Do You Ride Horses? V.4

[MoonfallTheFox]

Welp Spider is coming home this week. She didn't finish her 60 days, she's going to go back in the spring. She hit a mental road block, so the trainer wants her turned out all winter to mature mentally and physically more and then she'll go back in march or april for more work. I'm glad she is coming home, I miss her.

[APH Italy]

Officially submitted my application to college recently. I'll be going for an equine studies degree so here's hoping it all works out-

[Brynmala]

@ chasing starlight - Jester is lovely, well done for rescuing him. As for breed I think you've probably got it about right with the 'mostly QH', I don't see a lot that could be draft in him

@ Hime
Ollie was perfectly fine the next day, no sign of lameness at all, even after being trotted up and down the road. So my friend took him out for a short ride, again just round the block, just in case, but he seems fine. Must just have been a bit of a sore muscle, or sole - he can be quite tender footed.

Love the video of Feykja, she looks so happy running around, and there were a few paces of tolt in there too Funny how so many horses don't like getting their feet wet. I remember us having a real argument with our little driving pony when she was young (Ruby 11.3hh Shetland x, but looked for all the world like a small Icelandic) - she was not going to walk though a massive puddle, unfortunately we both had shoes on (rather than wellies) so didn't want to go into it either to make the point... That must be getting on for 20 years ago now, we lost her 3 years ago, aged 21 as a result of a freak accident.

[Luzien]

Welp Spider is coming home this week. She didn't finish her 60 days, she's going to go back in the spring. She hit a mental road block, so the trainer wants her turned out all winter to mature mentally and physically more and then she'll go back in march or april for more work. I'm glad she is coming home, I miss her.

ohhh..you did 60day test with your mare? sadly not may do such test with here Mares, mostly only use there future stallions...(atleast when i got it right what you did ^^)
that is great, and hard atleast thats what some people told^^ do they think they need to start her training then from the start or does it look as if she will only need some more training to try it again?
do you alreay know with what horses she will be on the pasture till next year and can you do this at your home barn or do you send her to a allyear pasture? that is great that you give her this time an let her try again^^
Hope shehas lots of fun with other horses on the pasture and use the neer full freedom from human well


@ APH Italy
i wish you good luck, hope you tell more in the future^_^

@ trico
good luck with your jumping and training of Alice.
did you ever think about sending her away for a good training with a pro? and they then help you go over your fear riding/jumping her when she is trained to be calm.....
or giving up jumping her, and going for jumping with a safe nice horse like one of the school horses you work well with?

[MoonfallTheFox]

Welp Spider is coming home this week. She didn't finish her 60 days, she's going to go back in the spring. She hit a mental road block, so the trainer wants her turned out all winter to mature mentally and physically more and then she'll go back in march or april for more work. I'm glad she is coming home, I miss her.

ohhh..you did 60day test with your mare? sadly not may do such test with here Mares, mostly only use there future stallions...(atleast when i got it right what you did ^^)
that is great, and hard atleast thats what some people told^^ do they think they need to start her training then from the start or does it look as if she will only need some more training to try it again?
do you alreay know with what horses she will be on the pasture till next year and can you do this at your home barn or do you send her to a allyear pasture? that is great that you give her this time an let her try again^^
Hope shehas lots of fun with other horses on the pasture and use the neer full freedom from human well


@ APH Italy
i wish you good luck, hope you tell more in the future^_^

@ trico
good luck with your jumping and training of Alice.
did you ever think about sending her away for a good training with a pro? and they then help you go over your fear riding/jumping her when she is trained to be calm.....
or giving up jumping her, and going for jumping with a safe nice horse like one of the school horses you work well with?

She went for 60 days of professional training under saddle, to be a riding horse. She's a 2 year old learning how to be ridden. She lives at a family member's house normally so having her back will be great since I can see her regularly again but she's going to be entirely rested over winter (so absolutely no riding at all). Then in the spring (march or april) she will finish the last of the 60 days up with the trainer and Spider should be more ready to handle the last stages of it then. Hopefully after that she'll be more stable and ready for me to work with her. I had some trouble when I rode her early on in her training, she didn't like my riding style at the trot, it scared her and she kept bolting. Unfortunately I fell off once, got rammed into a fence once- overall just not so good. The time off will give her time to mature and hopefully she will be more confident when I get back on her and ask to go faster than a walk.

[Livid-Silver]

I did have a whole big reply typed out but I forgot to save it when I clicked off the page :') So here is take two!

@Chasing Starlight; I agree with the others and would say he is probably mostly QH. I don't think he has any draft in him, he looks to light in bone for that. He does have some very big jowls on him which I typically see in the QHs and it could be even more prominent because he was gelded late. He might have some TB or something else in there somewhere, but I definitely see mostly QH. He's a lovely looking bloke

@Hime; Definitely not for a registered name That's going to be a whole nother story lol I think I am just going to go with Miles, despite everyone's protests. I keep coming back to that name and haven't really found any others I like.
I must say I am soooo glad Reggie doesn't have shoes atm I do not miss it, especially after Donny seemed to throw his off at every opportunity I do love his new hairstyle though! Very luxurious lol I would have loved to see a video of his reaction to the bell boot- young horses have such funny reactions to otherwise mundane things
I'm glad Heta's feeling better! Hopefully that soreness stays away! I bet she would have loved the free jumping as well! Most horses I know think its great fun =D Hopefully next time you'll be able to get some video. If the other boarders enjoyed it too, I'm sure there will be a next time
Feykja looks like she had a blast running around the area! I think I even saw a few flying changes in there somewhere. She might make a dressage horse in the future She's maturing very nicely!

@Trico; Sorry to hear you had such a bad ride the other day By the soudns of it you're doing the right thing by riding school horse. Less things to worry about and that should give you a chance to build your confidence up before you give it another go on Alice. Hopefully you're back on track!

@MoonfallTheFox; By the sounds of it that's for the best. From your other post she sounded mentally immature, so the time off over winter should do her some good. 2 yo is still very young and not all of them can cope with the added pressure of breaking so a little holiday can always help Bet she'll be much better when she goes back in spring. Was she a late foal? Sometimes they need a little more time to catch up to those born earlier in the season.

@APH Italy; Very cool! What does the equine degree entail?

~~~

It has been stupidly hot here the last week or so, makes doing horsey things very difficult. I've been going down to ride at like 7pm at night, jut so its cool enough to get some decent work done and even then we both usually end up in bit of a sweat I do love summer, but going from low 20s to mid 30s in the space of a few days did not allow a lot of time for adjustment Reggie has been going super since he's come back from his spell! I think having that month off really helped and now his ready to get back into it. His canter work is very 'expressive' (we get a bit creative in the transitions with what ''uphill'' is exactly ) and he has lost a bit of balance resulting in some rushing but I'm not too worried. It'll come back quickly and his trot work is pretty dang good atm. Got a lesson with him on Tuesday so V can come kick us back into shape. I suspect a lot of the balance issue is caused by me because I have a horrible habit of sitting to one side and not realising it. I wish I could get photos and stuff while I'm riding, but I'm usually there on my own. Reggie's starting to look pretty swish now as well! He's loosing that 'baby' look and is actually starting to look more like a 4yo lol I want a bit more muscle on his topline and through his hindquarters, but that should all come together with work. I don't think he's going to get all that much more in height (though he may surprise me yet) because he's started filling out. I'll have to take a photo of him stood up next time I go down, cause I think he's changed quite a bit over the last year. Either way, he's going great guns at the moment and hopefully we keep improving! Oh, Reggie also played lead pony for a few of Z's international student friends. Her pony K got tangled up in a fence last week, so they couldn't use him for pony rides and Reggie stepped up to fill the spot. He did sooo well, considering none of these girls had ever really seen a horse let alone ridden one. He was very patient while they got on and went nice and slowly when they got to have a little trot. They were just on the lead, but Reggie can be a sensitive little petal so I wasn't completely sure how settled he'd be with the whole thing, but he handled it all so well. Considering he hasn't even been broken in for 12 months yet and has never been ridden by a complete beginner, I couldn't have been happier TBH I think he liked all the attention
Went up and visited Cleo and Miles again yesterday. His feet are looking better and he's slowly slowly straightening out. We moved them up into one of the bigger paddocks since he isn't really walking on his heels too much anymore and the paddock they were in was pretty much grazed out. I think the farrier is coming out for him in the next few weeks to trim him up. D and I noticed he was a bit long in the toe the other day, so keeping tabs on that. Farrier is out usually once a week anyway so he's been keeping an eye on it too. Cleo is looking nice and shiny and is still loving life. She always nicker to me when I come up, which I think is very cute. She loves getting a good brush and will stand there and fall asleep while I groom her lol I bought her a new halter the other day cause her old was was getting raggedy and starting to rub. She looked very swish in the new one and its got some extra gel padding stuff which I'm hoping will stop it rubbing. I bought a little leather foal halter while I was at the tack shop too, but they didn't have any in stock so I have to order one in. It wasn't super expensive and a lot nicer than the other nylon ones they had, but I am hoping he doesn't grow out of it too quickly. I haven't fully decided if I'll do the ACE Tour and have him assessed or not yet. They don't have much information on where exactly its being held and I can't be floating all over the countryside since I don't have a car that can tow lol I have one I can borrow, but I would like to know if I'll have to drive two+ there and back before I commit to the booking fee. Plus, I'm not that well versed in foal conformation and I think he's a nice looking fellow, I don't want to take him and have him be in a bad growth phase/not what they're looking for/unprepared/ect. ect. general owner worries lol He's got a super temperament so at least I can tick that box off I've gotten some more photos as well if anyone cares to look Unfortunately none of Reggie, but he's on my list for tomorrow

Closest thing I have to a conformation shot. Foals don't like to stand still, much less square lol
Clicky
Friendly as ever
And my darling Cleo <3
I threw a bunch more photos into an Imgur post because tinypic wasn't working, so if you want to check those out click here

Also, what funny/interesting ways have you had to use to catch a tricky horse? One of the horses at D's place got really spooked about something and I couldn't even get close to him (we'd gotten a lead rope on him, but he spooked and got loose). So to try stop him from running away from us, we made a 'box' using two gates and led one of his friends into it and he followed, allowing D to come up along side him, grab his lead and off we went. Not the typical way I'd usually go about it, but it worked really well and stopped Timmy running around with that lead rope dragging behind him. I wouldn't have thought of it myself but there you go lol

[MoonfallTheFox]

I did have a whole big reply typed out but I forgot to save it when I clicked off the page :') So here is take two!

@Chasing Starlight; I agree with the others and would say he is probably mostly QH. I don't think he has any draft in him, he looks to light in bone for that. He does have some very big jowls on him which I typically see in the QHs and it could be even more prominent because he was gelded late. He might have some TB or something else in there somewhere, but I definitely see mostly QH. He's a lovely looking bloke

@Hime; Definitely not for a registered name That's going to be a whole nother story lol I think I am just going to go with Miles, despite everyone's protests. I keep coming back to that name and haven't really found any others I like.
I must say I am soooo glad Reggie doesn't have shoes atm I do not miss it, especially after Donny seemed to throw his off at every opportunity I do love his new hairstyle though! Very luxurious lol I would have loved to see a video of his reaction to the bell boot- young horses have such funny reactions to otherwise mundane things
I'm glad Heta's feeling better! Hopefully that soreness stays away! I bet she would have loved the free jumping as well! Most horses I know think its great fun =D Hopefully next time you'll be able to get some video. If the other boarders enjoyed it too, I'm sure there will be a next time
Feykja looks like she had a blast running around the area! I think I even saw a few flying changes in there somewhere. She might make a dressage horse in the future She's maturing very nicely!

@Trico; Sorry to hear you had such a bad ride the other day By the soudns of it you're doing the right thing by riding school horse. Less things to worry about and that should give you a chance to build your confidence up before you give it another go on Alice. Hopefully you're back on track!

@MoonfallTheFox; By the sounds of it that's for the best. From your other post she sounded mentally immature, so the time off over winter should do her some good. 2 yo is still very young and not all of them can cope with the added pressure of breaking so a little holiday can always help Bet she'll be much better when she goes back in spring. Was she a late foal? Sometimes they need a little more time to catch up to those born earlier in the season.

@APH Italy; Very cool! What does the equine degree entail?

~~~

It has been stupidly hot here the last week or so, makes doing horsey things very difficult. I've been going down to ride at like 7pm at night, jut so its cool enough to get some decent work done and even then we both usually end up in bit of a sweat I do love summer, but going from low 20s to mid 30s in the space of a few days did not allow a lot of time for adjustment Reggie has been going super since he's come back from his spell! I think having that month off really helped and now his ready to get back into it. His canter work is very 'expressive' (we get a bit creative in the transitions with what ''uphill'' is exactly ) and he has lost a bit of balance resulting in some rushing but I'm not too worried. It'll come back quickly and his trot work is pretty dang good atm. Got a lesson with him on Tuesday so V can come kick us back into shape. I suspect a lot of the balance issue is caused by me because I have a horrible habit of sitting to one side and not realising it. I wish I could get photos and stuff while I'm riding, but I'm usually there on my own. Reggie's starting to look pretty swish now as well! He's loosing that 'baby' look and is actually starting to look more like a 4yo lol I want a bit more muscle on his topline and through his hindquarters, but that should all come together with work. I don't think he's going to get all that much more in height (though he may surprise me yet) because he's started filling out. I'll have to take a photo of him stood up next time I go down, cause I think he's changed quite a bit over the last year. Either way, he's going great guns at the moment and hopefully we keep improving! Oh, Reggie also played lead pony for a few of Z's international student friends. Her pony K got tangled up in a fence last week, so they couldn't use him for pony rides and Reggie stepped up to fill the spot. He did sooo well, considering none of these girls had ever really seen a horse let alone ridden one. He was very patient while they got on and went nice and slowly when they got to have a little trot. They were just on the lead, but Reggie can be a sensitive little petal so I wasn't completely sure how settled he'd be with the whole thing, but he handled it all so well. Considering he hasn't even been broken in for 12 months yet and has never been ridden by a complete beginner, I couldn't have been happier TBH I think he liked all the attention
Went up and visited Cleo and Miles again yesterday. His feet are looking better and he's slowly slowly straightening out. We moved them up into one of the bigger paddocks since he isn't really walking on his heels too much anymore and the paddock they were in was pretty much grazed out. I think the farrier is coming out for him in the next few weeks to trim him up. D and I noticed he was a bit long in the toe the other day, so keeping tabs on that. Farrier is out usually once a week anyway so he's been keeping an eye on it too. Cleo is looking nice and shiny and is still loving life. She always nicker to me when I come up, which I think is very cute. She loves getting a good brush and will stand there and fall asleep while I groom her lol I bought her a new halter the other day cause her old was was getting raggedy and starting to rub. She looked very swish in the new one and its got some extra gel padding stuff which I'm hoping will stop it rubbing. I bought a little leather foal halter while I was at the tack shop too, but they didn't have any in stock so I have to order one in. It wasn't super expensive and a lot nicer than the other nylon ones they had, but I am hoping he doesn't grow out of it too quickly. I haven't fully decided if I'll do the ACE Tour and have him assessed or not yet. They don't have much information on where exactly its being held and I can't be floating all over the countryside since I don't have a car that can tow lol I have one I can borrow, but I would like to know if I'll have to drive two+ there and back before I commit to the booking fee. Plus, I'm not that well versed in foal conformation and I think he's a nice looking fellow, I don't want to take him and have him be in a bad growth phase/not what they're looking for/unprepared/ect. ect. general owner worries lol He's got a super temperament so at least I can tick that box off I've gotten some more photos as well if anyone cares to look Unfortunately none of Reggie, but he's on my list for tomorrow

Closest thing I have to a conformation shot. Foals don't like to stand still, much less square lol
Clicky
Friendly as ever
And my darling Cleo <3
I threw a bunch more photos into an Imgur post because tinypic wasn't working, so if you want to check those out click here

Also, what funny/interesting ways have you had to use to catch a tricky horse? One of the horses at D's place got really spooked about something and I couldn't even get close to him (we'd gotten a lead rope on him, but he spooked and got loose). So to try stop him from running away from us, we made a 'box' using two gates and led one of his friends into it and he followed, allowing D to come up along side him, grab his lead and off we went. Not the typical way I'd usually go about it, but it worked really well and stopped Timmy running around with that lead rope dragging behind him. I wouldn't have thought of it myself but there you go lol

Yes she was a very late foal. Her birthday is August 29th. I don't imagine her first winter was very fun what with her being so tiny but she made it. It gets really awful cold here.

As for catching a tricky horse...my horses aren't tricky they just walk over to me or stand there when I walk to them (I hate chasing horses so I train it out of them right away) but Spid can be kind of a brat as far as just marish and it's her age. If she acts that way she's made to run until she feels like she wants to be decent again. She catches herself at that point by walking in to me and agreeing to work with me.

[SpoonfulOfNutmeg]

This is my rescue Oliver "Ollie" a 27 year old gelding. This is a picture of when we first got him so obviously he has gained weight since then, but I'm having trouble keeping it on. Any good senior horse feeds out there to help him put on some more wight?
Also since we adopted him, the rescue doesn't know what breed he is. Any ideas on the breed or mix he could be?
Thanks

[Hime]

@riffmiohma: Teeth checked? No Cushing/PPID? Hay quality and amount good?
Old horses generally are harder to put weight on and then also keep it. While some have issues with their teeth, thus making just general eating hard and if the hay is quite coarse it doesn't help, the problem with older horses often is simply that they don't digest and absorb things as well as they used to. So you might have to seemingly 'over feed' him to keep his weight right. I've noticed my 22 year old mare no longer keeps her weight on so well when she doesn't have free hay and I remember one boarder had 25+ year old who was fed quite high amount od concentrates to keep her at normal weight and still had problems keeping on the back muscles.
Generally stuff that is high protein, high fat (linseed/flax is excelent source, corn or coconut not so great really) and easy easily digested (and chewed if the teeth are problem) is the way to go with old horses. I can't really point to certain brand of feed, since we have very different selection of feeds around here. It doen't necessarily have to be specifically a senior feed either that's going to work, sometimes protein feeds can be just as effective or even better. In feeds look for: moderate energy, crude protein content of 10-15% or higher, out of protein sources used in feeds soy has good amino acid balance, feed that says it's amino acid balanced is also good option, feed containing either flax seeds or oil is a plus (other oils are good energy source as well) and I would avoid feeds that contain corn, since that's about the hardest grain for horses to digest plus it's high on starch which is not great especially if you need to feed higher amounts of concentrates. Out of fiber sources in feeds alfalfa/hay meal and beet pulp are good things to look out for. Out of grain ingredients oats are the best really(high fat, high fiber), but in pelleted feeds it's not that big of deal if they've used barley instead. In muesli feeds barley should be crushed and/or othervise treated or else it's not digested as well as oats can be.
If he has problems chewing then pellet feeds are easy to soak into easily edible mash. Also if due teeth issues he can't eat hay that well anymore, soaked alfalfa/hay pellets are good to ensure he gets enough fiber, plus they are usually quite high on protein.
As for the breed. Hard to say just from one picture and angle, but the head does seem to have some arabian looking features. Most likely a mix though I would say.

[Brynmala]

@riffmiohma - Welcome to the 'ancient chestnut Ollie club'! My Ollie is also chestnut and just a year younger than your boy. I'd agree with Hime on the breed question, it's difficult to tell from that angle, but I also think there's a look of Arab about his head, but I wouldn't think he's pure bred. Maybe and Anglo, or a mixed breed with a bit of Arab.

On the feeding question, yes, you'll probably need to overfeed to keep weight on. We've had good results this summer with adding linseed oil to keep condition on, it provides 'empty calories'. Short chopped hay ad lib if he's having trouble eating, and soak all his hard feed to a slurry. If you haven't already, get his teeth checked - my boy lost a couple this year which isn't helping him eat, but he's a surprisingly good doer given his age. It would be worth trying an 'old age' supplement - Ol is on Naf pink powder senior (no idea if this is available where you are!), and also milk thistle as he has low level liver issues. Talk to your local feed merchant, or give one of the feed manufacturers a ring, they have equine nutritionists so they'll be able to recommend something (from their own brands of course).

Re catching a tricky horse - Ol can be a royal pain to catch when he feels like it,and it doesn't help that he's head shy. Oddly his reactions are different in different fields. On the top field I can usually just walk straight up to him, and once there's a rope round his neck he's caught. In the bottom field, which has the muck heap in the middle of it (which predates my being there by a lot of years), he can just run round and round it and evade being caught unless a second person, without a rope, can stand at the narrowest part and block him - at that point he usually gives up. A variation on the classic pincer movement really. In the middle field, which is more open he runs around in circles, at which point I start loose schooling him - watch until he's just about to change pace and give him the command for that pace, after a while he gets used to the idea that he's 'working' and he will stop and stand on command, and then I can get up to him. Or not, and the game continues. Timing is everything with this and the horse needs to understand about lunging first.