Welcome and updates

[iriedogs]

Woooo! We have our new place to gather. So happy this was able to happen, and in a quick timeframe. Thank you, Laurie!

I used to post a good bit on UDBB, but over the past few years, just lurked and read everyone else's posts. Just for a quick update, here is what I am doing now.

After my Hannoverian was put down for seizures (turned out to be EPM) in 2010, I rode and showed several other people's horses instead of getting another of my own. Last year, my daughter talked me into buying a Haflinger mare (completely unbroke broodmare, 14), and she bought another one (trained, of course) one who looked just like it. We now have twin yellow ponies. Both were going well, but mine, Flora, couldn't tolerate the bit. Turns out she has an impacted tooth issue which makes it impossible for her to be ridden in a bit, and surgery is expensive and must be done at UGA vet school. This is something I would not have known pre-purchase, since she had never been ridden when we bought her. So, I ride her in a hackamore and she does fine. But, that means no showing, even in local schooling shows. Disappointing, but OK, we decided to show the other one, taking turns. Dutchess was much better trained anyway. However, this summer, she tore a tendon in the pasture. We have a year of full pasture rest to see if she will then be pasture and light trail rideable. Ugh. No more showing Dutchess.

But I have to tell you, they are both very, very cute. Which is a good thing, since they are basically just big yellow pets now!

How about yall? Catch us up with what has been going on with you.

[SandTikiFire]

Haflingers are adorable! We need pictures! I used to post lot as Easterhawk, then got busy with film stuff, started lurking more, then faced away until recently. Got pulled back in with Lynn's disappearance, sadly, and then the board was going away and I realized ho much I missed it.

As to me, I still have my Arabian stallion, Tiki. I was diagnosed with MS about a year and a half ago after a decade of increasing numbness, pain, and balance issues. I have been working on figuring out what that will mean for me riding wise. I stopped jumping and am focused on English and Western dressage (showing BOTH next weekend - that will be FUN!)

Tiki continues to be my amazing multi-talented rock star. I told my western trainer (who has trained MANY trick horses) that we need to teach him to lie down for me to get on in case I ever get to the point I can't get on from the mounting block. YES, I joke about my MS. Sorry if it makes some people uncomfortable, BUT it is a reality I much prefer to face with humor.

Still working on my film career - waiting on one feature to be released, doing a bunch of shorts and whispers in embarrassment, "commercials" (but they pay, sooooooo)

All in all, it's great to be BACK!

[iriedogs]

I watched my first Western Dressage show about 2 months ago and I am HOOKED! So excited that you are going to be doing this. Please keep us posted, we want to see pics from next weekend!
I keep thinking that if Western dressage ever agrees to letting lowest level horses compete in a bosal, I can show my Haffie in it! And I will post pics of my girls here as soon as I figure out how. Is there a trick to it here?

[Janet]

OK - I did post much on UDBB - just over 700 posts in 15 years. I will try to do better here.

By way of re-introduction, I have 3 horses, a 12 year old appy (who is looking for a new home!), a 25 year old Holsteiner who is enjoying semi-retirement, and my current dressage horse, Theo a 16 year old Westphalian,.

Theo is incredibly talented and moves beautifully. He was imported as a 4 year old; however he did not get on with his first trainer in the US and things went down hill from there. He went from professional trainer to professional trainer until he lost his sweet mind and just shut down, refusing to do anything at all. I got him two years ago - after he had 4 years in a field to learn how to be a horse for the first time since he came to the US. It has been an up and down couple of years, some soundness issues, some saddle issues, and some just working through his trust issues, but finally we are making progress. He is finally seeking contact and moving away from my leg - both of which he would not do when I first got him. Now we are trying to work on bend. It has been slow, but when we have those few moments where it all works - WOW! It is the most amazing feeling!

Here we are during one of those brief moments:



I struggle a lot as a rider. I take lessons, but I seldom seem to advance. I have had multiple back/spine surgeries in the past few years and have come back to riding after each with hopes that it would solve some of my riding problems. It has gotten a bit better, but I have finally admitted that even with surgery and a very aggressive pt and exercise program my lower back will most likely never move like it should - so it will probably be rising trot for the rest of my life. Still I have had a passion for dressage since I first saw it in a musical freestyle in the mid 80's. I have no desire to show - it is all about the journey for me. So the fact that I will probably never be able to effectively sit the trot isn't a big deal. I am all about the small victories.

Thanks again for giving me a place to come and enjoy my morning coffee!

[M&M]

I told my western trainer (who has trained MANY trick horses) that we need to teach him to lie down for me to get on in case I ever get to the point I can't get on from the mounting block. YES, I joke about my MS. Sorry if it makes some people uncomfortable, BUT it is a reality I much prefer to face with humor.

Really? You would even lightly, jestingly apologize? You-know-what-'em if they can't take a joke!

Tell us more about your film career!

[Ganas]

I never posted an update on a thread I had in the vet forum of the UDBB, so I'll post it here. The horse that I had been wondering about having back pain was diagnosed via radiograph with kissing spines. I almost didn't have the radiographs done, as I felt he'd really improved- no pain on palpation at all. But, I wanted peace of mind. Lol- didn't exactly get that! It really crushed me and I've been in quite the funk about it all summer, trying my best to keep positive about it. It explained so many things about him and I really, really wish I had been bright enough to get the radiographs sooner. My vet wants me to have the lig snip surgery done but I'm still quite hesitant as my gut feeling is that the spine isn't the primary problem. I think it's just how he's built. We did do injections to see if that would gain me an advantage to even better unlock his spine. It did, and beside the occasional bad day, he's consistently progressed all summer. When he gets to the point where I feel he stops gaining, I'll re-radiograph and make some decisions.

[SandTikiFire]

Iriedogs, bitless bridles are allowed at all levels. Here's a link! https://www.usef.org/documents/discipli ... ipment.pdf

[SandTikiFire]

Janet....BEAUTIFUL picture. I say as long as we love what we are doing we should keep on doing it any way that we can!

And M & M the film work is going well. I am just waiting for this one feature to go to festivals and my agent is sending me out on TV/Film stuff trying to get a foot in the door.

[iriedogs]

HH final1.jpg (221.88 KiB) Viewed 21884 times

SandTikiFire, you just made my day!!!! I have a Western bitless bridle just like the one shown as an example! Yes! New career for Miss Flora! Now I will start looking for the extra wide Western saddle to fit her! Woooo!
Trying to post pics. The two above are our Christmas card last year. The B&W one below is Flora and the color one from the front is Dutchess.

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Dutchess 002a.jpg (63.62 KiB) Viewed 21884 times

[Amado]

I mostly lurk here lately, though I think I posted a year or so ago after our first recognized show, and this spring with some video of the flying changes progress with the western trainer we've been learning them from. (those lessons have been fantastic!) The changes are really coming along, (I even got three of them down the long side last week!) and I need to get some recent video to post. I can't remember if I shared these photos, they are all from 2014:

This was warming up at the spring Idaho Dressage Festival in Boise


And a lesson in June 2014:





And a schooling show in Montana last summer:

[M&M]

Gorgeous horse, Amado! Tell me more about working on flying changes with a western trainer -sounds fascinating!

[iriedogs]

Amado, you and your horse look fabulous! Thanks for posting pictures!

[Amado]

Gorgeous horse, Amado! Tell me more about working on flying changes with a western trainer -sounds fascinating!

He's a western trainer (and AQHA judge) who has horses that do the western riding classes. (They ride a pattern that includes something like 8 flying changes - 4 singles, and 4 in a line with 4, maybe 5 strides in between, I think - though they do them on a shallow loop through cones) At any rate, it's been super helpful - Because it's all about the counter canter, moving the shoulders around, and spending a ton of time setting up for the change, but NOT changing - making sure the horse is waiting and listening, being able to change the bend/lateral flexion of the neck at the canter, but NOT changing the lead, because you want the horse to change when you ASK with your legs, not when you change the bend.

He spent the first probably 8 rides introducing the changes, because his timing is excellent, and I am just learning the timing - (and because I wanted somebody else to ride the occasional expressive leaps Rico threw at him in the beginning ) Once Rico got the idea of what he was supposed to do, I started riding them in lessons - again - doing all these excercises in canter and counter canter, then getting a change or two, then making sure we went back to counter canter and NOT changing to reinforce that he needs to wait and listen.

It took awhile for me to go from trying way too hard "omg, I have to ask for the lead change NOW!" to it feeling a little more natural and like I could do "less" and still get the change. I'm not nearly all the way there yet, but it's so much fun, and I'm so excited! We've gotten to the point that more often than not, I can just throw one in each direction at some point in the ride (as long as they are good) and then move on to other things. I try not to change across the diagonal, I try to throw them in in strange places, and Rico really is getting it. If I get stuck on the bad side, it sometimes helps to go on a 20 meter circle in counter canter and ask from there.

[Silverado]

SandTikiFire….welcome back!!! Please post photos of Tiki!

[ProudHorse]

What a pleasure to see your horse and you Amado. Just beautiful.

[Fatcat]

I mostly lurk here lately, though I think I posted a year or so ago after our first recognized show, and this spring with some video of the flying changes progress with the western trainer we've been learning them from. (those lessons have been fantastic!) The changes are really coming along, (I even got three of them down the long side last week!) and I need to get some recent video to post. I can't remember if I shared these photos, they are all from 2014:

This was warming up at the spring Idaho Dressage Festival in Boise


And a lesson in June 2014:





And a schooling show in Montana last summer:

What a beautiful horse! what is his/her breeding, Morgan perhaps?

[Amado]

1/2 Lusitano, TB/QH/Oldenberg

[westisbest]

What great pics! One good thing about this starting anew thing is maybe I can get to "know" more people.. matching stories and horses to user names.. the pics help and are all lovely.

[Amado]

Yes, more stories and pictures! Even though I've been logging on pretty regularly to UDBB these past 10 years, I get still get some names mixed up. I see the first letter, and then they all look the same! Pictures of horses would help. Kind of like when I recognize people at the barn faster when they are on their horse, compared to when they are walking around with their helmet on, haha!

[ZinniaZ]

I don't know who remembers me and who doesn't. When I was first on the board, I was riding a little pony named Oakley, but thaat was eons ago. I bought a horse named Willoughby about 9 years ago (?) and I have my young gelding that I was given in that hanoverian herd dispersal in 2011-- Derby-- and my lame standardbred mare, as well as a fat pony that I have been trying to rehome for ages. Let's see if I have any recent photos...

Derby

Will

my mare Velvet, ponying Derby

[emmalou]

As to me, I still have my Arabian stallion, Tiki. I was diagnosed with MS about a year and a half ago after a decade of increasing numbness, pain, and balance issues. I have been working on figuring out what that will mean for me riding wise. I stopped jumping and am focused on English and Western dressage (showing BOTH next weekend - that will be FUN!)

Tiki continues to be my amazing multi-talented rock star. I told my western trainer (who has trained MANY trick horses) that we need to teach him to lie down for me to get on in case I ever get to the point I can't get on from the mounting block. YES, I joke about my MS. Sorry if it makes some people uncomfortable, BUT it is a reality I much prefer to face with humor.

!

I was reading through and you made me join! I always loved your Tiki. He's so gorgeous.

Anyways, I have MS as well. I feel better now than I have since my diagnosis 5 years ago. I'm on one of the new oral meds, which is working great. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat.

[SandTikiFire]

I would LOVE to chat, Emmalou! I am on Tecfidera and it seems to work well. As to those who have requested Tiki pictures, I will post some VERY soon! I am so excited to be back here (in the NEW here!)

[emmalou]

Me too. After over a month of HELL I finally adjusted to it and it's so much better than shots.