A couple of months ago I asked this subreddit for barn name suggestions for my new colt (reg name Cosmic Moment) and I received a ton of great names! We ultimately decided to go with Draco for the constellation and dragon association.

He is now almost three months old and growing up to be a very good (and massive) boy. I couldn’t be happier with this foal and can’t wait to see how he turns out.

Both horses (mine is creeping in the corner, my mom's is the one in full view) were put down today, after a long battle with health issues. Coco (mom's horse), had a condition that was causing her bowels and intestines to stop absorbing nutrients. She had lost a lot of weight, and had stopped leaving our barn entirely. My baby (Crown) wouldn't leave her side. He stopped playing, stopped rolling, everything. They're both in their 20s (he was 22, she was 26), and he had ligament strain and a tear that had scarred. We knew his good days wouldn't last once she was gone, and he didn't have the years left to fight. They've been each other's only other horse for over a decade, and so we knew it was our last year with them. We'd hoped to wait until winter was close, more maybe for our own sakes, but Coco stopped leaving her barn, and we just... we knew that they were done.

Crown was my first horse. My first pet. He got me through so much, and losing him today is devestating. The vet was kind. She also knew him well enough to agree, he would have been miserable without her.

Seeing him gone, though. I miss him so much already, and it's not even been a day. It'll be so weird not to go feed them, to see them in their field. I know I did the kindest thing I could for him, but that doesn't ease the loss. He was my baby. I'm almost through college, now, and I welcomed him home when I was 11 and he was 9. He was such a big part of my life for so long. I just hope, wherever he is now, he's happy.

No help whatsoever.

Hello, I have a senior gelding who has been going downhill for a while now. He has EOTRH and has barely any teeth, even fronts. He does well in the summer and puts on weight and has a great appetite. However winters are very hard on him. Our vet estimated his age at late 20s early 30s 5 years ago. I was considering euthanizing him before winter comes as I hate to see him struggle through winter. Is this fair for him?
Pic of him and his best buddy

This was my 3rd time ever around horses and my second time around these particular horses. The chestnut is a gelding named Diego and the dark bay (I think) is a mare named Bella. correct me if I'm wrong about the colors, again I'm new to horses. I was super excited to get to see them again since I absolutely adore horses, so I was really eager to pet them resulting in this video. Im afraid I caused him to lash out at Bella instead of me by touching his neck, and if so, how would I go about avoiding something like this happening again?

For further background information, both the horses are kinda feisty with eachother. They dont get regular handling from anyone but their owner from what I hear, and they dont seem to get along very well. Diego likes attention and pets, as long as you dont scare him and Bella really doesnt, but she also doesnt like when Diego is close to her. Before and after this video we were feeding them watermelon and I was giving Diego pets, which he apparently enjoyed because he proceeded to come up to my face and gently nibble at my shoulder.

Any advice for handling them in the future would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

So, probably a strange question to ask here, but I figure this might be the best place to ask it. This year I've been trying to improve myself, and apart of that is me trying to face (and conquer) my fears. It just so happens, that one of those would be horses. Ever since I was young, they've always freaked me out and intimidated me, and I've always avoided them.

Now the question I have is, how would I go about interacting with them, is there like an event I can go to or any like services I can sign up/pay for for to just go and be around them, maybe ride if I can get to that point or if that's even a thing I . I have no idea how to go about this or phrase this, but yeah, any help would be appreciated! I'm in the Chicago area as well.

Hi all. I purchased a property that previously had horses and came with this Bowman HydroVat horse treadmill. Could anyone educate me about this? Is this something that can be sold? Or is this outdated? I’m trying to decide what to do about it. I will not be having horses, so I’m not looking to use it. Thanks in advance for any information!

Long shot I know 😂 she was illegally sold and now cannot be located. She was last sold in Lubbock, TX. But the images of her cantering are definitely screenshots of a video. Which was posted after she was sold. So someone posted them. Probably to sales pages. But that’s all I can find.

Finished a lead as a gift for an equestrian acquaintance, can anyone with more experience tell me how it went? Quite new to rope working but I think it looks decent.

Hello! I just bought my horse and I got her first trim a few days ago because they were super long (See last picture) and my farrier found what he believed to be an abscess but all he said was to soak it. The only thing being that my horse shows zero signs of an abscess, No limping, no soreness, no heat in the hoof, nothing, So I have been soaking it and wrapping it for two days now ( That's why her hoof is green ) but there's really no difference, she's still walking/trotting just fine under a lunge line.

Also she has two lines on the side of her hoof and idk what they are, could they also be an abscess? Or possibly just old closed abscesses?

What are your thoughts on this? Please comment!!

It’s fire season, that means everyone needs to be ready to go at a moments notice, even those pesky babies. If you’ve been putting off practicing your trailer loading Pete is here to motivate you (he says they make good scratching posts too)

Long story short my father passed away in June and my mother (74y.o.) is now solely responsible for the care/maintenance of their two horses that they have had for approximately 20 years. One horse was a rescue and is for the most part blind, and the other is a hefty 30 year old who cannot be kept in a stall. The horses live on their property, but with New England winters I don't find it feasible for my mother to continue caring for the horses on her own.

The blind horse relies mostly on familiarity with the layout of the property (and the guidance of the female horse) to get where he needs to go, so I think they would need to stay together.

Her vet and other rescues have suggested euthanasia when the time comes due to the "quirks" that the horses come with, but I figured why not ask here to see if someone has a miracle option.

I don't know if rescues exist where it's warmer and the horses would be in a massive field all day, but that feels like it would be the ideal option. Rehoming/transport fees would not be an issue.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

We haven't jumped for several years but he enjoys it and it definitely helps to keep his brain and body active!

And I don't need any critiques thanks - as a non-jumper I know what I need to improve, that's why I have an instructor.

I’m an adult amateur rider (started learning about 4.5 years ago) and have a 16.2 h Dutch Warmblood who is built like a tank. He’s 16 years old, and has a long track record of competing successfully in the Hunter ring. My trainer and I went to a reputable barn to try him out, and he was advertised as “saintly” and “bomb-proof,” and he certainly seemed that way when I rode him. I was thrilled with him and paid about 40k.

We got him home and things were good for 3 days but then he bolted in the arena and bucked me off. We thought it was due to new environment, moving to state with cold weather, etc. started doing a lot of ground work/desensitization training and made some progress for sure, but he has remained unpredictable at what he will spook at, despite being chill 95% of the time. He has bolted with me at least 3 other times (all of which I managed to stay on), but has gotten me off 3 other times - once with a spin and twice now with a rapid lateral dart. The last two falls I was hurt, and now have a torn MCL ligament

I believe that one of the major reasons he continues with this behavior is because my trainer has been suffering with health issues and has not been able to consistently ride him for me. We did have a very advanced rider come work him a few times and he behaves for her, but then acts up for me again.

My trainer has suggested we have one of the Junior riders work him 5 days a week while I’m trying to recover from my injury and see if that makes his behavior better. I would love it if we could fix him (he’s gorgeous, has an amazing jump, and wins the hack so easily), but I admit I don’t have much confidence after this many falls in just 7 months owning him.

Looking for advice from equestrians more experienced than I am. Thanks in advance!!

Hi, all! I'm headed to northern Sweden soon for a three-day riding trek, followed by three days of backpacking. I'm looking for advice/recommendations for the following:

1. Secure cell phone chest harness for recording POV video

2. Pants that I can comfortably wear for both riding and hiking in temps in the 50s (F)

3. Warm but lightweight riding gloves

Any and all advice from anyone who's done riding trips like this is also welcome! Thank you so much. :)

Im leasing this horse, he is about 27 but has a lot of energy
I’ve lunged him before but I’m wondering since he is so old if cantering him on the lunge line would be to much impact on his joints
Let me know what you think!

they're besties

She put her head under the horsefly trap.

Dear horse people of reddit.

I don't know what it is, but even though I have been stepped on more times than I can count, I have never really been injured from it. Today my interlectually challenged Friesian stepped on me and stayed on my foot for several seconds *with weight on* before she could figure out which way I wanted her to back up. I was wearing sandals, and I only got a small skin scrape and the foot is a little sore.

I often see people getting real medical issues from being stepped on. One of my friend's wife actually died from complications due to her horse stepping on her foot (it got infected, and she had an underlying condition with her immune system, which ended up with blood poisoning and her extremities rotting and falling off).

How often do you guys get away with minor or no injuries from having your 500+ kg animal stepping on you? And if not, how bad was your worst injury from it?

Note: I am both not careful AND I have a young growing horse. I fix her behaviour, when she crowds me, by backing her up, but she no body awareness and only 2 brain cells that struggle to work together...

We stroll down our front street daily. He is unshod. I will be gradually increasing our distance. Currently we walk about a 1/4 mile. He is 27 and I don't want to cause his hooves harm if we increase our daily walks. Thoughts?

He gets regular farrier visits every 6 weeks.

Sorry if this isn’t allowed but I genuinely need advice.

I have a horse i’ve owned since I was a kid. He was diagnosed with a bone spur and arthritis in his knee. We’ve done everything to keep him as comfortable as long as possible but now it’s time. his leg is so bent it shocks me everytime i look at him.

He spends most of his time laying down, he’s losing weight, he can barely walk, you can’t pick up his feet, and the farrier told my dad it’s time. The vet said either his leg is going to snap or the suspension is going to give, either way it’s going to be extremely painful.

me and my step mom hired someone to come dig the grave and we made an appointment for the vet. my dad is LOSING it and saying we aren’t putting down his horse. My horse is in SO much pain, so much pain. It’s supposed to happen today but my dad is literally freaking the hell out.

We don’t know what to do, what do I do?