Horse Talk

[ChickenLover200]

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.

I completely understand being nervous. That's one reason why I'm hesitant to barrel race. I've only had like 3 riding lessons and basically taught myself the rest, but i haven't gone faster than a slow lope.
It doesn't help that the rest of my family is not"in to" horses and that my grandmother had a bad experience. Her brother was drug to death when he was a kid by a horse and she had to carry him home.
I have LOVED horses since in diapers and my first horse was a free mini stallion. My dad had me scared to death ofhim for the longest time because he would nip at everyone else, but never me. Now that I'mnot so afraid of him, I plan to get him trained hopefully by my birthday in September if not sooner or later.

 

[abigalerose]

ah that's horrible. And good luck training him.
Speaking of nervous, I was just riding June, well, I was sitting on her with a halter and rope reins, and she was following my grandpa while he walked around, and my very hyper red heeler puppy (who's never up by the barn) decided to come out and start jumping up and licking her face, which didn't scare her but it ticked her off, so she decided she'd try to chase him down and stomp on him and bite him with me on her back

Needless to say I jumped off pretty fast. And put my puppy in the barn.
Oh and I got pictures of everyone

 

[abigalerose]

But I guess the picture of my puppy isn't going to post!

 

[abigalerose]

Here he is! His name is Sterling. The one laying down is my grandmas, Cabo

 

[ChickenLover200]

ah that's horrible. And good luck training him.
Speaking of nervous, I was just riding June, well, I was sitting on her with a halter and rope reins, and she was following my grandpa while he walked around, and my very hyper red heeler puppy (who's never up by the barn) decided to come out and start jumping up and licking her face, which didn't scare her but it ticked her off, so she decided she'd try to chase him down and stomp on him and bite him with me on her back

Needless to say I jumped off pretty fast. And put my puppy in the barn.
Oh and I got pictures of everyone

Once I rode cinnamon around some tall brush and then she couldn't ssee eli, my mini. She panicked and tried to run back to the barn. When I turned her head towards the side for a one rein stop she completely freaked out by a bridge we had to go across and half reared. I did get her to slow down then thankfully. She crossed the bridge at a trot, faster than I wanted, but at least she didn't try to gallop across. My heart was racing after that! We'll have to work on a one rein stop.

Here he is! His name is Sterling. The one laying down is my grandmas, Cabo

He's cute. My dog is 11 years old. She used to race along the pasture with my mini.

 

[abigalerose]

I probably could've got her stopped, but I didn't know how far she was going to go to try and get after the dog and since all I've done is sit on her and flex her I didn't want to risk staying on and finding out what was going to happen lol but once I jumped off I pulled up on her reins from behind like I would if I was riding and that pretty much stopped her. But I did stand and pet her for a while so she'd stop snorting at the dog and relax a little.
I had a red heeler when I was little and I had her until she was probably 11 or 12, and sadly she died. She was the best dog, and never bothered any of the horses or live stock. One time when my grandpa had to pull a calf and the momma was too weak to clean it off, she decided to do it for her. She was awesome, and so smart. She also had 3 litters of puppies, each time she had 9. Being out on the farm my grandpa didn't bother with fixing her, but having the puppies was a fun learning experience for me, and they were always so cute! Anyways, Sterling hasn't quite lived up to the wonderful dog example she set, but he's still pretty dang cute

 

[ChickenLover200]

I probably could've got her stopped, but I didn't know how far she was going to go to try and get after the dog and since all I've done is sit on her and flex her I didn't want to risk staying on and finding out what was going to happen lol but once I jumped off I pulled up on her reins from behind like I would if I was riding and that pretty much stopped her. But I did stand and pet her for a while so she'd stop snorting at the dog and relax a little.
I had a red heeler when I was little and I had her until she was probably 11 or 12, and sadly she died. She was the best dog, and never bothered any of the horses or live stock. One time when my grandpa had to pull a calf and the momma was too weak to clean it off, she decided to do it for her. She was awesome, and so smart. She also had 3 litters of puppies, each time she had 9. Being out on the farm my grandpa didn't bother with fixing her, but having the puppies was a fun learning experience for me, and they were always so cute! Anyways, Sterling hasn't quite lived up to the wonderful dog example she set, but he's still pretty dang cute

I think if Cinnamon would run off, my first instinct would be to just jump. haha Although I'd probably be sore from that decision later on.
I work with some therapeutic riding horses too and they're so friendly. The one I wor with now is a paint. He's kinda pushy at times, but I'm used to that with my mini. One rule that the therapeutic place has that I wish I would've done was no eating grass while on a lead line. I of course couldn't really do that when I got Cinnamon though because I only had a tiny pasture and she was underweght, so I led her out in the yard and hand grazed her. I notice when I let her do that she gets pushy, but when I don't she's easier to handle, so I try to keep the hand grazing to a minimum.

 

[abigalerose]

Thats a good idea. I've only led June out to where there's grass twice, but she was definitely more pushy, so I might have to follow that rule

 

[ChickenLover200]

Trying to post a picture of my mini, but I'm just learning to use the BYC app, so I don't know if it'll work...

 

[ChickenLover200]

Is a half hour once week not enough to work with my mini? My problem is that my schedule has to fit into my parents' schedules and most weeks I'll be lucky to spend a half hour at the barn.