Horse Poems & Quotes

They are sleek and tuned to perfection
they jump high and prance pretty
but not my horse
he’s kinda chunky
and he likes a good Bud evey now and then
but when I ask him to go
no one can touch him
looks are deciving
glace at him and look away
cause he don’t look like the fastest here
but he’ll prove you wrong any day
he snakes all three
not a foot out of place
I depend on him to make me a check
and he hasn’t failed me yet
And then come time to ride out and he’s the one I saddle
just as sure footed out in the open
as in the arena
he’s the best horse I ever laid eyes on
so them show ponies
that prance and dance
can just eat their hearts out

Posted by Amanda.

1. If you really want to get better at dressage, take it up at an earlier age – and grow an extra 3 inches of leg.

2. A test that starts with an arrow straight centre line and a square halt signifies the start of a Hickstead Speed derby.

3. A dressage test is a test of your skill against another competitor’s luck.

4. Dressage is about achieving a harmonious working relationship with your horse, whose only idea of harmony is eating grass in a field with his buddies.

5. If you want to end a drought or dry spell, wear a new jacket and Patey hat to an outdoor arena.

6. Untalented, difficult, aggressive horses have robust health, good hocks and long lives.

7. Talented tractable horses are accident prone and have OCD lesions.

8. You will ride the best test of your entire life just prior to being disqualified for not wearing your gloves.

9. Never keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your head before a test.

10. Never keep less than another 300 separate thoughts in your head during a test.

11. Horses do not improve their paces because you are wearing expensive German breeches.

12. If you chose a disco theme for your dressage to music test then the judge will be more than 90 years of age and Swiss.

13. The less skilled the rider, the more likely they are to share their critique of your test.

14. If you are considering the services of a horse clairvoyant to help you with training then you have reached the point of total desperation – try the German breeches.

15. Your horse has never heard of Podhajsky let alone read the book.

16. No matter how badly you ride a test, it is always possible to ride a worse one.

17. If it ain’t broke, try shifting your position and it will be.

18. Judges only suffer from temporary blindness (or kindness) when they are judging someone else’s test.

20. If you fall off your horse in the arena you will have paid to have the test videoed.

21. If you are feeling confident before a show then three of the British dressage team will turn up to give their young horses some “experience.”

22. Your horse will perform its best piaffe ever when you ask for extended canter.

23. Since runs of bad competitions come in groups of three, the fourth competition is actually the beginning of the next group of three.

24. No one cheats at dressage because no one has worked out how to do it.

25. It is surprisingly easy to end a test with a perfect square halt once you have scored a four for every other movement.

26. The result of an expensive lesson from a top pro is that you will stop believing in that tiny piece of innate ability that was holding your riding together.

27. Remember when buying a dressage horse advertised as “needs experienced competitive rider” this really means “needs the skills of Phillip Dutton just to stay on board.”

28. If you think your test was better than someone elses, it probably wasn’t.

29. If you pay 60,000 for an imported WB, you will be beaten in First Level 4 by a quarter horse.

30. Clinics given by someone with an interesting accent are not necessarily superior to those given by the homeboy.

31. If you go to the expense of raising an expensive WB foal, he will have a talent for jumping and no walk worth talking about.

Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Bannana Fanna Bo Besca the third

Jackie Smith

I ride. That seems like such a simple statement. However, as many
women who ride know, it is really a complicated matter. It has to do with power and empowerment. Being able to do things you might have once considered out of reach or ability.

I have considered this as I shovel manure, fill water barrels in the
cold rain, wait for the vet/farrier/electrician/hay delivery, change a
tire on a horse trailer by the side of the freeway, or cool a gelding out before getting down to the business of drinking a cold beer after a long ride. The time, the money, the effort it takes to ride calls for dedication. At least I call it dedication. Both my ex-husbands call it ‘the sickness’. It’s a sickness I’ve had since I was a small girl bouncing my model horses and dreaming of the day I would ride a real horse. Most of the women I ride with understand the meaning of ‘the sickness’. It’s not a sport. It’s not a hobby. It’s what we do and, in some ways, who we are as women and human beings.

I ride. I hook up my trailer and load my gelding. I haul to some
trailhead somewhere, unload, saddle, whistle up my dog, and I ride. I breathe in the air, watch the sunlight filter through the trees and savor the movement of my horse. My shoulders relax. A smile rides my sunscreen smeared face. I pull my ball cap down and let the real world fade into the tracks my horse leaves in the dust. Time slows. Flying insects buzz loudly, looking like fairies. My
gelding flicks his ears and moves down the trail. I can smell his
sweat and it is perfume to my senses. Time slows. The rhythm of the walk and the movement of the leaves become my focus. My saddle creaks and the leather rein in my hand softens with the warmth.

I consider the simple statement; I ride. I think of all I do
because I ride. Climb granite slabs, wade into a freezing lake, race a friend through the Manzanita all the while laughing and feeling my heart in my chest. Other days just the act of mounting and dismounting can be a real accomplishment. Still I ride. No matter how tired or how much my seat bones or any of the numerous horse related injuries hurt.

I ride. And I feel better for doing so. The beauty I’ve seen because I ride amazes me. I’ve ridden out to find lakes that remain for the most part, unseen. Caves, dark and cold beside rivers full and rolling are the scenes I see in my dreams. The Granite Stairway at Echo Summit, bald eagles on the wing and bobcats on the prowl add to the empowerment and joy in my heart.

I think of the people, mostly women, I’ve met. I consider how
competent they all are. Not a weenie amongst the bunch. We haul 40ft rigs. We back into tight spaces without clipping a tree. We set up camp. Tend the horses. We cook and keep safe. We understand and love our companions,the horse. We respect each other and those we encounter on the trail. We know that if you are out there riding, you also shovel, fill, wait, and doctor. Your hands are a little rough and you travel without makeup or hair gel. You do without to afford the ’sickness’ and probably, when you were a small girl, you bounced a model horse while you dreamed of riding a real one. Now you are there. I ride.

–Author Unknown (although, many of us feel she is our sister)
Posted by Jackie.

I wrote this just now b/c I’m listening to Chris Ledoux and there is a sign in my room that says DADDY’S GIRL and somehow that inspired this.

Come one come all
we’ll pit ya against them
they don’t look like much
you could beat them easy

but don’t be too sure
cuause there ain’t ever been nobody
that could beat
that cowgirl on he little crooked leg pony

but their willing to let anyone
who takes a mind to try
so come one come all
we’ll pit you against them
and back that little girl and her outlaw gelding

She who holds the key to the world, should get on the horse and keep riding.

Posted by Christina Shiflett.