Hello, fellow horse addicts

[krisinmi]

At the 'other place', I rarely hung out in the equine forum, but I have been hopelessly addicted to horses pretty much all my life.  Got my first one at age 12 in 1984 and have either owned horses or worked at horse farms ever since.  I have ridden western and hunt seat, done a little gymkhana, shown 4-H & Open shows & a few Arab circuit shows between 1985 and 1991, but my real burning passion is dressage.  That is pretty much all I've ridden in the last 23 years, although not showing at all.

Currently, I work part-time at a large boarding stable that accommodates all disciplines and breeds.  I have three horses of my own, a 31yo 1/2 Arab gelding, a 26yo Holsteiner mare, and a 16yo Quarter Horse gelding.


Who are my fellow horse addicts here at our new home?  Tell me about yourselves and your horses  

[wildhorseluvr]

Hi Kris,

I debated whether to post here or not.   I've been horse crazy all my life. My mom (who dislikes horses) said I was kicked in the forehead by a horse when I was 2 and she figures that's what caused the brain damage.   Spent my childhood riding everything I could get my hands on but didn't get my first horse 'til I was 13. Worked at a couple of riding stables in my teens, worked at the track when I got out of high school (was employed for awhile by Johnny Longden, the famous jockey). A few years later I got into training and showing. My show history reads much like yours only not much English riding. Eventually burned out on shows. 
Enjoyed some years just trail riding and horse camping, then started seriously raising horses. We had 60 head at one point, nine of which were Kiger Mustangs which is where my User name comes from. Basically my entire life has been horses until a few years ago when I started getting crippled up. We started cutting back drastically, and were down to just a few when my DH was killed in a terrible accident recently (not horse caused). Now I have just one, a big beautiful pinto mustang but I can't even take care of him, much less ride, so I have to find a home for him very soon. 

[Deleted]

Crazy horse person here too. Will honestly say that saving every penny I had so I could play with horses kept me out of trouble in high school. They are the reason I bought my farm. Grew up riding anything I could, usually my friends hot horses that they were afraid of. Spent a summer exercising TB racehorses. Finally managed to get my first horse in college.

At one point I had 15 Haflingers running around here. After the market crashed I thinned the heard. I'm down to my old Haflinger mare, she has been here 22 years. I just bought a paint pony to keep her company and make the neighbor kid very happy. All I have to do is figure out how to get her here as the original ride backed out on me.

[horseyrider]

I'm not one bit crazy-- just a carrier of the H gene. Hey, if you're hardwired for it, it's not your fault, eh?

I can't remember a time where I didn't want horses. I remember having a pony on my Christmas list before I could write. Did all the horsey things as a kid, finally got into horses deep as a young adult, and earned an equine degree. Was brought back to the same college to teach, and I ended up heading their equine program.

 I taught judging (selection, don'tcha know), English training techniques, western training techniques, genetics, training youngsters from birth to backing, horse health and first aid, trimming and shoeing, and nutrition. I worked with 4H kids and coached their judging team as well as their horse bowl and hippology team. I trained outside horses and competed, mostly hunt seat but really just about anything, working out of various barns in the area.

I encountered burnout in 2005 and wanted my garden back! Horses had become work, and I was beginning to lose the magic that comes from just being able to hang out and connect.

I have no idea how many horses I've had, but right now I have four. Two are registered Dutch Friesian mares, one is the dam of the yearling one. The yearling will be my next rider, and she's beautiful inside and out. Whatta disposition, I've struck gold. One is my last show horse, a sweet, dead-on accurate, beautiful tall leggy bay boy named Forrest Gump. The final one is a darling little pony, older'ndirt, that I taught to drive and who carried my grandsons when they were small. I train only my own now and trail ride in the woods out behind my place, and haul to local parks to meander along and appreciate nature.

[mollymckee]

I started ridding lessons at six, both my parents rode so I was expected to have the H gene! I've had my own horse since I was 9. My DH started ridding after we were given 2 mares as a wedding present! We have had as many as 30 when we were breeding, and moved 13 to Washington from TX when we moved up here. We have shown, done 4H with the kids, my DH was a judge, did cutting and reining I started ridding English, but have ridden mostly western for years. We are very lucky to have miles of trails and logging roads right from our house.

Right now we only have one horse, we have lost the others to old age over the years. We are looking for at least one more mare now. A neighbor has a large indoor and is putting in a roping arena. DH is very interested although he hasn't roped for years. I'm just happy to have nice neighbors!

[aoconnor]

So glad to have found Melissa's board:-), and to see some familiar names here.

I started riding when I was 2, had my first horse at 9 (Mustang gelding that was a pistol, taught me a ton about balance!), and have never looked back. I have done some rescue, a lot of rehab, and breeding/raising a few of my own from select mares. I currently have 24 horses which consist of 5 Thoroughbreds, 1 Appendix, 1 Mustang, a little Mustang/Appaloosa cross mare, a 2 year old Freisian/TB cross filly that is absolutely fantastic, 10 Quarter Horses, 2 Minis, 1 Paint mare, a QH/Missouri Foxtrotter mare, and a two year old Morgan filly that was an orphan at a week old and I took her in and had one of my QH mares raise her.

I ride a little Dressage but no showing, I do some cutting and reining, a lot of trail riding, and some cow pushing:-) I do a lot of medical intakes, specifically catastrophic injury or extreme malnourishment cases that have other medical issues as well. I generally get calls from the sheriffs or vets in our county or the surrounding areas. I love seeing the change in a horse with a little feed, some brushing, sweet talking, and care. Amazing animals, they can bounce back from horrific situations.

I look forward to learning and sharing here:-)

[Deleted]

Glad to see some of the 'old friends' here on this new site. Like horsyrider I'm hardwired for the horse gene and with me it's an addiction. Grew up on a cattle ranch in MT and my first actual memory, which my Mom and I traced back, was being put up on a horse when I was about 3 years old. Had horses most of my life, rode well enough that I could train or exercise when I couldn't have horses of my own. Took early retirement when I was 50 and started doing what I wanted to do all my life ... raise horses. In my 70s now and still raising them, though all ponies or small horses, no more of the 17 hand warmbloods now but still have several warmblood mares that I now breed to pony stallions.

[Deleted]

Hi everyone!! good to see you all here and hope to see more of our horse friends make the trip over. Can't wait to see SFM's babies this year! I am busy working with Josey on gaited dressage trying to get ready for a show in June (eeek!).

Hope everyone is well and all the horses are too!

[mollymckee]

When do you start foaling SFM? How many mares are going to foal and how many are you going to bred this year?

[Deleted]

Mar 31, 2015 3:47:28 GMT mollymckee said:

When do you start foaling SFM? How many mares are going to foal and how many are you going to bred this year?

I have eight mares to foal this year, starting the first of May. (EEK!)

Remember my goal of no more than 4 foals a year? Yes ... so do I ... didn't happen but I have an excuse ... I stood a little Welsh stallion that is cremello, plus gray and also silver, so I wanted the best odds I could get for a filly to keep that carries silver but not gray and I didn't think I'd have him more than the one breeding season.

As it happens, he will be here again this year, possibly longer, so not the issue it was last year but I *discovered* stallion service auctions this year and I now have three breedings to Belefonte d'Avalon (who is competing in open jumpers this year) and one to Flint, a Weltstern son, so that is four mares to breed this year before I even look at breeding anything to my own studs.

<sigh> Let's face it, I'm hopeless. What road is it that they say is paved with good intentions?

[mollymckee]

That would be the road to Heaven! Hope you will have time to post pictures of all the babies!

[WindyRidge]

Hi all! I mainly lurked on HT and will probably mostly lurk here. Hubby and I own/run a small dairy farm and have 3 small kids (the oldest will be 5 this July). So I have very little computer time. But I enjoy reading all the posts and since I'm up early this morning and have a few minutes, I thought I'd say hello.

I grew up riding hunters, showing locally (just small, non-rated stuff). In high school I switched to combined training and had a blast with it. I was able to keep riding through college although had to move to a cheaper barn and ended up just playing around with the horses and doing mainly trail rides. In 2004 I herniated a disk in my back that ended up needing surgery and that pretty much ended any thoughts I had of riding more seriously. That's not the direction my life went anyway, which is OK. I don't get to ride nearly as much as I'd like with the kids this young, and when I do it's usually just slow, relaxed trail rides, but my kids seem to have inherited the H-gene so as they get older I think they'll encourage me to find more riding time.

As a family we have 9 horses right now. My baby is Poki. Ever since I'd seen Icelandics at a convention I'd wanted one. They looked like such a blast! For the next 15 years I kept an eye out, but they were always out of my price range. I stumbled on Poki, a 3 hour drive away, and he joined the family a year ago January. He's my riding horse and I absolutely love him to death.
Poki Picture

My other riding horse is a TWH gelding. He's a really good boy but he's currently up for sale as I can't justify keeping 2 riding horses when I rarely get to ride. And when I do get to ride, I want to take Poki. I've had the walker listed twice for sale and backed out both times because really good horses are hard to find. But realistically my daughter wouldn't be up to riding him safely for at least another 5-6 years and there's no sense him standing around all that time.

My oldest daughter claims 2 ponies (although I remind her she needs to share with her brother!). I'm not sure whether Banner would be best called a large mini or a shetland. She's unregistered and was bought locally right after Sami was born. I was tall as a kid so always rode the lesson horses, never the ponies. All my life I had pony envy so when I had a little girl, I went out and bought her a pony! Banner is AWESOME with the kids. She's patient, kind and tolerates anything. She can be a little spit fire with adults (bit the neighbor twice!) but you couldn't ask for a better babysitter with the kids. Banner Picture

Her other pony is Jim, a percheron/haflinger cross. We actually got him to be a teammate to my driving pony but he's turned out to be an absolute saint of a horse and perfect for Sami to learn on. We don't drive him much anymore (he's been replaced as a driving horse with my husband's bigger team). He's wonderful under harness, but mainly serves as Sami's trail pony right now. 

Boniface is a belgian/haflinger and an all-arounder. My son has claimed him when we go trail riding, we use him with a forecart as our 4-wheeler (he never gets a flat tire!), he's my go-to when any beginner riders want to come trail ride. He's a tank and he knows it, will cop an attitude if he can, but he's so safe around the kids and I have never seen a horse stand better under harness than he does. This is one of my favorite pictures (from last summer): Jim & Boniface. Jim is the black, Boniface is the sorrel. (The kids usually ride the opposite horses from that picture actually).

Then there are my husband's horses. He never had much to do with horses before we met, but apparently I'm contagious lol. He has a team of percheron/haflingers he uses for whatever farm work he can. raking hay (Boone is the black, Bill is the bay, and Boniface is the sorrel). Boniface is kinda small to work with the team but he's all we have at the moment when we need a little extra oomph. In another year or 2 we'd like to add a bigger draft boy to the herd. He also has as a riding horse an appy mare, Mingo. She's a good solid girl and the only horse he's ever ridden that he actually gets along with (he's more of a driver than a rider). He hardly ever rides and we thought hard about selling her, but he gets along with her so well we decided not to let her go. Mingo

And last is our retired belgian, Junior. He's a big old club that hangs our with our heifers as a babysitter. Junior

That's the current herd here. I never figured I'd have this many horses and I often look at the herd and wonder what we're doing with so many lol. But other than the walker for sale they all have a unique purpose. We flipped a lot to get the herd we have, and while they're not fancy or highly trained they're all super nice, super safe and great with the kids.

Hopefully I'll manage time to post some and get to know y'all a little better.

[Deleted]

I was riding before I could walk. Showed western pleasure as a teen and young adult. My mother hated my obsession with horses and did everything to try and destroy it. Didn't work!
I just lost my 27 yr old Quarter horse gelding at Christmas time. I had worked with him for 25 yrs and had the pleasure of owning him for 13.
I have a 15 yo old Quarter horse gelding who was a rescue 12 yrs ago. He has a crippled knee but gets along great in the pasture. Unfortunately he is only a pasture buddy and cannot be ridden.
We have the donkeys too and I am looking forward to breaking the youngest to ride and getting back in the saddle! My nephews are wanting to learn to ride so we will have many enjoyable hours ahead.
Ppl often complain about how expensive horses are, but I never have an issue. Usually more is spent on vices far less enjoyable and beautiful than a horse!

[Deleted]

Hi everybody!

I only have one horse now - I'm boarding her because I'm not experienced enough to deal with a horse her age. She'd 3 and she's starting training in less than 2 weeks woooooohooooooo! The woman who is training her for me is the daughter of a lady who shows at the world shows, and she has been responsible for breaking and training her mom's horses since she was a teenager. She's going to train me, too - I need the training more than the horse does. So hopefully I will end up with a well trained horse that I can handle.

We're hoping to move to KS or the Ozarks soonish......will have to find another trainer when we get there.

[Otter]

Unlike most of you, I grew up in NYC and horses were a rare treat for me. then, when I was a teenager, I lucked across an awesome program run by the Gribbons at Knoll's Farm and I went on to get a degree in Horse care and Stable management.
But I never had my own horse.
I went on and worked for farms both wonderful and not so great, did some training, did some rehab, worked with horses on and off for years.
But I never had my own horse.

Finally, a couple of years after I bought some land, I bought a horse for DD. A sweet, gray-faced old mare to give her her confidence back. Thrown in for $50 was a 3yo bay hellion who would go on to become our wonderful Bracken. And for a little while I had my own horse, but DD got her confidence back, the sweet old mare passed on and DD has basically stolen my horse, Bracken is hers now.

But I had spoken to SFM
So we have a broodmare from her on lease, a 2nd one and a co-owned pony mare going back to her this spring for breeding, a co-owned long yearling, who I will sell when he's older and going under saddle, he will easily be the World's Greatest Gelding. And, my long-awaited baby, Nighthawk. Every day I rub her all over and look between her ears and hope we make many, many memories from that view.

We also have the requisite little shaggy pony, who came here to simplify a really complex situation and now will stay where I can keep an eye on him. And Scootaloo, an adventure in herself, who will be going home to KY shortly.