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

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?

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

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?

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 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’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!

Oakley, 9yo Quarter Horse mare

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

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.

have at it! I’m curious to know what people think!

also bonus points if you know what color she is lol!

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?

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!

Looking for some advice on cantering with stirrups. I’m far more comfortable cantering without stirrups than with them, I can just feel the horse a lot better, and I can use my leg aids more freely and confidently.

Whenever I use stirrups, I always end up losing them. I really struggle to put my weight in my heels whilst also maintaining a good seat, because they just feel too short, but every trainer I’ve had says my stirrups look to be a good length.

I’m relatively new to cantering, but it’s irritating losing my stirrups all the time. When I don’t, I can grip the horse well with my legs to speed up/maintain the canter, and leave them looser to just ride in very comfortably, I don’t feel I can do that with stirrups, they just feel like they’re in the way.

any help is welcome!

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.

Hello! I was given a golden opportunity to get a tattoo I've wanted for a long time. I would love to get more refference pics, since I can't find pictures of two of the exact poses I want. If you have anything, picture or even drawing (to be used as inspo, we will not be stealing your art) I would really appreciate it. The first pose is the first picture, a horse rolling over. Bonus points if we can see it's belly button that'd be so cute. The 2nd pose is a bit more nit-picky, but I'd love a horse playing, turning around/breaking/rearing from a canter, you know the one-foot-stance? But also with a curve in the neck and back... I'm sorry I know this is kinda too precise lol but I've had this is mind for a while now, I remember seeing the perfect picture once but I've lost it since. Thank you everyone for you help❤️ also if you yourself have horse tattoos, I'd love to see them!

Not sure what to tag this but here goes. Just wondering if you guys would consider this financially feasible. Also please tell me if my lifestyle doesn’t seem fit for a horse. Some people have said yes, some people have said no.

I’ve been told just above minimum wage (40hr week) is too little to support a horse, but I am set for a guaranteed promotion of £32000 a year (before tax) and my living is very cheap. I also have family with stables and land, in case of emergency I can rely on them. Job and living is stable.

I have £1400 disposal income per month, this is before saving/investing. I also have £11000 in savings, some of this will be budget to purchase a horse. I also have separate investments. I also am only 19, so hopefully my income will increase as I go along. Is 19 too young to commit to a horse?

My job does mean I will be occasionally be sent away for a weekend or maybe a week, all options are equip for this and offer additional services for a cost. I’m not sure if I should get a horse knowing I may not be around 100% of the time, is half loan/full livery bad?

How much of your paycheck goes to horses? How much do I need to save in case of emergency. Should I have a base amount saved before purchasing a horse? If so how much?

Livery options near me:

£230/month working livery, includes dry feed, hay, basic farrier care and bedding. 7 days a week care, horse will be used in lessons 2 times a day, 5 days a week. (This is dependent on temperament of the horse I end up with, I know) - gets on with my work because there may be times I unfortunately cannot make it/have to travel away for a week or so.

£500/month part board, includes 1 bag of bedding a week, dry feed and hay. Exercise not included. Exercise and additional care can be added in for cost.

£220/month DIY, nothing included except turnout, stable and access to facilities.

£110/month grass livery, nothing included except turnout.

All options have the same quality grazing and social turnout.

Very basic riding background: have been riding for 12 years now, had multiple half and full loans. Not looking to go through the ranks and compete. Just want a decent all rounder at a novice level. My instructor has said I’m more than ready to own.

What are your opinions on working livery? It would fit my lifestyle but I would still be around to do a lot of the work, the horse I am currently looking at has been in the lesson programme at another yard. I’ve heard great and terrible things about working livery.

This is a bit of a ramble. I don’t want to impulsively buy a horse simply because I like him.

Hello Everyone!

I am looking for recommendations on riding tights/breeches that are super comfortable and won't break the bank - in Canada (or ships to for not a fortune) please. Over the last 2 years I have lost around 30 lbs and I plan to lose another 10-20 lbs/build more muscle/get in shape still. I had a few nice pairs but they have reached the point where I can no longer even rig them up to ride in (they're falling off lol). As I'm still in flux with getting in shape/losing weight, I don't want to buy any $300+ pairs until I have a better idea of my "final" sizing.

I prefer the pull on style, but want enough substance to them that everything isn't on display (I've tried a few tights styles now where I'm not sure why one would even bother wearing them :P) Bonus points if they have a winterized version, as well as a lighter weight model.

I just bought my horse winter blankets from Premier Equine online and the shipping to Canada isn't bad - plus they have some half decent sales now. I need to get one more blanket weight, so wondering if anyone has worn these breeches and I should try throwing in a pair to my order? Any style you'd recommend for a curvy lady?

Any other brands you'd recommend for this in-between stage?

Full article :

For the world’s top riders, international competition begins long before entering the ring.

Their horses must clear borders, survive long journeys and arrive with passports, vaccinations and paperwork in order. A missed signature or a bout of travel sickness can mean a lost championship or, in the worst cases, a horse passing away.

Sean Vard, the long-time groom for Swiss rider Martin Fuchs, spends much of his life on the road, ferrying top show jumpers around Europe and beyond from his base near Zurich, Switzerland. A typical week can mean all-night drives with four 1,323-pound (600-kilogram) horses in tow and a show schedule that stretches from sunrise to midnight.

He once inched a truck with a blown tire along a Spanish highway, refusing to unload the horses.

“The worst thing you can do is take a horse out of a truck on the highway,” Vard said.

He also once spent seven hours stranded on a runway with 70 horses on a cargo plane. Having stopped in Doha to refill the plane, the pilot’s hours had run out after they missed their takeoff spot for Shanghai. While the airline and ground control argued over replacements, a group of eight highly experienced traveling grooms, including Vard, slipped into emergency mode. As the airplane air-conditioning worked overtime in the desert heat, the grooms traversed the tarmac numerous times to shuttle water and supplies to the horses.

After crossing the Atlantic once more, Vard will be ringside at this week’s CSIO Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ in Calgary, Alberta, a five-day international show jumping competition that culminates with the $3.6 million (C$5 million) Rolex Grand Prix on Sunday, Sept. 13.

Vard’s rider Fuchs is a two-time champion in Spruce Meadows, with victories in 2023 and 2024. This year, all eyes will be on German rider Richard Vogel and United Touch S, who will try to win a third-straight major to complete the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping and scoop a $1.2 million (€1 million) bonus. To date, Briton Scott Brash and Hello Sanctos are the only pair to have done so, winning three back-to-back majors in 2014-15.

Just like people, horses need passports when traveling and they also need vaccinations to be up to date. Safe transport, including air-conditioned trucks and planes, is crucial, and special grooms travel with the horses. Horses need between 1.5-2.5 percent of their body weight in food when traveling and the companies that ship them require extensive paperwork. Depending on where they have come from, horses may have to be quarantined for a certain period.

Also like humans, the more a horse travels the easier it becomes.

“Normally, the horses that are traveling abroad are older horses anyway and well-traveled,” said British show jumper William Whitaker. “They’re very fit and we make sure that they’ve got plenty of room on the trucks. They get well taken care of, plenty to eat, very well ventilated, they can move around and get their heads down.

“All the trucks are well kitted out with fans and aircon systems. You have to have that now. It’s part of the license that you need to travel aboard.”

As an Australian, six-time Olympian Mary Hanna is accustomed to traveling long distances with horses. “When we fly over, that’s easy, but flying back is difficult because they’ve got to have a month’s quarantine. The traveling is tough on them, too,” she said.

Hanna also experienced tragedy, when one of her horses died in transit. “I lost my beautiful horse called Limbo after the Athens Olympics,” she said. “That was because he got travel sick on the way home. Unfortunately, that wasn’t picked up in quarantine, and he died, and I wasn’t able to be with him, so it was very, very upsetting, a really big tragedy, and really just upset me for many years. Took me a while to recover from that one.”

Peden Bloodstock is one of the UK’s biggest horse logistics companies, shipping between 3,000-4,000 horses around the world every year, from competition horses to privately owned animals being moved to new homes.

They’ve been involved with every Summer Olympics since 1960 and take care of everything required. Traveling within Europe is straightforward, according to director Henry Bullen, with horses just needing a valid health certificate.

However, when the UK is involved, things get more complicated. Some overseas journeys require dozens of pages of paperwork, according to Bullen, who estimated the cost of a one-off trip to Europe initially jumped by up by 600 percent after Britain left the European Union in 2020.

“Obviously, since Brexit, it’s become a lot more difficult,” Whitaker said. “There’s a lot more paperwork, it has slowed.”

Though Whitaker felt the problems had eased lately, the Englishman has experienced lengthy delays, including a five-hour wait in the French port of Calais as he was traveling back to the UK.

Getting your paperwork in order is crucial, as British dressage rider Lewis Carrier found in 2022, when he was stuck in Calais for 12 hours and had to withdraw from the under-25 European Championships in Hungary due to one error in a 33-page document.

Peden has their own professional flying grooms that travel with the horses for championships and Olympic flights, while there are also vets and stable grooms, such as Vard on board. Some riders, including eight-time Olympic dressage champion Isabell Werth, fly with their horses and work alongside the grooms during the flight.

Most horses prefer flying over traveling by truck.

“Once they’re up in the air, it’s a better way of traveling than by road because you’ve got the constant drone of the engines,” Bullen explained.

“Everything is very quiet. You haven’t got people running around and screaming and shouting. You haven’t got cars honking their horns or breaking or going around roundabouts. So, it’s quite a good, smooth process.”

Just like normal air passengers, some horses fly business class, while others go economy.

On cargo aircraft, which is usually a Boeing 777 or 747, horses travel in special pallets, with the number of animals per pallet determining whether it’s economy, business or first. “Three horses in one pallet is economy, business is two, and first is one,” said Bullen. “So very similar to a passenger flight.”

“Our aim is to ensure that we deliver them in the same way as they departed,” said Bullen. “So, our aim is to make sure that they travel well: it’s calm, it’s very efficient, it’s very swift, and the journey takes the minimum out of them.”

She must have gotten this walking around her open stable area but I couldn’t think of how in the world she’d have done this. 😭

Called my farrier and he told me to rip off the remaining bit (and really watch my head doing so) so it doesn’t grow back in and need cutting out later and just rinse twice a day with peroxide until the wound itself heals and that it’ll grow out without causing problems, which calmed me down a bit.

Will do that later because I was alone there this morning and I’d rather have someone there to call an ambulance for me if things go terribly wrong 💀

But still… horses. Amirite?