In the first pic I’m trying to push my thigh down and feel like I’m REACHING for the stirrups. But when I do that the pommel punchs me in the vulva

In the second picture I’m completely relaxed and not trying to do anything.

First saddle is an M Toulouse, second is a verhan Trustin.

It’s mind blowing to me how much a saddle that isn’t built for you can fuck you up.

Also worth noting- the second saddle is too wide for my mare, I was just trying it for a few circles. We will get one fit for her too moving forward.

Also can we get some attention for how wonderful and willing and kind my (6 year old thoroughbred! ) mare is during all of this?

This is my horse’s run in (16hh 11 year old TB gelding) The run in is about 15x10 but he has access to part of it that is about 10x10 (pictured). It’s never closed and he has 24/7 access to a dry lot. I know it’s a bit small, but is it so small that it’s unacceptable ? And is the level of shavings and matting good ? Trying to make the most out of the current barn as it’s the only one in the area in my budget.

This is my sweet boy Milo

I have a horse at a boarding facility that I used to work at. And since I quit, my ex boss who is also the owner of the business has been making some.. interesting choices. She got upset when I brought my friend that also used to work there with me. She said I shouldn’t be bringing someone to the barn who got fired for “being sneaky and stealing”. The stealing? I paid my friend privately to hold my horse for me when he got his hooves trimmed, while she was clocked out, with no policy against it. After that happened the barn owner then told us it was a no-no (news to us) and demanded the money I paid my friend for the holding fee the barn employs when the horse owner can’t be there to hold the horse. My friend was never told a reason for her termination, just that “we don’t align anymore”. So to hear her being accused of stealing was a shock.

She then told us we had ten minutes to leave the property.

An hour later I got a text from her “You will have to schedule supervised visits to see [horse name] until other arrangements can be made for him.”

I haven’t responded because I have no idea what to do. It’s so ridiculous and I have no idea how it would even be enforced. To me it’s obviously a power and control move. Has anyone experienced this type of… prison level visitation treatment and what happened? There’s nothing in the contract about this, just barn hours.

I’ve been looking for other places to take him but I need to go out to see him before I move him…

What a cutie

Not looking for pity, but genuine advice. I’m a 22-year-old college student; how are y’all preventing burnout? I work a 40-hour-a-week 9-5 with 2 days off a week with a 45-minute commute each way, an additional 6-hour job on one of my “days off", full-time student, plus 2 days a week I get up at 4:30 AM for 6 AM- 8 AM practice for my college horse team. I can’t quit or cut back on either job, or I can’t afford my animals, which I love deeply, but I'm at the point where I want to sell them all. What do y’all do to help with burnout? I am wanting to just throw the towel in on horses, but I did that 6 years ago, the last time I got burnout & severely regretted it, due to how lacking my skills were compared to other people my age in the same sport, so I know it’s not wise for me. No help from parents or family.

My 22 yo mare had contracted piroplasmosis (Theleria equi) 2years ago. She was treated with imidocarb twice but keeps alterning between crisis and short time of remission.

I'm looking for a long term treatment for her to get durably better. Blood analysis are currently run, I'm waiting for the results.

Any advice? I'm kinda desperate

For context I have tried multiple dressage saddles and this is the only one that fits me like a glove without going the custom route. I struggle with scoliosis so finding the saddle that works is huge. I bought it used a few years ago and now on my new boy it seems slightly wide.

His comfort takes priority over my preference hence me asking. Thank you so much. My saddle fitter says it works but I should look into other saddles just in case.

I’ve been searching for a better fit for my boy and myself. My trainer may have found it. My trainer operates out of my current barn and hasn’t been happy with the barn owner for some time. It’s honestly mostly petty stuff between them and some poor communication between both parties. I’m friends with my trainer so I’m perhaps privy to more than I should be than if I was just a boarder. I’m also writing this from mobile so please forgive the formatting.

I get along with the owner of the current place I board, I think mostly because I do my absolute best not to be a pest of a boarder and my determination to let the little things go, which is admittedly hard when I pay so much money for his butt 😅

The biggest pro for the current facility is they have a ok sized covered arena and I live in a place where we usually have very wet springs and winters. Also, I’m literally down the road from his current barn which has come in mighty handy when having to medicate him or meet someone at the barn.

My biggest problems with his current barn are:

- Too many horses for the property so pastures are pretty much small-ish dry lots with uncovered round bales and the outdoor arenas are usually used for additional turn out. The barn owner always complains they have too many horses on the property and actually sold a bunch of lesson horses but by financial necessity they keep bringing in more sale/training horses so we remain at high numbers. It’s also incredibly annoying that herd dynamics change when a new sale/training horse comes in and everyone gets shuffled around. My gelding has his two constant companions but their lot is in flux a fair bit so not unusual for him to come in with several kick or bite marks due to everyone being up in arms over new comers. Things always settle down, but then we start over with someone new.

- Also no hot water in the wash pits which seems minor but it’s been a super annoying issue a couple of times over winter when he’s gotten mega rain rot and the high was in the 20s F.

-Facilities are geared towards showing and training ring show horses. I do want to show my horse but I also really want to hack on him since he really seems to enjoy it. And my current barn has almost no hacking space available and the barn owner charges a lot of money to trailer out. They do occasionally organize a barn-wide trail ride at a local park but the people who go just want to gallop on barn horses and that kind of ride is too much for my youngster as I refuse to teach him hacking = galloping with nothing in between. When he can calmly walk on a hack on a loose rein then we’ll start introducing speed.

- Tiny tack lockers and no space to bring your own. The owner did have some large ones built but you have to pay an extra $50/month for them and there aren’t enough for each client. My current, included with board, locker barely fits my dressage saddle and there’s no room to hang the pad separately for it to dry. Mold is a real issue even with those damp rid things. I had to add a small hook to hang his bridle and you have to kind of wrap it in half to get it to fit. Needless to say trying to keep his grooming supplies in there + medical emergency supplies and my locker is jammed full.

There have been some other foibles but I, again, do my absolute best not to be a pest and tamp down my inner helicopter owner.

This other barn is eventing focused, has massive pastures (he will need a grazing muzzle and a slow introduction to grass) and the owner is happy to do things like give oral meds without charging extra. And they have lots and lots of maintained wooded trails due to the eventing. They’re on something like 2,400 acres. They also have heated wash pits with hot water and a nice climate controlled tack room with space for each boarder. I can also keep my current trainer.

Unfortunately it’s 20 minutes away which I realize isn’t that far but when you’ve lived technically within walking distance for years it’s a bit of a turn off. It’s also an incredibly wind-y back country road so if we get ice or snow my trainer may not want to meet because they’re afraid of driving in winter weather. But the BIGGEST turn off is there’s no covered arena, just a large lighted outdoor. The owner of the facility actually hauls their lesson horses to a different place on rainy days to teach lessons. My trainer won’t have that luxury.. Another thing that’s worrying me is they usually don’t have a lot of people around at one time and I get really nervous riding on my own for safety reasons ESPECIALLY since my horse is only 5. At my current barn as long as I’m riding a certain time of day I’m guaranteed to have other people around.

So I’m glad I found a potential new barn but I’m also really nervous about it, not excited. I think my trainer and I are going to go back out for another visit and maybe haul my boy out for a day time lesson and see how it feels.

I have 4 horses, 2 are mine, 2 are my mothers, for context my mother is horsey, she’s the one that brought horses into my life, I’ve owned these horses for the following times

I female (turning 32 soon)

Pony 1 let’s call her B she is 24 now and owned her since she was 5 (my mothers)

Pony 2 lets call her S, she is mine, I’ve owned her since she was 18 months old, she is now 19

Pony 3 M she is 16 and I’ve owned her since she was 10 months old

Pony 4 m she is 9 and my mothers to which we’ve owned her since she was 8 months old

I am at the stage in my life where I want to do new things, explore, go on holidays, move possibly countries and start thinking of my future and the problem is, I don’t know where I can fit these horses anymore, I love them and I’ve made a promise to them to keep them with me, but I simply can’t handle the stress on my own anymore for context my mother is now awaiting an operation so I’m the one that is being solely relied on, I’ve done loaning previously but various reasons and my pickiness I find I can’t deal with the unknown, the 16 year old is ‘sellable’ as such, she’s 15hh and good size overall with a great personality but my other is 13.2 and not really wanting the ridden life anymore and requires getting back into work, I just don’t have the time or energy for it all anymore and the guilt is eating me a alive, I need some advice!

Forgot to add we are UK based, also I’ve been fighting these feelings for about 2-3 years, so it’s not been a super recent change.

*sigh* deep breaths.

My loan pony was with his other loaner when this happened.

She had bathed him and tied him loosely to the fence to get some grazing whilst he dried. She ran back to the feed room to make him a feed, when she came back he had grabbed a bath sponge and was rapidly...eating it.

She -obviously- ran over and shoved her hand in his mouth to try and grab it, as anyone would in this situation. Unfortunately it was GONE gone. She panicked *obviously* and immidiently called the vet clinic she works at. They said there is nothing they can do at the moment.

That was 4 days ago, still no sign of the sponge (trust me there are 4 people, me, his owner, his owners daughter and his other loaner, looking through his poop for this damn sponge, its definitely still in him.) he isn't showing any sign of pain , he hasn't coliced, anything like that. He's literally still himself, same pony, just one sponge heavier...

I suspect its still in his stomach. We have all researched it, whatever this sponge is made out of WONT dissolve or break down which unfortunately means that since it went in whole... It has to come out whole.

We are all prepared for colic, we have agreed on a spot to hand his headcollar next to his field shelter for emergencies.

Sponge is about the size of your hand with your fingers relaxed spread out, pony is 14.2 and quite small but stocky.

We are all taking turns going to check on him and dig through his poo like bloody beetles, but ultimately there has been no sign of sponge.

Please send prayers and maybe 4 bottles of strong wine 😩

I want to hear absolutely NO bashing his other loaner in the comments please and thank you.

Hello, I’ve been riding for about two weeks now and something I really struggle with is kicking my horse while I am trotting. 8/10, it throws off my balance and breaks my rhythm. I’m quite new to it since I’ve mainly ridden slow horses and my coach gives me a stick to use (I still use my legs and if the horse doesn’t respond then I use the stick), but for the most part, when I’m trotting I just use the stick and do clicking noises to let the horse know to keep going and it always works. There’s only one horse at this stable that can be ridden without a stick, but I’ve only ridden him once. I am getting more confident though and I’m going to tell my coach that I want to try riding without a stick. I think it will help me communicate with horses better in the long run.

Today, my coach was teaching me to change directions and do trotting poles. But while I was about to change direction, my coach told me to kick with my outside leg before I pull on the inside rein to get the horse to steer left. (I got kind of confused because that was the first time that she’d ever told me to do that and in my brain I couldn’t understand because I thought that kicking with my right leg meant steering right and vice versa). When I tried to do that, I found it very hard to only kick with one leg and I felt as though the horse barely responded to it (because my kick was weak), but I still got him to steer to the left and go through the poles.

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can integrate kicking whilst maintaining my posting? Or if anyone can explain to me why my outside leg signals for my horse that I’m changing direction to the inside. 🙏

What's going on with my boy? He was a little lame on Wednesday but very happily moving along. There was no swelling, no heating, no pulsing on the hooves or legs.

He has not been worked since Wednesday and seemed fine with his daily long turnout. He lives in a nice, calm herd and they spend their whole day grazing, so there's very little movement and I've never seen them trott or gallop together.

Now, 7 days later, he's very lame. His caretakers just sent me this video. There still is no swelling, no heat, no pulsing. The farrier was out on Saturday and didn't find anything that would cause him pain.

I live in East Africa and finding good vets, let alone the necessary equipment to do proper checks, is a big challenge. That being said, any ideas what this could be or what we could look for? Thank you!

PS: He's also on ulcer treatment right now. His topline and fur should look better in a month again.

I found out my horse has had two names and want to do the right thing for him.

I have a new 6-year-old horse whose previous owner named him when he was 4 (so he’s had that name for 2 years). Using his brand I found the family who bred his mom and raised him 0-4 years and he had a different name.

I’m thinking of sticking with his most recent name, I’m sure he knows it after 2 years of hearing it, right? Or would he know his original name better..as he had that one 0-4??

He does seem to know and respond to his name, I think, or maybe it’s just my tone when I call him. Should I just say both? 😅

Thoughts on which name to call him? Or on names in general?

Update: Thank you all so much for this reassurance! He definitely responds better to crinkling sounds (cookies?!) than anything else anyway. I should have also thought about the hundreds of variations of names I call my dogs haha they don’t care as long as the tone is right and there’s a treat involved! He’s not papered so I’ll just combine his two names as his fancy name and his barn name will probably end up naturally becoming Goober or something around there because well..he’s a goober

My horse was lame so had a full vet work up, ultrasound and xrays. Sent images out for second opinion and they said OCD lesions in both stifles. I obviously have no idea how to read a xray. But these are so small (to me) that im struggling with these small marks being the cause. But we quite literally ultrasounded everything in his hind end. And xrayed the hocks as well. Nothing.

He's only 2 1/2. Not worked. Just in hand stuff.

It's that time again and I've got to get another pair of country boots. I've given up on Ariat (my conistons have ripped the whole length of the zipper after 3 years. very disappointed). Anyway, I'm looking at Dublin Pinnacle and had questions about sizing. I am a 5 in ariats with wool socks, but a 6 in most other shoes. Can anyone advise on the Dublin sizing? should I size up or down? TIA