Horse Talk

[I Love Layers]

My 13 year old mare Sneakin Cowgirl. Her and i barrel race. She's a sorrel Quarter Horse

She's not downhill in this picture. Her front feet are in a rut

 

[abigalerose]

She's cute!

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

Hmm okay. I bought a halter and some rope reins today, so that should work. I want to get him neck reining that way I can go tackless. He's got an awesome voice command whoa and back up already, and they've been working a little bit with neck reining so I don't think it'll be too hard.
When I say tackless I mean neck rope only

If a halter with a hackamore rein is what he is used to, and if it's working well for him, then I see no reason to change until you feel the need to transition him into a bit.

I have a gelding who can go with just a rope around his neck. He is 16 years old and a finished ranch horse that I started as a 2 year old. He is a little bit lazy, but completely honest. Plus, he loves me. The horse needs to have a really solid foundation in all aspects of its training before you should think about pulling the bridle off. Besides working off your voice and having a great neck rein, the horse really needs to know how to work well off of your seat and legs. It wouldn't do any good to jump into it too soon and let the horse figure out that he can pretty much do whatever he wants to when you don't have his head. That would be a massive step backwards and may ultimately spell failure for the bridleless project.

 

[abigalerose]

What? I'm never going to transition him to using a bit. He already goes with out it and that's what I want. He rides with either a hackamore with split reins, or a halter with a lead rope or rope reins. I'm going to keep riding him with a halter and rope reins (I'm not going to buy a hackamore if I don't need it), and then eventually get him to where I can ride with only a neck rope. But he still has things to learn before we get to the neck rope. Obviously he has to learn how to neck rein, and needs to be less nervous. Not sure what I'm looking at for leg pressure, I didn't ride for very long and I didn't go faster than a walk, but he seemed to respond to pressure pretty good. But it'll be a while before I'm going halter-less.

 

[ChickenLover200]

My 13 year old mare Sneakin Cowgirl. Her and i barrel race. She's a sorrel Quarter Horse

She's not downhill in this picture. Her front feet are in a rut

I love QHs. My girl is Cinnamon. She's like a cherry bay. Her color is different in every season She's 20-21 years old. I'd love to barrel race, but I don't want to with ol' Cinnamon. Figured I could work on the pattern, but need a bit of a younger horse
Iknow someone who decided to walk the pattern with their horse and he took off in a dead run. That horse obviously knew the barrels and he didn't want to go slow, he wanted to show off!

 

[abigalerose]

I don't think I'd have the guts to barrel race!
Yesterday I was talking to my sister and mom about horses and my sister (she's 13) said "I want a horse" and I told her to get one, and she said she didn't have any money and I was like "I'll buy it for you!", and then my mom told her if she gets one she should do barrel racing and her reply was "Mom. I just want to trot around on it and brush it's hair." She's a pretty high maintence little girl. But I'm glad she's finally showing some interest in horses, maybe I'll have me a riding partner soon.

 

[ChickenLover200]

I don't think I'd have the guts to barrel race!
Yesterday I was talking to my sister and mom about horses and my sister (she's 13) said "I want a horse" and I told her to get one, and she said she didn't have any money and I was like "I'll buy it for you!", and then my mom told her if she gets one she should do barrel racing and her reply was "Mom. I just want to trot around on it and brush it's hair." She's a pretty high maintence little girl. But I'm glad she's finally showing some interest in horses, maybe I'll have me a riding partner soon.

Lucky to have a sibling that's somewhat into horses...
I can understand high maintenence although I am not one.... I'm country all the way.
I have two brothers... Both not interested in horsesAT ALL. I sort of wish i had a bigger flat piece of land to set up barrels on...

 

[abigalerose]

I am not high maintenance either lol. But yeah, I'm trying to get her more interested. Right now she loves braiding June's hair and she says she wants to ride the mustang, so maybe once he's settled in I can teach her some stuff about ground work and get her riding him, then I'll know if she truly wants a horse or not. But I won't put her on him until I'm sure he's safe. My last gelding I would only let her sit on him if I was leading him because he could be a brat sometimes, he definitely wasn't calm enough for her to learn on. The mustang seems pretty dang calm though, actually kind of lazy, so he might be just the horse to get her interested.

 

[ChickenLover200]

I am not high maintenance either lol. But yeah, I'm trying to get her more interested. Right now she loves braiding June's hair and she says she wants to ride the mustang, so maybe once he's settled in I can teach her some stuff about ground work and get her riding him, then I'll know if she truly wants a horse or not. But I won't put her on him until I'm sure he's safe. My last gelding I would only let her sit on him if I was leading him because he could be a brat sometimes, he definitely wasn't calm enough for her to learn on. The mustang seems pretty dang calm though, actually kind of lazy, so he might be just the horse to get her interested.

I had a girl here once who wanted to jump on and gallop.... She got over confident and ended up kicked in the chest. She's lucky that she walked away unharmed. Accidents happen though....

 

[abigalerose]

My sister can get pretty nervous around them, on one hand I wish she wasn't nervous and understand that she is in control of the horse, but on the other I'm glad she is nervous that way she doesn't get brave and try anything like that before she's ready.
I'm actually a little nervous too, which is why I'm not as good of a rider as I should be at this age. I understand that the horse senses when I'm nervous, that I'm in control of him, etc. etc. But if I don't know the horse, well I'm a nervous wreck. When I was little my horse (who was spirited and stubborn) got spooked and threw my off, and then later he decided to kick me becuase I had fish feed for the fish in the pond and I wouldn't give him any. Needless to say, I lost interest in horses for a while. Although I've never been more than a month without owning one, I haven't always rode them.
But when I trust the horse I do pretty good.
For example, when I bought my last gelding, I rode him when I went to look at him and even though he rode great and had tons of training, I was so nervous that I was almost in tears (I did eventually sell that horse becuase for some reason we never learned to like each other), but when I'm with June, I NEVER feel nervous, even though she barely knows what a saddle is. And training June has helped a lot in my confidence building, when I went and looked at the mustang, I rode him, and although I did feel a twinge of tightness in my chest, I had so much more confidence, and the little nervousness I did have went away after a few minutes. I even rode him out in the field around the other horses and over some bridges (a little practice set up they had) and I was calm about it. Doesn't sound like much but it was pretty huge for me.