[QUOTE=Auventera Two;4141382]
You’re right. But knowing that my horse is ulcer prone, I won’t let her go hours without food now, that would be a disaster.[/QUOTE]
Understood. :yes:
[QUOTE=Shadow14;4141097]
Ground tying and munching don’t go together. When I drop a rein I don’t want my boy dropping his head and start grazing. He would step on the reins and all horses graze and walk at the same time.
I want him to stand perfectly still, head held normal with a rein hanging on the ground, NO EATING.
If I am going a distance from him I slip on a hobble which I always carry and again no eating.
Eating leads to trouble.
Horses that are stalled over night in the winter don’t eat all night, they run out long before dawn and just sleep or stand and wait. They can go without eating for a few hours easily. I see hundreds at the market saturday or at church sunday and they are not eating.[/QUOTE]
To each his own. Mine has been taught to give to pressure. If he steps on his rein he drops his head to relieve the pressure and figures out which foot needs to move to get free. I don’t want a robot. I want a horse who can think his way put of a bad spot and I am willing to give him some freedom to do that.
[QUOTE=rmh;4142505]
To each his own. Mine has been taught to give to pressure. If he steps on his rein he drops his head to relieve the pressure and figures out which foot needs to move to get free. I don’t want a robot. I want a horse who can think his way put of a bad spot and I am willing to give him some freedom to do that.[/QUOTE]
Good for you. Would you also put a halter on the horse, say a 20 foot rope and then attach one end to the halter and the other end to a stake in the ground or the tongue of the trailer and then go away for a few hours and trust your guy to not get in trouble staked out like that?? I have many times.
As for robot?? I don’t like that any more then Brain Dead. My horses just because they are well trained are not robots, they are thinking animals who know what is expected.
Eating on trail on command is like telling your husband that he can not look at a beautiful woman walking down the street until you give the command to do so… Right, as if he will wait for your OK.
Horse’s either eat on trail, or they don’t. If the mind is on eating they will always be looking to grab a snack.
My guys are tough enough to go without eating on a ride and yes I ran endurance for years and the only time they ate is at vet checks, no where else, never grazing on trail, never grabbing at leaves. Water yes, food no. If I want to graze a horse I slip the bit and put on my ever present neck rope,
NO BIT and then he may gaze.
Once the bit goes in nothing but water ever passes his lips.
I have ridden with lots of people with horses that only eat when told. those same horses are grabbing at corn stalks, leaves or anything else they can snatch.
My guys brain is working more in 6 months then most people expect their horses to work in a lifetime.
Boy, you’d love to live in my house then :eek: :lol: I AM usually the one pointing out the women to my husband. Why should I care if he looks at women??? 
It’s a free country and he can look at and oogle over anybody he wants. And likewise, I oogle over whoever I want. But then both of us are sort of a “new age” type and exceedingly liberal. 
:lol:
Anyway back to horses, Sweets really is an exceptionally well behaved and well trained horse. She doesn’t grab at corn stalks or tall grass unless I give her rein and tell her to go for it. Everybody does things their own way, and that’s just how I do it. Makes me happy, makes her happy, and judging from the endurance riders I’ve been on trail with, a lot of them do the same thing.
It’s very predictable because when you get to a grassy prairie type section of trail, you can see all the horses scattered up the trail with their reins out long, grabbing grass on the way through. You get through the grassy area, and everybody takes up their reins and canters on down the trail. I just thought that was normal. :o
Hay
A2 said: "Boy, you’d love to live in my house then I AM usually the one pointing out the women to my husband. Why should I care if he looks at women??? It’s a free country and he can look at and oogle over anybody he wants. "
My deal with my man is he can’t look unless the “melons” are so exposed with such “low cutted shirted-ness” for all the world to see then by all means, he is allowed to look. I will even point them out and say “it’s a melon day at the feed store.” I’m so sick of over exposed butts, boobs and bellies that I encourage the looking as that’s what the exposure seems to want and encourage.
Girls beleive it or not I will not NOT let my wife see me ugolling??? another woman. I think it is disrespectful to her:D so I look out of the corner of my eye.:lol:
Now Jamica on a topless beach it gets really tough:lol::lol:
Is this another thread that really went downhill
[QUOTE=pines4equines;4142724]
" I’m so sick of over exposed butts, boobs and bellies .[/QUOTE]
You mind your own business:D That is the only thing this old guy has left.
To look but not touch. It sucks to be old.
Nawwww, doesn’t bother me at all. I think I’m the worst instigator…“Oooh hon look at that! :eek:” :lol:
[QUOTE=Shadow14;4142583]
Good for you. Would you also put a halter on the horse, say a 20 foot rope and then attach one end to the halter and the other end to a stake in the ground or the tongue of the trailer and then go away for a few hours and trust your guy to not get in trouble staked out like that?? I have many times.
.[/QUOTE]
I have no reason to tie my horse to a bumper. However he can be tied to a stake and have no problems. Just because you have a problem with a horse that eats on the trail doesn’t mean others do. If they decide that is okay then that is their business not yours. I, for the most part, am happy with my horses trail behavior. He carries me through some very hard going. If I have lunch he can have something. He worked a lot harder than I did. You do what makes you happy and I will do what makes me happy.
I do agree there are way too many midriffs and rear ends being exposed today:eek:.
Bringing along what I hope will be my distance horse, I want to ensure that he’ll eat on the trail to take care of himself as we add on the miles. I try to stop at least once an hour while riding and let him graze for about 10 minutes - at least right now, while we’re still putting a base on him. I figure, anything I can do to prevent ulcers is worth it, no matter how minimal the effort is.
Huck likes to munch as he goes down the trail, but typically he only starts to nibble on passing tree leaves when we’re getting close to that hour mark or if we’re doing a long stretch of walking and he’s getting bored. I allow him to graze on passing leaves and grass ONLY if he continues to move forward and/or if the tree he’s selected is small and not going to swing back and hit me. He’s not allowed to munch on tall branches - and if he tries, he gets a reminder of a stern “No” and his head redirected elsewhere.
I had the same philosophy with my old show horse. He could graze as long as he kept moving. If it got to the point where he would try to nibble every couple of feet, I told him “No” and made him keep going. He got the hint pretty quickly.
Danielle
[QUOTE=rmh;4143052]
If I have lunch he can have something. He worked a lot harder than I did. You do what makes you happy and I will do what makes me happy.[/QUOTE]
I must have really offened you with my no eating on the trail ?? Stopping and eating lunch is totally another matter and at this point the saddles are pulled , the bridles are pulled and the horses are staked out. This is a long way from grabbing snacks along the trail while being ridden.
Again I am sorry I have offended you.
I am not offended. I just think it is a personal issue. I don’t like when he tries to est uninvited. Most the time he respects the end of the rein. The hard times are when the trails are so narrow he can eat with out moving his head and the giddy up command isn’t appropriate. Didn’t mean to seem terse. At lunch the bit comes out and the saddle is loosened. Many times there isn’t a good place to put the saddle and areas aren’t large enough to stake therefore the ground tying which he does pretty well. Sorry I took the topic past where it started.
I don’t allow grazing while riding except at a specific rest break, and then I either dismount and we all rest, or I push on my mare’s crest as a signal she can graze. I am very consistent about it and she doesn’t try to eat while we are underway. I hate when horses are constantly diving for grass, pulling on the reins! We might ride at most 3 hours, usually less, and on a shorter ride we won’t generally stop, but on the longer rides we usually stop where there’s a nice view or we want to take some pictures, and then we let the horses eat for a few minutes while we chat and adjust our jackets and so forth. If I’m riding a horse that is naughty about it, I ban grazing altogether for a while, until they stop trying.
I have ridden some horses that were very well trained to eat as they walked without interrupting their stride, and as it was a long all-day ride and that seemed to be what they had been taught, I didn’t interfere. None of them missed a step, just taking a mouthful or two from the verge of the trail when it wouldn’t interrupt the way we were going, or grazing when we stopped to open gates, etc. That was fine, too - they weren’t ripping the reins out of our hands trying to eat, like naughty ponies.
I have some friends whose horses will stop dead in the trail and munch. That drives me crazy. I have been limiting my riding time with them.:mad:
I was videotaping a friend’s young horse for sale and he obviously felt we were cutting unfairly into his grazing time. He could trot and snatch grass - it looked like a good way to develop the topline! He looks pretty good in the video as a result.
“Endurance horse!” she said.
If it was a major habit leading to rooting the reins away, it would annoy me. the occasional opportunistic chomp isn’t something I’d worry about too much. You can always shape that into a trained behavior by adding a cue, as another poster said they have, and then allowing it only when you cue.
I am a little disappointed though - I thought this was going to be a thread about trail goodies for people!
