Horse People, where are you? Whinny if you can hear me!

SheilaHoover

Some of my biggest visual motivators for losing weight and regaining my physical fitness are in the pasture outside my windows. My husband and I own a horseback trail riding business--he is 150 lbs soaking wet and in the best shape of his 59 years on the planet; I am on a mission to lose at least 128 lbs. I have not been able to ride for the past 8 years because of my weight and the associated lack of mobility/flexibility/strength/stamina. I have vowed to myself that WILL get down under 250 lbs (our company's weight limit for customers) and I WILL start to ride regularly before next summer.

I'd love to have some equine enthusiasts (all breeds, all disciplines) to support and from whom to receive support. I'd also like to know what some of you who are ahead of me on the riding status did to gain/keep your riding seat, flexibility and stamina.

Thanks in advance!

SMCLosesIt

Neigh!

Sounds like you are living my dream life - I would love to have a trekking business!

As it is I just have my own horses (3 currently) But they keep me busy enough They were one of my motivators for loosing weight as well - I got a few highly unflattering jodhpur wearing photo's that convinced me that I needed to do something!!

Mostly I just use them as my one form of exercise, but I also do alittle bit of weights work (helps when it comes to stacking hay, cleaning the paddock out and all that)

wessecg

I have 7 horses and they have definitely been my motivation to lose weight. I have two that are pony size and as no one is riding them I swore I'd be small enough when one of them came back from training. I've been on here for 91 days and have dropped from 184 to 164.8. I have ridden both of the ponies since dropping the first 15.

As for balance, my horse in my Avatar dumped me 3 times earlier this year so he too was a motivator. I figured if I lost weight my balance would be better and he'd quit dumping me. It has worked. I'm no longer afraid that he will buck when going into a canter. I KNOW he is going to buck, and I now know I am going to stay on his back.

Losing weight helps tremendously. It's as simple as eat less, move more. It's not hard. It's slow. My goal was to lose one pound a week, and I am a little frustrated that every week that is exactly what I lose. I keep thinking one week I'll have a surprise and be down 2 - but nope, it's always 1. It is slow - but even if it takes 52 weeks to lose it all - it will be better than being the same wieght 52 weeks from now. Good luck.

bonawolf

Neigh! Lol. As a new college student, I had to leave my horse. I worked at a stable with 14 horses and had one of my own. It's good to see there are more horse people on here.

kimby39

Oh I hear you! I ride a lot. I run barrels and I always keep thinking how much faster I could be losing some weight! Those precious tenths of a second count! So that is my motivation as well!

bshelby55

Hi, we have 3 horses and I don't ride as much as I would like too. Wow, living in OR and have a horse trail riding business sounds so awesome! That must be a beautiful place to ride.

I am a brand new member so I am just starting out. I am planning on losing 20lbs. Not sure how long it will take, but I need to do it. I work for a large hospital in Cleveland, OH and our insurance now has 3 levels of premiums and I want to be at the lowest premium level which is a big motivation. Plus I just want to look and feel better. I know it will be hard to do and I have become complacent about my weight - so I will have to fight that!

Good luck, you are doing great!

wessecg

I posted this picture on the over 50 board, but then realized that it probably belongs here also. My husband, me and my two young kids rode today. It isn't often we get to ride together. Loved it.

codycisco

My horse helped my start this journey. I never stopped riding even at my highest weight but it was always on my mind that I must look horrible and I worried that I was hurting his back. We compete in ranch sorting and team penning so I wanted to have more stamina and make it easier for Cisco. I am now down 47 pounds with 53 more to go. Riding also helps burn calories and build muscle so I do it alot. Feel free to make me a friend.

Bevkus

My daughter rides english....starting jumping this year. I love going to the stable to watch her ride. I like to ride recreationally too but my fat belly made it umcomfortable to ride and very hard to mount and dismount! I saw a picture of how ridiculous I looked on the horse and havent ridden since. By next summer I hope to be back in the saddle again...walk on!

Mrsmartin61

I'm also trying to get fit to ride! I've gotten injured by a calf knocking me down -- so I have back pain -- but when this is healed I want so much to ride with daughter and grandson, and also train my horses (own ten)!!

Mrsmartin61

Still practicing my pic posts! This was my eye opener -- yikes! This mare has been a great horse -- she is patient with me! Janey Blue deserves a lighter me! Ive had her for almost ten years -- she wasn't ridable when I got her -- but with a lot of learning on both our parts -- she is my favorite. I also ride her off-spring - Wildfire.

mrskatie80

Yep - my horses were my reason for losing weight to begin with!
Plus getting my bum BACK into my 15" much loved Stubben dressage saddle!
Lost 32kg and while I had to readjust my seat as I lost the weight, the difference afterwards was incredible.
I had so much more stamina and flexibility and LOVED that I didn't feel guilty any more.
Or embarrassed by wearing jodhpurs!



Here is my gorgeous mare that I had to sell when moving up to the city
Still ride when I can, but family demands come first at the moment.

wessecg

Rode my 13.3 hand pony yesterday (something I wouldn't do 20 pounds ago). Loved the ride and loved her. I still look a little big on her, but I still have 20 more pounds to lose. I thought she looked great in this picture.



Too bad you had to sell your pretty girl mrskatie. And I understand the eye opening pictures MrsMartin.

horseryder77

Neeigghh!!

I'm here to get stronger mostly for my horses as well.. I started off as a hunter, and then switched to eventing because my horse was amazing at cross country, and I fell in love with dressage.
I've had my pony (his name is Punky) for 11 years. He's probably around 25ish now, and he's still in great shape. He's being leased out to two little girls that LOVE him (he's still mine though.. can't bear to give him up!) but now I'm leasing this HUGE thoroughbred named Ben.
This horse has an incredible amount of power. He's about 2,000 lbs and he knows it. So much suspension, and just incredible strength. I have been training him dressage (he came to us as a hunter) for a little over a year.
I have not once ridden this horse and gotten off without being sweaty/sore the next day. And I've been riding him for over a year. He still makes me sore.

You have to ride him every stride.

Anyway, so that's the abridged version! I don't really jump anymore, mostly because I'm at a primarily dressage barn and jumping ben is like jumping over the moon (Fun, but he's so strong when he gets fast, it can get dangerous!)

I'll try and put pictures of my two ponies!
But feel free to friend me! Anyone!! I love horse people! we are all a little nuts :-p




Ben and I-


Me and the Punk

IzzyBooNZ1

LOVE horses ! I would love to own one again one day. I used to have a pony called Breeze, she was a lovely chestnut mare, very quiet but sadly I outgew her. My next horse was a nutty thoroughbred lol., but I had to sell her because I just didn't have the time for her. sad. My cousin has moved to a large property with a few horses including a miniture ! I can't wait to visit her. She has loads of dogs, some lambs so it will be a lot of fun !

ninjakowski

Long time horse lover here. Haven't ridden for two years now but was pretty seriously into it 'back in the day'

I had two horses when I was younger, worked for a dressage trainer in Australia for 3 years and then went and rode for Ulla Salzgeber (dressage gold medallist at sydney and athens) in Germany. Worked my butt off for a year, and then quit :ohwell:
Starting to miss riding pretty badly lately, going to have to get back into it soon I think.

Going way way back, my first horse Carl at pony club:



My other boy, Turk:



And a couple of my rides in Germany:





Really nice to meet some other horsey people here. Ahhh I miss my riding body :laugh:

DutchFrancis

Hi there, can I join?
My name is Francis, I'm from the Netherlands and just joined MFP 4 days ago. First just to check it out and log what I'm eating while I'm not dieting but within two day's I'm already watching what I eat 'cause I don't want to log 'bad foods'. So I guess it's working already!
And that's a good thing 'cause I want to lose weight before I can ride my 'new' girl. I ride since I was 10 and I've owned my own horses since I was 30 (I'll be 45 in a few weeks) but about 10 years of those 15 years I've been a 'non-riding' horse owner. First 'cause I couldn't ride the Painthorse foal I bred (had to sell the mare due to my divorce) and had to wait 'till she was old enough, than 'cause we had saddle-problems, than I had to sell her because I couldn't afford her anymore. After half a year being horseless (and VERY miserable) I bought a very traumatised Merens from a horsetrader just to save him from a very bad future. I managed to get him back on his feet so to speak, but the first time I rode him it went wrong (my fault, not his) and after that I just couldn't give him the 200% trust he needed to get him under saddle again. I sold him to a girl that wasn't affraid and he's all well and a great trail-horse now.
But it left me horseless again, and again, I found out that I'm not doing well without horses in my life. Because of the money I waited, but after 2 years (that was last year), a friend of mine showed me an add of a pony she just knew would be great for me. I fell in love with the pics and knew right away I would be buying her. Went to see her a few days later and fell in love even more. She would be mine, no matter what it took (turned out she was a bargain and I could afford her as well, lucky me!)
There was only one tiny problem ... She was shorter than what I planned to buy. I always said I should't ride a horse smaller than 14.3 hh (1.50 m.) but she turned out to be only 14.1 hh (1.45 m.).
I rode her - eventhough my crash with the Merens made me pretty scared to ride unknown horses i felt at ease with her right away - and fell in love even more.
A friend that was with me said the height wouldn't be a problem 'cause it's a sturdy mare (she's a Hucul / Konik mix) and it didn't look weird. She took a picture that I showed (pretty ashamed.. ) to serveral people and all said it looked fine.
But even though height isn't a problem, , I think my weight is, especially because I want to ride long-rides in the future. So I promissed her and told myself that I couldn't ride her untill I weigh less than 90 kg. (I'm 106 now).

I own her exactly 1 year today and she needed that time to relax and land a little, the place (a kids riding school) wasn't right for her, but she had a year to relax and be herself again and I think she's ready by now... I've already worked with her from the ground and will start doing that more and hopefully I'll be able to find her a fitting saddle soon.
Than it's all up to me, losing the weight so I can FINALLY be a riding horseowner again.

So.. this is my sweet girl, Raya, from Poland, half Hucul, half Konik (when I bought her she was véry overweight and she still is heavier than on this picture, but also getting there... we're going to lose weight together)




And pretty ashamed I will show you the picture of me riding her. This was 1 year ago and I'm still about the same weight.


And this is what I looked about 15 years ago, showing my first own Painthorse mare Spring Bid Flygirl at my first show ever.
Here I'm at my thinnest (just under 70 kg.), don't think I will be able to reach this again, but everything below 80 would be great.

wessecg

Welome DutchFrancis. I did the math and 70 kg is 154 pounds. Unless you're very very tall, you should be able to reach that. I am losing weight for the same reason - I wanted to ride my 13.3 hand horse (my main horse is 15.2). See the picture above. I don't think I'm too huge on her and I am 5'7 and I weigh (have to look it up) 163 pounds or 73.9 kg. My goal is 65.77 kgs (if the calculator I'm using is correct.). But I understand I probably could have ridden her before I lost weight, but I wanted to be kind.

You horse is adorable. Keep us updated.

DutchFrancis

Hi Wessecg,

I'm 5'8 and in the picture with my Paintmare I weigh about 70 kg. That was very hard to maintain for me, I've been 69 kg for a few weeks but couldn't stay below 70. In my slim period I've fluctuated around 72 kg.
I'm 45 now and I honestly don't think it's a realistic goal to want to reach 70 again. I'm aiming for 75, but frankly I'll be happy with anything below 80. I want to be at least 90 before I start riding Raya. But with winter coming I'll have time, hope I will be able to start riding next spring.

DutchFrancis

Already added 'mucking stables' to the exercise-database, but maybe other horse-people find other usable barn-workouts on this website as well: http://www.discoverhorses.com/all-about-horses/counting-calories-at-the-barn/

wessecg

Bought my daughter a new horse this weekend. Now I'm up to 8 horses!!! One has to go. Anyway, he is an 11 year old 15 hand Tennessee walker. Doesn't gait so much unless you know how to put him into it (which we don't).

cinderbay

I envy all you horse owners. I am currently working with a trainer on finding a horse I like. I purchased lessons for myself last Dec after not being on a horse in over 20 years.
Six weeks ago my trainer and I started getting serious about how I feel on horses, look at horse, ground work, lunging, what I like and what i DISlike about the horse I am riding. Every week I ride a different horse. Hoping this will all help me when I get out there and start looking.
I am nervous to take the plunge but it has been my dream since I was a little girl. Now at 41 I want to make my dream come true.

MysticRealm

Hi, I ride. I compete in 1.20m(4') jumpers on the A or Gold Circuit. I have one retired mare, and my current competition horse at the moment.









Sorry, lots of pics.

Beastette

I prefer to be called "Centaur". It's politically correct.

october41paula

I love seeing all the photos. I don't have any of my Twilla, 15.2h quarter horse, on this computer. My one and only horse got her when I was 15 and she passed away when I was 38yrs old. Oh I miss her so much. I lost her to cancer. I dream of another horse someday. Maybe when kids are older and we find some country land??? By then my weight should be at maintenance.

vurneva

I TO HAVE THE LOVE FOR HORSES I HAD TO LET MY HORSE GO 6 MONTHS AGO HE WENT BACK TO HIS 1ST OWNER. MY FRIEND PAM HAD TWO HORSES AND COULD NOT TAKE CARE OF BOTH OF THEM, SO SHE GAVE ME MY HORSE (POCO) THE ONLY RULE WAS IF OR WHEN I COULD NOT TAKE CARE OF HIM I WOULD GIVE HIM BACK TO HER. I HAD POCO FOR 8 YEARS, THE DAY CAME WHEN I COULD NOT TAKE CARE OF HIM LIKE HE NEEDED. U SEE I HAVE POST POILO, AND I WAS UNABLE TO RIDE ANY MORE. I CAN SEE HIM ANY TIME I WANT HE IS ONLY 1 HOUR FROM MY HOME. I HAVE BEEN WORKING OUT FOR 4 YEARS NOW, DOING WATER AERBOICS TO STAY STRONG SO I COULD RIDE BUT I SLOW DOWN. I AM WORKING OUT MORE AND WOULD LIKE TO LOOSE 14 LBS SO I AM NOT PUTTING EXTRA WEIGHT ON MY LEGS. I AM ONLY 5FT TELL AND WEIGHT 114 LBS. I SO UNDERSTAND THE LOSS U FEEL NOT BEING ABLE TO RIDE, KEEP UP THE WORK SO U CAN RIDE IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO U. I KNOW U CAN DO IT. WRIGHT BACK AND LET ME KNOW HOW U ARE DOING VURNEVA

kikimama125

I ride and train. I just had a baby so I am just get back to it right now. But I have rode for years and been training (outside horses) for the last 5 years.

Right now I only own one horse (we had to cut back due to starting our family....and my husband isn't the biggest "hay burner" fan), my AQHA gelding. He is one of those horses who is worth his weight in gold. I use him for anything and everything. Right now he is mostly being a pony horse while I work with this really bratty, hardly halter broke 3 year old colt who knows how to throw his weight around. He is the product of a person who has no clue about horses, buying a weanling.... So I definatly need my gelding's muscle to drag him around till he decides that being nice is easier.

Anyways, I would love to get back to training reiners but in the area we live right now (the boonies) is cutting horse country and so I am just sticking to problem horses and starting colts. Hopefully, we will move in the next couple years and I can get back to it. While I really enjoy fixing problem horses, starting colts is kinda boring to me. Too bland, they are nice blank slates but I only get to put the basics on them before they go. Problem horses are fun to figure out and fix, but my husband isn't a huge fan of me taking on the really bad cases anymore....I'll keep working on him! He seems to think I'm out the maim myself.

I am losing the baby weight and getting back into good shape to better my riding. I find that weight training really helps.

NaurielR

Neigh baby, neigh!

I've been riding since I was twelve. I started off riding english, but once I got to college and joined the equestrian team, I switched to western. I competed on the team for the four years I was there and had so much fun.

I don't own my own horse, and haven't ridden since April (I'm in serious withdrawal, guys. Its painful). Lessons are just so expensive, and since I'm still living at home, looking for a job, its just not feasible for me money-wise. I'm thinking of volunteering at a barn, and in return I would be able to do some riding, but the barn is kinda far away from me.

As for advice, I can give you some on how to get a better seat. RIde without stirrups! Seriously, it helps so much. There was one semester where my coach (who is a 6 foot tall amazon woman) didn't have a saddle with stirrups that went short enough for me. So for practically the entire semester, I rode stirrup free. Man, by the end of that semester my seat was EXCELLENT. My butt would stay in the saddle no matter what.

amoffatt

Very big horse person and family here. I want to feel better in the saddle so this is my big motivation to lose weight as well.

briannadunn

Whinnying back, I got 3 horses and I am trying to lose weight as well to be able to ride better. Glad to see others out there.

SDormer91

I used to ride twice a week but haven't been able to since I was 18 (three years ago). When I was riding regularly and working on the farm for my lessons, I managed to lose almost a full dress size (didn't weight myself) and got a lot fitter just doing farm work. The horse I rode was a 16.2hh Thoroughbred schoolmaster who taught me a lot by simply being the kind of horse who wasn't forward without me being able to be the boss and make him move. Sometimes he'd be full of it, simply because he hadn't been ridden for a couple of weeks or the green grass growing through but because he was always so steady, I never once doubted him - even after he bolted and I came off at a gallop (my first!).
I'd love to get back into riding but where I live there are only two lesson barns and both are about 40kms away (about a 40-50min drive). Everywhere close is farmland, but it's people who own their own horse and the horses are usually OTT Thoroughbreds who aren't suitable for a nervous rider like me. I definitely miss the flexibility that came with being in the saddle (I never used to have tight hamstrings!).
Getting back in the saddle isn't one of my motivations for losing weight - I actually wish that I was using it to as a way to lose weight! But good luck guys!