Horse Tales and More Pix Bandit and Cowboy's Bloodline and Youth Pix
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If you're new to horses or just been riding a while, spend a
little time reading about our adventures. Most likely, you'll save
yourself a whole lot of trouble and maybe...a bad horse related injury. |
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Don't miss the Horse Tales page. This is where we chronicle our adventures of experiencing a horse. Here's your chance not to repeat some of our mistakes! |
Featuring
Bandit is a 14.2 hand overo paint gelding. He is 13-years-old and we've known him since April 2000. Although Bandit isn't the biggest horse around he just knows he's the Alpha horse. He notices everything around him and loves to push other horses around. Bandit is one smart horse and does his best to train his owners.
And
A
Midnite Cowboy
A Quarter Horse
Cowboy is a 16.2 hand, 7-year-old Appendix Quarter Horse gelding. We've known him since December 2001 and I basically learned to ride on him. Usually "Green on Green, equals Black and Blue," but he's just so calm under saddle that I never had a problem with him. Cowboy seems to be an Omega (or last in the pecking order) horse, which he doesn't like much. He can be a little cranky with us on the ground, but is a true gentleman while under saddle.
Horsemanship Survival Tactics
We've learned the hard (and sometimes painful) way and we want to pass on a few tips that just might save you a lot of grief and pain.
Wear a helmet! I know..I know..I know! They aren't COOL! Only those English woosies wear them!. It's just ingrained in some horse riding circles that helmets are not needed. But, do you see any serious bicycle rider without one? And the last time I checked, bicycles aren't panic-a-holic single-minded prey animals. Don't a wide variety of sports enthusiasts such as dirt bike riders, parachutists and extreme skate boarders embrace helmet use? You bet they do. Those sports combine speed with the possibility of a bad fall happening at any time. Helmets are relatively cheap, lightweight and aren't hot like they used to be. They just might save your noggin. My helmet saved me during a bad fall (or falls). I've seen them save people from serious injuries. Don't get on a horse without one. Please check out this link on helmet safety by the American Riding Instructors Association (ARIA).
Teach your horse (and yourself) how to do a one rein stop. This is simply the most important safety tool that you and your horse should know how to do. I'm amazed that this simple technique isn't more widely practiced. One day it will save your life or prevent a bad injury. Most people that are nervous riding a horse are apprehensive because they don't feel they are in control. A properly executed one rein stop will give them the control they need.
Do ground work with your horse. Your level of success with your horse in the saddle is directly related to the amount and quality of ground work you do. Every time I try to teach a new movement to my horse I try my best to teach it on the ground first. This eliminates a lot of frustration for both the horse and rider.
Match your experience level to the level of training of your horse. Remember, "Green on Green, equals Black and Blue." That inexpensive "broke to ride" horse is probably going to be too demanding for an inexperienced rider. On the other hand, we've seen new riders spend huge amounts of money on fancy warmbloods that were showing advanced dressage levels. The new owners ended up scared to death of them and never rode them. Find a well trained horse that is suited to teaching you how to ride.
Follow these four survival tactics and your time with horses will be much safer.
Interesting Horse Facts
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A horse is adapted to eating the poorest-quality forage. It can thrive on grasses that a cow would starve to death on. |
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It is able to do this because horses have a digestive organ known as a cecum (also possessed by tapirs and rhinos). Other grazing animals must rest for hours after eating, but horses can eat and run. |
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Horses' teeth constantly grow which is an adaptation to eating tough grasses off the ground full of dirt. |
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The first evidence of humans riding a horse (using a wooden bit) is 6,000 years old. Which is 500 years before the first evidence of the wheel. |
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That convenient gap between the front and back teeth, which allows for the use of a bit, probably resulted from the evolutionary lengthening of the horses face. A long face allows the eyes to remain above the grasses while eating and see predators farther away. |
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A horse's eyesight is about 20/33 or worse than the standard human vision of 20/20. He can see almost 360 degrees around him with only a 3 degree blind spot at his tail. The horse's depth and color perception is worse than humans but his night vision is much better. Horse aren't color blind but do have less acute perception of color than humans. |
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Amazingly, a horse uses no more energy to trot than to canter (lope). Using a treadmill and a mask to measure oxygen use, researchers found that a horse uses the same amount of energy to go 10 miles per hour (trot) as he does to go 20 miles per hour (canter). This is made possible by the efficiency of the different gaits a horse is capable of. |
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Horses can produce five times the volume of sweat per area of skin that a human can. That's important because horses cannot breath through their mouths and therefore cannot dissipate heat by panting. |
| Despite considerable effort and money spent improving race horses' speed very little improvement has been made in the last 100 years. Unlike humans (where field and track records continue to be broken), horses seem to be already operating at their physical limits of capability. |
Excerpted from the book: The Nature of Horses by Stephen Budiansky
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New articles:
Rating Horse Clinicians (Newly Updated)
Bandit and Cowboy now reside with approximately 20 other horses at Meadow Branch Farm near Hedgesville, WV.
Links
For more information on Paint horses try this link to Equine World
For more information on Quarter horses try this link to Equine World
Need a sewing or repair work on horse blankets, sheets and other equestrian apparel? Check out Sue's Horse Blanket Repair.
Interested in learning Natural Horsemanship or do you have a problem horse? Would you like a Demonstration of Natural Horsemanship at your facility? Serving the Martinsburg, WV, Hagerstown, MD, Winchester, VA and Chambersburg, PA vicinities. Click here for more info.
To contact Bandit or Cowboy write to Paul or Sue Oliver at: suzyfromwv@yahoo.com
Link to Dusty, The Dusky Conure site
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