Amazing. Horse loses bridle during competition, but horse and rider prevail.

[Baitball Blogger]

[demmiblue]

1. Wathcha wearing on your heels there, hoss?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. That was great!

The man and his horse were so well in tune with each other that the bridle was almost superfluous.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Pretty impressive.

She seems like a rather small horse, as horses go - what breed?

[CottonBear]

5. Quarter Horse. N/T

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Thanks!

[Arkansas Granny]

4. That is one well trained animal. The horse and rider have quite a bond.

[MuseRider]

6. That was one great run

bridle or not! God I miss doing some of this. I was never in it for competition but I did want to learn it. I am amazed at how well that horse performed with him having to ride so far forward.

She has a gorgeous head.

Just so people here know, these horses are trained but you never run them in the patterns you need for competition. Otherwise they try to anticipate and that screws you both up. They can also sour on it. These things are taught slowly, rehearsed once in a session all at different times and mixed in with other things and then just a nice ride. There are a bunch of these patterns and you usually find out what you are going to ride the day you get there.

Nice 101's! Two leg tracks with a big butt track in the middle. Called a sliding stop we called them 101's.

[Piasladic]

12. this information

helped me understand what I was seeing- thanks

[Karadeniz]

8. Thank you!❤

[csziggy]

9. A lot of riding is shifting weight of the seat and pressure of the legs from the rider

But reining horses - which this was - also tend to rely on the very slight touch of the reins on their necks as cues. The rider provided that when he pulled the bridle up and kept one rein around the horse's neck.

My (long dead) stallion would do the roll backs and fast stops while being ridden with only a halter and a single lead, simply from the rider shifting their weight. He was not trained as a reining horse and we never tried to do those spectacular sliding stops or fast roll backs.

[MuseRider]

10. I loved the spinning

it feels so much faster than it looks. I did lots of roll backs doing cow horse stuff. I was never able to do a sliding stop, never really tried. It seemed something I did not need if I was not going to show in reining, I wanted to but there was never a real chance. I did love cattle cutting. I was terrible at that too but it was such fun. We (the training stable I went to) used to get buffalo up from Ted Turner's ranch now and then to cut, they never spoiled and were always ready for a run. Knocked a few of us over from time to time too. I was never close to that however, whew!

This was a really impressive video. What a nice horse. She had such a soft touch and took care of her rider although I doubt he needed that!

I never showed, did not have the time or really the desire (only off and on) but did a lot of saddle time learning the skills. It was a great time in my life. Herding cattle was the most fun I think I have ever had, as odd as that might sound.

[csziggy]

11. I only tried to ride a reining horse once

I was a smart ass teenager and had ridden a lot bareback and mostly English.

Someone at our barn was looking to buy a reining horse and asked me if I wanted to try her out. I said, "Sure, but I won't ride that massive Western saddle!" So we took the saddle off and I hopped up on her bareback.

I lifted the reins and moved them slightly to the left - she spun to the left and I was hanging in the air for a second before I hit the ground (think Wiley Coyote after running off a cliff). I was seriously embarrassed (but not hurt) and didn't try to ride a reining or a cutting horse ever again.

[MuseRider]

13. There are several reasons for those massive saddles!

I cannot imagine! I have seen riders do all those things bareback but I am guessing they ate a lot of dirt at one time or another! I never spent much time bareback but I sure envied and admired those who could ride that way. EDIT to add: I am still laughing at the picture of someone hanging off a horse like Wiley Coyote. I only had that happen once (out of a saddle like a dope) and that was enough for me.

I had an Aussie saddle that I quite liked, felt so good to ride in. I did love my massive cutting saddle for all the reasons that they are massive! I never really rode much in an English saddle. That is quite a discipline, I was never that good at riding.

For anyone who does not know, the saddle horn on a roper is sort of short and very thick so you can tie your roped animal around it and use the horses strength to help control the animal. The saddle horn on a cutting saddle is long and skinny and that is because sitting on a cutting horse is much different, they are powerful and you do a lot of very quick movements. The horse does the work AND a lot, if not all of the thinking. The purpose is to cut a cow from the herd (your part) and keep it out of the herd in sport for a little while but in real life for doctoring or branding etc. You learn to guide the horse to the animal, pick it out and then drop your hands, hold the horn with one the reins loosely with the other and you are along for the ride. Sideways, back and forth until you are ready for the next one. It is very fast and quite a trip.

Thankfully I did not really get to ride until I was a grown ass adult. I was then too old to not be careful of breaking things. If I had ridden as a teen I would have gotten on a horse and never come home!

[csziggy]

14. Oh, I learned how to ride a massive saddle later in life

But after buying me my first horse, my parents couldn't afford to buy me a saddle for six months. I got in a lot of miles bareback by then! I'd get on before dawn and not return until dinner time.

My first saddle was an Argentine made English style - package deal for a bridle, saddle, pad. I think it cost about half as much as the horse did.

My first "Western" saddle was a very old saddle built on a narrow tree - no serious swells but a nice high cantle. I paid five bucks for it from a girl who had sold her horse to go to college and was selling off her old tack. When she'd bought the saddle it was at least fifty years old, meaning it had been made around 1900.

So getting on a 1960s or later style Western saddle of any sort meant getting used to a much wider seat, the swells on the front an a completely different cantle. After college when I began breeding Quarter Horses, I had to move to a regular Western saddle - my Quarter horses were just too broad in the withers for that old narrow tree saddle.

Oddly enough, I recently saw a saddle at the Pitts River Museum in Oxford - it had belonged to a member of the Hole in the Wall Gang, was purchased by an Englishman who used it to ride into the Andes. I took pics of the tag and plan to follow up when I get home to learn more about the saddle from the curators at the Pitts River Museum.

[MuseRider]

15. :-)

I started breeding my quarter horses just in time for the George W. Bush** economy to hit. I had a mare out of a Zan Par Bar mare and the baby should have been worth a fortune bred to a well known, winning cutting horse (known in this state anyway). I still have her. Beautiful but sadly has developed PPID. At the same time I bought a mare with a yearling. She was a money winner and again, I was unable to sell her baby and she lost the one she was pregnant with. I was not going to let a horse that was worth a lot of money go for a couple of hundred dollars. I always worry having been to enough shows to see how some "cowboys" treat their horses. So I had 7 horses for a long time. I am down to 4 now, all 20 or over. I lost one just a few months ago, he was over 30. I do not ride anymore to my sadness. I muck and medicate and feed. Groom and love and pasture. Thank goodness I can feed them off my own pastures.

Interesting about the saddles. I should probably sell all my stuff, I hate to part with it but I know now at my age that I will not be starting this up again. My saddle weighed around 60 pounds and was hard enough then to get on the horse, now I would need help! Those cutting saddles are made to last and hold you on the wild rides. I love old tack, it is fun to look at and think of the adventures it provided (I still consider cowboying an adventure rather than a job).

Still, of all my memories of riding nothing in my life has ever made me happier or more content that to be sitting on my mare herding cattle. My trainer lived in the Flint Hills. You would go out into acres of rolling grassland and round up 30 head or more and herd them back. It was peaceful and well, just the best times on horseback. Sometimes it was exciting. Finding and herding missing bulls was not the same but those larger herds were just, I don't know, it just made you feel part of creation I guess.

[csziggy]

16. I was breeding QHs when Ronald Reagan changed the taxes on horse operations

He made it harder for people to write off a potentially hobby operation against other income. I cut my operation down and boarded other people's horses to support the few broodmares I kept - something the tax changes allowed.

My stallion was Poco Bueno lines close up on both top and bottom, with just a little Three Bars blood thrown in. Mostly I kept to foundation lines (Two Eyed Jack, James Caan, Skipper W), very little thoroughbred. My stud had cow - when he was a weanling I ended up with a calf and threw the poor thing out with the weanlings. That colt worked the poor calf until they were both dripping sweat, just for the fun of it. But I never had enough access to cattle to train hi for cutting and I didn't have the time to go for reining.

My big love was foaling - I have been at the birth of a couple of dozen foals. I'd handle them as soon as they hit the ground, imprinting them, and starting their ground training immediately. When I had to get a shoulder rebuilt, I had to stop that for the most part. Then my knees gave out and I had to quit daily handling altogether.

I have four retired broodmares, just pasture potatoes. A family takes care of the farm for me, in return they keep their horses there. They love my horses as much as I do and their daughter now has the last foal I bred. Sixth generation bred and born on my farm. He's 16'3", foundation QH, but is being trained for three day eventing. Go figure!

[MuseRider]

17. Breeding and foaling.

I helped a friend with her stallions as she bred them. Not something I ever wanted to do again. I have never really cared for many stallions but the stallions that are riders are OK, not freaked out nut cases. Her horses were halter horses and they were nice but put them in a show with mares and handling them was just no fun at all! She took great care of them I just never like them much. I did help her foal her horses from time to time and she came out and helped me when my mare had hers. That is a special time, those innocent faces! Picked her up as best I could, put my hands in her mouth, picked up her feet, handled her ears and felt her all over and she has never had a problem with anything you need to do. She does, however, hate the vet. Hates him and has kicked him right out the stall a few times. She is fast, cattle horse bred!

I know those lines you are talking about except for James Caan. That line I do not know. Most of the horses around here are associated with horses from Texas, Oklahoma and of course Kansas. I am unfamiliar with what is in vogue right now but back then it was the Peppy's and Zan Parr Bar. Matlock Rose used to own ZPB and did halter rode him in roping and did some cutting all over the country. My trainer knew Matlock because he did the same. When Matlock and Carol split up she got that HUGE ranch and some (or most?) of the horses. (I just saw that ZPB has a wiki and she actually bought him so he was hers anyway) There was a line of ZPB that was out of a tiny place up closer here and that is where 2 of my horses came from. My mare developed a problem with spooking and nobody could seem to get it out of her. We had no idea where it came from. I sent her to work on a huge ranch and just on a lark the cowboy took her to a roping. She had never done anything like that and he told me that none of the guys rode mares and they laughed at him. He took her out and she won everything at every show while she was there. She was a natural at that. She quit spooking after he drug dead cattle on her over a 10,000 acre ranch. She muscled up and was happy as can be after that until heaves got her.

[csziggy]

18. Lots of stallions don't get properly socialized.

My guy ran with the other foals until he was 18 months old. Then after his first show season I got a mare (well bred but 18 years old, broken down suspensory ligaments, had produced two AQHA Champions and an IBHA Champion) and turned her out with him. She taught him manners about breeding and despite the vet's conclusion that she'd never carry a foal, he got her pregnant three times. One of the mares we still have, the one that produced the big gelding, was their last foal together.

Mostly we hand bred, not pasture bred, and while I could handle the stallion, I made him mind his manners. He had to be nice to the mares, and not just jump them. I bred as much for good brains in my horses as I did for performance ability.

James Caan was a son of Sonny Dee Bar by Win or Lose - here is his pedigree: https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/james+caan

Huh - that database has my stallion's pedigree, too: https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/smoky+milagro

[MuseRider]

19. Well this is interesting.

I never really paid a heck of a lot of attention to the depths of my horses pedigree because it was all very insular around here but in your horse I see Three Bars that is part of the Zan Parr Bar, and I also see the Leo. My mare was a combo of those two lines.

I had an old grade gelding, he was not registered and was ancient and I loved him. He was supposed to be a Wimpy horse, he had the look and was a trail horse that could not be beat. He broke trails all over this part of the state before I ever knew a horse and when I would ride in a group he would just poke his way slowly through, stop if he did not like the way and find another. I just sat there. He got to be around 50 according to all those around and the vet's best guess. He just went down, I spent the night in the cold mud and rain with him and we put him down in the morning. It killed me. Every one since then has as well but he was the worst. Best pal I ever had and never a single problem.

I just went an looked at your other pedigree. Wow. King, Zantanon,and some Bars and the name Hickory Bill makes me smile. I sure remember something about him but I do not remember right now what that was. Maybe just from a book. Nicely bred horses there! Wow!

[csziggy]

20. My first Quarter Horse was Wimpy bred

Really nice mare, her sire and dam were also really nice horses. I should have kept her but my first stallion just did not like her at all and would not cover her. She ended up as a family trail horse and they loved her and cared for her until she died well into her thirties.

I never got a chance to own another Wimpy horse after that, though if I could have, I would have!

Smoky Mel was my favorite horse - he was a well mannered stallion and I showed him both English and Western, even did a little dressage with him, but his jog was too nice to try to push for a regular trot, much less an extended one. One of my mares, his great granddaughter, is built just like him and she has an extended trot that is fantastic. Too bad she inherited the Poco cold back and I was too old to start her under saddle. She's never been anything but a pasture potato which was really a waste.

Smoky Mel died of a heart attack in front of me at twenty years old. It just about broke my heart - and the vet and farrier that had known him most of his life were heartbroken, too.

[MuseRider]

21. Nice, I love sharing stories about them except the death one's.

But that is also part of the deal.

So far I had to put down my ?Wimpy? bred because he was ancient and could not get back up. My Zan Parr Bar mare because she had heaves and my Peppy bred gelding died a horrible death right in front of me a few months ago.

We do not know what happened. He was fine, looked to colic but then seemed OK. We tubed him and used mineral oil and it came through but nothing else and he still appeared a bit colicy. I kept walking him and I called the vet and asked if we could do the mineral oil again, he was so old nobody at the vet school would have done anything if I had loaded him and taken him. As soon as I hung up the phone he seemed to have a grand mal seizure. I have never seen anything like it. It was violent and lasted about a minute then he seemed to throw himself on the ground and that was it. A few more breaths and that was it. I have never seen anything like this in a large animal. I was a trauma/critical care nurse, I have seen a LOT, but this shook me to my core. I miss him, he was legendary around here for being terribly smart and a real joker. My fence does not miss him however! I have his full brother, a beautiful butterscotch/red dun.

[csziggy]

22. Your Peppy gelding may have had a heart attack

That is exactly what happened with Smoky Mel. He was off his feed that morning, so the vet was on the way. The farrier was there, so I put Mel in the round pen next to where we were working. Suddenly it was as if he had a seizure. The vet got there just after it started and there was simply nothing she could do. She was the one who said it was a heart attack based on the rhythms she heard at the end. It was horrible.

I've had to put down too many horses but the ones that really hurt were the foals we lost at birth or shortly after. Not very many but the last one was the last foal out of my best mare. He was a dummy foal, and we tried everything - tubing him with milk, keeping him warm, but nothing worked. He couldn't stand or nurse, even when we milked the mare and tried to give him milk - that's when the vet said there was nothing left to do. Euthanizing a newborn just took it out of me. Then the stallion we had been breeding to died suddenly (he was 22) and I just decided it was time to hang up my hat forever.

[MuseRider]

23. I get that.

I am finding that the 2 hardest things are losing them no matter how and getting older and knowing you cannot really get another to love on, watch grow and teach. I will not now replace a horse or a dear dear goat, I cannot be certain there will be someone to care for them. We will only be able to take in older dogs when our 2 are gone, hopefully our son will take care of them as he said he would. As for cats, I have a knack with taming the ferals or the dumped cats that are afraid. Many of them are sick when I get them and I care for them as long as they will live. I have lost 4 of those along with the horse just this year, it has been difficult. The cats keep on coming and I vet them and tame them and they live here with us. I may end up having to just re-home them but I am healthy and not THAT old yet.

I am sorry for your heart break I sure understand that. Those babies do something to your heart, losing one that you worked so hard to save would just rip a person up. There is just something about babies, so innocent.

Interesting about the heart attack, I will mention it to my vet. He said he had never seen a horse go into a full body seizure and throw themselves on the ground like he did. I have never heard of anyone witnessing something like that so it is comforting to know that you did as well, well comforting to me anyway but I am sorry for you having to see that too. It took all the wind out of me to see that. Poor guy. I hope to never see anything like that again. The last thing he heard was me yelling "Nooooooooo". I laid on his body for the longest time and then had to let the others be with him before the excavator came.

I don't know where you are but it has been so wet here in NE Kansas that I have spent the summer with hoof abscesses. 3 of the 4 are gimping around right now. I am so sick of poultices, soaks and boots and I KNOW they are, that is why I am sick of it, they don't like any of those things. Poor dears.

It is sad to have to let it all go. There is really nowhere with friends I know I could trust my horses not ending up at the killer. There are several places nearby that I hope my husband will contact if I drop over dead one day. They will make certain they are cared for. They often loan them to people they know when they end up with only one horse who needs a buddy or they sell them to people they trust and they check on them. That is the best I can hope for I guess. What a sad discussion.

[csziggy]

24. Yeah, it is hard to recognize that life involves so much death

We gave up dogs when our last one had to be put to sleep. He was nearly blind with cataracts, few teeth, and some days he no longer recognized us. The tumor on his hip had gotten huge so even though it was benign it was affecting how me moved. At 18 we didn't think operating was a good idea. He's buried in the pasture with one of my broodmares and a mare that had boarded with us for fifteen years.

I'm not sure what we will do about pets. My 17.5 year old cat disappeared since we left home. He was getting fed everyday and being petted by the people taking care of the farm. One morning he just didn't show up. He had a cat door to get in and out so I don't think a coyote or fox got him. I suspect he just went out, fell asleep in one of his favorite spots, and didn't wake up.

We'd talked about getting two cats to keep each other company, and making them indoor only. It depends on my health and our travel plans. We may find a pair of older cats rather than another kitten. I'll decide after we get home.

My husband and I are traveling in the UK right now, so I am not sure how the weather has been. Last I heard, it was 95 degrees and a drought in North Florida. I hate abceses! We used to use a hoof packing - fill the sole with it, put a lot of layers of duct tape over the sole and around the hoof to hold it on, and repeat when it falls off. The brand name is Sole Pack - https://hawthorne-products.com/shop/hoof-care/sole-pack/ Of course, clean to hoof thoroughly before using.

One mare had such a bad infection, the farrier made shoes for her that has a plate that screwed on. We could unscrew the plate, clean the hoof, replace the packing, screw it back on, and she was good for a week at a time. It worked better than poultices or soaking.

I'm lucky with the family that is taking care of the farm. When I wrote my will I left the horses to them, with some money to support the horses for at least a year. I need to also write up that they can keep using the farm as long as possible after I die.

[MuseRider]

25. Thanks for the info.

It sounds much like the mud I use to pack with. I cannot remember what it is called actually. Right now only one is still having problems. I am not putting mud on it yet, it was a large and open mess, I think it might have closed over early. Doing the big soaking boot several times a day with a special boot with padding and a damp mix of Epsom Salts, honey and betadyne. This is not my most compliant horse but he is being really good about this so I know it really must hurt. I am hoping it opens back up tonight and I can try to keep it clean enough to get all the yuck out of it. Poor fella. He is an old cutting horse but has calmed down quite a lot lately. Still can be goosy as heck. He was the horse that if you did not pay attention and accidentally laid your leg against his side he ended up in Nebraska while you came down out of the clouds. They train them well, it took me a long time from pleasure horses to get used to the cutters!

[csziggy]

26. Sole Pack is a very thick stuff

More like molasses soaked sphagnum moss in consistency than anything else. The icthammol really does draw out infection and packing it into a healing abscess hole helps prevent it from healing over with infection still in place. The pine helps seal and harden the sole so less chance of re-infection.

I hope you can get your guy healed!

[MuseRider]

27. I was texting with my son

AND the farrier while I was writing to you! I totally forgot to wish you a wonderful time in the UK! Have the best time ever and I will check out Sole Pack, it sounds like a great product, thank you!

[csziggy]

28. Thanks! We only have nine more days

But we started in Scotland on August 5 and have had a fantastic time.Good luck with your gelding.