Any horse people here?

Vibe

So I adore horses. I have been working with/around them for about six years now. I have been horseless for months due to the economy, I miss my old horse more than anything. It has been really hard. I miss all the great horses I had a chance to work with, train, lease or own.
My horse was a 9 year old mustang mare, I had the chance to bond with her and break her my self. She had her bad days, but she was a doll. And my life. I miss her like no other.
This was her.

Inga

Well, I raised trained and showed many many horses but his gal... She was my heart horse. I had her from the time she was a yearling to almost 25 years old. She was the most beautiful horse in the world. IMO and was a blast to show.


oops, I should add. In this picture she has bad hair and full of mud. She had a baby trailing right behind her that she had, had about an hour and a half before this was taken.

canteloupe

I think there are a lot of horse people here.

I rode for 9 years. I didn't have a particular sport that I was involved in, so I showed in jumpers, hunters, eventing, etc. Basically whenever my barn was going to a show, I'd sign up for whatever I could.

My parents weren't horse people and it was never possible for me to own my own horse, so once I was done with lesson horses I leased. I also went to horse camps for eight weeks each summer.

I miss the heck out of it. I still have all my stuff stored at my parents' house, and I always know that someday I will ride again.

kelpie

Right here!

I currently own a 16.1hh, 8year old Thoroughbred named Wiley.
I only have one photo of him, and its not on this computer. I'll post later.
He's my baby

MafiaPrincess

I always liked horses.. but have never had an opportunity to ride until recently. So I've been taking english riding lessons as an adult from a friend who used to teach and has given it up. Don't have a horse of my own, but I do get to play with her 6 when I go up.

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zimandtakandgrrandmimi

someday ill get over my stupid fear of horses.

i met some horses not too long ago and did alright. there was an appaloosa who tried to bite me and that didnt help but there was a big gigantic old irish draft horse named Ivan who let me pet him and didnt do anything scary.


i dont know why im scared of horses, i just get this weird panic around them..maybe its because they are so big..

if anyone has any tips on how to interact with them it would be great because i think they are beautiful and i will get up the courage to ride one on day..i just have to get over this stupid panic first...

nekomi

Horsewoman here! Well, former horsewoman who will finally be getting back into it within the next couple of years...

I've been riding since I was about 10 years old. I was trained in huntseat as a teenager, but then I stopped riding regularly when I went to high school because I didn't have the time... Last year I spent the whole summer trail riding and I leased a little gaited mare, which was really fun, but not where my heart lies. This summer, I haven't had the chance to ride, other than a few little jaunts in the arena on my parents' horse to keep from getting rusty.

Our property has room for horses, so it's just a matter of fixing up the old barn and adding some new fencing. It won't be for a couple years, though; it's an expensive project and I want to make sure I'm completely ready, both financially and in terms of time.

When I do start riding again, my goals are to train in dressage, and compete in endurance rides. Arabians are my favorite breed, but I've also clicked with several Thoroughbreds. I love ALL horses though.

Hmm... maybe if you read a book on safe horse handling, you might feel better equipped to avoid the situations that worry you? (i.e., being bitten, kicked, stepped on, is that the kind of thing that freaks you out?)

A good one is "Horse Handling and Grooming" by Cherry Hill but a lot of the info won't apply to you (like how to bathe a horse, etc.). My personal favorite book for folks new to horses, though, is "Happy Horsemanship" by Dorothy Henderson Pinch. It's an ADORABLE book, pretty much aimed at kids with humorous illustrations, but I can't overstate how much solid info is in there regarding how to interact safely with horses, both on the ground and on horseback. I think that even adults get a kick out of it because it's such a cute book.

If I knew what scared you exactly (what are you afraid will happen?) I could give you some specific tips...

Kyllobernese

These are my two horses, the black mare, Star, is a registered Tennessee Walker mare that I trail ride with and the little guy, Banner, is a Miniature horse, who I have a cart and harness for but haven't got him trained yet. I have ridden most of my life, showed in everything, Western, English and Jumping, even showed our Hackney ponies in harness. Have ridden with the Hunt Club chasing a scent put down my a member, not real foxes. I have galloped and ponied horses at the race track when we were training thoroughbreds. Now I am just happy to get on Star and go for a nice quiet trail ride with Susie along for company.

zimandtakandgrrandmimi

like with the appaloosa i mentioned...my friend took me out to the stable she takes riding lessons at and we brought some apples for me to offer them as treats...i stretched my hand out and i was nervous and i looked at his face and his eyes were all white and he made this woofy sound and bit me.

they are big and tall and they bite hard and could kick you in the head and i think all that contributes to me being scared...i dont really know what the real reason is except that everything they do is very alien to me. maybe im so used to interacting with predatory animals that its hard for me to adapt to trying to learn their behavior. which is kind of really silly that i can step in between two brawling dogs without a second thought or hold a harris hawk on my wrist and think nothing of the possibility that this bird could easily tear my face to shreds and i quake in my boots in proximity to a horse...intellectually i know its extremely silly but something just makes me really nervous around them. and i hate that.

do they pick up on body language of the human like dogs do? because a lot of the horses at the barn i went to(and this was like the very first time i had really gotten up close with a horse) seemed like they didnt like me or something...at first i thought it was because i smell like dogs maybe but there were dogs there and the horses were cool with them and even played with them some.

i dunno..ill check the books out. thank you. maybe if i go better prepared and more knowlegable about their body language then it wont be so nerve wracking.

or maybe ill just hang out with Ivan the draft horse. he's bigger than all the rest of them but he was the calmest of the lot..probably because he was the oldest horse there.

canteloupe

Arg, I typed this once but hit the back button by accident.

Are you sure he meant to bite you? And what do you mean by "bite"? When you give carrots or apples you have to hold your hand flat so they don't catch a finger.

Just being around horses more would probably help you get over your fears the most. They probably seem really unpredictable to you, which makes them scary. But if you observed them enough, you'd start to pick up on their body language and their behavior would make more sense to you.

You said that they didn't seem to like you, but it's probably more likely that they were just indifferent. Horses can be very curious, but if you are just standing there and you don't do anything to pique their interest, they're likely to just ignore you after a bit. They can pick up on body language, though, so if you were overly fearful or made sudden moves, some horses would shy away from you.

MissMutt

They do pick up on body language, Zim. They seem to know when you're tense or scared.

I miss my old boy.

hbowen87

Oh me. Well up until very recently. I worked at a stable every weekend through high school and college, and managed to buy my boy, Snickers several years ago. I never really competed, trail rides and generally just playing with them was more my style, that and Snickers didn't have the attention span for a ring very much, he'd get bored and start tripping like he was falling asleep on me if we were just going in cirlces

Before Snickers I rode Saddlebreds in lessons for a few years, and leased a saddle bred. He was so skiddish I got thrown more times than I can count and got the opportunity to buy Snickers, (probably Quarter horse? Not sure, all we knew was he wasn't afraid of ANYTHING) so I went for it for the sake of my aching behind

But now I've graduated from college and moved to NJ...and the cost of moving him and board is too much here (board in rural West Virginia where he is now is only $200 a month, I'm pretty sure I'd be paying significantly more than that in the Philadelphia suburbs-area of NJ) I haven't seen my boy in a couple months and am trying to decide whether I'll be able to get him here in the future or if I'm going to have to sell him.

The other problem I can forsee is if I do move him here...is finding someone willing to put up with my "Houdini." He has 0 fear of electric fences, can open gates, stall doors, many types of clips we've used to try to lock him in (d rings and such), barn doors, and is willing to jump most wooden fences (skinned his knees pretty badly once doing so, silly boy). The barn he's at now knows him and has worked around it, but have had to chase him across the mountain many many many times until figuring out a system (thank goodness it's rural!)

My little escape artist (well I guess not terribly little):

hbowen87

They definitely do pick up on body language. For me it was always sort of like training a dog, if you can pretend to be calm and confident, a good horse will respond well. If you're nervous they'll know. They also like someone else said are fairly indifferent a lot of the time which makes them seem to dislike you when they may just not give a hoot.

My best friend used to take riding lessons with me, but took a little tumble and got a horrible fear of them after that (it was totally her fault, the horse was cantering...she asked him to stop...he did, she forgot to hold on and whee!) but a few years later when I took her out to see Snickers she was still nervous. We were on the ground giving Snickers peppermint, he'd take mine and eat it...and he'd spit the peppermint she gave him right back in her face. Only explanation I could come up with is he knew she was scared and was messing with her (he's the type of horse if you aren't confident he'll walk all over you, as he's done with many inexperienced riders, not mean but more "why should I listen to you?" and completely ignores their commands to walk wherever he thinks is the prettiest or best chance to snag a mouthfull of grass )

I had my own experience with this first hand, I got kicked in the ribs once while cleaning a stall of a young untrained stud (a dog snuck in behind me without me noticing, he was trying to get the dog but I was inbetween, completely my fault but shook me up) the next week when I was entering his stall I was still nervous and he was acting up like crazy, (spinning in his stall) I was about to ask the owner to do it herself, when I realized how scared I was. I took a second to compose myself, put on my confident face, and he calmed down right away.

If you ask which horses are nice and if you can act confident, you eventually will be more comfortable. They're hard to read, but most of them are probably more skiddish than you, and a good well-behaved horse will either just be curious or could care less what you're doing (so long as you're not like flailing around and making lots of noise)

Oh and as far as the dogs that probably wasn't it. At my barn they had 9 dogs and only 2 of the 15 horses in the barn cared at all if they all came in their stall or not.

Rayne01

I've got 2 quarter horses. A mare who is due to foal next spring, and a gelding. I run barrels on both, well did before my mare got preggers! My mare is June-Bug and my gelding is Split-Lip.

That's Split.

Thats June.
She was 36 days preggers in that pic. She was carrying twins, but we had to abort one because it was backwards.

Spirit_of_Cotons

Everyone's horses are beautiful!! I love horses, they're my second favorite animal after dogs. I don't own one, but I have gone horseback riding which was so much fun and wish I could pick up again! My co-worker has four Quarter/Paint Horses and she lets me ride her oldest, Skippy, which was fun!

I still have my riding hat and I remember some lessons from way back when, but riding Skippy was so much fun and I got to go off my own for a bit. Don't worry my co-worker/friend was still watching from afar, but I wasn't scared. Skippy reminded me of Johnny, an older Quarter that I used to ride at lessons.

I work with two horses at the nature center, Tippy-a mini horse-whom I just love and Cisco-an abused Mustang that came to us. He's fully recovered, spooks a bit, but is a nice horse. He's a red roan I'm told.

I used to be afraid of horses when I was younger, my mother said. What I would do, for you zimandtakandgrrandmimi, is perhaps just spend time with them. Don't go into their pens yet, just be outside and try to calm yourself down. Then try being with some ponies and graduate up to the bigger horses.

Usually when I have to go near an animal I'm not to fond of and I can feel myself getting a bit scared, I think of an animal I do know that I love and that won't hurt me and I say that animal's name over and over again and it calms me down. You could try that; I hope that helps.

Oh yeah and hbowen87--I live in NJ (Southern part) and one of my co-workers (not the one that let me ride her horse) lets people board their horses there. I'm not sure of the price or anything, but I overheard my other co-worker say something like it was a reasonable price. Would you like me to get more info on it?

Inga--what breed of horse is that?

Maliraptor

Another horse person here. I have owned horses since I was 14 years old.

Currently we have 2, a 23 year old Arabian Gelding, After Midnite.



And a 4 year old American Saddlebred Mare, Sultress.

John Bull

Hello Vibe,

It is very sad that you so want to be liked by horses but at this moment in time are not having success. The only thing I can suggest is by all means read up all you can about horses but spend as much time as possible with the one horse that seems to want to be "friends", let him teach you how to behave and react , you will understand what he is "saying" the more time you are with him. Many years ago I had a Highland (Scotland) gelding called Mickey Dun (he was a buckskin and very neat looking) He was my first and only horse that I ever had and I adored him. Mickey was what an old Irish man called a real christian of a horse, if he had been human the world would be a better place. Never having had the full responsibility of owning a horse, between Mickey teaching me and reading I learnt, we were a team and it was remarked upon, we had a deal, do things the way he would accept even though he didnt like it and I had to repay him by letting him do things I didnt want, between the two of us we had a very good relationship. A few people thought it was a mad situation and probably some of the readers here will, but I can tell you I would not have changed things for all the world. He looked after me and when riding in woods alone no one could creep up on me he would tell me in his way something was wrong. Once you learn a horse they have one language and it will help you with the next horse you go to as you will understand the signs and have learnt about how the horse is feeling and you hopefully will have picked up how to re-assure it. Some are just like people, we have all met people that give off a bad vibe and you stay clear, others you meet are reserved but want to be friends. Please keep trying to master your fear, you may experience one or two frights but you may not and find your confidence growing, remember they are more wary than you because they are prey animals. You have it going for you because you have the longing to succeed, now get the strength to master your nerves if you want it badly enough you'll do it. Most riders have had bad scares at time time during their horse years. Good luck to you.
***
Vibe - my wife who has been with horses since a teenager wrote this.
The only common factor I have with them is my face.
John Bull

Elana55

Had horses for 38 years. Been on or around them my whole life until the last 4 years (circmstances change). Ridden by conservative estimate 50,000 miles on horseback. Fox hunted, Pony Clubbed, Herded cattle, trails.. worked them on the farm.. fixing frences.. hauled logs when I was living home to cut up to heat the house. Foaled horses for 3 years nights for a thoroughbred farm. Bred horses. Rescued horses when I was in college. Bought the bad and turned them into good. Trained dressage.

I am more comfortable on the back of a horse than any where else.

Lots and lots of horse hours here.

Horses read body language as well or better than any dog. They have great memories which is why they are trainable.

Horses read fear in you (body language and smell). They are Herd animals and picking up on the most subtle indication of fear and wariness is how they survive.

Churchill said (paraphrased) that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man. I can attest it is also good for the inside of a woman.

SunnyPaw

What a sweet beauty. I am sure she misses you, too. Make a good wish for her, and set it off to find her in the wind.

CoverTune

I had Miniature Horses for about six years.. had to sell them when I moved to Toronto. I bred, trained, showed and just loved them.

I also worked at Spruce Meadows for a while, which was an amazing experience.

I can't wait to have horses in my life again.. they are definitely a part of my soul.

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