any horse riders?

[alice.x]

There must be some other riders here, I can't be the only Rebel on horseback!

I don't currently have my own horse, but I ride for a friend on her family's horses. My main ride at the moment is a 20-going-on-5 year old Welsh D x Appaloosa gelding, and I occasionally ride a Selle Francais show jumper and a 'mongrel' dressage horse (he's Quarter Horse x Welsh D x TB, we think), and am going to help break in and ride some of the horses they have running on the New Forest; they have three New Forest x Appaloosa geldings all rising 5 that are next on the list to be ridden!

At the moment I am mostly a happy hacker but have done a bit of everything, especially this past year when I was riding a super orange New Forest gelding! I spend most of my weekends right now as a groom and chief mane-plaiter at competitions, but we hope to get a group together to compete in the British Dressage Team Quest this coming year!

Who else here rides, and what do you enjoy doing?

 

 

 

Here's a photo of me on Storm, the best orange pony you'll ever see! We did some cross country a few months ago, this is us all tired out afterwards

 

 

[Ocelot]

He's beautiful! I have a Welsh section C, though he's a very traumatised rescue so we don't do a lot besides gentle woodland strolling. I ride my friends showjumpers sometimes, and volunteer at a horse rescue handling the newbies. Those Appy/New Forests sound like a real project, when are you going to start them off?

[alice.x]

Oh very nice, I do like the Welsh C's! And working at a rescue must be so rewarding

We currently have two other New Forest x Appys (one has a bit of cob in her too) but they are very small (one is barely 13.2, and the other is as thin as a piece of paper!) so I would just squash both of them at 5"7! But they will both be up for sale in the New Year so as soon as one of them goes we'll bring one of the boys in, then see how it goes as to when we start selling them and bringing the others in. Luckily all three geldings are about 14.1, and built a bit more like real-life ponies, so I should be able to ride all of them

[k_to_the_v]

Me! (Raises hand)

 

I love the Welsh's. We have a full pony at our barn as well as a Welsh/TB cross. Myself? I have a 21 YO Morgan mare - we've been together almost 14 years now, and done a little bit of everything: eventing, dressage, endurance. Trail riding/endurance is my favorite, but for some reason I like to torment myself with dressage as well, and the jumping...well, I board at an eventing barn and the mare is a cross country machine as long as we keep things small.

 

Before my divorce, I was up to 4 horses and 2 goats and kept them all at home. I have no breed bias at all, my first horse was an Appy, my primary endurance horse was an Arab, also had a QH and two TBs...the Morgan mare is my equine soul mate though. I am currently saving up to get another young Morgan to bring along when my current horse is ready to retire...although she is still full of piss and vinegar so that may take a while.

[dijos]

I am a terrible-ish rider, some reining, mostly trail. never rode english at all. QH, QH/mustang, and 2 naughty appys over the years. 

[IslandGirl_Becks]

Ditto, Dijos. I'm not great at it, but I really love riding!

 

I've been lucky to have a bunch of horses teach me over the years. Copper, my "shetland x small brown horse," was my first love. I kept him at a theraputic riding center. A little boy with autism said his first words on Copper pony

After Copper died, I rode a stubborn Morgan named Skookum. I only rode him bareback, and he managed to put me in the dirt once or twice

My last was Buzzy, a 16 year old reiner with the greatest heart. The first time I rode him, I led him by an arm around the neck to the water trough in the pasture, climbed on, and he took me for a ride around the pasture. When I pretended to lose my balance, he slowed down. He was bulletproof on trails, and could still put some trenches in the ground in a sliding stop. Our favorite game was "playing cow," where someone would dodge back and forth along the fence and Buzzy would weave and bob to "herd" the "cow." For an older guy he had game! We scared a few unsuspecting friends who were instructed to "just put the reins on whichever side I run to."