I Ride Ponies

So today I was hacking my pony down the beach. She had previously had 6 weeks off lame, and this was her second ride back. We were just walking for half an hour down a flat beach, and she was behaving very well.

About 5 minutes from where I usually dismount to lead my pony home up the road, we walked past a pair of children who looked about 4 or 5 playing with trucks and digging holes in the sand. I allowed my pony to take a good look, but she wasn't worried so we just kept walking.

Just as we were past the kids, putting them in her blind spot (and mine, I was watching the beach) the boy with the truck (who had previously not appeared to notice us) shrieked *PONY* and raced up to us making truck sounds. Right up ponies butt. My mare (more from the suddenness than anything I think, shes not scared of small children or trucks typically) leapt in the air, and kicked out, then gave a big buck. I didn't lose my seat or anything, (I don't having very good *riding posture* but It takes a bit more than that to worry me on horseback!) but I didn't know what spooked her, and hearing what sounded like crying behind me, I turned her around (my pony was relaxed now. She relaxes quickly after spooking) and saw the boy. But the kid was laughing his head off, like it was the biggest joke in the world! I glared at him, told him to stay away from horses butts in the future.

Do you think, If my mare had made contact with the kid, would his parents have grounds for a lawsuit? If it counts for anything, Both me, the kid and the horse are minors but I am legally old enough to babysit and be home alone while he wasn't. The only adults within sight (it was a lonely deserted beach) was my mother, around 200m away looking at a rock. We were on public land, and horses are allowed on the beach in my area. they are also considered legal mode of transports in my area.

So if my ponies hoof and hit the kid, would I have gotten sued?

Shes got something (with a long, technical veterinary name) wrong with her stifle. Its really stiff, giving her an odd stride. Shes not on stall rest, shes on very-small-flat-paddock-without-buddies-to-gallop-with-rest. Shes not supposed to be ground worked, cause the sharp turns, little jumps and circles will not help her heal. Shes definitely not supposed to be ridden, or hand walked on hills (and cause her paddock is at the top of a hill, I can't hand walk her cause to hand walk her we'd have to go down a hill, then back up again. Bad for stifle.) She has to stay like this for ATLEAST another 2 weeks.

Both me and her are totally bored, we've done so much grooming you can practically see my face in her coat, and if I teach her anymore *cute tricks* I'm going to start forgetting the cues! I'm plain out of ideas for fun stuff to do with her.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

SO at teh beginning of teh week me and a friend had a bit of a fight... It ened with her throwing things at me and screaming at me and me slapping her. Like, teh enxt day we were totally cool again, shieking about some guy who asked her out and stuff. SO like, it was no big deal.

However, turns out some girl saw part of it happen and told the principal, and now the schoolw ants us to have *regaining friendship* counselling together and all kinds of weird stuff. I told my friend and she was like, WTF? We're both completely happy with each other, (I'm going to her house this weekend) but somehow the teachers haven't got the memo! Me and frined and both soo peeved (at teh etachers, not each other) and don't know what to do. We don't want counselling, and we're already friends!

Seriously. What evidence is there that it actually exists anyway? And I mean evidence I can see and touch, not just lists of figiures and quotes I can't understand.

Hi there guys.

I own a 7 yr old Arabx mare. Shes very nice, not pushy or nasty or whatever. Shes an awesome trail horse, quite a clever jumper and while shes not perfect, shes pretty cool.

However, I really wanna try some natural horsemanship with her. Not cause shes a bad or *problem* horse, but because it looks fun and I can see how some of the stuff you teach the horses to do would be really useful. I'm not so interested in clinton anderson, but I really like the look of pat parrelli and monty roberts. One of my friends is really into NH and her horses are some of the best behaved horses I've ever met (I used to have a trail buddy who was the top junior dressage rider in the country, even her top ponies were not as well behaved and well rounded as my friends NH trained horses.) so I think it could be a really useful skill to have, both for me and my pony. Shes going to lend me the DVDs and stuff, and walk me through it so thats pretty cool.

The only problem is that my mare isn't... Normal. Her mother died at a young age, so she was bottle reared and doesn't have good *horse* skills. She doesn't get on well with other horses and doesn't seem to form bonds with them/or look to them as a *herd* If I turn her out with a bunch of other horses, for the most part she'll stand around looking lost or stand at the gate nickering for me, very uncertain. I know NH is about thinking like a horse, but if my horse doesn't think like a horse, I don't see if it will work!

I don't know, what do you think?

Yesterday on my trail ride I was riding a way I hadn't been before. Suddenly, on the edge of riding through some low bushes, my horse stopped and refused to move. I growl her, telling her to get up. It was so unlike her to blauk on a trail, so we spend some time walking back and forward through those bushes, but I could feel she really didn't want to do it. Even on the way home she still wouldn't go through them nicely, so I was quite annoyed at her. She had never acted like that before. I remember riding away from those bushes feeling a slight stinging across my legs.

Turns out those bushes were stinging nettle.

I have huge rashes right up and down my legs now from them, they hurt but don't upset me as much as feeling bad for making my pony go through those bushes when SHE KNEW not to.

She has a slight rash, quite mild. The vet gave me some cream for it. But I still feel TOTALLY guilty.

How can I make it up to her? I feel soooo bad. She behaved brillantly for the rest of the ride.

She thinks to make a horse go you kick it???

My horse goes when I cluck and squeeze with my thighs. Whats wrong with her? Should I slap her? (the friend, not the horse)

BTW: shes leaning over my shoulder as I type this.

Hey there, My pony gets kinda nervous when the other horses leave her, and I'm wondering wat to do about it?

Shes not nervous when SHE leaves them, not at all! If I'm riding or leading her shes like, "Oh, we're leaving? Cool! So are we going trail riding? or for a lesson?" And shes like, totally chilled and walking away calmly, not turning to look back at the other horse which may be calling and pacing or anything like that.

And if I'm on a trail ride, and I want to canter, and the other rider does not, shes like, "Ok, Sure!" and just pops into canter and canters away from the other horse easily, not trying to slow down or anything, and when I want to stop I just stop her, turn her around and canter back and she doesn't try to race back at all. (Tho keep in mind that I am cantering for about 200m before I pull up and ask her to canter back) So shes really good there.

And if we're on a ride, and my friend loses her dog so she has I ride up into the gorse and bush to look for it, and my horse is left standing there, shes like, a touch nervous but shes not panic or calling for her friend or anything and she just stands and waits or walks around a bit while we wait.

And if m friend goes on a ride and I don't, and maybe I go up and groom her by herself or whatever and shes like, a touch nervous, but once again, shes still listening to me and stuff.

But if my friend takes her pony on a trail ride, and the reason I'm not coming on that ride is because I'm at a friends or whatever, and she goes and takes her horse outta the paddock and leaves mine there, without anyone to be with her and comfort her, then she gets REALLY nervous, and she runs up and down the fence line and my friend finds it really hard to get her horse away cause then her horse will start getting herdbound too and big panic situation!

And when m friend told me that my horse was REALLY bad when she went to take her horse out of the paddock, i was so shocked cause she never acts herdbound when i ride her or anything so yea.

Any how, I wanaa know how to fix it. Do ou have ant ideas.

FIRST QUESTION

Hi, I need some help with helping my pony gain weight.

Her name is Shakira, BTW.

Shes kinda on the thin side, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being dangerously obese and 1 being almost dead skinny, shes about a 4. Shes an Arab, and shes not such a good doer. She has *ridiculous* amounts of grass, (we have about 40 acres available to her, sectioned off into 2acre blocks and I move her paddock every week so she ALWAYS has the best grass. And If we run out of grass, all we have to do is mow some gorse ad ta-da! More grass.) And she gets two double handfuls (that's both hands cupped together, making the biggest handful I possibly can) and one single handful of Dunstan Eezy Mix every day. She won't eat any more feed if i give it to her. I don't have her on any supplements, but if shes been sweating hard after some hill ride I give her some electrolytes (human stuff) to get her level of that back up. She has nice energy levels, I'm a novice rider so I can't have her too excitable, but shes just right. Shes hot, and forward, but shes easily manageable.

Shes;

7yrs old.

In moderate work (ridden 3 or 4 times a week, with 1 or 2 of those times being schooling, like jumping lessons or pony club, and the rest being hacking.)

I do not think the work she is doing is to much for her because the only time she ever sweats is when i do hill-work with her (riding up hard hills) and I only do that for like, 20mins at a time. The rest of it, even after a jumping lesson where we jump like 50cm shes fine. So sweat, no puff.

She was wormed recently and I believe her paddocks to be mostly worm-free, She was the first horse to be put on them in like, 6months, and I wormed her before I put her on them, and her paddock mate when she came like a month ago was wormed first to. And I endeavor and her paddock mates owner endeavors to remove poop regularly from the paddock, so i do not think that is the problem.

This is the first year she has been on these paddocks.

This is the first year she has had trouble with weight during winter.

Her paddock mate has no problems, in fact, her paddock mate is a bit chubby and is in about the same level of work as her.

I kinda suspect that perhaps it is a problem with the quality of the grass, not the quantity and she just needs to be put on some sort of grain based feed.

I do not think hay will help because hay is just bulk and she has enough bulk in the form of large amounts of grass.

I want to put her on a feed that will help her gain weight, but wont make her crazy.

I can't just go down to my local feed store and ask because we don't have a local feed store. So I need to decide what type of feed I want first, then order it.

SECOND QUESTION

When I go to put the bit in my ponies mouth, as soon as I hold up the bridle she lowers her head and begins opening and closing her jaws, stretching them really wide and licking her lips.

I heard that foals lick there lips in the presence of older horses to tell them *don't hurt me, I'm just a baby!* Does this mean shes scared of the bit?

So yesterday I was gonna go on a trail ride with my friend, and shes like, "Hey lets go to Shipwreck bay?" and I'm like, "its too far!" And shes like, nah, "i know a shortcut!" So I'm like, "okay..."

And so half an hour later, we ended up stuck on this horrible little trail, literally hook deep in mud, the trail was too narrow to turn back and so we ploughed onward...

Eventually we reached the beach. So we set off at a nice canter, (we coudl do that cause there was only us and one otehr group of people on the beach, so plently of room.) And we're just cantering calmly past this group of people on the beach, I turn and give them a wave, and these little horrible kids are all like, PONY! Who can hit the pony? So they up and start throwing sand at as! And not wispy little bits of sand, big like snowballs of sand! (sandballs, he he he.) So me and poor poy got sand balled, my poor mare was spooking and jumping sideways everytime a snadball came near her, and she got hit by a few too! of course, then we had to speed up to get away from teh stupid children, so we galloped teh heck outta there. And when we pulled up and I gave her a big pat for not throwing me when those kids started throwing thinsg. Anyhow, then we had to ride back along the horrible trail agian. And by teh time we got home, we were both plastered in mud (There was thick mud right up my horses neck) and tired, and hungry, and bruised (from teh sandballs) But my good little pony never stopped, never hesitated, shes such a game little girlie! And I am so proud of her.

So I really wanna tonight do something special to reward her. Somethign relaxing she will enjoy. Not just a standad groom or whatever, but something real special. Any ideas?

Whenever I lead my pony home from our trail rides (I have to lead my pony the last little bit because its along a road and even tho my pony is traffic proof I am not allowed to ride on roads) I turn UP the little side road to her paddocks but every time as I walk past this big bush, a dog leaps out from behind it barking at me and rattling its big chain and my pony spooks. Every. SIngle. Time.

When I am walking DOWN the road (at the start of my trail rides) we also walk down this road but because my pony can see the dog because the angle is different she sees the dog before it starts barking and rattling chains so she doesn't spook at all.

But when I walk UP the road my pony cannot see the dog before it jumps out so she spooks.

How can I stop her spooking? I don't want to lead her over to meet the dog because it is like a pitbull type and it might bite. I don't trust it.

I complained to the dogs owner but she said it wasn't her fault my horse was scared of her dog and it was on a chain so I should get over it.

Also my horse isn't sacred of otehr dogs, just this one because it jumps at her suddenly and she doesn't she it coming, one moment shes walking home quietly and next a dog leaps out of the bush rattling on a chain barking like craz and she spooks.

What should I do?

there is no other route to walk home on.

Having another pony walk up the road first doesn't help because my pony will just spook anyway.

My pony reeeeeaaaaaaalllly doesn't like standing still. Neither at liberty, under saddle or in hand. Since I started doing some NH with her (some parelli, some monty roberts, some clinton anderson and a mixture of other lesser well known trainers, I'm not cliquey. (lol)) Shes gotten better, you can now ask her to stand still and she will obey, but she'll not stay still for more than about 30seconds. When I ask her to stand still, she doesn't seem to care if or not you keep contact on her face when you ask her to stand still, and its kinda a pain cause I know horses are *supposed* to enjoy standing still as kinda a rest & reward kinda thing but shes a go-ey type horse and dislikes it. Even when shes in her own paddock and should be relaxed there se doens't like standing still. She seems to be a horse that loves to move, like shes an awesome ride because believe it or not she has a wonderful mouth and is nice and light but forward so shes a great PC horse apart frm teh standing still thing.

I think partly its cause shes an Arab and is quite fit so has a bit of energy to burn so doesn't like to stand still.

Buuuuut I dunno how to get her to stand still.

Even when shes tried after a long ride she doesn't want to stand still.

Any tips to teach her to stand quietly?

(PS: sorry for the bad spelling/rammar/english, yes I do attend school and am actually good at it but I have limited time on teh computer so I typing as fast as I can and not spell checking, sorry.)

So, I has two questions.

1. Is this a disrespect thing? Often when I am grooming my horse she turns and gently touches her nose to my arm. the odd thing as in a 30minutes of grooming she probably does this about 50 times, like, turn, touch, turn back.

I dont think she does it because she doesn't liek grooming because all teh grooming I do she doesn't waer a halter, we just do it standing in the paddock or in a yard and she just stands there and chills out.

Also, often when I am standing infornt on her she will raise her head and rest it on top of my head. Its not like she pins her ears or trys to push on me or something, its quite a relaxed sort of movement, but I dunnp if its a disrespect thing or a naughtines thing or just her thing.

I've seen horses in fiels put there head on other heads withers, is it kinda like that?

2. in a few days my pony is gonna get indroduced to another horse as a new paddock mate. The new horse is movig into her paddock, and i dunno how to introduce them to each other.

My pony is a 14h 7yr old, and teh new pony is a 13hh 20yr old.

We have two paddocks, a 2 acre paddock and a 10acre paddock, they are aproxx 100m apart and the fences of them both DO NOT TOUCH. SO they can't meet over the fence.

However we have heaps of hot tape so we an seperate them like that.

How do you think we should introduce them together? Is taking them for a ride together first a good idea? Should we let them meet each other inhand?

Any ideas for eitehr question?

(PS: Yes, I am very sorry i did not spell check and cause I only have a very small amount of time on teh computer so I am just typing very fast and not spell checking)

So we have to do a short story thing for my yr 10 English class. No theme, no restrictions... Just has to be fictional.

And I have no ideas.

I'm pretty good at English, I can write a killer essay, and critic books and novels, I can read a 200pg story in an hour, and I get a great mark in every part of English.

Except in fictional writing.

Because I have absolutely no imgaination.

And consentquently, no idea what to do for my story.

And I need help.

How do you guys write a good short story? Any tips/guidelines etc?

Cause i need it.

Hey there. xD.

This weekend I am going to tolt on an Icelandic pony for the first time ever!

Background info on Me: I am a long time horse rider, I have been riding for about 8 years. I own my own pony, an Arabx mare who is a very sweet little girl. xD.

Background info on Icelandic pony: Shes a 20 year old icelandic pony who is my ponies paddock mate, owned by my friend. Shes very well trained, and very sweet. I have never ridden her before. I have never done any gait on any horse before

Background info on how I came to be tolting for teh first time in a few days: Our riding instructor (me and my friends instructor) was getting us to talk about our goals for horse riding. I said wistfully that I'd always dreamed of someday trying out a gaited horse, and my friend mentioned she'd love to try to jump. We were both very surprised about what the other eprson said, I had never relised that she wanted to jump and she never relised I wanted to gait. Soooo, the next weekend she came to teh beach with me, I popped her on my mare and she experimented with trotting my (very talented but quiet) over a tiny crossrail that we set up on teh sand. It was my friends first jump ever (even tho she'd been riding for like, literally seince she could walk, always on gaited horses who could not jump tho.) and she found it heaps of fun. xD.

So this weekend we are going down to the beach again, but this time I am going to tolt on her Icelandic pony!!!

My first ever tolt!!!

So cool!!!

Any tips?

I Horseride, I started out just for fun, but now I'm getting really into it. I'm starting to ride 4 or 5 times a week, hard stuff, plus all the other around-the-horses jobs like hauling hay, shovelling dung, etc. I'm a fairly light, fit person usually, but all this exercise is starting to make me hungry, and tired. I'm losing weight, but I'm already quite light and I don't think weight loss is a good thing for me. xd. I suspect i need to eat a bit more, but what to eat? I'm only a teenager BTW, so i'm still growing too. xd.

Whats some good things to eat to get my energy up and stuff?

I love groundwork. xD. I've ben doing heaps of it with my horse, and I've really notcied the improvment in her manners. But I'm kinda out of ideas for things to do. Here what I do wit her so far...

Backing up.

Turning on quarters

Turning on forehand.

Trotting over poles

Trot 2 Halt 2 Trot

Lunging without lungewhip/rope

The first 4 of the Parrelli games.

Sacking out

Anyo ther ideas of fun stuff to do inhand on on ground with her?

BTW;, my reasources are, a beach, a large paddock (several of those) some poles, a few tarps, a lunge rope, a lunge whip, a riding crop and a webbing halter.

Also;, incase you are windering, Ionly do teh first four parrelli games cause we dont do teh fourth on so good (she is reluctant to back up when I wriggle the rope, shes better when I jsut tap her chest, or even just gently touch her chest while glaring angrily at it, but we are working on it and once we have mastered it then I will move on to teh next few games.)

Anyo ther ideas for groundwork?

My friends away for a few days, out of phone contact. I'm looking after her Icelandic pony, which doesn't bother me at all (I've known it for years, Its a sweet pony.) She wants me to exercise it on the lunge, and I have done that a few times now, and I want to try on the lunge exercises on it that I do on my own pony. One of them includes a circle of trotting poles, which I'd definately do on her except I'm not exactly sure wheather or not an icelandic pony does trotting poles! Since they don't trot and all. xD.

So is it possible for an icelandic pony to tolt over trottng poles?

And if so, what sort of striding would they have anyway?

Yesterday Me and my friend were riding my horse, taking turns. Her was her third turn and she was jumping on, she got on then when she asked my horse to go forward, my orse did a little rear, spun aroun dand started backing up. I was like, What the? M friend was rding nice she wasnt yanking up my horses mouth or anything, but my ony was like, playing up soo hard. So I jumped on, and the second I hit teh saddle she was like, Oh thats ok. Ad walked on calmly. No fuss, no growl minimum aids. Both me and my friend were asking my horse to d the same thing, at the same place, in the same way... For my friend she was realy bad and for me she was just normal? It was really odd, especially was she was good for the rest of teh ride.

My horse is sound, of both mind and body. Her tack fits and she wears a mild snaffle bit. Her teeth is done regually, she is wormed with nice hooves and in good working cndition. at the time of above incident she was not sweating or puffing, and we were heading home. She was being ridden on a loose rein and both me and my friend have soft hands.

It was so weird! I'm just looking for ideas of why you gys think it may have hapened.

My mum has finally let me get a mouse! I am really excited, while our family has a few pets already, I have always wanted a mouse (I think they are adorable!) and my said that when we move into our new house we can get one. xD

So any tips/tricks for a first time mouse owner? I got a bunch of mouse books out from the library, and this weekend we are going to go buy the mouse house. (cage). I have lready brought a small water bottle (one of those ones you hook onto the cage side) and some mouse food. And I've been talking to our pet shop owner about the bedding, shes going to find some for us. (we have a very small pet shop in town, and everything has to be requested then ordered in.)

So, what else should I get before I get my mouse?

And once I have my mouse, what can I do to get it friendly to me?

And should I get just one mouse, or two? I don;t want them to breed tho.

I'm really excited. xD

And I'll probably find some more questions later.