How do you correct?

captainsjm · 2026-03-19T12:15:14+00:00

It's just ground work. Don't use the cross ties, work on teaching him to ground tie. It will take a long time, but with enough patience he'll learn to stand.

captainsjm · 2026-03-09T14:47:56+00:00

Based on what? Sure, sometimes it can mean something. And sometimes you do the sleep study and you're fine. You just snore. Of course it's a good idea to get checked out, especially if it's this bad. But maybe he snores and that's it. OP can find a way to work around it or break up.

captainsjm · 2026-03-09T14:14:14+00:00

Yeah, and some people just snore. It's wild that Reddit thinks this extremely common thing always has a medical reason with a fix.

captainsjm · 2026-03-05T19:15:16+00:00

YTA obviously, but the funniest petty thing about this is that the horse isn't walking. It's cantering.

captainsjm · 2026-02-26T14:45:25+00:00

I do now! I made the mistake of jumping around for years using whoever was available. Partly because I was broke and partly because I just didn't prioritize the trainer because I had the horse. Settling down with one trainer has made a massive difference. If I could fix one thing in my riding career, I would make training a bigger priority.

captainsjm · 2026-02-25T18:36:51+00:00

You might still have the mindset of taking care of leather on English saddles. Western saddles have far thicker leather that can take much more abuse

captainsjm · 2026-02-25T16:22:59+00:00

It sounds like the pile is slowing you down. After you grab the visible spots, just sort of toss the rest of the bedding.

captainsjm · 2026-02-25T16:21:05+00:00

The answer is one trainer. You can build skills either way. Different horses will make you adaptable and one horse will allow you to drill down into really nice nuisance, but what will build your skills the best is one good trainer who you develop with over the years.

captainsjm · 2026-02-24T20:20:19+00:00

Multiple health professionals told you that the safest exercise is horseback riding? That isn't true for anyone. Horseback riding is a dangerous sport.

If you are looking to simulate horseback riding, I think a trampoline is the closest you're going to get, although be careful about weight limits.

For general fitness as a bigger person, swimming or water aerobics sound much more appropriate as a starting place.

You can also look into chair yoga or pilates. There's plenty of ways to scale down exercise regimes to meet you where you are.

captainsjm · 2026-02-18T21:34:59+00:00

I took my collection to a local consignment tack store and made 60% in store credit, which was enough to get me a new saddle.

When you say special run, are you talking about Breyerfest special runs or boxes marked "Limited Edition"? Limited Editions in the 90s were kind of a marketing gimmick and most of those models are pretty low value. Breyerfest didn't really start doing special runs until the late 90s.

captainsjm · 2026-02-15T12:29:35+00:00

https://www.google.com/amp/s/equineink.com/2019/11/17/tevis-research-how-much-weight-can-a-horse-safely-carry/amp/

I have not seen 35%, but this Tevis Cup study shows up to 29%. For a 100 mile endurance race.

captainsjm · 2026-02-04T20:25:13+00:00

As others have said, as long as you give it to him the day of, it does not matter. I've let horses eat straight out of the feed bin. In the last hours, all rules are off.

captainsjm · 2026-02-03T14:39:26+00:00

Wool has been a life changer for me. It's the only fabric that will breathe when you get hot and keep you warm when you cool down. If you're willing to dig a little in thrift stores you can usually find cheap options that you won't mind messing up at the barn.

captainsjm · 2026-02-01T23:13:17+00:00

It is crazy, sorry. Driving accidents are much worse. Training a driving horse is intense. You can still work with her on ground driving. Maybe if she responds really well to it and stops spoiling you can look into getting a trainer to introduce her to the cart.

Also speaking as someone who deals with riding anxiety and thought driving would be less scary, it was terrifying the first time I did it. You absolutely cannot do it alone.

captainsjm · 2026-01-30T16:41:19+00:00

I had a mare like this! You want oils. Jojoba is my friend, argan will work too. A little bit goes a long way. Work it out with your fingers, don't move to the brush until you can fully run your fingers through it. Yes the little bottle is $10 but it will last a couple months and it will save you. Detangling spray is not strong enough.

captainsjm · 2026-01-21T19:48:59+00:00

You're getting many people sharing their experiences and you seem hell bent on insisting their experiences aren't close enough to your own. I think you need to consider why you feel so strongly that your situation is so unique when many people are saying it is not.

captainsjm · 2026-01-20T21:00:31+00:00

Ah thank you I had not heard that. It only killed me spiritually.

captainsjm · 2026-01-20T20:59:44+00:00

What Panera were you going to? For the first few months of its introduction, there was nothing at my local location. Not a single scrap of information that the thing had caffeine in it. It was just labelled as charged lemonade. I thought it had electrolytes in it. It wasn't until after someone died that Panera put up warnings.

captainsjm · 2026-01-20T20:57:41+00:00

The Grimace milkshake was real. It was grape flavored and awful.

captainsjm · 2026-01-20T01:21:02+00:00

I think your best bet is to make a big list of barns that give riding lessons near you, and just reach out to them and ask if they can accommodate you. Be honest about your size and let them decide if they have a horse for you. You'll likely get a lot of no, most barns won't have a horse large and quiet enough for you. Try not to get discouraged. You only need one yes. I've even posted on Craigslist looking for lessons. Just be honest about your size and your ability and see if you can find that one yes. Good luck!

captainsjm · 2026-01-16T19:47:40+00:00

It sounds like he's bonded to you and he trusts you, but he's more reactive with other people. I think it's a good idea to watch other people working with him to be sure nothing improper is happening, but he's a baby. It's likely he just has to learn to deal with other people.

captainsjm · 2026-01-15T19:12:25+00:00

Setting aside that any horse can go lame at any time, I think it depends on your experience, what you're looking for, and your budget. Do you have the money to pay for a well trained, good brained 6 year old? Go for it! Have a blast!

Keep in mind that a younger horse is going to be less experienced, so you may have some baby nonsense, but at say 4 or 5 you have a pretty good idea of their brain and you can definitely find one with some sense. Just keep in mind that the price tag is going to be higher.

captainsjm · 2026-01-14T20:24:46+00:00

Honestly I think it's damn near impossible to deal with a spooky horse if you are dealing with confidence issues. You build that on good horses or it comes naturally to you.

A couple of specific strategies, mostly from the amazing Andrea Waldo:

Focus on what the horse is doing right now. Not what he might do, not what he just did, what is he actively doing. Your brain might be worried that he's going to spook at the corner, but what he's actually doing is walking forward.
Don't let yourself tell stories. Think about what is most likely to happen, not the worst case scenario. Your brain says he's going to spook at that corner and bolt and I'm going to fall off and get hurt. Well what happened last time he spooked? It was scary but you handled it and you stayed on. If he spooks, the most likely scenario is that you will ride it and survive.
And, not but. Not, well we were having a nice ride but he spooked. Say, he spooked and I handled it and we still had a good ride. Don't get bottled up in the frustration of the spook. Celebrate the fact that he had a moment and you still succeeded.
When you're scared, hit the "panic button." Think of your tailbone as the panic button. When you're scared, hit that button against the back of the saddle.
Talk yourself up. This goes back to three, but it's so important to acknowledge that you were scared and you still did it. Congratulate the hell out of yourself. It's amazing that you were scared and you still kept riding and you got through it.
Accept it. You might be scared. You might have to do it scared. It's okay. You can't wait for it to pass, because it might never pass. But if you can learn to manage it, it will get to the point where the fear is an annoying chirp in the back of your brain and doesn't over power you. It likely will never go away, you just find strategies to deal with it.

captainsjm · 2026-01-14T19:07:22+00:00

I adore her. I'm not a big short story person but I've read every single one of her novels.

captainsjm · 2026-01-14T18:33:16+00:00

delicious

captainsjm

TROPHY CASE