From The Trainer's Mouth

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English riding Horse How To Western Riding barn blog general hammer horse health horses how to scams tack trainer

By Zaragoza Clouds

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From The Trainer's Mouth - Shallow Hill Horse Blog

Things you need around a horse farm - a hammer

Once constant source of amusement and/or horror for me is all the fine people I meet who, upon discovering I live on a horse farm, say something to the extent of "Oh, I would love to buy a place where we could have a couple of horses." I usually answer politely, the specifics of my answer largely driven by how much experience they have with horses. The more experienced folks I will point out that it's quite a bit of work, with not as much riding as they would probably prefer. There can be a great deal of value if you find a good barn to board your horse.

I'm a little more blunt with those that have no experience or only a few years with horses: "No, no you don't".

That being said, there are plenty of people out there who love horses, have had enough experience with them to be able to care for a horse adequately themselves but have never lived on a farm and have no practical experience with farm life. I'm living proof that it can be done, and hopefully you'll be able to learn from my mistakes! So here is a completely non-comprehensive list of things you need if you insist on living on a horse farm:

Hammers

Boarding Beware! Avoiding Horse Scams

Scams for everything are out there.

I decided that this an important topic that needs to be addressed because of a recent encounter with an odd sounding phone call that led to an even stranger email.

This past Friday morning I received a phone call that left me scratching my head. The voice on the other end was a woman with a heavy Indian accent relaying a message from another party who was typing their message. The phone call was painfully slow, but because I had no experience with situations like this I tried to be patient. It was somewhat difficult to follow, but I understood that the caller wanted to board their horse with me. I politely answered that we are full and cannot board at this time. After a few repetitions of my answer the caller asked me to email them with information. I was getting a little frustrated at this point with the call so I said okay so that I could get off the phone. I wrote down the email and went to my computer. They seemed to be rushed; it struck me as odd that they expected a response in the next half an hour. The whole situation had a strange air about it. I do know that hearing impaired people can use a phone service in which there is a operator reading aloud what they are typing, but why was it so hard to understand what the lady was saying?

I sat down at my computer and again polity sent them an email stating that I have no boarding available but could add them to my waiting list if they so wished, which is my standard answer for anyone asking about boarding a horse. This is the response I received shorty after sending the message:

So Many... (How to choose a horse barn that's right for you)

There are so many barns out there to choose from. Ranging from large and vigorous programs to intimate and informal. Barns that focus on competition and barns that focus on fun. How do you go about picking the barn that is right for you? In this article I will be discussing how to choose a barn. While choosing a barn and choosing a trainer go hand in hand, I feel it is important to separate the two. A good quality trainer should be at a good quality barn. I will talk about choosing the right trainer in the next article.

English vs Western

What is the difference between riding Western and riding English?

This is great. I love to be able to share my knowledge with others. I have to tell you, however, that if you were to ask one question to twenty different trainers I guarantee that you would get twenty different answers. So the following articles are a mixture of my experience working with many different trainers, every horse that I have come across and my own research. I guess that college degree fits in there somewhere.

A new kind of blog

New Horse Blog - From the Trainer's Mouth

We're hoping to generate an occasional series of articles here about issues that deal with horses. Traditionally the Barn Blog has been a forum for what's going on around Shallow Hill. I'm hoping to preserve that and provide a different space here for a different type of content.

So what's is it going to be about?

We're not really sure! Right now there are three categories: (1) Horses, (2) Riding and (3) Tack. Keep an eye out for upcoming articles.

So what's the deal?

The hope here is to give a place for Barb to share her knowledge. One thing most barn websites are severely lacking in is actual details about what the whole horse thing is all about. If you're already really into horses or are just looking for a place to ride then that's appropriate. It also gives Barb something to do during those dark, cold winter and soggy early spring days. I guess Barb and I are a little more gen X than that: she wants to share her knowledge and educate potential clients as much as possible (via the web of course!) on the issues facing riders and hrose owners, and I want to build killer apps

- Carl

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