HowlsOfAngels
Well-known member
This is Hershie (left) along side Sophie-Anne (right):
He literally taught me how to ride and I've known him now for six years now. Since he taught me to ride I figured I owed it to him to teach him something, so I taught him leg and seat cues and we now ride bareback and bridleless. He is a giant sweet heart and no matter what I ask of him, he's always willing and ready to rise to the occasion. I had all of my cousins over a few months back and all four of them, ranging in age from one to five, got on his back and posed for a picture. The five year old even took him for a ride in the pasture by herself, after I convinced the two year old to let go of his leg so that he'd walk and got the one year old far enough away that he'd quit huggin' and kissin' on her. :lol: He loves kids.
Sophie-Anne is my hobble horse, she is my first baby that I started. At first she was untouchable, but within two weeks she was lunging at liberty and moving her hips and shoulders independently when asked. That was two years ago. A few months after I received her she managed to injure herself, Radial Paralysis of the right fore leg (severely damaged muscle and nerve). It took three months for her to start using the leg as a crutch and responding to stimuli. Now you'd never even guess that the leg is any different unless you got up close and saw the size difference of the hooves and muscles, which are slowly evening out. The shoulder still has a dip to it but the chest muscle has come a long way and is only a hair smaller than the left side now. And don't let her fool you, she can still take off like a shot, rear, and kick some hiney when she wants to.
Anyhow, I just wanted to introduce the community to my spoiled horses. And express my excitement in that I will be getting my senior pictures taken with them soon. I'm hoping that the photographer will feel comfortable enough to allow me to do some bareback and bridleless stuff with my old man, but I'm not positive (my friend recently got hers done with some bareback stuff, but her horse is a nut so a halter and lead were mandatory). I even checked with Hersh earlier and he's cool with it. We ran up and down the paddock and practiced our stops, the consensus: he's still got it, even at eighteen years old.
He literally taught me how to ride and I've known him now for six years now. Since he taught me to ride I figured I owed it to him to teach him something, so I taught him leg and seat cues and we now ride bareback and bridleless. He is a giant sweet heart and no matter what I ask of him, he's always willing and ready to rise to the occasion. I had all of my cousins over a few months back and all four of them, ranging in age from one to five, got on his back and posed for a picture. The five year old even took him for a ride in the pasture by herself, after I convinced the two year old to let go of his leg so that he'd walk and got the one year old far enough away that he'd quit huggin' and kissin' on her. :lol: He loves kids.
Sophie-Anne is my hobble horse, she is my first baby that I started. At first she was untouchable, but within two weeks she was lunging at liberty and moving her hips and shoulders independently when asked. That was two years ago. A few months after I received her she managed to injure herself, Radial Paralysis of the right fore leg (severely damaged muscle and nerve). It took three months for her to start using the leg as a crutch and responding to stimuli. Now you'd never even guess that the leg is any different unless you got up close and saw the size difference of the hooves and muscles, which are slowly evening out. The shoulder still has a dip to it but the chest muscle has come a long way and is only a hair smaller than the left side now. And don't let her fool you, she can still take off like a shot, rear, and kick some hiney when she wants to.
Anyhow, I just wanted to introduce the community to my spoiled horses. And express my excitement in that I will be getting my senior pictures taken with them soon. I'm hoping that the photographer will feel comfortable enough to allow me to do some bareback and bridleless stuff with my old man, but I'm not positive (my friend recently got hers done with some bareback stuff, but her horse is a nut so a halter and lead were mandatory). I even checked with Hersh earlier and he's cool with it. We ran up and down the paddock and practiced our stops, the consensus: he's still got it, even at eighteen years old.
I knew that you could ride a horse without tack, but I've never seen anyone actually do it in person. I imagine it's fascinating.
