Just from my ride today, took my horse the to beach, he’s a 19yo 15.2hh Andalusian X holstiener, he doesn’t go out to often anymore so he absolutley loved it! Feel free to judge my position, not him. And not my not wearing of a helmet! I never do at the beach.

thoughts? we got to close, and I go into panic mode and just take my leg off and sit there and do nothing, (good pony for clearing it) but am working on my bad habit cause I just can’t do that out xc when it gets to the big stuff.

6yo 16.1hh tb, owned a year, his for sale. I have a 3* event rider and a 4* event rider interested in him as well as a younger girl, not even been on the market for 24hours! please don’t judge me, I know what mistakes Im making.

I first rode Rio 9 days after his last race, no one had ridden him since that race. He was perfect, at least he seemed when I tried. The people we bought him from were fantastic (they did not drug him, and offered to take him back more than 6 months into our partnership) As he put more weight on, a side of him came out, and he became very hot headed, he had a huge flight response. He didn’t think, just freaked out. He started to have trantrums everyday. One day riding in the arena, it had been a horrible ride, to I decided to call it a day (on a semi-ok note) walking back on a loose rein, he reared up out of nowhere, instinctly I grabbed the reins as I was holding the buckle, and pulled him over. I had major confidence issues, my first lesson with my instructor ended with me crying, and planning to give him back. Everyone said he was too much for me, and I knew it too. But I felt a connection and stuck with, more often then not, my rides would end with me in tears, because I was so scared of him.

My xc coach taught me how to handle his rears, and basically took none of my bullshit, and made me toughen up. She said I could handle him, but only if I thought so myself, and if I was scared to ride him that i’d just ruin him and he was too talented to be ruined. She also said, if I let him get away with all this as I had been, he would be a down right dangerous horse. I took it on board, I had several people offering to buy/take him from me. But still I stuck with him, and learnt to handle his tantrums. Each outing and each lesson my nerves went away and I became less scared of him. As I became less scared, he too became less scared, and stopped going nuts at every outing. My last event on him was last weekend, and only once did he have a moment, where he did a small pigroot. But the rest of the time he worked perfectly.

I chose this picture of my last xc clinic with him, because I am smiling and actually enjoying myself, and he is relaxed also. It has taken nearly a whole year to get my confidence, when no one beleived I could handle him, because in reality he WAS too much for me to handle, but not anymore. I am proud of myself for how far I have come, but I know I still have a long long way to go with this amazing horse, and I still have some trust issues to work out. I pan to take him showjumping next year, and possible eventing in a couple years time, once he has matured more.

just over 1m high maybe, about 120cm wide, got a bit long, but still cleared it with his back end (just lol) I have bad release because I kept dropping him 1 or 2 strides before the jump, so made an attempt to not drop him, work in progress haha. Any tips on how to improve my position?