Equitation

Throwback to the show last year! First place! I was so proud of Sugar. That class was equitation walk, trot, canter. She was nice and calm... until we got to jumping. I fell off in warm-up due to her refusals. I tried really hard to fix this problem, but I think she will always be a little unpredictable in jumping new jumps.

Tennessee Walking Horse Abuse

I have recently started riding gaited horses. Since I only rode non-gaited horses, this was very different! I figured out trotting and gaiting are two very different things. Tennessee Walkers have such and amazing gait and way of moving. I love them so much. I don't understand the abuse they have to bare. I ride regular shoed or just barefoot Walkers. Other people choose to use a terrible abusive method on the innocent horse breed.

While watching videos of "The Celebration" makes me so sad. What they make there horses do is so artificial. Tennessee Walkers were made to gait, but not made to be forced to pick there feet up above there knees. Some people choose a blue ribbon and money over the comfort of there horse. I am very grateful that "soring" was banned. It is still used illegally though. The horses used in "Big Lick" shows wear padded horse shoes several inches tall and chains. Luckily it is banned in some shows. Here is what I am talking about:

If you don't know what soring is, it is the process of injecting toxic and dangerous chemicals into a horse hoof in order to enhance "Big Lick" gait. It cause pain and suffering to the innocent horse.

Now, does these pictures look natural? Do these horses look happy?

Please spread this article or this information to help stop this abuse!

~Rachel <3

You can read this to better understand soring: http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/tenn_walking_horses/facts/what_is_soring.html

Favorite horse trainers

The trainers that I really admire are Stacy Westfall www.stacywestfallhorseblog.com and Buck Brannaman www.brannaman.com/ I was very lucky to get a chance to attend one of Buck's clinics. He taught me a lot and is an excellent horseman. I also love Stacy Westfall. Her connection with horses is amazing and her bareback bridle-less ride in 2006 is mind blowing! Her is the video: http://youtu.be/TKK7AXLOUNo

Best Horse Training Book

I highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Horse-Behavior-Problem-Solver/dp/1580175244 I am not quite finished with it, but it has taught me a lot already. Not a waste of money!

Field Photo

Back to the days when Sugar didn't try to buck me off in the field...

Show

Sunny show days...

First place in flat.

Jumping... well... let's just say I fell off in warmup

Jumping Sugar!

This is a pictures of Sugar and I! It is from a while back. It took me a long time before she would jump it with no refusals! <3

Riding young horses

Riding young horses, can be a challenge. Remember to be soft. Young horses are more likely to spook, because there is a lot of news things that they haven't seen before and new things are more than likely to be "scary" to young horses. If your horse does happen do spook, stay calm. Walk him/her softly to the unfamiliar object again so the it will become familiar to the horse. You may have to do this many times before the horse finds out that the object is not out to hurt them. You may even have to let the horse sniff it.

If you ride a young horse into a pasture, be prepared for it to maybe jump sideways or spook. Things like birds and especially deer can make your horses jump. Remember to keep this in mind when riding in a field.

And also remember, horse may have an urge to run or do silly stuff in the field. Why? I think of it this way. Say if you were locked in one place. (for a horse it would be one specific pasture or stall) And, you never left that place. Suddenly, someone takes you too a wide open place and you hadn't been in a different place in a month. Wouldn't you want to run and do cartwheels? So horses that have been in a particular place for a while, may feel the urge to run and buck. If your horse gets out of control so much that you are unable to handle it, I would try to calm your horse down. Then you can dismount if you have to.

~Rachel <3