The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Horse talk for 20-somethings

187K views 3K replies 156 participants last post by  KigerQueen 
#1 ·
So the young whippersnapper teenagers :)-P) get their own forum, and the mature folk over 40 get their own thread so I thought I'd make one for us 20-somethings.

So how goes the 20-somethings on this here Horse Forum?

I guess I should introduce myself as I'm a serial ninja member just reading and not posting. The name is Jess, I live in Australia and have dressage lessons once a week. I study psychology and have been riding "properly" since I was 19. One day, preferably before pension age, I hope to own my own horse. Alas, it's not the right time now.

Discuss dreams, vent, celebrate achievements and all things in between!
 
#2,931 ·
Meh Lizzy has been in a stall for a minimum of 18 hours a day since December. She loves it, stuffs her face full of food all night long. When it was really cold or just bad weather she would stay in. She was currently on stall rest again since Friday and just got to go back out today and she was fine all weekend. Didn't make much of a fight as long as she had hay and water. They adjust just fine.
 
#2,933 ·
Thanks, guys... I hate being so nervous, but I can't help myself. Snickers will get a jolly ball in his stall, carrots hidden in his haynet and apples to bob for in his water bucket. :D
 
#2,934 ·
Lizzy would be ****** if I poisoned her food with carrots and apples lol. She will take treats but only after dinner and they cannot touch her other food.

As long as he has hay he will be fine. I stuff about 20-30lbs of hay in Lizzy's hay net at night and sometimes she will actually manage to finish most of it. I will say she has gained a substantial amount of weight being in a stall at night. Which is what I wanted for her but Snickers might need to have that managed a little more.
 
#2,935 ·
Well, he'll be definitely getting a lot more exercise than he's getting now - an indoor arena is a huge benefit for that. He's a good-doer, but I hope that weight management won't be too big of an issue, and soon they will get out in the 24/7 pastures anyway. Might take some time to understand how much hay he needs to graze through the night, however.
 
#2,936 ·
I would just get a slow feed hay net and have a friend help you stuff as much hay in as you can. You can never have too much when they are stalled. You don't want them standing there without food. If he doesn't finish it all just fill the net back up ontop of the uneaten hay. Some days Lizzy will finish it all and some days she won't so I always just make sure it is as full as I can get it. She actually prefers to eat out of the hay bag then the ground.

If it seems he is eating a lot and gaining to much weight you can get two nets and fill one with the usual good hay then fill the other with lesser quality hay as more of chewing filler. So that way you can lessen the good hay but he will still have something to munch on and keep him happy.
 
#2,937 ·
Thanks for the advice. :) I already got two haynets for him, and one of my friends who is moving to this barn with her horse along with me, lives just 10 minutes from the barn and will help out with filling the nets. The BO herself swears that she's feeding the horses sufficient amounts of hay and they often still have hay left in the mornings, but we'll see how it proves. True, all the horses in the barn look very healthy and well nourished.
 
#2,939 ·
Yay, so happy right now!

I've been training groundwork to a young mare, who was almost untouched when I first met her. She had been owned by the gypsies who trained her to tolerate a rider at walk and trot, but she had been taught no ground manners at all, and, regarding the riding part - she was really just tolerating a rider, being very stressful and not trusting at all. After she was bought by her new owner, I was asked to help out, and it's been several lessons now, in which I've been desensitizating her to ropes, whips and unusual objects, dealing with her headshyness, teaching her about personal space, walking in hand, disengaging fore- and hindquarters, backing up, being sensitive to pressure in the rope halter, backing up and the very basics of ground driving.

She's really a golden girl, very curious and a fast learner, just hadn't been given a chance to prove herself up to now. And today her owner shared with me that the BO of the barn where the mare is being kept, had advised the owner to get me coming to the mare more often, as her attitude and behavior appears to have hugely improved since the lessons started, and she's said to be visibly calmer and more trusting after I've visited her.

I can't even think of a better feedback! She's my first greenbroke horse whom I've been training from a zero with no assistance at all, so hearing how she's progressing in her everyday life by somebody who isn't directly involved with me, puts a huge smile on my face!
 
#2,940 ·
How are you all, 20-somethings? Been some time since anyone last wrote here - except myself. :D How's the weather? I can't believe it, but it is STILL snowing here and temperatures are still a little below zero (by Celsius) - and it's April! It feels as if the spring isn't coming at all.

And so, I moved Snickers to the new barn. We had to wait quite a time before loading, because two other horses were moving before us, and one of them had severe loading issues. But, when our time came, Snickers just followed me in the trailer like a champ and off we went. I was able to see him in the trailer via a GoPro camera that was installed above him, and he was a good boy while being trailered, too - just a little bit of pawing when we stopped and a little bit of neighing when he got impatient.

He has accepted being stalled overnight well, and is currently turned out in a large paddock with his two other buddies from the previous barn. Yesterday a beautiful, HUGE mare was let in with them and she really took liking in Snickers, so they both frolicked and flirted around for a while. :D We later went on our first trail ride, followed by the mares' rider, and Snickers did his best to show off and act as a stud around her. :D He was very feisty on this ride, but we managed to keep our calm - most of the time - and the experience was nice, except for one stretch of canter when he tried to get off in gallop, so I had to get rather strong with my cues to slow him down. We hadn't ridden in a while and he was a bit too full of energy...

Also, he got to meet a tiny pony stud - the little thing is no larger than a Shetland, but I don't know his breed. Snickers was amazed, as he had never seen such a small, horselike thing, and pranced around him with an arched neck like a stud himself, trying to get a hold of the pony and sniff him. The pony, bless him, did everything in his power to freak Snicks out as much as he could. :D

So, overall, it is going well, but I sure hope that pasture season comes soon and horses won't be stalled overnight anymore. The people in the barn seem to be nice, too.

Don't have any pictures yet, though. :)
 
#2,941 ·
Glad all seems to be going well at your new barn,Saranda. :)

My poor horses haven't been getting much attention the last few weeks;I've been struggling with health issues,and then our lambing season has been going full force so I've been very busy with that. Except for the occasional grooming,which always results in enough shed hair to stuff several pillows,lol,they've been enjoying just being horses and some time off. :) But something I'm not too pleased about,Lena and Missy have lice! :( It appears to have come from the ranch that Missy and Carmella came from,as they're having an outbreak of lice there.I've been treating them with a lice powder and will deworm with Ivermectin their next deworming,which is due soon.Any thing else I should be doing/treating with? Missy had rubbed off a huge amount of hair on her neck very suddenly,which clued me into the fact that something was up. I've never had to deal with lice before;I've heard that they can be hard to get rid of,so hopefully that's not the case here..
And SPRING has actually shown up for a few days,it's been wonderful!Sunshine and above 0C,lots of snow has melted,although there's lots to go.There's not as much standing water as everyone expected there to be,so I imagine the ground must be very dry and thirsty;we did have a very dry fall..
 
#2,942 ·
make sure you wear gloves around them! You don't want them ******s jumping onto you. Wash your clothes as soon as you are done with the horses and wash them in HOT HOT HOT water to kill anything that might be living on them. Also try to rake up their shed hair and bag it and throw it or burn it to prevent the lice from transferring to your sheep
 
#2,943 ·
The thought of those ******s crawling on me (although I've heard that these type of lice can't live on humans,but still) gives me the heebie jeebies,so I've been wearing gloves and changing clothes.I've also been keeping separate the grooming supplies I use on them,and dusting them with powder after I use them.Good point to wash the clothes right away though,and dispose of the hair.I thought of the sheep as well,since they're beside where the yearlings are,so we checked them over when we sheared them recently and they're clear,so far.. Any idea how long the lice can live when they're off a host?
 
#2,945 ·
I give you kudos for raising sheep. We know a guy that has some sheep a when they're lambing he said if you don't show the mother ewe the lamb right away she might reject it and than you are SOL. I like calving more, it's easier if you have the facilities for it. We've lost to many calves this year already because of stupidity, but it's still easier. But they're all cute just the same, calves and lambs :)
 
#2,946 ·
Actually,we find them to be real hardy,and much smarter than people give them credit for. :) I think some does depend on the breed,as I know some are much hardier then others,but with ours we very rarely have issues;the majority lamb on their own,mother up well,and it never ceases to amaze me how tough those little lambs can be.Occasionally we'll get a first time mom who's a little uncertain at first of what this thing is that just popped out,lol,but give them a few minutes and they're good to go! We keep a pretty close eye out during lambing because we get mainly multiple births (twins,triplets,the occasional quads) and there's more of a chance of things going wrong,such as babies getting tangled during the birthing process,ect. but it's not very often that we have to step in and help.I like them because of their size and easy keeping;they don't require much for facilities or anything special,and they're small enough I and my mom can handle them completely on our own.

That's too bad about the calves,I hate losing babies! But,as they say,"You got livestock,you're gonna have some dead stock." Thankfully,we've only lost two lambs,and we're almost done for the season. Both were stillborn,from separate multiple births,so nothing we could have done. I hope the rest of calving season goes better for you!
 
#2,948 ·
Wow, it's been a while! How are you all doing?

Just learned another lesson about trusting your intuition. Snickers was being very nippy and eating slower than usual lately, so I arranged a dentist visit for him today, although we had a visit arranged already with a holistic horse dentist, a very good one form Norway - but she'd be able to visit Latvia no earlier than June. Some of my friends thought I'd be wasting my money with this additional visit, and that I should just wait.

However, the dentist came today and discovered that poor Snickers already had sores in his cheeks because of some particularly sharp edges. It's all settled now and I'm so glad I trusted my gut and didn't cancel the appointment!
 
#2,949 ·
Aww, I'm glad Snickers is doing better! Isn't it funny how you just KNOW your horse and their normal behavior?
I feel like I haven't been on horseforum in forever! My boyfriend of 2 years and I just broke up a month ago, so I found my own place and finally just got my internet! :)
Image has been lame on/off for about 3 months, and my vet just gave him the all clear on Saturday to start working again! Definitely excited for that, just in time for summer :)
 
#2,950 ·
Wow it's been awhile since I've been in here. Glad everyone is doing well. I just moved Lizzy on Sunday. My friend brought her horse as well. I feel bad as the owner is out of the country on vacation and she will come back to us gone as we didn't tell anyone we were leaving until they were loaded up. Lots of things were going bad and it wasn't safe for our horses to stay any longer.

We now have a heated indoor arena. They are now both pasture boarded so Lizzy has been a bit shocked by it but she is adjusting fairly well. The barn is owned and run by a very good dressage trainer from Germany. Kind of intimidating to *try* to ride for the first time while he is also riding. I say try because Lizzy was so wound up that it didn't go well so I had to lunge her and she worked herself into a dripping sweat in just a few minutes.
 
#2,951 ·
Hey all *waves* don't know if I've ever posted here, so I figured I'd say "Hi". My name is Leenie and I'm from Northern California, I'm a senior in college and I'll be graduating in a month. I've been riding for eight years and had my own horse, a black QH named Gambit, for two of them. Unfortunately he passed away in February. I'm not ready for another horse yet, but I fully plan to get another one in the future. I've been taking eventing lessons for the past few weeks and am loving it! So that's it, hope all is well with you guys!
 
#2,952 ·
Haven't posted here for a long time! Whoops!

Hello Leenie! Welcome to this thread! Sorry to here about your gelding. Hugs!

I went home over Easter weekend. My Ruby arrived while I was home. That worked out beautifully! She is pretty trusting right off the bat. Followed me out of the trailer (she walked off, instead of jumping off), down through the yard, out through the horse pasture (with 4 horses running around), and then into the smaller pen. All of this at 1:00 am, and she's not ever really be 'halter broke' yet. Just had a halter on her while in the corrals at the rescue, and a little bit of rubbing down from the people there. She loves people so much! I am really happy about that!
The only thing is that she is tiny! Like 14 hands tiny and really narrow as well. That possibility of her being half Morgan might be true after all. Not sure what I will do with her. She is too small to make me a riding horse. I'll break her and get her trained, but we'll see after that.
I am trying to get my family to get an appointment set up in Kelvington to take her to the vet get her preg checked and an overall checkup (coggins, health, teeth, etc). Hopefully that'll work out soon.


Here are some pictures of her, though they aren't all the best because I let my 8 year old sister do the picture taking. :)




The only body shot I have. She needs more weight, for sure. It's being worked on.


Cilla and Ruby


And a couple pictures of my gelding, Coyote. He was quite the sweetheart for me!

Cilla riding.



Me riding
 
#2,957 ·
Hey all. Wow has it been a LONNGG time since I've been on HF. Hope you all can forgive me ;) Doubt many of you rememer me in the first place, but here is my boy getting bigger! Traum, coming 3 yr old Gypsy X QH
 

Attachments

Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top