Horses!

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shadowfax_c11
shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
edited April 2016 in Chit-Chat
Okay I know we have a whole bunch of members who ride. So maybe we could share some of our horse related life.

I've been riding for pretty much all of my life and working with horses professionally for about 26 years. Mainly I do barefoot trimming for a small group of local horse owners. Many of my clients have animals with special needs or that had behavioral issues when I met them. This isn't my full time job, just something I do on the side. I have knee damage from a short early career training Appaloosas for a breeding farm in my area.

I am owned by a 19 year old ,bay, OTT standardbred mare named Simply Noble, AKA Baby. We enjoy trail riding on some very challenging SW PA trails.

Favorite trainers are John Lyons and Mark Rashid. I am particularly interested in Mark's intuitive way of working with horses using principles form the martial art aikido.

Spent my saturday afternoon trimming hooves on three wonderful horses. It is so nice to have spring weather back. Warm sun, cool breeze, perfect day to be outdoors with the ponies. :) Since this is only something I do a day or two a week, I log hoof trimming and riding as exercise. Hoof trimming is logged as (extreme) horse grooming due to lack of any other good choice. One thing I can be sure that the calorie burn is not overestimated.

The horse in my avatar is Blanco, the horse that played Shadowfax in the Lord of the RIngs movies. I was fortunate to see him at a horse expo a bunch of years ago.

So anyone else care to share their horse life?

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Replies

  • nojuicejustjin_
    nojuicejustjin_ Posts: 238 Member
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    Ah! Finally someone else that's a horse lover! These are my babies but my favorite girl to ride is butterscotch the palomino. :)

    6wxb2m3sk75p.jpeg
  • gniemiro
    gniemiro Posts: 5 Member
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    I ride and currently looking for my first owned horse !! Pretty excited and scared at the same want to be sure I get the right baby ! X
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    gniemiro wrote: »
    I ride and currently looking for my first owned horse !! Pretty excited and scared at the same want to be sure I get the right baby ! X

    Cool! Definitely take your time. Enlist the help of experienced horse people who know exactly what you need.


  • nojuicejustjin_
    nojuicejustjin_ Posts: 238 Member
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    shadowfax_c11 wrote: »

    Cool! Definitely take your time. Enlist the help of experienced horse people who know exactly what you need.


    Agreed :)
  • nojuicejustjin_
    nojuicejustjin_ Posts: 238 Member
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    ch33s3cak3 wrote: »
    i love horses gorgeous creatures but they dont like me.. think i have 666 somewhere on my body lol

    Oh no lol maybe you've been around younger, temperamental ones? Older ones are usually more docile.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    ch33s3cak3 wrote: »
    i love horses gorgeous creatures but they dont like me.. think i have 666 somewhere on my body lol

    Horses are incredibly intuitive creatures. If they are reacting badly to you it could be something in your body language. It can even be your own feelings about yourself. There is an awesome book called The tao of Equus that explores this.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    Verlettegirl wrote: »
    Just finished my first show of the season today

    Awesome! So what discipline do you show in? What classes? How did you do? What did your horse do that made you proud today?
  • _incogNEATo_
    _incogNEATo_ Posts: 4,537 Member
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    Where is @PANA_ when you need him?

    @_A_Real_Mouthful
  • blue443
    blue443 Posts: 61 Member
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    @nojuicejustin, those are some awesome looking horses. My oldest daughter has a Morgan horse and he has been a great blessing for her.
  • nojuicejustjin_
    nojuicejustjin_ Posts: 238 Member
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    Thank you! That's awesome :)
  • NicoleDlugosz
    NicoleDlugosz Posts: 11 Member
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    I have an 18 year old appendix mare, and we ride dressage. She's my first horse, though I've been riding for 20 years, and my main weight-loss motivation!

    yvno6nd2edfh.jpg
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    After a long weekend at an aikido seminar it was back to work. Four trims today and one pony massage. Pony was supposed to get a trim but he presented with a very very sore back end, vet thought he had foundered but I saw no evidence for it. Looked like he pretzeled himself somehow and just strained a lot of muscles. Poor little guy was really hurting. Seemed to be feeling much better after the massage and some gentle stretching and manipulation. Lots of pops and cracks.

    One of the horses twitched hard at a fly while I was under his front leg and sent me flying. Luckily aikido skills include falling and rolling. Alarmed his owners but not a danger for me.

    The seminar instructor from this weekend lives close to and knows my favorite horse trainer, Mark Rashid, so we had a nice conversation over lunch about aikido and horses.
  • InCHarmsWay
    InCHarmsWay Posts: 103 Member
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    I've been riding since I was about 7! I was mainly a hunter-jumper until halfway through college when a broken collarbone made me rethink it. I am currently a volunteer coach for a college polo team, and am gearing up for the summer polo season myself!
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
    edited May 2016
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    Did everyone see Nyquist win the derby tonight? Pretty good race. I thought Danzing Candy looked wonderful. He just ran out of gas. Not surprising since he was doing 36-37 mph for a good bit of the race.

    Spent my morning trimming some feet and then went hiking in the foothills of our Allegheny mountains. Yesterday I went to trim a couple of horses after spending some time with my mare, and I noticed that this sweet big old TB that I have been trimming for years, has a big lump on his neck. I asked his owner about it and she said the vet told her it was just a swollen thyroid and not a concern. Well I insisted she needed a second opinion and another vet happened to be at the barn right then.

    I hate it when I am right. That big lump is a tumor. It was a hard blow for his owner to find out he has cancer.

    My pretty mare. :)
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  • Arathels
    Arathels Posts: 6,883 Member
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    I love horses!
    My family used to breed the Icelandic horse and I was head over heels about them. I was 7 when I stole my first Icelandic horse, saddled it and went out.
    Needless to say, my parents found it hilarious and snapped a photo of it.

    aqibosrjb1kc.jpg

    I don't own a horse right now but I plan to get an Icelandic one very soon. I miss the 5 gaits of the breed.. Love the tölt as it's so smooth and fast it is :D
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    Spent a beautiful afternoon out on the trails. :) Great way to get some pizza calories.

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  • elizabeth_fenny
    elizabeth_fenny Posts: 12 Member
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    One of my babies

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