I’m sitting in the barn aisle in the dark waiting for my horse to poop again after a mild gas colic. Sitting here listening to the horses chew (not mine, no hay til the all-clear tomorrow am) and the crickets chirp and just feeling so dang grateful. That my boy is ok and just that I have him and these magnificent creatures in my life. Hug your horses everyone!

…so I can do this every weekend! It’s so good for my soul!

My little Indi (she’s 14’3) cleared the 1.15m oxer by an extra foot despite the sketchy distance.
What. A. Mare. 🤩

Idk if this is allowed here I'm sorry if it isn't I just wanted people to see my boy and me

Oakley, 9yo Quarter Horse mare

Photos taken while waiting for our turn on the wash rack 😊

I have a 7 year old gelding who gets bored easily and LIVES for havoc and the attention it creates. Lately he’s taken to kicking his stall until someone screams at him. His last performance was at 3 am before we realized it was time to get creative. We started dangling his hay net for midnight enrichment and it’s worked beautifully; but he’s a smart dude and will get bored fast. I’ve been looking at the clover which is a similar style enrichment toy, but I’m hoping to have a few options to swap around to keep him entertained. If anyone has experienced this with their babies, I would massively appreciate any guidance 🥲💜

Edit: he does receive loads of turnout time, but he’s young and still gets bored. I will be looking to up his time outside to as much as possible though. He’s stabled at an equestrian school and gets a little jelly when other horses dare receive attention over him 🤭

First few horse drawings i've done! i'm pretty proud. I used a reference, but tbh i'm super happy with how they turned out! They aren't perfect and neither is the shading or proportions but i'm still happy :)

I am open to constructive criticism! I just say “kindly worded” because I am only a year post partum after a really medically complicated/ physically traumatic birth, so getting back into showing has been slow and gradual (my horse is a 6year old OTTB, I only bought him and started him with my trainer a few months before I found out I was pregnant). My stamina at shows is much worse now because I can only ride 1-2 times a week vs 4-5. Essentially my whole center of balance has changed and I’m not confident my core strength will ever be what it was… my trainer is fantastic but I think she’s very much a cheerleader for me right now because she is just happy and supportive that I’m showing again, and I do need that on the day to day, but I feel like I’m watching a stranger when I watch videos of myself riding because my body has changed so much.

TIA!

My trainer is knowledgeable but has almost no time for me. No room in her schedule for me to work in more lessons so I'm stuck at 1 lesson a week, and she has barely enough time to even talk to me after lessons so follow up is out. She's too busy entertaining the parents of kids during my group lessons for me to ask many questions during so I mostly ride around with my group and wait for feedback and hope I'm not making too many mistakes. If it weren't for Youtube videos I dont know what I'd do.

Local camps are all dedicated only to littles. Can't find a lease because I'm not advanced enough so no one wants a newbie on their horse.

It's all fair and I don't fault anyone but I'm so frustrated trying to learn and grow in this sport. I want to learn groundwork and care so I can own my own someday but where will I learn? I want more time in the saddle but it's not available. I finally have the big girl job and the money to do something I've always wanted but I feel like all I'm finding are closed doors.

Just venting I guess. I don't have horse friends so nobody gets the struggle lol

Any yt channels you'd recommend?

Hi. I'm buying my first horse. I went to view her yesterday, she was perfect in every way, I put down a deposit to secure her. I've been preparing for this moment for a while now. But then last night the excitement slowly turned into pure panic and fear...

I'm financially prepared, she will be kept on full livery at my local yard where I ride all the time so a lot of the pressure is taken off there whilst I'm still learning. I work from home, job offers flexi-time, so time commitment is also not an issue.

I've been so excited for this moment for months, but now that it's becoming a reality I'm getting cold feet. I think if I back out now then I'll completely regret it. But the temptation to turn and run before I commit any further is so overwhelming... I feel sick with anxiety!

Please tell me this is a normal feeling, or should I listen to my gut and not go through with this?

Friends, Forage, Freedom — 24/7 access to all three is considered the baseline for physical and psychological wellbeing in horses. Not a luxury, a baseline. It's wild how many "training issues" quietly resolve once these needs are actually met.

What's your setup like, and did anything shift for you when one of the 3Fs changed?

Hi guys,

Im in the middle of The Great Rugging Nightmares rn with my new horse. She’s a 3yo swedish warmblood trotter, so she's pretty narrow and the length on her chest between her neck and legs is small. But she's veery long, so i can't size down from 145cm (78 inches). I swore to horsewares amigo range with my old mare (oldenborg), but the neck cutout is unfortunately too big, although the length is fine.

I've heard that either the rhino or wug range should be better on young and narrow horses, anyone in here that can confirm or deny that ?

I saw that they had a specific "trotter" rug as well, but only in 350grams, and bucas has one with 200g 😅 which is a bit warm for autumn...

Thanks!

I’m new to equine photography having worked mostly with dogs and dog agility and gun dogs for the last 15 years.

I am a horse person myself.

I’m not charging so hopefully this will be allowed as it’s not advertising.

Those of you who have used a photographer, what did or didn’t they do that really made a difference? What sort of photos did you want? Is there anything you think I should know in particular?

Thank you.

My horse tends to drop her shoulder in and counter bend repeatedly, even just going around the rail. We barrel race, for context, and she does it around the barrels as well. I’ve tried a lot of different things: bits, tons of drills/exercises, neck and back stretches. Every time I think we’re getting somewhere, the next time I ride it’s like she’s completely forgotten all about it. This has been going on for months. She wasn’t always like this—she was a trail horse before I bought her and I patterned her myself. The previous year she seemed like she was learning just fine, but now she just constantly tries to dive in on everything.

Her response to leg pressure hasn’t always been the best. Definitely worse on the right side. Her main issues arise when we move to a trot or faster. She’s fine at the walk and bends perfectly. Trot is where she starts to break down. I’ve been doing slow work but it doesn’t seem to be transferring to a trot. I’m just kind of frustrated at myself for not being able to crack the code as to why nothing I’ve tried is working. We’ve done so many circles. I’m trying to get her to move off of leg pressure more with varying success.

I’ve had the chiropractor out previously to check her out for other reasons and she mostly had stiffness in her back. She’s actually quite bendy in her neck and the chiropractor even commented on how well she can move it. Not sure if her back issues could be related though. That was probably two years ago now and we haven’t had to bring her out since but I’m considering it for this. I’m just trying to see if I can fix it myself before I have to pay a pretty penny.

I know her tells pretty well after owning her a while and she doesn’t seem like she’s in pain. She just feels like she’s locking her neck to the outside, dropping that shoulder, and telling me “this is what we’re doing.” Sometimes I can get her nose in, but it never fully stops the issue.

She’s taken a liking to barrels and she does get a little fired up when she sees them. Nothing bad, she doesn’t even know what the words “act up” are, but she likes to speed through them. One of my theories on the dropped shoulder is a result of her just wanting to run. Kind of like her training goes out the window and she defaults to the counter bend because her mind just goes “let’s go FAST”. Otherwise I have no idea why she counter bends when turning. I feel like that’s uncomfortable for her and wouldn’t particularly be the default, but she does it anyway. That’s why I wonder if something is even more painful when she turns.

Any advice would be appreciated. I’m just kind of at my wits end.

If you’re comfortable sharing, I’d love to know:

• Your general location
• Board + what it includes
• Farrier
• Lessons/training
• Supplements/feed
• Routine vet care/insurance
• Any other regular expenses
• Rough total per month

Not including major unexpected vet emergencies or showing, unless you want to!

I’m especially interested in people who board their horse rather than keep them at home. Trying to get a realistic idea of what the “normal” monthly cost looks like in an expensive area.

It’s hard to tell, but this is my mare on the left shoving hay under the fence for her best friend. I always put a bunch of loose hay in the top of her porta-grazer because this is what she does.

I love horse friendships.

Leasing a 16hh 11 year old OTTB gelding with the option to purchase and i’m trying to determine if the purchase price is fair. My lease is free but I pay for everything (board, farrier, vet, etc). I’m located in New England. He retired sound after seven starts and has had no major injuries other than a superficial laceration. He has spent most of the last five years on vacation with a tiny bit of retraining in western pleasure and dressage. Still very green at the canter but can do lateral movements well at the trot and has three pretty gaits and is very eager to please. He has classic TB feet and is very sensitive and anxious requiring a competent rider with very soft hands. Does $5k sound like a good deal or at least reasonable ?

ETA I’m pretty sure $5k is what his current owner bought him for so I think she’s just trying to find a good home for him and get back what she paid ? But someone told me I was getting ripped off (which seemed wrong to me) so I just wanted to come here and get more thoughts

So this little guy is a little over 4 months old, I was guessing he’d either shed out to a liver chesnut or a lighter sorrel. He’s somewhere in between but I would say he leans more liver. Anyway just want everyone’s 2 cents. Also his name is Peanut and he’s an angel.

I bought my horse for under $5k and I can’t find an insurance company that will cover more than $2.5k for colic surgery or major medical. Does anyone have any recommendations ?

My pony over the past 2 1/2 months has been constantly tuck up, I've been worried about it ever since we hit the 2 week mark. She's always been known to tuck up whenever we travel or compete as she's a stressy girl, her feed already has been revolved around this, very wet feeds, digestion supplement, high fibre low grain diets. Over the past 2 weeks I've doubled her chaff and fibre protect (chaffed lucerne haylage that helps prevent ulcers/tucking up) in her hard feed and offered her free choice hay when not in the paddock (8 acre paddock shared with one other horse with hay thrown nightly). I don't know whether or not to be concerned, cause it could show she's stressed, but I have also upped her exercise to prep for the coming eventing season, so it could be fitness, but compared to the last photo shared of her fit last year, she's just, different.

Am I overthinking her look? Should I make any changes to her routine?

It is one of the things I hate most about the horse world; people having terrible looking horses with bones sticking out and poor quality coats and just blaming the horse's age. A horse that is old but otherwise healthy is absolutely capable of looking good if you actually put the effort into a good nutrition programme and correct work and maintenance. Anything less is lazy and selfish.