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Thread III: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1311311/posts |
Posted on 04/26/2004 12:06:41 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Free Republic has a lot of horse people that have found each other on other threads…. And since we all like to talk horses, how about a thread where it is not off-topic, but is THE topic?
A few of us thought it would be interesting and informative to have a chat thread where we can share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share. We may not ~always~ have a lot of activity, but when we do, it will be fun. I will put a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts… look for it there and wake the thread up!
I will also develop a ping list for horse threads that are of interest. As FreeRepublic is a political site, our politics and other issues will probably blend in…. There are many issues for horsemen that touch politics… land use, animal rights/abuse cases that make the news…. Legislation that might affect horse owners.
I am hoping this thread will be a fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends. There are lots of ways of doing things and we all have our quirks, tricks and specialties that are neat to learn about.
OK Cindy! Glad you finally got the pictures up, because that really helps to see! He is such a pretty horse.
(Side note on contact for beaker too) With western bits especially, you can't ride with constant contact. But in this case he looks like he's being ridden in a snaffle? Is that right Cindy? In a snaffle, you ~should~ have steady contact, but it still can't be your handle.
In any event, I would say your reins are too long, which is why you end up bringing them all the way to your chest before you can feel contact at the end. Need to shorten them to more contact without also using them for balance. I want to recommend some excercises that will really help.
The best way I think to learn quiet hands is with no reins at all, on the lunge line in the round pen. There, you can focus on your position and your hands without the added complication of trying to steer him too in an open area. In the round pen, have someone lunge him as quiet as possible, ie, no radical cues that will make him lurch on ya, and drop the reins to his neck. Practice riding it (just sit the trot no posting) while holding your hands down at your sides. This will teach you balance that doesn't rely on your hands. Then ride, still on the lunge, while raising your arms slowly straight out and over your head, and then back down to teach you to hold that balance while being flexible moving. Then finally ride it, still in the round pen on the lunge, with your hands in the proper position without the reins being there. You'll know in those excercises how much you've been using your hands for balance. If it comes easy, then just do it one day, and return to it only as needed if you can feel yourself hanging on with the reins. If it comes hard, then keep riding it that way until it matters not what is in your hands, your balance is in your seat.
Clear as mud?
Heather is the one it is fun to help. Not mom and the other kids, who want to play with your stuff, not learn about horses.
Good way to put it, play with my stuff, but not learn. At the risk of sounding snobby and selfish, those kind of people belong on dude string horses. ~sigh~ I got myself into this, I'm just going to hold them to the 1 time.
Becky
Sorry 3244 should be to you, don't know where I was at to bet Beaker's name in the to box.
Becky
Understood! Is this ride today?
Yeah, it really is. That's what I did English when I first started riding. No reins, no stirrups. I was in the round pen but not on a lunge. I'll try it with Okie. I've really never worked in him the round pen. So confining (which is probably what I need:'). I really wasn't happy with these pictures and I remember I kept looking at my watch determine to make 35 minutes. I was pushing myself . I want to go back tonight and look at my other pictures from last month, now that I know how to blow them up and see how I looked then.
No tomorrow morning. Luckily mom said for only about an hour.
This morning I'm straightening the house a bit. We've been very good at keeping it nice, but it needed tweaking since my dad's coming and bunko this week. The weather here has really cooled off so I'm going to ride the horses this evening. I'll probably need it, unstress from spending the day with my dad:). I love him, but he does wear me out at times.
Becky
You really aren't that far off! Your hands are up because the reins are long for one, and because you aren't thinking about position, you're thinking about the other fifty things you are doing.
I don't like riding on the lunge either. the constant circling can be hard because you can develop a 'lean'. But it helps because it is a steady and predictable course where you can forget about everything else and focus on you. If there were a good way to do it in a straight line, that would be best! But until then we suffer the lunge. Change directions frequently.
Don't drop your stirrups at this point.... learn to use them in your seat, be heavy in them. The more of your weight that is in the stirrups, the deeper your seat is and the lower your center of gravity. Just work the hands and your overall balance.
It is really helpful to look at lots of pictures of yourself, study your position, and what was happening, and use it as a tool to work on improving. I know I am a harsh critic when I look at pictures of myself riding, my equitation and my profile has suffered since I was the skinny teenager at horse shows.
OH YEAH! We cleaned out the barn yesterday, to get ready for 150 bales of hay. Two local old codgers I bought hay from before came by and they've got hay they are baling today. The dad is ninety, and his son is 70. Tough, wiry old guys to still be doing that kind of work!
Anyway, you can be smug that you don't have to make room for a winter hay supply.... but until I can change my feeding religion, I must make room!
Here's before: My existing hay in the center had to be moved, and miscellaneous clutter gotten rid of (not the husband, he stays ;~D) so we could arrange the palettes.
There is a rubber matted aisle around to the stalls, but the hay is gonna take up the whole rest of the barn, 5 bales high till it hits the rafters.
There is still a couple feet aisle over on the tool cabinet side, but it'll be claustrophobic! We'll prolly take more pics when the hay is in!
Wow, that was a heck of a job. I loved having the barn full of hay, just hated the hauling and stacking. How much is hay selling for there. My SIL's parents buy hay. He went and helped his dad last week haul some. $3.25 a bale out of the field. I think that is outrageous. I figured it up and feeding the average horse the correct amount of hay and sweet feed (that around here is 6.00/50lb bag) costs .30 more a day then feeding the pellets I use. That does not include the price of having to store all that hay and haul it.
Reality, I would prefer to feed hay and feed rather then the pellets especially in the winter when I have no pasture. But 1, I hate the hauling a stacking, and 2 I'm cheap:), and 3 you can't always count on getting decent hay around here, and generally can't get it out of the field so you pay even more for it. I don't like switching my horses back and forth so it has just been better to keep them on the pellets.
Becky
This hay will be $4.25 delivered. And it won't be real high quality. It'll be safe, but relatively low-nutrition. Come winter when they need more calories, I'll be adding Bay's senior feed back into their grain mix. His senior feed is a complete feed... they'll just need the hay for something to munch.
You'll choke when you learn that the hay that was sitting there now, which is better Eastern WA Orchard grass, is $10 per bale. Now.... before you scream, they are heavy, dense, 100 pound bales, but still, it's a LOT. I am glad to be able to find local hay delivered (cuz I still don't have a way to haul it) for $4.25. They'll probably be 60 pound bales though. They ain't cheap.
There is horse quality hay available for $2-3 per bale out of the field. If we had more help (I hate loading it, and ain't got the muscle for a lot of that!) and a way to haul it, it would be a better bargain.
Some offer hay out of the field for $1/bale, but at that price, I'd be suspect that it really isn't good enough quality for horses.
I'm sorry. I wasn't sure if Okie was english or western, so my schpeal was a muddle of winglish. :-)
Well Okie and Cindy are kind of winglish right now, with western gear and western training, but an english bridle! ;~D
ecurbh is learning winglish too... Because Bay is an english horse with an english snaffle, and ecurbh's is the first Western saddle that's been on him in the last 15 years ;~D
GAsp!!!. Oh my.
I wonder if the pellets I use are more expensive up there because of the price of the stuff they make them with is more??
We can get high quality bales of bermuda here out of the barn for $6.00 a bale, and 2000lb round bales of high quality bermuda for 45.00.
Becky
When I look into the pellets more seriously here, I'll let you know what they cost.
Round bales here are risky for horses, and made mostly as silage for cattle. Because it is ~usually~ not hot enough to really cure and dry out before they bale it, those big round bales often are damp on the inside, and either rot or become an inferno.
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