Horses!

[Farmgirl283420]

Counting down the days until I ride again!

Is there a reason you weren’t riding? Sorry if I missed something!

 

[ILoveDaffy]

Is there a reason you weren’t riding? Sorry if I missed something!

Trying to heal my horse from chronic founder. Had to undo 5 years of neglect (By someone else, I got him pretty recently) before I could ride. He looked normal but was actually lame on all 4 feet. We started in May of last year and until December worked to get weight off and get him in stable condition for the time being. In December, my farrier wasn't sure if he would ever even be comfortable, much less rideable, and I considered putting him down but decided to give it until February. Fast forward to February, farrier is back and she says he's grown a LOT of healthy hoof and sole. He's actually recovering, at an insane rate. She'd never seen a horse that bad off before him and was completely astonished that he was rebounding. On last check, he's cleared for light riding in June. He looks better now than he has, well, ever!

I'm easing into it slowly, and he's never going to be 100%, but he'll probably eventually be cleared for mid level riding, which is all I wanted. He's got the loveliest personality, sweet, loyal, great with kids, (a bit of a coward with other horses though) he's everything I wanted. And beautiful to boot!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Trying to heal my horse from chronic founder. Had to undo 5 years of neglect (By someone else, I got him pretty recently) before I could ride. He looked normal but was actually lame on all 4 feet. We started in May of last year and until December worked to get weight off and get him in stable condition for the time being. In December, my farrier wasn't sure if he would ever even be comfortable, much less rideable, and I considered putting him down but decided to give it until February. Fast forward to February, farrier is back and she says he's grown a LOT of healthy hoof and sole. He's actually recovering, at an insane rate. She'd never seen a horse that bad off before him and was completely astonished that he was rebounding. On last check, he's cleared for light riding in June. He looks better now than he has, well, ever! View attachment 3840350I'm easing into it slowly, and he's never going to be 100%, but he'll probably eventually be cleared for mid level riding, which is all I wanted. He's got the loveliest personality, sweet, loyal, great with kids, (a bit of a coward with other horses though) he's everything I wanted. And beautiful to boot!

Awesome!!!!!!

 

[Farmgirl283420]

Trying to heal my horse from chronic founder. Had to undo 5 years of neglect (By someone else, I got him pretty recently) before I could ride. He looked normal but was actually lame on all 4 feet. We started in May of last year and until December worked to get weight off and get him in stable condition for the time being. In December, my farrier wasn't sure if he would ever even be comfortable, much less rideable, and I considered putting him down but decided to give it until February. Fast forward to February, farrier is back and she says he's grown a LOT of healthy hoof and sole. He's actually recovering, at an insane rate. She'd never seen a horse that bad off before him and was completely astonished that he was rebounding. On last check, he's cleared for light riding in June. He looks better now than he has, well, ever! View attachment 3840350I'm easing into it slowly, and he's never going to be 100%, but he'll probably eventually be cleared for mid level riding, which is all I wanted. He's got the loveliest personality, sweet, loyal, great with kids, (a bit of a coward with other horses though) he's everything I wanted. And beautiful to boot!

Awww! I’m glad you decided to wait a little! He’s really really handsome! I love his mane!

 

[ILoveDaffy]

Awww! I’m glad you decided to wait a little! He’s really really handsome! I love his mane!

Thanks! He's apparently fairly uncommon, being a grey quarab. His mane is super cute, it is wavy, which I never saw a horse have before.

 

[Farmgirl283420]

Thanks! He's apparently fairly uncommon, being a grey quarab. His mane is super cute, it is wavy, which I never saw a horse have before.

That’s really cool! Make sure to post more pictures of him! Also if you don’t mind what’s his name?

 

[littledog]

I fell off bareback once. I was on the shetland pony and she had never been cantered bareback before. And I had never cantered bareback either. She decided to hit the breaks when I got her to canter and I rolled over her shoulder, landing on my feet.

Ten points for landing on your feet!

When I was a kid, I fell off bareback many times while just fooling around with other kids, daring each other to do stupid things. Back in the 70's when parents used to let you do stuff.

But my most stupid "falling off bareback" incident, was as an adult (supposed to know better!) when I was teaching a class including a young student who was kind of timid, a good rider but who always put pressure on herself and got stressed about new things that were out of her comfort zone. Probably because her two older sisters and their Mom were all successful riders in various disciplines. She was leasing my Appy mare, who could be kind of headstrong.

I was trying to get my student to just lighten up and have fun fooling around with no pressure, making up games in the arena with her and some other students, like trot a circle bareback, dismount between the barrels, lead them forwards and backwards through a pole maze, get back on and canter two low jumps.

It was all fun and games until the kids wanted me to prove I could do it too, so I got on my own Appy mare, it all went well until we got to the jumps, and my headstrong Appy mare decided to do her favorite cutting-horse turn and dumped me on the ground.

Clunk! Went my head. HAHA! Went my Appy mare.

At least the students, in between laughing at me, realized that wearing a helmet is necessary.

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Ten points for landing on your feet!

When I was a kid, I fell off bareback many times while just fooling around with other kids, daring each other to do stupid things. Back in the 70's when parents used to let you do stuff.

But my most stupid "falling off bareback" incident, was as an adult (supposed to know better!) when I was teaching a class including a young student who was kind of timid, a good rider but who always put pressure on herself and got stressed about new things that were out of her comfort zone. Probably because her two older sisters and their Mom were all successful riders in various disciplines. She was leasing my Appy mare, who could be kind of headstrong.

I was trying to get my student to just lighten up and have fun fooling around with no pressure, making up games in the arena with her and some other students, like trot a circle bareback, dismount between the barrels, lead them forwards and backwards through a pole maze, get back on and canter two low jumps.

It was all fun and games until the kids wanted me to prove I could do it too, so I got on my own Appy mare, it all went well until we got to the jumps, and my headstrong Appy mare decided to do her favorite cutting-horse turn and dumped me on the ground.

Clunk! Went my head. HAHA! Went my Appy mare.

At least the students, in between laughing at me, realized that wearing a helmet is necessary.

Haha, oh you gotta love horses and their antics.
The same pony who “threw” me off bareback spooked at a mirror once. She took off running and once she realized that she wasn’t going to die, she stopped from a gallop, no slowing to a canter or trot. Just a hard stop. I flew a few feet over her head and landed on my left arm. Ouch. It hurt for a few weeks.
I got back on and my instructor led me around until we figured out what spooked her. I had started getting dizzy and seeing dots in my vision though, so I dismounted and drank lots of water.
I actually went to that barn yesterday to pick up my stuff (I’m boarding Auggie where he has been because it’s way cheaper, and it’s closer) and I saw the pony. I gave her treats and hugs.

 

[Pampered chicken girl]

In my 6 years of riding and owning horses I've fell off once. I was in my normal saddle just at a standstill and a lady tripped and fell in front of us, my horse did a quick little side set spook and I slid off the other side

 

[littledog]

Oh my gosh, yes! It is incredibly hard to navigate things now, especially since often my degree of choice is seen like that, or so many expect me just to be a teacher/get back into school, go for a masters, or do something like that. Unfortunately a big area of argument that has arisen between my parents and I is that they just don't see the horse industry as a valid career choice. I mean, I get it that it sure doesn't make a ton of money necessarily and is risky health-wise lol, but I totally agree that even those "cushy, safe" office jobs aren't always reliable. Nowadays with AI chatbots, things have definitely shifted in my chosen field as well. I'm sorry to hear about your partner, too, that's so tough to lose a job.

Just my opinion, but it seems like our world changes so fast that being too specific in a narrow education for some current demand only leads for a short time to a well-paid career. Then things like AI chatbots, like you say, can totally twist up what is in demand and what is not.
Just like my partner - he's super talented at creating and troubleshooting electronic schematics, and when that career first existed, it was considered a big high-paid deal in the 80's and 90's, his parents bragged about his career choice at the time. But then other countries followed suit in education, and his company found it could be done cheaper by sending their manufacturing overseas where they could pay people less, and he got laid off. Don't feel too bad for him though, the analytical way he thinks and arranges things is still generally valuable for project management at his job, though it's more a middle-class job than something high-paid. Same as me, technology and the world changed so fast in the 90's that my degree in computer programming was so specific that it was obsolete by the time I was searching for a career.

This is why I believe it's better to have a broad education, plus a local skill.
First of all, the local skill - by this I mean something that can only be done in person, like horse skills. Teaching lessons and training horses is a set of talents and skills that can't be sent overseas! You need to be present, your clients and students have to be in your presence.
It's a trade like being a plumber or electrician (and those trades make a good living) it can't be offshored, you have to be there! And the demand will never go away, as long as people continue to love horses.

Next, why I believe a broad education is important: No matter what your career, an understanding of human and animal behavior is important. Studying science and biology, prehistory, ancient human history, animal behavior, comparative religions, comparative literature, philosophy, history, including other country's civilizations, English literature, American history and literature as well as the Art, Music and Architecture throughout all the ages you've studied, really makes you able to understand how our progress came about, how and why people and animals behave as they do. Which really helps when you're training a challenging horse or rider.

Plus it makes it more fun if you might have a chance to travel, to understand the history of what you're seeing - say, the Kentucky Horse Park, Badminton or Burghley if you go to England, Pardubice if you go to Checkhoslavakia, the Trakehner statue in Kaliningrad and all the WWII history that makes it unfair.

Hey, if you continue your studies as you have, there's nothing wrong with getting a Master's and teaching, or a pHd and teaching plus doing research, as long as you continue riding and training.