Okay guys, I could probably look this up, but I have to ask (especially since my assumption is some of you might really enjoy telling the idiot yahoo over here asking the stupid question, the answer!)...What the heck is "the bean"???
This is even WORSE because I WANT a gelding, NOT a mare, and it is going to be something I'll
have to know about...It is the ONLY issue that has me apprehensive to some degree about owning a gelding, (whereas, owning a mare I would have to deal with monthly cycles, and the horse-equivalent of PMS, and possible cystic ovaries and hormone imbalances), not to mention both myself and my mare at times being
BITCHY in tandem etc...as I AM THE QUEEN of PMS--just ask my poor husband!
Interestingly, my only horse "job" where I "might" have had the chance to learn what the heck a
bean is, was around age 17 when I apprenticed with Al-Marah Arabians here in Tucson and then in Williams, Az up at their Hat Ranch...I cared for their show and sale horses in the summer up north, and then back in Tucson into the fall, and then worked their breeding program for a while in the early part of the year.
And while (especially at such a young age) I remember assisting with live cover of some mares, we also used a dummy mare and a teaser...the whole THING was always (IMO) sooo scary, and well as basically just aggressive seeming (to my 17 year old brain) that it COMPLETELY turned me off of horse breeding as something very interesting to learn about, until much later (and by later, I mean I am JUST starting to think it is interesting to learn about from a genetic and purely informational standpoint!).
...Plus, the trainers and vet and breeding preceptors were very calloused about it and made it seem as though every 17 year old girl should find it perfectly normal to see this gigantic swinging horse penis flinging around everywhere, while the mare teasing him was all snorty and "scared" looking (I was too young to know that she was actually enjoying that part of the process--Duh), and at times trying to kick; and then the fake "collection" mare was there, and ugh...it was all such a MESS, that I probably would have learned so much more about the actual act of "male" horse care (stallions and geldings), but I was totally intraverted and freaked out by everything at the time, and honestly think I probably blocked it all out!
Wow, did I get TOTALLY off topic or WHAT??
Just wait...I'm about to get even MORE off topic! What is really interesting in retrospect is that I LOVE reproduction from a "forensic" standpoint...
In nursing school, I immediately KNEW--on day one of pre-reading my third quarter texts to prepare for our OB-GYN rotation--that this was THE MOST fascinating thing in the WORLD--and I knew immediately that if not a nurse midwife, I wanted to be (and did become, immediately out of school as a matter of fact!) a high risk labor and delivery nurse! I also worked NICU and loved that as well...funny...it was like, once any mom was pregnant I was FASCINATED with the entire process from immediately post-conception to about the first three months post-delivery...however, I never had any interest in working in the IVF clinics, or doing any LEAP surgeries as an OR RN. I was like, "Just let me take care of mom and baby once baby is safely implanted and I'm good to go..."
I realize this post became (AS usual) a total dissertation, (c'mon, most of y'all skip my posts anyway my now, it's ok!) but it's interesting that I went from despising horse breeding, to not being overly impressed with human "reproduction" (I don't mean on a "personal level" of course, but rather, on a clinical, "how will this impact my nursing career level") UNTIL the life is growing, only to get all obsessed with each and every delievery process, to the point that it became a PERSONAL CHALLENGE to ENSURE that every mom and dad had THE PERFECT experience in every way I could possibly control!
It did work out to my advantage in a way, because I was (not to toot my own horn, but someone's gotta!) told by my L&D moms and dads that "You are THE best labor nurse we've ever had! Promise you'll still work here when we have our next baby!"....to.... "I feel sooo lucky you were our nurse! We were scared when we first saw you because you look 16 :-(, (I was barely 24 and working with nurses who were all in their 40's and up, but at least it was a teaching hospital, so lots of the docs were my age!) and we thought 'THIS girl is going to help us deliver our baby?!' but as soon as you began taking care of us, you did such an amazing job, that we hated it when your shift was over!
I used to stay over a lot so I could finish a delievery with a mom and baby! I loved it that much...I need to put a pic up in my albums with some of the little chunksters I delivered...I'll scan some L&D pics of me and my newly delievered babies (you
can't see their faces, it's ok--no HIPPA violations) because most of the time, our docs would miss or nearly miss the deliveries, so I have literally in my log almost 100 self-delievered babies in a period of merely three years! :lol:
My hospital in CA did 450 delieveries a month, and I worked there for three years before moving back to AZ...Wow, I actually REALLY DO feel bad for this tangent, but these memories somehow totally just came back to me and came spilling out...soo sorry OP! Maybe
SOMEONE didn't mind the digression? :sad: I guess I simply haven't thought about that point in my life forever, hence leading me far, far, FAR...
fftopic:
But seriously, let's get back to THE DARNED horse penises and sheath cleaning...Oy veh! Someone HELP me get back to the topic at hand, and please, oh
please, for Gosh sake,
tell me what the BEAN is??