To All The Horse Lovers Options

[Cosmin Lupu]

I find that the horse is an amazing beast! Just ran into this vid on FB and remembered my early encounter with these wonderful animals I was about 6 when I first got out of my country to visit my aunt and uncle in The Netherlands. My aunt is a horse tamer HOW COOL IS THAT, right? Well, at that time she was in the stables all day long and organizing competitions with her prized stallions. These were incredibly huge for me at that time but I was fascinated by them and I remember I suffered enormously, when one of the horses in there had to be shot because of a nasty wound which left him crippled. I've witnessed the event and I cried for the rest of the day...

I know Ben loves horses, so he will enjoy this for certain what about you guys? Have you had any encounters or stories to tell about these magnificent animals?

[JTaylor]

I live in horse country! Ocala, Florida is very well known for its horses and it seems like you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone that is involved in the horse industry around here. They are beautiful creatures.... too bad a lot of farms just raise them to be raced.

[Cosmin Lupu]

Hey man, at least they are not raising them for meat I heard a lot about people eating horse meat

[Nihilist1]

Hey man, at least they are not raising them for meat I heard a lot about people eating horse meat

Especially in France!

I had a few experiences. My father's second wife's father was a horse trainer. I was with him at the stables one day and someone left the gate open. Two of the horses ran out and trampled me. I was about 7 years old at the time. Luckily for me, it had been raining very hard for a few days so the mud absorbed most of the damage when I got hit with a couple hooves. I was also pretty lucky that they weren't wearing shoes. So very lucky indeed.

[Cosmin Lupu]

Especially in France!

I had a few experiences. My father's second wife's father was a horse trainer. I was with him at the stables one day and someone left the gate open. Two of the horses ran out and trampled me. I was about 7 years old at the time. Luckily for me, it had been raining very hard for a few days so the mud absorbed most of the damage when I got hit with a couple hooves. I was also pretty lucky that they weren't wearing shoes. So very lucky indeed.

Oh man...indeed, horses are dangerous when going berserk in the same period when I was 6, I remember being in a small car and a huge horse got out of control and stood right over the car. It felt like that was the biggest creature I have ever seen at that point

[Alex Feather]

Man! I love it! I use to do a horseback riding! And actually won some awards before I started to play guitar!

[Cosmin Lupu]

Oh dude! That's awesome! So, were you jumping over obstacles?

[Ben Higgins]

That's a nice Friesian.. Friesians are amazing animals. Joe Perry from Aerosmith breeds them

I'm also a fan of Andalusians, they're beautiful.. ususally white, although you do get black ones too.

What I found really interesting as that a lot of the moves and jumps that you see in horse shows originally had military applications. There's a couple of places in this video where you see the horse go onto its hind legs and then jump. These were apparantly for situations when a horseman was surrounded by enemies and needed to clear a path through his foes, hence the horse jumping and kicking out. I'm not sure how much of it is true but, either way, seeing this in real life is breath taking.

I was at this show at the O2 in London although I didn't get to stay for the whole thing.. it was still incredible.



This post has been edited by Ben Higgins: May 2 2012, 02:56 PM

[JTaylor]

Hey man, at least they are not raising them for meat I heard a lot about people eating horse meat

True. I believe that is illegal here in the US, but I may be wrong.

[Cosmin Lupu]

Wow had no clue about that Ben! I knew I could get some great input and novelties from you

[Ben Higgins]

Wow had no clue about that Ben! I knew I could get some great input and novelties from you

Yeah I only found out about it recently and it really made sense. It went from just being a 'fancy move' to having some history and meaning behind it.

It also reminded of martial arts. How so much of it looks purely ceremonial but if you strip away the perfect stances and movements it had a real application to it

[Cosmin Lupu]

Man, now that I remembered, how's your martial arts preparation faring?

[Ben Higgins]

Man, now that I remembered, how's your martial arts preparation faring?

It's doing good, thank you. I got a grading tomorrow as a matter of fact. Are you any closer to dipping your toes into the world of Iaido (not sure if that's right) ?

[Evilvanhulin]

I'm a horse rider, but no horses, but that they call in France "Double poney", a horse between a pony and a horse. They have the height of Arab horses, and there are the Connemaras, Hafflingers, "Carmargais", etc... They are smaller than the horses but more malicious and capricious (they do rodeo if they are in mood).

This post has been edited by Evilvanhulin: May 3 2012, 03:52 PM

[Ben Higgins]

I'm a horse rider, but no horses, but that they call in France "Double poney", a horse between a pony and a horse. They have the height of Arab horses, and there are the Connemaras, Hafflingers, "Carmargais", etc... They are smaller than the horses but more malicious and capricious (they do rodeo if they are in mood).

The first horse I ever rode was (I'm pretty sure) a Haflinger, in Germany... awesome little dude !

[Evilvanhulin]

The first horse I ever rode was (I'm pretty sure) a Haflinger, in Germany... awesome little dude !

I rode a Hafflinger a long time, and he was fabulous. The others horseriders hated him because he was difficult to ride, but not for me and a other horse rider who bought it recently. Fabulous was the word for this pony. At present time, I ride a "double poney" with Arab blood and who is hated by the other horse-riders because he is a rodeo addict. He is very malicious and gambler, a funny horse, and when you understand him, what I try, he is serious and fabulous.

This post has been edited by Evilvanhulin: May 3 2012, 04:14 PM

[Cosmin Lupu]

Wow dudes! This sounds like an awesome story

[Ben Higgins]

I rode a Hafflinger a long time, and he was fabulous. The others horseriders hated him because he was difficult to ride, but not for me and a other horse rider who bought it recently. Fabulous was the word for this pony. At present time, I ride a "double poney" with Arab blood and who is hated by the other horse-riders because he is a rodeo addict. He is very malicious and gambler, a funny horse, and when you understand him, what I try, he is serious and fabulous.

Yeah, a lot of these horses are just written off by people because they don't want to put in the time to understand them.

[Alex Feather]

Oh dude! That's awesome! So, were you jumping over obstacles?

Yeah but than I fell pretty bad so I have decided that playing guitar will be safer and less painful

[Ben Higgins]

Yeah but than I fell pretty bad so I have decided that playing guitar will be safer and less painful

Ouch ! Did you have any injuries ?