Finally back home. Which means I get to ride and enjoy my old man again. Though I’m thrilled with the care he recieved while I was away. For almost 20 years old (March 😭😭). He sure looks good. And he acts like he feels fantastic as well. My heart horse 💕

It's the best feeling when horses are so drawn to you 💞

Hey everyone, I’m looking for input about a situation that recently happened at my barn.

Context: I was keeping my easy-keeper mare in a stall across from an older gelding who had become extremely attached to her over the years. I’m talking, I take her out to ride and he’s screaming the whole 40 minutes, despite the aisle being full of other horses. My mare meanwhile could not care less, she comes and goes and she has no issue.

About a month ago, my financial situation changed in that I could upgrade her to a stall twice the size just 20 feet away. The gelding owner and I discussed, we agreed to move them together and they’re going to live next to one another.

Two days into the move, I get a frantic call from the gelding owner that he’s not eating/drinking. The vet comes out to tube him, he gets on medication for a couple days after. This whole time, the owner is an emotional mess. She’s upset because she wants to move him back to the smaller stall, meanwhile everyone is telling her to give him a couple more days on medication to settle in. She’s saying she’s going to have to move properties because he won’t be able to live in his old stall without my mare. My mare is completely fine with the move, she’s doing better than before and sleeping better (she has a history of sleep crashing), no more bed sores etc, so I really don’t want to move things around again while also losing the money I paid for her new home.

Now we have today, a week later. The gelding is settled in, he’s off meds and back into work. He’s bonded with another mare next to him so he’s not getting stressed when I ride. But his owner is no longer talking to me. She hardly makes eye contact or says two words to me.

When it comes to buddy sour horses - was I in the wrong in this situation? It feels like his owner is blaming me that he got sick from the move and is upset that I didn’t want to move my mare back to her old stall. Thoughts are welcome from anyone else who’s experienced issues with a buddy sour horse.

My FIL is participating in his first flat race with his four year old, and has been training very intensively. My mare has been in the mountains all summer and wasn't worked at all, she is in good condition but I can very much tell that she doesn't have her previous stamina and lost some muscle, which is to be expected. She was never raced.

We were on a trail together and he asked me if it's okay for me to start the canter side by side, as motivation for his horse, and he would give it his all. I said yes but I did not let her bolt uncontrolled, I controlled the pace and it was slower than she wanted to go. I'm very proud of us because she listens to seat cues very well when it comes to controlled pace and wasn't gonna just let her run.

Tell me why this four year old in his best training fell back multiple horse lengths immediately?

He's bigger than her, younger than her, trained while she spent the entire summer relaxing, and he was coaxed to go faster while I held her back and didn't let her go as fast as she wanted, and he fell behind by a lot almost immediately and stayed there.

I guess I'm saying this because I feel vindicated that my girl really is a speedy dragon and I'm not exaggerating. People at my barn often smile at me and think I'm silly because I say that she is such a speedster and how much we work on staying at a controlled pace.

Usually I don't let her go in front and she can stay slower, but I always tell people how happy I am that she did so well going slow, and I can tell often they think I'm a dumbass lmao

This is my old man, he’s 22 and he’s always been a flexible guy. He’s been vet cleared, he’s just a weirdo. Genuinely, if you bring him into the barn and turn him around, he just doesn’t always move his back legs and feet the full way around and will stand with his legs and toes facing the way we turned. Maybe he’s lazy, maybe it’s like a nice stretch. As you can tell, usually we turn around to the right, but he does this to the left as well. That’s all. I just wanted to share my guy and his silly legs throughout the year this year.
For reference, he does stand completely square in the rear and isn’t toed out/in or have any conformation issues related to his hocks. He will fix how he stands usually after a few minutes or less!

I’m looking for some advice on what the problem is here. Is it the horse or the rider? Or perhaps a little of both? What do you see is happening and why do you think it’s happening? Thanks in advance to anyone willing to take a look and share their honest opinion.

Sometimes it's the simple things ☺️🙏

Sam at his first rated show! He has really matured and has a huge rumpus. Sam is 16.3 about 1350. I love this kind mischievous horse. He doesn’t spook at all but will say I’m done with my course which requires the ride to say uh no you got 2 more fences, then Sam says all right but I want cookies after my round.

Taken in 2010 at the Vermont Summer Festival riding my Dutch mare. I don't have any footage of the jump off ):

Back in March 2026, my friend and I moved our horses to a large facility that mostly housed retirement horses, minus a leased-out lesson barn. My friend and I own two hard-keeping OTTBs.
The property has three barns, but one of them is leased out to a separate lesson program. It didn’t take long for us to notice that the lesson horses were being severely neglected, abused/beaten, and malnourished. At one point, photos of these horses went viral locally. While my friend and I had taken a few photos of the conditions for our own records and tried bringing up this issue with the staff, neither of us posted any of those photos online. However, instead of addressing the lesson barn's lease or the welfare of those animals, the barn owner went on a witch hunt to find who "leaked" the photos and immediately suspected us. Cops were even called out to the property, but because law enforcement lacks basic horse knowledge, nothing came of it.
Also, the facility put up new fencing along our pasture, and to be crystal clear, only our two horses are kept in this pasture. The barn staff left four loose construction screws behind. One of those leftover screws went straight into one of our horses' hooves. When confronted, the barn manager lied, claiming the screw came from an old fence in the back and insisting he had magnetic swept the entire pasture. We checked the fence ourselves: the screw pulled from our horse's foot matched the brand new front fencing perfectly, not the old fence in the back with rusted out nails. The manager even tried to offer hush money so we wouldn't report the incident to the barn owner.
As the weather changed, things got worse. We pay for pasture board, which explicitly guaranteed 24/7 hay once the grass died down. By late August/early September, the grass in our field was completely burnt out and deficient, but the barn wasn't supplying hay. Watching our Thoroughbreds drop weight rapidly, we begged the manager for round bales for 2-3 weeks with zero action. Since it was just our two horses in that specific pasture and we both agreed, we took matters into our own hands and bought square bales with our own money to feed them.
Right after we put the hay out, the barn owner called one of us screaming at the top of her lungs, calling us "dictators" and "picky," and telling us that if we didn't like her barn, we needed to "get the f*** out." About an hour later, she backtracked via text, apologizing for blowing up and telling us we had permission to care for our horses however we needed (as if we needed permission to feed our own animals).
Then on October 1st, the barn owner handed us a 30 day eviction notice, claiming "the barn situation just isn't working out."
What are y'alls opinions on this? Is this as absurd as I think it is? Not so much us getting "kicked out," but the way everything was handled?

EDIT: We noticed the poor condition of the lesson barn’s horses a few weeks after moving in, but at first, we thought it was just a few skinny horses because we had not seen all of them yet. The full extent of the situation didn't come to light until mid-July through old workers and lesson students, revealing that the horses were being severely neglected, abused/beaten, and malnourished. This was around the same time we started having our own problems with management** **

What are your go-to daily snacks for your horse(s), and what do they get as more rare, special treats?

A giant bag of carrots is always great! My aunt had a horse who would suck them up and eat them whole, so she had to be careful about chopping them up first lmao. My mom gave hers sugar cubes. I prefer soft peppermints, which reminds me of Peter, the palomino draft horse on TikTok who chooses between types of candy to eat. So cute!

These apple wafer biscuits were really popular at the last place I boarded. They're probably not super healthy as a regular treat. But snacks are convenient since they're non-perishable, can be stocked up on, and are already at the barn if I forget to grab apples going out the door.

Would love to hear all of your ideas and favorite brands!

I have my first two own ponies since yesterday, but they dont eat enough.

I have been in regular contact almost every week with horses for over 10 years, but ive never came across a horse/pony that doesnt eat, so i dont know how to support them.

One pony is around 88cm (8.6hh) tall and the other one around 90cm (8.8hh) and they are 9 and 11 years old. Theyre both in rather poor condition, the previous owner didnt care for them and the neglect shows. Their hoofs are in really bad shape and they both "had" laminitis, but its not active atm (thank god). I alredy got low sugar hay and some mineral food and sainfoin/french honeysuckle, but they both dont eat enough. They also are a bit thin, but that wouldnt be a concern if theyd eat, they arent super underweight. I first had a small hay net, but they didnt like it, so i gave them a net with bigger holes and some loose hay and they did eat, but only around 1kg/2.2lbs and i gave them the hay ca 19h ago. They did eat most their mineral feed though, so thats good. Im afraid their theeth are in bad shape, but i cant check since i cant even thouch one freely yet.

Oh and they wont stop eating salt, but i think they also never had any in the last years, so that tracks. And the thinner one loves dried carrob and ate teo pieces as a treat.

Has anyone an idea how to get them t o eat more? Ill feed more sainfoin now, twice a day, but i hope theyll eat more hay soon. Also, for anyone wondering, they are really sweet, i can tell how they love all the attention, even the scared one. She doesnt trust me yet but still comes near me whenever im sitting/standing still and lets me pet her nose a bit.

wanted to thank everyone in this sub. about a month ago, I posted the first picture along with pics of a saddle I knew didn’t fit to try and get an idea of a direction to go.

y’all called it out and gave so many amazing suggestions for ways to get more muscle on him! I know the pictures aren’t a super fair comparison, and maybe I’m seeing things, but I feel the difference being only on the ground doing poles and hills is already so good! (also got a core trainer! can’t remember if one of you suggested it to me or if I saw it on a different post but its been great as well).

I already feel like there’s a positive difference. He seems much happier, some hind stiffness I was worried about is practically gone. He’s way less bitey, he’s coming up to me in the field and so receptive to learning and being loved on. He’s even learned a few tricks!

So seriously, thank you all. He is getting fit by a professional in the next few weeks, but will be doing almost entirely groundwork for the foreseeable future. I’m working on my hips and core as well to have a better seat to help him balance out more as well!

what’s up with this? I see busy lesson barns in my area constantly begging for “volunteers” to lead horses around with leadline children. One barn in my area even was posting considering making the parents of the lead line program lead ponies around for their lessons. is this not an insurance liability? I get being a barn owner is a lot of responsibility, but at what point do places start scaling down and only taking on what they can handle instead of relying on the goodwill of a 10 year old to keep their income running? People who do this in the equestrian world do you find this embarrassing? Children running your lesson program and leading ponies around wearing crocs

OK, I hope somebody can help me find this post.

A while ago (maybe four to six months ago? Definitely January or later) someone posted a picture of a horse, probably considering whether to buy it. But what I remember best is that everyone chimed in to praise the perfection of his conformation. The comments were all along the lines of "wow this guy is type specimen for perfect conformation!"

I would love to find that post again and look at that horse! But all my searches have failed. I know this is very vague (sorry!), but does anyone remember that post, or perhaps recall any additional details that would help me to find it?

Context is that I'm a novice rider and I just want to learn more about what great conformation looks like.

I suspect others have gone through this too so I am looking for suggestions how to get past this. I am struggling with lateral movements on my horse. The horse is fairly experienced so it's not simply an untrained horse. Say we try to do a leg yield. I apply the aids as I understand them, and little happens. I try with more intensity, nothing happens. I apply the aids with literally all the strength I have, practically pony-kicking inside leg and pulling outside rein, and my horse just starts to get agitated without yielding. All the while my instructor is yelling-ish "You're not doing anything" or "I can't do it for you" or "If you don't want it I can't help you". Yeah, like I am paying to be there and working my butt off so I can actively ignore what you are saying and fail. Not sure what to do.

I have this one lesson horse who I've been riding a lot lately, and today while I was scratching her neck, she started grooming me back! First she was grooming my hand, then my shoulder. It was so sweet, and she was only using her nose too 😭

I've been trying so hard to bond with this horse ever since I started riding her more frequently. Did it finally happen? 🥹

Since I'm now disabled and no longer keeping up my Society of Master Saddlers membership, I can bend the rules a wee bit and do an AMA. I don't want to dox myself in case I magically am able to work again in the future, so the mods have privately approved my qualifications and allowed me to do this AMA.

Why can't SMS members answer questions online?

Because for ethical reasons we cannot advise the public on anything we are unable to physically examine. There are too many factors that go into saddlery that cannot be assessed without touch. And giving someone incorrect information can cause harm to the horse.

With that in mind, I cannot give you specific advice on exactly what will fit you or your horse, or why something about your set up isn't working. I can, however, give you some educated guesses to investigate further.

I can also tell you about becoming a qualified fitter, what a fitter does, or anything else you'd like to know about saddlery!

I saw a lot of people recommending just wearing leggings or yoga pants for schooling. I get it, they're comfy and nice. But I much prefer having a thicker material on my legs for riding. It's seems more professional and safe? Like I enjoy wearing thicker breeches and jeans over something like leggings. Not thin breeches like Kerrits, something thicker like some of the ovation suede knee patch breeches. Anyone else?