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Post by horseguy on Sept 10, 2015 19:47:00 GMT
Here are the required forum "rules" that read as follows: I will highlight sections of particular importance to young riders who typically think they know more than they actually know.
Welcome everyone. I'm retired from running horse farms most of my life and I have more time now, so I started this forum in September 2015. My hope was to start a serious forum on horsemanship for adults and young people serious about horsemanship. By this I mean a place for discussion of traditional, historically based principles of effective horsemanship from diverse worldwide sources. I am glad to see it's become a place free of trendy ideas and superficial stuff. I think it's developing into a discussion free of rigid narrowly defined concepts of horsemanship. I hope this is a place where knowledge and experience is valued and respected, and where amateurs, professionals and life long horsemen (term inclusive of women) can share and learn. Looks like we have a nice start.
This Horsemanship board will need to have a sense of humor, so some nonsense and chit chat will probably be useful to "grease" the social wheels. However, I do hope those who come here will lean toward a disciplined approach to studying horsemanship with others. I put a commercial sub board up so people can sell things and offer services that relate to horses.
It is now over 2 years and 9 months old and we getting over 200 page views a day now. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you will post, particularly questions. I also hope you will invite other dedicated horsemen who would appreciate this kind of a place to meet and discuss horsemanship.
Thank you,
Horseguy
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candy
New Member
Posts: 6
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Post by candy on Sept 18, 2015 9:30:38 GMT
This is candy, I am new to the board, thanks for the invitation. I am glad to be apart of a board/community that is serious about horsemanship. Later
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barbarafox
New Member
Riding Instructor for a long time
Posts: 11
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Post by barbarafox on Sept 22, 2015 17:37:26 GMT
Thanks for the invitation to the forum. It will be interesting to watch (and maybe help) it develop. I'm sorry to have to read retired next to Horseguy's credentials. Perhaps retired from the physical side of things but never, I hope, from the intellectual side... I'm so not used to calling you horseguy but... I began teaching riding 50 years ago...hmmm are we in danger of becoming the old horseman's club? Anyway all kidding aside, for anyone who does not know me (that could be many!) I write 2 blogs: www.theridinginstructor.net - meant to help instructors and share interests and problems and www.ushorsemanship.com meant to help keep some of our riding history alive. I have a tendency to get very passionate about subjects that mean a lot to me but I think I have been improving, at least I hope so. I especially like to hit topics that people get a bit riled about because I think they need to be discussed instead of being swept under the rug. Just this week I have put my own lesson program on suspension until spring in order to spend time developing curriculum for publication. It was not an easy decision. Until now I've been pretty erratic with the time I've spent online, being voracious for a time period and then absent for awhile. That pattern may continue, who knows. Life with horses is rarely smooth. Well, life is rarely smooth even without the horses! Thanks for starting this forum, Bob. I'll be as supportive as possible and I wish it, and you, much success
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Post by horseguy on Sept 22, 2015 20:11:56 GMT
Thanks for registering Barbara. I am off the farm now, with a few students, but now feeding in the freezing rain, up all night with a colicing horse and all the other fun stuff is over for the foreseeable future. I started this forum to keep intellectually involved. It's supposed to be a place for equestrian geeks and for growing riders who have questions and comments.
I have been on forums before, notable many years ago when George Morris was frequenting the Chronicle of the Horse forum. My greatest accomplishment there, along with others, was to get him to sort of apologize for the "endemic" (his word) use of the crest release. Apparently the invention of the crest release was a well intentioned effort to get more people jumping sooner, and then they would, he hoped, move on to the automatic release. Anyway, I found his forum participation to be that of a very nice person, however misguided.
I too look forward to seeing if a horse geek forum will develop.
Bob
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Post by Maritza on Sept 26, 2015 23:41:00 GMT
Hi! I am new to the forum. I am excited to see what conversations we have. A little bit about myself I am 22 years old. When I rode a little when I was in high school but after being thrown off. After 6 years I decided to take lessons again. Under Bob's careful instruction I became a confident rider again. I recently just got back from Scotland and while there attended the 2015 European Eventing Championship. I am always eager to learn more about horses and horseback riding.
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Post by horseguy on Sept 28, 2015 14:28:13 GMT
Maritza, good to hear from you. I would invite you to post a topic about your trip to the European Eventing Championship in Scotland. Lucky you to get there. Well done. Got pictures? Bob
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Post by Maritza on Sept 28, 2015 20:00:03 GMT
I would love to Bob! I have about 1000 photos from while I was there. I will post some as I go through them!
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Post by grayhorse on Nov 17, 2015 3:51:30 GMT
Hi Horseguy, this is Carrie. I am ecstatic to have found this forum. Can't wait to read all the posts and will do my best to contribute where I can!!
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Post by rideanotherday on Nov 17, 2015 13:59:13 GMT
I found the link to this forum on Maryland Craigslist...and I will truly enjoy reading and involving myself in solid discussion on horse topics. Thanks for making this forum!
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Post by horseguy on Nov 17, 2015 19:08:48 GMT
Welcome to the forum Carie/grayhorse and rideanotherday. Reideanother day, thanks for posting. Your comments are most welcome and encouraging that we can have some real discussions here. Carie, glad you found this place (I know Carie from another board). I think you will like it here. Finally a place for serious discussions on horsemanship. But I did make a sub category for " A place for social, keeping in touch with friends, vents, rants, silly stuff, etc." if anyone want to post about buying hot pink Italian titanium stirrups irons.
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Post by rideforever on Nov 18, 2015 1:16:52 GMT
Hi there. Rideanotherday introduced me to this board. I've done a little bit of a lot, from starting youngsters, riding instruction, trail guide, western dressage, and team sorting. I look forward to joining the conversation
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Post by rideanotherday on Nov 18, 2015 11:55:04 GMT
Welcome to the forum Carie/grayhorse and rideanotherday. Reideanother day, thanks for posting. Your comments are most welcome and encouraging that we can have some real discussions here. Carie, glad you found this place (I know Carie from another board). I think you will like it here. Finally a place for serious discussions on horsemanship. But I did make a sub category for " A place for social, keeping in touch with friends, vents, rants, silly stuff, etc." if anyone want to post about buying hot pink Italian titanium stirrups irons. What's wrong with hot pink Italian titanium stirrup irons??? I'll have mine with Swarovski crystals please!
I love discussion on training and learning. I'll probably be posting too much, stop me if it gets annoying!
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Post by horseguy on Nov 18, 2015 13:51:36 GMT
Please feel free to post pictures of your Swarovski crystals stirrups on Other NON-HORSEMANSHIP Topics. I'd kind a like to see what that means. My joke (yes, I have a sense of humor) to Carie about such things goes back to a internet board where those kinds of posts were considered horsemanship,(not kidding) and one of my pet peeves is how some riders/owners go right to purchasing a solution for a problem that comes up with their horse. I always say that if you are in a tack store or on the internet searching for such a solution, stop and consider that whatever you are dealing with is probably best solved by working with your horse. Save your money and work your horse is my general advice. And post away, we need discussion here to get to the real meaning of horsemanship.
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Post by horseguy on Nov 18, 2015 14:22:03 GMT
Welcome rideforever. You've "done a little bit of a lot". I call that diversity. What I see today is specialization with horses and we need more diversity. You will see me say this a lot, things have changed in the horse world and the shift to specialization is one big change. I think it's bad for a horse's mind.
Many years ago if you did just one thing with your horses, you were considered a bit of an oddity. Versatility in a horse and rider were valued. A story ...
Not too many years ago a micro brewery wanted to be a game sponsor at a local polo club. We said fine, and began to plan a half-time "show" to help them promote their beer. I immediately thought of a polo horse puissance jumping competition. This brewer's beer cases were color coded, so each type beer had a case color, blue, green, pink, yellow, etc. I pretty much made up the rules, the most important one being the horse had to play in a period of polo in the first half of the game to qualify for the puissance
The first half ended and we put a row of green beer cases between two jump standards. I think a beer case is maybe 10 inches high. We had six or seven players enter, some with more than one horse. All but one horse made it over the one case height. Then we added another yellow row, 20 inches, no big deal most made it over. Then three cases high, 30 inches and we eliminated a bunch of polo horses. Going into four cases high, 40 inches, there were three riders left. some of us had two horses still in the competition. Only two of us riders, both fox hunters, made it over 40 inches and into the "jump off". This time we lined up bottles so they would fall over easier (no cans available). Here's the brag, I finished 1st and 2nd, but the punch line is that one of the eliminated riders said, "If I knew we were going to jump, I'd have brought my jumping horses." Man, did he miss the point. It was about diversity, versatility. It was a polo horse puissance. He was a young guy who grew up with horses in the age of specialization and missed the joy of doing a little bit of a lot. I had a ball and won some beer. Diversity works.
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Post by rideanotherday on Nov 18, 2015 14:39:32 GMT
Diversity...Horseguy, you hit the nail on the head. When I went to high school there were many 3 sport jocks, now athletes must specialize and that's the emphasis - to be good, you must focus on one particular sport.
Horse riders have followed that trend. I feel that by cross-training (dressage and cow horse for example, or hunter and trail etc) it keeps a horse more mentally flexible and fresh. Quite frankly, *I* stay more mentally fresh by doing other things.
All I could afford in high school was one horse that I showed in 4-H. My Arabian showed in Western classes as well as English. Sure, he did much better under English, but we did alright in Western as well. He also seemed to enjoy the game classes. At the time I didn't know any better, so the poor guy had to do a little of everything.
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