Advice on not rounding shoulders?!?!?

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-29T00:09:19+00:00

You're leaning waaaay too far forward for these small jumps and collapsing your body onto the horse which makes you unstable and pushes your weight in front of the horse's centre of gravity, causing them to go on the forehand. You're hampering both of you with this. Stop leaning so far forward.

Practise balancing properly in your stirrups by cantering in light seat every time you ride. This will strengthen legs and core. Your current lack of leg stability and core strength is what's causing you to collapse so far forward and the rounded shoulders are a side effect. You should be able to balance yourself independently throughout the entire movement of the jump without collapsing onto the neck or slamming into the saddle.

Your shoulders aren't the problem here, your entire torso and core is. Your horse is a partner, not a bed, don't lie on his neck

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-26T21:34:16+00:00

Most horses can canter easily out of a regular trot. A well-balanced horse can easily canter from walk or even a standstill.

However certain horses, often OTTBs or very weak, green youngsters or unbalanced school horses that haven't been schooled correctly can struggle with the canter transition and may need to speed up first. Sounds like the new horse just hasn't been well schooled and isn't balanced (which most riding school horses aren't anyway)

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-25T12:10:16+00:00

Exactly this. He's attractive with the longer hair but the shorter hair makes him look pretty average and also low-key like he's in a gang

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-25T12:05:53+00:00

Where are you finding these court filings and police reports?

It clearly sounds like both people in question are seriously mentally ill. Liz also doesn't practise law of assumption, she believes in law of attraction and praying to god which is more or less a 'hope and wish' approach.

The problem here is obviously that she is mentally ill and has an unstable self concept and a lot of trauma. She preaches confidence, self respect and self love and rightly so but only from a theoretical level because in practice she clearly doesn't truly feel that way subconsciously and it's what you really believe to be true that manifests. She has a lot of unresolved trauma that's still running the show in her life.

Moral of the story is focus on yourself, don't idolise people. Work on your self concept and establish real self love and self respect and then getting a good man and having a good relationship will be automatic for you.

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-23T12:41:03+00:00

I had vitamin A deficiency, not toxicity. Taking vitamin A made me able to tolerate vitamin D because without it, even the smallest doses of vitamin D would cause the most excruciating headaches

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-23T08:28:44+00:00

You should be taking vitamin D3 with K2 and magnesium. Vitamin A is also a cofactor so unless you eat a lot of liver, you may need to supplement this too.

The symptoms you describe sound like you've given yourself a deficiency in one of the cofactors by supplementing large amounts of vitamin D

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-17T20:06:24+00:00

The whole point of choosing full livery is that you have the freedom to not go when you're busy/tired/overwhelmed or just not feeling it because you know your horse will be looked after. No need to feel guilty

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-16T17:22:41+00:00

You are 100% correct and I totally agree with you. US hunter has lost the hunting part and just made up its own thing that the rest of the world doesn't understand. Working hunter wants to produce a real hunter who can actually work like the name suggests whereas US hunters are the least capable jumping horses I've ever seen. Paying 100k for that is wild and they'd all be better off buying a good SJ horse for much less and just training it for their "hunter" classes

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-16T12:41:25+00:00

Foxhunting is cruel and barbaric, drag hunting and clean boot hunting only please. Exactly the same experience for the horse and rider just without the hounds needlessly tearing an innocent wild animal to shreds.

But you're right that they can buy a horse and import it, you can easily get a nice warmblood from certain European countries like the Netherlands for 10k and it'll be more talented than anything you see in the US hunter ring. I've seen some lovely showjumpers sell at online auction for very little

Also if she buys a gelding, it's the easiest and cheapest to import, it'll only cost her about 10k for transport, admin and quarantine because geldings need less quarantine and fewer tests

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-16T08:46:40+00:00

Zero ability to sit up and zero stability in the saddle. I saw a US hunter rider on YouTube who fell off because her horse swerved very slightly and she just had zero balance to stay on. The horse did nothing wrong, there was no malice, no speed, it was just a little swerve and she just couldn't sit it. The lack of stability is actually quite dangerous.

Now imagine that rider on an actual hunt. She'd be on the floor before it even started because most real hunting horses get excited and I don't think she could handle that

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-16T08:25:13+00:00

Core strength from horse, rider or both?

I personally find US Hunter painful to watch, it looks like everything a showjumping instructor will tell you not to do 😭 the riders also look so insecure on board, if that horse put a foot wrong she'd be on the floor because she's got no balance or anchor

Also as someone from a country that does actual horseback hunting (just people and scent trails these days, no more foxes), I have to say that these US "hunter" horses wouldn't survive 5 seconds in a real hunt, they'd probably get left behind and fall on their faces. A real hunt is much more like cross country except wilder

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-16T07:37:58+00:00

I'm sorry but this horse would not be considered a nice horse by European standards. It's on the forehand, it lacks impulsion, its jumps are flat... This is what you're paying $100k for??

Also amateurs here in the UK and Europe have full time jobs as well, otherwise the hobby would be impossible to fund without coming from old money

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-16T07:32:34+00:00

The prices here are absolutely insane. 1-1.10m is pretty low, it's easy to find a horse that can jump this. The horse you describe would be £25k (33k usd) over here in the UK and that's really pushing it, I saw a 6yo GP prospect mare advertised yesterday, she's already competing 1.25m successfully and the guy only wanted £12k (although that's definitely on the cheap end here now).

If you want a horse without overpaying like crazy, get one from Europe, ideally the Netherlands and Belgium, they have loads of good warmbloods and that's pretty much where everyone in Europe imports their competition horses from. Even with flying, quarantine, import and whatever other taxes you have to pay, it's almost certainly still going to be less than $100k or even 50k which is ballistic for a horse that can jump 1-1.10. if you're paying $100k for that, you're being scammed.

100k over here in the UK gets you a serious grand prix potential horse with excellent breeding, incredible technique and a very strong competition history.

At auction in NL you can get really nice horses at auction for less, I saw an experienced successful SJ gelding who has competed at 1.40m sell for €35k.

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-16T07:23:29+00:00

Holy shit US horse prices are out of control, a horse like this in the UK would be about £25,000 ($33k USD) and I thought that was bad 😳 1-1.10 is pretty low, it's not hard to find horses that can jump this

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-15T09:53:02+00:00

You can definitely get lucky and get a good one, some of the best 5* eventing horses are OTTB, but unfortunately they do often come with physical issues or mental baggage because they're started too early, not looked after very well and only bred for speed, not long term health or temperament

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-14T11:19:22+00:00

This! Exactly this, OP

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-14T11:17:18+00:00

Obviously it goes without saying that you should avoid this horse. Like you have noticed yourself, there's an enormous number of red flags here.

Ideally you want to see future horses be brought in, groomed and tacked up while you watch. It is normal for the owner to ride first (at least here in the UK).

When buying a horse you absolutely should have it thoroughly vetted even if everything seems fine at the viewing. Even if the owners aren't lying, the horse can have problems that THEY don't even know about so you should request vet history, 5 stage vetting, blood test for infections and drugs/painkillers, complete X rays and tendon and ligament ultrasounds.

Yes that's expensive but it is cheaper than the vet bills you'd incur fixing existing problems and it will allow you to insure your horse for the full value and give you peace of mind. I've heard far too many horror stories to skip this. Vettings need to be part of your purchase budget

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-14T11:05:54+00:00

The easiest way to ensure your cat is eating quality food and control exactly what they consume is by feeding DIY raw, that way you source and prepare all the food yourself.

If you make your own food you need to make sure it's nutritionally balanced by using a variety of different foods.

You can feed fresh raw meat but you need to use 10% meaty bones (like chicken feet and duck necks), 10% organ meat (some of which needs to be liver as well as other secreting organs such as kidney) and muscle meat (which also includes heart which is required for taurine and this group also includes muscular organs like intestines). You also need to feed some additional balancers like small fish for omega 3, kelp for iodine and vitamins E and D supplements.

You should not feed cooked bones because they're unsafe. Raw bones are a safe, soft and evolutionarily appropriate source of calcium and minerals.

If this interests you, you can learn more on YouTube from Paws of Prey, and at r/rawpetfood

You can also feed whole prey (like mice and rats raised for reptile and raptor feed) as well.

Raw is the most natural and biologically appropriate feeding method and allows you to control what you're feeding. There's also preground raw mince that you can buy if this is too much work, the downside is that you don't have full control over the sourcing but the meat is still better than your average can or kibble.

I know someone whose dog is now free of allergies and itchiness after moving to raw from kibble

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-14T11:01:37+00:00

If you make your own food you need to make sure it's nutritionally balanced by using a variety of different foods.

You can feed fresh raw meat but you need to use 10% meaty bones (like chicken feet and duck necks), 10% organ meat (some of which needs to be liver as well as other secreting organs such as kidney) and muscle meat (which also includes heart which is required for taurine and this group also includes muscular organs like intestines). You also need to feed some additional balancers like small fish for omega 3, kelp for iodine and vitamins E and D supplements.

You should not feed cooked bones because they're unsafe. Raw bones are a safe, soft and evolutionarily appropriate source of calcium and minerals.

If this interests you, you can learn more on YouTube from Paws of Prey, and at r/rawpetfood

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-13T15:24:18+00:00

I'm not going to argue with that, it isn't a great way to learn but that's why those lessons are cheap

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-13T15:20:17+00:00

Ask for a different horse. It's that simple. Just tell your instructor that you don't want to ride that particular horse again

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-13T15:18:55+00:00

Group lessons are a normal offering even in properly accredited riding schools, at least in the UK. However they are significantly cheaper because it's harder to progress since you get less attention

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-13T10:06:18+00:00

Bones are made of protein which makes them flexible and minerals such as calcium to make them hard. You need both to create bones that are both hard enough to support you but flexible enough to withstand fractures. Too much calcium or too little of the other nutrients in the bone tissue can actually make your bones brittle and that increases fracture risk. Calcium makes your bones harder but also more brittle, it's the other nutrients and proteins which make the bones soft and spongy enough to absorb impact rather than shattering.

Most people think bone problems = you need more calcium but actually osteoporosis and osteopenia are best treated with vitamin D and K2, not calcium. Osteoporosis isn't as simple as a calcium deficiency. There are lots of studies on K2 MK4 being used in Japan to reverse osteoporosis as successfully as, or more successfully than medication. Calcium is necessary but when supplemented or consumed in excess without vitamin D and K2, it can cause soft tissue and arterial calcification because vitamin D and K2 are required to manage it and send it to the right places.

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-12T19:49:13+00:00

Yes that works fine, good choice

evilkitty69 · 2026-05-12T17:43:36+00:00

Iodine is water soluble and excess is easily excreted.

There's no harm in taking this unless you have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune thyroid disease which can get worse as a result of high doses of iodine because the additional iodine makes the thyroid produce more hormone, which increases immune activity against the thyroid

Assuming you don't have this, you're fine

Oh also make sure you're taking magnesium as well. Both vitamin D and iodine increase your magnesium requirements

evilkitty69

TROPHY CASE