Horses!

[ShrekDawg]

i ride english! i'd love to try western some day

Nice

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

I don’t ride anymore but I used to do both.

Same, I've just been too busy to ride. I still stalk this thread though, it's fun to see what y'all are doing with your horses!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Same, I've just been too busy to ride. I still stalk this thread though, it's fun to see what y'all are doing with your horses!

Awesome!!!

 

[littledog]

One of the last shoeings she had the shoe didn't sit right and was actually making her lame on her good front foot, so we had to pull it, and with the craziness of us moving she was out for like 2-3 weeks and didn't work much because I didn't want to work her much or at all without a shoe.

Uggh! I so feel you, with her feet! TBs have notoriously complicated feet, and t's so hard to find good farriers, you try not to make judgements about what they do, because it's a challenge to even get them to show up.
Especially harder for you, since you don't officially own Ginger, so you can't pick and choose the farrier care she gets. Plus, TBs have notoriously complicated feet - flat, dry and shelly, under-run heels; then as soon as the weather gets wet, they get thrush, or abscesses, or both at the same time in different feet so you can't tell quite exactly what's making them lame.
I love my farrier, been his customer for 15 or so years. He's known my 30-y-old boy for all that time, my old OTTB girl for the 10 years I've had her, he's great about trying different things to keep my old horses sound - my 26-y-old OTTB is still sound and rideable, partially thanks to his help.
He's trying to transition towards retirement (same as I am) and making his customer area smaller with less driving, so I try my best to keep him happy to keep me as a client.
Definitely by me being on time (and being cool about it if he's not on time, which is rarely - yet another reason to love him) having my horses ready with their feet cleaned, making sure my horses behave well, paying him the same day and never letting my checks bounce.
I don't know what I'll do when he fully retires! I should start bringing him coffee or something!

I am actually graduating college this week, too,

Awesome, congratulations! Can I ask what you majored in, and what are your plans? I know it sucks for today's young people more than it did when I graduated college, not that the job prospects were great in the early 90's recession, but at least my student loans were low enough I was able to pay them off in a reasonable amount of time, by working at basic entry-level company jobs.
It seems like most of today's greedy companies expect a bachelor's degree to just get in the door, while offering little more than minimum wage. And the interviews are like torture, making candidates pay an application fee ! Then many rounds of trick questions, even expecting candidates to do projects for free, and then not even hire them.
Sorry to be so negative about today's job prospects and how unfair they are. Because your graduation from college is an important achievement that deserves congratulations for your hard work and how much you learned. You are an amazing person - you work hard, you care for others (including horses) you do your best and you will do important things, not fair that it will take time but you will.

staying up off her back, should I switch to an english saddle when trying your methods or doing any kind of long distance exercising on the track? I ride her western. My saddle is on the lighter side at 35lbs,

What I mean is just for you keep in a jumping or galloping position or two-point, your weight in the stirrups, your butt out of the saddle, your weight forward and your center of gravity over the center of gravity of the horse as you both go forward, so you keep your weight in your stirrups and never on her back
I'm used to an all-purpose English saddle or really basic Dressage saddle, and find it easier to keep my center of gravity over the horse as it moves in saddles like that, that allow you a more free position. I'm not a fan of the newer Dressage saddles with tons of knee and thigh rolls that are designed to confine you in the correct position, or the expensive fancy jumping saddles with tons of attractive stitching and sticky surface on the seat that is supposed to correct an insecure seat.
The times I've ridden Western though, those saddles have forced me into a position I'm not used to and made my knees sore, but that's just me and what I'm not used to.
But I'm sure it's not that way for everybody, So if you and Ginger are used to riding Western, look at videos of Western people doing endurance, roping, cutting, cow penning, and how the riders stand in their stirrups to keep their cenrter of gravity over the horse's forward momentum. their stirrups and keep their center of gravity

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Uggh! I so feel you, with her feet! TBs have notoriously complicated feet, and t's so hard to find good farriers, you try not to make judgements about what they do, because it's a challenge to even get them to show up.
Especially harder for you, since you don't officially own Ginger, so you can't pick and choose the farrier care she gets. Plus, TBs have notoriously complicated feet - flat, dry and shelly, under-run heels; then as soon as the weather gets wet, they get thrush, or abscesses, or both at the same time in different feet so you can't tell quite exactly what's making them lame.

Oh my gosh I know!! Ginger was a a neglect/mistreatment case before we got her, and her feet were in horrible condition. I learned how to take care of horse feet, all about thrush, etc from both my trainer and the farrier. Our farrier we have doing Ginger actually specializes in TBs, but it can be tricky to get him out sometimes in time -- nothing against him, because his work is great, but you know.

It definitely is a bit harder for me since she's not mine aha, but I'm very fortunate that both our farrier and my trainer listen closely to me, since they both know I am the primary caretaker of Ginger and I know her so well.

And oh no! Hopefully you'll be able to have your farrier for some time yet. He sounds really great -- maybe lots of coffee will help

Awesome, congratulations! Can I ask what you majored in, and what are your plans? I know it sucks for today's young people more than it did when I graduated college, not that the job prospects were great in the early 90's recession, but at least my student loans were low enough I was able to pay them off in a reasonable amount of time, by working at basic entry-level company jobs.

Aw thank you!! I am getting my degree in English, however, my true passion and my current goal is to stay in the horse industry and pursue a career in that. Ginger was actually the horse that made me discover my love and skill for working with horses!

I want to and kind of need to stay with my current barn right now, but eventually I will have to move and find other opportunities that lean more towards training/young horses as that is my current interest in what I'd like to pursue. I love giving lessons (and probably will always be doing it in some form or fashion--just the nature of the job), but I'd like to more focus on training horses and helping people and their horses in training rather than just doing a lesson barn forever.

Luckily I've had some great experience opportunities besides lessons. I'm currently retraining/schooling this one horse, and I am getting to ride a very nice well trained horse to exercise him (the owner fell off in a freak accident and broke her collar bone, can't ride yet), and my trainer has a few horses I can practice/ride on, etc etc.

But oh my gosh yes! The job market is very tough right now. I have looked at other career opportunities/paths, or even part time work besides my job at the barn, but no one will even look my way right now -- not even jobs like at stores or supermarkets. It is hard, but I'm thankful I've been with such a wonderful barn where I can at least make money and gain a lot of experience at.

And ah okay! That does make sense, thank you for clarifying. I'll have to look those videos up ... but sadly I just learned that currently we can't ride on the track actually. When we first moved, I kept hearing back and forth answers: yes you can, no you can't, etc. Well, I made sure to ask my trainer/boss (I know I keep calling her "trainer" -- I grew up learning under her, but now she's technically my boss lol!) again yesterday, and she said that the guy who maintains/drags the track said it's supposed to be closed from 2pm onward.

It may change over the summer, but we'll see. I don't know these people well enough to feel comfortable to ask them personally yet for any opportunities, so I'll just wait and see what unfolds for now. There'll still be ways to exercise Ginger either way, at least.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Hello

 

[ShrekDawg]

Anyone watched the Derby!?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I posted on this thread last year about getting the farm ready for horses again so drum roll please…. We finally have horses again! Two Friesian x Percheron yearlings and a POA. Note: the pictures with the rope halters on were what they arrived in on the first day. They were not turned out in pasture, but a small paddock with me supervising. They were not fully halter broke when I got them and it was their first trailer ride. I let them run off some steam in the smaller paddock with me supervising until they settled down enough for me to do an initial once over injury check after trailering and then I took off the rope halters. The other halters the yearlings have on are breakaways

 

[ShrekDawg]

I posted on this thread last year about getting the farm ready for horses again so drum roll please…. We finally have horses again! Two Friesian x Percheron yearlings and a POA. Note: the pictures with the rope halters on were what they arrived in on the first day. They were not turned out in pasture, but a small paddock with me supervising. They were not fully halter broke when I got them and it was their first trailer ride. I let them run off some steam in the smaller paddock with me supervising until they settled down enough for me to do an initial once over injury check after trailering and then I took off the rope halters. The other halters the yearlings have on are breakaways
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They are beautiful!!!! Congratulations!!!!!

 

[Torisgloomyplace]

I posted on this thread last year about getting the farm ready for horses again so drum roll please…. We finally have horses again! Two Friesian x Percheron yearlings and a POA. Note: the pictures with the rope halters on were what they arrived in on the first day. They were not turned out in pasture, but a small paddock with me supervising. They were not fully halter broke when I got them and it was their first trailer ride. I let them run off some steam in the smaller paddock with me supervising until they settled down enough for me to do an initial once over injury check after trailering and then I took off the rope halters. The other halters the yearlings have on are breakaways
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Oh wow. That beautys. They look amazing. Truly stunning. Do they have names?