I have a friend who just told me she is looking into buying a horse. A little background on her: she grew up getting a few, what I would consider, 'backyard' lessons from a farm with an okay reputation. Her basics are pretty strong, but she has not ridden regularly in at least six years I would say. She is now riding again with a trainer, who I am not familiar with. The horse she did ride pre-six...

I am working with an OTTB, Thunder. Being such, he needs what I would guess a narrow to narrow-med saddle. While I'm looking for a suitable saddle for him (I do not own him, simply a horse I am working for the owner), my current saddle does not fit him. It's weird, the back sits nicely on him, but the front sinks down too low (I've been wanting to reflock it though, so perhaps there's the issue). I...

Hello dear equestrian ! I'm hoping that you can help me with a paper I'm writing for school. It's an ethnography of sorts about amatuer horse training - I've you've ever ridden a greenie, trained a horse by yourself or with the help of someone else, or are just hoping for an opportunity like that in the future, I'd love a response! Feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you like...

...a little overboard. It's super to go bitless when possible, but I feel as though she's really exaggerating, completely ignoring that a mellow bit when USED CORRECTLY.. does not cause PAIN to your horse's mouth. But that's not the part I'm mostly concerned about. What really irked me the most was this: " Is leg contact, rein contact, kicking or spurs used with your training? No, absolutely no...

I recently re-joined the community after about a year and a half period of being completely out of the horse world. I'm currently looking for a lease in my are (boulder, CO in case you know of anything) but have come across a problem and therefore have come to you guys for advice. Many of the horses in my area that are for lease fall into two categories. 1) Super experienced show horse who's owners...

...all the way back to the trivial activity of MOUNTING, much less riding. (cough...Noddy...cough)  and then there are the days where you'd swear someone stopped off at the Wally world and swapped your horse for the more trained and expensive model on the top shelf. In my personal experience I've exchanged a few choice words with said equines, experienced more than my fair share of falls from grace ...

...as soon as my 3 year old has more saddle time with my trainer), jumped for about a year and a half.   I’ve now been primarily riding saddleseat for the past year and just purchased my first English horse, Gambler (see icon).   But as of late, I’ve just been hitting roadblock after roadblock.   I know it’s all mental, I honestly do.   But how do you honestly break from it?   I spent 11 years at...

I thought I'd throw this out there for everyone. Thought it'd be a bit neat to show how he was as a foal and how he is now as a 3 year old. (I also have the judges comments of him for his inspection, so...Oldenburg Verband inspection And this is him now, 3 years later! (he's still growing a bit, and shot up another inch, so he isn't quite fully level yet) Feel free to tear him apart ;)

I last asked for opinions on sales photos in this post: http://community.livejournal.com/equestrian/5364768.html Based on comments, I decided to ride my mare myself and try to get some more photos of...2 Thanks in advance for any help you can give me! I did not braid or band, but did clip and bathed her yesterday. If you prefer any of the photos from my previous post, please let me know! Thank you!

...6 months (and sparsely at that) and so her muscle tone sucks. She also seems to think that the climate in Las Vegas is magicly going to turn freezing soon and thus looks like a woolly mammoth! Feel free to pick apart her Confirmation and let me know what you think :)       Smile for the Camera!! (is it frowned upon to teach your future show horse silly tricks? LOL)