Ashley

I had my belly pierced but it surfaced about 2 months ago. I thought it hurt but it wasn't awful. I have my cartilage pierced twice my newest one hurt pretty bad when the needle went through and for about 2 mins after. My older one is a little lower in slightly fleshy thinner cartilage and I didn't feel a thing. It was a little pinch and no burning or stinging after. I want my lip done now but my problem is I phsyc myself out thinking of the pain. In reality I have a pretty good pain tolerance. It hurts but I handle it well but in my mind before a piercing I get really nervous. Once its done I can handle pain much better but in the moment I get super nervous. So any experience with a lip ring? I want it on the bottom left by the way. What's its like compared to my others. Obviously it depends on pain tolerance per person no piercing is painless go to a professional. I got all that just looking for opinion on your experience

I had my belly button pierced but it surfaced. Its beenout for maybe 2 months? Rough estimate maybe a little less. Its almost healed up all the way. The 4th of July I pierced my left ear cartilage. Then a few days ago I pierced cartilage again above it. My first one looks great and isn't sore at all I had it professionally changed once (my other stud wasn't fitting and causing a ton of pain). My 2nd one got infected right after I got it. The infections cleared up and its very minimally sore. I want to repierce my belly button and pierce my lip. I obviously have to wait for my belly to finish healing (the piercer said about 2 more weeks) to redo it. I was going to do my lip first so my belly could have extra time. So how long should I wait to do my lip? Then how long after that to do my belly (assuming its healed enough at that time)?

I got my cartilage pierced about 3 weeks ago. i got it done with a needle professionally at a place with a good reputation. a few days later it was hurting so bad there was a ton of pressure and the back was digging into my skin. i went to another place after having it for a week and a half and they said it looked horrible the stud was way too small and they changed it to a long bar for me they said it would've just kept getting worse had they not. within a day all the pressure and redness was gone it looked like i'd had it for years. i got another piercing above it a few days later and it got infected, i've cured the infection and it feels great now just a little sore when i touch in certain places and almost all the swelling is gone. now that it's cleared up and not sore i want to change my first piercing (the one i had to have changed). when they changed it i had no reaction it didn't hurt or anything. how long should i wait until i put a new stud in? i know rule of thumb is 4-8 weeks but after changing it once (with no reaction) how long should i wait now? the stud i want to put in would stay for a few months at least im not going to be changing it all the time.

Last December I got my belly button pierced. It was professionally done but honestly the piercer was not good at all. It was sideways a little and I never thought it was deep enough either. The pain would come and go but it would only go for a week at most. It wasn't horrible pain but it did hurt and stay red. Finally it popped out. About a week ago I got my cartilage pierced at a place that has a high reputation around here. I asked them to look at it and they said I could pierce it again in 3 weeks. I want it pierced but I don't want to deal with rejection and pain.for months again. If I go to a piercer with a good rep this time what are the odds of it rejecting again? Right now I only have the one stud in my cartludge but it seems to be healing fine.

I have 2 female rats, both I got from pet stores (petsmart, petco). I didn't know much about rats when I got my first one. I bought her as a "fancy rat" they said she was still pretty young and she'd get bigger, they didn't say how much bigger. I've had her I think a little over 2 weeks and she has gotten bigger for sure but she's not huge I'm a horrible guesser but I'd say her body is about 5-6" long now? The other day I went to get her a friend (I thought rats were social but when we bought her they said no, I did my research and sure enough they are). They were labeled as "small rats" and were about the size my first rat was when I first bought her. Above them they had "medium rats" which were about guinea pig size (give or take). They said all rats get to be that size. When I was younger I had a friend who had a rat I thought I remembered staying small (a little bigger then my first rat is now), and I know the petco staff isn't always the most knowledgeable about them. So how big will they each get? Are the medium rats just adult small rats but the fancy rat stay smaller or what? I'm really confused and everything I've read is contradicting! I'd like a bigger rat but I'm ok with smaller ones I'd just like to know what to expect!

Let me start off with my natural hair is a medium brown. About a year ago i put a natural but bright red over the brown. I left that for a month or two then put splat red over top of it. I left that for a week or so then bleached strips of it and dyed it splat red again, giving me brighter red highlights in the red. After about 6 months I was ready for a change. I bleached my hair turning it an orange color. I put black over most of it, then put splat red back in the underside (we were going for blonde underneath but we couldn't get the blonde to take so we decided to go with red for an easy fix). Now it's been about 6 more months and I'm ready for a change again. I've been convinced to do purple like my red was (a solid purple then go back and bleach little parts and purple again for brighter highlights). My red that was on the underside has mostly faded to an orange and my black hasn't been redyed in a few months so it's black with a red tint. What's the best way to go about getting it light enough to color purple? I don't need it done instantly I can give it a few weeks to do some different things. I've heard of like color zap but I've also heard it's only for recently colored hair. My hair is pretty good, if we do fry it it's back to being soft after 2-3 washes. I'm just looking for some ideas to get it ready for purple?

About 2 weeks ago I got a female rat, I'd been around rats when I was younger but never had one. I thought rats were social but when we bought her they said they're better alone then in pairs even if they grew up together. This sounded odd but I said ok and only bought one. Well I did my research (and observing) and sure enough she started getting bored at nights which is a lot of noise when I'm trying to sleep. So I want to get her another female to go in her cage. Problem is right now she's in a 10 gal. aquarium. She is a baby still and fairly small still (although she is rapidly growing). Would I do plan on getting a much bigger cage here soon, but because of the cage we want we're holding off a few weeks to save some money for it. If something happens and they're acting cramped or don't get along I can easily get another 10 gal tank for the 2nd one and separate them. But SHOULD they be ok in a 10 gal together for just a few weeks? I do get her out a ton right now to play. I have a big tub (plastic) so they can run in while I'm watching them (so they don't chew out) but usually i just let her crawl all over me or the couch or floor. Should they be ok? I know it's small but getting out and at least one being a smaller rat still and just temporary?

I've been looking at a show to take my little pony to and there's a slight problem nobody i've asked seems to know the answer to. I used to have a tb i used for hunters so i have my hunter saddle and my hunter attire (breeches, boots, show shirt, coat all that). I started leasing this gaited pony. I still use my saddle one her. Because she's gaited I clearly can't do hunter w/t classes with her but I can do walk/gait classes. This show says proper attire is needed. Is proper attire going to be the saddle seat attire which people use gaited horses for a lot here or can it be my hunter attire since she's in the hunter saddle and tack? She can trot if she's pushed but her owner wants her to gait and it's more natural to her. So I'd like to do walk/gait or walk/gait/canter classes with her but that attire is throwing me off since I only have the hunter stuff. Her owners ride her western when they ride her. Would I be able to put western tack on her and wear jeans and a nice flannel shirt tucked in and be proper on a gaited horse? this is just a local fair horse show but it's a big deal around here people come from several states around and get dressed up for it.

My horse has a suspensory ligament he was diagnosed with several months ago. Rest helped but not cured him comptley. We noticed today he's doing even better since returning to his light exercise after having a really bad abcess a couple weeks ago. His trot was more even and balanced so as a test we took him over a couple small jumps in hand and he loved it. He wasn't sore after that and his hip was barely dropping whereas before it was very evident. Our farrier had said he was flat footed and shoes could help raise his heels up and help him. He's been barefoot since we had him over a year and I think he was barefoot several years before that. He did have shoes on when he raced though. How long would it take him if we put shoes on him to try it out for him to get used to them and us to be able to see if they did help him?

I'm 14 almost 15 and my parents are going through a rough divorce where my dad is having an affair and being horrible to me and my mom. I've lost my appetite and lost about 20 pounds in about a month and a half and usually eat less then 1000 calories a day. Around my friends I'm usually pretty happy but as soon as I'm back home or with family that's gone I'm really quiet and always feel like crying. I feel tired alot but have trouble sleeping. I feel useless alot because of things my dad has done and said to me. I love to ride my horse but i don't enjoy it as much and push off going to the farm. I just feel like trash alot and although I know alot of it is from my dad is this something anti depressants could help or should I just wait for it to pass and get better?

I got my horse almost a year ago, he was the worst thing that ever happened to me (or so I thought then) he was sold as broke he wasn't even green broke. A year later that horse is an angel and I love him to death we had finally hit our stride every ride we were raising the fences up 3" or 6" he'd begun cantering into fences he was teaching me alot. Then he became lame, it was determined it was a suspensory ligament in his right hind. I do believe his sellers knew about it and gave him a shot to help him deal with it because he went up for sale months before i bought him (i saw the ads) and tracing it back to how much time they said he'd had off he went up for sale about the time they started giving him time off and his legs were always wrapped in polos and they never wrapped their other horse. Anyway we're not going to bother with shots we're letting him retire out to Old Friends in Georgertown, KY with a little help from a friend who knows the owner. My dad said I could lease or possibly buy (we're moving 12 hours away in a few years so we'll see which) but I just don't feel like moving onto another horse, this was my first horse. I don't feel like starting over or riding any other horse (Even now while i still have him my trainer offers me to ride lesson horses and although i do i don't enjoy it at all and dread it). So for those who have lost a horse did you feel like this or similar? And how long did it take you to move on? i want to move on with my riding career but that's hard when i don't even want to get on a horse right now.

What are your opinions on figure 8 bridles vs flash bridles? I haven't really used figure 8's much, I heard they help with horses who lock their jaw and are (supposedly) more comfortable for horses. I bought my horse and he went in a regular noseband but we since put him in a flash converter and he goes better with chewing, i've been considering getting a new noseband that is a regular flash (not the converter which drops down) but then the figure 8 got mentioned so I'm not sure which to go for.

I have an OTTB, now 11 he raced until he was 6. He did dressage (abused) for until he was 8, trained to jump as a 9yr old, and turned out to pasture neglected until i got him at 10.5. When we bought him we asked if they'd ever taken him on trails they said there were trails where they'd had him but said it funny so I wasn't so convinced he was good but I wasn't looking for a trail horse I wanted a hunter. Now that summers here I wouldn't mind the occasional trail ride but he dosen't seem to like the idea. We tried leading him in hand once and he was rearing and trying to walk all over me but he was still new to me, we tried 2 months ago and he was better but a little pushy (and at 17 hands that's not the safest). My instructor thought he'd be better with other horses so we went out with a few other horses yesterday instead of a lesson he did ok out of the arena in front of the barn we put him up front and he relaxed alot more, walking down the lane he normally got pushy he was nervous but ok when we hit a place to turn on the lane he spun and tried bolting 3 times so we turned around and started going back and he bucked and reared we got him moving and he relaxed once he was closer to home. I noticed when we stopped he got very anxious and nervous and relaxed more when he was walking. So sounds like insecurity out of the arena and not being close to home right? Well we took him to a show and he fell in the trailer luckily we were close to home (mine not his) so he got up and we ended up puting him in my backyard while we got things in hand new place my dogs howling and barking at the door he dosen't flinch, we go to the show and he behaves almost like he's been showing his whole life in a totally new place and commotion. We tried a trail close to the barn that winds right behind and he did ok on that, so any idea on why he won't go back to the main trails? We've never gotten close enough to see the opening to the trail it always gets dangerous (considering his size) before we get close, why? any ideas? maybe he's just not a trail horse, that's fine but why is he fine in some places and not others? (we did make him face the way we were going before turning and going home so he knew that he couldn't do that and get away and we rode more after that in and outside)

My tb had been off the track for about 4 years when I got him about 9 months ago, and I believe had been worked in dressage for the first 2 years. However 2 years off before I got him left him unbroke. We have been cantering alot lately and he's doing good and he's been doing good with his collecting and we're working on coming into fences from a canter. My only problem not is I cannot get his head in a frame! I do have a trainer to help also. We have tried little squeezes on the reins, doing circles and getting him to flex and we just haven't gotten it. I work on the squeezes on the reins from the ground to get the frame and he does ok, we also do bending from the ground. I got a frame from him once and i rewarded him as best I could (We were at a show in the ring when I got it) and just can't get it again! He gets very angry when he dosen't understand when I want and I keep repeating it so it's really hard! Any ideas? I'll add any extra info needed because I likely forgot something.

Me and my friend want to get into showing with my horse, I have regular breeches but they are a little to big for me. They're a little baggy where I have a really thin frame. So I started buying kids breeches for schooling but now that I want to show I'm stuck! I can't find any kids breeches I like that are a decent price. I found these:

http://www.sstack.com/apparelboots_english-apparel...

I have them in purple for schooling so I would like them in tan to show in but I didn't know if you could show in cotton ones? I would wear a jacket over so you shouldn't be able to tell the waistband is colored, and if needed I could flip it inside out to be a little less noticable. The only thing I wasn't sure about was if the cotton would be accepted? Anywhere else I look they are just really expensive and we had to place an order with schniders anyway.

I have an OTTB and from what I'm guessing he was in a dressage home for 2 years, he moves like he was trained it and does auto flying changes right on the center line but I also believe he hated it and now resists contact and a frame. After they passed him on he went to a home where he was trained to jump then put to pasture and from pics i can see he did the same thing for them. He would stick his nose straight out when we got him, chew the bit, resist any contact at all he now takes light contact, goes in a martingale, and chewing is controlled by a flash band. However he still won't tuck his head in, I don't want a dressage horse type frame or anything like that just enough to show at local hunters he just sticks his head and neck out although not as bad as he used to with the martingale. We have tried little squeezes on the reins to try and get him to drop even a little he just won't do it. He just started cantering and his neck comes up and out and it's just not pretty. Any idea on how to get him to start getting his head to drop even a little bit?

When I bought my horse I knew he had huge withers, so I got a wither relief pad.

http://www.doversaddlery.com/wool-felt-wither-back...

And although it does the job well it is long so when I show with a shaped pad next season it won't look to pretty. I know theres alot of half pads and everything out there but I've never used them I want to go to a few tack shops looking for something to use when I show so what are some other options? My saddle sits pretty high so if I don't have the option of anything else I can show without anything since it will only be a few minutes but I would rather not

When I got my horse his mane was relatively short but it was really straight and I didn't like it and wanted it to grow out a little bit to get more natural ends to it. Now it has it but it's really long when I jump I see black everywhere from it so I want to pull it but I sit there for an hour pulling and you can't even tell. It thins it but dosen't shorten it at all! It's only getting longer the longer I wait and no matter how much I pull it won't shorten! Any ideas on other ways to shorten it? I don't want the little mohawk because he's green so when we're jumping I still need mane I just don't need it this long.

My horse had no muscle in his body when we got him months of lunging and riding have made him start building it up but his hind end is not as much developed yet. Now that we've started introducing him back to jumping he really needs those hind muscles because he's been letting his hind end just drop down and often knocking poles. So any ideas on or off his back for building them up, although as of right now no cantering under saddle only on the lunge or free lunging.

My horse is green he is doing w/t very well though and my trainer has been cantering him with no problems for the past 2 rides and thinks she found the trick to get him to not gallop off so next week we have arranged for me to canter him in a private lesson. But I want some fun things to do w/t with him because we're both getting bored with it! Right now halted I lay on him my feet on his hind end, walk with my legs infront of the saddle flaps (I plan to trot him like this tomorrow), walk side saddle (my balance does not allow for trotting), w/t bareback, walking bareback with just a halter working on his whoa and turning off my legs, 2-point, posting, sitting, no stirrup work through all 3 of those, all of these we do while bending through cones and serpentines, we have done leg yeilds and turns of the forehand/haunches, jumps small jumps (not bareback and not with no stirrups im not used to his jump enough for that yet). All of this has helped him relax and just focus on what im telling him to do and not freak out when im doing some odd thing on his back, but now he's used to all this and I want some other things to do! any ideas? we also do ground work but im just looking for riding ideas