r/horsecommunity

Hello! I’m looking for advice on which dude ranch is best suited for me. I’m an intermediate rider looking to go on a riding-focused trip in Wyoming sometime next year, most likely over Labor Day weekend or later in September.

What I’m looking for:
- Riding focus, galloping permitted
- Ideally located between Jackson Hole up to towards Yellowstone
- Not catered towards families as I’m going solo and in my late twenties

Nice to haves:
- Whitewater rafting nearby or included with the stay
- All inclusive set up

I’m currently debating between Spotted Horse Ranch, Triangle X, or R Lazy S Ranch.

I’ve looked at Paradise Ranch, The Hideout, and Triangle C Ranch as options but these don’t standout as much to me.

One thing that stands out is how ranches stand down a lot of activities post Labor Day so I’m wondering if it’s not worth it to go in the fall.

Thanks in advance for any reviews or opinions!! Greatly appreciated.

Hi. I ride at my local stables, and have been doing so for three years now. I've only ridden at this location, and while I do love horses, I ride entirely for fun and don't have a huge frame of reference for equestrianism besides my stable. I ride western, and while I tried english, back issues made it extremely difficult.

Three weeks ago, I was sent to grab a horse for my lesson. This horse is a mustang, and known for being spooky and difficult to catch. He is in kind of a ○| shaped pasture, and housed with the stable owners other geldings. They are all male horses. I went to grab him from their summer grazing area, which is the long line area in their pasture. Everything was going well, and the horses were all fine, until Benedict, the biggest horse in that pasture, suddenly decided he didn't like me. For reference, the stable owner owns five dressage horses, all Dutch Warmbloods 17-18 hands tall. The mustang is housed with them. Benedict is known for charging people, especially if they have food. I did not. He charged me once, and I got out of the way, then bluff charged me four more times as I'm panicking and trying to figure out what I should do. As he's going for another charge, I scrambled under the electric fence separating the summer grazing area from the normal pasture. I'm now laying on the ground in their normal pasture and panicking, because that was terrifying. Then I hear the herd galloping. They were galloping around the summer grazing area to come back into their main pasture. I panic again, scramble under the fence a second time, this time into the pasture of the beginning lesson horses, who paid me no mind. The herd came galloping over to where I was just moments ago, and I'm almost pissing myself. I climb the gate out of the pasture, and try to act like it's no big deal, as all the volunteers and riders at the stable seemed to brush it off as normal.

Since that happened, I've been terrified. I haven't been back to that pasture, but even going to grab beginner horses who I know won't charge me and won't hurt me unless something happens to make them freak out makes me uncomfortable and nervous. I get shaky and my breathing gets really fast, which certainly doesn't help when I'm trying to get a horse that can sense I am nervous.

I really don't want to quit over this, because I have fun when I'm riding and I love my instructor, but I'm also suddenly terrified around these horses. I'm scared to bring it up to my instructor, since I didn't make a big deal of it when it happened and I don't want to be seen as trying to get out of catching horses or having an excuse to get out of riding or work.

Any advice would be extremely helpful. Thank you. I may crosspost this to other subreddits as well.

Edit: Unfortunately since this scary situation happened I have been having some breathing difficulties that I thought were panic attacks. After a visit to a doctor, it was confirmed this event was the trigger/revealing event for the fact I have a breathing issue called Vocal Cord Dysfunction, where my Vocal cords don't stay open correctly after periods of strenuous activity (Scrambling under fences and ducking out of the way of a charging horse/stressful situation)

I’ve been moved to a new horse for my lessons as my instructor wants me to experience a variety of horses rather than just be comfortable with one and not learn anything new. This is about my fourth horse that I’ve been on now and first impression is she’s all go-go-go. Basically, for the entire lesson I felt like I was constantly pulling the reins, and I’d love for some advice on how to work with this horse that doesn’t require so much strong contact with her. If the advice is to work the horse out of the arena or try to train it some other way, it’s not going to be of any help really for me. I just show up to the lessons, and need to work with what I’m given I suppose!

For context, She’s not strong as such, but within only a half hour lesson slot, I honestly never stopped holding tight contact to rein her in. No kicking her to move forward at all - a bigger squeeze of the leg and she would move on immediately. If I didn’t hold her in walk, she would have went to trot. If I let go in trot, I felt she would have been straight into a canter. Trying to slow her out of a canter back to trot was so difficult. My instructor told me to “sponge” the reins as I went, and she immediately responded with pulling her head back down, which helped with the pacing a bit. My instructor told me I had good posture, only for to sit back and use my body rather than my hands when going from canter to trot. Regardless of that, I had a constant hold on her by the reins.

By the end of the lesson, I had literally no outer skin on my ring fingers from rein blisters. Now - I am not posting to complain about sore fingers. I would just love some advice on if there is any way for me to learn to ride a horse like this, WITHOUT relying on the reins so much. I feel The sore fingers will go away if I can learn to ride without needing so much strong contact. I am looking forward to continuing to work with this horse, and I want to make it as comfortable of an experience as possible for the BOTH of us, as I’m sure it could be more comfortable for her too!