PF…that’s why I gave up selling my horses that needed retiring. The last one (Scotty) lasted 1 month at his new home, before they called for me to pick him up. Seems that she had left him locked in a paddock for several weeks with no turn out or other exercise. She then showed up, threw an ill-fitted saddle on him, hopped on to show off for her friends (instead of lunging first) and sonn as she asked for canter, he bucked her off. 
When I dropped him off at her boarding place, I left with her detailed instructions on how best to care for him, how to warm up, even how to tack him up (!) because she was a beginner type. She completely disregarded everything I wrote and at the same time, couldn’t understand why he was “so different” at her place! I refunded their money (save 500.00 for driving 150 miles one-way to pick him up) and promised my poor guy he would never leave my care again. He practically climbed out of the paddock to get to me when I pulled up and for the first (and last) time, completely self loaded. In the end, it was a great decision to keep him as he made a perfect starter horse for my son later. True to my promise, he was pts in my pasture some 12 years later. While I have since threatened my other horses with being sold, they know I’m too much of a softie to ever do THAT again.
Paradox - I’m so sorry to hear about Katie, but please don’t beat yourself up about it. I know you put a lot of thought into rehoming her and made the best possible decision at that time. Unfortunately circumstances changed and you had no way of foreseeing that. I’m glad she got a happy ending with her former owner!
AEQ - I’m in your area too! I mostly compete in dressage, and also trail ride and jump my horse. I have a guess on 2 of your stables, wonder if I’m right. =) If your dressage place is what I’m thinking, I’ve taken my horse to their schooling show series.
We’re still enjoying lovely weather, though it was quite gusty today. We have rain headed our way, but hopefully it will be dry enough on Saturday for a trail ride. Cupid’s been doing well, I recently switched him to a verbindend bit with positive results. It’s been hard coordinating with my trainer, we still manage to get a lesson in most weeks but not as often as I’d like!
@SuzieQNutter - thank you for the welcome! The dance training definitely helps, though I’m not in my top conditioning anymore unfortunately (pre-COVID I was in the studio about 15 hours a week!). I’ve been doing a lot of pilates exercises actually, and they are definitely helpful, though even with those workouts, a single riding lesson is enough to reduce my legs to jello 
@ParadoxFarm - omg! I’m so so sorry to hear about this, and makes me so angry at the person she was sent to. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to hear that news. So is she now with the previous owner? Hopefully that will be a good situation for her and she’ll get the love and TLC needed for recovery.
@Sue_B - Wow the lack of care and I guess even common sense on the part of some of these owners! Leaving a horse with no exercise for weeks and just expecting the horse to go - they’re not robots.
@Training_Cupid - oh wonderful that we’re in the same area! And yes, I think we’re thinking of the same dressage place. I know they do run their own schooling series. Are you on the peninsula/Portola Valley area? And yep, the big lesson place is pretty obvious too haha. Isn’t it crazy how much the weather is changing this week? It felt like late spring this weekend and I was overheated and sweating in my lessons!
I love my dressage place and I’m learning so much, but I also realized how much fun it is to do something different at Stable 1 (this was the place I did my first two lessons, not the big lesson place. It’s a show H/J stable with a lesson program). I ride 3x a week at my dressage place but considering maybe dropping down to 2x, and riding the 3rd day a week at the H/J in their group lesson. It’s kind of weird maybe to be at two different places? But the dressage place only does dressage and it was fun getting a taste of H/J life too!
And to be honest, it’s kind of nice to feel more competent and that I can do stuff at the H/J place (whereas at dressage place I still struggle with posting consistently, yet I can do it on the correct diagonal and 2-point at Stable 1, and my instructor there told me I should be cantering within the month and beginning to jump in a few). I love the technical perfectionism of dressage but it is hard to feel progress at times.
AEQ- welcome, welcome. Glad you found our corner of COTH. I’m glad you get to ride/lesson so much, it can only help your progress and muscle memory. I try to ride once a week, if my schedule allows. Working prn in skilled nursing, my schedule has been nuts because of all the other therapists getting COVID.
PF- you always do right by your horses, you can’t help someone else’s incompetence, especially when they are devious. You literally gave her the best situation because she ended up where she began, not with a revolving door of ill suited riders. Sometimes people are just lousy.
PF I remember Katie fondly and that she was a Dressage horse with her previous owner. Am I a terrible awful person? that I cheered for Katie for bucking her off and injuring her, she totally deserved it in my book.
Another one here with a horrible thing happening to a horse I sold when I was a teenager. Hubby is the same as me that they are part of the family and don’t get sold. 3 are buried here so far.
AEQ don’t worry about posting. We don’t call it that here. We call it a rising trot. When you rise, beginners rise too high. It is not really up and down, it is more forward and back. With landing so softly in the saddle that you should not hear the landing.
We all know the force called gravity. There is another force that goes the other way. You use that to rise from the horse, you don’t actually make any effort. Allow the horse to push you up. Gravity brings you back down and you land softly as that is the horse’s back you are landing on and you want to be as comfortable as possible for them.
The rising will become so second nature that you will never think anout it again and you will just do it.
You sit twice to change your diagonal. You can also rise twice instead. That will tell you how strong your Core muscles are.
With trained dressage horses once you get off the beginner horses. It is your core muscles that ask the horse forward. Legs are only used for sideways, but I might be a few years ahead of you there.
Just for interest, the rising trot was invented in the days of using ponies pulling carts in the coal mines. The boys put on the ponies who didn’t rise ended up getting sick.
Welcome, @AerialEQ ! I love your enthusiasm for riding, and reading about all of your lessons. How marvelous to be able to immerse yourself into something you love and have longed to do. Go, you!
@ParadoxFarm I’m sorry to hear about Katie’s troubles, but glad that she’s back with her original owner. Don’t beat yourself up about it though. It happens. I had two similar experiences. One was with a big AQHA gelding I got years ago. He’s the horse that got me into showing AQHA hunter stuff for a large chunk of my riding career. He was a very nice horse, and we wound up doing quite well and even went to Congress and were finalists in Equitation. After that, I kind of felt like I’d done all I could do with him and wanted a new challenge. I wound up trading him for another horse in the barn (boarded at a training/show barn at the time). I knew the DAY I was leading my gelding over to put him in a different barn and stall and bringing the new horse into “my” stall that I was making a mistake. A couple of months later, my old gelding was consigned to a sale and the owners (who also owned the barn) were excited about having a “Congress horse” to sell and cash in on. Their “trainer” (not!) took my old gelding (old as in former, he wasn’t “old” at all) to a local show just to show him off I guess. He looked like crap. Hair coat had gotten ragged, he’d lost weight and condition. Didn’t even resemble the horse I took to Congress. She took him in a class and…he tossed her off and stepped on her (!!!). My mother was standing beside me at the rail watching it unfold, and she leaned over to me and said “Go get him before they pop a needle in him” (meaning drug him). I did go get him, took him out of the show ring and to a warm-up ring and got on him. Poor guy was frazzled for a few moments but I settled him and got him working like he used to and he seemed relieved. Well…I through a fit. Cried, blubbered, and begged his new owner/the BO to please let me trade back for the little black gelding (nice horse but meh…not MY horse). They weren’t thrilled as my gelding was worth a lot more (well, he was when I had him…I showed him to an AQHA ROM, multiple circuit champs, and a Congress Finalist…they couldn’t get him around an open show walk-trot class!)…but thankfully they agreed.
That horse stayed with me for the rest of his life. He died on my old farm and is buried out there with another of my heart horses. Good boys, both.
THEN, there was the gelding I raised, broke, trained, and showed myself that I decided at some point was going to waste in my pasture. He was a little Appendix AQHA and he was a cute little candidate for h/j as well as lower level dressage and eventing. He jumped well, did flying changes, and was just an all-around sweet and handy little (15.2) guy. He also did trail and showmanship at halter really well too. Just a neat horse. He was my “sensitive” horse, in that he wasn’t fond of a lot of hullabaloo at horse shows, especially warm-up rings, but he always tried his best. Very sweet. And VERY healthy. Always in good flesh (sometimes too good) with a slick, shiny hair coat. Never lame. Never sick. Never anything but the picture of health. I wound up rehoming him to a local person with a great reputation who runs a smallish lesson and showing barn, mostly dressage and combined training type stuff with some hunter/jumper too. She came out and rode him and did great with him, promised he’d be well cared for and that her daughter would ride him, etc. So, off he went, and I felt I’d done the right thing finding him a good home with a job he’d excel at.
A few months later I had a young horse out schooling at a big open show and I saw my little gelding’s new owner. She came up to me and was apologizing before I even realized who she was. She showed my my gelding, and holy $#%! My roly, poly, shiny horse was a scraggly rack of bones. If she hadn’t pointed him out, I would NEVER have recognized him. She assured me that they were working with vets to try and get him straightened out. I went up to him, and his usually smart, bright-eyed, inquisitive face was dull and distant. I couldn’t believe it was my horse.
One night few months later I received a text from her. They had to put him down. They just never could get him healthy and he’d had repeated colic episodes that were getting worse and worse. She didn’t want to put him through anything else, so they said goodbye to him.
I am 100% sure that if I’d kept that horse, he’d still be alive today. But at the time, I thought I was making the best decision. I’d just gotten Milton (current horse) and wanted to focus on him, and it made sense to let the other one go somewhere he could be used.
Anyway, that was two novels! Milton will stay with me until he crossed the Rainbow Bridge if I have anything to say about it. Speaking of the spotted wonder, he let me ride him bareback today! Walk, trot, and canter, and he was actually really good! Even had a bit of soft foam in his mouth when we were done…like a real dressage horsey!
Thanks, all, for your kind words regarding Katie, and your stories. I don’t feel quite so alone. I received a picture of Katie from current (and first) owner. Broke my heart. The “woman” who had her didn’t even groom her before shipping her out. Her feet look terrible, she’s super thin and rough, and honestly, just looks unloved. I hate it. And her halter didn’t fit her. Poor girl. I’m really thinking about sending “that woman” an email asking how this happened. I doubt she would even respond, but I may do it anyway. I entrusted her with Katie’s care. I gave my beloved horse to this woman. Just because a horse is free doesn’t mean it is worthless. Here is a picture of her the week she left my barn.
I’m tempted to post the picture of her from the other day. I think I will. I can always delete it soon.
Oh, bless @ParadoxFarm. No wonder you’re upset. At least she’s back in caring, capable hands now. It just makes you really wonder, doesn’t it?
I will say, I’m a firm believer that for some horses, switching owners and homes just isn’t easy. Others seem to handle it with no issue, but some of them really struggle. Katie knows she’s back “home” now, I bet, and will be thriving in no time. This is just how my two looked when they left my care. It’s heartbreaking to see.
Hugs
@ParadoxFarm those pictures are tough. I know a lot might be attributed to a fuzzy coat, but she doesn’t look like the same horse.
So happy she is home and safe. Are you able to visit her? That might help.
PF- wow. At least you laid the foundation for her to end up with her original owner. She looks happier in the last pic.
Welcome, @AerialEQ! It’s never too late to start riding, and the world always needs more horsepeople in it. Which brings me to…
@ParadoxFarm, I am just so sad to hear/see what happened to Katie. The flat look in her eye in that last picture is awful. I’m glad that she’s with someone who will value and care for her. Jingles that she’ll start feeling safe again soon. And speaking of retirees…
One of the barns I was riding at has suspended their lesson program until March. Many of their schoolies were approaching retirement age, and it has been a challenge to find sound, sane replacements. (Especially horses who have the size/more technical skill set for older teens and adults, rather than 13h walk/trot critters.) So they’re pausing lessons to invest the time necessary to find, settle in and train several new prospects rather than continue to limp along piecemeal.
While I’m of course glad to see the barn doing the right thing by their older horses, this cuts my saddle time by a third. I can pick up another day at my other barn, but they have no out-of-ring riding options and I am going craaaaazy with nothing but schooling figures. (Yes, I know they’re good for me in the long run, but so are Brussels sprouts. And while I enjoy them, I want to occasionally have a cheeseburger instead. Or an open field and some hill work.)
got some Pony time today, thanks to an unexpected Saturday off work. Man, it was good to be at the barn. I’ve been off the chain anxious for the last two weeks, and the minute I saw Pony, and swung a leg over, it all melted.
We had the best ride we’ve had in a long, long time. Walk/trot, somewhat frame, she moved like she used to when we were in serious show prep. The September show is looking better and better. She even knew how good she did and wanted all the snuggles.
Side note- Fab said I could totally show her under Better Than A Xanax
Got to meet the newest girl, Kardinal. Man, she’s a beast. Every bit of 16.2 and not the slender build type. Well muscled, big heart girth, solid, solid girl. Once she settles, Fab said I could definitely ride her, as she was the Amish family’s riding and driving horse.
@luckymaverick…I love Better Than a Xanax! LOL! Ain’t it the truth, though? Other than my mortgage, Milton is by far my largest monthly expense between board, farrier, and supplements (my god, the supplememnts!). But he is worth it because without him I’d definitely be paying a lot to a therapist.
I took advantage of a recent dry streak (before the rain comes again on Monday and settles in) and rode up in the big field today. It was a brisk and windy day, and Mr. Milton is about as fit as he’s been in his entire life. He was a good boy, just a few good-natured scoots when a gust of wind would blow up his butt. I forgot how much more forward he is out in the field. Put him in the outdoor arena down by the barn or the covered dressage arena and all of his will to go just dies. But in the field he’s full of (mostly appropriate) energy. Trot to canter transitions are absolutely effortless because he’s so nice and forward. In the rings he’s lazy and behind the leg and always tosses his head and reluctantly drags himself up into the canter. He’s been getting better, and I’ve even gotten him lunging with his head and neck nice and stretched, moving from behind and cantering around like that. He’s definitely building strength in his back and it showed today. Hoping to do the same tomorrow. Then he’ll get some days off due to weather and work. I’m hoping there will be some dry afternoons that I can lunge him after work.
Anyway, happy riding, everyone!
@RhythmNCruise thank you for the welcome! Haha yes, it’s a personality trait of mine - when I find a hobby I love, I throw myself in full force. Also wow I am so glad you got your Congress horse back! I’m sure he was relieved as well
@luckymaverick Thanks for the welcome! Oh my, well first kudos and thank you for working in healthcare. I can’t imagine how stressful it must be right now, especially if others are coming down with COVID. I am so so hoping these vaccine rollouts start ramping up everywhere. So excited for you that you got some pony time and that it went well!!
@ParadoxFarm That poor girl!! How does an owner, someone who presumably knows about and cares about horses, allow any horse to get to that condition? Breaks my heart.
@SuzieQNutter Good to know - thanks! I’ve learned so much from the dressage place and especially about thinking of the rising trot more as a pelvic tilt forward and back rather than a straight up and down. Now, I have to remind myself to do that consistently of course! Did not know about that coming from ponies pulling carts - what a fun fact!
@AllTheCarrots thank you for the welcome! So happy to join the community!
@ridernc how serendipitous that you found the Morgan X mare! Would love to see pics at some point!
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So today I opted to take another group lesson at the H/J barn. I felt not nearly as bone-tired exhausted as I did last week. Last week I could barely walk back to the car! Rode the same horse, who is a little spicy as others have described, but we seem to get along fairly well. I also accidentally baby jumped over a ground pole and cantered. He was trotting a little too quickly, and I didn’t shorten the reins enough. It was totally fine and I felt in control but not what I had been planning!
With that said, I think, despite my good experience at dressage place, I might want to move full time to an H/J barn (a different place that is highly recommended by a friend). They also require 2x a week so I’d have to choose between them and dressage place, due to finances! I like many things about new H/J place including that they emphasize a classical dressage foundation on the flat. Seems like the best of both worlds??
Arieleq I would go for the second place. Jumping is dressage over obstacles. Lessons should also be social and fun and twice a week if you can afford it would be fantastic for progress.
I agree with Susie, I vote for the second place!
Rider- congrats on your lease. I didn’t realize what a struggle your previous lease was!
So I have a theory, and I’m not sure if it’s nerves or a legit way to school: Pony and I are getting fitter each ride which means lots of walk/trot, working trot, all the trot things. However when we show, it may be canter. My thinking was build our overall stamina with trot work, since it’s not like we can’t canter nicely together. The canter work should fall into place once we are fit, and as Fab puts it, I can “ride the hair off the Pony.” That never fails to dissolve the fear bird and butterflies. I always talk myself out of cantering so Fab usually just springs it out of nowhere.
Trot is the training gait.
On a green, unmuscled horse, trot work will help muscle the horse and increase fitness without cantering and the cantering will be better.
On a trained horse like Pony she will have muscle memory and will be able to canter. I presume she is having lessons with others in canter, so it is not like she is never cantering.
Tell Fab I have told you to let out a Yahoo the next time you canter. Let’s get rid of the fear bird and let you find cantering is fun instead.
Suzie- I forgot about the training gait. Once we are fitter, we will canter. Others do ride her and maybe one other canters her. If I ask nicely, she’s darn near auto. Not push button passenger, just a Pony who will do correctly when asked correctly
