Overweight riders and horse owners.

This is a topic that is debated to an extreme. Probably mostly between normal/underweight riders and overweight riders- whatever you are, that's the side you are on. There is not much in between.

I'm not at an ideal weight, but around 150 at 5'8", but I am not overweight, and have a horse that I feel "fits me." I also run, and workout every week so I can stay at a lower weight for my horse.

For the heavy rider looking to find a horse, conformation is key. From Equisearch.com;

 "A well proportioned horse, with a short back, well-coupled on to the hind quarters and straight, sturdy legs should have no trouble carrying a heavier rider."

A good rule of thumb that I find extremely true is that you should be 20% or less of your horses weight when they are at optimal health.  This rule does not apply to for example, a 14.2 hand horse that is overweight. The horse should be at his healthy weight when you calculate this. My horse is 1100 pounds- so I could weigh up to 220 pounds with this rule and still not be causing my horse to be carrying more then his body would probably strain to do.
Balance is something that heavy riders also struggle with versus their thinner counterparts. If the rider is off balance, this can create pain for a horse. Now, there are quite a few skinny riders out there banging around on horses backs and causing problems and alot of overweight riders out there that look Divine on a horse. It all comes down to your riding ability.

Now where does The Snob really stand?

I think this is the problem with overweight riders that makes me want to scream:

Now that was an extreme situation, but one i see A LOT of at shows. I don't think if you are over 260 pounds you should be getting on anything but a draft horse, draft cross or large stocky equine such as a warm blood or large saddle bred or walker.

Think about the equation from above. What healthy maintained weight would the horse have to be to comfortably carry a 260 pound rider? 1300 pounds. That's a big horse.

 I don't think it is fair. Even a stocky quarter horse, or a tall Thoroughbred is going to feel your weight after an hour in the saddle. Why is it fair for the horse to have to work harder with you on his back, when you go home and eat whatever the hell you want, and don't exercise? I don't get to eat everything I would love to, but that's because I OWN A HORSE. Its not right for him to have to carry that extra cheeseburger and fries.

Another example: Why is it okay that this rider thinks her horse should have to learn to jump with her on his back? Even if this is a stocky horse, if your ass is almost wider then the horse, then you probably should not be riding it. REALLY NOT thinking of jumping it.

 

I am not a skinny rider. Once again, I should be at a better weight- but I still keep myself in check. If you are over 250 pounds, you are NOT keeping yourself in check- you are a fuller filly. There is NOTHING wrong with that. I think fuller can women are Gorgeous! Check these babes out-

 

BUT- in terms of jumping on a horses back, its not about what you look like, its all about the weight. If you want to ride horses, then drop the pounds or get a horse that will not mind. If you don't want to, then don't ride. Simple as that.

What are some horses I would ride if I were heavy? I LOVE draft crosses. I think they can have a GREAT temperament, and that adorable draft head.

Check out this cute Hunter:

What a cute Belgian X. Probably a great trail horse!

 

Think you can't go to a show with a draft? Or you can't do those Pleasure classes??

                                                 

                                                  This chick is probably beating a hell of a lot of QH's!

                                                  

                                                            Oh, they can jump too!!



Just because someone is overweight doesn't mean they should have to give up their passion. They do however, have to realize that they ARE overweight. It's not the horses fault, and the horse shouldn't have to end up with a sour back because of their pride.

Fuzzy Shows- Showing in cold climates

"It's cold. Its really, really cold."

Thats all you are thinking when arrive with the truck and the trailer in the early morning at the show. Snow is on the ground, and you can't really remember when you felt your fingers or toes last. Your saddle and bridles are stiff. You unfortunately forgot to bring your bridles inside last night, so you pull your barely warm hands out of their mitten cocoons and try to warm the bit. Hopefully you can get in the saddle soon so you can begin to forget this cold.

 In the northern regions, and even some middle states you have one option to avoid "barn-fever". If you don't have a ton of money and a horse that competes at high levels, Fuzzy Shows are what you are restricted to for the next 4 months. With the economy like it is, and prices of horse shows still high, the open show circuit attracts a lot of competition. Good competition. For some, it means that even these shows will land their horse out of the ribbons. I am looking forward to see who will be coming to the Fuzzy Shows this year. 

I am SO thankful for Fuzzy Shows. I am competitive. I love to have a goal to work for with my horse. I think he also enjoys going and competing. I love that I don't have to get up at 5am to get the horse on the trailer and ready, but I also love the laid back atmosphere.

Now laid back doesn't mean that my horse doesn't look like he is ready to go to a show. My trainer has taught me that it is called a SHOW for a reason. You are there to SHOW OFF. If your horse shows up to compete and looks like you just pulled off his mud encrusted blanket, it reflects badly on you all year round.

The judge is there taking this seriously, and so should you!

Look Ma! I have a trick pony!

Ground work with your horse can be a blast.
The winter season is upon us up here. As we all know, tack has a lot of little metal pieces that turn your fingers into frozen, useless nubs. Sometimes its nice to just pop on the halter and head to the indoor for some ground work. Maybe even doing a little bareback riding if you are feeling really adventurous.
Now ground work can turn ugly quite quickly. All of a sudden you start to think, "I saw this one guy make his horse lay down" or "Hey! I bet I can get my horse to shake like my dog!"


"Hey look! My giant Percheron can shake hands just like my golden retriever!"
Now imagine this lady wants to sell her horse someday.. Or maybe just has kids over to brush him. Like most times, someone reaches down in front of this horse to grab something and WHAM! A leg/hoof to the face. The horse was just doing what he had been trained to do to get a treat. All I see is something that would be damn annoying to correct.

Why is rearing cool? It's not. Teaching your horse to rear is something alot of novice owners think would be really cool. Its almost impossible to fix, and more likely then not the horse ends up at auction or put down. This following video says that your horse should respect you.. well from her horse's body language, that horse is not respectful at all. Oh by the way.. when you follow this training video remember to wear your "Helmat."

Not all tricks are bad. A lot of them are great for bonding time and fun between you and your horse. Start with getting your horse to respect your space. Once you obtain that, you will be able to move on to other things. If you have a pushy horse, and teach him how to pick things up, or touch things with his feet, you will probably have a monster on your hands.

So WHO you ask, WHO IS a good trainer of tricks/groundwork? For me, that would be Monty Roberts. I think tricks/groundwork should be all about creating a balanced, respectful horse. I'm far from perfect, and my horse can and does get out of line sometimes. With a little groundwork, it helps him to trust me. I am a better leader for him- and isn't that what your horse really is looking for?



This is not the most "fun looking" thing to do. I bet Monty could do most anything with this horse now though, because she is giving him her respect.

Besides, Robert Redford based his character in the movie The Horse Whisperer off of Monty. Hot.

Now, I shall dismount my soap box and just for fun, give you this. I don't know what is better, his mustache, or mom jeans.

The very un-natural side of Parelli

To most that know me, they know that I am a recovering Parelli follower.
When you first hear of something like Parelli, you think it will be a gentle, beautiful experience, in which your horse will learn to love you more then molassas dipped carrots. This my dears, is how they lure the scared, weak and basically the crowd that has had something AWFUL happen with a horse they loved (me).
When I was watching the DVDs, I noticed how as I got further into them, the more things started to not make sense. The more I practiced the games, the more my horse was coming INTO my space, pushing me around. I thought at first "YAY! He loves me, he wants to be my pocket pony."After a month, I had a serious scar on my back from my horse's chompers. I figured.. I must not be progressing fast enough. I have to continue on with the training. That's when I saw this:

This horse is blind in one eye. If you can make sense of what the hell she is doing, you are better then I. All I get is she is beating the hell out of this TB's face.

This video pretty much sums up the crowd that uses Parelli. I imagine the dialog going much like this; "Stop it, now come on now, you know better.. No.. noo... owch! nooo! HEY!"



I think this lady actually thinks the horse is being respectful at the end of this "session". My current horse acted just like this with his previous owner. It took a month of ground work to get him better, and he still will TRY to get away with things if I don't watch it. A stud chain over the nose one time solved all his loading/ standing still/clipping problems. All that pinning of her ears, and pawing at you, this horse is pissed off, and doesn't understand what the fuck you are trying to tell her to do. She leads fine in the end probably because she thinks you are taking her back to her stall!
Natural Horsemanship is out there, and it does work. It just doesn't all come from one trainer, or one DVD collection. It comes from finding that balance finding good, and rooting out the BS. Playing groundwork games can be amazingly rewarding- a good foundation of groundwork on a horse means a great horse in the end. Parelli CAN work for some, but it is dreadful in the wrong hands. It's up to you to do the research and find what works for you and your horse.

Its time to be learned something.

I was once just like you.

I bought a horse because he was pretty and I love animals. I wanted a spee-shul bond with a horse, and I had taken quite a few lessons when I was young. I no longer had my parents to help me with costs, but I felt I needed to be around these animals.

 

One fateful fall day, I noticed something was off in my horses foot. He was limping and not moving much. When I called out to him, he looked at me and nickered, but could not get to me. When I asked what had happened I was told it was a stone bruise. Nothing to worry about. He will be better for the big trail ride this weekend. He was “just being a baby”.. “faking it.”

 

Well my darlings, this would lead to the beginnings of me becoming The Snob. That front hoof of my gelding blew up into a terrible abscess. Something I had never even really heard of. I realized, I owned a horse, had taken lessons since I was very young, yet knew very little about them. Now my horse was suffering because I believed someone due to the fact I didn’t know any better.

I became a horse knowledge sponge.. a freak, almost. 3 years later, I moved boarding facilities probably 5 times , have read countless books/magazines/blogs, been to dozens of clinics and lessons, became a successful manager of a English tack store, and have finally been through my first year of showing my new gelding (and quite successfully in my opinion!). If I had decided that my horse was “faking it” or that I already knew enough- I had owned a horse when I was 5 dammit!- I would not have the fabulous gelding out of the leading sire of HUS quarter horses Luke At Me. No, he’s not going to go to congress, but he is a far cry from my original little gelding I had those 3 years ago (who is very happy with his new mom and dad who love to just trot down the trail). I am by far not a over the top awesome rider either- but I have gotten much better, and continue to try to improve every day.

Here are my Ten Horse Rules to live by. You will be subjected to divine snobbery if you break one of these.

1.       Horses are not dogs, and following Parelli blindly is bullshit.

a.       Want a big dog? Go get a mastiff. A horses love comes from R-E-S-P-E-C-T (sing it Aretha!). Not the kind where you beat them, or tie their legs and flip them when they don’t do what you ask the first time. Not the kind where you poke them with a stick and say “please move baby”, “Come on just move for momma” and the horse doesn’t even think of moving.

2.       Your yearling should not have a saddle on it. Or you. Leave the baby alone!

a.       Until your horse is 2 (in my opinion 2.5-3) years of age, you better not be spending much time on the poor things back. Don’t believe me? Google it. Lazy? Check out the debate on this forum: http://www.horseforum.com/horse-training/age-break-horse-54993/

3.       You need a good farrier. Don’t think you can do this yourself- unless you have training.

a.       A horses hooves affect the animals entire body. A farrier has significant amounts of experience under his belt and training. If you don’t want to spend the money on this, then don’t get a horse. Unless you know about angles, different types of foot problems and all about trimming, you could end up with a horse with lameness or navicular pretty quick.

4.       Your horse isn’t faking it.

a.       Horses show anger, pain, aggression, all for a certain reason. Could be physical or emotional. As the owner, it is your job to help your horse through this. Call a vet, call a trainer. Don’t run to the medicine box and Bute them up- Bute is like Tylenol and only covers up- it also can cause big problems in the tummy. If you have a horse that is in obvious pain, and supplements, injections and all the other things aren’t working, you need to evaluate if it is worth keeping a horse alive that is in constant pain.

5.       Your horse needs to be wormed more than 2 times a year.

a.       I worm my horse every month. It depends on where you are located, and what you really want to do. If you are in colder climates, you can get away with less, if you are in a warm climate, it better be often. That big old belly might not be fat- it might be worms.

6.       If you can’t afford a vet, don’t own a horse.

a.       A horse in a padded stall would find a way to hurt itself. I only own one horse because I know if he gets hurt, I will have serious vet bills. X-rays run around $200-300 bucks. You have that type of cash for each horse you own? Also.. Don’t tell me you just “don’t want to know” what’s wrong. That’s bullshit, and you know it.

7.       Horses need more than just hay.

a.       I know, I know. This is where I could lay the snobbery on quite thick. Yes, horses CAN get by with just hay. You CAN live on Mini Wheats. What kind of hay mixture do you use? Alfalfa? Grass? What kind of supplements are they on? Do you feed oats? Horses should not drop a ton of weight in the winter. You should have them at a manageable weight all year round.

8.       You need to ride all year round.

a.       When I was younger I was extremely guilty of this. I know better now. A horse is not an ATV or car that you can pull out of storage after winter and go bomb around town. You need to continuously work with your horse to keep them on track. Sitting all winter long means you will have 3-4 months of time to make up when spring hits, and you had better take it damn slow.

9.       Stallions are extremely dangerous. Just because you have a purty horse and think he is nice looking doesn’t mean he should breed.

a.       Unless you have a horse that has proven himself to be worthy of those jewels, they should be gone. Worthy as in, great conformation, great disposition and an all star show/running record. Don’t have them? Don’t breed. There are enough horses getting on the meat truck every day.

10.   You never know enough. You never are a pro.

a.       Take lessons, read books, talk to horse people, go to shows and clinics. Don’t be brainwashed into thinking there is only one way to do something. If you think you know everything, you don’t. If you feel in your heart or in your brain that something is wrong with your horse, boarding situation, whatever, it probably is. Things change all the time with horses, and it’s your job to keep learning.

I’m sure I could add more things to this list, but it’s the basic list of things that I have compiled over the years. I have broken some of these rules in previous years, and that is why they are listed now. Yes, it’s embarrassing to do something wrong, and feel like you are right. It’s time to drop the egos and pride and do this for your horse! I learned I was going about horses wrong, and I changed.  Yes, I’m snarky, and yes, I’m a snob. Hopefully, I can help create a few more.