After having the saddle fitter out, I have been chastised for jumping in my saddle. It has a slight twist to the tree that has developed over a year of non-use by me. My horse's back was very cranky (we just went back to jumping this month from years of dressage). Oops.

This saddle isn't probably good for any over fences, but a less-sensitive horse, a horse used for light lessons, or therapy work could wear the saddle with little worry.

I'm willing to donate it to a riding school or a therapy center, but not sure who would need something like this -- any ideas?

17" HDR saddle, more of a cross country-style saddle. Medium wide.

My Google Fu is failing me.

I'm looking to replace a broken gate to my indoor arena. It's a six bar steel livestock gate. Apparently it is not a standard size. Everywhere I've found, gates come in 10' or 12' lengths. The gate at home is 11'4". The doorway is 11'6". Now, gates don't actually measure to 10' or 12' on the dot. My boyfriend and I spent several hours at Tractor Supply measuring every gate they have. Some were a few inches short of ten feet. Some were a little over twelve feet. We finally found one that was 11'8"... and doesn't fit in the door.

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHERE I CAN GET AN 11' LIVESTOCK GATE????

Some pics from the show this past Sunday. I'm riding (perfect) Patti, who I feel is possibly a touch too small for me, even though she's a 15 something hh Quarter Horse. The only bigger horse at the barn is a 17hh Thoroughbred, and she's not really a lesson horse. Patti is my fav at the barn though, so I was really happy I could take her to the show.

I didn't place in Equitation (boo... the class where they judge the rider) placed 4th in Under Saddle and 4th in Pleasure (both are judged on the horses' movement). Still a step up from my last show where I got 6th place in Under Saddle! :) I didn't have to do sitting trot in the Equitation class, which was a good thing, since I really am not good at it, even with some practice before the show, but I guess I still need to work on my basics. Problem with lessons only being every other week is that it's hard to fit everything in that I want to work on- jumping, position, cantering, sitting trot, regular trot and the million other techniques in between.

( Photos Under Cut! )

One thing I'm proud of in the photos: Heels down like a boss! :D

Hello!

I will be making a trip out to Los Angeles from the East Coast at the end of June, and wondering if someone could recommend a good riding stable within an hour or so outside of L.A.  I want to experience that beautiful California landscape from horseback.

I know Griffith Park is right in LA, and has a hack stable, but from what it sounds like, you don't ever make it out of a walk and I'm thinking the horses could be poor, dull, over-used trail horses. I'm looking for the opposite: a stable with dependable trail horses, yes, but one that doesn't over-use them and treats them well. And also will allow trotting and cantering if the rider is capable.

Thank you for any recommendations you can provide!

Background: I'm planning on hitting the trails in a major way this summer - potentially to condition for our first official endurance ride in late summer. I will usually be riding alone, and I do have saddle bags for water and other essentials for longer rides. I also ride with a fanny/waist pack within which I keep my ID, cellphone (which doubles as a GPS), and some snacks for my horse and I. On shorter rides I tend to only take my fanny pack. In general I also plan to spend a lot of time just hiking/jogging with my horse on the trails to get my out-of-shape ass back in commission.

Anyway, my current fanny pack is dying and has never really been comfortable because it tends to bounce or rub during the longer hikes and rides. I've been reading reviews on low-profile waist packs made for runners, but so many of them are not large enough for my cell phone (an iPhone), while others are enormous and I fear will interfere with the back (or front) of the saddle. I'm hoping I can get some recommendations for a good fanny/waist pack for distance riders and hikers! I would love to have something that stays put and has reflective strips, and won't interfere with my saddle (so wearing it on my natural waist would be fine). I'm also a chubby person, which I need to take into account for the belt size. What do you use, if anything?

And so this post isn't completely boring, here's a photo of my beloved mare, Deli, this past weekend:

I met some new people at the barn this weekend, and one of them mentioned something I'd never heard of before.

They were watching one of the boarders hose her horse off after a ride, and started complaining that she hadn't started at his feet. One of the other new folks asked why, and the lady of the couple explained that you had to start at the feet because that pushed the heat up into their back where they would cool down properly. She further stated that if you start on the body or back, then it pushes heat into the horse's feet and will cause laminitis. Going the "wrong" way was okay now and then, in her view, but doing it all the time was bad.

Has anybody else heard that one before? It sounds kind of... strange... to me. I was taught that you started at the feet to, y'know, not dump a bunch of cold water on the horse unexpectedly, because that sucks almost exactly as much as unexpectedly finding out that the water in the shower hasn't warmed up yet... and as a safety issue with horses you haven't bathed before, to see whether you've got a problem or a well-behaved citizen on your hands.

Hi. Long time no post here. I come to you with a burden in my heart. :(

My new horse has a hooves problem, which I am not sure how serious it is. His two front hooves just became very soft for these past 3 days. I'm not good with English and I don't know how to describe his hoof condition. By saying "soft", I mean the hoof wall is oily/soft and when we scratch the wall with fingernail, the skin comes out with it. One of the hooves has a crack behind and, since the wall is now soft, we can actually pull a big piece of hoof wall from that crack, if we want to. 

A little background of him, in case it helps, he came from Europe to Asia 2 weeks ago. Since it's now 35 degree Celsius here, and about 5 degree over there, I'm not sure the sudden change of weather has anything to do with this problem. The other thing is he was panting during the first week of arrival, so we washed him like 3-4 times a day to reduce the heat for him. The hooves may be wet most of the time during that time and can lead to this problem? We also apply a LOT of hoof oil to his hooves, to prevent them from over dry from the heat. He's 17 hh. and a littlllle bit fat.

I had a vet look at it this afternoon and when she mentioned the word 'Laminitis', my heart sank. She wasn't 100% sure and the senior vet will come to look at him on Friday. Has anyone encounter this problem before? What can I do to treat it? He's not lame or anything. He's being perfectly healthy and loves to work. Please help me. :((


( Hooves pics under the cut )

I don't really know what I'm looking for in this post, or if it's even too early to be worried like I am, but it would be nice to get any opinions from you guys.

I just moved Gali to a new facility on Sunday. A mare that he's known for four years also moved with us. They've been at four different farms together, but it wasn't until recently (at farm #3) that they could be near each other without bite-swipes, kicks, or squeals from either him or the mare. Prior to a few weeks ago, they HATED each other.

Now, however, they're turned out together, and they are best friends. I've *never* seen Gali like this. He lets her lick his feed bucket as he eats - and this is the same horse that would aggressively chase away the other geldings in his old fields if my boyfriend ("his" person) was petting them too much, let alone bringing food into the equation!

That'd be great, if he weren't so damn herd bound too. They scream for each other when they're apart, and he refuses to stand still or listen while tacking up or while working in the round pen. He gets very upset, in general, if he thinks he's going to be away from her. When I rode him in the same arena as her, though, he was very well behaved.

He also gets super pissed off if she interacts with other geldings in the barn. He'll go from finally beginning to relax, to trying to charge through me when the mare and the other geldings make noises at each other, or nose each other.

I can discipline him all I want - I've whapped him solidly for the charging with both a rope and the chain on his face, backed him up thirty feet in about two seconds, and even tried running him in the round pen thinking he'd give it a few laps and then focus on me, but I'm getting nothing (the best thing ABOUT him is how well he lunges/free lunges/works in the pen!). When his focus is on Katie, he completely forgets everything else and all of his training goes right out the window.

We're switching their fields as soon as we can, but I'm not sure if that will help, because the fields share a fence.

Is this common with geldings being turned out with mares, or is my horse just an idiot/hopeless romantic? It doesn't strike me as studly behavior, because there's no dropping and no mounting, but I'm kind of at a loss. Oh, and he's still just as much of a dick to other horses has he's always been. It's only Katie that he doesn't threaten.

Sorry if I'm not really making any sense - I just want some input, advice, stories about how another sixteen year old horse was a holy terror the first week at a new place but then reverted back to as normal as he ever was, etc.