Do You Ride Horses? V.4

[Wolf Prints]

First, make sure you ride with an instructor. Second, keep your heels down! And if you're scared about hurting her, you could use a bareback pad.

[Kecko]

I've moved to the other end of my country now so I've sold my horse to another family.
Plus, I've stopped riding for now due to a leg injury and I doubt that I'll ride in shows again.
I still love horses, but I wont be doing all that competition and stuff now.
I'll still ride, but only for fun and casual stuff now, no more competing.
Its like my whole world has fallen apart without horses in my life.

Anyways, here's a pic of a new filly at the stable I used to go to. I think she's a Hanoverian, but not exactly sure. Any ideas?

Oh, I'm sorry! Maybe you could work at a local stable and do fun shows?

[Kestrell]

@HalterQH
Wow that picture makes me very sad.. I'm not too hugely involved quarter horse world especially the halter classes etc so I really didn't know that was going on... Yikes! But I'm glad to say that not all Quarter horses are like that, the appyXqh I'm leasing right now has pretty great muscle on him even if he is super chubby right now XD

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Speaking of my little baby, Dempsey is great! I'll have to get some pictures and post them soon.. After 1 1/2 year break studying dressage and learning it and having to spend a whole year basically relearning how to jump I'm finally back up in the 2 ft range! I was jumping some small courses yesterday and I forgot how freaked out I get when I jump even that low... Does anyone have any advise for someone who gets really nervous when jumping? My trainer doesn't even know how scared I get and plus she is trying to train me slowly into being a 3 day event rider, that wouldn't be bad at all except for the fact that cross country scares the crap out of me... -_- oh boy..

[Livid-Silver]

@Halter quarter horses; Umm yes, something has gone horrendously wrong when it comes to halter bred quarter horses; I can't even see how they would be able to perform the job they were bred to do in the first place, which is a shame- Hind leg conformation gone out the window, massive bodies tiny hooves, over muscled, short through the neck and just generally out of proportion. Luckily you still get your working bred QH's that actually look and function like horses and in saying that, I've seen some halter QH who actually look to have decent conformation. Just gotta hope the judges stop rewarding this kind of horse in the ring and the breed society amends the guidelines I guess? We don't have many halter bred quarter horses over here in Aus, so it doesn't seem to be as big of an issue here, but they certainly seem common in America.

@Hime; Glad to hear your arm's feeling better! Heta sounds like she's going pretty well and cantering bareback is awesome! It can take them a little while to get used to just the halter, but once they click on, they don't tend to have trouble after that.

@Purplerocks- Riding bareback usually doesn't cause the horse any harm, unless they have something really strange going on with their conformation, so don't worry about hurting her, but if you're still worried, just put a saddleblanket on and use a surcingle as a 'girth', so you still get the bareback experience and you give her a little extra padding Also, if you're worried, don't rush yourself, you'll just end up more nervous and not enjoying yourself at all. If you only want to walk, that's fine, trotting and cantering can come later, as long as your having fun with riding Lace =D

@xxLeft4Deadxx; Similar thing as Purplerocks, don't go up the next step until your completely comfortable with it. Tell your instructor your not feeling overly confident about jumping and they'll be able to help you through it, either by slowly increasing the difficulty, putting you on a jumping schoolmaster to help increase your confidence. Just tell your instructor and they'll be able to help

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Not much is new really. Haven't been able to ride cause Donny started having this strange super subtle soreness/lameness which would go away with rest, then come back when in work. It got more and more noticeable and he lost all his topline in less than two weeks, lame behind, super heavy in the bridle and he just couldn't engage his hind. Let him rest while I went away on study camp, came back, hind end lameness still there but not as evident, so called the vet. I had a feeling he'd done something to his sacroiliac joint/tendons/ligaments and it turns out I was right lol Its impossible to say when he did it or how, but I'm wondering if he might have had a tiny injury there and that's when he started stopping at jumps, so when I gave him time off from that, it healed some and he felt better so would jump better again and so on, then normal dressage work and playing in the paddock pushed it over the edge, or he could have done it as soon as I noticed the soreness, its impossible to tell but would certainly explain his sudden revolt against jumping the last month or so. Either way, he just needs to go on rest for a bit and then be brought back to work with a bit of a rehab program and see if he goes sore again. If he comes back still sore or there is no improvement, then we look at shockwave therapy but hopefully it wont get to that lol It does give me a bit more time to focus on getting Reggie ready for a show and stuff like that. He's lots of fun to play with and seems to be very even mentally; you really only need to do thing one side and he pretty much gets it on the other side straight away. Its difficult to explain but I'm hoping I can prevent him from developing any onesidedness, physically or mentally. I also taught him to bow in literally one session, bit awkward still, but coming along. Next goal is to work on lying down lol

[Hime]

@Luzien: Left is Heta's worse side in general(also the bad hock side) and even with briddle she sometimes isn't so eager to turn left. I think my seat wasn't so good either while turning(definetly still lacking some balance there), which probably added on to the issue... :\ Considering that was our second ride ever with halter it went pretty decent.
Yup, the canter was actually very nice to sit bareback. ^^ Not particularry boucy, since Heta was going nice and slow. Arm's tolerating riding pretty well(still only riding every other day, just in case), but it still doesn't like carrying heavy stuff in certain ways or shoveling snow. Made that mistake on Monday when I came home, pushed around some slush and snow and then lifted couple shovels, which hurt a bit... Then Tuesday it was horrible and I couldn't really do anything in pilates class that involved moving my left arm, or even tie my hair into a ponytail casually(had to sort of tilt my head to side, so I didn't have to lift my hand too high). ;__; It's bit better now though, but taking it easy today anyway.

That disease, HYPP. Some breeders actually avoid it by testing and breeding selection. And it isn't the main reason for the beefy look. For example the horse posted is negative for the gene causing the HYPP. So in general the HYPP has nothing to do with the general beefyness issue, other than adding even more to it and causing other issues at the same time. So it really beats me why some people breed HYPP positive horses...

Oh and, Were you planning to go to Herning?

@PurpleRocks: Too much bareback(like everyday and for hour or more) can be harmfull, especially if the horse had poor back muscle and you have horrible balance and bounce around like crazy. But just occasional barebacking, with horse in good muscle tone and rider that has at least decent balance, it's not end of the world. Pads are more for rider's comfort imo, so to use one or not is totally up to you. ^^ On some pads you can attach stirrups and there are also therapy/riding girths that you can attach stirrups on to, so they offer little more security. For mounting I really recommend using a chair or something if you find it hard. It's also more comfortable way for the horse, especially if you are less gracefull while mounting. Like me in winter with all the thick clothes on... XD
If you feel like falling, that tells you your balance/seat isn't so great yet. Have you ridden without stirrups a lot? Might try that first if bareback feels too hard. Or just stick to walk while bareback, so that you get more used to it and your balance improves. Then when you feel more comfortable add little bits of trot on straight lines and so on.

@xxLeft4Deadxx: Definetly tell your instructor you aren't feeling too confident with the jumping. She'll then hopefully slow down the pace a little and you have more time to get comfortable with the jumping and gain confidence. It's ultimately up to you what you jump or don't jump, and when.

@Halter QHs: Pretty much along the lines with Amy Pond. I think halter QHs are are compaireable to certain dog breeds that have been bred to extreme/harmfull comformations. So, if just all the judges could draw a line what's good and what's taking it to extreme, and then start rewarding the good animals instead of extreme ones, then the breeders would stop breeding for extreme look. Thus the general appearence of the animals would be less extreme and also in many cases probably result to more healthy animals.

@Amy Pond: Did the vet figure out exactly what was wrong with Donny, or just what the problem area was? Hopefully it'll go away with good rest and then stay away. Slight/random chronic issues are pain... >_<
Yup, doing stuff on both sides is excelent thing to do. ^^ It's funny how doing same thing from one side can create much bigger reaction than when doing same thing from the usual side. Like one shetland pony, you could wash her left side with sponge, but approach from right side with the sponge and she'd shy away. Then if you'd stand on the left side, but have the sponge touch her right side she was totally fine... : P So definetly teach Reggie to be two sided.

[why.]

Thanks all of you for the great bareback riding advice! I'll make sure I'll keep those in mind.....and maybe get a bareback pad just in case. Anyways, what breed do you guys think are best suited for your ability for riding? Just curios

[spring.]

Thanks all of you for the great bareback riding advice! I'll make sure I'll keep those in mind.....and maybe get a bareback pad just in case. Anyways, what breed do you guys think are best suited for your ability for riding? Just curios

For me really most breeds work. I have seen all kinds of breeds in hunter/ jumpers but usually I ride Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods

[Mercury.Muses]

Hey guys, bareback riding question sort of. I've heard that riding horses bareback is bad for their spines but..
How much do you think a horse can actually handle? and I'm... 82 pounds xD I wasn't sure for a moment, sorry. But if you're extremely light like I am, (to a 16.2 hand horse LOL) I'm sure bareback wouldn't bother her with me, would it? I've actually never ridden Missy bareback but then again, she isn't my horse. But I have ridden the 3 year old of my trainer's bareback a few times since he's such an angel.

I have a lesson in an hour ^0^

[ryukrem]

I took a big step yesterday. I asked my instructor if when we jumped in our grouped lessons, if I can just canter the course over ground poles and maybe jump once or twice if I'm comfortable. She had no problems with it, so I'm on a hiatus with jumping for a little while. We shall see when I feel like jumping again.

On another note: I had my lesson last night and we were working on counter canter. It turned out better than I thought it would, but it was still a struggle. Any tips?

[Rising]

Ello all!
I recently mentioned a new pony at the riding school, Merlin. Well yesterday I tried riding him. We did the same things as last week, Danielle on Merlin and me on Daz in the arena. Only this time we swapped over after about 20 minutes. Merlin really is hard work. Even trotting it was hard to keep him moving, I lost count of the number of times I had to slap him in the first couple of minutes alone. Cantering was tough. I managed to complete a lap going to the right but going to the left we just did loads of discombobulated canter strides at random places and mostly just trotted. I was so out of breath at the end that I could barely tell him to stand and I'm fairly fit.
Danielle was so happy to be back on Daz again. She put hours into schooling him when he first came but she is way too tall for him now and hadn't ridden him in months. She was so impressed at how forward-going he is. Daz is a good little thing now, especially after Merlin. Jessie was really good today too. Compared to Merlin she is like the most responsive pony in the school. I think if Peter (owner of the riding school) is prepared to consider Merlin then he would probably accept Jessie without question! Not that she'll ever be for sale. I think it would do her good to go and live there but it's purely fantasy.
I so hope Merlin stays.