Me graduating!

Okay, so now that I’ve graduated, you might wonder what I’m up to. As much as I love horses, I’m not a full-time trainer or riding instructor. But my love of teaching is a driving passion of mine, and it has led me to probably one of the craziest but most exciting decisions of my life: I’ve started my very own non-profit venture, called Black Mountain SOLE. I want to help anyone and everyone be able to discover and pursue their passions, as I have been so lucky to have the opportunity to do in my life. Black Mountain SOLE is offering four programs starting in September THIS YEAR! One of those programs is called Geronimo Gap Year; in nine months, we try to help each participant find his or her passion, figure out what he or she needs to learn to be able to pursue that passion, and then structure a personal curriculum for him or her to learn and practice everything that he or she needs to know! Totally outrageously ambitious, I know, but hey :) I’m a horsewoman. I don’t understand impossible.

I would love for everyone to check out our site, and if you feel like you could support me in this adventure, like our page on facebook!

Okay, enough about me, time for my first video post in absolute ages!!! Today I’m going to show you how to ride without stirrups. Happy trails :D

1. Easy-going attitude. This one trait counts for pretty much more than anything else on the list. If you’re a beginner rider, your horse doesn’t need to know how to do passage or jump four feet. He needs to keep you safe and help you learn. And what will let him do that–or leave you frustrated or scared–is his attitude. A beginner’s horse should be calm and willing, patient and level-headed. A horse that doesn’t tolerate mistakes or gets excited easily is not a good horse for beginners. The best beginner horse is a gentleman or a lady–polite on the ground and under saddle, ready to do what is asked of him, and forgiving if the rider doesn’t quite get it right the first few times.

2. Experience. The second most important trait is that the horse has lots of experience doing the kind of riding the beginner wants to do. I cannot stress enough that getting a green horse (“green” means untrained) for a new rider is a recipe for disaster. Even if the horse has an amazing attitude, this setup will still go wrong most of the time, and here’s why–a green horse doesn’t know the difference between correct riding and incorrect riding, and neither does a beginner rider. How can that rider teach a green horse? All that will happen is that they will both end up doing things incorrectly, and get incredibly frustrated with each other. Above all, a green horse, especially if he’s young, needs consistency–a new rider cannot be expected to be consistent doing something she’s just learned! Or worse, not even learned yet!! So just don’t do it. Find a horse with lots of experience in the kind of sport that you want to ride.

3. Age. Honestly, the first two traits listed here are the most important. Everything else is just an add-on. But, young horses–even well-trained ones, also aren’t as good for beginners most of the time. I’ve met several incredible exceptions to this rule, so it’s not as hard and fast as the first two. But generally speaking, younger horses are more unpredictable, easier to upset, less forgiving and most likely less experienced. I think the best age for a beginner’s horse is about 15 years old. Obviously, that’s just a rough suggestion, and each horse is different. But a mature horse usually makes a better, calmer mount than a young one.

4. Fit. The horse should fit the rider, both physically and personality-wise. In terms of size (people ask me this question a lot), there is no set rule–a tall person can ride a pony, and a short person can ride a horse. But it’s easier to have the correct position if your legs fit properly on the horse, so here are some general guidelines:

• For a pony (13.2 hands or under: rider under around 4’6″
• For a large pony (13.2-14.2 hands): rider around 4’6″ to 5′
• For a horse (14.5-16.2 hands): rider around 5′ to 6′
• For a large horse (over 16.2): rider over 6′

Obviously, these guidelines can be broken all the time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But because people ask me all the time, I figured I’d make something up! In terms of weight as well, it matters as much about how when you can manage your body’s movements as to what you weigh. Someone who is 200 lb but well-balanced and can flow with the horse will cause less discomfort and stress to a horse than someone who is 150 lb and bouncing all over the place. The general rule is that a horse can carry between 10 to 20% of his body weight, but that also depends on his fitness level, how well-built he is, and what kind of horse he is. For example, Shetlends are incredibly strong for their size, while Thoroughbreds can more easily suffer leg injuries from too much pressure. So, again, there is no right answer–you can to match yourself and the horse!

5. Soundness. As strange as this sounds, soundness is last on the list. I do this because sometimes an older, bit “over the hill” kind of horse is absolutely perfect for a beginner. If you’re just learning to ride, you don’t need a horse who can still gallop for miles or leap huge fences. Obviously, you need a horse sound enough to ride, but a horse with a little bit of arthritis who just takes some time to warm up or a horse who can’t jump anymore might be perfect for you. And you also get to give a horse who can’t be used for his sport any more a chance to still have a meaningful relationship with a rider. Also, to get a horse who has the first three traits won’t be cheap. A horse who has some small health issues will be much less expensive, but possibly just as workable for you.

You’ll notice a few things DON’T make the list. I don’t mention certain breeds. And that’s because if you find a horse who fits these traits, it doesn’t make one ounce of difference what breed he is. Obviously, I’m partial to geldings, but again, if you find a mare with a great attitude, who’s willing and patient, then by all means go with her (although do she what she’s like in heat first, because sometimes demons emerge from the hormones!).

Good luck, and happy trails!

Ali and Noah

First, watch my video on Riding Gear. This video covers the basics of what you as a rider need. Next, watch the video on Grooming, as it covers what you need in a basic grooming kit. To summarize, you will need a helmet, riding pants, boots (with half chaps or chaps if you use paddock boots) and possibly gloves. In the grooming kit, you need a dandy/body brush, a hard brush, a mane/tail comb or brush, a curry comb, a hoof pick, and sponges or a rag. A tack box to hold it all is also very helpful.

The basic grooming equipment

A basic nylon halter

So, you need your equipment to ride, and then basic equipment to groom the horse. What else do you need? Well, you certainly need a halter, or you’ll have no way to catch and lead your horse! His halter should fit him properly, so make sure you get the right size for the size of your pony. Usually, if you talk to someone at the tack store about how tall your horse is and what breed, they can recommend what size halter. Halters can come in different kinds of sizes, but will usually be something like “small,” “average” and “large” or  “pony,” (small) “cobb” (average) and “draft” (large).

One type of Western bridle

Next, you need a way to ride your horse. So you’ll need a bridle and a saddle. Again, these must fit your horse. Bridles come in similar sizes to halters, usually with “pony” and “horse” options. The saddle will be much trickier to fit than the bridle–I would recommend using a professional saddle fitter. Also, you will need to decide what kind of riding you want to do before you buy any tack (hopefully you decided that before you got the horse, as that will impact what kind of horse you get! See my first blog about buying a horse). You’ll also need a saddle blanket or pad, and a girth. Again, the girth with have to be sized with the horse–girths are measured in inches (or centimeters).

A jumping girth and dressage girth

Keep in mind that all this stuff won’t be cheap. (If you need an idea of how much it actually might cost, check out my cost summary on my Horse Care-Beware blog). A great way to reduce expenses is to buy things used–many local tack stores carry used items (the chain stores tend not to). You can also contact local riding schools to see if anyone is selling saddles, etc. Also, online at places like Craigslist in the US or other used-supplies selling sites are great places to look.

If you’re planning on keeping your horse in your own stable, that will require a whole other list of equipment and supplies, which I’ll cover in a later blog. However, having your own first aid kit isn’t a bad idea either. Check out the one I have packed up for going to a show here.

Lastly, there are lots of “extras” you can get, like blankets, coolers, boots, wraps, crops/whips and so on. These all depend on your horse and what kind of riding you are planning on doing. If you’ve got the basics listed here, that will get you started! And don’t worry, the rest will come—horse people have a way of developing quite the passion for perusing tack stores :)

Happy trails,

Ali

First, what are worms? They are a group of “intestinal parasites”–basically, very small creatures that live by stealing nutrients from other animals. Horses get worms by eating them; tiny worm eggs or larva (baby worms) can live on grass, hay or other natural feed, which the horse then accidentally ingests while eating the grass. Then the worm hatches and grows inside the gut of the horse, living off the food that the horse eats.

Why are worms bad for horses? If a horse has worms, the worms will get much of the nutrients from the food the horse eats, rather than the horse. The horse will lose weight and become unhealthy, no matter how much you try to feed him. Also, the worms attach to the lining inside the horse’s intestines, which can hurt them and cause permanent damage.

What can we do about worms? First, worms are spread through manure. A horse who has worms will poop some worms and eggs out, which then contaminate the grass. Proper manure management in pastures can help control worm levels. However, worms are a natural part of most environments, so rather than trying to get rid of them completely on the outside (which you can’t) you just have to get rid of them inside the horse. The best method of killing worms inside a horse is to give a de-worming paste regularly. You can also feed horses a daily de-wormer that is in pellet form. Here’s how you give a horse a de-worming paste:

As mentioned in the video, you should rotate types of de-wormers. Here, I use Ivermectin. You could alternate with Strongid or a number of other types of de-wormers. They all use difference medicine bases, so they can kill different types of parasites. Talk with your vet so you can create the best schedule for your horse and your area. You should know:

1. How often to de-worm your horse

2. Which types of de-wormers to use

3. When you should start and finish your yearly worming schedule (or do you need to de-worm year-round?)

Following these tips, you can help keep your horse fit, healthy and happy!

Happy trails,

Ali

Developing a balanced two point position is a key part of becoming a good jumping, cross-country rider or even secure trail rider. The video below demonstrates the basics of two point and highlights common mistakes, and then I discuss a great exercise for improving your two-point technique.

First, another common mistake is for riders to have their stirrups way too long when they try to do two-point. Make it easier and more correct, and shorten your stirrups when you are practicing two-point–probably more than you think you need to! There is no absolute rule on proper length of stirrup, but you need your stirrups short enough that you can raise yourself well out of the saddle.

A really good exercise to practice improving your two point position is to actually just stand straight up in your stirrups–at the halt, of course! You’ll find that the first couple of times you do this, it’s really hard. You’ll probably fall over. But don’t worry–that’s what’s supposed to happen. Notice which way you fell. If you fell forward, think about opening up your chest and pressing your shoulderblades down and back. If you fell backward, think about pressing your hipbones forward toward your horse’s ears. Keep practicing until you can stand up easily for about 5-10 seconds.

Then, start to bend at the waist and lower yourself into two point. You’ll notice immediately that you have to let your hips go backward, or you face-plant into your horse’s neck. If you let your shoulders collapse or lean too far forward instead of just letting the angle of your hip get smaller (bringing your things and stomach closer together) you fall forward as well. If you let your hips go too far back, you’ll fall backward. Keep your core strong, and your back flat and strong (not curled or over-arched).

It takes lots of time riding in two-point for it to feel comfortable. Just keep practicing at it, in every gait, every time you ride.

Thanks again for reading, and happy trails!

-Ali and Noah

A few more hopefully helpful tips:

Remember that the frog of the hoof is living tissue, so you don’t want to stab at it with your hoof pick. Look for the clefts (the grooves on either side of the frog). If there’s too much mud or dirt, look for where the clefts come out on either side of the heel bulbs, and work your way up. If you still can’t find them, take your best guess and carefully scrape off the top layers of dirt until you can recognize the shape of the hoof.

Holding the hoof pick the right way will really give you the best leverage to get out that stubborn, packed mud. Check out how I’m holding the pick in this video. Many people start out holding it with the tip pointing toward them instead of away, which makes it hard to lever out those stuck pebbles.

Thrush is the common name for a fungus that can grow in horses’ hooves. It can cause problems because it makes the horse’s hoof crumbly and weak. Like most fungi, it grows best in wet conditions, so you can protect your horse from thrush by making sure his pasture is well-drained. If mud is unavoidable (which often happens!), then make sure to pick your horse’s hooves every day and let hims spend some time out of the mud. If your horse does get thrush, you can treat it with iodine or Thrush Buster.

If your horse doesn’t like to pick up his hooves, first check with your vet that he doesn’t have arthritis or pain that would hinder him lifting his hoof. Then you can try leaning into his shoulder to encourage him to get his weight off the hoof you want to pick up. You can even add in the verbal command, “Up!” or something similar, so your horse starts to learn to pick up his feet just by your voice aid.

Happy trails!

1. Make sure that buying a horse is actually what you want to do. Many people mistakenly think that if they want to start riding, they need to buy a horse first. In fact, buying a horse should be the last thing you do! First, take some riding lessons. See if riding is something you enjoy as much as you thought you would, and if it’s something you’d like to stick with. Then consider leasing a horse. Leasing a horse will give you a great sense of what is required in horse ownership without the full commitment. Many of the suggestions below apply to finding a good horse to lease as well. Then ask yourself the following questions:

a. Can I afford to keep a horse? Check out my “Horse care beware” blog.

b. Do the right facilities exist near me to stable and ride my horse?

c. Do I have the time to ride at least three times a week?

d. Is riding something I want to do for at least the next five to ten years?

If you answered yes to all four questions, and the lease has gone well, then you can go on to starting the search for a horse to buy.

2. Decide what kind of riding you would like to do right now. You wouldn’t buy a car without knowing what kind of driving you need to do. It’s the same with a horse. If you want to jump versus ride Western pleasure, you’ll need different skills in your horse. Do you want to show? At what level? What kind of horse can you handle right now? If you are a beginner rider, even if you have ambitions to be a top show jumper in ten years, you should make sure you get a horse than you can safely ride right now.

3. What kind of riding would you like to be doing in the future? If you are a young rider, you may want to consider getting a horse you can grow into. Ponies are great for very young or small riders, but if you are 14 you could have outgrown a pony in a year or two and be back to the drawing board. You still have to consider #2 above, and not get a horse outside of your ability, but you also want a horse who will be able to keep up with you. Also, if you are considering a horse with one main ability, make sure that is the sport you want to keep doing in the future. As a beginning rider, it’s usually a better idea to get a more versatile horse–you probably don’t know for sure what kind of riding you’ll want to do as you get better.

4. What are your most important characteristics you need and want in a horse? No single horse will have every single possible trait you could want. You will have to figure out what are the non-negotiable aspects, and which ones you could compromise on. For example, if you are a bit of a nervous rider, you should be willing to sacrifice amazing movement to get a calm, even-headed horse. If you really want to jump high, you might end up with a horse who’s not great on the trail or a bit weak in dressage. That’s why it’s so important to know ahead of time what you want to do, and what you absolutely cannot live without in your horse. Maybe people ask me about breeds, but I feel that the individual characteristics are more important than breed. Breeds can give you a starting point, but you never really know what you’ll find in a particular horse.

5. What is your budget? This question will influence #4 as well. The more you can and want to pay, most likely the more of your top traits you can get in your horse. If you have a relatively small budget, you will likely have to make additional compromises. One of the most common trade-offs is buying a young and untrained horse who has good prospects. This trade-off is usually not a good idea for beginning riders. I would suggest going for an older, experienced horse who may not be able to compete like he used to. Schoolmaster horses are invaluable in helping new riders, and often can be found for reasonable prices as their current riders are moving on to more competitive mounts.

In this video, I address the question, “What breed should I get?” I stress again that it matters most what the horse is like, and what you want to do!

Many happy trails to you :)

-Ali

Here are my trailer equipment checklists.

Safety:

• extra breakaway halter and lead rope
• first aid kit
• flat tire repair kit (including safety traffic triangle/flares)
• chock for blocking trailer wheels while parked
• tool kit (including pliers, duct tape, WD40, crow bar/tire iron, serrated work knife, flashlight and batteries, screwdriver, hammer)
• extra bulbs for trailer lights

Feeding and Cleaning supplies:

• two 5 gallon water buckets
• muck rake, shovel and broom
• hay net and extra hay
• cookies/treats/grain
• at least 20 gallons of water (sometimes horses won’t drink new water, so try to fill up the trailer’s tank, if you have one, with water from the horse’s barn)

Important tips to remember:

1. Always trailer your horse in a breakaway halter
2. It’s a good idea to at least put splint boots on your horse, if not full shipping wraps, to protect his legs
3. Always check the trailer for soundness before you load a horse
4. Never load a horse into a trailer that is not properly attached to an appropriate vehicle

This trailer safety checklist from the US Pony Club is particularly helpful to review before you set out on a trip.

Happy trails!

Kai’s top tips for show jumping:

1. Your canter should always be the same rhythm.  Keeping your canter at the same rhythm allows you to stay even and steady through the whole course, and makes sure your horse is balanced all the time. Keeping the same rhythm, however, means that if you need to go faster or slower you have to change the size of the horse’s canter stride and not how quickly or slowly he is taking each stride. A horse that slows his rhythm down too much will lose his spring, and a horse who’s rhythm is too fast will end up carrying too much weight on his forehand, making it very hard to jump the next jump.

2. Don’t tip forward too much with your upper body. Even if you are jumping really big jumps, you don’t want to end up too far forward. Doing so will put more of your weight on the horse’s front legs, again making it hard for him to pick up those front legs and clear a jump. When you are jumping small jumps, it’s just as important to make sure you stay far enough back, so you can keep your balance.

3. Control your horse’s speed with your outside rein. The outside rein is the opposite side to the horse’s canter lead. In other words, if your horse is cantering on a right lead, the outside rein is the left one. You want to use this rein to half-halt because pulling on the inside rein will interfere more with the horse’s inside hind leg. The inside hind leg is the one that drives the canter and gives a horse his power to jump–we don’t want to be getting in its way! Using the outside rein is particularly important when riding through corners, as the horse also balances off that inside hind leg. Remember, the proper way to ride a corner is to use inside leg  at the girth to bend the horse’s body, and outside rein to catch his shoulder and guide him around the turn.

4. Stay in the middle of your horse. Leaning to the right or the left will mess up your horse’s balance, and make him much more likely to knock down rails. It also makes you more likely to fall off!

5. As soon as you land, look for the next jump. As Kai says, “After the jump is for the next jump!” Looking for the next jump as soon as you can gives you the most time to plan your approach and get the right distance to it.

6. When you walk your course, walk it as you would want to ride it. Don’t just go straight from jump 1 to 2 to 3. Walk all the way out into your corners, and approach each jump as you would want to on your horse. Consider any tricky things that might come up, and how you would handle them. Measure out the distances between combination jumps so you know how many strides you should aim for.

7. Count your canter strides between two jumps. Counting will help you know how far away you are from the next jump, and whether you should ask your horse to lengthen or shorten his stride. You might think it’s impossible to judge distance and canter stride numbers, but if you practice you’ll find you’re surprising good at guessing when you’re eight, five or three strides away. And knowing these things will make you much more accurate in your jumping course.

It might sound like a tall order, but that’s what this video is here to help explain.

A few pointers for the sitting trot:

1. Keep your core engaged. I say “engaged” and not “flexed” or “hard” because your abdomen still needs to be flexible, but it can’t be “gooey.” Your ab muscles help balance your horse, and they keep your upper body from flapping around as your lower back and hips rock with the bounce of the horse’s trot.

2. Sitting trot means turning up and down motion into forward and back motion. It’s not that you magically stay still while your horse is madly bouncing away underneath you, but rather that you take the motion that before you used to post up and down and use your hips and lower back to change it into swinging towards his ears and back.

3. Even as you let your hips rock back and forth, don’t let your lower back arch too much. If you let the top of your pelvis tilt forward and you lower back really arch, you will both lose the strength of your seat and hurt your lower back (I’ve now learned this the painful way…). That’s why I say think about tucking your hips and almost “scooping” toward your horse’s ears. This motion lets your hips take the bounce without sacrificing your lower back.

4. Practice, practice, practice! It’s the only way to get good at the sitting trot. Have someone video you so you can see where you might be going wrong. I’ve learned so much about my riding from making these videos… ;)

Happy trails!

-Ali