# Indy at liberty



## MIEventer (Feb 15, 2009)

Wow, talk about bascule over that fence in the last picture.

I love dapple greys - *twitterpated*


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## Solo (Jul 16, 2008)

MIEventer: I noticed the bascule in the last picture as well. Honestly I have not ridden a horse that has such a pronounced bascule as that. I have heard that it can "pop" the rider out of the tack. Seeing as he does not have that form over every single jump, how would I prepare myself as a rider for him to jump like that? I am thinking as of now that

A) I need to make absolute certain that I stay over his center of gravity and fairly close to his body/neck

and B) AUTO RELEASE so I don't catch him in the mouth. It seems that getting a line straight from his mouth to my arm would be rather hard with his head in such a position but I do not think I would want my hands on his mane unless I loosened up a ton and was grabbing his mane. 

What do you think?

I am very excited to start him over fences this summer (with a rider) :]

*When I was "horse hunting" I told myself no way would I buy a grey horse. Look what I ended up with... Haha


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## Lifeofriley (May 24, 2009)

He's a beautiful horse, nice colour too. I noticed the comment that he doesn't bascule as much over every jump, this could come from inexperience as a lot of young horses (mine included) overjumped until they were more comfortable with jumping. So you might find that this decreases over time to a more "average" clearance of the jump, (for lack of a better word)
Can't wait for more pictures as you do more with him


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## AussieDaisyGirl (May 21, 2009)

Definitely the more jumping he does the better he'll get at judging how much clearance he has to give. 

However, he's absolutely gorgeous and looks like he loves it! I adore dapple greys!


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## SilentBravery09 (May 22, 2009)

He is gorgeous and really puts alot of effort to it, in the future with training I think he will be one of those horses that needs a belly gaurd. Because he is green he should always have all his protection gear on. Just to be safe.

He has bascule, and I rode a horse with tons of scope such as this horse, they actually make for great rides, and great jumpers, and the longer you bond with them, the less diffucult they become to jump. A good rider will be able to handle this. 

he is gorgeous.

Good luck :]


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## Solo (Jul 16, 2008)

Lifeofriley: Thank you very much! I will of course be posting more and more pics as his training progresses (as soon as his hoof issue gets cleared up of course!). I was flipping through my moms camera and found some more pictures of him jumping that I will post now. 

AussieDaisyGirl: Thank you! I am glad he looks like he enjoys it because I would not want to push him to do it if he did not. I measured him today and got about 17 - 17.1hh. When I first got him he was near 15 and I thought he would make a good jumper prospect then. Is it possible that he just takes those heights because of how tall he is?

SilentBravery09: Thank you! Just out of curiosity why do you think he will be one of those horses that needs a belly guard? What gives you clues to that? I was thinking about getting one because I do remember one time when he plowed straight through one of the higher poles instead of jumping it. I always make sure the poles can fall extremely easily (which has caused a tiny bit of a problem when there is ANY wind whatsoever :lol: ). I agree that he should always have all of his protective gear on, it was a mistake for him not to be wearing it. Fortunately he was not injured during this session. I noticed in the pictures I found today that he only has the front boots and bell boots on. What is the bare minimum of protection you think I should have him wear? His four boots, bell boots, and a belly guard? Thank you for all the help, I appreciate it!!

Here are the other pictures I found:






























And here is one just for fun, he looks like a huge teddy bear!











Any more critique on his form over fences? I have also tried bounces and triples with him. I will try and get a video once his feet are cleared up. He seems to enjoy it!


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## twogeldings (Aug 11, 2008)

Beautiful boy, he seems to really love to jump. It takes me an hour just to get my nine year old to _consider_ a jump.


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## SilentBravery09 (May 22, 2009)

He seems like he needs a belly gaurd because how close he brings his legs up underneath him. I know they protect the horses underneath from cutting themselves with their hooves when jumping, or preventive measures like what you mentioned.

As for his protection, it depends on how your horse moves. If he over steps, or steps on himself, then he should wear bell boots, and in my opinion they should always have boots on, just to protect those precious legs of theirs. 

It is really up to you. Each owner knows their horse and their horses limits.

It doesnt do any harm to take extra precautions and wrap the legs and put bell boots on while lounging.

However other horses dont need the bell boots and find them annoying and kick out with them all. 

What breed is he? And How Old? I am insanely jealous.
So it really depends.

He is really gorgeous. I think he has Jumper written all over him.


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## Solo (Jul 16, 2008)

twogeldings: Thank you! Do you ride your horse when you try to jump or have him at liberty? 

SilentBravery09: I feel pretty dumb right now. I thought you meant a chest guard, like in case he goes straight through the jump. I definitely agree that he may need a belly guard in case he kicks himself there. Kind of frightening to think that he may tuck his legs up that much. Haha. Would something like that hinder his jumping? I mean, kicking himself there. 

He does overstep so I usually have bell boots on, even when just plodding around. As for regular boots, I only use them for intense work. When I first got him we used to play around barrels a ton and he ALWAYS wore them for that. Same thing when I take him in the round pen. I try to put them on as much as possible. I have heard though that they can do more harm then good. I don't know. If I know we are going to be doing something extra streneous I put them on. It's a bit strange but sometimes I find him to be calmer when he has boots on. Maybe because he isn't kicking himself... That sounds strange doesn't it :lol:

To be honest with you, I am not sure what breed he is. I bought him from people who bought him from a man who bought his mother at auction, turned her out on 170 acres and brought them in for the first time when he was about three years old. On his vet check papers from the sale before I bought him, it says QH but I am thinking he must have some TB in him or something. I have the old owners address so I was thinking of writing him a letter. I was also going to make a post under horse breeding to see if anyone had ever heard of him so I sent a message to the administrator to see if I could put someone's name online but I never heard back. I would be very interested in seeing what breed he is. What do you think he is?

Also, he is about 5 almost 6. If I do the math correctly it works out like this. When I bought him they said he was three and a half. They had him for about four or five months at that point. On the papers they gave me from when they bought him, he was listed as being three at the time of vet check, three months prior to when they bought him. That means he was actually about four when I finally brought him home in August 2007. That would mean he is somewhere around six right now. I really would like to contact the old owner and see what he has to say about the whole situation.

And thank you! I love him to bits. 
Do you have a horse/pictures of your horse?


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## SilentBravery09 (May 22, 2009)

Awww yea my mare was calmer with boots on as well because she was happy that she wasnt stepping on herself :]

Yes I do he is on a forum here about a yearling critque; but I will post some links to him here.

Dont worry about the horse in the background; all the horses there are resuce horses. The one in the back just got there and is an abuse case. So they are working on him.

As for his breed I agree with you with some of the TB he could be Appendix. But either way you have a very atheltic horse that looks very healthy and can excel in any discpline it seems.

As for his jumping, no as long as her remebers to put his feet down. It could mean that he is extra careful over fences when you start training him.
When you start training him over the fence with a rider on him or you on him try to stay out of his way as much as possible. Its sad to see a horse with a lot of talent then some riders and trainers start training them and all that horses natural scope goes down the toliet. He has a natural jump. Work with him not against him.

haha with my horse who had a lot of bascule ovre fences it was hard at first and i would go into two point and it felt like i would get slammed in the chest; ouch!! but you find a way to work with him and i find for a horse with a lot of bascule that an auto instead of a crest release is just so much better for both horse and rider.

But I was always taught auto releases never much so crest releases untill now.

Here is a photo of my newest boy;
Photos of the horses that I had and ride now I just loaded onto my page.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g137/kymmie_01/DSC04351.jpg


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## Jubilee Rose (May 28, 2008)

Solo said:


>


^^ AHHHH this picture is amazing! What a great shot! Indy is GORGEOUS. He has lovely form too!


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## Solo (Jul 16, 2008)

SilentBravery09: Maybe that was part of his problems before. I love the boots I have, they're Justin's and I bought them from a friend for like $50 for all four just because she was going to college and wasn't going to need them anymore. They are originally for high performance activity and she used them for barrel racing (like three times, so basically new!) and the trainer down the road from me said they would be good protection for jumping too. 

I totally forgot I saw your yearling! I was going to respond and say how GORGEOUS he is but I was to lazy to sign in (it was like 4:30 in the morning after I finished a civics paper...). I LOVE his coloring. SO jealous. What do you plan on doing with him?! I didn't realize that was your horse, I wasn't paying much attention to user names. Congratulations on him! I can't wait to see more pictures :]

Before I start jumping him I am going to take some lessons at the barn down the road as a refresher course. I have jumped for about 9 years (starting with small cross rails) and have competed up to about 3 1/2 feet. I by no means consider myself an expert however and will be getting some "professional help". On the other hand though, I would like his training done "my way" so to speak so I would like to do most of it myself with the help of a trainer instead of the other way around. I will be posting pics and videos all the time because of course I am going to be looking for opinions on how I am doing with him. 

I am a huge fan of the auto release and usually use that unless I need to grab mane which i usually try to do with only one hand as weird as that sounds. 

I love the picture of your new horse!

Jubilee Rose: Thank you so much! I went to CVS earlier and had the picture of him in mid air blown up so I could frame it. I am so excited to get back into jumping!


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## SilentBravery09 (May 22, 2009)

Thats how I did it with my Midnight. I took lessons on her and they worked with me and her. It was alot better then having a trainer ride them, and if i didnt agree on something I could speak up. They wanted to put her in a twisterd wire cause she wasnt responsive to the D they had in her, instead i just changed it to a thicker egg butt bit and she did great. 

Its good to be there for your horse.

As for Maverick he will be, or possibly be my Event/Dressage horse.

I have high hopes for him. 

YAY!

Good Luck with your Horse.
I cant wait to see some progress.

:]


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

Holy cow that horse is beautiful!!


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## twogeldings (Aug 11, 2008)

I attempt to get him to jump at liberty. I'm also doing light ground work with getting him to walk over the jump calmly (having it under him makes him nervous >.<)

Sometimes he refuses...sometimes he goes over, sometimes he doesn't go around the corner and discovers the gate -shakes head-


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## Skyhuntress (Sep 9, 2008)

haha, he looks eerily like my grey beast, i actually did a double take 









I think your boy is lovely. I agree with the comment that said that young horses do tend to overjump. My 4 year old is being free jumped right now. Some days he runs right into it, other times he jumps the 2ft X like its close to 5ft. They just need to realize that for the smaller fences they don't need to exert themselves quite so much  But your boy has lovely form, so its a great starting place. When you do jump him, just try to stay out of his mouth as much as possible so that he learns that it is ok to jump up and over without fear of getting banged in the mouth


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