Discussion: True Horse-Related Confessions
Nov 27 2007
In case you’re wondering, I’m home sick with bronchitis so I’m going to be a posting fool until I recover enough to go back to work! (Anyone with a great cure for this, please feel free to share. I’m hacking up my lungs and I can’t get enough breath to push a wheelbarrow, which is really interfering with my life.)
So here’s tonight’s discussion: What’s your true (horse-related) confession? What would your horsey friends give you shit about forever if they only knew?
Here’s mine. My friends who read this blog are going to laugh so hard they’ll choke but…every time I go to an Arabian show, I think it would be kind of fun to have an Arabian just to get to go in Native Costume.
I love the blingy outfits, and you get to gallop around like a fool. It looks like fun. They don’t do anything that fun at the hunter or the AQHA shows. At least not in this country.
OK, my secret is out – what’s yours? Are you harboring a secret desire to own a driving mini? Or do you sadly admit you really DO want a Gypsy Vanner? Or, even though you think his training methods are retarded, you think Pat Parelli has a nice ass?
Now’s the time – pour yourself a drink and ‘fess up, we’re all going to look silly together!
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Oh, I just remembered…
My friends and I spend alot of time playing the “Steal Tack” game. Come up behind another horse, and thwack ‘em on the butt with the crop, then flip the person out of the saddle. steal headstalls, un clip leads..
My friends and I also ride bareback, and with a halter and lead [not looped to make two reins, just one rein] and so its not uncommon to have a friend ride up behind you and grab your lead rope, then take off with your horse.
ahh, to be young….
When I was in high school and had to take care of the horses in between school and work I’d often ride bareback in a skirt and barefeet before putting on my high heels. Because I could do that and I thought it would look pretty awesome I used to go out to the barn in my gowns after a dance and ride my horse around in these big fluffy dress and high heels in the middle of the night.
Word of warning, just because you can sit with both legs on one side of a horse in a silk dress and w/t/c doesn’t mean you can jump. The fabric was too slippery and I ended up rolling onto my stomach and throwing my other leg over/wrapping my arms around his neck to I didn’t fall off. Didn’t want to explain a giant hole in the dress if my horse stepped on it.
Also: if pressed for time I’d strip down to my undies and “shower” in the wash rack. I kept soap, shampoo and conditioner at the barn with combs and hair clips and big fluffy towels. That hose saved my butt from a grounding more than once if I forgot I had to be somewhere for my parents to show me off.
My junior year, someone called social services because they thought I was being starved and beaten. My jaw/arms/legs/back were all bruised up and I’d lost a lot of weight from working out, I had to take a social worker to the barn and have all of the boarders vouch that the bruises were from the horses and that I was getting food.
Enigma said…
So… does anyone else say “whoa” and “stand” to their dogs??? And then think, duh, it’s the dog!
I totally do – I also say “easy” when I’m showing to slow my dogs down in the ring; plus in teaching my new puppy for a show I use the command “park up” to get him to step into a stack.
My dream was to own a Friesian but now it’s simplified to a “Little Iron Horse” (Canadian Horse) because of our crappy winters.
My confession – I was always secretly terrified to jump when in pony club. Terrified. But I always did it anyway.
I also have red hair, two red Ridgebacks(dogs), an orange tabby cat and I REALY want a chesnut Canadian. It’s on purpose so they all match me. I also want to gallop my CH on a beach with (eventually) 4 ridgebacks running beside me. The cat can stay at home ;>
I am in love with a squirrely, never handled, chestnut Egyptian-type Arabian who has been starved, neglected, kicks and bites at anything that comes near her — and she’s eight years old, too without ever having worn a halter (until one was left on her until it grew into her face) or having been led, let alone anything else. She has to be tranqed onto the GROUND just to trim her hooves.
Is that fucking NUTS or what? And no, if I did get her, I would NOT breed her (if I live, that is.)
So don’t feel alone. There is just something ABOUT this horse. I believe she can be turned around and gentled. Well, either that or I will be in desperate need of a coffin in short order.
Another stupidity to which my flesh is heir — I used to trust the world’s worst trainer just because she was our friend. She all but killed my colt when I left him with her for six months.
Now, everyone told me this woman was BAD NEWS, was a trainer like I am a brain surgeon, and she’d ruin my gelding and turn him into a neurotic mess. They were right and I was wrong. Needless to say, this person is a Parellihead with a carrot stick shoved so far up her ass she looks like an ironing board.
More stupidity? Now I don’t trust ANY trainer, except myself and my husband. There are supposedly some great ones in my area, but I will never hire one of them and take the risk of making another crappy decision for my boy. As it is, he may never trust people again.
I named my son Alec after the boy in the Black Stallion Series. Now THAT’S obsession! lol.
Just remembered another one:
When I walk around the back of my car, I automatically keep one hand on the trunk…just so it knows I’m there and doesn’t kick, I guess!
I have read every comment! I have never, and I do mean NEVER, laughed so hard in my life! Thanks, it was great.
Special thanks to Zhenya’s hubby for “your mom”.
I too go barefoot in the pasture.
Nothing smells better than horse sweat and leather.
Still trying to focus through the tears rolling down my cheeks; and my co-workers, well, they’re calling the men with little white jackets for me.
Beth,
I am so impressed by your Seattle story! I don’t live far (just a ferry ride away) I had no idea you could do that.
I do ride in parades and now when I drive on a street that was a parade route I always think how cool it is that I have ridden my horse down that street.
The group I ride in parades with keeps talking about doing the Macy’s day after Thanksgiving Parade and Seafair, we just have to increase our liability insurance first.
When I was three, I snuck away from a dinner and climbed the paddock fence of a 4 yr old Standardbred stallion, owned by a relative we were visiting on Prince Edward Island.
I shimmied down his neck onto his back and was walking around the paddock on him when the family came out looking for me.
Yep…no helmet, age three, on an untrained stallion. I was rescued and it all ended MUCH better than it had the potential to.
I hooked up on a horn, too.
Played chicken in traffic doubling on my friends 1/2 Arab pony.
Did ALL kinds of stupid things over the past 30 yrs and keep an eagle eye on my DD to make sure she doesn’t try anything similar.
My fondest dream…..5-10 acres, board fencing, well designed barn with dutch doors opening into pastures, and a breeding program for conformationally correct ponies with amazing movement and solid working minds.
My fondest riding memories…clinics with my hero, Herr Walter Zettl.
HeatherAQHA – THANK YOU for your advice to PeriodWarHorse! I sincerely hope that she does get Rosie retested, as the Friesian stud that covered her is my Sjouke, 2e premie (Wander 352 x Leffert 306 Preferent).
*FINGERS CROSSED* (and toes, eyes, hair, legs, and everything else that I CAN cross ROFL!)
My confessions:
-I dress my gelding in pink. Don’t laugh, he looks faaaaabulous. I also ride him with his rhythm beads whenever possible because they have helped him so much. He seems to like them as much as the people do.
-I want his next blanket to be monogrammed with, “Mommy drinks because I buck.”
-I’d love to see a dressage freestyle to Dueling Banjos. Surely someone has done this by now?
-I’m actually very afraid to ride on hills because every bad fall I’ve ever had has been on one.
-I grew up wanting a white horse terribly, until I realized just how much work is involved in keeping them white.
I haven’t managed to snag my hooter-holder on the horn yet, but my boy’s jackhammer trot leads me to pack ‘em in tight with an industrial-strength sports bra.
I once snapped, “Stand!” at my fiance while shopping, then returned a second later embarrassed when it registered what I’d said. I swear that’s Equestrian for, “Wait with the cart here a moment, dear.”
I used to be part of a h/j club that has since dissolved, where I gained a reputation for girth troubles. The first time I hadn’t tightened my sucky pony’s girth enough, and I ended up sliding off during schooling. Thankfully my boy stopped before the jump when the saddle and I ended up on the side of his barrel. Took about five minutes for that to circulate among the few hundred people showing there that day.
To make matters worse, the very next show our girth snapped halfway down a line and threw my saddle and me down right in front of the judge’s box. Immediately afterward everyone waiting to enter began checking their girths. Ah, I miss jumping.
Since my horse is really too fugly to do well at any discipline, I’ve decided my next horse will be showier. I’ve also decided that he must be black. Breed isn’t too important, though a sport morgan would be preferable.
I not so secretly want to teach my 10 year old, paint gelding, auction bought, blue eyed, wish I could sell some days but never will, to dance. And I want him and I to dance to “Crazy” by Gnarls Berkley which is his song. Now if this doesn’t sound like some psycho that this horse needs to be rescued from I wouldn’t know what would be. And I haven’t a clue where to start. Until I do, we look so, SO, good, in my dreams!
I secretly want to learn to ride Dressage and/or Saddleseat. (I ride H/J, but not of the rich and snobby style. lol. My family is poor)
I made my own rhythm beads, and will probably try them out tomorrow on my spaz TB.
I have peed in the barn but never the trailer or arena.
Sometimes, after riding “my” 25 year old schoolmaster TB I let him roll in the sand of the indoor arena. After I groomed him to get the sweat off.
I love Likits. My parents bought me one last christmas and I opened it early just to taste it.
When I am older (I’m sixteen now) I want to just go out and buy whatever horse tickles my fancy, whether it be auction bound or show horse.
I hate my barns farrier
And last but not least, I somehow have avoided the young and dumb cliche. Strange, isn’t it?
i cluck my tongue at my boyfriend when he’s being too slow
the-farmer’s-wife said…
For everyone who has ever hung up their bra on a saddlehorn: The CEO of Victoria’s Secret is Ann Hailey of Copperbeech Morgans. She has a string of gorgeous winning horses I love to watch and hope to beat someday. Keep on hangin’ on and keep her in business so she can thrill us all at nationals every October.
i learned my lesson… SPORT BRA!!!!
Skye DreamSinger said…
HeatherAQHA – THANK YOU for your advice to PeriodWarHorse! I sincerely hope that she does get Rosie retested, as the Friesian stud that covered her is my Sjouke, 2e premie (Wander 352 x Leffert 306 Preferent).
*FINGERS CROSSED* (and toes, eyes, hair, legs, and everything else that I CAN cross ROFL!)
I basically have no idea what any of those numbers mean (no explanation necessary; I translate it as your stallion is a good’un), but you’re welcome! Haha
I do hope she’s happily in foal though, for everyone’s sake.
xsallyx, you could start by looking into freestyle for dogs–a competition (obedience-based) in which dogs and their owners do a musical “dance’ routine, incorporates a lot of obedience and agility moves. Then learn clicker training w/ your horse. (Alexander Kurland is a great clicker author and a good place to start). While I don’t care for using clicker training (C/T) while riding, I think it’s great to use for groundwork, things like trailer-loading (worked great for my colt), and tricks. Just be sure that you break the dance moves down into small tasks, make sure the horse gets each one before you string them together.
Can someone explain how rhythm beads help the horse? I’d like to get some, but I thought they were just for show.
more confessions–I eat things off of barn floors (if there’s no visible manure, it’s clean enough), I eat things after sharing them with my rat and cat, I frequently don’t wash my hands before eating whether I’ve been cleaning stalls, playing with dogs, whatever…. I’ve chased down more than one horse and rider and been pulled off a cantering horse by one foot (both situations in the polo alumni game, where loose horses running crazy are about expected as their riders are dragged off to be dunked in the rough)
oops “trough” not rough
so hurray! can I brag just a teeny bit? just after my last post about being too chicken to jump, today I took Murphy over an itsy-bitsy cross-rail, and I didn’t fall off! poor horse, he has SO much more experience than I do, wondered what all the fuss was about.
maybe there’s hope for me yet
Poisoned Chalice….I won a big silver cup at a horse show as a child. It was the first cup I had ever won and I should have been really proud to win it had circumstances been different. The class was for ‘Pony Best Suited to the Child’. I had been riding a bright pink (strawberry roan), fat, fugly, evil and bad tempered to the point of being downright nasty Irish cob. My initial glee at winning was seriously tempered by my subsequent realisation of the possible significance of said award.
I love Parelli’s ropes.
One of the reasons I embraced Parelli NH was so I didn’t need the reins for control ….I need both hands free to roll a fag while I am riding.
I know you shouldn’t buy a horse for its colour…but I couldn’t resist this Lusitano colt recently while I was in Portugal!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/Rockmoor/Cristo2.jpg
I have a not so secret yearning to gallop up our local beach (where horses are banned) scattering sunbathers as I go.
I find Nevzorov (the crazy Russian) quite cute. I don’t understand a word he is saying but he says it with such passion!
I want a Saddle Chariot.
I have just bought an archive DVD of the 1960′s TV programme Mister Ed the Talking Horse. I love the song ‘The Pretty Little Filly with the Pony Tail’
I secretly want to ride in the extreme cowboy race.
When I was kid, I was friends with a girl who had a horse and lived on a dairy farm. We use to get on her horse riding double, go out to the pasture where the bull lived, and run the horse at the bull. The bull would charge, the horse would spin on a dime and gallop away. And we did it over, and over, and over….
How the 3 of us survived is a mystery to me.
I want to spend a summer at a working ranch. I want to ride “real” western horses without worrying about them holding a frame. I don’t want to have to keep my mount clipped. I want to smell the smell of a good day’s sweat combined with trail dirt…not show smells that come from hoof black, face oil, and rubber bands.
Heh, mine aren’t numerous, bit here goes..
- I decided to be a genius and hop on my neighbors skitzy gelding… Bareback, helmetless, halter and lead rope, shorts, and sneakers. (It was one of those Watch This! moments…) To say the least he didn’t enjoy it. But I stayed on until he stopped his fit and promtly slid off. (Mind you, I was 11 years old… 3 years ago! =])
- I got bored and decided to hop on my neighbors other horse. She was quiet as could be. (Halter and lead rope by the way) So I decided I could manage to take her through a narrow, low doorway if I ducked soon enough. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I nearly got my head taken off…
- I’ve eaten the same apple as my pony, but hey, who hasn’t?
- I haven’t ever peed in a stall, trailer, etc, but I’ve never had to.. And I can’t figure out how you’d do it without peeing on your pants.. Its all in the angling I guess!
- I have a secret desire to take pictures of all the pieces of poop horses at my barn and send them to FHOTD so you all can have a field day laughing. (Oh, you particularly enjoy the Friesian x Morgan with horrid post legs, back half the length of her neck, a 1 foot stride and the head of a moose)
- I don’t overly have a desire for a Friesian or a Gypsy, but I must admit, they are pretty.
- I always use my pony’s tail brush at shows. Hey, it works to fix the helmet hair.
- I, too, have picked up poop with my hands.
- I have been fortunate enough to not catch my over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder on the saddle horn, but I’m sure it will happen eventually.
- I have eaten my pony’s horse cookies. The kind I had.. disguisting.
- I have put hoof moisturizer cream on my hands if they are dry.
- My dream horse is a deep dark bay Warmblood gelding, 16.1hh, with ALOTTA white, flying changes, and just clocks around a hunter course (Wipes the drool off the keyboard)
justjumpit said…
“- I haven’t ever peed in a stall, trailer, etc, but I’ve never had to.. And I can’t figure out how you’d do it without peeing on your pants.. Its all in the angling I guess!”
In the name of education, I will share a secret to effective elimination, to say it politely.
If you back up against the wall of the trailer, stall, etc and get down low as if you were sitting in a chair (knees bent with feet slightly out in front, entire spine in contact with the wall), you can easily hold yourself there by pushing back off your feet. You also have both hands free to shoo horses away or whatever, and are high enough to not risk touching the ground or bedding while exposed. Sorry for the awkwardness, but it’s a tried and true method!
tucknroll said…
i live in washington and purchased my peruvian in california…and if one more person say’s “weren’t there ANY horses for sale closer” i will cry ….
I live in Washington too and I bought one of my Peruvians in California. Two others are from Texas, two more are from Colorado, and two are from Missouri! The others are natives (born in WA). I don’t see anything wrong with going across the country to get the horse/bloodlines you want.
When I was 12 (6 years ago yesterday. I’m turning 19 in about a month) I was riding this gorgeous green broke Lippitt Morgan mare in a pasture at the barn where I used to ride. STUPID IDEA. (I was about as green as she was)
Well, something spooked her at the top of this massive hill in the field, and she took off. (I swear to God, this horse should have been a cutter or a barrel horse. She spun on a dime, dashed down the hill.) I was freaked out and started screaming (oh, the shame). At the bottom of the hill, where the fence was, she spun right (on a dime again… COW HORSE) and I went left, into the fence. The impact was such that the wind was knocked out of me and I had a pretty serious concussion. (If I hadn’t been wearing my helmet, I would have been dead. That’s how hard my head hit the fence.) It wasn’t until we got to the hospital that we found out that I had cracked a rib and punctured my left lung, and had to have a chest tube and a week-long hospital stay.
I wouldn’t let them do anything to me until I knew how the horse was (we had an incredible bond. She used to gallop to my side when I called her name in the field, and then search me for treats), and I swear, if they had cut off my paddock boots (now the old comfy ones I use to mooch around my dorm in) I would have gone kung-fu on someone’s ass, regardless of how badly I was injured.
The first time I got to ride after that (albeit on the most bombproof plodder in the barn) was on January 1, 2002, my 13th birthday. It was the best birthday gift I’ve ever gotten.
This was six years ago yesterday. I still have people asking if I still ride… and I look at them like they’re crazy. I can’t get the creatures out of my life that easily.
Dari –
“This was six years ago yesterday. I still have people asking if I still ride… and I look at them like they’re crazy. I can’t get the creatures out of my life that easily. “
I had a similar experience, two days before my fourteenth birthday, seven and a half years ago, only my fall was from a bicycle. As I smashed into the pavement, I got a pretty serious head injury, enough to knock me out for ten days and leave me hospitalized for a couple of months. One of the first things I asked was when could I ride horses again. I was supposed to go to my first A class horse show that fall (haven’t shown seriously since before that fall), and the doctors told me if I fell again on my head in the next year, I would possibly never ever get better. I could ride again in a year.
People still ask me and my parents why I ride, why my parents let me back on a bike and back on a horse. They don’t know that while I was grounded, one of my favorite mares had injured a tendon and had to go riderless for a while, so I worked her on foot. I walked her and learned to lunge and massage and stuff like that. Helped me probably as much as it helped her.
Not let me ride again? Not going to happen. My parents knew they could never keep me from horses for very long, cus they are so much a part of me.
Go you, wearing a helmet. Me too, saved my life. Keep riding, girl, and never let something as silly as life-threatening injuries keep you from those horses you love.
(Thanks heatheraqha, I just might try it now…)
Oh, I forgot a few..
- I ride hunters but I really want to try eventing…
- I also want to try jumpers…
- I’ve been called a horse abuser at my barn because I kicked my pony for biting me. Hey, she deserved it! She’s a lesson pony and she can’t be biting little kids! (Mind you, she hasn’t tried it since)
- I want to get everything of mine embroidered (Saddle pad, polo wraps, cooler, etc.)
- Oh yeah, and stall plates, saddle plates, bridle plates, martingale plates, girth plates, halter plate.. I’ll stop now.
- I’ve clucked at people in the hallway at school and received a few funny looks.
- Whenever I hear any horse noise (TV, etc) I whip around so fast I gave myself whiplash a few times.
- I too also stare at horse trailers and want to yell too.
- If I’ve eaten too much I’ve told people many times that I’ve foundered.
- I’ve touched our electric fencing more than once just to see what it felt like.
- I jump the cracks, lines, and shadows on the road with my pony.. in the car. And of course I count the strides in between.
- I count the strides inbetween the cracks in the sidewalks.
- I have “lunged” my little brother in the backyard. Over jumps too.
- I throw horse cookies at the barn’s evil mare and see if I can get her to catch them in her mouth. (Her owner feeds her about a bag of cookies a day). Sadly, she just shies away from it.
- With the same mare (she is gray) I wanted to lick skittles and throw them at her to see if they would leave the color on her. Oh it would have been great..
- I also like the Likit treats.
. I really like the treat bars in apple and peppermint. They taste like smarties!
- When I got my brand new Pessoa saddle, it seriously hurt my, um.. girlie parts. But there was no way in hell I was going to complain.. (It stopped eventually)
Ok, I’m a newbie to the blog, but had to post in this thread. It’s keeping me very entertained.
My dream is to own a black stallion, just like in the movie, Arabian for preference. I’ve charished this dream since I was about 8, and while I’ve owned black geldings, it’s just not the same. I’d also love a Friesian, and I love NSHs. Sad, but true.
I think my most embarrassing moment was when I first started showing. I entered an open show with a new horse who I thought would be pretty easy to handle for a first show. Unfortunately, what I didn’t realize was that the horse, a QH gelding, was incredibly attached to his pasture buddy, another QH gelding. Anyway, I was showing the horse in a WP class, and the ride was going well..until he realized he couldn’t see his buddy. We then proceeded to do a pretty credible immitation of a saddle-bronc ride, and obviously placed dead last. I laugh now, but as a 12-year-old girl, I wanted to die.
Another one involves that same gelding. I should probably mention here that I can’t see very well, otherwise this might not make a lot of sense. When I first got this horse, I decided to ride him at a friend’s place, and I was alone at the time. Life was good for a while, and the horse was behaving himself. Then, I inexplicably couldn’t get him to go forward. I tried and tried, and finally, he did walk on..right into an electric fence. I’ve never ridden a faster gallop in my life, but luckily, the horse forgave me almost immediately. I still feel guilty about that one! He was truly a saint for putting up with all the stupid stuff I pulled with him.
I tried to teach the two youngest weanlings at the barn to play soccer by (gently) kicking an old ball to their end of the barn. I guess they aren’t into team sports, though, especially with horse-eating equipment.
let me see:
I have also used a stall as a bathroom
I once ripped the front out of my breeches on dismount, after getting them caught on a safety stirrup
I really want to ride a gaited horse one day
And, I have learned why people actually LIKE appies.
As kids we used to climb up on the big long yearlings in pasture and make the rest of the herd get going. No tack, no saddles, no brains. But it was fun!
To this day, when I travel out of town I take a piece of my mares mane with me.
Bran mash is just uncooked bran muffins. My gal has learned to share.
We used to “liberate” a pony kept by a neighbor family. He loved the company of our horses and we felt just like bandits!!!
Bra-dilemma either hang-up or bounce;
Don bra
Don t-shirt
Take duct tape wrap around chest several times
Don 2nd t-shirt
Tadaaa!!!
I just had to register on google to share my confession, I have never told any horsey people because I feel they will think me insane.
I love riding and handling stallions and prefer their personality to mares or geldings. I used to work at a small private barn owned by some rich fool who bred for fun, and I always loved the stallions we had. I rode the poor things since nobody else did, and spent a good bit of time grooming and bonding with them. All the stallions I have worked with always seemed to have a much deeper, complicated, personality to me. Much more soulful. Even the crazy ones had this spark of reason deep down that I could reach. I love ‘em, hope to one day have my own when I can get horses again and have suitable facilities.
‘nikki said…
“When I was very young i didnt know how to skip or run like a human, I would trot and canter, I caught alot of shit for that in gym class.”
Yeah I did that too I used to run around in my backyard with my dogs and pretend to “heard” them xD
Here is my wonderfull ‘buck off’ story:
I went to horse camp a few years back, none of they’re horses wanted to listen to me of course I was only 11. But I tried out 3 different horses the first was Shawnee the one I usually road, but the riding instructor thought I couldn’t ride her bacause she didn’t like other horses behind her and I was kind of a noob so she switched Shawnee to another rider and I got her horse named “Ginger” who bolted I don’t know how she thought that was better for me it didn’t work out so she pulled Ginger away and gave me a horse called Roll he was a 20something year old Quporab (QH pony Arab mix) he was even worse, He kicked and nipped at the other horses. Roll ended up being the horse I was stuck with anyway. It was July and about 90 outside it was also my 3rd day there, we set out for a trail, ride after we all turned around to head back to the barn Roll wanted to be the first one back (because it was so hot out) so he sped up, he wasn’t allowed to be in front because he kicked I asked him to stop and wait but he did the oppisite insted he bolted and bucked me off. I broke my arm and had be in a cast for 6 weeks it sucked!.
I did go back to riding a month later though and got to ride this awsome horse named Cracker im not really sure what breed he is but hes my lil ponywony! xD
I also really want a Welsh pony! It would fit me good seince im so short lol
I’ve always had a secret desire to race shetland ponies (not that I can fit on one anymore).
Sarcasta/Robyn-
Rhythm beads are basically a string of beads with sleigh bells that you put around your horse’s neck.
They are most commonly used by trail riders, but I use them the most in the ring. They warn animals on the trail of your approach, provide white noise to calm/distract a spooky horse, and my personal favorite, the rhythm of the jingle helps a young horse learn cadence through his gaits.
-I have mocked the hell out of my friend for how dorky her Tipperary helment looks, but now I finding myself highly considering buying one. They are very comfortable, I will admit.
-I have been known to say that mini horses are a waste of time and that I won’t anything that I can’t ride, but I suddenly have this inexplicable desire to own a driving mini.
-As far as what I wish I could have: I wish I didn’t have my back injury from a car accident so I could ride, get into eventing (I have a very safe, very fun, semi-retired eventer), and stack hay without pain
It has screwed up my life. I do still ride and I do still put up hay, but this summer after putting up 600 bales of hay, I could barely walk for 3 weeks and it was excruciating to sit all day at work.
This confession is so shameful I have had to wait a full two weeks before I could bring myself to tell you all. I really want to breed my bay QH to Guaranteed Gold, to get a taller, more athletic buckskin Appendix. I won’t do it, mind you. There’s nothing horribly wrong with the mare, but there’s nothing beautifully right about her either. But I really LIKE pretty colours.
I DO own a gypsy cob. she sticks at 13.3 is built like a mac truck and I rode her in everything from hunters (which we lost, terrible mover) to equitation to 3’6 jumpers at A shows. some gypsy cobs ROCK. she has an excellent mind and a heart bigger than she is.
and the legs are clipped, cause that’s a lot of hair.
I’m an English rider who competes in snooty hunter jumper shows in a swank navy jacket with a stock tie and pin on the perfect pinstriped white shirt and velvet helmet hiding hair up in a cute hairnet with a horse clip and perfect tan breeches and gorgeous tallboots with cute leather gloves….
…. and when I’m training and even just hanging out or going to class, I love to dress like I’m a cowgirl. Hunter green chaps, roper cowboy boots, awesome felt cowboy hat, snap up plaid shirts, wrangler jeans, belt with enormous buckle, outback style jacket, suede roper gloves, you know, the whole fifteen and a half yards (a kilt for a really fat scottsman?). I even halfway convinced myself that I needed moosehide chinks with fringe – on ebay for $150.
maybe I’ll go out west for a summer. could be awesome, to learn a new discipline more than I have.
I show my half arab mare in Hunter Pleasure classes at the “A” arab shows… we had switched bits because she was in full “HA I’m not going to stop” mode… and I forgot that I now had a stronger bit in.
Was handgalloping and they called canter. I went from hand gallop to HALT (too much hand, not enough seat…) and flipped RIGHT over her head, landed on my feet.
Talk about embarrased.
Needless to say, we switched bits back….
I have to say, I secretly think Clinton Anderson is a total hottie! He can come practice his Downunder Horsemanship on me any-day with that sexy accent! (he’s just not allowed to touch my horses).
I used to canter on tarmac (cringe)My onyl excuse is that I was 11 and didn’t know any better. To make matters worse, the pony I rode was roughly 30 years old (he’s still going sstrong-with a bit of luck he’ll amke forty years; and he’ll still be as cranky as ever)
I also have a desperate desire to ride side saddle (if possible, to go hunting riding side saddle as well)
Living in the UK I’ve only ever ridden English, but I would LOVE to go on a Western riding holiday.
Most of my Oops moments were the result of bad tuition at my first riding school when I was only young (about 13). I was once left to tack up my pony for that lesson, a fat, lazy, nappy piebald mare, with a good idea of where the saddle went but not much confidence. We were going out of the arena across some fields (a big rareity for that school) and I spent most of the ride desperatly trying to keep up with the others as Tilly dragged her feet along at the back of the group, until the leader gave the instruction to canter… Terrified of being left behind I dug my heels into her and this, plus seeing her barn-mates head for the horizon, made her leap off – we ended up passing all the others with a yelp of fright (shame.. ._.;). When I managed to pull her up it turned out her reins were still twisted up in her throatlatsh, giving me pretty much no control, and noone at the stables had pointed it out or checked any of our tack before we left.
Tilly also used to blow out her stomach when you did her girths up so it was loose when you mounted. Needless to say there were riders who slipped off sideways if they didn’t retighten.
I’m nervous about jumping, and seeing the instructer put up jumps before a lesson fills me with dread.
I do think GV’s are beautiful, but my dream horse is a dappled grey Andalusian, even if I was too worried to ride it and spent all my time grooming instead.
Although I would give anything to have a sweet, teenage, dead-broke, fugly as sin gelding to trot around on.
One day, I was frustrated with my mom’s shopping methods. Way too slow, didn’t make good turns, etc. I started cueing her with clucks and “whoa”s and occasional thumb pokes.
It works like a charm, and she still hasn’t caught on.
1) I want to rescue a sweet old fugly someday to use as a trail horse.
2) I want to learn to drive.
2) I have competed in a schooling show when it was 18 degrees plus wind chill. I couldn’t feel my horse’s body heat even when I was smushed up against her. She went straight home and got a blanket thrown on her.
3) I tend to dismount by swinging both legs over the left side then sliding off so I land facing away from the horse. My mare stays put, thankfully.
4) I think my downhill mare is purty. Feel free to gag. (She has never and will never breed).
5) Our Pony Club hosted a free-jump event that was open to everyone, even if you weren’t a pony club member. It went from ground poles and each round was raised a little higher. I knew nothing more about jumping than SORT OF how to get into my jumping position. I jumped up to a little over 2 feet. I was a total idiot, as were the adults for letting me, but I was riding a saintly old Morgan mare. We kicked everyone else’s butts.
6) I want to go through a drive-thru on horseback.
7) I think Arabians look fugly no matter what. They could be the greatest horses ever, but they look like they’ve been bashed in the head with one too many blunt objects.
9) I love the smell of a sweaty horse. Weird, I know.
10) I want to gallop down the beach on a giant black horse dressed up in a terrifying costume so I can scare people.