This and That

I would just like to share my opinion on riding bareback of which some of you may find helpful seeing it's so common. :) I've ridden bareback for several months since a fairly new horse in my exercise riding career came to me. I've done w/t/c in a Thinline pad and thought it would be great for my seat, legs, balance, and feel. While it certainly did help me gain more feel and balance, it was very detrimental to my seat and legs. I didn't realize how much until I went for a lesson with my previous coach. Her words for the hour boiled down to "why are you doing that, you've never done that since we fixed that, stop that, just let your leg go, stop trying to grip with your butt." Of course, I was not happy to hear all that. 😅 However, having taken the time to look at the physical demands of riding bareback, it makes sense why I was doing that. 1.) Bareback requires you to put your center of gravity in your knees. Whether or not you mean to, you will hold tension there. This isn't necessarily all the time, but when things go wonky, your horse takes a turn like a barrel racer, or your horse spooks, your knees are what will hold you on as they stabilize your body against your horse's sides. (Not necessarily gripping, just holding!) 2.) Your seat changes. You don't sit in a posture like you would in a saddle, so your equitation will go downhill. You can't keep your heels down, your legs long (see about your knees in #1), or sit 100% where you need to on your butt. Your seat is a lot less stable, resulting in a lifted leg. Because you are forced to sit back more, your leg goes forward. You can't follow your horse the same, so you again compromise. This leads to bad habits in the saddle. 3.) While you absolutely can sit the gaits well while bareback, learning how to is not fun for you and especially not your horse. When learning to do so bareback, made a more prominent issue as most bareback pads (in the style of Thinline and not like Nalanta, Cavallin, or Signum Omega, you are bouncing up and down on your horse's spine in a rather uncomfortable manner. While your ability to sit will be very good once you figure it out, the process of getting there is less than ideal. So, my take on bareback is that it's a great tool to pull out of the box once in a while to build confidence, better balance, and feel, but it's still best left alone for the majority of the time. Best for you and best for your horse's back. Let me know what your opinion is!

I like to make these ice pops occasionally in the summer - sometimes for shows and sometimes just for home! My horses love them; it gives them something fun to play with and also encourages drinking. It also cools down the water in the bucket. What you need: 🥤 plastic cups or anything to make "molds" 🍏🥕 Carrots, apples, any yummy treat your horse likes 💧 Electrolytes, Gatorade, flavored water 🧵 Optional: twine to hang with in the stall 1. Cut up snacks - I used carrots and apples 2. Place these in the cups or whatever you are using to freeze the pops 3. Fill the cups with water mix. You can use Gatorade, electrolytes in water, horse-specific water mixes, anything you know they might like! I used Liquid IV because that's what I have right now 😀 4. Optional - place cut twine in the center of the cup so it will freeze in place halfway in the cup. Then you can tie it to the stall wall when you remove it from the mold. I don't do this because my horses pull them down, so I just put the pops in their buckets. 5. Freeze overnight, take to your horses to enjoy! You can put them in water tubs or buckets or hang them if you used twine. Your horse will enjoy bobbing for it 😋

Hi everyone, I wanted to make this post to discuss my experiences with horses in tourism as I have just been to Indonesia and saw some terrible things that made me want to speak up. First of all, this post will be quite long and possibly upsetting and I also included some photos that I took as well as pictures from the internet which are similar to what I saw in real life. I would really appreciate if you could take the time to read what I wrote and look at the pictures I included. When visiting Mount Bromo (an active volcano in a national park) there were many native ponies around for tourists to ride on and take photos with but many of them seemed to be in pretty bad condition. They were all pretty small and worked for basically the whole day, sometimes carrying large heavy adults or carrying 2 people or kids at a time. As soon as our jeep got close to the areas where the ponies were, the handlers would gallop up to your car to show off and make the experience seem appealing to tourists. What I saw was pretty heartbreaking as these ponies all had their heads tied up really tightly and could barely move throughout the day. There were also over a hundred of them and while they were waiting for customers, the handlers wouldn’t get off and stand with them but always kept sitting on their backs or cantering around to attract people meaning that the ponies never really got to rest at all. Some of the ponies had their manes and tails dyed, some were extremely skinny, many had visible skin and hoof problems and there were too many ponies that were obviously limping around, still being forced to carry tourists. Basically, the horses were supposed to carry you up to the crater of the volcano, which wasn’t even a difficult hike btw, and then they would canter back down with their handler to get down as fast as possible and find someone new to carry. I also saw one guy who wanted to get a video of himself going faster on the horse, so the handler just whipped the pony into trot and the guy filmed himself while bouncing around on the ponys back while holding on to the saddle and I could tell he had never ridden a horse before. Since the volcano is also in the middle of a national park which is basically a desert (theres only sand and a bit of grass for many kilometers) I also wondered how these ponies got fed and when they got water to drink. I was there for an entire day and never saw a pony getting any food or water even while working in this hot weather. Another destination I went to where I saw a lot of horses was in the city center of Yogyakarta, which was pretty famous for its horse carriages. These small ponies were working in the middle of the busy city streets trotting on the pavement and roads for the whole day while pulling a carriage with up to 6 or 7 people at a time. We all know that its not very good for horses to run on roads, but these ponies did it for hours every day without proper hoof care and also had to navigate through the cars and motorbikes. One really heartbreaking scene I saw was when one of the carriage ponies was pulling a family down a downhill road, and kept slipping down this road. The poor pony then tripped, and then continued to be pushed down the hill by the front of the carriage as it rolled down and he was unable to stop himself. Also at Malioboro street, a popular street for nightlife and shopping, there were rows ans rows of horses waiting for customers, standing their with their heads down and their ribs poking out from their sides and I truly don’t know how any human can see this and not notice what is wrong with this. As I walked around the city for 2 whole days, I saw 1 singular feeding station: a rusty metal bowl tied to a tree in a parking lot where the horses could eat a little bit of grain. Although I understand that these people need to make a living, and use these ponies to get money from tourists, I still think there would be a better way to do this than to hurt the poor horses everyday and eventually work them to death. To be honest, I woould have loved to ride one of the ponies in the desert and watch the view of the volcanic crater while cantering through the sand, but I don’t think I could have dealth with the guilt that I would have felt if I tried to get on the back of one of those ponies. I wish I could have known this before my trip so I could at least give them some treats, but I tried to pat any of the horses I could to give them some love when I got the chance. It was truly heartbreaking to see all the potential as I could just imagine all of these ponies being a little girls best friend somewhere else in the world if they had just been luckier and born somewhere else. Even my mom (who is not an equestrian btw) said that she wanted to ride in one of the carriages but didn’t only because I made such a big deal out of it and kept complaining about how I felt so bad for the horses. Its truly shocking how it is so normal for horses to be mistreated and how people don’t even notice due to how uneducated they are. I’m really sorry for writing such a long text, but I just wanted to share my opinion on this subject and also share my experiences so I can hear what you think about this. If you actually read all the way to the bottom, I also want to say thank you for spending time reading this and please tell me what you think🖤

What are your favourite horse series and films to pass the time? I love Heartland as it is more realistic than most. I also quite liked The Horse Whisperer which is based on a book. Let me know your recommendations!!

I was wondering if it would be possible for PS of Sweden to make a pair of tennis shoes? I think regular and water proof would be nice to have. If you anyone agrees or disagree I would love to hear opinions!

Im in need of new reins, in brown to match the rest of my jumping tack. They definitely need the stoppers because I use a matingale. Any recomendations?

Designers of PS Sweden, would it be possible to make truly summery breathable elastic very thin leggings with mini holes from knee down or even higher? Only one brand makes them but the colors are not so great but I would not take anything else in the summer. It would be great if you could design them too.

having fun with bling, these are brow band rosette , they go on the end of a browband. and often times the browband itself is covered in matching ribbon Thought it would be fun to give a visual tutorial You will need ribbon a big button glue /hot glue a rhinestone decorative button rhinestones ( only if you want ) some yarn your big button will serve as a backing for your rosette and you will glue everything to the big button. I have included sorta step by step photos Everything is glued together . Now when dealing with the ruffle around the button take your time, and apply it slowly and also you need to find a very tight crimped ruffle ribbon. My local store only had white , so I went with it. Any questions on how to make I will answer in the comment section . I am working on another one right now, i will post that one in the comments here shortly.