Do You Ride Horses? V.4

[ξƞçɧαƞtєđ]

Thank you, monchele, for the welcome.

The facebook page for the drill team is nearly set up and is already functioning. We'll be discussing the routine and the music over facebook and the phone- but we will ultimately decide this February- our first practice being on the 02/04/14 (month/date/year). I am excited and we finally got our hands on a trailer big enough to fit Sky as it was a killer finding one that was big enough for my 17hh boy. xD He is a bit shy with the trailer but I'm gradually getting him used to it and he is loading and unloading without much issue now- though more practice never hurt anyone. xD

We're getting another cold front and my two boys are rocking their blankets. Getting in the single digits where I am and I can tell you that spring cannot come fast enough as I won't miss the frozen hoses, the ice in the water buckets, or the extra bag of shavings we have to buy to keep them warm. Can't wait for march.

[Hooligan.]

Omg guys. So sorry I was gone for like weeks lol.

I've kind of been down here lately. I was really really excited over New Years because I want to make this year count. I wan't to do SO much this year, and I want to be GOOD or even above good at it all. Lately I've just been really un-motivated. I've been working, like doing the things I have to do, feeding cows, moving cows, etc, but I've just been doing the bare minimum. I feel better now though. I'm a bit more motivated, not much mind you, but a bit more. So hopefully I'll increase in wanting to do things again. That and moving cows so much are the reasons I haven't been on much.

@Luzien:
The movie Hidalgo is one of my favorites. It makes me appreciate that much more that I'm related to the real Frank. Of course the horses and rider in the film are actors, but its still an amazing movie.
I did read a few books about endurance riding in my elementary and middle school years. Its been something that interests me, but its never really been something I've wanted to do that much. I like to travel, but I can't stand being away from home for very long. I know for a fact (I've known this for a long time), that I will never leave the place I live now. Even going to work on another ranch or something doesn't interest me. Of course, I would love to go visit like, the King Ranch or the 6666, and it would be an honor to work there, but I would probably stay for two weeks tops. And endurance riding would cause me to move quite far away as there is nothing like that where I live. It does interest me though.

Our tractor we pull the feeder with is a Kubota m125x. I'll see if I can find a picture somewhere. Yep I do have some pictures!!! They are from a few years ago but its the same tractor. I have lots of pictures from when I have been driving it, but not many of it itself lol. I really like it though. I've driven a John Deere before but they are a lot more complicated than the Kubotas. I still have JD shirts and things though lol. Anyway I will add the pictures below : )

The first video of the Extreme Trail ride is a speed one I believe. So the horse and rider are doing it as fast as they can for the speed round, but the other one is slower, probably a beginner class or a clinic or practice run.

@SassieC:
Thats odd, but not terribly surprising considering his background. 17 years is a long time. Its hard to tell what could have happened to him throughout that time to make him act that way. Honestly I don't have too much advice, as we don't buy new horses that often, and when we do we always check out for things like that, and we really never get rescue horses. Anyway, I agree with Monchele, teaching them to lower their head is good for a lot of things. Before I ever train any of my colts to back up under saddle I first teach them how to lower their heads and then give to the bit or halter when the reins are pulled back (thats a bit irrelevant, sorry lol), so just keep working with him : ) I also agree with Monchele about the rope halters. I rarely use a nylon or leather just because I'm a rope halter type of person. Leather is ok, but I very very very rarely use nylon. Unless its a bronc halter, but I still prefer rope bronc halters. Also, you can try feeling (if he will let you), around the sides of his mouth. On sensitive skin parts like that the scar tissue should be hardish, or a big bigger, and you could maybe feel one even if you can't see it. Also, Ozay is very pretty : ) I love when the markings of horses are kind of lined like his are : )

@Opal:
I loveeee what you did with the front page! Its gorg! I want to go to the NWSS so bad!!! My friend and two other girls went down there. He is showing ever day I believe. Red Angus. Hehehe that makes me want to go even moreee!!!! Yesterday my dad was saying about the same thing hahaha, he was looking through the new Chick Saddlery magazine and everytime he saw something pink/and or/zebra he would tell me to come look at it hahaha.
Edit: Loveeee even more what you did on the front page? How did you do the text, is beautiful : )

@Guinapig12aj:
Welcome!!! What color is Auto? What discipline do you ride? I am almost sure there are people who can help you with anything on this thread : )

@Equine:
Glad you can ride on the road! Also, if there is one in your area, and you are allowed to join, and of course if your horse doesn't freak out about it all, you should definitely try riding in the 4th of July parade in your area : ) Its a really great experience if you can. But it definitely takes a lot of self control and training on the horse's part, especially if you were to get placed somewhat near the sirens.

@Riding:
So in our 4H meeting last week it was just my two cousins and I. One of our leaders was there, but he was going to leave after a little bit. We pretty much did a really really slow warm up, we literally warmed up for like an hour, but there was some stopping in between to chat. Anyway, I'm going to have to explain this contraption before I go into detail about our practice. Our 4H club, instead of buying an actual flag to practice with (cutting flag), our two leaders decided to make one. As the cutting flags can be really really expensive. So its made really weirdly, but it works really good. It has like half a bicycle on one side (seat, pedals and wheel) welded to a T frame, and on the other side is just a wheel and some of the body welded to another T frame. So you set it up by running a rope around one wheel and over to the other wheel and around it and tie the two ends together. Then you take a scarf or something and pin it to the rope, so it creates something like a cutting flag. Its operated by either pedaling the bike (to make the wheel turn so the rope and flag moves back and forth), or just pulling the rope. Its really kind of neat. Anyway, I actually have never practiced something like that with Queso. We've done lots of real cow work, but nothing with a fake cow/flag. So he was a little worried about it when we entered the arena (on foot), but he soon got over it and we started tracking it. It was really fun but he really didn't watch it. Not like he watches a cow. He started watching it a tiny bit at the end but he just really wasn't interested. My cousin M though, she has a TWH and that horse got to watching it. Granted M doesn't have a very good horse training background, so she doesn't really know how to train the horse to spin and rollback and stuff, so she didn't do so well in the whole rollback to go the opposite direction thing. But her horse was watching it. S's horse got hurt, so she was using my uncle's horse Dezy. Anyway that horse literally couldn't care less. She just wanted to sleep lol. It was a pretty fun exercise though, and it was a really great way to exercise the horses without getting them really sweaty. We would track it for 1-2 minutes then let the next person try, so we got breaks in between.

@Pictures:
Sorry for the crappy pictures from 4H practice, I took them from my phone's video as my cousins didn't take pics of me, only videos lol.
Cutting Practice
Cutting Practice 2
From our Hunting Camp (older pic)
Our Kubota
Our Kubota 2

[Harleen Quinzel]

@smokeyiscool thank you (: I love his markings too xD He's my pretty baby as I call him

[ShortyTheHobbitess]

@smokey That... that arena makes me cry, I want that, even the indoor arena at my fair isnt that huge >.>
The homemade cutting flag is nifty, I've used one once, Shorty was rather interested in it, our only problem was turning with it fast enough xD

New Topic? (if I may?)
If/when you ride bareback, do you ride in a halter or with a bridle?
-Personally I do either, depends on if Shorty is feeling like being nice or if I need to keep her attention better with a bridle

[wibeke]

Yay, new thread!
It's really late and I'm supposed to be asleep right now (hurray for midyears... .-.) but I'll respond to everyone in the morning.


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I rode Harry on Monday. Of course I finally got to ride him again right after he got body clipped, and it was freezing. So he was a total nut, haha. He kept bolting at the doors whenever cold air blew through them. His spooks are ridiculously easy to sit and all he does is gallop (which I definitely prefer over Sully's "surprise handstands" >.>) but it was enough to keep me on my toes. Silly boy.
Apart from that, he was great. For once I'm actually pretty happy with how I rode. I usually have a really hard time staying in the right position on him because I'm a bit too tall for him (he's about... 14hh?), and my hands are always an issue because my arms are really long and his neck is ridiculously short. But I had my mom take a video of us and I actually think I looked pretty good.
Jumping was okay. We had a couple really good jumps, but we also had a lot of bad distances and I got left behind a few times. I have no idea why it's so hard for me to judge distances on this pony. I'm not that great at judging distances in general, but Harry is just a special kind of failure for me, haha. We got a few nice ones at the end, though.
Overall it was a really fun ride, I really missed the little fancy pony. Can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm actually starting to prefer Sully, though. Sass and all. I can't wait until February (1 more week!) to finally start my quarter lease. I need my pony. <3

[country.girl]

I haven't really posted here before but I wanted to come for some mild advice.
I got a new horse on Monday. She is a 15.3 dark bay Quarter Horse mare, who is my new barrel racing project. We got her in and settled and I was grooming her down when I saw her tail was brittle, dry, and muddy. I didn't dare touch and was wondering what you all suggest about reviving her tail.
Since I just got her, I am starting to bond with her. Honestly, I haven't had a new horse in 17 years, since I haven't had need of one, because I had my older gelding all this time. I don't know very many bonding techniques, besides the natural horsemanship(Clinton Anderson, Parelli, etc.) and was again wondering what you like to do to bond closer with your horse. Thanks.

[Livid-Silver]

@Monchele; Thanks! He is pretty adorable though <3 I love my fluffy grey teddy bear <3

@June Bug; Meh, I not really bothered by it. You can't be perfect at every comp, and you gotta make the mistake before you can fix it.
I think I remember the photos you're talking about though This set? He has come a long way, and I think he's taught me just as much if not more then I've taught him. I must say I'm glad he's not like that to ride anymore xD Calm swinging Donny is much nicer then rushy locked Donny
Sucks that a lot of the horses at your barn got injured and poor Grande has to pick up the slack That's the problem when they're so good and trustworthy. Hopefully some of the horses will be able to come back to work soon and lighten the load for Grande.
As for accepting the bit, I know your pain xD Donny went through a faze where he would suck back behind the bit. Opal and Monchele have already said pretty much everything I would suggest. The only other thing I could think is work on getting him to stretch into the contact, and I mean all the way down. Like how when you ask for a free walk, but in the trot and canter too. If he's been sucking back from the bridle its almost certain he would be breaking at the third vertebrae, rather than at the poll. So depending how long he's been doing this for, it can actually change the muscles in his neck and this becomes his 'natural' way of going, because its what he adapted too. So the stretching will help this, and help improve this other gaits too. If you youtube ArttoRide, he has some really excellent videos on horses who suck back and some exercises to help them
And also not good he's loosing weight Can you up his hard feed?
Sorry if none of that made sense or I missed stuff, I'm attempting to type this at 2am xD

@Opal; Thanks! And yes he is very silly xD I think it would have been fun to watch though

@Hime; Also thanks! Hopefully we'll do better at the next comp

@Do you ride in a halter;
Yep Most of the time if I jump on bareback and can't be bothered tacking up, or if Donny is getting a little touchy with his mouth. But luckily he goes well in either and he doesn't get hard to pull up or anything. I think he likes hooning around bareback xD I haven't ridden Sassy in a halter yet, but I am planning too. I've done all of her ground work in a halter plus she's pretty good to ride off your seat, so she should have an understanding of what I'm asking.

@Country.girl; Dirty tails are my pet peeve xD What I would suggest is to wash it really thoroughly with shampoo, and then get a really good quality conditioner that is specifically for re-hydrating hair. I'd also get some show-sheen/cowboy magic that you can spary on her tail and leave in. It does work wonders. I'd probably repeat this for a couple of days, until your happy with her tail. A tail bad would also be a good idea to keep it clean, but being a bay, you could get away without

@Enchanted; Welcome to the thread!

~~~
Donny is having a spell in the paddock for a bit, cause of his foot I can't remember if I mentioned on here, but he pulled a shoe at the beach due to some sinking sand and his refusal to stop digging and cracked a heap of his hoof wall off in the process. So I'm just letting that grow back cause I don't want more to crack off. Yay for cruddy feet xD He's enjoying it though, gets a feed and a brush everyday without having to work. He does get lonely if I don't take him out of the paddock, so I usually just let him tag along <3 But with Donny on break, I've had more of a chance to focus on Sassy and she's going super well <3 She's finally figured out the canter cues and is just generally cruising along. She went on her first trail ride today and she was super. Z had to take her horse for a canter to calm down, and she only tried to trot off after him twice. And she had her first proper jump at a canter =D She was a little confused about where to put her legs and tried to back off a little, but I just clicked her up and she popped straight over. I'm gonna start looking for some little comps to take her too and get her out and about a bit. Mum says I can take her to the interschool dressage comps, but she's still not keen on taking her too the interschool show jumping. We'll see lol Z and I are going to try and find some combined training between now and then, so she might change her mind. I wish I could buy her and mum does too, but we don't know if we'd be able to afford them both through winter. Like we wouldn't want to buy Sassy, and then not keep the level of care we have been giving for Donny. If we were at our old aggistment, we could probably have made it work, but this new place isn't as forgiving. Mum said she would be able to afford one, I would just have to find money to afford the other lol xD Maybe if I find a proper job I've just gotten way to attached and so has Donny for that matter. He loves his girlfriend <3 I'll have to get some photos of the two of them; its adorable! But hopefully she won't be going anywhere for a long while, and I can keep dreaming lol

[opal.]

@June
Glad to help! I can totally sympathize and relate to that though. For years and years people have always told me I have lovely soft, light hands which is great, but only recently have I learned that releasing by loosening your fingers isn't the best way to release. Keeping contact keeps your line of communication to the horse. When you loosen your fingers, that line of communication falls apart. Energy starts with your legs, when the horse uses that energy to go forward, the energy transfers up into your hands and creates that cycle of energy. When you don't keep contact with the horses mouth, that energy cycle can't continue and it drops off, making it so you're adding leg and leg and leg to keep him going instead of keeping up that continuous wave or cycle of energy. You also can't ask for things as precisely and makes a lot of cues muddled and uncollected

I hope it works out for you! Tell me how it results for you!

@Hime
Aww, Ty is getting so big! I'm sorry he's been so naughty for you though as of late :c

@Smokey
I used fontmeme.com c: Look it up, click on the site, click on the "theme" tab at the top, and play with fonts to your hearts content! Thank you c: I'm glad you like it c: I'll be working on adding a forum for newcomers to fill out if they like and some other stuff later as well c:

@Wibeke
Awww Harry <3 He's so cute c:
I'm still so happy your got bitten by the Morgan bug. They're the best, aren't they! Now, if only we could imprint that adorable personality and amazing work ethic into some of the bigger breeds ;.;

@Country Girl
Welcome! Feel free to stick around and chat c: We love new people!

Have you tried any liberty work? It's great for trust building and feeling each other out. Also, trail rides can be a good, relaxing thing to do together than gives you both a chance to understand how the other operates c:

@Amy
Aww! I'm glad you and Sassy are doing well! That's always an awesome feeling when you start to really progress with a horse!

[ξƞçɧαƞtєđ]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome and hopefully I can be as active as I want to be in this thread.

@country.girl~ For your bonding situation, try ground work, even if she is good and mannerly on the lead, going over simple things and praising for when she accomplishes something and retrying it when she messes up will give a good foundation for building any sort of trust and/or bonding. Starting off on good notes and ending on them as well is what will be your lifeline if things ever do take a turn for the worst. Another thing I do (not sure if anyone has ever done this on this thread as I learned this from a woman who likes to train and see horses the way the native americans did), is Join-up. It's something I do with every single horse I work with, and depending on the horse, I won't get on their back until they have completed some successful join-up sessions. Sky and Hoss love join-up and it is a wonderful feeling every time it is done correctly. I might be able to find a video of someone doing it on youtube but here is my best description of it: It is a free lunging technique. It can work the very first time or it could take months- all depending on the horse's mood towards you. What you do is of course, let your horse go in an enclosed arena. Begin free-lunging them around the arena (you can't necessarily control the gait, but to change their direction, hold out the lunge whip in front of them or step in the direction of their path so they get the idea to turn- NOTE: don't ever step directly in front of them though as that could end horrid if she isn't as good a listener as I'm hoping she is.) Over a period of time, depending on the horse, you will begin to get some signs from them (this may or may not appear in order and may not appear at all if the horse isn't willing to join-up with you just yet on the first, second, or even 7th try). You will see their inside ear flick towards you every now and then, giving the indication they are noticing your presence and are listening for your next cue. When you see them slowly lower their neck and begin to lick their lips, then you know what they are wanting to do. Drop or lower your lunge line and turn your back to them and gently start calling their name- this is when the horse is supposed to walk to you. When you feel them standing either beside or behind you, turn around and reward them with petting before walking off- if the join-up really did work, then the horse should follow you willingly without anything between you.
This technique has worked wonders with any so-called 'dangerous' horses I've worked with and it is possible for any horse to accomplish. It may seem cheesy, but it does work as I haven't seen it fail yet- and with persistence and repeating of this, then you and our horse will earn a new mutual respect and trust as in coming up to you, they are showing they want to be with you and follow your lead. My gelding Sky did this in only two sessions, and with some parelli thrown into the mix, he is a wonderful boy. Hoss, it took longer for him to finally come up to me and follow me around- 4 months to be exact as he was a bit more closed off then Sky is but now, he is a laid back and loving boy who I can trust to follow my cues without question and be there to nicker at my arrival every morning at 6am.

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As for my boys, they are still rocking their blankets but today it is finally supposed to start warming up again by getting into the low 30's. A far cry from the 0 degree weather in the mornings and 15 degree weather + wind chill in the afternoons. Hopefully Saturday or Sunday I can go for a ride finally as I haven't wanted to work either of them for fear they could sweat and I wouldn't want that when water is freezing as soon as you toss a cup of it into the air and it falls back to the ground as solid ice. *shiver*

(Please do forgive any typos as I'm still half-asleep xD lol)

EDIT: Gonna just add some old pics until I can get some updated ones. xD This is my 16.4hh black roan TNWH gelding, Hoss. I'll get a picture of him parking out later but this is his cute face when he's asking for some treats. xD



And this is my 17hh chestnut tovero w/ watch eyes TNWH gelding, Sky. This is us at our first and second show. xD





^^^Yes, this is him stealing my potato chips. He has some strict rules: "What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine." So naturally, my snack is his snack. XD

[Rebel Love Song]

@country, my ex-barrel mare Bella had a horrid tail when i got her aswell. Like Amy said, wash with shampoo and put conditioner in, and i put spray in conditioner in her tail every day for about 2 weeks and after that i put Mane n' Tail conditioner in once a week. (leave it in, it works better)

@Enchanted, you have some gorgeous horses! I really love the colorfulness!


So it's 9 degrees out right now, but it's supposed to be 34 tomorrow so it looks like i can finally put my kids out! Yaay! And i was going to have my lesson on Monday, but it's going to be 35 and my mom doesn't want to stand in that lol i don't blame her. So i might have to wait until the monday after that. ):