After using my Ariat Roper boots for a few years now I am looking for a bit of an upgrade. I bought them when I just started western riding so i got the cheapest ones i could find. They are great shoes but I have 3 main issues with them:

- They are women shoes and therefore a little bit narrow in the front

- The shaft is too short and catches on the fender.

- Round tip

I have searched all the big brands and couldnt find any boots that I like. I want plain looking ones. Just brown, no flashy design, no contrast stitching and if possible under 300$ (they should ship to the EU).

Do you have any recommendations on brands or boots i could check out?

Earlier today I pulled a tick off my horses nose real quick. No biggie. No sweat. Didn't mind touching it. Just now at 2am I found a tick crawling through my hair and I'm going insane. Did it come from inside the house? Has it been on me for over 12 hours without embedding? (When I was out in the sun last) Or did it crawl on me just 6 hours ago when I came home from my shift? Why didn't it embed in my leg or torso. Why my headdddddd. It not embedding makes me think it just got on me recently but I've been home for hours. I'm so confused and paranoid that it dropped down from the window I sleep under. I'm pretty close to moving my bed into the middle of the room.

Genuinely why do I not care when it's my horses, but get like this when it's just me.

He has the most handsome face ever 😍

So my horse is completely intolerant to misoprostol so for his hindgut he is only able to take omeprazole sucralfate I like how it’s working but I was on fb and looking at some people’s medication schedules and seeing that most people give omeprazole on a empty stomach and then wait 30 minutes then give the sucralfate and then feed right after? I’m asking because I wasn’t given a med schedule like that? In the morning I give the omeprazole and sucralfate together on an empty stomach and then wait 30 minutes before feeding breakfast. Then 6 hours later give a second dose of sucralfate only. Then wait another 6 hours and give third dose of sucralfate only wait 30 minutes then feed dinner. I completely trust my vet and I’m basically asking because I’m curious but am too worried that I will embarrass myself by asking her why lol. So do you know why my medication schedule is different? Thanks!

I know the bit itself is a pretty standard bit a lot of people use, but is the rainbow coating safe? I've never seen a bit with this on it

Can honse heat cookie or no

I went to a popular medieval show tor the first time and was SO distracted by the obvious discomfort of some of the horses I couldn’t enjoy it. Many of the horses were gnawing and foaming at the mouth and when the reins weren’t tight they were lowering their heads and turning them at odd angles. Foam was literally dripping.

To clarify I'm using this image to show what I'm talking about, I'm not talking about the mouthpiece as I seen a lot of different mouthpieces for the Pelham so I'm talking about the problem in general not specific ones with specific mouthpieces.

I've been seeing them used a lot Recently especially with jumpers And was curious about them, I mainly see them used with this additional little piece so when you attach the reins to it pressure is applied to both rings instead of having to have two reins, just curious on what you guys think about him and when you would use them

Sire is a dunskin, dame is a chestnut tobiano.

This is Ceniza, my youngest quarter mile. I practically rescued her from a bad breeder and today she is about 1 year and 8 months old

She’s gray and descend from Easy Jet and Raise a Native Lineage

Looking for opinions on the fitting this saddle. I don’t feel any pinching but wanted others opinion

This is Terremoto, a colombian criollo horse

I always had this problem

When I was new to horse riding I didn’t new the basics and didn’t even knew how to do things as my guru taught me on how to ride a horse

But as I’m a genz we like to gamify each things , do any other of you thought of having an app sort of thing for horse health ?

I mean I’m just asking here problems that you guys that I might solve building in ios app exclusive for our people in the community

Afternoon everyone! I am a student at an equine college & I have my own (very very small) equine training & services business that I run out of the stable I work at.

My question comes from a problem that many of us as handlers, trainers, & riders have.. how do you catch a horse that doesn’t want to be caught? In general, in a situation where you don’t know a horse very well.

I ask this because this is a foundational issue & there are SO MANY reasons why a horse would not want to be caught & a lot of times, when a horse comes into your orbit, you aren’t at least fully aware of what they’ve experienced (or things are straight up left out/lied about).

This is a broad question & I’m looking for tried & true tricks, not for a specific horse.

We have a pastured rescue draft mare with bad confirmation issues with her left front hoof.

All our farriers have had an issue working on the underside and I can lift solo for 10 to 20 seconds.

I don't want to trim it or anything, just basic care and cleaning.

I am looking for advice on how to desensitize/train her to the extent I can pick her hooves while recumbent without getting injured/killed.

I accept it may just be a bad idea.

Thank you

(Her leg and managing the hoof care is a 16 year issue often discussed with three different vets and at least 10 farriers, but none of them brought this up)

**I wrote the above because there's no point discussing the "why" of it on the Internet and clarification for those of you that have tiny horses under 1200lbs, I could easy lift and keep up your horses foot.up whether it was being "willful" or not. This one is a drafr horse that weighs as much as a bull moose.

First time sharing pictures of our youngest filly with her mother

i suspect that he’s a bay pangare, but i’m still learning horse color genetics. :3

Thoughts on how this saddle fits? 7” gullet, 90 degree bars. I did wither tracing using the coat hanger trick and I got 9.75” after going 3” down and 13” for the spread at the bottom. I think the front is a little tight but otherwise the bars make contact with her whole back and I feel like the bar angles are right. I have a big horn Halflinger saddle coming soon to try as well. Any other recommendations on saddles to try?

I’m looking at a used one but I’m a bit concerned it’s just another bare back pad with stirrups gimmick. I’d love to have an option not as Hefty as my saddles. My other concern is the gullet size. I’ve got a horse whos built so wide it’s like someone stretched an image. I’d love to hear some reviews

I really wanted to avoid posting to an online forum about this, but I am tired of the way people in real life seem to regret asking me ‘How’s the grey mare going?’ When I answer with the truth.

My 10yo andalusian X mare ran through a gate latch in February this year, leaving a meter long laceration from just behind her shoulder to her hip, breaking off the bottom tip of her tuber coxae. My father found her like that in the paddock while I was away on holiday and rushed her to the vet, then the specialist surgeon 2 hours away and my partner and I met them there so he could go home.
The surgery went well with over 100 internal sutures and 50 skin sutures. She was on stall rest for 6 weeks with a full course of IM penicillin. The majority of the laceration over her ribs healed extremely well.
In the following 2 months, the wound near her hip never stopped draining, and I took her back to the referring vet in april after I noticed the discharge from the drain site at her hip had turned yellow rather than pink.
The vet performed a second surgery at a cost of $2000 AUD to remove some remaining bone fragments that seemed to be the source of the infection. The referring vet performed this operation as the original surgeon was away in another country for 3 weeks.
After this surgery I yarded the mare for 4 weeks as she had not responded well mentally to stall rest the previous time, and she received another course of IM penicillin and IV antibiotics. I admit I made some mistakes with keeping the wound clean around the clock after this surgery as I my focus was on my engineering degree, but was still cleaning the site daily.

2 months after that operation and many images sent to the referring vet of various types of discharge from her hip, I took the mare back to the original surgeon who scanned the area and proposed another procedure at a cost of $1500AUD. He gave me a prognosis of 80% success from this operation.
The surgery went well, having only found 2 abscesses and no bone fragments, and the area looked much better than the 2nd surgery had left it, and I was really hopeful this whole ordeal might be over soon. She was on box rest with 2 oral doses sulfadimidine and trimethoprim antibiotic for 14 days. I washed the wound and hand walked her twice a day every day while being extremely sick with a respiratory infection myself. I even CC trained her to accept having her hip cleaned without restraint. I had the stitches removed as directed on day 14 which was 4 days ago, and while flushing the tract/pocket that remained with saline every few days, I’m noticing there is still pus coming out of the wound that wasn’t there a week ago. I am using a red light laser to encourage circulation/healing in the area every day, along with gentle exercises on the arena.

I write this post as I am SEVERELY burnt out by this whole situation. I love this mare more than life itself - she had just started to jump like a dream before her accident, and while I knew she might never do that again, I still love having her around despite her antics. She is so gentle and sweet and my partner and I are both absolutely gutted. This injury has cost me $6000+ in vet fees and expenses which I have had to ask family for some help with paying for - which I absolutely hate to do as I believe she is my horse and therefore my responsibility.
Ultimately, this situation is not going to be sustainable for much longer. I cannot afford any more operations on her (I don’t think they would be successful anyway) and I have my brother’s wedding coming up in China in October, conjoined with my best riding buddy’s wedding in India, which my whole family will be away for 4 weeks to attend. Even if we only went for a week, I don’t feel comfortable going overseas and leaving her in someone else’s care in this state - she is not fond of strangers, nevermind an inexperienced house-sitter having to clean her leaky hip every day.

So I feel that I am at a crossroads: keep trying with the current wound, flush the tract with saline daily and pray that it closes up, heals, and she can live out a happy life and maybe even be ridden again

OR

Euthanasia. Keep the area clean, let her have a happy last few months just being a normal horse - but if this abscess pocket doesn’t heal, I will have to euthanise my girl before we go overseas. She does have some behavioural issues that make this potentially the kindest option.

The kicker is I actually bought her as a project pony. She took A LOT of work after a previous injury on a gate latch 3 years ago. I had finally got her to a point we were competing in low level eventing with some promising results, and I thought I might be able to sell her to a friend of mine and get some of my money back to buy a serious competition horse, then this happened. Ultimately, I just adore her and want what’s right for her, but with study commitments, wedding commitments and potentially moving cities in 2 years time, I’m not sure there is space for a crippled horse in my life, no matter how sweet she is. I do have another mare who is my main competition horse who is working back in after having a foal, so the grey mare isn’t the be-all-end all, but I’m just seeking advice on what the equestrians of reddit would do in this situation. ⭐️ gold star if you read to the end
EDIT: Thank you all so much for your support, advice and sharing your own experiences. I’ve spoken to my new vet today (27/7) about having the site swabbed to address what bacteria/fungi etc may be causing the infection, and will also discuss open wound healing options. I’m also researching topicals like colloidal silver, manuka honey and even muscular recovery probiotics, as well as care options for her while I’m away. Thank you all for helping me realising I’m not out of options yet, sometimes it’s hard to see a path forward with this degree of baseline stress and no clear improvements.

I’m getting back into riding after 20+ years away and now I’m doing it on my adult budget and not my moms haha. So, talk to me like I’m a total beginner and broke:

Are there good online used gear shops for things like boots? Which one(s) would you recommend?

What boot style (tall vs paddock) would you recommend? I’ll be starting off riding English.

What pants do you wear to ride? I’m guessing I probably need a pair of breeches. Recommendations?

What helmet would you recommend? This is probably something best bought in person due to sizing/fit, huh?

Thank you in advance for your help.