Do You Ride Horses?

[deerly.]

Welp, just got back from three days at the farm! I had fun well at least some of the time I got to see my big boy every day XD. The first day was alot of fun! We got him out to work with him, the first time someone mounted it was my uncle, and there was a tack malfunction... The chain holding the bit in place under his chin broke, and Cisco flipped out because the bit flipped in his mouth. After that when my uncle fixed the chain he was perfectly fine, but he had been out in the sun and he was tired so we couldn't ride long and i didn't get to ride . The second day was kinda... Well upsetting. My uncle has heart problems and went in for a check up, They caught something wrong and now he is in the hospital. They say it had nothing to do with the fall though. But that is when i got the bad horse news. With my uncles heart problem, he cant really take many falls, so he decided he is going to get rid of cisco . One option he has is a trade, there is a lady very interested in cisco, she wants a horse that will spook easy etc. To make her a better rider, but she has an eleven yr old quarter horse that she will trade for him. I haven't heard anything about the horse but that she says it is bomb proof. The other option is if she doesnt want cisco, he is giving him to a farm where he will be trained for kids with disabilities, that is a good home but i don't know if he will buy another horse. So if anything happens i would like the trade, so at least i still have a horse around, but it is going to be hard loosing my big boy especially after these past few days and all the time i spent with him I just know im going to start bawling if i am there to see that trailer drive away. But at least i know he will get a good home either way.

[Dance_inthe_Rain]

Athena is still a great horse pass her sassy attitude, I love her and I am hoping to ride soon, today was too hot and its the 4th so we can't really ride now so I hope to tomorrow. Its funny Athena is pretty independent for having one blind eye that is pushed back but our gelding hugs to her side even though he has both his eyes, and even when Athena bites him, which I hate and am tring to figure out why.

[Hemalily]

Hey everyone! I rode yesterday, but was too depressed to update y'all.

As some of you know I regularly rode a chestnut Oldenburg mare named Choices. I found out yesterday that she had to be put down. A few days ago, she was acting weird, so my instructor took her to the vet. She wasn't responding to anything, so it became inevitable
The vet performed an autopsy and found that her liver was covered with abscesses (bad infection). There would have been almost no way to help, even if they did know what it was. I know have lost two of my most loved horses. I have no chance of competing now, because Choices was the only option. The hard blow was that Choices' 16th birthday was on Tuesday.

Sorry for this sob rant thing, I just can't cope right now.

[quitting¿]

Gandalf I know we don't know eachother but a horse I used to ride was in a war and was deaf afterwards..I slowly had to watch him die because he was going blind also....So They had to put him down..That horse knew all my deepest memories and thoughts..I can help if you want to PM me

[Hooligan.]

Sorry guys I haven't been extremely active lately.

Anyway...HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!! COWBOY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! Also my favorite holiday!!!! It's been a busy few days. Yesterday, we had our first performance as rodeo queens. We had to show up to a kids rodeo and run the timer, flag and time sheet for stick horse barrels and goat tying. And today, we rode in the parade, went to the city BBQ and then went to the annual rodeo. My queen and sr princess chased the breakaway and tie down calves. We had an attendant from a neighboring county riding with us in the parade and at the rodeo. So two of us would go at a time to chase the calves, but at first the rodeo runner didn't want us to run the calves, then she decided she did want us too. Anyway I decided to go in with the attendant but we didn't get a chance to because there weren't enough ropers. Anyway, we all did a buzz then my queen and sr princess ran Wyoming flags while another lady ran the United States flag. Anyways, we have another big rodeo next weekend as well as another parade. And then another kid rodeo during our fair, and another rodeo during our fair, and that's it. I didn't actually do too much with decorating Queso for the parade this year, which is unusual as its my favorite holiday and I usually make sure he is festive. But all I did today was put sparkly silver mane extenders in his mane and blue sparkly hoof polish on his hooves.

Anyway, in other words, I just got out of watching the Lone Ranger. It's absolutely amazing. The only problem with it that I have, is at the beginning it's heaven on the eyes. Seriously it is such a good movie. But like 15 minutes until the end it's like they have up on trying to keep it looking real and it started looking fake. But that 15 minutes is nothing. Tonto is amazing, but I am a die hard fan of Johnny Depp, so that helps . Oh man though, it's so awesome!!! Definitely in my top ten favorite movies for sure!!!

And just got done watching the fireworks and then went to the street dance and got a banana snocone hahaha. Great way to end the night of my favorite holiday!!!

[Coppertop11]

Well, yikes, haven't posted in such a long time. Oh well, no one probably noticed anyway, after like 400 pages of posts, sorry if I post like a paragraph about what happened within that time, just skip over it and move onto someone else's story if you want to XD Anyways....

Not riding Eli anymore, , even though he is still the majority of my signature still, XD I'm not bothering to change it. My last show with him was in February when we got a reserve champion in St.Louis in the 3ft Novice Jumpers, Even though I didn't do one of the four classes, one day I did the 3'3- 3'5 Low Child/Adults. He is probably one of the best horses I have ever ridden and I'm ging to miss riding him so much, I still get a little jealous watching others ride him. After that show we decided he was starting to get too old to jump as high as I was wanting to go, so then we started hunting for a new horse.

O...M...G...
I bet a lot of people know about trying to find a new horse. Especially one that can jump higher for a good price, since I still own Austin and just want to lease a horse that can jump higher.

The first one I tried came from South Carolina and was INSANE, they sent me this custom made bit that was really harsh that they warned would make his mouth bleed sometimes. I of course found that out later... First day I tried him he was great! Didn't use that one bridle, used something a little nice, and I thought it looked promising. Next day, he refused with my trainer, which is a pretty big deal since she is a pretty dang good rider. Then I had to ride him, it was horrible he was difficult to control and unpleasant to ride. So my trainer had me try him in the other bit just to see how it would work. At first it went all right, on the flat, over some small verticals it got bad, then at one point I glanced down at his mouth and saw reddish foam and immediately showed my trainer, asked to get off, rinsed his mouth out and did not want to ride this horse again. I never want to hurt a horse, EVER, I felt so awful about it and was glad to send him off, hopefully they don;t use that bit too often...

So I tried a few others, including this one gorgeous dapple gray that was a wonderful hunter, but they just wanted to sell him for 75,000 dollars and were reluctant to lease out so the search continued until I found Rosie,

Her owner was pregnant and wanted to lease her out, an adorable 8 year old chestnut throughbred mare that hadn't shown much but is super brave. She came one night, and I rode her the next day, she was absolutely perfect! This was our first lesson, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5nABAHT-Fs Jumped 3'6 the first day, and me and my trainer both knew that she was the one. We continued to try her for a week though before signing a leasing contract for six months, I never had a problem with her. There were just a few things to fix, we weren't sure if she had ever gotten injections, and it seemed like she needed them pretty badly, and she had shoes on that were too small, but its all alright. Since then, we have jumped walls, liverpools, and rolltops without a glance at the obstacle. Clearing each with ease, she responds quickly to what I say and is so well behaved for such a young horse in my opinion. I took her to a St.Louis horse show last week and got multiple firsts, a second and a third out of six, a fourth, and a 6th out of 9 (dropped a rail ) Next week we are going to Colorado and I'm psyched about what we might accomplish.

In other news, Austin is doing a lot better now and is jumping 2'6 already, Still with an attitude but that's better than being hurt.

Yet again, sorry for the post, I just thought I might put my horse hunting story out there

[SarcasticLoner]

Hi I've got a bit of a problem, my horse has gone literally crazy!, I mean he does it every year but I've only had him one year and was still getting used to him last time he did it so I didn't ride him much, basically as soon as the grass gets greener he goes bananas! this it a real problem cos I've got a showjumping comp next week and I won't do well if Todd's bananas I tried to practise jump him last night but he keeps rushing them and knocking them down cos he's so hyped up, anyone got any ideas how I can calm him down a little??

[Livid-Silver]

@Hime; Aww he has grown so much! Time really does fly. I mean I can seriously remember when you posts those first pictures of him <3 I hope he goes to a pally for you! Pallys look so nice, especially if they have a bit of bling =D

@Gandalf; Oh I am so sorry That is horrible, but at least she is out of pain now...

@Coppertop11; Rosie looks awesome! She's super pretty, which is saying something since I don't normally like chestnuts. I hope she does well for you, but she's brave you've already got a head start =D

@Twilight Wolf; Donny does the same thing when the grass comes through. I find the only thing that helps is to keep his mind active. So making up little games to play with him, in hand work, free jumping, trick training, poles anything really that keeps his mind active. I find that if I just lunge, he gets bored and then acts up more. If he's getting fed and you can change his feed, you could also take out some of the energy feeds he gets, just until he settles a little. But if he's having trouble with jumping then, free jumping might be a good idea. It would give him a chance to have a bit of a buck and play without someone on his back and let him jump to get some energy out. It would also help with his form and striding too =D

[Namikaze~Sin]

Hello I was offline for a week so I've missed a lot, please quote me on stuff you want me to read? ^_^ Thank you

[opal.]

@Hime
No problem! Thanks for responding! I don't have another place in mind so far...The town where I board/ride JJ is fairly small and kind of in the heart of the western riding country. It's funny, because there are two main rodes that go south and one is like the English Riding road and is east of the other road which is the total western rode. Weird right? But anyway, if I wanted to find a good english barn not only do I have to take up the topic again with my mother (who isn't mean about it, just very wishy-washy and dodgey about the subject which is both infuriating and discouraging) but we'd also have to take a completely different road to go to lessons which means I would really never get to ride JJ before/after lessons :c

@Coppertop
I remember you! Welcome back!
I'm sorry Eli left, but it sounds like you accomplished a lot with him while he was here <3 I'm glad Rosie is working out, and that you can ride her for a while! She looks great and you do too! (watched the video). You're going to Colorado next week? That's where I live! It's awesome here Are you going to Colorado Horse Park, or perhaps Hobby Horse Farms? I'm so excited for you! (I promise I'm not trying to be stalker-ish, those are just a few popular venues I know of and I used to board at Hobby Horse which is a-mazing)