Hi! I have been riding at my barn for almost a year after taking a 3-year break for mental health reasons, and I have been working there for the past 4 months. For about a month or two, I have felt as if I’m no longer improving. My trainer makes us follow the same lesson plan every time. It never changes, and we don’t learn anything new. I’ve also started working for the summer program. The first few days went well, but I’ve noticed that my trainer shows favoritism towards certain workers. If you’re not one of her favorites, she avoids you. The only time she talks to you is when her favorites ..read more

Hey everyone, my best friend loves horses, and does polo often. She encouraged me to get some basic lessons so I might join her in polo (it’s very casual polo). Does anyone know any good places for adult beginners in the wider southeast PA/NJ/DE region? I was looking around, there looks like a lot of great barns, but many look like they’re for serious equestrians and not a noob like me. Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. I love watching equestrian sports- hunter, jumper, polo, all of it. submitted by /u/empiricist_lost [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

for those of you who own horses; what do you guys do for work and/or how did you guys make room to be able to afford owning horses? submitted by /u/Alternative_Wait_554 [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

I have been riding a 15-17 yr old gelding quarter horse for about 2 months now, he had about 3 years off as a babysitter for a friend of ours, we don’t know much about his past but he was supposedly used for parades. I have been having a hard time getting him to move off my legs and getting his head down. I have tried every method I have ever been taught to get his head down but anytime I apply pressure to the reins he just braces his head and tries to avoid the bit in every way except for down. I’ve tried a single jointed o ring bit, a single jointed eggbutt, a dogbone western dee, and a ..read more

Hi, unfortunately I live in an area where land is scarce and honestly the quality of life for horses here sucks. It’s normalized and legal to have 33 horses on 3 acres for example. “Full board” averages around $1000/month. Places are run down, understaffed, and turn out time is minimal. The place I have my horse has only 1 employee normally responsible for 20 horses. This “barn manager” has only a few years horse experience. The owner lives onsite but does minimal work with the horses. Recently I discovered my insulin resistant horse was incorrectly fed beet pulp with molasses all week. This ..read more

My truck has a 5,000lbs tow capacity but I know width,breaks and transmission have a role to play. It's 4.6 xl regular cab 8ft bed submitted by /u/Classic-Lab4159 [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

So I've already brought up my mare a few times on this sub. Long story short, she semi-retired at 17 nearly four years ago. I won't get into the details again but basically she hated being in constant work and the best option was to let her be and stick to the bare minimum. Currently she does a tiny bit of flatwork (maybe 30 minutes once a week) and the occasional lunge. Other than this she's a pasture princess and loves it. We never had a fusional relationship. After nearly a decade together we found common ground and mutual respect but there was never really a bond between us. She's not ver ..read more

I have the option to switch barns, need some other opinions. I love my current place. People are amazing, huge pastures, I even have my own tack shed. They don't have any inside areas in case of emergency though. I pay $175 a month. Problem is it's 45 minutes from my house. My gelding is currently lame and I can't make the drive every day to soak his hoof. New place is much smaller. She has one young gelding, and stalls for 8 hours during the day with them out at night. Her place is a work in progress, my horse would be in a very small paddock for thr next month is while fences are put up. It ..read more

submitted by /u/butterfly-k1sses [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

Hi!! So, maybe this sounds so silly to come on here and ask, but what’s the difference between owning a horse, leasing a horse and shareboarding a horse? and what’s best recommended for someone who’s a beginner/intermediate rider with previous experience who is looking to have “their own” horse without straight up buying one? and what do the costs roughly look like for owning, leasing and shareboarding? i take lessons and absolutely love the horses that i do lessons on, but idk, i kind of want a horse that i can “call my own” and create a special bond with where i know 30 other people aren’t ..read more