of bad times but I only remember the good. Remember the good and love you shared, and they will never die. I hope who ever reads this gets some comfort out of it. Just writing this has helped me today so thank you for listening and don't forget....You won today and you WILL win tomorrow.

I'm not sure how the euthanasia of a horse with a broken leg equates with the dark side or cruelty of anything. Every year around this time PETA looks for something to grasp at to rant against horse racing. I guess this year a horse with a broken leg was the best they could find. Horses break legs in the pasture, the arena and elsewhere. The compassionate thing to do is to euthanize them. In most cases the treatment is much more cruel to a horse than death. There are good and bad trainers/caretakers/owners in many areas of the equestrian world, not just horse racing. There is a lot of cruelty going on at a lot of poorly run rescues. I was recently told of a heartbreaking tale ( with a happy ending) of a local family who retired their horse to a "rescue". They had visions of their beloved animal living out it's life in horsey nirvana. When they went to visit they barely recognized their horse it was in such bad shape. It had been put to out pasture with an established feral herd where it was bullied, denied food etc. Little to no human contact for this gentle family horse. Its coat was a mess, it was showing ribs and it had bites from other horses. The lady who told me of the story was part of a team that went to re-rescue said horse. The horse is now working as a kid's therapy horse. Singling out horse racing is easy because as Forster noted few who criticize the sport have never stepped foot into a barn, spoke to the trainers or caregivers. Most have never even attended a race. But horse racing is cruel because it was printed in some rag. Yes horse racing needs to be carefully regulated as with any other sport. But if horse racing is cruel to horses that are bred to run, than how about things parents and grandparents proudly put their kids in? Ballet, figure skating, hockey,motocross,gymnastics, sking, snowboarding, surfing, football, baseball, soccer all have risks of injury. Should we label those activities cruel as well? Or do we take the common sense stance of making them as safe as possible within reason?