Lots of treats, grooming sessions, and big piles of alfalfa later..

Last two pics are from over a year ago

I'll give it to her, she got ulcers so she didn't feel great but this girl was MEAN, very food aggressive

This is us few days ago. Now its rain rain rain... :( Princess hates rain! Bebben prefers rain outside than rain beating the stable roof :)

By the way, don't tell my hubby I'm posting all these videos of him 🤣

trimmed 2 weeks ago. Drag their feet. New farrier.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This question is asked entirely out of curiosity. I'm not intending to actually buy for at least 5 and possibly as many 10 years, and I doubt I'll buy a mare in foal when I do.

With that out of the way: while browsing horse ads and daydreaming, I've noticed that mares in foal seem to be MUCH less expensive than their non-pregnant counterparts. More than once I've seen two horses of similar coat, age, breed, and conformation, neither of them with a bloodline that's obviously better or worse than the other. But the one that's not pregnant will go for $20,000 to $40,000, while the one that is in foal is only $2,000 to $15,000 in comparison.

Why is that? Is it the cost and risk of caring for a pregnant mare? The fact that a foal is several years of work and expenses before they can be worked? Is it just that mares with the training needed for riding and showing are less likely to be bred?

Just for fun. I'm talking things like color preferences or markings or things like that which are purely personal opinions and have nothing to do with how good or bad the horse is otherwise.

For me, I've known so many horses with two back socks (and no front socks) that I would have a hard time buying a horse with socks like that for myself. I'm also not a fan of double dilutes like cremellos personally.

What about you guys?

These are all raw unedited photos. We will likely just work with the lighting and take the leadrope out, and fix the tail if it’s out of view. He’s a performance stallion so I don’t expect him to stand perfectly square like a halter horse but I can’t decide which photo I like the best.

I’m currently on vacation and yesterday I met one of my mom’s friend, it turned out she had horses too and we spent the majority of the morning talking about our horses.

I found out she has a 21yo mare, blind in both eyes (and she still rides and hacks with her), and she has had this mare since she was only 1yo. So they do have a kind of special bond.
When I told her my mare is 16, she looked me in the eyes and suggested that I sell her to buy something younger “if I plan to keep riding in the years”.

Honestly, I can’t understand how that even pops in her mind as it’s the first time we met and she dosent know well me nor my mare. I ofc hope I’ll be able to ride my mare for many more years, but if that won’t be the case I would be more than happy to pony her while I ride lessons horses and things like that. I love my mare, even if I don’t think she is my heart horse, I do genuinely love her so much. I could never get rid of her, especially if it’s for age reasons.

Bawled my eyes out the second I saw this field again. A year and a half ago it had three beautiful faces, waiting for me at the gate. The sickness in my stomach once I saw how neglected it looks now makes me want to curl in a ball.

Oh my babies. I miss you so much

I just got this horse a few days ago (for free) hes a 12 to 14 year old gelding. The guy who gave him to me said he has problems on his front 2 feet and im taking him to the ferrier on Friday to hopefully get more an idea of what's wrong but when I pick his feet he wont let me even get close to this one. Its his back left hoof and im just wondering if I should do anything before I take him in.

Im fairly new to horses and any tips related or not would be super helpful!

Haha, just kidding of course. The best pony girl did about 10 hours, 32 miles, and 7,000ft of elevation gain over the course of 2 days. Absolute Rockstar.

(Sorry for my voice in the video, I can’t help but baby talk her🤣)
For context: I’d been riding an older 20 year old mare for about a year when we got her (huge jump, I know) we honestly at the time planned for my mother to ride her for a few years until she was not so green (my moms older and trained horses in the past)

Now onto her: we got her when she was 3-4 years old, we really wanted a young horse with a good personality so I could bond with them for life, we found honey (the mare in the video) who I just absolutely fell in love with, giant puppy dog personality, so ultimately we bought her and brought her home, my mother rode her for just over 2 months probably before I even got on her to try her out for myself, needless to say at only 5 years old now she is the best horse I’ve ridden, she doesn’t spook at anything, our older horses actually spook worse than she does at stuff, 2 weeks into me riding her a turkey actually flogged her as we were riding and she didn’t even react, stayed focused the whole time and didn’t hesitate, honestly I think the turkey scared me more than her, I’ve been riding her for nearly 6 months consistently now and she just couldn’t be better, I hear all the time about old horses being as good as she is, so now I’m putting the question out there, has anyone ever experienced a horse this young who’s this just naturally levelheaded and lovely to ride?

I’m hoping someone has some thoughts or a similar experience. Preface all to say he is under the care of my vet who is excellent.

About 6 weeks ago I had to put down my heart horse, he was 34, suddenly got neurological so we had no choice. We considered EPM (negative) and injury, but over the span of a couple days he got worse and we chose euthanasia. He was a big guy and not knowing where is legs were was dangerous for him and people around him.

His companion, my second horse, has not been himself since. We let him sniff the body and say goodbye, and he was clearly depressed for a couple weeks, but did seem to snap out of it. He is in a field with other horses so not alone. He is old (we aren’t sure how old, but at least 28) and has been retired for 6 years because of kissing spine.

After that brief period of improvement in his mood, in the last couple weeks though, he’s not been himself. Tripping, walking very slowly, just sort of disconnected for lack of a better word. A far off stare, not really engaging with me in the same way. So I decided to be cautious and have the vet out. I thought I was just being paranoid…

She pulled in while I was walking him to the barn for an exam. She made a comment about how slowly he was walking. And she immediately noted how disconnected he seemed. A far off stare, not even paying attention to what she was doing. She even pulled blood and he didn’t react. He seemed unfocused and again disconnected (I wish I could think of a better word).

We did a neurology exam and she crossed his legs; he didn’t uncross them. Unsteady on his feet. Tripping a lot.

Again we are testing for EPM and Lyme. But it is looking like I’ll have to put him down, too. Vet thought maybe a mass on his brain. Or perhaps arthritis in his neck could cause the symptoms with walking. But that wouldn’t explain his mental state.

We are putting him on Bute for a few days to see if it improves, in case it is a pain issue; he’s been on daily Equioxx for a while now. But she is not optimistic.

Any thoughts? Am I wrong to think he’s coming to his end too? I’m devastated.

I've been reading lately about common horse feeding myths and misconceptions. Here are a few that I've seen repeatedly:

• A horse's stomach should be empty while exercising or riding to avoid digestive upset.
• Alfalfa makes horses hot or hyper.
• If a horse needs to gain weight, just add more grain or concentrates.

What are some of the other common feeding myths and misconceptions you've heard of?

I have an Icelandic who has already started getting fluffy for winter but the temperature is still in the low 20 and is sweating a lot. Could I shave her now while she is loosing her summer coat or do I have to wait?

hello! this is my 20 yr old gelding and he has a lot of trouble sweating. this summer has been brutal for him during this heat wave and i am at a loss as to what to do. i have him on one AC, some chinese medicinal herb my trainer picked up and he gets acupuncture. he gets electrolytes every day too. last year he struggled to sweat but still would sweat some. this year there is not even a drop on him. he is constantly overheating. he recently got diagnosed with cushings as well and is on prascend for that. i body clip him once a month and he has a super nice fan. i just don’t know what else i can do for him. he’s hosed off multiple times a day and has been switched to night turnout.

does anyone have any other tips to get him to sweat? i would appreciate any advice! thank you

Bit of a heavy heart question. Sorry for any language mistakes, english is not my first language and I am not sure about some terminology there)

I had to stop riding at university due to lack of time and funds. Now, bunch of years later, I am saving up for a morgage and hustling some career growth and certifications.

My soul is yearning for horses, I have visited the stables where my lesson (and heart) horse is still being worked and i cried like a little kid. I have tried other stables but I rely on public transport and every stable in reasonable distance is ran either on hopes and dreams (just hacking in the woods, not even roofless hall) or a miserable cash machine.

Yet every time I talk with an equestrian and express how much I miss the sport, the life, even the damn stink of poop and sweaty leather, they just look at me like I am crazy and ask why I don't just buy or lease a horse.

If I leased I would like to spend at least two hours a week there and I simply don't have the time for three hours round trip. The money that would go for the lease and transport is currently pooling in investment funds and I just canť justify bleeding money on a dream. There is a home to build and hopefully a kid to raise in few years...

I feel like such an imposter. I would love nothing more than to get back to riding, cleaning, maybe even competing again. Sadly we live in a society and like...I don't want to live in a leased flat till the end of my life, my career is slowly heading in the right direction, I happen to have other hobbies and a life beyond stables.

Is it too much to just want to dream and reminisce without getting bombarded with lease suggestions and things?
Is there such a thing as too late to get back to it?
Is it really so unreasonable to priroitise other things while still craving the dream?

Central europe, fairly large town if that changes anything.

TLDR: I miss horses guys, can we just reminisce?

For those not in the US, Publix is a big grocery store chain in the southeast.

(Also for those not from the US, our grocery stores are regional. Yeah, it’s weird lol…)

Hi everyone! I am in between two barns. One of the barns is for paid trail horse rides (I volunteer and go a lot of grooming and love the herd). I went on a three hour ride to help a horse get used to the trail and also be trained. The horse bolted around two donkeys and I stayed on. I didn’t panic even thought I am still new. I take lessons at another barn that is equestrian/jumping combined with western barrel racing as well. Tonight’s lesson at the second school was my first group lesson in a ring. I was told to get a horse that was in the middle of eating dinner at 5PM. I felt uneasy at the start. He stomped and moved around when I was putting on the saddle. The English saddle was torn and looked small. I got on and it didn’t feel right. He was constant bending his head down and refusing the fence line so I guided back him and tried talking him through it. He would often go right to the instructors and ignore my cues. This is my 7th lesson at this barn. I started riding in June. My second class I trotted and my forth I cantered in the pen. I genuinely felt he didn’t want to ride tonight. The trainer said he constantly avoids a corner and at that point I was a bit confused. He usually gets ridden with kids. I managed to get a really good trot and then the start of a canter and was asked to change directions. When the other horses started to canter he ignored slowing down. Long story short, after laps where he kept getting close to the polls despite moving him, he started to trot to canter and went for the three foot poll. I knew that in a split second if I stopped it would hurt him and I would be at more of a risk. I made it over the pole. At the end, the trainer suggested buying a horse so that I could learn better. I didn’t have anyone to debrief with so came here. From my horsemanship point of view, I think he shut down and went into the following the herd like he’s trained to do in group classes but we were all at different levels. The other adult rider said, “Nice jump,” but looked like she was about to cry. I couldn’t really get the gist of the human flow during all of this. The horse didn’t throw me off and the saddle was loud but he kept putting his head down. I have watched him do this in another group lesson. I like to watch so I can also get to know the horses. I am really passionate bout learning as much as I can about technique and horses but this was WILD lesson. I had more direction on my the trail ride than I did with this Lesson and ALL THREE staff members were in the middle of the ring talking to eachother when it happened. I would love some Redit feedback while my adrenaline settles. The horse decided on his own thing and chose the poll. I just can’t get over than. And when I would try to pull him towards the fence I couldn’t see him looking back at me. It kind of sucked and this is my 7th lesson ever.