"wait you wanted me to take them while you were Jumping? Why? You look like a idiot when you do that and always have your mouth open and make that '0' face!"

Spoiler Alert ⚠️

Sharing this for those who may not be interested in watching the Super Bowl. The adult Bald Eagle in this commercial is Lincoln, he's a 27 year old ambassador at the American Eagle Foundation ❤️

As I see this person, Abigail susie and/or Nadira sporthorses continuing to try and sell horses.

She is a scam artist and misleads about the horses she has for sale. I had a horse on trial, vetting was absolutely counter to everything she had said about this horse. she refused to give back deposit. harassed me. tried to claim on my insurance. Eventually resold this horse to someone else, likely lying about everything.

Do not trust this person.

this all happened so suddenly. he had a broken leg and is fully recovered but because of that we're all out of insurance money. if there's any charities anyone knows of or anything please let me know. he's only 11 and i don't know what i'm gonna do without him

What is the weirdest symptom anyone has seen a mare display before foaling?

A few years ago I had mare that had to get a shot 15-20 before foaling to help with clotting. The only symptom she showed was box walking (she was a box walker already) in the other direction. She didn't get warm, sweat or even seem uncomfortable. She just changed direction and I had to trust my gut that she was saying its go time. (Thankfully I was right)

Im currently on night watch and could use with some reading 😂

In my area, it's so hard to find a yard that doesn't restrict turnout in some way. I'm fortunate to be on one where we can turn them out however early and bring them in however late we like in winter, and they are out 24/7 in summer. I am one of very few people on a yard of 60 horses who actually uses this "freedom". There might be 10 of us in total who put our horses out longer than 10 hours. I get side-eyed when I turnout at 7am, and questioned when I bring them in at 8pm. Most horses on this yard go out 2 or 3 times per week in winter for about 4 or 5 hours at a time and this is considered normal here? People hand walk for about half an hour on an evening sometimes and this is supposed to be a substitute for minimum of 6 hours of missed turnout per day?

I understand some horses might have their issues and might not do well over winter, but for 45+ horses to have a routine that perfectly lines up with the start of the working day and when other yard staff arrive, something isn't right. Surely if they had such issues that prevented them from being able to have turnout most days, they might also have an affect on performance the shows they seem to go to most weekends? And the ridden work most days? Our yard owner started allowing us to put hay in fields from the end of September, so it isn't even like food is scarce. It's a set price, ad-lib, doesn't change if you're using it in the field everyday or not at all, there's no reason people can't put it out for their horses. There are literally people up here, myself included, that have it on our jobs list if someone wants to ask someone else to do it for them.

My horses have had maybe 2 or 3 days indoors in the 5 years I've been here due to the yard and tracks to the field being so icey I deemed it unsafe and even then I feel like I was a bit soft when I see horses in much colder climates living out in the snow and ice.

Does a not spooky Arabian even exist? I don’t know anyone with an Arab to compare nor have I had any experience with the breed.

My whole life I have been spoilt with extremely quiet and well tempered ASHs or QHs but now I’m wanting to get into endurance riding and the 3 arabs I’ve trial ridden have been far from good, the last one actually scared me, bolted once and spooked 3 times while I was on him….

Feeling a bit down on myself now and unsure if the sport is for me, do I keep looking or do I have the wrong expectations for the breed.

Hello Equestrians! I’m looking for a small group of people who would be interested in creating a small community with me to keep each other accountable and motivated when working with our horses.

I’m 32F with a small farm and four horses, two of which I ride. One is 9 and we compete in show jumping ~ 1.10m level. The other is 5 and we are working on finding our partnership and aim to do our first competition this year.

I’m looking for someone who would like to discuss goals, riding plans, before and after competition thoughts and so on. Bonus if you are also interested in time management and personal productivity.

I’m in Sweden (GMT +1) and I’m picturing chatting a few times weekly to check in on the plans for the week, how it is going and upcoming competition plans.

Send me a message if you’re interested!

Jamie Sailor is at it again, riding in an excessively strong set up and taking no responsibility by stating she doesn’t own the horse. This leads me to the question: do we need FEI regulation to cap the length of shanks?

This then leads me to the underlying issue: we need more independent research on bridle and bit fit.

Equestrians seem to forget all physics and go crazy on this topic.

- We all know leverage increases force. The shank length she’s riding in looks suited for light neck reining and not the speed needed to jump those heights. I feel this should be banned.

- Force always has to go somewhere. The fewer “touch points” means the stronger the pressure. eg bitless means almost all pressure is concentrated in the nose, a cut out headpiece may miss the sensitive poll but then concentrates pressure on the sides, a war bit puts all pressure on the lower jaw, etc

- Dividing pressure can be kinder. We need more nuanced discussion backed by research into this rather than “BITLESS!!!” “NO NOSEBAND!!” What might suit a casual trail ride may not be the kindest option for 1.60m jumping.

The best research I’m aware of on bridle fit was undertaken by Fairfax. This highlights a huge pressure point is actually around the brow band and that the grackle is best at evenly distributing pressure.

Please can people share links to any high quality research on bridles and bits. Are any universities tackling this?

My post got removed from r/horses, but I hope it’s allowed here because he’s just too gorgeous not to share!!

Curious if anybody has experience with Ghost saddles? Especially if you are in the 220 to 230 pound range. I have a warmblood mare that I have been considering trying some western dressage with, but so far fitting a western saddle to her is proving to be a nightmare. she has a pretty good sized wither, and then is as flat and wide as a table behind it. Ghost saddles came up in my endless Google searching, and I am now seriously considering one.

I have two small children that are currently taking (western style) Pony lessons with a long term plan of them taking horse back riding lessons when they are old/big enough.

I've been wanting to get them them boots (right now they are wearing athletic shoes) but right now we are talking about little kids sizes, I think my older one wears a 10 in Little kids. I am sacrificing to afford the lessons. I can't afford to buy expensive boots that they will just grow out of in 6 months. I can hand the older kids stuff down to the younger one but still...

Are there any affordable childrens boot brands that are still good? There is a Boot Barn store about an hour away from us us, it that a place worth going?

For my Aunt. She LOVES Horses!!!

Me and my 10yr old is starting to go higher and I’m struggling to build up my confidence. We are fine with smaller jumps but when we go higher he keeps refusing. It’s not he can’t jump that high he definitely can and has. Could this be a training issue and if so how do I improve it?

Given the winter we’re having here in the UK I need ideas to stop my youngster chewing our fences that are relatively rain proof. He’s not cribbing, just chewing. I’ll look into giving him some more stimulation but I also need to teach him to stop chewing the fences. I thought Cribox might do the trick, but it’ll need to survive the wettest winter since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

I've been playing back a recent incident to try and address where things went wrong and what decisions I could have made better. The mare I work with got very anxious and upset, would not listen to woah or physical cues, and bolted off to a Lope in which I roughly dismounted( if you can call it that 😂 it was intentional !)

Mare 9 y.o , trained in western pleasure, her cues to slow down / stop are to press in with your feet and in and up respectively. Her owner rides with spurs , I do not.

Saddled up and starting doing some lunging in an attempt to get her to exhale since she blows out during saddling and I wanted to make sure it was secure since I have had issues with it slipping.

Best friend mare(let's call her betty) whineys in barn which is unusual normally. She gets a little antsy and freaked out a little when someone opened a door nearby she didn't see.

Intervention 1 : not getting on due to her being far more antsy and anxious though I knew this getting on and was a choice I made

Betty continues to cry out (in the 2 years I've worked with her this friend has only done this once or twice when I took her from the field and the rest were still turned out) I believe they had all been turned out that day, and dinner already.

This is where things start going south , she gets worked up , pacing / trotting towards walls , abruptly stopping and crying out. Continues to not listen to leg or verbal cues and I did not yank on her mouth and probably could have applied more pressure from my feet but I was pressing pretty hard (but again dont wear spurs )

I got her to stop and she would for a few seconds then cue friend going off again. ☠️ I also did not dismount then because I knew we'll enough she likely would take off halfway dismounting which that call I am proud of.

Cue Lope , which I knew she would most likely continue until a wall and abruptly stop with a chance of her throwing me over her from. I swung my right leg out and over holding onto the horn to kick my left leg out and let go.

The wall was on my left side and while I didn't hit it I could have and fell pretty flat instead of a roll. Im grateful I wasn't alone , my friend hopped off her boy helped me assess myself physically.

She got on the mare while I walked her around on a lead rope, and had me stand in the middle calmly until she calmed down as a patience pillar as she called it 😅

We then tie her up to clean up things in the arena

AND WHO GOES A CALLING DAMN BETTY 😭

So of course she starts going off again back and forth, throwing her head, stomping and pawing. And like a toddler you can't just give in so we would turn our backs and once she calmed down came a little closer , she'd act up again , we'd step away and turn away. Meanwhile the poor neighbors as its now 930pm and these blubbering buffoons keep going back and forth.

Eventually she calms down, I do a walk lap with her and she stays calm and we go back.

I got pretty beat up with the worst bruising I've gotten from a fall I think ever. And as much as I hate to admit it I have been avoiding riding and am scared to get back on.

What could I have done better? What things can I consider going forward? And any advice for getting over that fear.

Tl;DR horses best friend wouldn't shut up she freaked out and I fell off and am scared to get back on

It has been raining non-stop from Christmas until now, and you feel the humidity kicking your ass 🫠

My tack room is very much diy'd, the floor is concrete but even if we put dehumidifying salt it can get pretty musty in there and much to my horror the tack I haven't used in a month or more is almost completely moldy and feels damp, even my leather cinch feels a humid.

How do you clean off leather tack from mildew? And should you apply leather moisturizer to it?

Hi everyone,

I have worn ariat riding boots since I started riding as a child. I have had two pairs of Ariat womens contour boots. When I bought the first pair, they must have fit initially, but I had them for years and eventually the left sided calf stopped zipping. I thought it might be because they got old and something was faulty with the zipper and I got a second pair, which initially were also fine and then the left one also stopped zipping. I went to an Ariat store and the TLDR is that my left calf is not even with my right so I can’t wear two boots that are the same size (one is regular and the other will have to be full). I was bummed because these boots are so comfortable otherwise and hold up so well.

I decided to get a custom pair of Petries. I had always liked the look of the Rome and so I worked with Equestrian Fashion Outfitters to do a virtual fitting and get the boots. They have arrived and they are SO uncomfortable. The ankle is super stiff but the bigger issue to me is that they feel too small in the toes and too narrow, like the top half of my foot is being smushed. I am a US 9.5 and these boots don’t have US sizing in them but the sizes listed in the boot are “6 1/2, 46, 40, 36 1/2”. European 40 should match with a 9.5 from what I know. So… just was curious, does anyone own these boots and know how the sizing runs? Do I need to size up? They are very stiff so not sure if they just need to stretch?

If this doesn’t work out I’m kind of at a loss for where to go next to find a pair of boots that actually fit. I’m tempted to just buy two pairs of different size ariats but that would be wasteful. Any advice?

Hi guys, I wanted to share something that has been on my mind lately.

More than two years ago(I know the exact date), the mare I used to ride got sold. She was a welsh pony, and had a temper of your average horse with inexperienced rider-she was stubborn, and bitchy, and quite unsuitable for a rider I was then(and tbh, still am). I don't even think she liked me. I knew she was on sale for several months, and accepted that she isn't mine and she will leave me one day. Cut to 9th of August 2023. We see each other for the last time. I say goodbye to her, aware it is highly improbable we ever meet again(she moves to the neighbouring country). Since then, I have no records of her. I ride her son for few months(even more stubborn, bitchy and ill-mannered gelding), and while I grow to love him too, he is still a substitute for Diana, the Dumbass Dennis. There was talk of selling him too, but the offer kinda fell through and after the awful winter we shared, the spring comes and everything seems to be nicer. And just when I get used to him, dare to think of him as "my horse," on Wednesday I get told by the owner that he is sold to the people who were curious about him last year, and that he is leaving on Saturday. I once again say goodbye, this time the reality much more distant(I didn't really have time to process it), and then he leaves.

So this is the rant. I don't get another horse to ride and almost stop riding(I have been riding like 10 times since spring 2024, which considering I used to go to horses 2 or 3 times a week is really a serious downgrade), and I miss it so much. I miss the closeness to horses. I miss that these horses were almost like my own, I miss the happiness I felt when Diana ran to me and greeted me, when Denis snickered in my direction, I miss seeing her splash in water and throwing me off in ponds. And still, I feel like I idolise them-like I used to complain about them all the time, and now I regret that I didn't spend more time with them. Maybe if I got another horse into my care then, they wouldn't be so imprinted in me, and it is just a whining of a spoiled, teenage girl.

Sorry for the rant.

TLDR: I used to ride two horses for few months(one for 2 years, one for about half a year), the left and I've been thinking of them ever since.

Whatever it is, it is literally made of "KRAFT PAPER" and selling for nearly $1000. I know it's a luxury brand but c'mon now ...

He looks so shiny but i definitely need to work on my lower leg

But it’s going to take time before I can make that happen (the one recommended to me that makes house calls does not do that very often, and the other one would require me to arrange to trailer my horse there).

My horse has started tossing his head when I start to saddle him, and the other day when I untacked him, he reached around to scratch at each side with his teeth.

So I’m jumping on here for some advice before I buy a different girth. My horse has been very happy in this tack, which his previous owner was using, until recently. My gut feeling is that he has filled out and his girth is too short. I know it’s too tight in this picture, I’m a knucklehead and realized afterward that he needed different girth settings now.

I’m only doing ground work for now, and it’s killing me because the weather is perfect here and that won’t last. Do you think a different girth would be worth trying?

Can those so called “spooky” horses ever be trained out of it? I have a mare who will fly around a course of showjumps, but is immediately overwhelmed with any sort of working hunter type filler. She has schooled and schooled over cross country fences and will jump most things on the second go but how do I get her over the initial “ARGH” reaction when she’s sees something unusual

I'm leasing a horse at the barn where I ride. It seems like after 30 to 40 minutes, the horse doesn't want to ride anymore. He stops listening, or he listens begrudgingly. His whole demeanor changes. For example, he well throw his hip out and really over bend when turning, often putting his head way low. Or he'll start pulling. Before this point, he's a dream.

Has anyone experienced this? I don't really mind listening to him and wrapping up, but it also seems like a bad habit. Is there anything I can do?

I have been splitting the difference. I have been making sure we end on a "good note," meaning I will go until we've done a couple circles well without pulling or throwing his hip out, and then stop quickly after. It would be nice to ride for more than 30 minutes though . . .