Hi Chelsea and the Group

My name is Jaimee, I am 27. I live in Auckland New Zealand.
I have been riding since I was 12 ( Lessons at a Riding School), and when I was 19 purchased my own horse. His name was Mate 15.2hh Anglo Arab, Chestnut with lots of bling. Sadly in 2007 he was PTS as after badly injuring himself in a fence, he gave up and became very depressed, and over all was not his usual cheeky self.

I use to be fitter (Swam, and played Netball as well as Horse riding) - Just like you Chelsea! But now have piled on the pounds eek.

I now own Kaz, a Thoroughbred X Appaloosa, solid bay with a blaze and one hind sock. I have had him just over a year, and we are working on his flat work. He has some separation issues, but I do want to take him out to compete him eventually...

I want to lose weight, because I feel so cruel that Kaz has to carry my weight around! Plus, become fitter for myself so I can ride better!

Feel free to add me.

Hi everyone,

Im so glad ive found this group - I didnt think anybody else who was into horses was overweight apart from me! I started riding when I was about 10 then stopped when I went away to uni and piled on the pounds.....and here I am, 10 years later -still carrying the extra weight and too scared to go back riding incase I exceed riding school weight limits! But im making changes now and will hopefully be back in the saddle in the next couple of months....fingers crossed )

Lovely to meet you all!

x

Hi everyone,

I saw this group and thought this is perfect! Currently getting to ride my horses again is one of my biggest motivations. I have two Arabian mares. One is pushing 20 (Jasmine) and the other is her daughter 12 (Sassy). Recently I was trying to give my nieces riding lessons and needed to hop on my girl Sassy for minor corrections. I actually felt guilty for doing it. I may not be the heaviest person, but if I want to ride my 14.3 light boned Arabian I have to lose some massive weight. My older girl Jasmine is my treasure in life and I have been too afraid to get on her because of my weight and her age. She is physically fit and ready, but I feel it may be bordering on torture for me to ride her about.

I have ridden and trained Arabians for a long time. I would still be to this day, but back injuries piled on other medical issues has prevented me. I would be more than content to ride my girls gilt free for awhile. I certainly will not be getting on either of my own horsesuntil I drop weight... Till then I am stuck with my Mother's paint (Bart) who I must say is boring and slow .

Hi: My name is Sue and I am 65. I have been a rider most of my life but never owned my own horse until I was 37. At that time I bought a very green 6yo Quarter horse Moose (registered Brandon Valley Red, however he greyed out and was white by the time he was ten) and he and I had 24 wonderful years together before a thyroid issue caused me to put him down. Now I own a 23yo Quarter horse mare, Popper's Red Jule. I have had her for seven years. She was a 4-H show horse before I had her and the first time I took her down a hill on a trail ride I thought she would fall on her nose. Since then we have done a lot of trail riding and she is great. She is 14.2 hands and stocky and I do not worry about her carrying my weight but I really have issues getting on and off partly because of knee replacements but mostly because of my weight. I never had weight issues until I became pregnant with my first child. Since then it has been a constant thing. In 2004 I lost a lot of weight but have slowly put most of it back on. If I am to enjoy my retirement the way I want to then the weight has to go! Happy trails everyone.:happy: Sue

Hi everyone!

I am so excited that I found this group! My name is Julie, I am 30 years old and live in Rhode Island. I work for a small law firm, and sitting at a desk all day absolutely does not help with weight loss lol! I joined my fitness pal to lose weight and to live a more healthy lifestyle, and I can't wait to start seeing progress.

My horse is named Tank and he is (believed to be) a Belgian draft cross, although we don't know for sure... I have owned him for a year and I am obsessed with him! When I first got him he was very shy, nervous and green, but we have made so much progress in the past year. It has been a lot of hard (and by hard I am referring to the ground I have landed on several times lol) work and we still have lots to learn together, but I am so proud of him and the progress we have made. I am lucky enough to board him right across the street from my house, a two minute walk, so I do all my own daily chores and get to see him every day. I am not into showing, but we did just complete our first ever hunter pace and I almost fell off my seat when I learned we came in first and got a blue ribbon! My goal was just to finish lol!

Can't wait to get to know everyone and to see what kind of discussions we come up with

Julie

YAYYYYY!!! Super and about time for this group! So glad a MFP friend found y'all! I am 41 years old now and not at all as limber or as light as I used to be. I started my love affair with horses years ago when I was a teen with a mustang fresh off the Nevada desert... since then I have owned various horses throughout the years, including Arabians, Morgans, Quarter Horses and the Mustangs. I have always ridden western, working on actual cattle ranches, rodeoing some, and training horses for several years. My first daughter changed that in 1996, when I had to get a real job that paid the bills and started me on the path to a nursing career and upteen years of school. I continued to ride some, but at the time I was a single parent and time limitations took over. I have been horse-less for the past 10 years when I moved to the southern US to marry and continue building our family.

I will get some photos up later, but a couple of years ago I was given a young Quarter horse filly, "Belle"- rescued from overcrowding - and purchased the palomino, "Dawn" - also a rescue from abuse - she is shown in my photos. I have done only ground work with the baby Belle since she is still struggling to get some weight on her, but is doing much better this year. Dawn is now green broke, but I can't let my kids on her unless I am leading her, she is still really spooky and has some terrible trust issues with men.

My goal is to just keep working with them both, build their trust, confidence, lose weight myself, gain flexibility, and finish up my masters degree - then next summer start more intensive work. If all works out my middle daughter would like to do barrels and poles, etc on Dawn and we'll see what Belle shows an aptitude for. Really these are just super pleasure babies, and are cared for like our dogs, except they aren't allowed in the house, and they don't get bones for snacks

HI! I am so glad that a friend found this group! I've been trying to figure out ways to find other friends on here who ride! My name's JC and I am 41. I've always loved horses and rode as often as my parents would take me when I was younger. I got my first horse, and appy, when I was 14. I've ridden on and off for years. I started putting weight on at 20 in my first semester of nursing school when I packed on 50 lbs. and I just kept going up. It became difficult to keep riding horses with my weight and with work, and my first husband really did a number on my confidence. I've yo-yo'd a few times but after about 4 years ago, when we had a stillbirth, I kind of gave up and my weight skyrocketed.
Now I have my Standardbred, Dakota, who is 24, I've had her since she was 8. I really stopped riding her when I got on her and she sagged, talk about feeling guilty! UGH. My kiddos have really gotten involved with 4H and the 4H leader as gotten me on her horses and mine several times over the last 2 years. I really hated how I looked last year at fair riding Quadrille with the 4H leaders and parents, but this year I felt much better and more confident as my balance is finally getting better. Dakota just got over lameness, she stepped wrong at Quadrille practice, so I have been riding my teenagers quarterhorse Buddy, he's the one in my profile pic, who is 25. He's speedy for an old guy! I hope to be able to eventually get a younger horse that is a bit quicker than Buddy, I think I'm finally ready. I like to just ride around the arena, the trails, and do play days with the kids and friends! I would like to try a season in CGA ~ California Gymkhana Assoc. but with the Jr. rodeos, kids sports, and dance I don't have a lot of time for me!
I feel stronger then I used to and I really want to drop more weight as I feel like I slow the horses down.
I have a lease horse, from our 4H leader, a quarter horse for my daughter, an arab who is older and showing a lot of arthritis in his knee, we're going to have to make the big decision before winter comes, a Welsh Cobb pony, that we are going to train to cart, a tennessee walker/arab that my middle son rides, and a mini stud who just turned 4, we are working on training him now and will eventually cart him and my son will help train him to ride, if he throws good babies next year we will keep him a stud otherwise he'll get the big Snip Snip.
We also have a steer that my son and his friends practice riding on, two ewes, two goats, two rabbits, a few fish, cats, and dogs.
I'm so looking forward to reading all about everyone's adventures and hopefully sharing some of my own!!!
I was trying to figure out how to post a pic of Dakota and I but I'm not sure how to post on here. If anyone friends me I have pics on my profile page!

Hi! I'm new to the group! I'm a horse person, love Idaho, a mom to a 3 yr old and a 1 yr old and I'm happily married to combat vet who has really over came some obstacles in his life since military life and also has been super supportive of us getting on a healthy lifestyle; I'm just so so proud of him!

I ride a purebred Arabian Stallion, he's black too but barely 15 hands so he really doesn't fit the Walter Farley Black Stallion description lol. I also ride a Arab/Appy cross gelding. He's super sweet and a little goofy but awesome stamina and full of energy so i used to do endurance riding with him. hoping to get back into after being away for 5 years!

Hello everyone My name is Mari (like Marie but spelled weird) and my horse's name is Sora she is a 5yr old TB mare built like a warmblood personality like me. Feisty, sweet and loving lol.....with a side of meh...lol! I ride dressage love love love....it! I respect natural horsemanship and having communication with your horse I hate the old manhandling ways and cannot stand animal abusers. I like humans but, LOVE animals! Hope to make some new and awesome healthy new friends!

Hello, All!

My name is Ange and I have been horsecrazy for pretty much all of my 38 years. My mom tells me the only thing I ever drew as a toddler was horses, and that my favorite color was brown LOL

I have had my heart horse for 8 years. I got him as a 2 yr old, and we learned everything together. He is a 16.2HH solid colored PaintXBelgian with a heart of gold. We trail ride, alone. I rent acreage near my home for him and am his exclusive caregiver. I ride every chance I get, even though I get looks.

Sully's (Sullivan) weight is something I have to closely manage as he can rise to 2000lbs without blinking, so we carefully utilize dry lotting and grazing muzzles to keep him at 1350-1400lbs, his "fighting weight". I had a realization that I work so hard to keep my animals healthy (also have two cats, a blue heeler and 21 laying hens!), why don't I do myself the same courtesy???

I want to ride farther, harder, and longer than I currently do. My goal is for us to do some day-long rides, and hit some backroads around here I've never been on before.

I've been on MFP (under a different name) for about 5 years. in 2010 I lost over 100lbs using this site, and I felt awesome. Sully thanked me! Over the last 3 years, most of that has crept back on, and I am pretty disgusted with myself. two weeks ago I decided enough was enough. So here I am - again!

I have so much to lose. I am currently over 300 lbs ( hopefully this weigh in will put me below, I've actually lost 10lbs in the last 9 days.) I am almost 5'11, and very muscular (folks are shocked when/if I tell them what I weigh. Everyone puts me 50lbs lighter than I actually am.

In addition to riding Sully in our Aussie poley saddle and Easyboot Bares, I bike the mountain roads around my Blue Ridge home, and walk anywhere from 1 to 3 miles every day. The hills around here are killer. So activity truly is no problem for me!

Nice to meet you guys!

Introducing Brego (in my profile pic). He is my new 11 year old 15.3 hand Appendix QH gelding that I got for Christmas. While I miss Willow terribly, God had a hand in all that happened so that he could come to me. Either that or it just takes Santa 40 years to bring a pony if you keep asking.

Brego is a ham and reminded my why I love geldings. We are learning each other and getting along well. I can't wait for better weather so we can do some real work together.

Vicki

Edited to add: Ok, so apparently in my profile pic his face doesn't show up. The whole picture of him shows on my main page.

Hey Y'all!
It's so great to see other horse-women! My name is Blair Addison, and, as you can probably tell by my name, I show quarter horses. I'm 18 and will be attending Oklahoma State University in the fall.
I am currently showing a 7 year old black stud, and training two 5 year old geldings. I love Horsemanship and English Eq, but honestly, anything on horseback will suffice. I was raised on a beef cattle farm in Arkansas, so I'm a true cowgirl through and through!
Feel free to add me, but be warned, there will be lots of horse talk!
Best wishes to you and your equine partners!
~Blair

Hi Yall,

My first ever horse is named "REIGN" and he has thee sweetest disposition about him. He is unique Palomino walker with two distinctly different color eyes. We were both scared and beginning trail riders in 2013 but he got me through the whole season with only a few minor bumps. I am now addicted to horses and riding. I am on MFP to get more fit for 2014 cause I just felt HUGE and out of breathe sometimes on his back especially going up those steep hills. Horseback riding is a good workout throughout the spring and summer so I need something to get me through Fall and winter.

Great to hear you were able to rescue him from that dreadful auction.

Hello, I joined this site a few years ago but obviously forgot about it but I am back.
I have a 21 year old Appy who I can no longer ride due to my weight and it kills me, plus I hate not being able to wear the nice showmanship clothes that I want to wear
I am looking for accountability buddies so feel free to friend me