Recent content by smja

I'm not sure how experienced you are, OP, but it sounds like you're trying to make her round with your hand instead of riding the back end. Your OP mentions 'hardly snatching at all' in the walk and trot. Snatching is not a behaviour associated with a horse properly working from behind - why...

I'm with you on this - similarly, people at BE who fall off, remove air jacket, then get back on and keep going. If I had an air jacket, my reasoning for wearing an air jacket wouldn't suddenly disappear should I fall off. In fact, it would likely be reinforced :)

2 MERs at BE90 - fewer than 50 pens dressage, 16 pens SJ, no XCJ pens, up to 30 XC time pens. Look at page 12 and 15 of the BE rule book. If young rider has those MERs from previous horses/has competed at a higher level prevously and is older than 12/13, she doesn't need to redo MERs with your...

As people have mentioned, BE have introduced MERs for 100 level now. You can still start at 90, there's no need to do 80 - and if you have previous MERs for higher levels you don't need to go back and requalify (I think, I'd double check with BE if yours are from a while ago). Some courses are...

Her horse, her choice as long as the horse isn't suffering (i.e. is able to act like a normal horse in the field, roll/groom/move around freely). It wasn't so long ago that turning a horse away for months WAS a recognised way of treating some conditions.

Agreed, I was pleased to see him win. From the comments I heard/read it was more that the horse wasn't expected to do so well as a young first timer - there were other 10yos in the field too. Mark Phillips and Richard Meade were riding in the days of long format, where the physical stresses on...

Sounds like your dog is getting enough exercise, OP! The amount of exercise depends on the individual dog - are they happy, a good weight, settled in their routine? Then they're getting enough. Are they destructive, putting on weight, or exhibiting other signs of stress? Then they might need...

To be fair, they are easy to train...so much so that it's incredibly easy to train them into poor habits, then people blame the dog instead of looking at themselves :( We have a secondhand collie, his previous owner bought him because she'd "always wanted a dog like I used to watch on TV". He'd...

My sister keeps her puppy's ashes in a lovely box in her room. Keeping them doesn't mean you can't move on. I'm sorry for your loss.

Fingers crossed that she's feeling better soon - best wishes.

Sometimes a gel pad helps a saddle fit issue, sometimes it doesn't - it depends what's wrong and how far off the fit is. If you get on him bareback, does he do the same thing? That might give you a clue.

I love Dim Tim :)

I lunge with side reins attached to the bit, and lunge line attached to a lunging cavesson. But then, I also lunge in a headcollar - it depends on a) what I'm trying to achieve, and b) what I can find in the tack room :D

You say he 'picks his moment' - that means you need to be watching him like a hawk and react as soon as he starts to try to push into you, not bring back the situation once you're already on the back foot. The minute he moves towards you, you stop him dead, say 'no' firmly, and move him out of...

It sounds like you and he have a fundamental communication problem - all of these behaviours sound like they stem from that. You need to get an experienced person there to see both of you in person. We can't tell from the forum if he's being aggressive/lacking respect/etc. or if you're not...