Certain questions about Guess Stables come up on a
regular basis. If you don't see your question addressed here, see
How To Get Support below.
- Contact
To Contact Guess Stables the easiest method is to navigate to the Contact page. Which is located: Click to open the Contact Information Page
Here are the basic contact contents and Tips:
Tip: You can *Always* simply look at the logo/banner at the top of every page in this web site for the Guess Stables Address and Phone Number..
The general contact information for Guess Stables is as follows:
John and Brenda Guess
1078 Highway 74
Chelsea, AL 35043
Preferred Phone Number 1: (205) 678-2576 -- Optional Phone Number 2: (205) 259-1905
Email Addresses:
JGuess@GuessStables.com (John Guess - Owner)
JaredGuess@GuessStables.com (Web-Admin)
BGuess@GuessStables.com (Brenda Guess - Owner)
Hours of Operation:
Guess Stables, by nature, is operating 24 Hours a day, 7 Days a week, 365 Days a year, however for direct phone contact the general approximate hours of operation are as follows:
(205) 678-2576 -- Preferred Phone Contact: This number is directly to the Farm/Stables location, and will be answered from the hours of 8:00am (CST/CDT) to 6:00pm (CST/CDT) -- Note: If you do not get an answer upon calling, please leave a message with a call back number and a short description of your inquiry. Also, this number will occasionally be answered 'after hours', but no later than 8:00pm (CST/CDT)
(205) 259-1905 -- Secondary Voice Contact: This number contacts the Owners Accounting Firm, GuessCPA, P. C. -- We request that you exhaust all other means of communication before calling this number, as this is another business line entirely. However, we do list this number to give you every opportunity to contact us. The Hours of Operation for (205) 259-1905 are Approximately 8:00am (CST/CDT) to 5:00pm (CST/CDT) -- Note: Again, if you do not reach John or Brenda Guess at this last resort contact, please leave a message including a call back number and description of your inquiry. Feel free to call this number at any time of the day or night to leave a message.
We encourage you to always send your inquiries/questions via Email before calling. The quickest way for a response is via Electronic Mail. We try our hardest to respond as quickly as possible.
- How To Get Support
-
If you have a general question that is not addressed in this FAQ or in the overall web site please send us an Email.
- How to Submit A Web Site Bug Report
-
You are encouraged to report any web site bugs you found to the Guess Stables Web Administrator. Guess Stable's web site quality depends on your feedback.
Please send all web site Bug Reports to the following email address: JaredGuess@GuessStables.com -- Keep in mind, no report is too large or small.
- Please be as specific as
possible about what you want Guess Stables to Correct.
- How to Submit A Web Site Feature
Request
-
If you want Guess Stables to include something new then it is considered a feature
request.
The process for submitting a feature request is very similar to
bug requests.
As with bugs, please simply send your request to the Guess Stables Web Administrator -- JaredGuess@GuessStables.com
- Please be as specific as
possible about what you want Guess Stables to Add.
- How Do I Navigate Guess Stables?
-
The Guess Stables web site, www.GuessStables.com, is under constant tweaking to ensure a better experience for our visitors. We make every effort to create an atmosphere of very intuitive and easy navigation. However, what is easy for some, is confusing for others.
Pointers/Tips for navigation:
- The Banner/Logo at the top of every page will always take you back to the Home Page you started with. So if you ever get lost inside the site, going back to square one couldn't be easier.
- Every item you come across on any page of GuessStables.com that is in "Red" and is Underlined indicates that it is a hyperlink. Hyperlinks simply are buttons (in any form, be it words, pictures, etc) that you hover your mouse over and click to take you to another location.
- We have pictures for every horse available on the web site, and if you find a horse you are interested in, there are most definitely more images of that particular horse for you to browse. If you are having trouble finding these images, please note the name of the horse you are considering and go to the Home Page. (Which, again, can be found by clicking on the Banner at the top, or the link at the top left of every page that says "Back to Home Page",.. or alternatively you can simple type in www.GuessStables.com in your web browser and you will be taken to the Home Page.) Once at the home page you will see a list of navigational links on the left hand column. From here locate and click the 'Horse Gallery' link and it will bring you to our Picture Gallery of all our available Tennessee Walkers. Simply click the picture of the horse you are interested in and it will open up that individual horses images. Clicking on any of these 'thumbnail' smaller images will open that image in its full size in another window for you to view.
- The General, purposeful, design of this web site is so that you do not accidentally 'close out' the entire web site. To explain this further: On any image, pedigree image, or many of the web site links themselves the default action of GuessStables.com is to open the selection in a 'New Window' -- If you notice this in your browser, from here you can simply click the [X] in the upper right hand corner of the browser window to close the new window and you will not be closing the entire site out. For some this is an annoying feature, and for others is a blessing. For those that find it somewhat annoying, we do apologize, but simply consider yourself an 'advanced' user of the internet as this is intended for people with habits of closing windows instead of pressing the [Back Arrow] or other such habits.
- Hovering your mouse pointer over any link/picture on the web site will usually, after several seconds, pop up a descriptive box of what the link is. Most of the time this description will be exactly what the link is called, but for images and email addresses this sometimes will give more information about the item.
- GuessStables.com is Optimized for the, currently, most used display resolution of 1024x768. As such it will look the 'best' if your display is adjusted to this resolution. As always there will be many people who use other resolutions such as the older (most used/popular) resolution of 800x600 -- For smaller monitors, or for people who prefer their wording and content to be much larger. On the same token, some visitors will be using higher resolutions, and/or wide screen 16:9 monitors. This will produce a skewed display of the web site, but many resolutions and monitors have been tested, and the overall content of the web site should still be presentable. Again, we had to pick a single resolution to build the site around, and as of December, 2007, this 1024x768 is the most common. If for some reason you use a different resolution, and are experiencing any type of content display problem please send an email to our Web site Administrator/Master at JaredGuess@GuessStables.com
Continuing with the previous topic matter, GuessStables.com is constantly being modified by our Webmaster and updated with content. So as time continues and technology continues to increase, so will the pre-dominate resolutions the 'majority' of Internet users utilize. As such, we will modify GuessStables.com to accommodate the latest majority.
- For a brief run-down of the Main page options, we have the following:
Horse Gallery - This option will direct you to our Tennessee Walker Gallery of all available horses. This is an image gallery. The contents of this page will list a thumbnail image of each horse, with name, and pricing. Navigation is simple. You will need to click either the Image/picture itself or the Name of the horse to open that individual horse's image/picture page. Once at the individual horses picture gallery page, you will notice the Horse's name is located in the upper right corner for clarification, and the thumbnails of that particular horse are located in the middle of the page. To view the larger images of the horse you will need to click the thumbnail (small) images themselves to open a new page with the large image.
Contact Information - This option will direct you to our Contact Information Page. When you arrive at this page it will list all pertinent information on how best to contact Guess Stables. Navigation wise, there isn't a whole lot of complexity to this page. However to be thorough, you will notice an image of a Tennessee Walking Horse with a black background. Clicking this image will automatically open your Email client, such as 'Outlook, or Outlook Express' and automatically fill in ALL the possible email addresses for Guess Stables. So all you have to do is type in the message and press Send! The same is accomplished via the 'Jguess@GuessStables.com' address listed below "Email:". Further, any red word that is underlined is clickable and will, on this page, open your email client with pre-populated email addresses. -- If you use other email clients such as Hotmail, Yahoo Email, MSN Email, Gmail (Google Email), etc, you will want to write down, or print this page so that you will have the email address(s) handy to type in for your web mail client.
Location - This option will direct you to our Local Information Page. This page lists only information about the specific local directional area that Guess Stables resides in. For example you might come across a State Map of Alabama, with major highways and other important information. As Guess Stables is located in Chelsea, Alabama -- This map will give you a good idea of where exactly in Alabama we are located. Chelsea, AL is a small city that is best recognized for being on the immediate outskirts of the largest city in Alabama, "Birmingham". As of this writing, only this map is included on the Location Page, however in the immediate future plans for Map Quest pre-populated directions so that you can easily input your address and press a button to get dynamic , real-time, turn by turn, directions from your location to Guess Stables! Of course more helpful information beyond what is currently available is in the works.
Pedigree - This option will direct you to our Pedigree Information Page. Arriving at this page will present our TWHBEA certified blood-line, pedigree, information. This official documentation for each and every horse's bloodline/pedigree is scanned in at the highest quality feasible for an average broadband connection and listed in a thumbnail format. This format will show a small 'thumbnail' image of the pedigree scan and below this image is the horse's name. Below the name is an actual "- Pedigree" link, and below this is the Pricing information. As with other Thumbnails, you simply click the small image for the horse you are interested in the pedigree image, and it will open a new page with the Pedigree scan in a Very large resolution. We decided to keep these images larger than normal so that you could fully, and easily read the document without straining your eyes or otherwise not being able to make out the details. --Note: These pedigree documents will denote the World Grand Champions with a *WGC acronym. Lastly, you will be directed to the Pedigree/Bloodline information by BOTH clicking the Thumbnail image or the "- Pedigree" link. The TWHBEA word between "Pedigree and Information" at the top of this page is a white colored link itself, that will direct you to wwww.twhbea.com. This is the official web site of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association. We felt this was important to include due to all legitimate blood and pedigree information of Tennessee Walkers being a required process of registration via the TWHBEA organization. For convenience there is a 'Contact' link at the bottom of this page so that you can immediately go to our Contact page if you see a horse pedigree that interests you.
Email - This Option will direct you to no page. Instead it is yet another way to email/contact Guess Stables. By clicking this option "Email", it will, as insinuated open your local Email Client Program and pre-populate the 'To:' address bar with ALL possible email contacts of Guess Stables.
Links - This Option will direct you to our favorite Links page. This area is constantly being updated, and is populated with links to other web sites of deemed importance, in our opinion. You will see Logo's instead of word links, which are images. To go to any of these web pages you click on the Image/Logo of the desired link/page and it will *not* close GuessStables.com but open a new browser window for the link you have chosen. Hovering over any of these active links/images will cause the picture itself to switch to a negative image, to signify you are in the right area to click/activate the link.
FAQ - This Option will direct you to our Frequently Asked Questions Page. -- This is where you are currently located. The FAQ is short for "Frequently Asked Questions", and is another area of the web site that will be updated as is deemed necessary. It is often helpful to take a look at the FAQ area to quickly jump to a topic that might be of question to any particular visitor.
- Why Are the Larger Images Displaying Small in My Web Browser, and How Can I Enlarge Them?
-
This is a common question! And is not a 'bug' or flaw with the web site This is simply a common Web-Browser 'feature'. If your resolution is at 1024x768 or smaller many of the images, especially the Pedigree Scans, will download to your screen in full size and then once completed be resized in the window automatically to 'scale' or fit to the browser. This causes the image, again, especially of the Pedigree information to be very hard to read or distinguish if not impossible.
How do you make these images go to their respective FULL size? This is a quick task of hovering your mouse over the image itself and you will notice that cursor(pointer) will turn from the arrow into a small magnifying glass. Once you see this small magnifying glass appear on your mouse pointer, press the left button of your mouse. The image should immediately be resized to the FULL , original size. From here you can use the scroll bars vertically and horizontally to see the entire image. Note: If you are using either a widescreen monitor, or a resolution greater than 1024x768 the image will often not be resized, and this step is not necessary. Also, printing the picture should default to printing the picture at its FULL , maximum size. So if you wish to print the image to read instead of scrolling with your browser, there are several ways to initiate a print session. The quickest way to print any page is a key combination. The key combination is accomplished by pressing (and holding down) the Control (Ctrl) key while also pressing the P key (P simply stands for print). This combination will pull up your printer options and you then select the [Print] Button. There are, of course, several other ways to print the page/image. Another such way is to right-click the image using your mouse's right button. This will open an option box. The option you will want to Left-Click is the 'Print Picture..." option. A Third way to print is in (some) browsers navigating up to the top area of your screen where the icons such as a House for your home page, among the Backward and Forward arrows, Tools, and so on options/icons. Once in this area, in some browsers, you will notice a picture (icon) of a printer. By clicking on this printer icon it will bring you to the print option screen. Finally, a fourth way to print the page/image, if you prefer or all other methods are failing you, is to look up to the top of your window. At the top with all the aforementioned icons and wording you should see an area that lists the word "File". If you find this, left-click the "File" and it will drop down an option box. In this option box select (left-click) print.
- Dial Up Speed vs Broadband? Why Are Images and/or Page Load Times So Slow?
-
The latest statistics of Internet User's today show that the majority are now using some form of Broadband. What is Broadband? Simply put it is classified as anything faster than your standard dial-up "56K" speeds. If you are unfamiliar with dial-up connections, they are the connections that use a Dial-Up modem of some sort, and utilize your copper phone line to establish a communication with the internet. This is the slowest form of Web communication available, and is quickly becoming obsolete due to the prevalent nature of MSO's offering broadband internet services to the masses.
*Guess Stables has been thoroughly tested at 56Kbps speeds, and determined valid at such a speed, however, it is strongly recommended to gain access to a broadband connection for a better browsing experience*
Given the nature of this fact, and the need for images of the Horses and their pedigree to be of the Best quality for potential buyers to make informed decisions we at Guess Stables have some rather 'large' file sizes on our images. We strive to optimize the images as much as possible without losing any quality. For instance many of the images you download, such as the Pedigree Information will be of file sizes from 200KB to 700KB. These are large, but on a broadband connection will display on your screen in a few seconds at the most. Just for informational purposes, the original file sizes of the Pedigree Scans are/were 10-11 Megabytes. We optimized those files down to less than 1/10th of the original size to make your viewing optimized/speedier. However, if you are still utilizing a Dial-Up connection the vast majority of the web site should be of acceptable speed. However the Larger images of the Horses and Pedigree information will take some time to load. We apologize for this, and if you are , indeed, interested in a particular horse or horses we do encourage you to send us an email. In your email please give us the horses name and what your are interested in. We will accommodate your request and make arrangements to present to you the images and pedigree information of the horse. We will choose such options as sending you a lower bandwidth (file size) version of the images you are trying to download via Email, and/or (usually preferred) sending you printed images of the requested horse information (Pedigree/Various angles of the horse) via United States Postal Service (USPS). We will make every effort to accommodate potential buyers of our World Grand Champion bloodline Tennessee Walkers.
- What is a Tennessee Walking Horse?
-
This might seem like an obvious question for anyone navigating to such a website, but everyone can use a refresher on the definition of these wonderful breeds.
I couldn't put these descriptions of the Tennessee Walking Horse any more elegantly than the sites I found the information, so to give due credit the following is from www.twhbea.com:
A light horse breed founded in middle Tennessee, the Tennessee Walking Horse is a composition of Narragansett and Canadian Pacer, Standardbred, Thoroughbred, Morgan, and American Saddlebred stock. Originally bred as a utility horse, this breed is an ideal mount for riders of all ages and levels of experience. The breed easily adapts to English or Western gear, and its calm, docile temperament combined with naturally smooth and easy gaits insure the popularity of the Tennessee Walking Horse as the “world’s greatest show, trail, and pleasure horse”.
Wonderful horses, they really are. To expound upon this description, I've quoted directly from Wikipedia:
The Tennessee Walker or Tennessee Walking Horse is a gentle and comfortable riding horse. The breed was originally bred in the Southern United States to carry the owners of plantations around their lands. (A closely related breed is the Garrett Walking Horse) Their unique four-beat "running walk" is especially comfortable to ride, making the breed a well-suited trail companion. The breed is rarely seen in any of the sport horse disciplines; however, they are good for trail riding because of their smooth gaits, stamina and easy temper, and are also seen in Western riding disciplines and in harness.
- What Should I Know Before Purchasing?
-
At Guess Stables we take pride in our honest nature. To help some newer horse buyers we have added this list of tips to consider before purchasing any horse.
- Determine your purpose before you start
looking. Do you want a horse suitable for trail riding or showing, or both?
Are you capable of starting a young animal, or do you need an older animal
established in its gait? Will you want to raise foals later or is a gelding
better suited for your purposes?
- Make sure of the gait. Whatever use you have
in mind for your horse, remember to look for the chief distinguishing
characteristic of the Tennessee Walker - its smooth, easy gait. The gait is
natural so it should be present from the time the weanling first begins
moving. How well the gaits are performed often depends on the horse's age and
training.
- Are you buying potential or proven ability?
Many buyers who are looking for a potential show contender will purchase their
TWH as a two year old. Tennessee Walking Horses often begin their show career
at this young age and are started under saddle early to determine their
potential. Top two year olds frequently demand top dollar even though they are
unproven in the show arena.
- There are advantages to buying an aged
horse. By five years, a horse will have reached maturity in terms of
temperament, gait, and size. It may have proven its worth in one or more areas
of expertise such as pleasure riding, field trials, versatility events, ranch
work, or in the show arena.
- As with any purchase, if you are unfamiliar
with the product, you should get to know the seller. And, if you don't know the breed
or the seller, you would be wise to seek the assistance of a knowledgeable
professional to help you evaluate the horse and its sale price as they relate
to your intended usage.
- Familiarize yourself with TWHBEA's rules and
regulations. Make sure the last recorded owner on the horse's registration
certificate matches the seller on the transfer form. Both the certificate and
transfer form must be signed by the last recorded owner and both must be
submitted to TWHBEA for proper recording of the transfer.
- Be aware of the strict blood-typing
requirements that are in effect. Be sure the animal you are considering
purchasing has met all TWHBEA requirements with regard to blood-typing!
© Guess Stables, 2007 - 2008.
|
