Horse people?

[shadowpony]

Anybody ride? Drive? Handle? I ride Western on my paint mare, MYT Shadow Dancer (Shadow for short). I have some basic training in English to help with my leg muscles and balance, but its not my thing. Anyone else wanna share the horses they lease,own, share, borrow or take lessons on?
I live in racking horse country, and Walkers are all to common. I dont like seeing a horse in pads, I've seen one in pads with hooves that desprately need to be trimmed. Any rackin' horse people out there? Opinoins on pads (for hooves, not backs :))?
Lastly any hunter/jumpers? Western pleasure?

[Pogthefish]

I take lessons and am a counselor at 2 different barn's horse camps even though I hate kids. I don't show, even though my barn asks me to. I ride different horses. The barn sells all my favorite horses. They get me all attached to the horse just to make the horse happy, and then they sell it! They even interrupt MY lessons I paid for to sell the horses! Or they work the horse 'till it can barely be ridden. They only use me for getting the horses in shape and giving problem horses instruction, which messes u my lessons.. sorry started ranting there. But I DO love riding. :D

[PaintingPintos]

This is my 4-year-old Paint/Arabian Nasdaq....she's only 1/4 Arabian but she acts like a full-blooded one. She's amazingly sensitive...if you just wiggle your pinky finger in front of her (even slightly) she will back up in a hurry. We do Parelli Natural Horsemanship together and we have tons of fun :D
Even though I haven't ridden her yet (I've only had her for 2 months) I have sooo much fun, even if I get nothing done in a play session. Sometimes she has to "let out teenage frustrations" so all I do is run around and go crazy with her, letting her buck and hop and rear and gallop around xD That's when we have the most fun.
She's a fantastic jumper and will do great in a show ring one day, but I haven't started riding sooo jumping is not our thing...YET.
I used to have a 14 year old Paint mare named Wilma, who I loved so dearly even though she was as stubborn and rotten as HELL to me. Sadly she got taken away from me...she got mystery lameness (uncomfortable riding for both of us) and her owner, after abandoning her for 3 years, decided to come back for her. But she was the greatest first horse I could have asked for. She taught me a LOT. We had a love/hate relationship at first....she was a plug when it came to riding. But then I figured out how to motivate her and literally the second I hopped on her back she took off! She's the first horse I ever galloped on (even though it was only in the arena) and just speeding around was so much fun.
Ummmm before I had Wilma I took English riding lessons for 4 years. I was an advanced level rider (though I was only allowed to jump like 2 feet...UGH) and I loooove to show off, which motivated me because I took group lessons. I volunteered for everything! I rode a beautiful blood bay Thoroughbred for the first two years named Utah....I volunteered at the horse summer camp so when the kids rode I got to ride Utah....he bonded so close with my that summer. Then he was sold and it broke my heart.
From then on I rode an English Warmblood named Sporty, and I got used to the lofty trot and the springy jumps for 1 1/2 years, then I was moved to a I-don't-know-what horse named Taylor. She was enormously wide and literally trotted like a TANK. Her trot was so slow and so smooth it must felt like walking, and it was really hard to post to. She would also jump funny...we would trot reeeeaaaaaally slowly, then as we approached the jump she would trot at top speed (I'm talking around 12 mph) and she would jump the fence with this little pathetic hop....I always got so scared she would plunge over it :P
Then I quit riding because 1.) 40 bucks a week was too much and 2.) I could adopt a horse at another stable for free.

So that's that.

[shadowpony]

I must say I'm very jealous of your horse, PaintingPintos. She's a nice little mare :). Pog, have you considered finding a new barn? I know that it can be hard to find a cheap barn in that area.. I used to live in the DC area... I paid 500 for 10 group lessons on a run down halflinger...
I show. I'll do my 3rd show this weekend, though I've been riding for 8 years. lol. I'm glad I know someone with a mare... My horse has a WONDERFUL headset, until she goes into heat. Then she decides to touch the sky with her nose and try to win a race.;)

[Pogthefish]

I REALLY like my instructor though, so I put up with the horses.. lol. The instructor isnt as bad as the rest of the barn.

[shadowpony]

Ah, I see. Do you have gaited horses at your barn? My freind has a pacer. My instructor's friend has some gaited saddlebreds (love saddlebreds BTW). Lol I should stop rambling. One more thing... I'm sick, so I can't clean my baby's stall. Sigh. Good thing my border cleans for $5 a cleaning.

[Pogthefish]

U all are lucky to have ur own horses :D

[shadowpony]

Thanks! Im showing today, and its at the most backwoodsy place in TN. I love it! You just gotta love the friendlyness. Well, not the racking horse people. One guy was passing my friend and as he wad doing it, he removed her sturrup!

[Pogthefish]

Lon once my bro did a jum and the stirrup literally fell off!

[shadowpony]

Lol! Well at the show we had two falls. One in the speed race where some horse came UNGLUED. Rider fell flat on her back but was fine. She got past the timer before she fell, though. In Mens Racking o e man rammed his horse into another horse. The horse that was rammed freaked and so off the man came, he got a foot caught in a stirrup but the horse stopped and the man was ok. Scary though.