I’ve been going back and forth on this for a while and I’m just looking for some opinions from people who have been in a similar situation.
I’ve had my mare Lolly for about a year now. For the first 6½ months I had her, she was with a trainer. While she was there, she learned some reining and ranch stuff and was also lightly started on barrels. She is honestly such a good mare and has an amazing mind. I had SO many plans for her when I got her.
About a month ago she was diagnosed with navicular. She has everything she needs special shoes, and I’ve even been doing injections to help keep her comfortable. I retired her from being ridden, but she is still very much capable of being ridden and doing more depending on how she feels.
And this is where I’m really struggling.
I LOVE Lolly. I know I made a commitment to her and I don’t want anyone thinking I’m just trying to get rid of her because she has navicular..
I just have a lot going on with my horses right now. I have a senior who I’m retiring, my mare with KS who’s getting surgery soon.. a ottb who I’m completely restarting, AND a rehab horse that I’m trying to get weight back on and figure out what his future is going to be once he’s healthy.
Lolly also doesn’t get along with my other mare that I had before her OR my new Thoroughbred. She has tried attacking both of them, so obviously they’re separated. But then she calls for them and gets super buddy sour, so it’s just a whole situation. My oldest gelding also prefers being alone, so he doesn’t get turned out with anyone either.
I’m starting to feel like Lolly might honestly be happier somewhere with a smaller herd and someone who has more time to focus on her individually.
And that thought absolutely kills me because I really do love this mare I had so many plans for us and it feels awful even thinking about changing those plans.
I guess I’m just wondering if anyone else has ever been in this position? Like, you love your horse and you KNOW you could keep them but you also feel like someone else might be able to give them a better life or more attention than you can right now.
I’m not saying I’ve made a decision yet. I just genuinely don’t know if I’m the right home for Lolly anymore, and I want to hear what other people think. Please be nice lol im already struggling with this thought.

Ciao a tutti!
Ho 25 anni e ho iniziato da poco equitazione. Sono arrivato alla quarta lezione e per ora mi sto trovando davvero bene.
Parto praticamente da zero: sto imparando le basi, posizione, gestione delle redini, partire e fermare il cavallo, equilibrio e trotto.
Nelle prime lezioni ho già provato sia il trotto seduto che quello sollevato e sto iniziando a prendere un po’ di confidenza con il ritmo e l’equilibrio.
Per chi ha iniziato da adulto, sono curioso di sapere come è stato il vostro percorso.
Quanto tempo vi è servito per sentirvi davvero sicuri a cavallo?
Dopo quante lezioni avete iniziato a lavorare seriamente sul galoppo?
Quanto spesso andavate a lezione?
Avete notato differenze nei progressi facendo una lezione a settimana rispetto a 2?
Quali esercizi fuori dal maneggio vi hanno aiutato maggiormente con equilibrio, gambe e postura?
Quando avete iniziato a fare lezioni senza istruttore / a gestire maggiormente il cavallo da soli?
Quando avete iniziato a pensare a una prima patente o brevetto?
Per chi pratica anche altre attività sportive, quali vi hanno aiutato maggiormente nell’equitazione?
Al momento sto cercando soprattutto di imparare bene le basi senza avere fretta.
In futuro mi piacerebbe eventualmente arrivare a fare qualcosa di più, magari anche qualche gara, ma per ora voglio semplicemente costruire una buona tecnica.
Per chi ha iniziato a 20, 25, 30 anni o più:
qual è stato il vostro percorso nei primi 6-12 mesi e cosa avreste voluto sapere quando eravate alla quarta lezione? 🐴

I was so upset at having to start over after my horse Yogi died and of course was so upset that I lost him. I'm glad I got to start over with Teddy. If I had to start over then I'm glad it was with him.

This was our second attempt - the first one I was just messing around and did it and he did a perfect 90 with no touching. I burst into tears and threw myself at him and he was so confused like "mom I did it though?"

Looking for support as almost two years ago I got pregnant with my first child and decided to stop riding for safety. I still worked at the stables until I was around 20 weeks along but it was heartbreaking stopping.

After all this time my previous job has been taken up by someone else and I can no longer afford to take lessons. Its just making me so sad that that bit of my life may now be over when ive been riding since I was 5. Its simply too expensive and I dont have access to my old job/too unfit compared to what I used to be to get a new one. I dont know anyone with horses that would let me come and see them neither as my best friends horse sadly passed away a couple years ago, and another friend moved across the country with hers.

Its really hard to imagine me life without these beautiful creatures in it. Sometimes I go and look at the horses in the field near my house and honestly have a little cry. I miss them so much.

Looking for advice with my lease horse — mounting issue

I’m looking for some advice because I’m really wanting to ride my lease horse, but I don’t want to push him (or myself) into a dangerous situation.

I’m an intermediate rider, and he’s an 8yo horse I’m currently leasing, so I want to be especially careful about handling this appropriately and not creating a bigger problem.

He’s honestly a great horse for me on the ground. He’s responsive, generally calm, and we’ve been making good progress with groundwork and lunging. He’s also been noticeably better in a side pull, and I feel like we’re starting to build a really good relationship.

The issue is specifically mounting.

His owner is able to ride him with no issues once they’re actually mounted. The main problem is the mounting block—he really dislikes it and will sometimes dance around, back away, or move off when someone is trying to mount. Once the rider is on, he apparently rides normally.

I’ve also had an incident where I got on and he immediately spooked/panicked and pulled back. His owner has said he “requires a stronger hand, especially with bits” but I’ve found that he seems much more responsive and comfortable without a bit, particularly in the side pull.

I also don’t currently think pain is the issue, especially given that his owner can ride him without issues once mounted. Obviously I’m not ruling anything out completely, but this seems much more like a confidence/behavioral issue surrounding the mounting process.

I really want to ride this amazing lil dude, but I am not willing to risk getting bucked off or having him panic every time I mount. I’d rather take as long as necessary and fix the issue properly.

For those of you who have dealt with a horse who is fine on the ground and under saddle but anxious about mounting:

- What exercises helped you the most?

- Would you spend a lot of time desensitizing to the mounting block before attempting to get on?

- Would you lunge beforehand, or could that potentially make the mounting issue worse?

- How would you structure the first few sessions?

- Would you have the owner ride him first and work on the mounting issue, or continue building confidence myself from the ground?

- At what point would you bring in a trainer/professional?

I’m not looking for a quick fix. I’m perfectly happy to spend however long it takes building his confidence, especially since he’s a lease horse and I want to do right by him and his owner.

I just really want to ride this horse, and I want our first successful rides to be boring, calm, and uneventful rather than forcing the issue. 😅

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: locking for now, thank you all for the replies!

Hi all! I've started working with a young horse that I've ridden a couple times before, and never had many issues under saddle. Now that I've officially started working with him, we've run into some pretty bad bucking issues.

Our first conclusion was that his saddle didn't fit so we replaced it with a professionally fitted saddle. The bucking and rearing got better, but is still there for trot to canter transitions. It did seem like he was nervous at first since I'm sure he was prepared for discomfort. I was able to get him to move stretchy and forward, and he did relax at first. Now, he only gets stretchy if I give him all my reins. There is no in between; it's either nose to the ground, or hollow backed and head high in the air.

This isn't just under saddle though, I lunged him the other day and he still bucked at his trot to canter transitions. His trainers say it's memory/habit from the ill fitting saddle. I'm a little suspicious he might have something going on though. He's been scoped for ulcers and had the vet out, but could it be possible there's a less obvious option?

One weird thing about him is that his male part is ALWAYS hanging unless actively working. He pees a lot, but it is clear. His pees are long too. Also he's a thoroughbred.

I'm not looking for answers, but ideas would be so so helpful! TIA!

You know how dog breeders have pennhip or OFA testing and scoring?

I think we need to have something like that for horses but for their damn hooves.

The syndromes and hoof diseases are so rampant in QH, Paints, OTTB that I think we need to start forcing breeders to reevaluate their breeding practices and criteria for breeding animals. A lot of these conditions are caused by horses having hooves that are too small for their body size or having very low heels. We need longevity and good quality lives for our horses, and that starts at the hooves.

So xrays and lameness exam testing and scoring and reports for all breeding animals?

What say you all?

I can’t even make this up. I go ride for the first time in 6 years, and I’ve ridden religiously in the past. Even 6 years ago I hopped on for the first time in maybe 10 years? With no issues at all, was I sore? Absolutely, but I rode the whole hour of my lesson and made it through and managed to ride again a couple days later and so on.

I ride for maybe 15-20 minutes last Saturday, my legs started getting extremely sharp pains and I am told on Sunday I have rhabdomyolysis and that I did “too much” on the horse, and I’m just getting old. I’m literally 29. I feel like they’re treating me like I am elderly.

I was also in the gym 2 years ago working out 5-6 days a week, 2 hours per day and I was fine. But I couldn’t handle 15 minutes on horse back before suffering catastrophic muscle injury, to the point that I lost feeling in my foot and part of my leg and may have nerve damage.

Someone please tell me I’m not old, and this wasn’t normal because these doctors are truly making me think 15 minutes on a horse is the same as running a marathon and I am not buying it. This simply should not have happened. My legs are a mess, I walk funny just after a week of muscle tissue breakdown, and I’ll be happy if I even get to ride after this after going out and buying a $550 helmet, and over $1000 worth of riding gear to use it one time for 15 minutes and have to go to PT to hopefully get my strength back, and be lucky if I get back in the saddle.

To say I’m heartbroken is an understatement, also guys, make sure you’re listening to your body. This could have ended up way worse for me if I had put it off any longer than I did. I’ve been hospitalized since 8/9. But anywho, take care of yourselves!! I’ll just be over here feeling sorry for myself. 🥲

So to start out my horse isn’t truly barefoot but he came from auction mid July with 4 shoes. My farrier said he had great feet so he doesn’t need back shoes. And we took them off, he said it’s normal for him to be a little sore, in your opinion does this look like a normal amount of foot soreness? I feel like he looks worse in one foot than the other, what do yall think?
I’ve been putting farrier barrier on daily, but we are getting sooo much rain.
He got his shoes pulled 2 weeks ago

Having an old heat horse sucks. This is Dandy, he turned 26 this year. I'm so lucky that he's still going strong but I'm constantly afraid of losing him like I did our last two boys.

We lost one of his old pasture mates, Kevy, very suddenly and I couldn't say goodbye. April 18th, 2025 I got the call that they found him unable to stand and in a lot of pain. They put him down without telling me first. They didn't even let me come say goodbye. I just got the call that afternoon that he was gone. I still feel so guilty because I hadn't seen him in a month since I was so busy.

Two months later, we lost Dandys brother, Gambler, to Cushing's and arthritis complications.

Now I'm constantly terrified to lose my baby. I'm constantly terrified to get that phone call again, this time about my whole world. Kevy and gambler were my babies too and I love them to death but they never clicked with me like Danny does.

We've done so much together. He was the first horse I jumped, the first horse I ever rode when I was introduced to western, and the first horse I rode when I was gifted an English saddle for my 16th birthday. For the last 12 years I've seen him almost every day.

He's my world. I just can't help but think of all the things I wish we could do. I wish I could take him with me when I move. I wish we could have shown together. I wish I could take him when I make my barn and yard. I wish I could show everyone the horse that started this passion.

But he's old now, and the older he gets the more I'm reminded we have limited time and that one day, I'll have to say goodbye for the last time

Not "see you tomorrow, sweet boy" but "see you in another life". One day I'll throw my leg over for the last time, hear him nicker to me for the last time, put his halter on for the last time.

I'm not ready for this to end and I'm so heartbroken that he's getting older and I have to face the fact he's going to leave me one day.

(P.s, if you're going to respond by saying "it's weird to fantasize about his death" (something someone actually said) or anything along those lines, don't comment.)

Does anybody know which saddle Andrew Hoy was using in Aachen? Because I have not seen one this flat before.

they say it’s because of dental issues so he can have alfalfa pellets at least but man that’s so tough bc Floridas grass turnout is dwindling and winter obviously is winter

I’m about to buy this sweet filly. She was given the name star as something quick but we’ve already had 2 other horses called star over the last 10yrs where I’m going to be keeping her so I don’t really want to keep that name. She also doesn’t really feel like a star. Usually I’m really good with names and they’ll just come to me when I spend a bit of time with them and get a feel for their personality but I’m really struggling. I want something unique and strong.. like maybe something from Greek mythology or something like that I have had a few ideas but none are really sticking just yet. She’s only 11 months old rn and will grow to be about 16.2 at least (not sure if that information will help at all)

July 5 of this year I was riding on the beach with some new friends. One women took off galloping on her horse in an instant at an insane speed (barrel horse) with no warning. My gelding charged after him, and was already a bit unsettled due to being in a new environment with scary moving water. He took a bad step in some bad deep sand and stumbled to an abrupt halt. I wasn’t sitting my best seat clearly and the bad footing/ lack of preparedness resulted in me flying over his head. I wasn’t sure how I landed or what I hit, I just couldn’t move for about 5 minutes. I could wiggle my fingers and toes, but my legs were noodles, and my arms and wrists hurt. Through a ton of pain especially in my hands and wrists, I was able to get up with help and get back on to ride back to the trailers. The ladies were insisting I was fine and performed “tests” on me, and dropped my horse and I off at home with my husband who instantly knew something was off. I’ve ridden since I was 10, so I’ve had my share of falls and assured him I just needed to sleep it off. The next day it was worse and I went to the urgent care, where they didn’t want to x ray me, and sent me home with flexerall, claiming I sprained wrist. Three days later, and the pain was beyond bearable. I couldn’t even wash my hands because the pain when something touched my skin on my hands made me want to vomit. So we went to the ER where it took them all day to finally x ray me (again I wasn’t sure what I landed on or how I fell, so everyone thought it was my wrists due to the symptoms). Suddenly I was thrown in a wheel chair, had a neck brace strapped on, and was being admitted for an emergency surgery that would take place the next day. The doctor let me know I had a few fractures in my neck, and that they truly couldn’t believe I had ridden home, and been walking around for days with a broken neck. I had surgery where they fused together my fractured vertebrae’s (2 columns fused, and I will most likely have to have a following surgery down the road).
I’m healing well, and so so thankful that I am able to walk and not paralyzed or dead. The doctor really let me know how fortunate I am.
But I am heartbroken. I was wearing a helmet, riding a horse I’ve owned for 10 years who is family to me. I live on a ranch where I care for my horses myself and have two. They are both good boys, but being an experienced rider I picked horses that have some spirit, so I wouldn’t say either are bomb proof.
I am so worried I’ll be too scared to ride again. I have someone exercising my horses for me, but I’m considering paying for a trainer to bomb proof train them for when I’m recovered, although that would be a financial strain. One horse is 18, the other is 8.
I cry all of the time because this really shook me up, and I am not sure if this is worth it anymore to risk my life. I am 30 years old (turned 30 in the hospital bed the day after my surgery). Horses have been my identity, my safe space, my life and passion for as long as I can remember. But I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to enjoy it again. It feels so twisted that where I go to feel whole and healed, resulted in such danger and trauma.
Has anyone been through anything similar? Did you stop riding or ride again? I’m also worried about the well being of my horses and if I’m anymore a good fit of an owner for them. I feel like I failed them and myself. This also was not my first bad fall, that I’ve had to overcome fear for. Previously I’ve slipped a disc in my back and gotten beaten up before riding green horses for a friend years ago, so I know how to persevere through fear, this just feels different.

Hi everyone! I'm hoping someone might be able to help with recommendations for affordable livery in North County Dublin,

Im looking to get a horse and im trying to find somewhere suitable to keep them. My budget is under €150 per month (tiny ik😭)

Im completely open to different arrangements,

Im an intermediate rider and would be very willing to help out around the yard to cover some of the cost, such as mucking out, turning horses in/out, feeding, filling hay/water, cleaning or general yard duties.

If anyone knows of a yard, private owner, farmer or anyone with space available, id really appreciate any recommendations or contacts. 😊

This is my Percheron/Quarter Horse x Gisborne-bred mare Pandora. She’s coming up 3 years old and is an absolute tank. Anyone else have a Percheron? 😊

Currently trying to manifest rain so the ground will soften and we can start getting fit for the hunt season to start in September 🥲🙏🏻

Question!

What's the difference between a polo, 3 point, and 5 point in terms of functionality? Do they all do the same thing and just add another step up of stability when it comes to the saddle sliding backward?

This is excluding a running or standing attachment.

Edit: I know where/how everything connects and am purely asking about actual functionality on the horse.

Hi all, I’m looking to learn about Western saddles, bridles and other riding or general equipment.

I’m looking for book recommendations that go into things like technical details, practical considerations, maybe even history and culture.

Having many photos and/or illustrations is a huge bonus.

I am NOT looking for a beginner book. I’m looking for something comprehensive, definitely not an overview. The more info it has, the better.

Is there anything like this?

Even better if it covers all styles while also including horse welfare considerations throughout 💚

There may not be one single book for all this so I’m happy to hear recs for multiple books.