Do You Ride Horses?

[AnimalTraining101]

Halter update-

So the halter did end up reappearing thankfully . It makes life easier when grooming.

Anyways I had a good session with Boomer today. Instead of using a short lead where I put a hand near his head I used a lose lead. He seemed to enjoy it a whole lot more. Although he is still afraid of anything I have in my hand wether its a lead or a ball or a stick diffently needs desentizied. Has anyone walked too there horse and the are totally freaked out? Boomer was he looked complelty stressed and afraid. I did end up calming him down but he wanted to be close to me more than usual and he kept sniffing me and licking.

[kathwren]

Question for everyone:
Does anyone get achey legs after a ride, if so what helps? For some reason, occasionally I get aches in my legs when they're at the same width of the horse. All I can think about is the few days before my riding assessment where I have three lessons in three days before the assessment on the fourth day and I really dont want to be in pain x) in case it affects my riding

Leg stretches! :D
I do yoga too, it helps a TON with sore muscles after riding.
If I trot for too long, my legs hurt a lot.
If you google something like "yoga leg stretches" or something like that, it should pull some things up.
Try stretching before and after each ride, it helps a ton.

[Hime]

Scarlet: I have noticed at my work some of the laziest ponies, make really nice jumpers, it's weird how those kind of things happen.

Kinda butting in sorry... There was this one gelding at collage. He was pretty heavy build, fairly lazy and not very sensitive, heavy from the front etc. But have couple jumps up on the arena and he literally came to life. Like he's whole expression became much more lively plus he was actually forward with jumps around. Saddly he wasn't really good jumper style vise at all. XD But he really loved to jump and was great with people with little to non jumping experience since he never refused or bailed at the jumps. :3

@Blue: He's going for many reasons(though I will probably miss him a lot...). Mainly so that he grows up nicely, both metally and physically.
A) In herds horses learn the horse rules and lifestyle. It really is the best way to grow. Him being our only colt so far would mean he would probably be alone in the paddock at our stable starting from late winter, since it's little risky even to keep filly and colt yearlings at the same paddock(accident foals have happened even at that age, plus some colts mature insanely fast...). In summer he'd have to go to pasture with the boys anyway so I will try and find a place that has the summer pasture plus winter living conditions. So that after summer he gets to stay in the same group. c:
B) (kinda continued A) All being in same age group(usually 1-3/4 years) means they play the same game. And natural kind of excercise(play, run etc) is very important for the young ones. So with plenty of playmates and room to move they grow up better muscle and bone vise. Like there's already a differance in the muscles between Tývar and his sis, who moves lot less than Tývar.
C) L doesn't think too fondly of colts on her yard(if the WB has a colt it gets send away as well, but probably to different place as WBs and Icelandics require little different care as youngsters(mainly feeding vise)). XD Understandable and in all honesty they are slight hassle.
D) I will keep my hands off him so that he doesn't get too friendly(though he kinda already is...) and 'over worked' at young age. Since, like, that face, try resist it.... Failed, right? >_<
E) Usually such boy groups have cheaper boarding fee(like 200€ or so per month) than regular full boarding as the horses are out 24/7(with shelter of some sort). (We have a good word for such living conditions, but I have no clue how it translates to english properly. XP) I'm pretty poor, but hopefully I'll be able to get full time job soon(=before Tývar needs to be A)gelded=couple hudreds I think and B)trained=650€ for month...) : P

@Sin: Auxi said it. Streeeeeetching is most likely your answer. XD Unless it's not muscle related pain, then I'm not sure what's the problem or the solution.

[Kecko]

I know this is more of a beginner rider question and I'm not a beginner, but I really need help, I've forgotten which heel to use when putting pressure on the horse to turn. When I want him to turn left which heel do I apply pressure with?

[Kickin' up dirt]

There's nothing better than running your horse bareback in the rain. I almost had a few crash and burns, but that's because my boy is a barrel horse and turns sharp. He was also really slippery. Anyway, it was great. Now I'm soaking wet.

[stirrupirons]

@Blue: I used to struggle with that! If you're making a triangle, it sounds like you're not circling around a point and you're cutting the circle off. Remember to make a circle and make sure you're bending! Don't turn sharply at F/K/M/H, have your horse bend around your leg at that point and make a curve instead of a point. If you feel like you're cutting in, leg-yield out towards your point. A circle should be a continuous, circular leg yield.


@Dolphin: He is beautiful :) It's fine, my ground work with Thinker has been so much fun and I'm 10x closer to him now. He's fattened up so much and his coat is shining. And that's so terrible about Memphis & Mulligan. You've done so great with both of them. I know and hope you will find a main mount soon. Keep me updated with your progress :)

@Achey legs: When I ride really strenuously and really use my legs, they burn. As you build muscle and ride more often you'll have less pain. I second (third?) the leg stretches; before I ride (when I didn't have a broken collarbone...) I do leg kicks. They really loosen your calf muscles and in addition to preventing pain, it's much easier to get your heel down in the proper position.

@Kecko: Use your inside leg. :) If you're turning left, use your left leg. Turning right, use right leg.

[Hooligan.]

@Oliviaoi:
Thanks!!! Well, if you do ever have any questions I can help you some more.

@Hime:
Yeah, that would be awful to try to get so much land covered in electric hahaha. We did have some wood fence at one time, back when we had our Arabian stud Salute. But he was a cribber, and even with his collar he destroyed most of it. And what he didn't destry was then taken care of by Castle. Castle was a big grey gelding. He was definitely a rogue as well. He was just completely screwy. If you could catch him, and ride out his first bunch of bucking, he was a pretty good horse. But hardly anyone could stay on him during his first few jumps, and he would stop after he did get rode, so he never could have been moved over to a stock horse. So we just ended up selling him. He did quite a number on the fence though, he would jump anything he thought he could jump, and if he didn't think he could jump it he would kick it down. Anyway, thanks for the feedback on the list. It can be a bit confusing getting to learn what we mean when we say things. Many of those words have a terrible lot of synonyms to go with them hahaha.

@Dolphin:
Its been pretty good. Queso and I have gone to a few different shows, we didn't do too bad in any of them, although I was a little less than impressed on our last show's barrel run. It could have been substantially better. All in all its been pretty good though. Had a couple of tumbles quite a while ago from completely being an idiot during barbeback riding, and ended up with a sprained arm from that, but it really wasn't that bad and it only kept me from riding with my left hand haha. We did turn things around though, and we got Jr Princess Rodeo Queen on the 15th of this month. So that was great. And then we have our next show on Saturday-barrels, showmanship and reining. Its at an arena I haven't been to before, but I think we'll do alright. Thanks for asking!!! Obvi you and Memphis have been kicking butt, I'm so sorry he is leaving!!! And Mully!!!! I know you love them!!! I hope you can find a super super super nice horse to hopefuly help fill the void from Memphis and Mulligan, and carry you to ultimate victory!!!!

@Blue:
Yes, thankfully!!!! Ugh, that was awful!!! I've given him this whole week off. Actually, he has had time off since the end of the competition on the 15th. I'm hoping that this almost weeklong turnout will be leaving him in a great mood and we'll be able to kick some butt in the show!!! The person who beat me in our first show this year in barrels lives in the town where the show this weekend is. The good thing is, she was seriously pushing her horse as hard as he would go, and she only beat me by .08 seconds, where I wasn't pushing Queso at all. I let him go his own speed, and this time I am going to push him a little bit. I know I don't have to push him much to win, I will place no matter what, because only 4-5 people enter it. So I just have to push him a tiny bit. So pretty excited

@Sin:
I can honestly say that I really don't get sore legs, rather my knees get quite sore, after riding 10+ hours. Under that I'm usually fine and ready to go again. I want to do yoga though, I have yoga pants hahaha, just I'm so busy I never have time to really relax and do yoga hahaha.

@List:
As I was just thinking of them off the top of my head last night, I thought about some more, so here goes!!
Peeler-A horse breaker. Also called a twister.
Ranahan or Ranny-The top cowboy.
Mother Up-Happens at the end of each day where the cowboys have to hold the herd at a rodear, and the calves find all their mothers. A calf, if he can't find his mother, will always return to the last place he suckled, so its critical to let them mother up when you stop for the day to prevent strays.
Shadow Rider-A cowboy who isn't worth a whole lot to the operation. He rides along admiring himself and his gear (his shadow).
Figure Eight Roper-An extremely skilled range roper. When he throws his loop, he can put a kink in it and the first part of the loop will go around the cows head, and the bottom part of the figure eight will go around the cow's front legs. When the cowboy takes the slack out of his rope and dallies, it will hold the cow pretty good so he can doctor it.

She also needs to be able to read the brands on a cow, which I've been working with her for a little bit, but she can definitely use some more practice. At the end of the first day at the rodear we seperate the cows and cut out the 'bad ones', or cows without the brand that we are moving.
So here are the basics for reading brands. There can be a regular letter brand, such as XIT or something, which would be called just: X, I, T. If a letter or number or whatever is lying on its side then it would be called 'lazy', so an S laying on its side would be called a Lazy S. If two symbols of the brand are touching, it would be called connected. So, if there was two T's, and the top bars were touching each other (so it would look like a solid bar on top and two parrellel lines coming out on bottom), it would be called a T connected T. Now, there can also be a combined symbol. So if there was a V and a B, and the right leg of the V shared the same line as the left line of the B, it would be called a Combined V B. Then there can be reverse, so if there is a backwards B, it would be called Reverse B. It would just mean the symbol is flipped 180 degrees. Then there is a hanging symbol. So if an S is underneath a V, but just the top of the S is touching just the bottom point of th V, it would be a V hanging S. You read a brand from left to right, or top to bottom, or outside to inside. So, if theres an ML, you would read it left to right so it would be an; M L. From top to bottom, an example would be a bar over an M. So you would read it Bar M. An example from outside to in, would be a Circle around an S. So it would be Circle S. Speaking of brands, one thing people need to know is about "running Irons" and "saddle irons". Running irons are just a single bar. Where a regular brand is just stamped on a critter, a brand made with a running iron is drawn. Its how cattle and horses were rustled. By using a running iron, you could change a critters brand or you could brand a slick to make it 'blotched', or to resemble a brand of your own. So essentially you could blotch already branded critters, or you could steal somebody's slick and brand it to sell it in your herd. Blotched means to make the brand unreadable, so essentially, anyone could claim it was theirs. A saddle iron was the same thing, but it didn't have a handle on it. While a running iron had a small handle, maybe a foot to a foot and a half long, a saddle iron was meant to carry in saddle bags or such, and just had a hole where you could put a stick in to serve as a temporary handle. There are also curved runnin or saddle irons, but they are always eiher a simple curve or a straight line.
Now just because I love brands and the history behind them, I'm going to give just a little bit more info about them. There are a lot of different types of branding, I'm sure you guys know this, like a freeze brand, a lip brand, regular burning brands. Mustangs have the freeze brand on the left side of their neck, while some Arabians have very similar brands on the right side of their neck. Its a symbol of the Arabian Horse Registry. Our Arabian stallion Salute had such a brand. Anyway, to read a Mustang brand, the first little symbol means that the animal is property of the US Gov. The second two symbols, you read top to bottom, and it tells the horses birth year. After that is the ID number for the state where the horse was first brought after capture, which is usually its original state, but not always. Then is the horses 4 digit code. Its kind of like a social security code for a person, its unique to that horse. Here is a picture that can help: http://www.mustangs4us.com/New4/freeze1.jpg
All in all, there are a ton of different brands. Jaw brands, Shoulder brands, hip brands, neck brands, lip brands, all kinds. Race horses always have a lip brand, although it can be hard to see.
Some of the most famous brands in the USA (at least the western USA):
the King Ranch, which is a running W: https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/imag ... 9WmsdH_kqN
Pitchfork Land and Cattle Co.: http://www.thepitchforkranch.com/gifs/logo1.gif
The Four Sixes Ranch: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/imag ... uT5N_FXXtQ

There was actually a really cool story about how the four Sixes got its name and brand,, although its not true. The story was that there was a guy who had bet everything he owned against another guy who had bet what he owned, that ranch, in a poker match. It was said that the first man won, and he won with the hand of four 6's. So he renamed the ranch that and made that the brand. Its an extremely interesting story, and it would be super cool if it was true, but alas, it isn't. You can probably read the real story on the four 6's website.

[Plan on it Oliver]

@Hime: Are you ever going to breed Heta again?

I rode Junior again tonight. I was a good ride, until we cantered. We tried double reins didn't do much help. When I cantered I lost a stirrup and Junior is very leg sensitive so he was like a bullet. His show name should be Space Cadet! That's what C kept calling after that failure of a canter. His jumping was very nice. We did a mini course (Several times in a row) missing one jump once because when I seesawed on his mouth I pulled a little too much causing us to miss it by a hair.

[Kecko]

@Blue: I used to struggle with that! If you're making a triangle, it sounds like you're not circling around a point and you're cutting the circle off. Remember to make a circle and make sure you're bending! Don't turn sharply at F/K/M/H, have your horse bend around your leg at that point and make a curve instead of a point. If you feel like you're cutting in, leg-yield out towards your point. A circle should be a continuous, circular leg yield.


@Dolphin: He is beautiful It's fine, my ground work with Thinker has been so much fun and I'm 10x closer to him now. He's fattened up so much and his coat is shining. And that's so terrible about Memphis & Mulligan. You've done so great with both of them. I know and hope you will find a main mount soon. Keep me updated with your progress

@Achey legs: When I ride really strenuously and really use my legs, they burn. As you build muscle and ride more often you'll have less pain. I second (third?) the leg stretches; before I ride (when I didn't have a broken collarbone...) I do leg kicks. They really loosen your calf muscles and in addition to preventing pain, it's much easier to get your heel down in the proper position.

@Kecko: Use your inside leg. If you're turning left, use your left leg. Turning right, use right leg.

Ok thank you!

[OneRowdyNight]

Sorry for not being active at all on here. I'm a pretty non-productive member of this group, but I just listed Rowdy for sale. /: I'm trying to reassure myself it's the best thing. Before anyone asks, I am buying another horse, just one who's more advanced.

I feel it's pretty unfair to Rowdy for me to expect him to be able to perform physically what other horses can. The poor guy tries so hard for me, but a lot of stuff he just can't do. I love him more than life, but I feel like he'd be better off with a little girl who he can teach how to ride. Maybe help her earn her first blue ribbon or buckle. It hurts like nothing I've felt before, but it's for the better. (I'm hoping.)