# Your Discipline



## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

I have enjoyed a number of disciplines over the years. My parents started me on English riding lessons at the age of 7 so my beginning was in English. They scraped together enough money to buy me a saddle, but they didn't know much about horses and bought a Lane Fox saddleseat saddle, so that's the sort of riding I did, on Morgans. After a few years I transitioned to jumping, also on Morgans. When we moved out of the city, no one rode English so when I started riding my own horse I rode her western. We trail rode mostly, though there were a few endurance rides in there, and we dabbled in reining. I worked for several years loping colts for a cutting horse trainer and he was gracious enough to spend a few minutes every day letting me chase cows on Mirage, and giving me pointers. I won't say she was an amazing cutting horse, but she had more than a few good days, and that little mare could crouch right down and give a cow the staredown by the end of our time with Bill. 

I spent a long time after that, and during that too, breaking colts and fixing problem horses so I didn't really have a discipline for a while ... just the discipline of getting a horse broke. English horses, showjumpers, ex racehorses, cutting and reining colts, cowhorses, mustangs, I rode them all. I sold Mirage when I went to college and it broke my heart enough to keep me out of the horse world for a number of years. I didn't find horses again until I'd moved 1300 miles away and stumbled upon a little bay colt and his spotted half-brother. I spent some time riding, to find my seat again, then when the bay colt's owner asked me to break him I did, and rediscovered my love. Copper was such a bang-up guy I ended up buying his spotted half-brother Dreams, and I broke him too. He's a trail horse at the moment, but while I wait to pick a discipline for him we're working on a variety of things. Trying to find his niche, you know. I'm content with just about anything, but it's important for Dreams to enjoy his job.

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Forgot to add, now that my herd has grown to include Thunder the Shire I will be diving into yet another discipline soon - driving! For this one I've been taking lessons - I'm competent enough to ride however you please, but driving is completely foreign to me and I don't want to screw Thunder up, so we've been working with a trainer and will continue to do so until Thunder and I are both broke to drive. ; )

-- Kai


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

When someone asks why I ride a certain way, I tell them, "Because". And that's it. I started riding hunt seat, moved on to jumpers, then tried my hand at team penning (on a hunt saddle btw), then decided I wanted to do Western Pleasure & Trail, and I did/do a lot of trail riding and now I'm studying Western Dressage. Why? Because. Why not?


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

I'd like to think I enjoy many disciplines, except some I haven't had the chance to try yet. :smile: Given the chance, I will.

For me, horses and horsemanship transcend disciplines. It's rather like being an athlete versus limiting yourself to one sport. An athlete might join in a basketball game, go for a hike, hop on a bicycle or jump in the lake for a swim. Even though they have never done Lacrosse, if someone asks they'll try it. 
Being athletic helps prepare you for at least the beginner level of any sport. Experiences and education with horses help prepare you for trying any discipline.

Of course, your location, the horse you own or ride, your own experience and fitness, your interests, those all determine what discipline you spend most of your time doing (most recently for me it has been trail riding and endurance).

So far I've tried: Reining, Dressage, Saddleseat, Huntseat, Jumping, Cross Country, Driving, Endurance, Barrel Racing, Trail, Western Pleasure, Gaited horses, Horse Soccer, Extreme Trail. 
I've never yet had the chance to work cows, do polo, working equitation, combined driving, skijoring, mounted archery, vaulting, fox hunting, all of which sound interesting to try.


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

I like it everyone’s answers! I would say my discipline is western, although I play around with English a bit. Most importantly I guess as far as discipline is that I ride to work on the ranch. So, first and foremost I try to consider this when I am training a horse.

For fun I have done a lot of things. I grew up reining as a little girl, and I loved to gymkhana. I team roped in high school and did a few showing things; I even did a lot of trick riding. Now I am thinking that I will focus my main horse on cutting as that seems to be where his talent is, and the newest guy I want to start out with the thought of cowhorse and see where that takes me.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

Kaifyre said:


> ...that's the sort of riding I did, on Morgans. After a few years I transitioned to jumping, also on Morgans...I sold Mirage when I went to college and it broke my heart enough to keep me out of the horse world for a number of years.


Totally off topic, and I apologize, but would love to know your Morgan's registered name Kai. Curious if she came from UVM breeding?


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I started out riding Western, then I was just curious to see what riding in an English saddle felt like...it was hard to get used to at first, but then I was like 'you know what? I think I like this!' so I began taking English lessons.  
Been an English girl ever since! 

However, when I trail ride, I like to ride in an Endurance saddle. It's just more comfortable IMO.
I mostly just do English pleasure riding now; I don't really jump anymore. But I have done hunters in the past. Right now I'm focusing more on just enjoying riding & I want to take at least a few lessons in the spring again to learn some new things. I try to work on things each time I ride. There's always something to work on. :smile: 

I ALSO love riding in a bareback pad. I hope to buy one of my own soon, the one I want is $250 but it comes with all the padding. I ride in my friend's, and I LOVE it. LOL. :lol: It's just fun & it actually helped me have a better seat when I do ride in my English saddle.


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

I am mainly a western rider, although I did ride English some, mainly HUS and hunt seat eq.
I actually started out riding bareback, on draft horses, as taht is what we had on the tobacco farm growing up.I drove those hroses also, hauling water for the cattle, using a stone boat. I then bought a cutter, as a teenager, stored in a barn loft by some farmer, for a mere $10 !
First light horse I got, bought my 
by my mis guided step father, came with a western saddle. So, even though I grew up in eastern Canada, where English riding lesson barns were common, not taking any lessons, I just rode ditches in a western saddle
My horse heroes were from the western life style, and i used to pretend, riding down some woody trail that i was riding in wilderness, even though I was living in western Ontario, which is very populated.

Moving out to Alberta, buying a green broke two year old, from a dude type ranch , I naturally continued to ride western,like those cowboys.

After meeting my husband, started to ride in the mountains, including pack trips, and no one here out west rides there with English saddles, not to mention it is ranching country around here.
Did not take a clinic, nor started to show,until I was 30. Because of the hrose circle I lived in, those clinics were western working type clinics-reining, working cowhorse, ect. Showed in those quite a while, and also in foal futurities, as were then raising horses. Ran games, tried steer daubing, cattle penning also.

When my knees got bad, I switched to pleasure/all around horses, thus showed in western pl , trail, western riding,eq, and then took some dressage and English lessons, then able to add HUS to my all around horses.

Once you start breeding horses, you soon find out breeding horses to excel in whatever discipline(s) you are riding in, at the time, defines your market and customers, thus I do believe those that not just ride horses, but breed them, wind up in not showing in as wide disciplines.
I find pleasure bred horses also very easy on my aging body, trail riding. Many others have switched to gaited hroses as they got older, and I just switched from working stock horses to pleasure bred horses, for much the same reason.


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## kewpalace (Jul 17, 2013)

I ride reined cowhorse. But didn't start off there and didn't start off with QH. I had a full Arab gelding and a 1/2 Arab mare. My gelding and I just did trail riding (in a western saddle). I knew nothing about riding, although had "ridden" since I was a kid. Luckily for me, I realized that when my Arab mare was ready to start and I had a local trainer (Matt Sheridan) start her. We would basically just trail ride. 

Eventually Matt got me interested in trail obstacles and then PUSHED me into showing an arena show. I had (and have) no interest in those shows, but he thought it would be good for us. I hated all of it except trail. I continued taking lessons/clinics with Matt, including cow clinics, which I LOVED. Eventually a local club started putting on Versatility Ranch Horse shows and I LOVED those! You got trail. You got COWS! I could suffer through Ranch Pleasure and Reining just to do those two!

We did VRH shows for a few years until the club stopped putting them on. Did some cowboy races (which are FUN) 









and eventually found reined cowhorse. Looked EASY. It is NOT, LOL. I started doing clinics with NSHA and got to meet alot of the big time guys. Only one person ever made a remark about my mare not being QH, but we still went out there and competed.









I eventually retired her from cowhorse and the last thing I did with her was the Ultimate Superhorse Challenge - she was the best.









I continued riding cowhorse with my QH filly, because working a cow on horse is a BLAST and the horses LOVE it! She is more built to work cows so it's been easier for her to do it than my Arab mare (but my arab mare LOVED it, too!).








Now have a futurity prospect in the wings - the first one I've ever had! Hoping she makes the grade for the futurity. 









I worked some endurance rides and NATRC Trail trials which I intended to do with my 1/2 Arab mare, but got side tracked with cows, LOL. 

I have ridden in an English Saddle, which was cool and I liked it. But never got back to that since I was more interested in playing with cows. I rode my Arab gelding in an Aussie Saddle, which I loved! But I have not ridden in that for years and need to sell it. I have ridden a few gaited horses and loved that, too! When I can no longer ride cows, will look into switching to a gaited horse if I'm still able to ride.


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## Reiningcatsanddogs (Oct 9, 2014)

I kind of fell into it. 

Started out just "messing" with a friend's unbroken horse. Stupid kid stuff, get on bareback and see how long you could stay on...mom had a young gal at work who owned a horse and was giving lessons. She did western so I did western.

After a couple of years and some shows, I did a summer camp on the east coast that only rode English. After three months of that I decided I preferred western riding and switched back. 

Eventually due to finances, the lessons stopped and I reverted to just riding any horse that needed riding (through word of mouth). It was then I discovered that I liked trails by far the most. I always had loved camping, hunting, hiking and fishing so combining that with horseback on some challenging terrain was the ultimate for me.


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## redbadger (Nov 20, 2017)

gottatrot said:


> I'd like to think I enjoy many disciplines, except some I haven't had the chance to try yet.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I like this comparison a lot! I feel the same way, I think. The fundamentals of balance and basics are a foundation for whatever specialty you might try. I am still a novice myself, so everything sounds like it might be fun to try. 

Personally re: the OP's question. Most all the horses at my barn are saddled western, but some of that I think is that it's more a trail riding stable and the average layperson feels more comfortable (one might say "stable") on a western/stock saddle. My pal Toby has an endurance saddle. A few folks ride bareback. Several horses have hackamore bridles (Toby included). My instructor has many years of experience, a lot of it with dressage, and teaches balanced seat. I feel like with what I'm being taught, I would feel comfortable in a Western, endurance, or English saddle. So I guess right now my discipline is foundational skills and that "athleticism" that gottatrot describes.


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## ApuetsoT (Aug 22, 2014)

Hunters. When I was a kid, my mom picked a random barn and they happened to start their riders in the hunters. Since then it's been my default and what I'm good at, so I stick with it. 

I have no desire to try another discipline really. Don't see the point, and I'm not lifting a western saddle onto 17.2h. I don't have the upper body strength for that.


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## Mulefeather (Feb 22, 2014)

I started out learning to ride English at about 15, then switched to Western. I have a "floating" knee-cap since I got run over by a car at the age of 12, and it can be very painful. 

Then I switched to driving since I'm a larger person, and while I have ridden drafts, it's just painful and difficult to mount/dismount due to the height. I can harness, hitch, and go by myself, which makes it much easier to do things when a friend or instructor isn't available. Driving has also become a discipline I'm hoping to show in, and I've developed better skills as a driver than I ever had as a rider. I plan to pursue pleasure driving, as well as CDEs and driving on the trail. Someday I'd love to have a draft team of my own, too.


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## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

I guess I haven't really come across a discipline that I _don't_ like -- let's put it that way!

My favorite is barrel racing. I grew up going to gaming shows and let's face it: It's fun to go FAST! So that's the event I do the most and the event I strive to be good at. 

However, I do enjoy going to local shows in the area and doing every event: hunter under saddle, hunt seat equit, hunter hack, showmanship, horsemanship, western pleasure, ranch horse, trail, reining, etc etc.

I guess besides barrel racing, I would say I particularly like reining just because it is something challenging to do with my horses and it is something you can always get better and better at. 

I always say "do what you enjoy". If someone asks you "why", just say because!


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## ChieTheRider (May 3, 2017)

Really I'd say I'm western but I've taken a handful of English lessons. I love to jump things, but nothing to crazy high. My 22 yo gelding is a retired jumper/dressage horse and still goes like a dream (only jumping him 2 feet maximum). My mare was trained in barrels which I also love doing. She loves speed, I love speed, she can turn on a dime, I don't fall off, so why not do barrels?  When I teach kids how to ride I teach them to handle small jumps, because there's no harm in learning how to do different things. I teach them the basics, then some English things like small jumps (not an expert but I can go over a small jump) and then might also show them a barrel pattern for the fun of it. The more they know, the more options they can choose from when they're getting their own horse later on. As for me though, I just ride what I want. My gelding naturally goes English so sometimes I'll put my English saddle on him and goof off, and my mare goes western so I'll tack her up and just go ride trails. Trail riding is now the majority of what I do and I love it. Thinking of doing some CTR type things as I have friends who own TWHs and do it. Tess is half Arabian and could do CTR pretty dern well according to my trainer.


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## Dustbunny (Oct 22, 2012)

Trail...because I can use whatever tack fits my horse and myself, and I can wear whatever is comfortable. Most people I meet on the trail seem to be interested in enjoying their horse and the scenery and less about what others think.
One still needs to properly prepare self and horse but it's a lot less stress...most of the time anyway.


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

There is a lot of overhead involved in competing, from traveling over appearance to time wasted on location, that makes competing unappealing to me. If I can brush my horse, but on tack, and head out for 2 hours, I get a lot more bang for my buck than getting into the formalities of horse showing. My personal choice is "field riding" - a mixture of gaits through woods and fields, jump obstacles (to about 2.5 feet) as they occur. Scoring is in the following categories:

- Did the horse and I return home uninjured?
- Are we both sweaty?
- Was there little or no drama?
- Later in bed, do I recall and remember the ride with a smile?

I'm not in the saddle all day, and I don't need tools, water, or a rifle, so I go in English tack. While there are many horse farms surrounding the land conservatory where I ride, most are too chicken to take their horses out of the arena, so the only people I usually see are the people I rode out with, if any. Choice of attire is thus weather dependent, not "What will they think of me?" dependent.


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## ChasingDreams (Nov 14, 2017)

@mmshiro Yep, this is me. My current discipline is just to get out and ride. I have a barrel saddle (it came with my horse) and my cousins are very into it, so I might dabble in gaming with them again eventually, once I'm able to save up for a trailer... but for now it's just about tacking up and heading out to explore!

My horse discipline history:

My first experiences with horses were simply riding around my cousin's farm when I was 10, followed by showing arab yearlings with her in halter classes when she fell in with a local breeder to work off her first filly. After that, I found a trainer near my own home and took lessons in English pleasure for a while and did a little showing there, in between trail riding with family. I bought my first horse with the intention of finding a trainer to teach me jumping, but sadly I'd made a poor choice in mount (a hot, half-cocked ottb that was waaay too much horse for me) so I ended selling him to an old church friend who was more experienced training horses with behavioral issues, for way less than I paid for him, and taking a short break from the horsey world. 

I couldn't stay away for long, so I started trail riding again with my family. Not super regularly, maybe once or twice a month, but enough to keep me interested and learning. 

Eventually, I met my husband and fell pregnant with my son, which created a lull in my horse riding for a while. Once he started getting a little older and more independent, I became more involved again and joined my cousin in a season of western gaming which she'd become very involved with. It was a lot of fun, but shortly after the conclusion of that season I discovered I was pregnant with my daughter and again, my riding fell to the side for a while. 

She's now two and a half, and I'm finally taking another journey into horses. I leased for a few months before picking up my current guy for a trial run. It's been going well so far, with some learning pains, but I'm really excited to be at it again and the discipline is less important to me than just being here and doing what I love!




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## twixy79 (Jul 8, 2017)

Kaifyre said:


> Forgot to add, now that my herd has grown to include Thunder the Shire I will be diving into yet another discipline soon - driving! For this one I've been taking lessons - I'm competent enough to ride however you please, but driving is completely foreign to me and I don't want to screw Thunder up, so we've been working with a trainer and will continue to do so until Thunder and I are both broke to drive. ; )
> 
> -- Kai


Oh I would love to see a picture of Thunder! I am the opposite. I got a crash course lesson in driving after we adopted Duke (our Belgian) and got a refresher course, plus an education on team driving after we added Loretta (our clyde/perch cross). Duke is a retired Amish horse, and Loretta a retired Carriage horse. Loretta is also broke to ride (and I am NOT) and we are unsure about Duke being broke to ride... Perhaps someday we will find out...

I am taking riding lessons (at age 31) so I can learn to pleasure ride with Loretta. She is only 15, still pretty early for retirement, and has a ton of spunk and follows verbal commands very well. I hope that I can find a well-fitting, bitless bridle for her for riding. She has done her time in a bit, and I am trying to avoid it since she is so bomb proof.


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

Except for timed events, where the judges can't give awards to people & horses that don't deserve them, I can't stand competition --- I've seen too many winners that weren't ---

My discipline has always been trail riding --- from "ambling-along-smelling-the-roses-trail-riding" to sliding down a river embankment, swimming across & digging up the other side, to sliding down a power line & digging up the other side ----- all without a saddle.

It takes patient & consistent training to teach a horse how to do those things without getting both of you killed. It also takes a lot of confidence, know-how, & instinct on the part of the rider to manage the horse in extreme situations without getting both of you killed.

Sadly, I've had to give up riding but I can at least say I was 60 when I went on my last good "slidin' ride".:charge::cheers:


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

*clears throat* 

*pulls shoulders back; chin up*

******* Equitation. 

That entails doing silly crap on your horse, like trying to John Wayne into the saddle and missing. Trying out an Aussie saddle... and falling off the bucket and landing like a sack of potatoes... trying to snatch someone else off their horse and falling off... eating a can of Vienna sausages with a plastic fork while riding (extra points if you share with your horse), experimenting with 4wd on a horse, modest jumping on trails, swimming, and generally being a dummy on your horse, in the woods. Also riding to the convenience store to get a Dr. Pepper and a bag of beef jerky.

Sometimes beer is involved. That's what they make big insulated saddle bags for, right?

Right?


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

AtokaGhosthorse said:


> *clears throat*
> 
> *pulls shoulders back; chin up*
> 
> ...


Don't get caught with beer --- RUI IS an offense. 

Way back in the 70's one of my farm neighbors got stopped by a county mounty when he was riding home from a local roadhouse on a remote dirt road. He got off with a warning but they can give tickets for Riding Under The Influence:frown_color:


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

I've always wanted to ride cow horses for as long as I can remember. Whether it be inside the arena or outside.

If I was to change disciplines to something unrelated to cows. I think I'd love to try cross country.


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

Cow horses make great trail horses --- they are good thinkers


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

@COWCHICK77 - I totally agree. Cross country looks like it would be a rush!


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

I think the most honest answer I could give is "I don't have a discipline, I just ride". Which is not to say I'm one of those backyard don't-need-to-know-nothings, but that I can't think of any conventional image that I would want to conform to. I learn a lot from my dressage lessons but I have no ambition to 'do' dressage. I love trail riding but that's not exactly a discipline, it's an activity. I have aspirations to learn to drive, but if I do, I won't call driving my discipline. I have less than zero interest in competition of any kind. I like to learn new stuff and get better with my horse . . . I ride in an english saddle because it works for me, not because I have an image of myself as a english rider.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

AtokaGhosthorse said:


> *clears throat*
> 
> *pulls shoulders back; chin up*
> 
> ...


I am an EXPERT at ******* Eq. Learned it as a kid, going on trail rides, racing down desert dirt roads, riding through the Baker's Drive Thru, 'parking' my horse in a space at McDonald's when they stopped letting us use the Drive Thru, going inside and coming out to find the newspaper photog taking pics of my horse in the parking space. Got more pics when I shared my Coke & Fries with the horse, gave Cal State San Bernardino College Police heart failure jumping picnic tables and down telephone poles, swam through the lake in Devil's Canyon to get away from them (golf carts are no match for OTTBs), riding on Black's Beach and discovering at 14 that most folks who like to use nude beaches are NOT the ones you would go to look at, and doing Tandem Gambler's Choice jumping classes. Oh and let's don't forget the New Year's Eve Party when I got Double Dog Dared to ride the horse into the shallow end of the swimming pool....yeah, THOSE stripes took a while to heal. And if I thought I could live through half of it, I'd do it all again! 

Your insulated saddle bag comment made me think of what we called "Strand Bags" for beer. The long skinny paper bags that you could put a 16 oz can in and cough, cough, nobody would figure out you were drinking on the public beach....Right? LOL! Yes, my Guardian Angel is bald.


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## k9kenai (Jul 1, 2017)

I started out riding Western when I was little, then switched to English. I did Dressage and Jumping for several years, and dabbled a tiny bit in Cross Country. Now I do Endurance, and I'm super excited to hopefully do my first ride this year. Definitely different than all of that arena work I used to do!


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

@egrogan I learned to ride on Morgans, but Mirage was not a Morgan. She came from Wayne Newton's ranch in Overton, and was a 1/2 quarter horse 1/2 Arabian out of his Lonestar Quixote stud. One of the best horses I've ever had the fortune to meet. I'd still love to get back into Morgans someday ... they're amazing little horses, and quite beautiful. : )

-- Kai


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

@twixy79 Thunder will be 2 in March, so he's still just a baby, but here are some pictures for you. I love him to pieces, he's my first draft and unlike any other horse I've ever had .... I like him so much I may have to have another. I've always wanted a team ... ; )

-- Kai


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## Phantomrose (Jul 25, 2016)

I started riding when I was 12, and at first the riding lesssons were western lessons in a group setting. After a year or two of doing Western, the instructor asked our group if we would like to try English riding, to which we all said yes. So then, I started to ride English, and learn how to jump. 

When I turned 18, I took a break from riding to focus more on school, studies, and work. I was out of it for quite a bit of time, until The summer of 2015.

In the summer of 2015, I was looking at barns in the area. I found a barn that offered lessons in Eventing; Dressage, Jumping, and Cross Country. I decided to give it a try, and fell in love with the Discipline. I love focusing on my flat work the most, and getting the horse to use his body in a correct manner. Cross Country schooling is a bit exciting, and jumping is enjoyable. I now have a pony who I am working on to transition into a little low level Eventing pony. So far, he is transitioning pretty well! He was used as a trail horse, and had some experience with being introduced to crossrails, and jumping over things on the trail. So far, my little guy seems to be coming along nicely, and enjoying and thinking about his new work.

I have gone out trail riding, once or twice, and enjoy that as well. I actually want to go ride on the trails with Jet sometime. When I got him, he came with a western saddle, bridle, and cinch. One day I want to tack him up in that gear and dabble in riding him Western.


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## twixy79 (Jul 8, 2017)

Kaifyre said:


> @twixy79 Thunder will be 2 in March, so he's still just a baby, but here are some pictures for you. I love him to pieces, he's my first draft and unlike any other horse I've ever had .... I like him so much I may have to have another. I've always wanted a team ... ; )
> 
> -- Kai


He's beautiful! These are my 2. Loretta is 16 and Duke is in his 20s. Both are rescues. Duke is a former Amish work horse and Loretta is a former carriage horse. These 2 are my first horses and actually, I was terrified of horses until I adopted Duke. I quickly realized how silly my fear was and me and Duke bonded very quickly while I helped him heal all of his physical and a few mental ailments. Putting these 2 together was a huge gamble. It took a lot of though trying to formulate the perfect relationship. Duke has a special personality, so finding the right match was no easy task, but Loretta and him are now like 2 peas in a pod. My goal is to ride Loretta, and do some light driving as a pair. I'd love to be able to get them a sleigh for winters in Maine so they could haul me around this giant snow globe I live in. 









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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

Beautiful horse @*Kaifyre* . I know a Morgan called UVM Mirage that went quite far in dressage, so I got excited thinking maybe your horse was a relative.

ETA: I suppose I should actually participate in this thread instead of taking it off course :wink: I would call myself a "happy hacker"- I do a lot of riding around the woods, fields, and roads where I live. I take training level dressage lessons and I have plans to do at least a couple of limited distance endurance rides this year.

Here is my happy hacking/dressage/endurance horse:


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## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

Took English lessons as a kid every other week and did a little jumping. I lived in the suburbs where horses weren't common but my parents found out about a lady who had about 25 Morgans in her back yard and would give lessons for $20 and I loved it. I spent every hour I wasn't riding reading every horse book in the library and dreaming about having my own horse. Each summer I got to go to horse camp where we rode all day long for a week (western) which was the highlight of the summer. Of course like many high school and jobs got in the way and horses became a thing of the past. I graduated college and got a job and had money to start lessons again and I looked around here and there but there was nothing nearby so that was just a dream. I met my husband who was from a smaller town and loved being outdoors as much as I did. We decided the city wasn't the life for us and our 3 dogs so we moved out closer to his parents in the town he grew up in. We looked for a house with land but there was nothing at the time so we bought a house in town and a year later our dream farm with 7 acres came on the market and we made the big move out to the country this spring. Now here we are with 6 horses and I'm finally living my dream. 

Out here it's mostly western and after a few falls I realized I liked the security of a western saddle while I'm relearning. We mostly trail ride-out down our gravel roads, around our property, and at the local parks but we try everything we can. Last summer we went to a trail obstacle clinic and hope to go to a few of their shows this year, my husband went to cattle sorting practice right before it got too cold and had the time of his life so I'm sure he will be back. I signed up for the Greenbean team and hope to do a few limited distance rides this year.


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## kewpalace (Jul 17, 2013)

COWCHICK77 said:


> If I was to change disciplines to something unrelated to cows. I think I'd love to try cross country.


When I was a kid, I wanted to do three day eventing ... you get it all (except cows) - arena jumping, dressage and cross-country. If I had to pick one, it would have been cross-country. Looks like SO MUCH fun!!! :razz:


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

walkinthewalk said:


> Don't get caught with beer --- RUI IS an offense.
> 
> Way back in the 70's one of my farm neighbors got stopped by a county mounty when he was riding home from a local roadhouse on a remote dirt road. He got off with a warning but they can give tickets for Riding Under The Influence:frown_color:


Not here. We even have a local guy that's done nothing but spend every day in the saddle that likes to frequent a bar. His mule is trained to take the dirt roads home at night while Hooter sleeps in the saddle.

Here, unless there's something I'm not seeing in our citationized statutes, DUI/DWI applies to motorized vehicles, including watercraft, atvs, utvs, etc.

I THINK the riding while drunk falls under either a public nuisance or public intoxication law, and that's for county roads (Can't ride a horse in city limits here btw unless its for a parade or special event) and since we ride on large tracts of private property in very rural areas, the sheriff's office isn't going to come looking for us.... and if they did - I'd share my beef jerky and pringles with them. LOL


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> I am an EXPERT at ******* Eq. Learned it as a kid, going on trail rides, racing down desert dirt roads, riding through the Baker's Drive Thru, 'parking' my horse in a space at McDonald's when they stopped letting us use the Drive Thru, going inside and coming out to find the newspaper photog taking pics of my horse in the parking space. Got more pics when I shared my Coke & Fries with the horse, gave Cal State San Bernardino College Police heart failure jumping picnic tables and down telephone poles, swam through the lake in Devil's Canyon to get away from them (golf carts are no match for OTTBs), riding on Black's Beach and discovering at 14 that most folks who like to use nude beaches are NOT the ones you would go to look at, and doing Tandem Gambler's Choice jumping classes. Oh and let's don't forget the New Year's Eve Party when I got Double Dog Dared to ride the horse into the shallow end of the swimming pool....yeah, THOSE stripes took a while to heal. And if I thought I could live through half of it, I'd do it all again!
> 
> Your insulated saddle bag comment made me think of what we called "Strand Bags" for beer. The long skinny paper bags that you could put a 16 oz can in and cough, cough, nobody would figure out you were drinking on the public beach....Right? LOL! Yes, my Guardian Angel is bald.


Talk about sacking a horse out. No need to shake bags on a fishing rod at ours. We do enough silly crap to give them a heart attack. Maybe that's why Trigger sheds so much year around? He's stressing his hair off and going bald? Because we've stopped with the kid gloves. He's gotta learn to handle the crazy involved in this discipline. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

AtokaGhosthorse said:


> Not here. We even have a local guy that's done nothing but spend every day in the saddle that likes to frequent a bar. His mule is trained to take the dirt roads home at night while Hooter sleeps in the saddle.
> 
> Here, unless there's something I'm not seeing in our citationized statutes, DUI/DWI applies to motorized vehicles, including watercraft, atvs, utvs, etc.
> 
> I THINK the riding while drunk falls under either a public nuisance or public intoxication law, and that's for county roads (Can't ride a horse in city limits here btw unless its for a parade or special event) and since we ride on large tracts of private property in very rural areas, the sheriff's office isn't going to come looking for us.... and if they did - I'd share my beef jerky and pringles with them. LOL


Never ride drunk, but having a beer on a ride , nothing wrong with that, on 
a hot summer day in the mountains. Actually pommel bags are made for them- to balance the camera on the other side!
My one friend got a chuckle when she first rode with me. After a couple of hours, I pulled a beer can out of my pommel bag, and she asked me if I was not going to dis mount before pulling the tab, and I replied, 'nope, Carmen is beer broke! '
Any serious drinking, is left after we get back to camp, take care of the hroses make supper and then relax around a camp fire.


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

my brother came out from Ontario to ride one summer. I told him to wear anything comfortable, although a bit less loud would have been nice!


Second picture shows what we did a lot, when the kids were growing up, and which made memories for long after I am gone. While my oldest son showed with me, packing and riding is something both sons did with us.

Last picture shows the mare I used in reining, enjoying a nice change in the fall. I did find out that even minimal; sliders, despite that article i read in Horse and Rider one year, do not work well in mountain!May if you just stay in valleys, or it does not hail once you are high up on a ridge and must come down again-but that is another story !


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

Smilie said:


> Never ride drunk, but having a beer on a ride , nothing wrong with that, on
> a hot summer day in the mountains. Actually pommel bags are made for them- to balance the camera on the other side!
> My one friend got a chuckle when she first rode with me. After a couple of hours, I pulled a beer can out of my pommel bag, and she asked me if I was not going to dis mount before pulling the tab, and I replied, 'nope, Carmen is beer broke! '
> Any serious drinking, is left after we get back to camp, take care of the hroses make supper and then relax around a camp fire.


Seriously, I couldn't IMAGINE riding drunk. Too many crazy things can happen in a heartbeat, especially on Trigger. A cold one on break... eh. That's a little different.

But also - I'm too old to deal with hangovers. Ain't nobody got time for that!


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

*Everything*

I do absolutely everything with our horses. All my horses are actively involved in 5-6 different disciplines from western to English ones. I like to keep our horses busy in different types of activities to prevent them from getting sour and bored. I find the biggest key to success is to have horses stay curious. Having said that, we don't burn out our horses either. I want to say that we ride 60% English and 40% western. English discipline is mainly eventing and the western ones are more commonly Extreme Cowboy Challenge.


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## BiologyBrain (Jul 9, 2015)

I second the ******* thing, although I've never ridden while drinking (I'm not much of a drinker). It *is* illegal here to ride while drinking. I used to work in the Crime Lab and we got cases for both riding drunk and carriage driving drunk! That being said, if you're not on the roads, 99% of cops aren't going to give you a second thought. 

I learned to ride a Shetland-type pony bareback. Then I got a Western saddle & rode that pony until I outgrew him. When I started 4-H I tried Western Pleasure with a high headed Saddlebred pony. When that turned out inevitably poorly, we switched to gaming--barrels, poles, and flags in addition to the requisite halter and showmanship. However, I was also reading The Saddle Club series (as well as petty much any other horse series in the 90s), so I became very interested in hunting, jumping, and dressage. Before too long I abandoned my saddle and taught myself 'English' riding. I also bought a car that and harness to drive as well.

When I graduated from my pony, I started over again with Western Pleasure. This time my QH was built for it, but I didn't show 4-H any longer. I got bored trying to teach her the slow lope. She wasn't flexible enough for gaming, although I considered poles because she was great at flying lead changes. I continued my Wenglish riding with her though. I finally saved up enough for an actual English saddle. Then we really got into jumping and dressage. I never did show. 

We moved to MN where I boarded my horses at an eclectic barn. The owner roped and did some sorting/penning and one of his other boarders showed Arabians in WP, Halter, and Western Riding. I quickly became the go-to rider for these 2 guys. I spent time exercising at first, then I began roping and opting/penning. I also became the 'trainer' for the Arab WP. I continued jumping and doing dressage with my own horse. 

We moved back to KY & my mare had her foal, so I began training from the ground up. This time, I delved into driving because I had 3 knee surgeries in her first 3 years. The filly became a great driving horse, but hated to be ridden. When I rode her, I used an endurance saddle, my English saddle, or even bareback. She hated all of it. My boyfriend took me to his Saddlebred barn several times and taught me the basics of sassleseat. 

In college I got my first 'lessons' first in Intermediate Western and then in Advanced English. I also took a 'Breaking & Training' class. I sold the filly and bought a WP trained gelding, but rode him English-jumping, dressage, and just putzing around. I tried to train him for driving, but it went poorly. I got a Haflinger when the gelding died of West Nile. I drove her and rode her a bit, but I had to sell her when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I bought a Curly for my daughter & I to share, but she is/was barely broke. We had a significant parting of the ways and she hasn't been ridden since. I just bought a new Curly that my daughter will ride Western, but I'll ride either bareback or with my English saddle. I plan to train her to drive too. 

Long story short, I ride to ride. I prefer an English saddle, but I don't show or take lessons, so it's probably still more Wenglish. I also love to drive! I just ride.


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

As a child I loved the bling of the western saddle and aesthetic, but my parents knew next to nothing about riding. So when my mother went to her equestrian coworker for barn recommendations, I started riding English. I've been an H/J and Eq rider ever since, and those are definitely my disciplines of choice. That said, I'll dabble in just about anything that involves an English saddle.

But in light of my injuries, I'm not opposed to venturing into other disciplines if it'll be easier on my foot. I guess I'll just have to wait and see!


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## Phantomrose (Jul 25, 2016)

kewpalace said:


> When I was a kid, I wanted to do three day eventing ... you get it all (except cows) - arena jumping, dressage and cross-country. If I had to pick one, it would have been cross-country. Looks like SO MUCH fun!!! :razz:




Cross Country is very fun! You should give it a try some day in the future! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Heassa (Mar 14, 2018)

I first started with western and then i rode english and i couldn't decide which I liked best so now I do all around so I don't have to choose 😁


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