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RabbitMage
Nov 20, 2008


I'm thinking of taking up cross country. What do you think?

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Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

RabbitMage posted:



I'm thinking of taking up cross country. What do you think?

As long as the country in question is very flat it should be fine. :P

teenytinymouse
Aug 3, 2005

I'm Shannon and I'm the biggest Idiot Ever!

:swoon:
Don't you stifle that pony, she could have her own dreams.

Suspect Bucket
Jan 15, 2012

SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR
Take up barrel racing. The pony can be one of the barrels.

Nondevor
Jun 1, 2011





catposting
Ooh, horse thread! I started learning how to ride English style in the fall with my college equestrian team, and it's been a blast. Our instructor prefers not to have us riding on the same horse every lesson since she says that good riding skill means you can ride any horse. I'm inclined to agree with her! There are about 5-7 different horses available for riding with fairly diverse sensitivities/temperaments (the rest of them being other people's horses stabled at the barn or the instructor's personal stallion). My favorite one to ride is a horse named Tego. He's a butt who likes taking things slow, but with enough encouraging he keeps a good constant pace. Tego is usually pretty mellow. The other horses are too, but I've had a couple of instances where one of them refused to cooperate with me... this was the case when I would sometimes ride with a more advanced group and the horse really liked jumping. Too bad he was stuck with me!

Currently I just finished walk-trot and may be moving onto stuff like two-point next year. One thing I've found is that yes, thigh strength and strong hip flexors mater. I had pretty stiff ankles when starting out so keeping proper foot position/sinking weight down into the heels was hard, but it's gotten better. I finally got the grasp of it while trotting thanks to a lucky one-on-one lunge line lesson. They're seriously awesome! If I started out with those in the beginning, it would have made things so much more easier.

Hopefully I can find some barns giving lessons when I go home for the summer, hopefully English style (but most likely Western). Riding is fun!

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Glad you're enjoying it. :)

Having finally stopped aching after my fall from Boyse last month I'm booked back in at the riding school this evening. :)

Hoping I get Murphy my usual steed there.


I'm also booking on to a riding holiday in Jordan in October. 10 days in Jordan, 6 of which are spend riding around the desert looking at things (including a ride through Petra) :)

teenytinymouse
Aug 3, 2005

I'm Shannon and I'm the biggest Idiot Ever!

Yay Nondevor and yay Angrymog! :neckbeard: Nondevor your instructor is very sensible having you ride a variety from the very start and I enjoy it a lot more when you don't know what's coming every week, keeps it fresh!

And that holiday sounds incredible Angrymog :swoon:

I haven't managed to get back to the stables yet with all the other poo poo going on recently but the end of June is my target. I can't wait to get yelled at for my terrible terrible feet! Maybe a break will have broken all the awful bad habits I had???

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Yeah, when you're learning trying lots of different horses is good. When you want to start doing more complex stuff sticking to one is better because you get to know them and their quirks.

And yeah - I've always wanted to see Petra, and combining that with a riding holiday just sounded perfect. :) It's not cheap, but I have a redundancy payment due my way.

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Riding lesson today was good if somewhat soggy. Was on Tinker rather than Murphy (pictures earlier in thread) because Murphs is out of action atm due to a cut on his leg because he got kicked by Tinker :( (They're usually mates, but Murphs had a new fly rug on and apparently Tinker didn't recognise him).

Trotted and cantered around, popped Tinker over a little fence a few times, glad to see that neither my balance nor my confidence are as shot as I was concerned they were.

Problem!
Jan 1, 2007

I am the queen of France.

Angrymog posted:

Yeah, when you're learning trying lots of different horses is good. When you want to start doing more complex stuff sticking to one is better because you get to know them and their quirks.

When I was in high school I rode on an equestrian team in a league that was set up between various stables in the region, and every show 4 teams would show up to a barn, each rider pick a horse out of a hat they'd never seen or ridden before (one flat class and two jumping classes, so you picked 3 different horses), and ride it in a show. For the jumping classes you got to do two warm up fences and that was it. And since these are riding schools and large shows that require them to use all their horses you got everything in the hat from fancy higher level horses that do everything to old grumpy school horses who hate everyone. You could absolutely tell which riders rode every horse their coach threw at them, and which ones were used to riding their personal push-button pony. At the end of the season all 12 teams in the league would bring their own horses to a big equestrian center and have one big finale show where you could actually choose which horse to ride.

Intercollegiate equestrian shows are the exact same setup except you don't get a warm up. You just go.

teenytinymouse
Aug 3, 2005

I'm Shannon and I'm the biggest Idiot Ever!

I visited the stables, I actually got a bit teary when I saw Harvey, he's my special buddy :unsmith: instructor was giving a private lesson so I didn't get a chance to speak to her today but I got to hug everybody and meet new dog and new chickens, got to hug a chicken too and I took bad photos
This is Dillon and Sylvester who is blind in one eye, they are new

Debonair is grown up now

Ruby is still the prettiest

I failed getting photos of the new dog (I petted his tummy for a good half an hour, he's lovely) or the chickens or the other new pony, boo me

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

I'm going to be taking part in a little Clear Round jumping competition at the riding school on Weds :)

Sadly Murphs is still out of action, so I'll try and get Tinker. If he wakes up and neither of us bottle it over scarier fences we should be fine (turns out I am a bit more scared of falling off than I used to be prior to the last fall from Boyse :( , and Tinker isn't quite as brave as Murphy ). If I can't get Tinker I'm going to be riding a stranger, which will be interesting. The other really good jumper in my size range got sold and whilst she still lives at the stable, she's not on working livery these days.

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Did embarassingly badly at the clear round; due to run outs and stuff I didn't even manage to get the route right on the two rides I did.

Things I did wrong
- Didn't really warm up Tinker and I took him out first; I should have given him a trot and canter around before I jumped, but the fences on that round were little so I thought we'd be okay
- Started a round too early I think; should have waited for them to go up one; they weren't really high enough for him to want to pay attention to.

I was sharing him with one of the girls who part-times at the stables, so my second ride wasn't on Tinker, but Millie who I'd ridden all of once before. On the plus side that meant that it was stable-girl rather than me on him two rounds on when he decided he had had enough and refused a fence at speed. (she was fine)

In my defence the last time I rode a course of jumps (rather than just 2-4 in a normal lesson) there wasn't an audience and we still measured them in feet rather than centimetres.

Here's the video. The worst part is that Tinks and I can easily clear twice that.
Clear round jumping

I think you'll agree that that was all a bit :mediocre:

teenytinymouse
Aug 3, 2005

I'm Shannon and I'm the biggest Idiot Ever!

I would love a go on Tinker. Gimme the big fluffyfoot to jump on :3:

A couple of good lively circles beforehand to wake him up and you would have been golden imo.

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

teenytinymouse posted:

I would love a go on Tinker. Gimme the big fluffyfoot to jump on :3:

A couple of good lively circles beforehand to wake him up and you would have been golden imo.

Tinker's a total sweetheart. :3: His nickname is Hairy Boy.

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Went out on a two-hour hack today; here's Tinker in all his fluffy-footed glory back at the stable

Tyma
Dec 22, 2004

Chwyldro Dawnsio Dawns

Angrymog posted:

I think you'll agree that that was all a bit :mediocre:

Can I give advice? I don't get to give advice very often, so I'm going to give advice!

The clear round video looks fine, to be honest. That's a really awkward height for any horse to jump, because as you said, the fences look too small to be interesting or engaging to the horse, and yet they still require you as a rider to really nail everything, in order to try and get around perfectly. Although Tinker isn't working against you in any way, if he doesn't look around and think 'This is serious jumping time!', then you can't get that complete package of horse and rider trying for the same objective ^^;

quote:

- Didn't really warm up Tinker and I took him out first; I should have given him a trot and canter around before I jumped, but the fences on that round were little so I thought we'd be okay

Warming up is really important. It lets you show the horse around and explain to him what's happening, but also lets you set the tone of the ride.

Think back and remember a time when you've been riding with your instructor, and mid-way through a lesson, you nail a jump or a series of jumps that feels really good, then after a lap of the school or a little break, you confidently go and jump another jump. If you have that sort of memory, then bottle it, because it'll be really, really important in jumping!

That moment is what you want to be re-creating, every time you ride off towards the first jump in a competition. You want to remember the quiet confidence, and draw on the reassurance that you've just nailed a really nice jump, and you're going to do it again. You want the same balance, the same breathing, the same foot position and the same little buzz of excitement that you had when you were going around the school to jump the second set, and if you can tap into that, then Tinker will also pick up on all of those little things.

When you walk into the school, or onto the jumping course, the clock will never start until you signal to the judge, and approach the first jump. You have a minute or two to ride around the school and warm up the horse. A lot of people (especially new riders) panic, because the riders before them didn't make full use of this time, and they think there's some sort of etiquette to get on with the jumping, so that the people behind them can have a go. If you walk into the school already waving your bottled memory around in the air, and the horse understands exactly what's about to happen, then by all means, make it short and get on with it before any sort of nerves start to kick in, but if you don't feel 100% confident, then feel free to spend a minute or two riding some simple, familiar exercises, to get your confidence up. Those exercises certainly won't make you feel any worse, and since Showjumping is 50% a mental exercise, you should absolutely take full advantage of any time you have to compose yourself, and get both you and Tinker in the right frame of mind for what you're about to do.

As I said, the ride itself looks fine in the video. You have good posture, your jump seat is solid, and you give him leg at the right time. I think he sometimes chooses when to jump, instead of jumping straight off the leg signal? On the run out at the second part of #4, do you think you could have kept him straight if you were holding the stick in your left hand? The first 5 jumps are all on the left rein, so I would have started with it there.

I think you guys will do well together. Don't ever feel embarrassed about the awesome thing you did on a horse being less awesome than you expected it to be!

Problem!
Jan 1, 2007

I am the queen of France.
In equitation classes it's proper etiquette to do a 20 meter hunter circle before starting. It signals to the judge you've got your poo poo together and helps get you and your horse all synced up and connected before heading to the first jump. You can't cross the plane of the first jump, however, or it counts as a refusal. In a class like yours I don't think they'd care where you put it in, so I'd recommend doing it near the scariest looking jump so the horse can get a look at it first so he's not seeing it for the first time on course going AGH WTF IS THAT?!

My advice to you would be sit back and LEG LEG LEG LEG and maybe a pop with the crop if he's slowing down in front of the jump. Leaning forward will make him less likely to jump since he'll be all "ugh even MORE weight on my front end gently caress this". I'd definitely take the time to establish a nice canter with some momentum before heading to the first jump with him.

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Hey, thanks for the advice. Makes sense, and I'll keep it in mind when they do their next clear round afternoon in the summer. I really should have warmed him up - it was that I didn't want to take up time due to the scheduling; in retrospect if it's okay time-wise for overly ambitious mums to drag their kids ponies around several times*, it's also okay for me to do a couple of warm up circuits and give the horse a look around.

He's not my horse though - belongs to the school. :(

Some of my cues were off, as you said, I should have had the whip in the other hand, probably could have stopped the run out at the blue and yellow.

* it's a pretty informal event, get everything from tiny ponies to daft thoroughbreds coming along. It's not officially timed either, though I'm sure some people were timing their runs.

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Here's more of the ever so floofy-footed Tnker, this time in warm up before the lesson starts for real.

Tinker being warmed up I'm aware that my seat is pretty bad when we get into the canter. :(

EXTREME INSERTION
Jun 4, 2011

by LadyAmbien
I fell off a horse once onto my rear end

x1o
Aug 5, 2005

My focus is UNPARALLELED!
My horse threw me into a jump, then stood on my hand to keep me down. My horse was a loving arsehole sometimes. Alas, old age claimed him. Now I'm saving money to buy a Clydesdale because I want something as tall as I am.

Problem!
Jan 1, 2007

I am the queen of France.

TheHeadSage posted:

My horse threw me into a jump, then stood on my hand to keep me down. My horse was a loving arsehole sometimes. Alas, old age claimed him. Now I'm saving money to buy a Clydesdale because I want something as tall as I am.

I have a 17hh thoroughbred. He's pretty tall. But also a thoroughbred so spastic with an amazing ability to amass bizarre injuries and medical problems.

x1o
Aug 5, 2005

My focus is UNPARALLELED!

Aquatic Giraffe posted:

I have a 17hh thoroughbred. He's pretty tall. But also a thoroughbred so spastic with an amazing ability to amass bizarre injuries and medical problems.

Nothing is funnier in this world than watching a 16hh TB trying to hide from a bossy 13hh pony.

Tyma
Dec 22, 2004

Chwyldro Dawnsio Dawns

Angrymog posted:

Here's more of the ever so floofy-footed Tnker, this time in warm up before the lesson starts for real.

Tinker being warmed up I'm aware that my seat is pretty bad when we get into the canter. :(

Your transitions are great, and your corners are really consistent. I wouldn't worry about what your canter seat looks like, because it just looks like it might take that much kinetic energy on your part to keep him in canter? You can afford to look a little silly, because the horse looks great in both gaits, and you're making him look great!

You're also brave enough to post a video of yourself riding for the internet to critique, which makes you a brave (and thus better) than any of us ^^;

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm hoping to get more jump practice in on him before the next clear-round jumping in August - everyone says he jumps really well - but I haven't yet clicked with him for that; he's not an easy jumper compared to Murphy who is basically point-and-go.

UnbearablyBlight
Nov 4, 2009

hello i am your heart how nice to meet you
I really miss riding, but it's unlikely I'll get to do it again anytime soon. I was also really bad at it so.

For the past four years I've cleaned stalls at a farm that breeds Holsteiners and does hunter/jumper, so I got to hang out with some gorgeous, fancy horses. I'm leaving for a grown-up job soon, but I'm going to miss them - especially the two fillies who were a few months old when I started and are just going under saddle now. :3:

Writer Cath
Apr 1, 2007

Box. Flipped.
Plaster Town Cop
Crossposted from the Cute and Uplifting thread.


quote:

At the Cape Pembrokeshire Nature Reserve in the Falkland Islands, a very unlikely friendship has occurred between a herd of horses and a lost penguin.

After becoming separated from its friends, the penguin was ‘adopted’ by the horses as one of their own and now lives side by side with the horses on the island. But don’t feel too bad for the lost penguin – the Falklands has around 500,000 breeding pairs of penguins on the island so this little guy will easily find a mate if he wishes. For now, though, it looks like he’s found a few new friends to keep him entertained until he’s ready to settle down!

Noise Complaint
Sep 27, 2004

Who could be scared of a Jeffrey?
Hi horse thread!

My fiance is the equestrian in the family and I'm not that knowledgeable about horses, but I figured you guys would enjoy some babby pictures.


Here's our newest family member, her name is still to be determined, born on Saturday.







She joins Orbit, our ~10 year old draft cross who is a bit of a derp.

x1o
Aug 5, 2005

My focus is UNPARALLELED!

Ah foals, 90% leg & 10% awkward, yet 100% adorable.

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

TheHeadSage posted:

Ah foals, 90% leg & 10% awkward, yet 100% adorable.

Agreed. I found it interesting how their legs are almost adult length. Very very cute though.

teenytinymouse
Aug 3, 2005

I'm Shannon and I'm the biggest Idiot Ever!

Aaaah she's gorgeous! :neckbeard: come back and tell us what you call her!

Orbit is beautiful too, I have very fond memories of a big derpy piebald called Magee :3:

Noise Complaint
Sep 27, 2004

Who could be scared of a Jeffrey?
We're leaning on the name Solstice to go along with Orbit :)


Legs!

Grandmother of Five
May 9, 2008


I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.
i was at a faire and thought that some of the horses and donkeys looked really bad, but i don't know enough about horses to really tell. if a grown horse is skinny enough that its ribs are clearly showing, is that negligent to the point of being animal abuse? not like the above pic, much more visible & on a grown horse.

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Yeah. Grown horses shouldn't have ribs showing.

teenytinymouse
Aug 3, 2005

I'm Shannon and I'm the biggest Idiot Ever!

Probably, yes. Horses aren't like greyhounds, you should not be able to see ribs. Faires are not exactly bastions of animal welfare. Take photos and report it but prepare for gently caress all to be done about it :(

Tyma
Dec 22, 2004

Chwyldro Dawnsio Dawns
I came to post pictures of my horse, but :siren: this is now The Solstice Thread:siren:

Problem!
Jan 1, 2007

I am the queen of France.

Grandmother of Five posted:

i was at a faire and thought that some of the horses and donkeys looked really bad, but i don't know enough about horses to really tell. if a grown horse is skinny enough that its ribs are clearly showing, is that negligent to the point of being animal abuse? not like the above pic, much more visible & on a grown horse.

On a horse with a good body condition you should be able to feel but not see ribs. If you can't even feel the ribs just laying your hand on their side they are officially A Fat.

But yeah you shouldn't be able to just see them unless they're a super duper well conditioned horse like American Pharoah and I doubt these faire horses are in that peak physical condition.

rdb
Jul 8, 2002
chicken mctesticles?

Grandmother of Five posted:

i was at a faire and thought that some of the horses and donkeys looked really bad, but i don't know enough about horses to really tell. if a grown horse is skinny enough that its ribs are clearly showing, is that negligent to the point of being animal abuse? not like the above pic, much more visible & on a grown horse.

I will risk saying something different here. There is an official body score condition for horses. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henneke_horse_body_condition_scoring_system

Scores of three and four are not unusual and not necessarily a sign of abuse. Ribs are visible. My 4 yr old thoroughbred will not go past a 4 no matter how much grain and green grass he has. Our other two horses will stay at a 6 on the same pasture with less feed. Scores of 1 and 2 are signs the horse is not being fed enough.

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Noise Complaint
Sep 27, 2004

Who could be scared of a Jeffrey?

Tyma posted:

I came to post pictures of my horse, but :siren: this is now The Solstice Thread:siren:

Here's a few more baby pictures! She really is quite cute. When we finally buy the land we want I'll have to start a thread with our zoo.





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