Anything horse related

chicken on a mission

Restarting to lose 4stone
Hi everyone,

I have recently just started getting back into horse riding again and the lovely purple hugs mentioned about starting a horsey thread so here it is.

I have to admit that I am a bit pushed for time at the mo but I hope that all members with an interest can contribute something.

I know so little about all things equine so for me it is about trying to learn enough about riding and horse care to be able to eventually know enough to get a horse on loan maybe?
 
Daft question...

Does anyone know if there is a difference between skull caps that are described as for children/junior and adult ones cause I've only got a small head!
 
Thanks!! was meaning to come and do this! lol
Well, a bit of background on my horsey side...

As a child I grew up in SW London, and was from a lone parent family. So.. money was tight and riding wasn't avaialable without travel and great expense.
I always dreamt of riding and owning a pony. Even tried convincing my mum to let me own one and keep it on our balcony! we lived on the first floor! lol
At 15 I rode for the first time on an adventure holiday in Wales. It was fantastic! as i knew it would be. I rode another 2 times on holidays, a lesson and a hack. loved everything!

so... when i had Erin I warned my hubby i'd want to get her into horses.. and he just laughed!

June 2005 we visited a friend in Glasgow and went for a day trip to the Isle of Cumbrae, where they had pony rides on the beach. I asked my daughter if she fancied one but she shook her head... :( Then i overheard they were £1 and mentioned to my hubby how cheap that was. Erin pipped up if they are £1 could i have one.. as i have £1 of my pocket money left! lol

she loved it! bare foot riding with no stirups, in walk.
The next morning at my friends back in glasgow. she asked if we could go back to the beach! lol As she wanted to ride again! :D I said we couldn't go to the beach again as it was too far, but could look at lessons when she got home.

When I called.. i 'happened' to ask if they could take me.. at just under 17 stone. I was amazed when they said they have 2 horses capable of 'weight bearing' ok wasn't pleased by the phrase, but the rest is history!
Erin and i ride at a different school now, still have weekly lessons and took on a rescued 2 year old (he's almost 2) pony.... i'll attach some pics later! ;)
 
Daft question...

Does anyone know if there is a difference between skull caps that are described as for children/junior and adult ones cause I've only got a small head!
I have a 'traditional' velvet hat, as does my daughter as we couldn't find a skull cap style to fit us properly. My hat is technically a childs hat.. even though i have a big head.. :confused: Go figure!

The only advice i can give you, is don't waste money on the poshest hat unless you are a serious rider, and i mean every day for hours on end.. and get one fitted professionally at a shop you trust... and replace it if you have a fall, and have 'head contact' with anything such as a menage wall or the ground. ;)
 
Ok.. time for cutie shots! in my eyes anyhow..
Click on them to make them bigger.
Peanuts - when we got him, 3 days after being rescued.. he was very very underweight.



Peanuts - first time out with the 'big boys' the shire he is with became his best friend! Opposites attracted i think. lol


Recent shot of myself peanuts and Erin

Peanuts.. having gained weight!
 
I'm in love with peanuts!!!!!!!

I am a horsey gal at heart. Bit of background: I always wanted to have riding lessons as young girl but my mum and dad said there was no point as they could never afford to get me a horse. (notbeing mean to parents here - i completely understand what they were saying)
I did get lesson for birthdays and other 'treats' but nothing regular.
When i had my daughter (2nd child) my husband needed to have riding lessons as he was going horse riding on his work conference and his silly mate had put down they were intermediates even though they had never even sat on a horse!!
We went along together and i've been hooked ever since.

Have owned (or been owned by!!;) ) a few horses, my favourite of which is ben a 15.1hh heavy weight piebald cob.

Am horselss at the mo and hoping to start riding lessons soon.
My dream come true would be to have my own house with some land, a couple of horses and lots of other animals to add to the zoo. :)
 
My dream come true would be to have my own house with some land, a couple of horses and lots of other animals to add to the zoo. :)

lol wouldn't we all love that!! We have a dog, pony and 3 guinea pigs.. graham won't 'let' me have anymore! lol I am TRYING to talk him into letting me have a loan horse of my own, but to be honest.. our money is not guaranteed and i know it would be far too tight if we went down in money, we pay £23 a week for stabling for peanuts. So double that plus food, hay, straw, shoes/farrier, insurance.. bla bla bla.. just wouldn't work out. :( BUT WHEN i get to 10 stone.. i'm going to try to get under it, and then maintain till peanuts is 3 or so, and have a 'go' on him to see how i feel/fit him. he's growing still and hasn't got his teeth for a 2 and a half year old, so i'm hoping he'll make 11-12hh. he's 10.2 last measured. Fingers x'd he can carry me.. and if not we'll drive him in time.
Erin can bareback ride him.. for a short 30 second walk.. with no misbehaving. He's a great little fella, and has taken to his back roll and bridle really well. :D

Long reigning is next... :p
 
He sounds great!!!!

I have some piccies of Ben but i cant get them on here, theyre too big and i cant resize them. If anyone wants to see him pm me your email addy and i'll send you it. :)

I would like to buy again but timing has to be right. I start my nursing next september and think when i've completed that i'll treat myself. For now i will just get practising with the lessons.

I'd like to learn how to jump properly. I've had a go before but just gone with the horse and bunny hopped over tiny jumps. Wouldnt ever like to do anything big though - too scared :)
 
Lol i've bunny hopped too.. but not actually jumped.. Erin has though and i've never seen her so alive! lol She is not an overly bold child.. but reckon she'll be bold at jumping in a few years! god help my nerves!

If you have a look at Free Image and Video Hosting - Photo Image Hosting Site : Photobucket.com they resize them and you can choose to have a 'thumbnail' like i did with mine. ;) All free.

perhaps in time you could get a share.. or 'help' for rides. ;)
I have helped for the last year for rides, or just the experience initially. People are so friendly and welcome a helping hand... even a novice one!

I'm lucky at our yard, there is a 5 year old 16hh horse that his mum lets me ride him just for fun. She says it's good for him to have a different less experienced rider, and good for me too! only thing is he puts in a fly buck now and then.. so i don't push him as much as i'd like.. don't wanna be thrown in honesty! :rolleyes:
 
ben.jpg
 
OOps. it's huge!! Thats Ben. Excuse his mohican - he had been hogged in summer and i let it grown out for the winter along with his feathers.

He is such a beautiful boy!!!
 
This is floss. the naughty pony!! We rescued her and broke her in - in the process she bucked my niece off and broke her arm. oops.

She is now fully broken and lives with a friend of mine - her son loves flossy to bits and has won lots of pony competitions with her.

floss.jpg
 
Ben is GORGEOUS!!! He reminds me of my last one, Rastas, similar in colouring, cheeky as they come and roughly the same size. He was a rescue as well. Friend of mine who keeps racehorses found him dumped in one of her fields. He had severe fly strike and was under weight. When he recovered he was just great. Never found a sweeter tempered horse, unless he wanted out and was inside or vice versa. Learned how to open gates!!!! Drove us all nuts.
But on the sad side I haven't ridden for many years following a severe back injury. My daughter has just started riding and is hooked. Hubby no longer rides due to time. Maybe I should bring up the subject and get something moving. I have access to a 5 acre pasture with loosebox that is never used. (belongs to BIL). I might just have to you know!!!!! Daughter really doesn't need tuition so the money I save could go towards horse. (you can tell I've been thinking about this for a while). Anyway, watch this space.

jackie
 
ooo Jackie. I'm not sure hoe you've managed to resist until now - do you live anywhere near me? I wish!! :)
 
Oh my what a handsome Ben. He is fantastic looking. I want I want I want .

I have a childrens skull cap. As far as I know there is no difference apart from size.

Chicken on a mission.... I knew nothing when I first got into horses. I looked after a friends shire x for a year. I did it to see the realities of looking after a horse. It was great experience.

I am 49 (shhhh) until 2 yrs ago I had never even sat on a horse. Now I am the very proud owner of Zoe. 14.1 Dales Pony. One of the best things I have ever done. Should have done it years ago.
I bought her in May 2005. I knew when I first made the phone call she was going to be mine. Being told she hadn't been ridden for months and was now as wide as she was tall hit home I think lol. However 5 days after I bought her we found out why she was as fat as she was......she gave birth to a gorgeos little colt. He now lives with my friend just a few miles away and is a handsome boy.
2005_0610horse0044.jpg

All the work associated with having a horse on DIY is great exercise. I cycle to see to her. Have to walk miles to get her in if she is at the top end of the fields..all uphill of course, add to that the mucking out in winter, lugging water buckets, hay, straw etc and it's a good workout. I can't get enough horse time. Next year Zoe and I along with my friend and her horse are all going on holiday to celebrate mine and my friends 50th birthday...we were born just 2 days apart. I can't wait.
2006_0608_amber_kittens_0121.jpg
 
My tip is to wear a body protector.....it works way better than any sports bra and stops this happening

boobs.jpg
 
Ok here is a bit about my history.

I always loved horses as a girl but money was tight for my parents. My next door neighbours moved 3 miles down taking my best friend with them, I used to visit her and their garden backed onto a small urban yard with 5 horses. The owner used to do informal (code for cash in hand and not registered or insured) riding lessons. At £2 an hour 21 years ago this was the only way I would get to ride and I used to have an hour on a horse and spend all day every Saturday for 2 years down the yard cleaning tack, mucking out and doing all the donkey work and I loved it. Weirdly enough when we moved to the same area I stopped going and started at senior school and hated my life, but that's another story!

4 years after that I did about a dozen lessons at a proper riding school and it crushed my spirit because I hadn’t been taught to BHS standards and didn’t know how to do a lesson in the indoor school, it was a whole new language to me and I went from bombing about on ponies bareback with just a head collar to feeling like a complete numpty because although I stay on anything, technically I was crap. :(


Those of you getting a feel for the sort of person I am will know that I have streak of the perfectionist in me and hate not being extremely good at something. I had always been good at everything and I came to earth with a bump I can tell you. It put me off and took away my confidence. :(

I then went on a couple of hacks about 8 years ago but by then the weight had started to pile on and my old enemy lack of confidence feeling like a failure came back into play so I stopped again despite the ache in my heart for riding. :(

Then back in February we went on holiday to the Isle of Wight and visited a farm/riding school called Brickfields and had lunch in their café overlooking the indoor school. I couldn’t take my eyes off the lesson in progress and the ache in my heart was back and I was nearly in tears sat there but holding it together because we were in public and had my 3 year old with us. I felt so useless and fat and was knocking on for towards 18 stone at that stage. My hubby spotted the signs in me and could see how unhappy I was. He said that I should ask if they could do me a lesson and I said no knowing that they wouldn’t be able to accommodate my weight and I couldn’t take that rejection *I’m in floods of tears writing this*. Anyway hubby disappeared off to loo and came back saying that he had been to the office and they had suitable horses and had booked me a ½ hour walking hack for that afternoon. :)

I was scared and excited and loved my private hack even though it was just meant to be walking. I got to trot to keep up and hubby booked another 2 lessons for me that week. :D When we got home after the holiday he made me promise to phone around and continue riding. I promised I would but it took another 3 weeks before the ache in my heart overcame the fear of rejection and I started to phone round.

Nowhere had weight limits anywhere close to my weight and I felt downhearted. In the end I just dropped into a riding school to ask because I had always been told that I didn’t look my weight. I went into the office and told them that I was 17 ½ stone and desperate to start riding again and they said they had a horse that could cope. I booked in for the following week and explained my history and lack of confidence regarding weight and lack of formal train to my instructor and she was great. I went 4 times in total but was so downhearted because I was still only trotting which was a far cry from what I used to ba able to do and then the last time she wanted me to stand in the stirrups to do a lap of the school to improve my balance and I couldn’t even manage a few paces because I was too heavy. I stopped going after that which was late March and I started to lose more weight.

Then in early May I had a health scare where it was thought I had gallstones (later tests revealed I didn’t) but this prompted the doctor to recommend LL to me, at that stage I had dropped to 16st 10lbs and by the time I started LL on 20th May I was 16st 3lbs.

I returned to the riding school last week and 6 ½ stone lighter than I was the last time I rode there in March! :D

My instructor was amazed at the difference and so was I. It felt more natural although I have a lot of work to do because I am stiff as a board and have forgotten how to balance myself etc. The difference this time is that LL has made me see just how ridiculous my need to be perfect or the best is and I am ready to accept that I have a long way to go to learn how things should be done in accordance with BHS standards. I have block booked 5 private 1/2 hour lessons and will increase this to 3/4 of an hour when I start eating again so I have the energy to cope with it. My aim is to get to be a properly trained competent rider and share a horse although hubby keeps making mutterings about getting a horse on full loan but then he doesn't appreciate the amount of time, work and commitment involved. :D

I know of a lady that has a horse she wants to loan out and is having trouble getting somebody because the horse is a youngster that was only broken in last year and hasn’t been ridden regularly since so carts people! My thoughts are that being carted doesn't bother me as I have always enjoyed the excitment of an unpredictable horse previously so I will be able to give the horse experience under a saddle but I don’t have the knowledge or experience to bring on the horse myself. Until I reach the stage where I feel confident again the most important thing is to get time with horses even if I don’t ride so I am thinking of asking for an introduction so I can suggest that I go down with the lady each morning to help and find out the routine she uses and to get to know the horse. Then if all goes well I can volunteer to do 3 mornings a week for her. This will build up my knowledge and familiarity with the horse with a view to riding her when I come up to standard to give her time under the saddle. I can get lessons on her to help us both develop. Considering my commitments and the practicalities of keeping a horse, I don’t have the time to be able to take on a full loan and put in the energy that this would need so a share would be the best option for any horse I take on as well as for myself. :)
 
Laura - Zoe is gorgeous. I'd love a dales!!

Chicken - Good on you!! I'm still nervous about starting riding again. I keep on saying 'when i've lost a bit more -i'll boo a lesson!' I think i'm worried as last time i rode i was so unfit and had to keep stopping as i was knackered!!

My Eldest son and daughter want to start lessons so i am going to have a look around at some schools and book them in. I am trying to resist the urge to be a pushy mum about this but I cant help feeling pleased they like horses!!!
 
Laura - Zoe is gorgeous. I'd love a dales!!

Chicken - Good on you!! I'm still nervous about starting riding again. I keep on saying 'when i've lost a bit more -i'll boo a lesson!' I think i'm worried as last time i rode i was so unfit and had to keep stopping as i was knackered!!

My Eldest son and daughter want to start lessons so i am going to have a look around at some schools and book them in. I am trying to resist the urge to be a pushy mum about this but I cant help feeling pleased they like horses!!!


You'll get there boofaloo. I have spent my whole week being excited about my lesson tomorrow morning :rolleyes:

The last of my block book lessons falls on the firday before 1/2 term which my DD has off for teacher training and my husband has booked off too. I asked him last night if they would both come and watch and then changed it to asking if I should book my 4 year old a l1/2 hour. To be honest I don't think it would be worth the money on a regular basis as she gets so much satisfaction for a visit to the beach or park which is free! :D
 
My kids want to start riding. I have managed to find a place that charges £6 per half hour each. Usually it's double that!!
They dont do any other out of school activity though so it'll be good for them to do something different.

I'm also secretly very pleased they share my love of horses!!! :D
 
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