No as far as I know, piaffes dont count for much in those classes, altho it would add a certain interest to spectators.....  My horses don't care much for flapping things, either.  We don't have a flag nearby, but we do have large trucks that go down the road with tarps covering their load, and sometimes one will make a loud flapping noise going down the road.  The horses are fine as long as it isn't real close.  So far I have been lucky enough to not have a large tumbleweed actually roll around in front of us while riding.  I'm not sure how that would go....but if it is still, I can get my horse to go up to it, sniff it, and seem to relax more about it.  Some of those weeds get pretty large, and I imagine to a horse it would surely look dangerous if it were moving toward us! 

You would think the mare would get used to the curb chain, being right next to her, after awhile.  Wonder if it was pinching or rubbing or anything to annoy her?  Hmm.....well, with horses, go figure, huh?

It is odd, isn't it, what horses pick to be afraid of?  Tandem dump trucks can rumble past us without anyone batting an eye, but a turkey in the pasture--and we have DOZENS of turkeys in the pasture all year 'round--gets the whole herd buggy-eyed.  Right now everyone seems happy.  Tomorrow, who knows?  My QH, Leo, enjoys riding through the woods to the property line to watch the men dynamite holes for the new development.  But a couple of days ago he was part of the Mass Spook Event that cost me my mini's cart shafts. 

 Black ponies, umbrellas, rain sheets, light-blue (only that color) trash cans, inflatable lawn ornaments on the neighbor's place (granted, I don't like those much either *LOL*), and the neighbor's dog IF he's in the road are all on the nay-nay list.  The dog pretty much lives in the pasture with the horses, and I'm constantly picking up and returning his tennis balls and toys.  It's okay for him to be there, but he can't be in the road.  Very odd creatures, these horses!

I think if anyone ever figures out what horses spook at, and why, they will be world famous.  I had a mare that really did not like blue things.  I used to board next to a big park where we rode, and to get there, we had to cross a parking lot.  Some of the parking spaces were for handicapped people and had a blue wheelchair logo painted in them.  It took me a long time to get her to walk across one of those blue logos, and then it was a very fast and dancy walk!  I rode her past men jackhammering in the street, past a huge, open moving van, and all kinds of weird things.  None of them got to her like the blue logos, tho!

I can relate folks to all of the above!! My thing is that I get on and I can't get that right foot in the strirrup. Of course, my horse takes off ( at a walk) and because I am not totally balanced, it's hard to get her to stand still while I am fidgeting with the silly stirrup.

Yeah, that right stirrup can be a pain all right.  I find it easier to keep my horse standing until I get both my feet in stirrups, tho; if he is walking, it seems like I am all the more off balance and have a harder time getting that last foot in place!  I feel a lot safer having weight in both stirrups before moving off, so I can be balanced in case of any quick moves.  I kind of kick my right foot into the stirrup (not hard, and not against the horse!). 

FWIW, I found it worked best for me if I leave both feet dangling while I walk once around the ring.  That stretches my legs out, and I can find both stirrups much more easily.  If I keep my left in and fumble for the right, I get all tense and my left leg comes against the horse which makes him walk off before I'm ready. 

 

Good point!  I have also done that when I rode English, and rode in a ring.  It surely does relax your legs and make it easier to pick up your stirrups.  I have a mounting block, but don't ride in a ring; we just take off down the road or wherever so I like to be "prepared for anything"!  Lol!  Took a good ride this am and my horse after a few minutes of longeing was such a good boy!  He earned his Gold Star today...he saw no bears anywhere!!!!

Good for you!  I had a nice ride on my Pain(t) on Friday, a week after I had the chiro do an adjustment.  I was delighted to find that all the idiocy (well, most of it) that he's been exhibiting was that easy to get rid of.  I'm withholding any stars till he replicates that behavior at least once more. 

 I hear you re heading directly out on the trail.  I'm too paranoid for that nowadays.  Too many broken parts in my body.  At very least I mount on the front lawn and walk a circle or two to make sure everything is good before I wander on down the road.  I long for the day (or maybe the horse) of totally relaxed trail rides.  I miss my QH mare AND my youth!

Glad you had a good ride, and hope those continue.  Yes, I withhold stars too, until a few consistent good rides happen, which has been my good fortune to have the last several times.  I have found that in the cases of questionable behavior on the part of my horse, some of the fault lies with me too.  Shammar is a good guy, but we are still getting acquainted, and sometimes he doesn't know what I want, but he a quick study, and I think we are doing better every time at communicating clearly.

Yes, I head out on the trail because I don't have a ring, or any other place to ride.  Which has never bothered me; I have ridden in arenas a bunch and find them monotonous, as do my horses.  I think you are wise to do whatever you feel comfortable with.  The important thing is having fun with your horse, whether you go on a long trail ride, do eventing, or ride in your yard.  Sometimes I jujst enjoy taking my horse on a walk, or giving them both a massage, or whatever it takes to get my horsie fix for the day!  Re totally relaxed trail rides.....I dunno about that!  Lol!  I think it's possible to be relaxed, but you still have to aware, on the trail, of whatever goes on around you, to the extent that it could affect your horse.  I think I can be relaxed, but I want to know if there are deer running thru the field ahead of me someplace, or a huge tractor coming down the road toward us, or if the llama in the pasture down the road is by the fence. That way I can watch for a reaction from Shammar and let him know he doesn't need to freak out.  I don't think I can get my youth back, but think I can end up with a really great horse again, in time!  Happy riding!

I totally agree!  Relaxed and aware is the best way to ride.  And I find arenas boring, too.  It wasn't all that long ago that a 20-mile ride was a short hop on a Wednesday afternoon.  Not anymore. 

I bought this farm because of its proximity to the 26 miles of groomed rail bed that we all love to ride on.  Sadly, I barely moved here when development kicked in and the traffic became an even bigger hazard than the bears and deer popping up in the woods.  The horses are okay with cars, but not so good with the tandem-axle dump trucks carrying rock at 90 mph on this one-lane rural road.  If I didn't have 30 acres with plenty of deer paths, I'd probably have quit riding out entirely.  At least I have a nice 30-minute loop with occasional forays down the road.  Actually, make that "had" since my bad neighbor next door built a new McMansion abutting my woods.  The clear-cutting on his side of the hill let the wind take out the trees on my side, and he's got dogs and kids who think my fences are decorative.  I could haul out to the trail head, but I don't like going out there alone, especially since the new development-dwellers think the "no motorized vehicles" signs at the trail heads are a giggle. 

Times, they are a changin'!

Boy, isn't THAT the truth....finding places to ride is an ever growing challenge in so many places.  I love where I live because there are many places to ride right from my back yard.  It's still very rural here, but we live on a State Highway, 2 lane, with little traffic,but it does have a high speed limit (70) and big trucks that go by often.  At least we have very wide berms which helps.  Fortunately, we don't have to ride on the Highway if we choose not to except to cross it.  We did have a dirt (caliche) road across from it, but the County finally gave in to some of the folks here and paved it.  Grrrr!  But, there are other dirt roads close by, and we have great farming neighbors who let us ride in their huge fields and pastures which is a lot of fun.  We moved here so I could have my horse with me, instead of boarding and driving back and forth, in California.  We couldn't afford land there!  Water is an issue here in W. Texas so that will slow development, but probably not stop it completely because land is affordable here.

I often appreciated arenas when I was taking lessons, etc. but for just riding, I cannot get motivated.  Sorry you have a McMansion neighbor.  They were everywhere in No. Calif. when we moved.  It just made me sad to see big stands of gorgeous evergreen cut down and big ugly houses put up all over the place.  It was nearly impossible to find a boarding stable there that also had land to trail ride on.  I have a trailer, and used to trailer out, but it takes so much more work and time to do that; I love to get my guy all prettied up, throw on the saddle, and go from here where you can ride for 20 mins. or hours, and still have lots of day left when you get home.  Hope you can keep the riding areas that you now have! 

I envy you!  I'm the farmer neighbor with the fields here.   It's a full-time job to keep the McMansioners from running their 4-wheelers through my hay! 

When I boarded out, we always made sure we were within an easy walk of the RR bed.  Now that's not even enough.  Unless the trail runs right through the property, you're pretty much SOL.  As luck would have it, a developer who is also a nationally-known horseman bought up most of the acreage around me, subdivided it into 50 to 60-acre farmettes, and put it into farmland preservation.  That should be a good thing, as they are all horse farms.  Unfortunately, there are two McMansion developments that sprang up between my place and those properties.  I'm an island! 

In reality of fact, my street only has 12 houses on it.  Abutting us is more than 1000 acres of swamp and open land, but the state requires permits for riding on their part of it, and the rest is privately owned and off-limits.  I used to be able to ride with a friend down the road who was a fellow horsewoman and had 268 acres we could roam on on our way to the RR bed.  She sold the place to Andrew Napolitano (the judge from CNBC) who immediately put up 15-foot fences and a huge double gate.  This state not only boasts the highest taxes, but the most litigations per capita in the country.  No one lets anyone do anything here! 

 Eventually my friend across the street with 400+ acres (nope, can't ride there, either) will finish her five-farmette subdivision and I'll have lots of company and a traffic-free side road on which to ride.  I've been very vocal in pushing the township to stop putting roadblocks in her way.  A road bond that she can't afford could easily result in that 400 acres sprouting 200 houses if she gets irritated enough.  I think I'd have to move at that point.  Want a new neighbor? 

Sure! Always room for another horse person!  Wow, where you are sounds worse than Calif. and that's bad!  No one can do anything there, either!  At the last place I boarded, there were bordering lands that were open, but privately owned, and no one would let us ride there, even if we agreed to sign waivers, or whatever because they were afraid of lawsuits.  Such a shame; it was gorgeous country.  A few of us used to sneak over once in awhile until we got caught.....Guess the reason it is so much better here is less people, and the land owners don't worry about lawsuits, because it hasn't come to that here....yet anyway.  We've gotten to know most of the farmers close by, and they are very glad to let us ride in their fields, etc.  Of course, we don't charge around through their crops, either, but stay on field roads or along the edges.  Is it a hassle to get a permit from the state to ride near you?  If it's nice riding area, it might be worthwhile, depending on cost, etc.  That is such a shame to have all that land and no where to ride. 

Hassle?  We're talking the second-most-corrupt state government in the country!  Everything is a hassle.    There's an application that has to include a copy of your liability insurance policy voucher.  You have to carry a certain minimum and it has to be up-to-date, and your full name has to be on the policy.  That means I, as the barn owner/policy holder, can get the permit but the only way I can allow boarders or relatives to also apply is if I name them specifically on the policy or they get their own, which is not cheap.  The $50 permit fee winds up being the least of the expense.  And all that just so we can ride through brambles and weeds and swamps on uncleared trails!  And god forbid you ride out without your permit pinned visibly to the back of your jacket!! 

That's why we're so attached to the rail beds.  It's the best bet for not winding up having to get air-lifted out of a tangle of pricker bushes or arrested because your little plastic pocket came dislodged when you ducked under a tree branch.. 

OMG!  I think that is worse than Calif.!  That sort of junk is why I moved away from there.  The bureaucracy was just insane, not to mention the traffic and overpopulated areas.  Land is so expensive there that the roadsides are very narrow; riding along a public road there is literally taking your life (and your horse's!) in your hands, because drivers aren't considerate; in fact passing you blowing their horns is common.  I almost fell off my horse here one day because I met a big truck on a small road and thought oh no!  I pulled over as far as possible and hoped for the best.  The driver actually stopped his truck, geared down, and crawled past us as slowly and quietly as possible.  And waved!  I was shocked!! I later learned drivers here apparently being farmers, realize that pulling over, slowing down, and NOT honking your horn is appropriate.  My horse was just fine with that truck, by the way....Lots of people I have met here ask me why I would move from Calif. since it is so beautiful.  What has not been ruined is beautiful....but what good does it do you if you can't enjoy it w/o major hangups?  I prefer the climate here, anyway, the cold damp in Calif. was gettin' to my old bones!  Lol! 

Yeah, brambles, weeds and swamp don't sound too attractive...I thought Texas had all the sticker bushes, but apparently not!  Lol!  Got some gorgeous alfalfa hay today, finally!  My horses were sooo happy tonight!  Til now it's been all last year's stuff, stemmy and coarse.  Well, hope the rail beds keep being available for you!  Maybe you weren't kidding about being a neighbor?  Lol!