Do You Ride Horses?

[Mr.Milo]

@Spyro: wow australian!! i haven't heard anyone else on this thread do that discpline but i have heard of it. Do you have any pictures of your horse? i dont think i have ever seen a red bay Arabian. I wish i had a backyard big enough to own and ride a horse. I never knew that Gymkhana was unliked by some people at the same time its not really famous in my area we mainly focus on jumping and hunter and then the next is dressage. Anyway that is super cool that you do western and english im hopeing that once i have entered a few dressage competitions that i can try some western dressage or western pleasure.

@Dolphin: sorry i cant see your pictures, my computer keeps telling me to enable cookies but i have no idea how to do that.

[timaeus Testified]

@ Mr.Milo
Really? :3 That's cool ouo Western Dressage sounds interesting, but I haven't really tried it .o. I liked western pleasure when I was learning it :3 You should try it.
I do a bit of jumping here and there... Just backyard stuff though ^^ Never really got serious about it.
I envy how awesome people in Hunt Seat and Hunter Jumpers are v.v I wish my EQ was that pretty lol.
I got lucky with the property I live on, I'm really grateful for it. It helps that my Mom and Stepdad are really supportive ^^
Haha, I have more pictures of my horse than I have of myself xD
Her winter coat makes the red in her coat really pop, though it's hard to see in pictures v.v They do her no justice.
Here's a few:
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[Mr.Milo]

@Spyro: i think i just died looking at your horse. She is sooo beautiful and doesnt look a day over 10 years old. I i wish i lived in a place like yours that snow looks so beautiful and even during the spring wearing jeans is just horrible if your going to spend a long time outside. Lol but im the same, well i dont own a horse but i have tons of pictures of Mikey and my own pets more than i do of myself. Im not very photogenic but Mikey sure is. How did you get your horse? Sorry if im asking too many questions.DX Oh i agree they look so beautiful, i love watching the hunters and dressage riders in the Olympics its like they are floating with the horse.

[Hooligan.]

Hey guys:

More news!! I'm running for Senior Princess Rodeo Queen this year!! It isn't a big type of queening show, all we have to do is on stage interview and question, onstage modeling and a horsemanship pattern. I am thinking there won't be that many people in senior princess so I think I have a decent shot. Plus my mom won queen before and so did my aunt. And 2 of my friends have won senior princess and are helping me, one of my friends has won junior princess and one of my friends has won queen so I have a lot of help lol. My competition is in April. I really hope I win because there are some pretty awesome prizes. Each, sr princess, jr princess and queen get a bridle/breastcollar set, embroidered shirt, hat buckle, belt buckle, and chaps. The buckles are absolutely to die for gorgeous too!! Ugh I can't wait!! Meanwhile my friends mom is teaching me how to model lol (sh won mrs. County here) and everyone else is helping me on the rest lol. I have model and walking practice tomorrow lol.

Model practice went pretty well!! I now have a catwalk without looking too much like I'm trying. I have to work with turning now though hahahaha i always trip over my own feet. And the questions that they ask at my comp. are apparetnly easy ones such as:
Whats a Hooey, and Whats a markout, and Whats a penalty for knocking a barrel over.
I am pretty much ready. All I have left to work on is the modeling aspect and the Horsemanship part.

So I found out the horsemanship part is a reining pattern, which rocks considering Queso loves reining. The only problem with that is he still doesn't have amazing spins, and he really doesn't have good lead changes. And lately he has been trying to cheat me out of circles and he has really been dropping his shoulder in and trying to cut in. He usually keeps almost perfect round circles but lately he has been an a**. I can fix his circle problems, but he has ongoing badness with his leads.

So, if anyone has any tips on training a horse to pick up the right lead (he gets his left lead no matter what and usually doesn't change from it, one reason that when I do barrel race him I take it slow so he doesn't speed around a barrel on the wrong lead) it would really help. My friend said that the judges really pay attention to lead changes, so thats what we rae really working on. THe rest of it we can do fairly average at least in. We will be doing flying changes, and occasionally he gets flying changes, he never gets simple changes, but I want to train him enough that I have confidence in him that he will most likely get the right lead when it is called for. Thanks in advance for any help!!

@mr.milo
It really isn't scary, its actually really fun, I'm just nervous that I won't catch very fast. We already have 3-4 days of branding just calves because we have so many and that's if someone catches a lot. But like I said I'm not a Heeler, in a pretty decent header but hopefully I can get better at heeling. I don't want to leave any slicks because I don't want to have to have a later branding as well, but I don't know I bet there will be some slicks anyway. The only things that would be kind of scary is getting kicked and sometimes the momma cows. I had to leg a big calf last year an he kicked me right on the back of my calf. I didn't even know lol I got up and everyone was asking me if I was okay and I don't even understand why they were asking me that until I got home and saw the bruise lol. The moms are usually pretty decent and most of them my friend and I can cut out. We usually don keep the cows if they are aggressive.

Also, I think that got missed ^^^

[.Scarlet.]

@Spyro- I agree with Milo! She soo beautiful! My friend has a spunky arabian. I might snag a few pictures of him for you all to see if you'd like. But she is so dainty and cute! i bet she's a wonderful mover! My friend rides English with me. that's the only lessons around. I mean my instructor teaches both, but I like English because I feel more in control of the little insane TB I ride xD My friends Arab sure loves to fly over jumps and he knows hes all fancy too. He's soo funny how he acts.

[timaeus Testified]

@Spyro: i think i just died looking at your horse. She is sooo beautiful and doesnt look a day over 10 years old. I i wish i lived in a place like yours that snow looks so beautiful and even during the spring wearing jeans is just horrible if your going to spend a long time outside. Lol but im the same, well i dont own a horse but i have tons of pictures of Mikey and my own pets more than i do of myself. Im not very photogenic but Mikey sure is. How did you get your horse? Sorry if im asking too many questions.DX Oh i agree they look so beautiful, i love watching the hunters and dressage riders in the Olympics its like they are floating with the horse.

@ Mr. Milo
Thanks so much <3 She's a HUGE camera hog xD Always posing.
Yeah, everyone at the gymkhanas thinks she's under ten xD She holds her age really well.
That was from a few days ago, actually :3 It was so pretty out <3 Her majesty seemed quite interested by the little snow horse I was holding lol.
I actually got really lucky with Maddie. We were just moving to the property we're on now, and we were talking about getting a horse for me.
Well guess what?
My grandpa was talking about this to a close friend of his, and she just happened to be giving away two of her horses. I went to look at Maddie, and instantly fell in love<3
My grandpa gave the lady money to feed her for two more months so we could get a shelter built, and we took her home once it was finished.

@Spyro- I agree with Milo! She soo beautiful! My friend has a spunky arabian. I might snag a few pictures of him for you all to see if you'd like. But she is so dainty and cute! i bet she's a wonderful mover! My friend rides English with me. that's the only lessons around. I mean my instructor teaches both, but I like English because I feel more in control of the little insane TB I ride xD My friends Arab sure loves to fly over jumps and he knows hes all fancy too. He's soo funny how he acts.

@ Scarlet
Thank you <3
She's a dream to ride, she's really responsive and has wonderful manners.
LOL. That's an Arab for you xD At the gymkhana we go to, she walks really proudly and holds her tail up, it's so cute xD

[.Scarlet.]

Here's my friend's Arabian, Spirit. She's a great rider and handles the little bug well! Lol.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/374489_10151271409922351_51547033_n.jpg
Perfect example of the high tail. He can run too! He will be in the arena running full speed. Every time he comes around it looks like he's going to hit into the fence! Not the brightest, but they love him. I'll grab some more pictures of the horses at the barn I ride at if you guys want to see them?

[stirrupirons]

Just got back from drill team practice Thinker was lovely! I didn't want to exhaust him before I rode so I just lunged him quickly at WTC and then got on. His walk was nice and peppy, so was his trot. I got some good canter circles going, too! I'm literally ecstatic right now. Two weeks ago I was terrified of cantering, and now look at me xD I kept my leg on him and got the confidence to try a little extended canter on the long sides, and I did! I don't think it was super extended, but I could definitely feel a difference between our working canter and this big canter. My instructor was like "Woooooooow! You go girl!" when she saw me I let Thinker walk on a long rein and then practice started
Practice went good! It was EXHAUSTING though. We started at like 5 and ended at 6:30. o_o Plus it was SUPER humid. I was in a polo and I was pretty much going into heat stroke at the end xD I can't imagine what summer's going to be like xD The only bad part about practice was when we were doing our weaving in and out of each other. One line is supposed to weave while my line walks, and L turned too late and ran her pony into Thinker. He like jumped back and I think he reared a teeny tiny bit but I sat it and we were fine. I'm glad it wasn't worse than it could have been! My confidence is up because of it because I didn't fall off xD
I have a lesson Wednesday and probably hacking Thinker Friday morning My dad might be coming Wednesday (he's never been there to see me ride, actually, so he'd be meeting Thinker finally and seeing me ride ) so I'll have pictures c:

@Current convo: I'm a (English) dressage rider. Just sayin'. :3

EDIT: Here's a short video of me trotting with Thinker yesterday My hands are a lot stiller, and he could be moving more, but he was tired and I was too; this was right after we cantered for a long time My eq's so much better though! My hands aren't moving and my legs are only moving to keep him going

[.Scarlet.]

I'm sorry, but how can you not love this face??!?!?
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/425878_10150586473552351_1209245518_n.jpg

[Mr.Milo]

@Spyro: Lol, what is with horses and cameras. Mikey poses well for me but sometimes he is like "ooo camera" and starts sniffing it and everything. That is super cool, we were suppost to move into a place that was going to allow horses (so i could of had a horse and then boarded it at a neighbors place). But then we chose a suburban neighborhood. We still have lots of farms i the area, infact there is one like half a mile from my house but its private. They have a few horses and cows that they round up and i sooo wish i knew them! Also how is gymkhanas judged, i know you and your horse have to intertwine through poles as quickly as possible but is there more to it than just that?

@Smokey: oh im so sorry, i thought i answered it. Anyway oh im sure you will be good. Being a Heeler sounds fun now that i understand what they do. But ouch, that is funny that you didn't notice it but i guess when you are caught up in the moment you dont really feel whats going on. Once i got kicked in the heel by the biggest horse at the farm (17 hh) and it hurt but i know if it were somone who doesn't go around horses they would have thought they broke their achilles tendon or would bawl out crying and i think it would be the same for your injury too. Anyway i hope everything goes well!!

@Scarlet: im soo jealous of your friend and i love her and her horses colors. You can have almost any color with a white/light grey or black horse! I would have to give him a carrot, you would have to pull me back not to.

@mochele: riding for more that an hour!!! that is so awesome but i agree that it is tiresome. My parents never see me ride but my mom has seen me ride once and so have my sisters but it was only the last five minutes or my lesson. I kinda like it because i can do things that they wouldn't let me do if they were there. Anyway im glad your ride went well, and what video?