amanda

My QH mare is about 15.2 hands and 14 yrs old. I am advertising her for half lease and had an experienced lady come out to test her. Now my horse is sweet and has never reared or bucked before. She needs an experienced rider but I have given some beginner friends pony rides on her before, complete strangers with no problems. This lady was larger then me I am about 100-110lbs she had to have been 150-200lb i am guessing. Now we put her saddle and girth on and everything was fine until she mounted. She walked forward then began walking backwards and rearing repeatedly and began refusing to move forward. She almost flipped two or three time. She has NEVER EVER done this. I was horrified and appalled after the lady dismounted she still refused to walk forward until after we loosened the girth. I switch tack got on and road her she was a little on edge from the freak out but she moved forward and no rearing. Switched saddles using my girth and a riser that i normally use with my saddle then I got on her and she backed up immediately(normally she walks forward or stands). I got her walking forward and trotting but she had a small attitude and was very quick and tried to break into the canter the whole time. Next day I tried her and she was moving the same way with her head up and quick and trying to canter at least once every time around. My guess is she pulled something rearing so she is being treated for that but I am not sure why she did to begin with. She has never reared before but I don't know if it was the tack or the lady's weight that may have caused her to rear to begin with. Just looking for opinions. The lady was willing to try again with different saddles later when she is better but if it is because of her weight obviously I don't want my mare in pain or seriously injuring herself. So opinions ect. Please don't tell me I was stupid for even letting her on but she was experienced and my mare is a stocky QH and I thought she would be ok with it.

Ok this may be long not sure just felt like warning you. Today I went to the barn where I board my horse. My instructor/friend was getting one of her child students ready for a lesson and I went to get my brushes and muck bucket and stuff to clean out my stall. My instructor and I just said hi and I started cleaning my stall and she and her student finished up grooming the horse. Well the child went to grab her helmet, and the lunge whip and line in case they needed it in their lesson, it was their routine since the child was too short to reach for putting on the tack. So while my instructor was putting on the pads/saddle/girth/and bridle I struck up a small conversation with her about some horse property I had found and was thinking about getting it was just like 2-3 minutes long or however long it takes to get all the tack on. She just started putting the bridle on and then go out with the student and we were ending our little conversation when the mother came up and said, "When is her lesson going to start? I thought it was at 12:15 and it is 15 passed and we are paying for an hour." My instructor, "Yes it is at 12:15 but that includes the tacking up and untacking."(it has always included that and they had been there for a about a year). The mother, "Well to me it seems you always get distracted, get into a conversation with someone or someone is always riding with her(the child) and she isn't getting enough attention and you are cheating people out of their money..." It went on but at that point I had disappeared to hopefully help defuse the situation as I sort of felt I was the reason she started that. Well it ended with my instructor sending her home and telling her to find a new barn to better suit her needs.It really upset my instructor that this lady accused her of cheating people out of money. Though it is true sometime things come up and lessons get a few minutes behind but then she just extends it past the set hour (the one hour includes tacking up and untacking) like if you have a 1pm lesson but don't get on until 1:45(to be extreme) she still has you riding for 30 minutes to an hour before you get off to untack the horse to be fair, going over the 2pm end time. Also if there are back to back lessons the one finishing is untacking while the one starting is tacking up to allow each person extra ride time. Now I apologized to my instructor for anything I might have done to cause that. She said I didn't and I explained to her how she doesn't cheat people out of money, ect as she was really really upset and she doesn't at all. The lady's child almost always rode in a private lesson unless weather caused my instructor to squeeze some extra people in on the other days but her group lesson always have no more then three riders and they never mentioned it bothering them ever in fact she always askes if someone minds riding in a group with someone else before booking it. The only other time her child ever rode with someone was when a boarder or leaser showed up to ride. There is only one ring so we share it but we(boarders and leasers) are always doing our own thing and are not a part of the lesson at all in fact we concentrate on staying as far away from the student as we can so they do not have to figure out how to negotiate around another horse unless my instructor wants them to practice passing and negotiating for shows. As a rule I only do walk/trot if there is a child taking a lesson in the ring and I stay on the opposite side of the ring. No one talks to her when she is actually teaching unless to say you are heading out(so she knows you aren't floating around somewhere) or ask a quick question like if she wants a horse to go out or stay in for a lesson or feeding, ect. I'd just like to know everyone's opinion as I feel horrible about this like it was my fault. However, at the same time I am mad at the mom for implying that only her daughter should be in the ring regardless of the fact that it is the only ring we have and I pay 300 a month in board I do not take part in the lesson I just share the space. Also it isn't like I show up at every single one of her lessons it is always once in a while. Otherwise if I have to wait for a lesson to be over to ride monday-friday I'd have to ride either at like 7 in the morning or 7 or 8 at night or in the rain because most of the time my instructor teaches lessons throughout the day. I just would like to hear you opinion, do you think it should only be the student in the ring even if the other rider is not a part of the lesson or that the lady's argument was valid or not ect? Oh and my instructor charges $40 for a one hour lesson. Thank you.

Ok First off I have a lot of experience with a lot of animals but never had an issue quite like this. My husband has a quaker parrot he plays with it talks to it ect. It is very well taken care of with the right size cage and a strict diet to keep him healthy. His favorite treats are bananas and grapes. I have tried to befriend the bird by giving him his treats and trying to work with him when my husband isn't around as it is much worse when he is. I walk in the room and the bird puffs up, if i am near the cage he strikes at me through the bars and bites me if I am not careful. The last straw was the other week my husband had the bird out and was talking with his grandparents. The bird was glaring at me but I stayed on the other side of the room as we know the bird doesn't like me. Well then the bird flew across the room at me landed on me and attacked my ear violently causing it to bleed horribly and it hurt a lot, it actually still does. I have never done anything mean to the bird and have tried very hard to make friends giving it its favorite treats and being the only one who does. Now after the attack from the other side of the room i really want to rehome it, my husband doesn't. I don't like living with an animal that goes out of its way to attack me. Since my husband really wants to keep it is there anything else I can do to try and win the bird over?

Please no rude comments, I admit I am no parrot expert but I am no idiot either I just want to make it so the bird and I can co-exist happily.

Her name is Molly, but show season is coming up and I want something more creative as a show name instead of molly. She is a 15hh Chestnut(as shiny and red as a copper penny) with a perfect white stripe. She will show english on the flat and over fences. and suggestions?