FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 12

[HairOfTheDog]

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - (very out of date) Who's Who *pics*

This is a horse chat thread where we 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, usually about our horses, sometimes about our dogs, gardens and other stuff we do. :~)

I have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will ping everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list.

So... like the previous threads, this is intended as fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends.

Previous threads:

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - thread ONE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread TWO!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread THREE!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FOUR
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SIX
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SEVEN
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread EIGHT
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread NINE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread TEN
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 11

New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!

[HairOfTheDog]

Great pictures frog... and videos!

I’m impressed with the sponge, if that was the first time! I’ve still never tried that with Bay, and I think I’ll keep it that way. He snorts and spooks at his own clouds in the water if I let him stop to look at them ;~)

And any landing where you stay on the horse is a good landing, right? :~)

[HairOfTheDog]

I’m impressed that there is such a business and such a place. I don’t think there’s anything like that around here.

[HairOfTheDog]

You can load them at photobucket... www.photobucket.com.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Great pictures...show off with the sponge and string:)

I watched the first video (I”m in town where we have DSL). The horses going thru the water sounds like a heart beat thru a stethoscope:)

Becky

[tuffydoodle]

Yeah, I’m really lucky that they are available and pretty close by, about an hour or so away. Nice, nice people, too. Very caring and understanding.

[FrogInABlender]

Pinehill looks like a wonderful resting place for Tuffy. I don’t think you could have done better by him than that.

[FrogInABlender]

...show off with the sponge and string

Yeah, but I made up for it by the amount of air that was between my butt and the saddle when we went over that log. ;o)

[FrogInABlender]

Well, it wasn't the first time, but it was close. The first time was up under the big cliff overhang on this same ride. It was too dark under there to video, but the reaction was about the same. She never really looked twice at it. Neither did Blade. Now Gary said that Jake didn't really like it, but you couldn't have told it by me. He may have walled his eyes at it, but he never really moved, so that was good enough for me. Here's Blade getting the sponge treatment in the beaver pond a little farther down the trail.

[tuffydoodle]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

[tuffydoodle]

I hate it when they make a sudden leap over an obstacle. I’ve hit the ground once or twice in that situation.

[tuffydoodle]

I love your pictures and videos. There is one video of ya’ll in the water, right next to a huge rock on your right. That looks like a tight squeeze.

[FrogInABlender]

Is it one of the links I posted today, or is it another one that’s in my photobucket album?

[BladeRider]

I’m impressed with the sponge, if that was the first time!

It was the first time for Blade to, he was not quite as steady as Hope at first but after he got to sniff it he was ok. I just took it slow and talked a lot to him.

[Beaker]

Hey there Tuffy, great to see you! At one of the barns I used to be at, we had a mini who was a sucker for a mountain dew! If you had one, he’d follow you around with his tongue out.

[FrogInABlender]

Hey Beaker! Didja get to ride this weekend?

[tuffydoodle]

I think it was one of the links you posted today but I admit it, I went through your photobucket album. Your autumn riding pictures are incredible.

[tuffydoodle]

LOL Mountain Dew! My husband likes those for the caffeine.

[FrogInABlender]

Oh, then I guess it was the 3-part video of the ride we did yesterday. Your head does get kinda close to the wall in places and you’ve just gotta pray that your horse doesn’t decide to take the shortcut under that one low hanging shelf at the last minute.

It is kinda weird that photobucket just lets you into the whole album like that, but I don’t know how to keep it from doing that. I tried to set up separate albums or sub albums but it doesn’t seem to really segregate them like it does on Snapfish. I don’t mind any of y’all looking at anything I’ve got, but I guess if there’s anything I really want to limit the viewers on I’d just best not upload it to there.

We really enjoyed that ride this past Fall. That was the 2nd weekend in October and was the absolute peak as far as color went. It was just like neon. I hope to do that same ride again this October before we head out to Becky’s.

[Beaker]

Hey Frog, yes I did! I thought that it was a great ride, and I was extremely pleased for a whole bunch of different little reasons. I don't think that my trainer was pleased with my ride... when I mentioned that I was pleased she said, "Well, at least you got through it." and left it at that. I had him forward and round for 90% of the ride, my sitting trot was great, and I stayed on him through his little fits and starts at scary things like oh... doorways and mirrors.

I will admit that things got a little hairy towards the end of the ride when we went up to canter work. Their arena is bigger than ours and he had this huge bounding canter down the long side that I had trouble sitting. It was a Long side=CHARGE! kind of thing. My legs were totally dead at that point, we had been doing an hour of intense flat work in the extreme heat no less. Cantering in the other direction, I decided to put him on a 20 meter circle, and I used a whip since that's his bad direction anyway. Well he started shaking his head and crow hopping a little bit, and on a big horse like him, a little bit feels like A LOT, but I stayed on, called him a big brat, and worked him through it. I was too surprised to be scared... if that makes any sense.

When he started crow hopping and squealing like a mare, it would figure that would be the time that other people had started to show up for their time slot after us. I got a lot of really weird looks from other people while riding him, but oh well.

[Beaker]

And er.. um... in regards to the previous post, I’m talking about the clinic that I had on Saturday... :-/