I started riding regularly again after a two-year break. I’m not going to be in a position to own for a long time (or maybe ever), and I’m mostly in the acceptance phase with that. I just want to spend a few days at the barn every week and eventually get back to doing an occasional 2'3" class at some local shows.

It’s a 90% great situation: I like the trainer, the barn is nice, and the horse I’m leasing is a great fit for me. It has definitely improved my mood and my overall outlook, blah blah.

That said, it feels silly to complain, but I have to. It’s weird being around horse people again. The attitudes that seem to afflict every barn are wild. I’ve never ridden at a single place where someone didn’t have some kind of weird attitude. Sometimes I’ll be completely pleasant and the other person will be so cold and rude that I walk away wondering: IS IT ME? AM I MAKING TOO MUCH EYE CONTACT??

I totally get that for a lot of people (myself included), the barn is decompression time. They don’t want to spend it chitchatting, and that’s fine with me. I’m not offended. In fact, I feel that way too probably two out of the three days I’m there.

But I’m not rude if someone greets me. I say hi, tell them to have a good ride, and go back to what I was doing. I don’t ignore people or roll my eyes just because they happen to be at the barn at the same time as me.

This trainer only has eight clients, including me, so we all run into each other, and I don’t see the point of not being (at minimum) pleasant. The established ladies are at least usually nice enough, but the girls are something else.

For example, the other day I brought a big bag of carrots for my lease horse. As I was leaving, a couple of her teenage clients were getting ready for their lesson. I said goodbye and told them I was leaving the rest of the carrots if they wanted some. They looked at each other, then at me sideways, and after a long pause said, “Oh, okay.” Everything about their tone and body language suggested they thought I was a freak for acknowledging them. It was so weird, because I wasn’t stopping to have a conversation. I literally just offered them a treat for their horses on my way out the door.

The following week, it happened again. I had been riding for about 20 minutes when I saw the same girls getting ready in the barn. I try to ride in the morning because I prefer not to share the arena, but obviously I have no issue with it. It’s a BOARDING BARN. We all pay to be there, so you have to share the space.

They brought the horse up and didn’t acknowledge me. I said hello (no response) and told them I’d be finished in about 15 minutes (again, no response). I figured they would get on and warm up. Fine, that can be done without words, I guess, and I know the arena rules. Instead, they started dragging out poles and standards. They didn’t even give me the chance to stay out of their way by telling me their plan. They just set up an entire course while I was riding.

Again, I don’t care about sharing the arena. BUT THEY ACTED LIKE I DIDN’T EXIST WHILE I WAS DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THEM ON A HUGE ANIMAL, TRYING TO COMMUNICATE SO WE COULD SHARE THE RING. I just finished my ride best I could and dipped out.

I want to be clear that not for a moment was i expecting to be friends with them. I don’t care about being buddy-buddy with teenage girls. I’m a married woman in my late twenties with a job. I was, however, expecting ACKNOWLEDGMENT THAT I’M ALIVE.

Do I even do anything about this? It’s so stupid. I feel like I should just continue to pretend that I don’t notice. I love the horse, I love my lesson days, and I’m not taking a confidence punt. It’s just so completely bizarre. I have dealt with overt nastiness but never this “treat a person like furniture” attitude.

In the meantime I will keep saying hi, keep offering extra carrots, and keep sharing the ring like a reasonable adult. The bar is on the floor everyone. If you can acknowledge your fellow horse people today you get a ribbon from me!!!

I haven’t jumped xc in about 10 years. I had a bad fall last time I did (different horse).

I think my horse had a pretty great time. He didn’t spook at anything and jumped around like he’s been doing it his entire life, in his hackamore 🥹

Being away from home for a month in the gross humid weather was a long time to be gone. But there was so many amazing memories. Laughs. And great things that it almost made up for it. I look forward too and dread this trip every year. But every year I am so glad I went. It’s always hard to sum it all up cause it’s one of those. You had to be there kind of months. But here’s a few of the moments from my month long marathon 💕💕

Goose would like everyone to know his mom made him go ride in wind, that then turned to rain. And then he had to go to the haunted place (neighborhoods) to go look at Halloween decor and watch the trash men with the trash truck flap stuff around. In the wind. Without his friends for emotional support. But he got a lot of candy corn for good behavior, kept his mom alive and safe and got to chase some coyotes (his favorite hobby). So life is okay.

P.S, please know that when they got back to the yard and I seen the video, they got a huge bollocking for taking off there hats and hi zis! Had a long talk about how useless a helmet is at protecting there heads if it’s on there lap instead. Tried to give me the excuse they’d only took it off as had seen our older cousin up ahead videoing and wanted to look good for the camera. They got caught right out 😂 Can safely say the hats have stayed on top of their heads ever since!!! 🙈

This ad just wandered into my feed.

I have questions

Does anyone have any good resources to learn more about bits. Overall, I feel I don't have a good understanding on the basic mechanics and the in depth on severity and such. I just want to learn more about the type of bits (snaffles, gags, etc) what they do, why they're mild/moderate/severe, how they work etc

I saw this video and am confused as to what this training is supposed to do? The horse seems steady and then gets yanked around. If this was a younger horse, they would trip over their feet.

What is the goal here, pulling the horses head all the way to the stirrup?

https://youtube.com/shorts/rAjj58pi_-I?is=jdQ0uPZBoJ5xb77z

https://youtube.com/shorts/oaL4qdVYytU?is=ao1PbAVn7VsQFMK1

Recap: I had 3 lessons at a new barn with a horse that would throw her head up with ears back at every nudge of my heels. Trainer said it was my fault, that my reins were too tight (even with a loose rein)

Today I rode a new horse-he went well for me, got into a solid trot (which to me is so basic) and he was generally okay, if heavy on the forehand.

This trainer says I have trouble because my aids are ‘outdated’ (I’m 74, and have ridden all my life) She says no one uses an indirect rein anymore, and I should be scraping the horse’s side with my heels, not pressing.

I am very willing to learn any new ways of riding, but, does this sound right to anyone? I guess I question her methods.
She claims the horse I rode earlier that would not trot for 3 lessons, is a more sophisticated horse with a soft mouth and the horse I rode today is ‘easier.’

I have jumped, shown, and taken years of lessons-not that I’m a great rider, but does this sound right to all you horse people out there? Could my aids be so weird that a lesson horse won’t trot?

Thank you for any help.

Me & my blues 💙

P.S. I always wear a helmet! I was on the horse for about a minute without it for the sake of photos.

I’ve been trying to watch the coverage from Morven Park on ESPN all weekend, but can hardly get through more than a few minutes at a time, because the camerawork is atrocious! Jerky and unsteady, randomly moving super fast before it cuts away, unfocused, it makes me nauseous! Anyone know why this is so terrible? Is AI filming this??

I know 50cm ain’t high but usually we start with even smaller like a 20cm cross pole as I had a long time off riding. My boy is a seven year old automatic horse aka he really does know what he is doing. Every time we warm up at the tiny cross poles we just horrible at it. We (I) cant see the distance, pace is off and etc. as soon as we put it up at least to 50cm we actually start to look like we know what we are doing. Like today we couldn’t get any of those tiny cross poles correctly but as soon as height was raised we went though the course with perfect distances and landed always on correct lead. Anyone knows why it keep happening?

i swear he does this to spite me

The other day I was leading my horse (21-25 year old quarter horse, got him in 2016) into his stall and he ran into the side of the stall door and then into the stall wall since I had turned around to see what had happened and assumed he would stop. After he ate we let them (we have 4 horses, one we have to keep separate) out into another pasture (we have 4 each around 3-5 acres) and he seemed fine, just walked out and started grazing.

In the evening the next day we wanted to swap pastures since it was going to rain and he didn’t come up. Went out and called him, he whinnied but seem not to know which way to go. I walked out and put his halter on and led him to the barn, he seemed unsteady. I called the vet and she came out yesterday. Found that his iris is not opening in both eyes, probably due to uveitis. She could not look into the eye since her battery had died on her ophthalmoscope so, she is coming out tomorrow (she is having eye surgery today!). We are putting atropine in his eyes to hopefully try to open up his iris, prognosis does not look good.

We went out this morning to treat him. The one horse started to follow us back and he also tried to follow but walked into the tensile fence. At least he is one not to panic. I led him back the gate and they both went into the shed where we have a large bale of hay. I have a camera in there and last night more rain came and the other 2 horses were in there, but not him. He probably couldn’t find his way to the leanto at night. The rain only last 20 mins.

We put small bells on the other 2 horses that are in his pasture with him, hope that he could learn to hear them. We could put him in a smaller paddock with a sheep (we used to raise sheep and she is the last ewe we have) that does have a small leanto. He hates being alone. We also have round pen panels but it seems confining, not sure how happy he would be. I got him from Arizona where they do keep horses in smaller pens, the horses seem to do OK. Our other 2 horses that are with him are 25 and 33. The 4th one is 12 and has navicular and does not get alone with the others. We keep him in the adjacent pasture.

My wife is wondering if we will have to put him down since he could hurt himself. I really don’t want to. He also has ring bone that started a couple of years ago and cannot be ridden anymore.

Not sure what we can do to make him safe and happy.

My friend (who’s a professional showjumper) took him round for me to hold his hand a little and he seemed to love it - I was having a nervous breakdown behind the camera and he was going round with his ears pricked and a smile on his face. Not bad for an old chap with failing eyesight! We kept it small and calm and let him figure it out for himself and I’m so proud of him. Next time, I’ll have to get on board myself as he’s clearly more than capable! 🫣

Looking to buy a couple simple snaffles to try on my horse and was wanting to find something used. Simple snaffles would be a cheap pickup if there was a tack store near me, but there isn't. Any recommendations?

Edit: US based

15.3h, 9yo gelding, (from South Africa) he’s got a stocky build and shorter back. Not sure what flare to put so I just put Education

So obviously she had to jump the moon😛

Hello! We are Päite Loomapark - animals shelter & Mini-Zoo & Rehabilitation center from Ida-Virumaa, Estonia. We try to make some videos on social media so more people would know about us and support our work.

We have 35 rescued horses and 300 other wild and domestic animals in our shelter.

Last week we posted a video of our horses running freely and this time we want to show a process of cleaning our babies.

Thank you for your care and support ☺️

Trying to process the grief of losing my first horse after only 2 years. He was a 16yo Argentine TB from the la natividad bloodline. When he got him he had awful skin lesions, was emotionally shut down, and had massive stiffness and pain in his neck and shoulders. The day before he died his coat was soft and dappled, he was booping me in the face to be silly, and he was doing nice supple bends over cavaletti poles. I didn’t have him long, but I had him long enough to get him ready to gallop over the rainbow bridge like the warrior he is rather than walk like he was past his prime. He was too young but we were good for each other. I can always look at the after and before and feel proud of what I did for him.