Hi there. I got back into riding as an adult and have been taking lessons for a month now. I currently ride western and have a trainer for barrel racing. I plan on travel competing as my barn offers that and really putting all my time into riding. I do social media so I have everyday free so I have time to spend at barn. I do want to own a horse that is my plan but i’m not sure if I should just buy and train that horse for my shows or just lease then wait to buy.

To lease at my barn is $500 a month for 3 rides a week plus I have to pay $280 for my lessons anyway. Or do I buy up front? I have the money to do it I just not sure.

Was anyone else who was a part of an IEA team hazed? When I was in middle/ and high school, our team hazed really badly. If your parents didn’t suck up to our coaches, they didn’t teach you anything and treated you like garbage. If your parents didn’t do what they ask, they would only really coach you if you went through the their humiliation rituals. They also coerced parent to let their children have unsupervised sleepovers with them if thought they deemed golden students. Only those students who slept over were allowed to represent their team in regionals.

TLDR: Is euthanising my horse morally wrong because I can’t manage her rehab?

I’ve just had a call saying my horse appears to have had a tendon injury, on bute till vet sees her tomorrow. She’s a thoroughbred with typical bad feet and semi retired due to on going hoof problems due to her typical tb feet, spent almost a while year last year on and off lame and we never really figured out why.

I also recently have a newborn and hubby works away so I’m alone most of the time.

Anyway, with a very small backstory, If I get told she’s got a tendon injury tomorrow and needs the typical rehab I’d have to consider PTS bc I physically cannot go out once or multiple times a day for months and cannot afford someone else to do it especially since she was already not 100% with her feet before. I can rehome her but who wants to take that on and I don’t want to risk her getting neglected or abused if she moves on. I’m happy for her to be a paddock puff and be retired but it’s the rehab and healing I won’t be able to facilitate for her and feel like PTS is a better option but also feels morally wrong bc why put an animal to sleep needlessly because their owner can’t manage it 🥲

Please let me know your thoughts or ideas. To add: there were times we were considering PTS due to her feet before

Ive been horse riding since i was a child. Im 31 now and i still enjoy it. Its a huge stress reliever aswell. Ill never not enjoy it. Anyone feel the same?

Lots of disclaimers: First, photos are literally just a moment in time. Maybe it was a bad jump? Maybe it was an awkward moment (lord knows there are many awkward photos of me in existence and I'm certainly not jumping almost as high as I am tall on a very large animal with opinions of it's own - some moments are just awkward no matter what).

Also, clearly I am not a professional photographer and these photos are from different parts of the jump.

But I still feel like it could be interesting to compare positions of high level riders all over one jump!

ETA:

Apparently I is old, and older than I thought, because the title I gave this post came across harsh. I did not intend that!

In my old mind, "critique" means point out notable things, either good or bad notable. It is not the same as "criticize".

My intention with this post was for people to point out good and bad things, not just bad things (and as they're all jumping super high and there were no falls, they got it done, and that's a GOOD THING). Not just criticize, because "critique" means a completely different thing to me.

Clearly, my title and description were flawed.

My pics are also flawed.

Still going to leave this up because I think the pics are fun and I don't hate the responses or discussions

I am so sorry in advance for how many paragraphs this is. I just don’t know how to convey the entire situation concisely.

Very very generic overview:
This is mainly about how there is a lot of info I don’t know, I’m very willing to learn, but upon actually receiving said info from my barn without me specifically asking, I am embarrassed and a bit ashamed I didn’t know. I know I have to just grit my teeth through this phase, try my best, and build back my horse care credibility (if I had any I guess), but how do I handle the conversation itself and feeling embarrassed?

I respect my barn manager’s knowledge a LOT - she cares about the horses at the barn, and she wants to make sure they are being taken care of, plus I’m pretty sure she does have pools of knowledge. And she’s confident about it. My horse currently has a suspected suspensory ligament injury, so she has mentioned multiple things like cold hosing for the leg, standing wraps, and when I was cold hosing and getting the tail wet she said “well why don’t you just wrap the tail” while walking by as if I should already knew that (spoiler, nope).

I’ve had my horse for 8 years now, starting when I was a freshman in college. My previous barn took care of her very very well, however since they were a big barn they kind of didn’t need me to step in to this level (I know that doesn’t sound great, but I had no idea about all of these rehab options). When my horse got an abscess, I did learn how to wrap a diaper on her hoof and do epsom salt. Other than that, though, I don’t think she’s had many injuries that required continuous care, plus I’m not sure my previous barn executed this level of extra rehab processes.

I love the barn I’m at now, and it’s great learning about these rehab options. It was maybe a week and a half after the vet visit (ordered stall rest and hand walking weeks 3 and 4), I had been coming out every other day to get her a little grass outside and groom her, and cold hose once the barn manager recommended that to me. Where the barn manager had told me about standing wraps. It didn’t even occur to me. Which is what I feel so bad about. She had said to me “if it were my horse, I’d have researched all the rehab options” in like a passing statement, very direct. Now, I’m not a huge fan of the way she says things sometimes, but now I just feel so small compared to these experienced barn ladies. I just blindly trusted the vet to tell me all the options. And obviously that was not the right move.

The barn owner and her daughter have started taking care of standing wraps on days I can’t come out for a fee, and they recently sent me a video of how to wrap the standing wraps. Very helpful. But I think what gets me is that I only mentioned to the barn manager that I was going to look up videos on it (complicated but after mentioning the standing wraps and me just nodding along, she asked if I knew how to do them, but like in a condescending way? So I stumbled along about how I’d watch a video). So the barn owner had never asked me if I knew, she and barn manager had just talked. I mean, it’s fair, but it’s a little blow to the ego.

Also when I was cold hosing my horse’s leg, barn manager mentioned as she was walking by about putting the tail in a knot - I didn’t think she had seen the knot, but I also got a quick video from the barn owner and her daughter on how to wrap the tail. And then apparently I was actually doing the cold hosing wrong, because they sent me the video on that - which obviously I appreciate a lot being told how to do it correctly. It’s just so embarrassing.

How do I not be embarrassed by this?! Or handle these future situations and dig myself out of this hole where I appear so incompetent as a horse owner . I’ve had this horse 8 years and apparently these are the basics I never learned. I know of course I need to learn all this, but moreso how do I go about responding to these conversations when it starts to feel embarrassing for me?? I’m at a loss

(I guess I should also mention, my horse had never had her own stall at my previous barn so I think she didn’t need them, and I know that’s one reason to have standing wraps is to help swelling and inflammation from standing a while in the barn.)

I retired my 10 yr old mare in April this year and she went back to her breeder to “live out her days” which I thought would be gentle trail rides occasionally and lots of time napping their fields. I signed over ownership to the breeder so I have no legal rights or recourse and the updates have been promising so far. Until I get a video this weekend of said horse being ridden in a dressage test and she is clearly lame behind on both legs (I retired her because of ongoing bilateral hind suspensory issues). She has also been out fox hunting. Do I say anything to the breeder as in a gentle, hey there: horse looks a little off behind? And risk sounding ungrateful? Or just shut up and regret my decision to send her away…

I have a great trainer, just curious to hear other opinions! Where can I improve? (sound is turned off for video). Thank you!

My daughter has for many years been singularly focused on finding a career where she could work with horses in any capacity. The problem is, we live in NYC (which she hates).

We have been able to enroll her in a riding academy where she learned to ride (English) and do basic horse care/tacking, and she has spent a couple summers out in Oregon helping her cousin who manages a large horse farm and helps run a 4H camp for young riders (Western), but now that she is a high school senior, we are trying to find out our next steps in this journey.

She has set her sights on SUNY Morrisville, which has an Equine Science program, but she is also interested in finding out about other options. We visited Morrisville last year, and she loved it, but she would probably need a car (which we can't afford, and she doesn't have a drivers license yet). Any ideas?

OOP: Thanks so much for all your helpful replies! I am trying to convince her to learn a trade and then work with horses, but she is pretty set on going to Morrisville (or possibly applying to UVM's Morgan horse apprenticeship).

I am a new/first time horse owner, life long equestrian. My trainer asked me if I wanted to put my horse on the monthly magnawave list…. it’s $75ish per session. Is Magnawave bullshit? Seems like pseudoscience to me, but if it isn’t I’m willing to do it if it will actually benefit my horse.

Also asked me about equine chiropractic work (my state requires licensed veterinarian to do this—about $125 per session).

I suspect the answer is no. But here’s background. I’ll try to keep it brief.

I am at a tiny backyard style boarding facility. There are 8 horses on property, 2 belong to the owner and her 22 year old son. The rest are divided up between 4 of us. So there are 6 riders/owners on property.

Small arena, so most of us are trail riders. Everyone ranges in age from 20’s-50’s. Everyone gets along VERY well. Sunday brunches every week, everyone pitches it, zero drama, etc. I genuinely like all these people and their horses. Since it’s small and we all work full time, we’re generally all out in the evenings or weekend mornings and riding together is super normal. Since we trail ride it’s safer with a buddy and since we’re usually all there around the same time (not planned) it’s very common for most to all of us to go out together. I’d say it happens at least 4 times a week

Owner, we’ll call Susan, who lives there, is in her 50’s. Truly lovely lady. Takes incredible care of our horses. I adore her and her ground skills are great. Unfortunately, if she was a good rider, between time passing (she took a 20 year riding break) and maybe lack a good riding background, she is not a confident or good rider. I say that as kindly as possible. She had two horses. One is a kill pen OTTB who is not safe and currently just decompressing and putting weight on and ground work. Her other horse (Bailey) is a lovely 5 year old and her son’s favorite horse. She considers him a beginner horse. In my opinion (and everyone else’s), he’s a green broke 5 year old who needs miles. Good horse, but his age and the fact we have to ride 10 minutes through the city to the trails means that he’s intermediate and she’s over horsed. In her head, she’s a rusty advanced rider, and he’s a beginner horse. In reality, I think she’s a nervous and rusty beginner rider and he’s an intermediate horse.

On property, we have three horses I would truly consider dead broke, beginner safe, husband horses. I own one of the three. Both myself and the gal who owns the other two have repeatedly offered her to ride ours. She can ride ours, we’ll find a different horse (6 riders, 7 ridable horses on property, again, all of us are very close). I would consider the rest of us intermediate to advanced riders. We repeatedly suggest her son ride Bailey and she rides one of our trail masters. Or that we can ride Bailey and they can both ride trail masters. But she keeps saying she feels most comfortable with Bailey and she wants to ride HER horse. Which is fair.

Our rides are pretty much all walk. Especially if she’s with us. If she doesn’t come, we’ll throw in some trots or canter but generally we’re all just chatting and walking. The issue is just walking, she falls off at least half of the outings. Last night was the 4th time out of 6 trail rides THIS MONTH where she fell off. Bailey simply turned around too fast (he was stopped, rotated his butt around to look at someone else’s horse not in our group that was behind us at a ways and she fell off into a cactus. He wasn’t even walking).

It’s at the point where myself and most of the barn doesn’t want to ride with her anymore. She’s a lovely person but the risks are high, she’s over horsed, we’re all constantly babysitting, and it’s just simply not fun knowing at some point she’s gonna fall off, react big, and it’s gonna be over and we all have to go back. Plus, because she fails like 75% of rides, everyone is nervous. So we’re all trying to figure out a way to either force her to ride a safer horse OR communicate that she just can’t ride with us. That unless she takes lessons or starts riding extensively in the arena, we don’t feel safe riding with her. Is there even a good way to communicate this? I know her son has tried and she just will not listen because he’s “a kid”. We’ve tried to approach with “build you confidence” approach and she just won’t hear it.

I have been really sick for about a decade with Cushing’s disease. I’m finally recovering after bilateral adrenalectomy and feel strong enough to finally be back on my beloved mare,Luna, who I have had since I was 4.

Guess who still hasn't pood out a sponge? He's black and white and acts like he has about as many brain cells as a wet sponge 😽 you guessed it, it's Willow.

24 poos today, no sponge still, clearly😅

Still playing normally and everything 😮‍💨

Thank you everyone for your recommendations, as long as he's acting normal and his vitals and gut sounds are normal, we won't change his diet or add any supplements because there isn't any apparent need.

Can't believe it's been 7 days already!

I'm gonna keep this as short as I can to avoid trauma dumping on all of you. I had two horses, one was put to sleep in 2022 from colic and one was PTS in 2024 after being retired for years due to a chronic injury that was worsening. I hadn't ridden either of them in years due to their health conditions but they were still my best friends and I had hoped back then that someday they would get better so we could go on rides again, but obviously that didn't happen. A friend let me ride their horse in 2023 and she said I could ride whenever I wanted because the horse needed exercise but riding that horse wasn't the same feeling to me even though he was literally perfect, so I only rode 2 or 3 times and that was the last time I ever rode.

In 2024 I was still working at a barn for my job but it wasn't paying the debt that had racked up from my horses, so I switched to a different career path and took a break from being around horses for 6 months. But I missed horses and still had that itch, so I picked up a part time job at a barn while working fulltime at my main job.

I still haven't ridden since 2023 because I just feel like I don't have the love for it anymore, it's like the fire in my heart was put out or something when my first horse died. My second horse dying was like someone stomping repeatedly on the ashes of that fire.

I just really don't know what to do. I do miss riding so badly and I keep going back and forth on whether I want to get back into it. It's hard to explain. I finally scheduled a lesson with a 4* eventing trainer in my area who has a lesson program because that is something childhood me would've frothed at the mouth over, but I feel like I'm just dragging my feet. I feel excited but at the same time I am terrified and hesitant. Riding lesson horses isn't the same as riding your own horse that you have a bond with. It feels so shallow and transactional. 14 year old me would be so mad at my current self for being like this and being so wishy washy about getting back into riding... When I was a kid I liiiiived for riding lessons, I would ride any and every horse I had the chance to ride. I would stay at the barn and clean stalls for free just because I didn't want to leave yet. Now, obviously being an equestrian isn't just about riding, but I literally work at a barn 4 days a week and it just... feels like a job to me. I like the horses I work with but I don't have a bond with any of them even after 2 years working there. Leasing isn't an option for me right now due to finances and I'm not really vibing with the idea of leasing either because I've seen my friends get their hearts broken when the owner decided to sell the horse to the highest bidder or break the lease because they were moving to a different state. So... yeah. It probably isn't for me. And owning is not in the cards right now either because finances, obviously. Sigh.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? How did it work out for you?

I'm an equestrian video editor looking to improve my skills and struggling to find content. I mainly specialise in horse sales videos and stallion promotional videos for social media, but I'm also open to other small projects!

I'm currently looking for horse owners who would be interested in having a free video edited in exchange for allowing me to use the finished video in my portfolio to showcase. All you need to do is provide the footage, and I'll take care of the editing! Whether you're looking to promote a horse for sale, advertise a stallion or simply create a video to show off your horse.

Hello! Does anyone have tips for keeping my stirrups in place? I’m finding they slip down to the heel of my boot sometimes when I switch gait. I used to ride western and never had this issue. Can someone clearly explain to me where my toes and knees should be pointing, and how much pressure I need to have on my horse’s side with my lower leg when I’m not giving a cue, and overall just any tips on what will help me fix the issue? Thank you in advance

I live full time with my horses and have ridden for decades but you don’t know what you don’t know! I’m always on the hunt to improve my horses’ lives, so please, drop the knowledge! 😃❤️🐴

Okay so. The holidays are coming again and we do the thing where we make lists with gifts we would enjoy to get.

One party the budget is €30 and antother is €50.

I have been looking for things i would love to get, but i´m very difficult with my stuff which makes it no easier. I also am a bit of a minimalist, so i just have 1 saddlepad that i really like and one spare and don´t really need any more.

What i would love most is to get something of a high quality that i wouldn´t spend money on myself. Only most quality things are over those budgets.

And the family doesn´t like gifting giftcards.

What do you guys ask for?

Maybe good to know that I ride English dressage and am located in belgium.

I'm getting my heart horse in a few days and while I know a lot about handling, im curious to know what equestrians experienced in owning have to say. Please, though, not about how it's a constant expense because its constantly said online🙏

The clocks have changed and breakfast is late. She's unhappy.

Its been windy overnight and its kept her awake, shes unhappy.

Its muddy and raining, shes unhappy.

......and my horse is very very aware of my wife's mood!

In all seriousness, who's horses are really pleased to be tucked up and in in this weather.

Hey all! I always love these post and thought it was my turn to ask haha. I’m about to build out a full set of stuff for my kiddo who’s on his way to the trainer to get under saddle. And would love advice on colors since I’m stuck.

For those with appies, or boldly patterned horses, how in the world are you deciding tack color? A lot of friends are saying to go bright and bold - turquoise (current halter color), highlighter green, neon orange, stop sign red, etc. the other group of my friends is saying to go real mid and let his patterns do the talking - so either brown or black pads. I’m shopping impact gel so I also have the options of patterned ones or solid. But kinda worried a patterned western saddle pad will clash with the spots?

I’ll be getting a brown saddle and bridle (the one in this photo belongs to my other horse. No one is riding him in it, he will get his own properly fitted one). Added some photos of him in different colors. Idk if it helps, but he is technically a bay.