:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
ROTFLMAO. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Isn’t there something about horses aren’t supposed to eat broccoli? Not sure about that one.
And I also don’t know how to poultice.
How to deal with a horse with an abcess!! I’ve never, ever had a horse with an abcess before two weeks ago.
Mind you, I knew it was coming… I just didn’t know how to make it better!!
I stripped down my bridle a few weeks ago and completely blanked out on which way the buckle on end of the reins faces.
Is that the first sign of Alzheimers?
Let me help you…
Blind spot behind is easy because if you’re standing behind him and cant’ see any of either eye, he can’t see you. And just like us, directly in front of his nose is a blind spot.
There’s a little debate about how vision changes when the horse raises and lowers his head, and somewhere I had found an interesting article that suggested horses forced into a certain frame were in a way forced to be ridden blind because of the angle & height of their head.
- Why the heck does the elastic part of the girth have to be on the mounting side? Never made much of a difference to me.
It’s there because that’s the last side you’ll tighten before mounting. You should be doing the last of the tensioning from the elastic side of the girth because it’s far easier to do (that’s why it is elastic). See, easy to remember. 
I wish I could keep breeding terms staight: sired by, out of, by
I can’t figure out draw reins because I’ve seen them put on different ways. I personally have no use for them. Maybe I’m just puzzled by their very existance.
I also wish I could keep farrier direction terms straight: medial, lateral, dorsal, whatever. Whatever happened to inside/outside, left/right, and top/bottom? :lol:
[QUOTE=JoZ;1999838]
I don’t know what it means (or what it feels like) to have my horse “in front of my leg”. Um, about half of him is in front of my leg and the other half is in back of my leg, and I thought that was kinda the goal.
[QUOTE]
And keeping them IN BETWEEN your legs and mean old Mr Gravity - there’s another goal!
I finally got walk/trot/canter down, WITH leads and diagonals - and went gaited. Running walk and rack - errr ummm - whats she doing NOW??? :lol:
I never ever got the peanut roller head set thing. What was up with that?
And the 4 beat canter thing…yuk.
Chicago skrews - can you say come off at the wrong time?
And just when you get the hang of a western cinch center fire rigging came along.
Just where exactly DOES the saddle pad go - how far forward - and that little lift that trail riders do to the pad to tuck it into the saddle and leave the back bone free and dry -does that really work??
Ugh – I get my diagonal wrong about half the time too. So annoying! I used to not have a problem with this, but after taking 5 years off from riding, there are a few things that are now problematic.
I do not know much about feet. What differentiates a good trim from a bad one, what types of shoes do what, what a balanced foot looks like, etc. Of all the things to be slack about, this, I feel, is one of the worst … no foot, no horse, right? 
Every time JB posts about feet, I go through and read her posts and look at the pics, if available, and try to see what she sees, but most of the time I am clueless.:no:
I know the textbook ways to give shots, but I’ve never actually given one b/c I am pretty darn squeamish about that sort of thing. (I don’t receive shots well either.) Now, washing/bandaging a wound, no problem. But shots squick me out.
I should have much better eq than I do for the amount of time I’ve been riding.
I don’t know how to put together a double bridle.
I don’t know how to walk a course (but I’ll be learning this soon).
On stall cleaning, a good technique that a friend once showed me was to remove all the obvious piles. Then locate your wet spot(s), pull the shavings away from them, dig them out, and toss the dry shavings up against the stall walls. Any random “apples” that didn’t get picked up with the piles will fall down to the base of the banked shavings and are easy to locate/scoop up. Then you can spread whatever you use to control ammonia and such and either let the stall dry out a bit or pull your dry, cleaner shavings back down from the walls and spread out on the floor, leaving a slight bank along the walls and in the corners.
I must admit, that after years of riding around in dressage arenas, I can’t remember the letters.
A Fat Bay Mare Can Hardly Ever Kick.
And I’ve never figured out how to get a martingale stop on without using language that would make a sailor blush and frighten small children.
It’s impossible. Even the two-hoofpick method fails.
I always have trouble feeling pulses, unless the digital pulse is strong. At least I’m learning to give shots.
I can’t put a bridle together if my life depended on it.
I have to look down to check both diagonal and lead.
Can wrap a leg.
Have a hard time seeing conformational flaws (other than obvious ones) or bad feet (other than obvious ones).
BUT – after once toying with breeding my Paint mare, I can tell you everything you need to know about color dominance, odds for getting pinto, blah blah blah!
Ok, here’s a question:
I am very good at knowing different kinds of bits, and what they do. Even if it’s a bit I’ve never seen I can look at the mouthpiece and where everything attaches and tell you this bit’s purpose.
HOWEVER, there is one bit that I thoroughly don’t understand and it’s fairly basic (I think atleast). It’s a 3 ring. I have one, ride in it a lot, love it, know what it does for my horse (hense why there is confusion). Most people call it and “Elevator Bit” and I"ve heard people fussing about people combining those with Running martingales (Mixed messages and all). BUT, if you look at the bit and how it is put together it looks obviously to be a bit with leverage therefore encouraging a horse to drop his head because it puts direct pressure on the Poll. When I use it on my horse this is exactly the effect it has. I even use it with 2 reins sometimes (weird idea I came up with one weekend that actually worked really well). One rein on the big hole so to act like a basic snaffle, and one rein on the bottom ring to give extra leverage only when needed.
So WHY is it called an Elevator bit??? Why do people think you shouldn’t use it w/ a martingale b/c of mixed signals? Seems those 2 things give very much the same signal…? Someone please explain. I’m obviously missing something here!!!
[QUOTE=Zig;1999723]
Umm… from the daughter of a rocket scientist, we have the admission that she barely knows her right from her left… thank god for the L on the left hand.[/QUOTE]
Um, I hate to tell you this but there is an “L” on the right hand also.
For a Dyslexic that ol’ “L” thing was never very helpful.
Nope, digital, as in digits and foot. Distal and proximal just refer to where you are on a limb or body part. You feel the digital pulse in the distal aspect of the forelegs. The horse has distal pulses all over his body, but only four digital pulses.
Bridles
There are many of you saying you can’t put a bridle together…
Back when I was a wee lass, our pony camp always had us take apart and put back together a bridle, blindfolded. Whoever did it fastest got a Hershey bar.
It was an awesome teaching tool, because now I can put together any bridle, any time, without thinking about it.
Now you ladies over the age of 21 could do the same thing as a drinking game. Whoever puts the bridle together fastest (blindfolded) gets a glass of Cabernet. Or something. I guarantee you won’t have any more problems with bridles.
Breeding terms
Breeding terms are easy! “Sired by” is the same as “by”- I can’t tell if you think these are different. “Out of” a mare, because the horse literally came out of the mare!! They don’t come out of stallions!
But I don’t know half the stuff you guys know, probably because I don’t ride or have a horse… I’ve never seen a horse colic, and I am always afraid that if I see it I won’t know what it is, or won’t notice.
[QUOTE=JCS;2000160]
I thought of this while reading the recent threads about nosebands. How the heck do you know if a horse “has its tongue over the bit” or is “crossing its jaw”?? What does that feel like to the rider?
And also, why in the name of god would a horse want to put its tongue over the bit–when I think about the underside of MY tongue, it makes me think it would hurt like heck to have the bit under there.[/QUOTE]
The handfull of times I have had this happen was when I was longing a horse with side reins on. He would be going around and if he started to resist the side reins all of a sudden he would start flinging his head and would put up a huge fuss. He had gotten his tongue over the bit. :rolleyes: It is generally pretty obvious b/c like you said it definitely isn’t comfortable!
Just where exactly DOES the saddle pad go - how far forward - and that little lift that trail riders do to the pad to tuck it into the saddle and leave the back bone free and dry -does that really work??
Its always good to lift up the saddle a bit and really pull the saddle pad into the gullet. I think its to make sure you aren’t putting undue pressure on their withers or across the spine.
I have never used studs on shoes, so I know nothing about those.
I also don’t know how to poultice, give injections, or check pulse!
Diagonals I can do, but I suck at feeling leads on a straight line.
To make myself feel better, I will pat myself on the back for knowing how to wrap legs, braid, clean stalls, and put bridles back together! 
Anyone want to teach me the others though?
I have no idea how to french braid and thus cannot braid a tail.
I’m good with leads and diagonals (trainer made us practice feeling with eyes closed) but cannot see a distance to save my life.
Too squeamish for shots
I wish I knew more about the fine points of conformation
I know the concept of “in front of the leg” but in practice…not so good
It’s been years since I’ve done bandages of any kind so I’ve really forgotten
We should have a COTH Pony Camp… I would be happy to share my can’t miss techniques for tail braiding and bridle assembly if someone wants to give me the crash course on emergency equine medicine and intro to farrier-y. My current shoeing knowledge tops out at “looks right” and “doesn’t look right.”
So, I’m ok with most of the stuff mentioned here but I am embarrassed to admit that I can not, for the life of me, properly attach a curb chain on a pehlam. I know it has to lay flat and goes on the hooky thing but on which side of the bit, how tight should it be.
None of my horses go in a pelham but whenever someone else at the barn asks me to help them, I can’t do it.
Oh and don’t bother trying to get the stopper on a martingale without cursing. We should check with a physics professor, but I’m pretty sure it is NOT possible to get the stopper on without using a couple of 4 letter words as grease.
