Last night was farrier night.  my sister and I come out to the barn after work.  Sometimes, the farrier gets there before us because he does another horse at our stables.  When he finishes, he starts Cruise and Ranger.  He waits for me to do Cole so I could help with holding him.

When I got there, my sister was talking to him and there were no horses in the crossties.  I was surprised and wondered what was going on.  My sister said that they started Cole, and he was so bad…

There was only a little daylight after work and the river was too high to cross, again.  I rode Cruiser up and down the hill three times.  He was quite energetic, and even did some gaiting up the hill.  (Cruiser has standard gaits, but he also does a stepping pace when he is excited.  He can get quite fast.  He must have gotten it from his Morgan side, as there are gaited Morgans.)  When we got back to the barn, it started to rain, lightly.  Perfect timing.  It rained the rest of the…

Steady Trotting Home

The trails by our barn do not form any sort of loop. Basically, we ride out to our desired distance, turn around and come back. There are a few tiny loops, but they join the main trail, so the horses get that definite feeling that they are headed home. 

Most horses will travel faster on the way home than on the way out—that is a given. Horses like to be home where their friends are. This doesn’t happen if we are riding Cruiser and Ranger…

Take Advantage of 15 years of European MistakesHorseGuard Fencing is the LEADING choice for European horse fencing, currently protecting two out of three horses.Before this, many misconceptions led people to make uninformed choices.

 …

Henk the Friesian Horse writes:

A couple of new horses arrived at the farm last week: an older chestnut warmblood named Lego, and his pet, a mini named… well… not really named. I’ll tell you more about that later.

When these two arrived, they got regular stalls in the barn like the rest of us, but instead of going out in one of the paddocks we use, they went into the sand-ring on the other side of the barn. Once we all go outside in the morning, the only evidence we…

You need:

- one soft, almost soothing “fits-like-a-glove” saddle

- one enthusiastic, steady, energetic, perky-eared red-head mare swishing rhythmically through a sweet-smelling smorgasbord of dried, crispy leaves

- one clear and wide path lined with tall trees, glowing brilliantly with hues of yellow, red, orange and…

Yes, another rained out long weekend for my sister and me…

Thursday, the river was too high.  We rode Cruiser and Ranger up and down the hill 3 times.  I worked with Cole in the arena, and we had fun.  My sister rode him for a little bit, and it was nice because then I could watch him.  He is quite a sight.  I then led him down to the river as a reward.

Friday, the river was still way to high to cross.  This time, we rode Cruiser and Ranger in the arena, too,…

Had a great lesson today. Our coach could see that we were all riding speedy horses today so we spent the lesson working on slowing down. We were to do a lot of whoa and back up, also did posting trot on the long side and sit jog on the short with circles in the corners. We learned to stay on a circle and keep our horses head and shoulders in between the reins. I was also working on getting Cooper to lower his head more and to give him more rein, to trust him more. By the end of the lesson…

Ever since I started reading books on riding I have been trying to puzzle out what the horsemen actually MEANT.  When I got my first horse I had the comforting illusion that I knew at least a little bit about riding (I had 4 years of trail riding as a young kid).  My first horse, a 5 year old just gelded green broke Anglo-Arab gelding quickly taught me that I did not know much at all.  Fortunately a few months after I got him I ran into and quickly…

CLAIRE DOROTIK, LMFT

Having spent a lifetime around horses – growing up riding and training horses and later riding at many of the country’s top show barns – Claire, in many ways, understood horses before she understood people.

Claire’s competitive accomplishments include top placings at the Almaden farms Mini Prix, the Michelob Classic Mini Prix, the Monterey Bay Mini Prix, a 2nd place finish…

Hi all,

Here's a great joke to head into the weekend with!

How to be Gracious

>  Jennifer's wedding day was fast approaching. Nothing could dampen her

> excitement - not even her parent's nasty divorce.

>

>  Her mother had found the PERFECT dress to wear, and would be the

> best-dressed mother-of-the-bride ever!  A week later, Jennifer was horrified

> to learn that her father's new, young wife…

The Alltech National Horse Show is proud to be the most recent event to join the Barnmice equestrian social community! To celebrate their partnership, the Alltech National Horse Show will host a contest:

In order to stay up-to-date with the most recent and exciting news from the Alltech National Horse Show, create a free profile at Barnmice.com today. Be sure to enter the “Barnmice Alltech National Horse Show Contest” where

participants will be eligible to win four…

How much do you know about the Washington International Horse Show?

Try your hand at this quiz and be entered in a draw to win your choice of: 2 Free Tickets to the Washington International Horse Show, a WIHS Baseball Cap or a 2011 WIHS Poster!

Everyone's replies show up in our comment box below, so be sure not to peek!  We'll pick our winner with a random draw, so if you give it a try, you'll be included. :)

Draw will be held…

I have finally gotten around to writing an introduction to myself.  I am an avid trail rider (which is the same thing as hacking.)  I live over here in the US in Cleveland, OH.  It is a pretty good-sized urban area, and we are lucky enough to have a terrific trail system running right through it.  We share the trails with lots of different users, so our horses have to be very tolerant.  We also ride close to the roads, so they have to be good with traffic, too.

I have 2…

Lexington, KY - October 18, 2011 - - The Alltech National Horse Show, 128th edition, now just two weeks away from its grand debut at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, announced today that it will pay tribute to men and women in uniform, with a special ticket package on Thursday. November 3rd.



Men and women in the military and members of police and fire departments, who wear their uniforms, can take advantage of a special, money saving two-for-one ticket special…

It was a lovely night for riding, yesterday.  My boyfriend got in the saddle before I got there—I got caught in traffic.  I saddled up Cruiser, and away we went to meet his buddy Starry.  Cruiser knew the game, and as usual, I had to keep slowing him down.  We met them about 20 minutes later, and I talked my boyfriend into turning around and continuing with us until the next river crossing.  it was such a pretty night, that it didn’t take much coaxing.  Even his horse didn’t mind turning…