Horses!

[alg0181]

I am brand new on the forum and have noticed that many of you seem to ride/own horses (according to your avatars). So do I! Do bettas and horses go hand in hand? Hmm...

Anyway, let's talk about horses! I have ridden always and trained my whole adult life but got thrown off and seriously injured a few years ago--"Arabian" and "racehorse" are probably two words that I never want to hear together ever, ever again.

I'm getting back into it, though! I am currently an exercise rider at a few barns here in Texas, mostly breed show hunters (not my love) and some jumpers (moar plz!). I love love love dressage but can't afford lessons :( so all my dressage has been absorbed from my surroundings. Probably not very good I'm afraid.

What do you all ride/own/show?

[Drift]

I just started riding a little over a month ago. I rode a few times before, but I get to ride pretty much every day it's not raining now. She has 8 horses. Mostly quarter horses, an Appy, and 2 halflingers. I love Halflingers! I only ride Western and we do a lot of trail and road riding. I'm not really interested in a lot of the English events. Maybe when I have a lot more experience I'd like to do some of the Western events.
I just got bucked off yesterday and hurt my right knee. Something had all of the horses spooked. Even the one horse who almost never spooks did. We can't figure out what it was as we couldn't see anything in the woods.

[Neelie]

^^^ sorry to hear that drift GWS!

i grew up on my parent's stud. started riding before i could walk lol... started with normal dressage, then when i was 9 i started to jump, and when i was 18 i started with western. i got my mare 6 years ago, she was not schooled in anything, but i got her, and schooled her myself (hard to do with an old horse)

me at 9 years old;
ignore my face.... i always make faces!


me on my mare about 2 years ago i love my horse.


my mare now

[LikeDiscoSuperfly]

Neelie your horse is gorgeous!

[Drift]

Neelie, she's gorgeous! Also if that's Ireland in the background. It's gorgeous too! XD
This is the Halflinger that I've been riding lately. I don't have any pictures of me actually riding though. Kinda hard to take pictures of yourself!


This is Snuggles, she's an ex-barrel racer. She in her 20's and has traveled more places than I ever have.





Ambers and Foxy, they're sisters.




Dancer, just because I love him. :) He's a trouble maker.



I have a ton of other pictures, but I'll leave it at that for now.

[Neelie]

^^^ thanks guys. yeah ireland is nice but cold and wet lol.

i love your haflinger! im austrian, so i know them well
Ambers and foxy are lovely quarters. i just adore their shape.
they have such cute bums and sleek heads!

[Drift]

I have fallen in love with the Halflinger breed. If the lady tries to sell her, I would buy her in a heartbeat. She's a giant Teddy bear! She apparently knows how to drive too. There is another Halflinger on the farm too, but she is much smaller.
Do you see a lot of Gypsy's out in Ireland?

[Neelie]

Originally Posted by Drift

I have fallen in love with the Halflinger breed. If the lady tries to sell her, I would buy her in a heartbeat. She's a giant Teddy bear! She apparently knows how to drive too. There is another Halflinger on the farm too, but she is much smaller.
Do you see a lot of Gypsy's out in Ireland?

i can totally understand that! they are very cuddly indeed! can be very stubborn too but you can forgive them so easily when your wrapped in their huge mane. my step sis had one that ended up to be 28 years old lol. amazing, because he was heavily broken winded.

tbh there are more proper tinker horses in germany and holland than there are in ireland. you do have heavy coloured horses but the real beautiful gypsy vanners are rare enough.
the traveller horses today that you see tied up beside the road are small starving ponies that are chased along a main road in a cart for trotting races...

you will be searching a good lil while before you find something like this;


the coloured ponies you find at horse fares look more like this;


and the traditional traveller ponies now-a-days are these;


the more common breeds you'll see in fields are connemaras, thoroughbreds and thoroughbred mixes and of course irish sport horses of all shapes and sizes and colours.

[Drift]

She's not stubborn, but very sensitive and very lazy. Haha.
I was referring to the jaw dropping gorgeous Gypsy Vanners. XD Someone had told me that they were common in Ireland. Pfft. I'm going to kick that girls but one of these days. I would love to own one, but they are ridiculously expensive here in the US.

[LikeDiscoSuperfly]

Drift - I love Dancer, what a unique colored horse. =]
I dont see horses colored like that around here.