Pretty much luck haha, I always wanted to ride when I was little and we lived out in the suburbs within 20 minutes of like 5 barns, and the one I ended up liking happened to be H/J. And then once I learned the basics and got into more discipline-specific stuff I just loved it and stayed there. My dad tried a few years ago to convince me to switch barns and trainers and try out eventing because he thinks it's more exciting, but by that point my loyalty was pretty set haha. Most of my close friends are from the barn, I've been with my coach since I was like 8, it's just kind of like a family atmosphere.

That'd be great if they have schooling shows there every now and then, an hour isn't too bad to bring your horses down every once in a while for a fun day.

I honestly have no experience starting babies, so I don't have a lot of advice there. If he's really young I'd wait a bit, although some really low ground stuff probably wouldn't hurt. I know having foals jump stuff is bad for them but am not certain about what age that ends at. Once you do start him under saddle you should definitely wait til he's got the w/t/c thing down and then start low. Really the most important thing is keeping him confident with it, horses who end up scared of jumps don't recover from that fear easily (not that it sounds like you're likely to scare him out of it, haha). As for other stuff for him to know, a lot of our training is kinda dressage based, lateral work really helps develop the communication you need. Stuff like yielding over, turns on the forehand or haunches, extending and collecting obediently, that kind of thing. But again, this should probably all wait til he's really confident and going well under saddle with the basics (and again, I'm no expert on starting babies so I'd definitely look for other sources, haha). Lead changes too, but there's no harm in him learning that after/while he's already started jumping. I also never really read up on training, pretty much just go by my trainer/other riders around, so I'm no help there either.

Man reining can be impressive, the movements are so drastic for such subtle commands. I can't say I understand the gunshot at the end, and the horse looked kinda like he didn't either, but the rest was great. As much as the turns and stops look kinda harsh, the rider really isn't doing anything sudden or at all harmful, and that's awesome. They all have such a loose rein but so much contact regardless. And yeah in the dressage/reining thing I think it was more for fun, just a demonstration to show the similarities between the two that get overlooked a lot of the time. Both were kind of holding back and not riding hard, and just generally having a good time. That QH has a video here that shows him more all out, and he looks like he's having a blast.

Thanks, he already emailed me and told me though, pretty proud he figured out HTML or something I guess. He was all, "Congratulations, you're now up on my front page." Second harassing email he's sent me, I've just put him on filter now though and ignore it. So far I haven't gotten any other emails though so I, honestly, don't expect any. I have seen more hate towards him than against him, on his videos and through his comments, so... yeah.

I'll contact GoDaddy first, that seems like the nicest approach that'll cause the least fuss. I looked around the AG site but contact was a bitch, I don't know his address or any other information that I could've used to contact them with so I was out there... At any rate, I've sent an email off to GoDaddy, I hope something can be done from their end.

Thank you sooooo much, I don't think words could express how much I appreciate your help in this!

(In the time it took me to begin my response to Hipster, I got a reply from GoDaddy, which reads, "As previously stated, we do not have the responsibility or the authority to determine which actions constitute illegal activities. Should it be determined by the appropriate entities that the actions are illegal, we will take down the site(s) when we receive a court order to do so." So I await the response from the BBB now and will go from there. I also used to work for a lawyer, and am still commissioned to work for a separate law firm for confidential business, so if it comes to that I expect it won't be difficult to get a court order if it becomes necessary.)

Uhhg, so luckyyyy man. xD I live back in a wooded place in the middle of a small city, there's a few other folks around with horses back out of the way like me, off-the-road kind of places, but I've never once seen an advertisement or heard someone else talk about training facilities in the area. I've never actually been to a stable, or an arena. :C

Weekends might be possible, and I wouldn't be opposed to it. It would give us a week to work on what we learned so come the next session he should be ready to start into something new. I'll look into it, definitely. xD (Been jumping back and forth between here and CotH as I do house work, so I haven't had time to sit down and look up stuff yet.) When I get a little more time I'm going to read around the H/J forum on CotH and see what's about.

Ah no, he's a yearling. I don't ask my other colt to do much at this point either, I think the most I had him step over was like 4in, so we are definitely working our way up gradually. No point in having him jump, even small things, if he doesn't know where his feet are. If his ground work goes well in that year, I might try backing at 2yrs, I'm still not certain on it. I've ready a lot of conflicting things, though I think my cousin mentioned her trainer told her that you can begin adding weight at 21 months...? I have books that say 2 years, some that say 3-4 years. 3-4 would definitely be safest, and I am all for that, and there is never too much ground learning that can be done. It's quite a bit of a wait so I'll see where everything stands next year. He's a solid Paint, but I'm not having any luck tracing the pedigree of either sire or dam, other than I know his dam was a QH, not sure if she was appendix or not... (Reading stuff while replying to this post, I think the general consensus of starting a QH is 3-4. Saddling at 2, 3 mounting and light work and trail.)

I'm already way behind schedule so I'm gonna have to go, I think my laundry's been done for ages now and I'll catch back up and edit later. xD

Just skimmed over all this and just judging by what he wrote on his front page the guy definitely sounds crazy.

That said, just wanted to chime in with Hipsters comments on bits--it's all in how you use them and while I can believe that there are horror stories out there, I've never encountered any of what you were describing. But yeah, if your horse responds well without a bit then that's great for you. :) For my horse, I actually used three different bits depending on what we were doing--it was his big clue that we were switching disciplines and made an easy way for him to realize, hey, we're going to do jumping now! Or trail. Or whatever. It was actually kind of cool to see how much switching out the bits could change his focus. And about the foaming at the mouth--I was always told that a small amount of foam around the mouth can be a sign of a horse that's relaxed and happy--Kind of like how dogs drool when they're excited? But yeah, the super foamy dripping at the mouth kind of foam is bad.

I think that was him. Idk for sure. But yeah, I don't even think the gelding was an Appendix QH. There was definitely no TB blood in that horse. I just got so angry. xD

I've been working with horses since I was 4, and I have never stopped learning. I learn all the time from Michelle, the boarder I mentioned in my first post. My first horse was a Thoroughbred gelding my dad and I rescued when he was 2 years old. He was a race track reject because he was claustrophobic, so he refused to get into the gate. He was 16.2 hands and roughly 900 lbs. when we got him in 2005. He was nothing but a big bag of skin and bones, but I loved him. c:

I had been using him as a trail horse until he was old enough to start working on jumps. Then we moved, and I had to restart all of his training. :/ I got him back under saddle, but he got to be too big for me to handle and I wanted to go back to barrel racing, so I sold him in 2009. When I sold him he was 18.1 hands and 1500 lbs. xD He was a monster, but a big cuddly monster.

While I had him, I also had an Egyptian Arabian. I gave her to my friend's sister as a Christmas present in 2008 because she was just too little for me and she's getting older.

And now I have a Paint QH how is stubborn and occasionally an asshat, but I love him. c: He's a flaxen sorrel paint with two blue eyes. I've had to work on his ground manners and get him used to being under saddle again. I will (hopefully) one day have him has my barrel horse when I'm out of college.

So I'm doing a quick post here. I got a fourth email from him, telling me to stop harassing HIM. After the two initial emails I sent him in which I requested help with the problem, I dropped him and stopped all contact with him. HE has been the one sending ME harassing emails! What a freaking douchebag.

I sent an email to the police (thanks ), and also an email to the RR editor, apparently it IS illegal to post the kind of information he did, as well as false claims, so hopefully one of these -- or both -- will be able to do something to help. (I can't risk calling, because it would show up on the phone bill... And I'm not the only one that lives here. So, great.)

IF RR and the police can't help me, what should I do next? :/ Should I get a lawyer?

If you have proof that it's illegal, send it to GoDaddy and they'll at least pull his site, and then you can work on getting it off the other sites he's apparently posted it on!? What a jackass.

RR should remove your info (I would hope) since that's just blatant retaliation.

Report him to PayPal as well (not just for a refund, report him as a seller) for using info from PayPal transactions in such a retaliatory and abusive manner. Check section 3c here. he's in violation of their policies.

Anyways, if you hear back from the police, I would send whatever they say to GoDaddy if it supports it being illegal.

And I wouldn't go so far as actually getting a lawyer (or going after him) but if you have access to a lawyer have them draft a quick cease and desist for you, then send it to him (mail) and GoDaddy (mail and email). The legealese should grease the wheels! Sometimes you can find form ones online as well, though a true lawyer-written one would be scarier.

Can't believe GoDaddy wouldn't pull it just on the basis of his statements encouraging others to harass you. If you feel up to it (and don't do any of the other things) calling them might be more effective.

Hope Fugs picks it up, this is totally her cup of tea.

Edit: I should add... I realize the Air Force Base is a bit of a stretch but he is affiliating himself with them on his website, half-way claiming to be a vet, and then behaving badly. That's (usually) not ok to them (or other veterans!) and they really might give him a smack upside the head for you. If he values his status as a vet (if he is one, it's very ambiguous), and he appears to, he might actually listen to them as well.

I hope you have luck getting it fixed. This dude is a psycho cyber-bully, can't stand assholes like that.

Edit 2: If he's not using a web email (Gmail, Hotmail, etc) you can forward his emails to whatever the 'abuse' line is at his ISP. Like if his adress is .com">BigJerk.com google Aol's email abuse address). Not all of them have one, but some do.

THANK THE LAWDS FOR ;___;

I will try getting back with GoDaddy about it, when I hear back from the police (if/when), and if they can't do something themselves (hope to goodness that they can, I mean seriously, all this shit is illegal). I doubt that GoDaddy would take down the site with what I have right now though, since the only thing he has posted on his site is harassment, and since I can't prove it isn't false what he's posting, they said they can't do anything about it. Soooo we'll see what the coppers have to say.

So basically what he's done, that is so far srsly illegal is taking the paypal transaction and using the information without my consent, and then posting personal addresses and false information on the RR.

I did email Fugs last night (Alagirl from CotH suggested emailing her too), but haven't heard anything from her. I think that would be hilarious and I would definitely get one huge sigh of relief from that.

His email is from Yahoo, but supposedly he's going to quit contacting me. I emailed him to ask him to take down my info and he's all, "OMG QUIT HARASSING ME U WEIRDO!!!!!!" Which, of course, he didn't take it down.

When it comes to the AFB though, I don't have the first idea of what I would say to them. Like, "Is this person affiliating with you and do you condone such and such behavior...?"

Agree with this ^

I train my horses with Natural Horsemanship but not the "parelli" way.

This jerk sounds like a moron. No one should ever say you should get kicked in the head! And all horse people work with their horses differently and unless you are being obscenely dangerous and putting your horse's life at risk then you shouldn't have to deal with the criticism.

editttt:

dodododo

No response from the police or RR. Went ahead and contacted PayPal about it.

I wish I could make calls. :/ I just don't want them showing up on the phone bill, because I don't want anyone to know that I've been such an idiot here. xD Anyway, again, I really appreciate the help. <3

ANNNND FECK I deleted the whole post. :<

im sry, it's 8:30. i shouldn't do anything this early.

death from copy/paste fail which didn't even work because my keyboard doesn't have a numberpad so no pretty heart and then it was all I GIVE YOU NUMBERS INSTEAD &;&;&;

aahaaaa

Ah yeah I understand about the calls.

Email should work alright for most of your needs.

As for the AFB, yeah, just an email along the lines of:

"This man is harassing me and encouraging others to do the same, and the only address he has listed is a P.O. Box at your base, does that mean he lives there? If so, are there any police on base I could speak with or anyone else who could possibly help?"

Start in with a question like that, and then if they're going to do anything they'll probably offer to help, and if they won't they (might) just answer your question or they'll just be like "sorry we can't help".