As the title says, does anyone own/ride horses or wish they could?

I do and currently compete with my Dutch Warmblood at Dressage in the UK at Elementary Level with a bit of fun jumping on the side. I've also got 4 other horses I'm happy to talk about but only if there are some other like minded people here who care (cos believe me, I can talk about that lot for ages).

I used to do horsebackriding last year. My horsebackriding teacher had me take care of a very huge horse named Fargo. I rememeber brushing his mane and feeding him carrots. I even got to ride him bareback without a saddle or reins...now that was fun ...Although, Fargo was really slow...I miss horsebackriding, but luckily I do go horsebackriding on vacations and in the summer ...

I have been riding...Once when I was about 3 (I have a photo to prove that >_<) Then I didn't ride another horse untill I was about 12 or 13. And that was with my aunty when we went to look after her friends horse. I rode that horse without reins nor saddle (Just his winter coat) it scared the hell outta me coz I hate heights....

I love riding the contact with the horse and the rider is much like a companionship, each rely on the other with complete trust. As some may know I have 9 Horses, I compete in Dressage, and other showing native to the breed of the Paso Fino from which I own. I also have experience in jumping, which I competed in for nearly five years till I felt my horse should be re-tired because of old age. I also use to do barrel racing, along with English pleasure, English equitation, Western Pleasure and Western horsemanship, along with halter classes. lol Come to think of it I could put more into my resume about horses and what I have accomplished but when it comes to regular jobs I can barley write three lines for experience.

This post has been edited by Lucid Nightmare: Feb 23 2007, 05:52 AM

Aw! You own 9 horses?! You're luckey! I've always wanted a horse but we've either didn't have the money or didn't have anyway to put the horse XD

The most amount of fun is breeding your own! You can see them grow up, teach them everything they know and you get to waste a load of time when they're just born, staring at their cutness over the fence! I used to do pony club stuff, including a bit of eventing.

There was this one time when we were bringing my horse in from the field, me and another horsy friend and I managed to get her on board from the fence, with me in front and we had his head collar with one rope, so we could only turn left (luckily just had to go along the fence with it on our left) and she was kinda nervous, even though she could grab onto me and I had a hold of his rug. anyway, to give her a bit of a "fright" i gave him a kick, must have been harder than i thought cos he gave a little buck and cantered into the yard! It was so funny i nearly fell off laughing at how terrified my friend was! We then went on to have a little competition to see who could junp the heighest on their horse. she had a 16.2hh thoroughbred (horsy peeps will know how high i mean, about 166cm high at where the saddle goes to others) and I had my 15.2hh irish draft X thoroughbred (158cm) and we managed to get up to 4ft2. she only won cos her horse jumped but knocked over 4ft 3 and mine refused. (don't blame him, it was huge!) Lol, that horse was so much fun...

AWWW!!! I wanna horse now! They're so much fun! My brother is also scared of them!I find it funn coz hes really annoying XD. *Sighs* a horse is on my dream list. Now-a-days I'll probley fall off it!

My brother is also afraid of Horses, but it was because he was new to riding a Paso Fino and wasn't use to the brio. Go figure he is two years older than I am and is a scaredy cat. Through he has started riding my Arabian, she takes good care of him so its a good pair.

My sister had a part bred Arab and it was nuts! However he had a really bad home before her. (this a long time ago before i was born, she's 31 now and i'm 17!) For example, when the bought him and had to get him in the trailer, he wouldn't load so the people said they'd go and get the shetland comanion from the field and go off in a car to come back with it tied to the bumper. She did wonders with him but was apsolutly crazy before that. Personally, i'm not a great fan of Arabs as they tend to be very high strung and i'm not a fan of the super dished face and very thin legs. Prefer the more older versions of Arab but most of those have died out

There are different kinds of Arabs, Crabbit, Polish, Egyptian, etc. You mostly see the high strong behavior in the Stallions not the mares, however, any horse that has been mistreate will remember and act out, until someone takes the time to "earn" the horse's trust back. Your sister really did a kind thing for that Arab, if a horse is difficult like you said your sister's horse was, it usually ends up in a meat factory sadly. Most people don't want to waste their time with a difficult horse, however, I feel those are the people that shouldn't have horses. Horses act for a reason, they aren't just property, you have to earn their trust and they will gradually become a companion. I see this happen allot with the racing stables, a horse that doesn't run fast enough will be sent to the meat factory, and that horse has nothing wrong with it other than it can't run fast enough. Jeez, that gets under my skin...

I have done horse riding...only on b-day parties. But I don't really like it. I rather do ballsports/running and sailing in my own boat.

My dad however he was a champ and has won many medailles.(sp?)

But horses look cute and are very beautiful often, I see them across my street there's a farm in the woods.

I know what you mean. There was a case reported in H&H (Horse and hound, best equine weekly magazine in the universe) where a woman bought a horse last June i think, but after having it 2 weeks said it became dangerous and all that. The previous owner loved this horse and offered to buy it back but got taken to court for misrepresentation. The previous owner then decided to drive up to where the horse was when she heard it might be put down but got there too late. The horse had already been "destroyed"( i hate it when they use that word!). I think the court case was in favour of the previous owner but i can get the story for you on the internet if you want.

I don't know what the drill is for retired race horses in America, cos there must be a lot more than there are here, but here horses that don't make it on the race track don't usually get destroyed but bought by people to re-school them and usually do eventing on. You can get an ex-racehorse quite cheaply and it's worth it if you have the guts and the time to re-school one cos they're cracking on the cross country part of eventing!

The horse community certainly has an interesting way of defining killing a horse, allot of times it's referred to as euthanizing, but mostly its destroying (as you stated)... It's the same thing, they just think by changing the name, less people would take offence to killing an innocent animal. Here in the U.S. people have started to address the senate to rule that horses are pets more than livestock. That way there are more ways to protect horses from going to the meat factories and protect the horse's well being under animal right groups, so they can't be categorized as cattle. There are a few stables around me that race their horses, and treat their horses like pets, but far too many stables see horses as a revenue. There are auctions here in the U.S that have racehorses for a reasonable price, however, you're lucky to get the ones you want because of the meat packers. A friend of mine use to by race horses from the auction holds, train them and then sell them to 4-Hers. I have leased two of her horses, they preform wonderfully in showing, and they were registered animals. Racing wasn't their calling, and they were thrown out like trash, that's why I have a sour opinion of allot of racing stables.

I know what you mean. However, (i don't know about this in the US, just Europe) i'm not against the slaughter of horses for meat. If the animal is killed in a humane way (high voltage or an iron bolt) and the animal has had a comfortable journey where regulations for feeding, watering, packing (couldn't think of another word for it) and stopping times have been adhered to, there is nothing wrong with killing the horse for meat. What I am PASSIONATELY against is when any animal is treated incorrectly. There's a current debate at the moment whether letting Romaina into the EU will be a good of bad thing as far as the horse world is concerned. From what i've read, it's going to be a terrible thing as border checks would force animal transporters to stop, feed and water their livestock before continuing. This is the sort of work the ILPH (International League for the Protection of Horses) campaigns for and have just hired 2 people to work under cover to see if transportation methods are being correctly carried out. To many people, horses are pets. To others they are the only means for any income in the form of transportation and such. But to others, horses are animals for eating. But if the animal was not put in any distress, there's no hard and fast rule to should they be killed to be eaten or not. You're probably thinking now, how can this stupid girl love horses but still say all that above? The horse so and so leant to me is a cracking horse but she's ok if it had been killed for food? Well, what would you rather have? The knoweledge that X amount of horses were killed each year but transported and killed in the correct manner so no distress was caused to the animal or the knoweledge that X amount of horses starve to death and are left to die anywhere cos no one cares. Surely the former is better than the latter.

Well, sorry for that rant. It's something I am quite strong feelinged about. Back to the topic of horse riding, wish me luck cos I got a competition on saturday ^^ (Elementary 55 if anyone cares!)