Any avid horseback riders out there?
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No - Cloudy was retired at age 21 due to health issues. He had major dental surgery 3 years ago to remove top and bottom front teeth for severe cementosis - -maybe related to Cushings. Post surgery he had mild laminitis and then a hair-line knee fracture - - I almost lost him then. Now he is on daily medication for Cushings and arthritis with special controlled diet.
LOL - He and I are high maintenance now!!
Yes - our property is 5+ acres and half woods. Lots of ticks in warmer weather!!
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This guy is Peanut - Connemara gelding age 11 and my latest challenge to ride. He has some training issues we are trying to undo and he is coming along FINALLY. Super sweet pocket pony.
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He's gorgeous!!
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Love it! I think I need one of those stickers for my forehead too!
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i have that on a sweatshirt.....suits me most of the time lol
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Hi everyone. It has been a long time since I have been on. I started this thread and then got caught up in life. I am doing radiation now and did not have to have surgery (mast.) after all.
It is wonderful to see other horse women on the board. I am back to riding and loving it. I will love it even more when we get more sunshine and warmer weather! Such is winter.
Here is a photo of my youngster. He will be six this summer. An Oldenburg cross. We do low level dressage and eventing. He is a 17.1 hand puppy.
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Hmm, I am pretty tech savvy and I cannot get a picture to insert either. I am using Snapfish.
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Aww wish I could see that picture of your guy!!
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Tried earlier to post a pic on another thread with no luck either....using Flickr
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I still need to take some recent pics of my boys so I can get them posted. I saw how to train your horse to let you mount from the fence and think that may be my next training objective with my boys since the pain of Arimidex has made it impossible for me to mount from the ground. I have my hunch about which of my two paints will learn it the fastest! I'm sure once I accomplish this, my husband will want me to teach his quarter horse.
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When we went riding at the beach this past fall, we went to a place that moved their horses around to different areas. They had these cool really light-weight steps that were great for getting on and off.
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Wanted to add that they were fold up and you could tie them onto the back of your saddle.
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Marywh - does the step look like this:
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No, this was a set of 2or 3 short steps that folded flat. Ive never seen anything like them before, but they were great.
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Do you remember the name of the place you went riding? I've not been able to find anything suitable to take with me when I ride and a lot of the places I ride are just wide open with nothing to get onto to mount or even any fence.
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WOW I just discovered this thread and I'm so jealous of all you horse owners! I'm a fairly new rider. As a kid I always wanted to be National Velvet!
My activities consist of running (I've done a couple of marathons in the past but now mostly run to stay in shape and I just registered for 1/2 marathon in May) - I also lift at the gym and do yoga.
A couple of years ago my cousin started riding lessons. She's a few years older than I am (I'll be - ouch - 60 in April) and I thought, if she can do it so can I! So I joined her. We ride English but I only have one lesson a week. I would like to ride more. Last Wednesday it was 9 degrees at lesson time, and we always ride in an outdoor ring. The instructor suggested anyone who felt ok with it could ride bareback. Well, that was a first for me and I LOVED it. I could really feel the body heat from my horse and could also feel all his muscles rippling beneath me! And as active as I am, I could totally feel it the next day in my legs and core!!! We kept it at a walk and a little light trotting. I was in heaven.
We don't canter or jump here in the winter because of the frozen ground. When I say "jump" I use the term lightly, because they are low crossrails which the horses could actually walk over if they wanted. But I'm having such fun!
Hope you ladies don't mind if I join you in this thread - I will be checking in to see what the REAL riders and horse owners are up to, and to ask your advice on occasion.
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Welcome aboard LuvLuLu! All are welcome here to join us whether they ride or not or just love horses. You're a real rider too and we can all learn from each other. Glad you have found riding. It is great exercise and I love the bonds with the horses and the people.
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Cowgal, I dont remember the name of the place, but I have a brochure around some place. They did everything, reservations, pay by phone, all that stuff by cell phone, but I will see if I can find the number for you. It might take a day or 2-I save brochures from everywhere, but I'll start looking.
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LuvLuLu - welcome astride!! Love to see some horse people here I've worked for about 15 years at a couple different show/lesson barns and for the last 3 summers I was a trail guide - had to give it all up due to b/c -so it makes me happy to see what some of you can still do - maybe there's hope for me yet. Had to leave my beautiful paint/warmblood cross behind as I have nowhere to keep him - leaving him and the farm dog have been oddly two of the hardest partings of my life. also just wanted to say to you that IMO 'real' riders are the ones who love the sport - not necessarily the ones al the olympics. So you sound very 'real' to me.
Cowgal do you trailer your horse to where you go to ride? If so it is usually not too hard to teach them to let you mount from the trailer fender - I've had a bad knee for years and have done that often...just a thought.
((((hugs))) to all my horsey friends :-)
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Luvlulu, welcome. Congrats on finding a wonderful stable and riding. You are a true rider if you still show up for a lesson when it is 7 degrees. You go girl! I am getting wimpy in my old age.
I rode my guy bareback yesterday for the same reason... warmth. I have not ridden him bareback but maybe one time before, about a year ago. He was not so sure about it. He thought it felt highly unsusual. He is young and since I last tried it he has grown a bigger withers and back bone. I can't say that I will try that again any time soon.
Dressage saddle is going on today for sure!Keep up the lessons, it is a great sport with fun people.
Now, where are the peeps that can tell us how to post those pictures?
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Cowgal, also had another idea you may be interested in. My dh is a painting contractor and he has a couple of heavy duty plastic step ladders that are about 30 inches tall and really light. He picks them up and drags them around everywhere when hes working low to the ground. They open wide and are really stable. He cant remember where he got them but is pretty sure its either Lowes or Home Depot.
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Thanks Mary. I do have a folding step stool that I use when I am at the barn or can take with me in the truck. It is too large to attach to the saddle. Often times, I am many miles away from the trailer or where I originally got mounted at. If it isn't too much trouble, it would be great if you could find that information about the place you rode at in Florida. Having something I can attach to my saddle would be great! It is very frustrating for me to not be able to get off out in a pasture or out in an arena when I am helping with 4H.
Ridergirl- sometimes my trailer is with me and sometimes it is not. I figure that by teaching them to "mount from the fence", I am basically teaching them to let me mount from anywhere or anything. My 17 year old paint Tonto will stand anywhere that I want him to and he always comes from no matter how far away when I call for him so I think he will pick it up right away. I will just need to teach him to get into position. My 10 year old paint Sunny shouldn't be too bad either. I need to work a little with Sunny because once mounting became difficult for me, he likes to wait until I get my stool in place and ready to mount and then take one step just so I have to get everything set up again! Sunny has a little Bart Simpson in him and I want to stop this habit...it isn't as funny to me as I think it is to him.
Foxford - I got lucky on the picture of the mounting block. All I had to do was copy and paste but I don't think that is how you have to do it to get your own pictures on here. I'm not sure how to post private pictures on here either.
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Welcome Luvlulu
I love to ride bareback especially in the winter .I too ride outside all winter here in Maine. Funny I never rode barebact too often until a few years ago when I broke my toe. I was unable to wear any boots that I could use with stirrups. I started to ride bareback and it was abit of a lightbulb moment. At the time my horse was a 16.3 Holsteiner mare I rode in dressage. Boy was that good for my balance and feel.. Feeling the movemet of the horse is educating. Gotta love the horseback riding muscle groups that are not used in other activities.
Peace
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Luvlulu-hi. didnt mean to ignore you earlier, I was on a mission to find out some info., that I havnt come up with yet btw. Will keep looking. I love this thread. I am not a runner nor do I really like biking, but I love my horses. Dont have any at the present time, but do love to hear about everybody elses. Im still looking for a pony for gs, and if all goes as well the next 3 months with treatments as it has the last 6, I may be on the lookout for a new baby for myself.
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Hi Ladies. I love riding bareback. I have a problem lifting the saddle up, so many times, actually most of the time, I ride bareback. My favorite thing to do is to jog bareback. One winter I rode bareback all winter because I was practicing for a bareback equitation class in a schooling show, which I placed second it!! And it is so much warmer. I also think there is nothing like riding bareback to develop a good seat. I don't even ride with one of those bareback pads although if you are a little rusty they do help you stay on better.
I'm off tonight to our annual county horsemen's association dinner. I am actually dressing up and looking forward to it. One of the things that done at the dinner is that there is a continuous slide show of everyone and their horse.
Can't wait to go down to the ranch tomorrow and get out one of the lesson ponies. Her name is Mindy and she's about 25 years old. I think she was once a show pony so I always keep her groomed and clipped and walk her around. I love older horses--everyone can love a young beautiful horse but the older horses/ponies are treasures to me. I love making them feel special. I'll try to post a picture of Mindy later.
Happy trails for now!
Lizzie
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I posted on this thread a little while back and I still see people having glitches with piks.... essentially you cant upload from your own HDD. Sometime ago I asked about this in another thread somewhere. It is for security reasons. Now, that said, I tried a few things. You can put a pik up no trouble from another website. I tried it and it worked but I didnt submit it because it wasnt a horse pik. You just have to enter the url in the link box. To extract that url depending on OS and Browser is just standard stuff accessing from menus or right click....
Heres an idea if theres issues with host sites like photobucket. If you have your own site/blog, upload your pik onto it then get the url as usual.
Musical
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Good morning, all . . .
Thanks for the warm welcome! I can tell I'll gain lots of information just reading your posts and I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions and looking for tips.
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Last night's lesson was in 60 degree weather! That's just crazy when a couple of days ago it was single digits! Really enjoyed being out. I rode a painted pony named "Tuxedo" and he was a feisty little guy! But he was wonderful, he did everything I asked him to - I just had to give him a little squeeze w/my legs to get him going.
Awfully muddy and messy, but y'know, nothing wrong with getting a little dirty. And people think I'm nuts but I LOVE the smell of the barn and the horses!!
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I bet that 60 degree weather was fun. It was 75 here yesterday but bad storms last night with tornado warnings and watches all over the place, havnt gone outside to see how my plants faired yet. Did blow the roof of one of my dog houses though. Dont know how the barn roof faired either. Getting ready to go check things out...
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