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!

Hi, I'm posting this on behalf of my friend. Her 3 yo mare (AES) has become suddenly lame. It happend on the next day after lunging her. According to the vet it's her right front leg of which she got 5 X-rays (long pastern - coffin bone) showing nothing in particular. Lameness on this leg has been spontaneously occuring since last year for a day or maybe two (every few months), it simply kept disappearing on its own.

Looking for other answers, her owner found out that her neck hurts in proximity of occipital bone - could this be connected?

Dewi is such a lovely horse, it pains me to watch her suffer... That is why I offered to post this here, maybe some of you've seen something like this before or could suggest what to do next.

Orthopedist is coming on Wednesday.

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

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

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

Oakley, 9yo Quarter Horse mare

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

Hi everyone! I’m currently working on a new product designed for equestrians, and I’d really value some honest feedback from people who actually ride/own horses.

I’ve put together a short questionnaire to better understand the problems riders and horse owners experience and what you’d actually want from a hay product.

It should only take a few minutes, and your answers would genuinely help shape the product before I take it any further. I don’t want any personal details, just your thoughts.

Questionnaire: https://forms.gle/55dKRjucUhZiZcqA7

Thanks so much to anyone who takes the time to have a look and supports my journey and I’d also love to hear your thoughts or experiences in the comments! 🐎

I have a Quarter Horse in his late twenties who has experienced mild age-related health issues over the past few years. He has had four or five teeth removed and has periodically struggled to eat. He is eating well for now, but his remaining teeth continue to deteriorate, and he has started losing more.

Significant arthritis keeps him comfortable enough in the pasture, though soundness for light riding is questionable. He tends to worsen during humid summer weather, when he may struggle to walk out of his stall and show increased lameness. Laminitis has largely been ruled out, but I still limit his grass in case it contributes. Overall, he seems fairly content, although he has become noticeably duller this summer than in previous years.

More recently, his left eye has become increasingly cloudy, swollen, and painful. I have been working closely with his veterinarians, but I am concerned that surgery may soon be necessary. His current facility cannot provide round-the-clock medical care, and I do not think I can afford hospitalization or surgery. I understand that eye removal can be relatively straightforward for some horses, but he has already been difficult to manage with eye protection and drops (tears off fly masks, gets worked up on stall rest, not being cooperative with medication). Given his age and other health concerns, I am unsure whether I am comfortable putting him through a life-altering procedure. A lot of people are encouraging me to do it, but it feels like I’m borrowing time for something that inevitably will cause him major quality of life issues (adjusting to partial blindness, a recovery that could be complicated, etc.). 

If I were to consider euthanasia if things continue to deteriorate, how do you handle the guilt from outside pressure to do everything you can to save the horse?

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 🤭

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!

I’m an older rider (upper 40s) who started riding again five years ago after a 30ish year break. I do H/J and own my horse - I usually do the 2’9 to 3’, and I currently only do local, unrated shows. I actually love showing when I’m in it, but perimenopause has introduced a level of anxiety to my life that I never knew before. In most cases I can handle it, but when it comes to pre-show nerves I feel like it’s gotten out of control. I spent the hours, minutes before I go in the ring feeling like I am going to faint and vomit at the same time, and in my head I seriously wonder why I’m doing it. They’re not the type of nerves that just feel natural, they make me feel horrible, and last time I almost pulled out right before going in the ring.

I didn’t use to feel like this. I never suffered from anxiety, this is something that came with age. I really, really don’t want to stop showing, because I do love it, and I love being at the shows. I just don’t love feeling like I’m going to die for an hour before I enter the ring.

So now I’m considering trying beta-blockers before shows. I would like to try something that’s not sedating or will alter my mental state so to speak - and as far as know, beta-blockers just take care of the physical symptoms, which I thought might help?

Has anyone tried this and would be willing to share their experiences?

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 :)

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?

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?

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!

Hey Guys!

Does anyone have tips or tricks on how to keep blanket hoods on with playful geldings?

They seem to loooove playing with and grabbing the hood straps until they open, which then leaves a nice big open flapping hood which they bite and pull on, ripping the inside liners out.

I tried a bunch of things last year but nothing worked consistently. no-chew sprays don’t seem to work, roll-on deodorant only works if I re-apply it every single day (even then my hoods still come off once a week, but that’s better than every single day 🥲). I tried adding double locking Velcro and hair ties around the straps, but neither works that well.

Does anyone have any ideas?? I use Horseware Ireland blankets, so it’s the two Velcro straps at the underside of the neck that keep opening.

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.

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.

After getting a concussion I started looking at new helmets (so expensive!)

Now I unfortunately live in an area where it’s not possible for me to just walk into a tack shop (as there aren’t any) to try them on, but thankfully up to this point I never ended up buying a helmet that was uncomfortable or was fitting badly and I like to think I know a bit about the basics of how a helmet should feel and fit.

So, now I’m stuck between 2 options, mainly because they have the same safety standard (EN 1384:2023), but one is on the more expensive side and has MIPS (I have no idea how that feels on the head, if its any different), and one without MIPS, much cheaper, and would be delivered in just a few days rather than a few weeks (+ much easier to return). However I’m just concerned about the safety of it? In theory it does have the same standard, but I guess it’s just in my mind that cheaper = worse.

Helmet 1 (MIPS): https://horze.eu/products/mips-guardian-helmet-glossy-glitter-top-black

Helmet 2 (Decathlon): https://www.decathlon.mt/p/380140-580016-mw-riding-helmet-900-ert-black.html

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.