#western riding

[barnlarn]

Does anyone here ride Wenglish?

.............*raises hand*

[hippography]

My father, Susumu Yamashita, was a junior executive at the San Francisco branch of Mitsubishi trading company before the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. On April 30, 1942, he was involved in the mass forced removal of the Japanese American community from Berkeley to Tanforan detention center, a former race track in San Bruno, with my mother, Kiyoko Yamashita, and my 18 month-old sister Kimiko. My family was housed in a horse-stall “apartment” from May to September.  When my family was transported to the Topaz, Utah incarceration camp in September 1942, my father was assigned to be the liaison to the Issei (first-generation) residents due to his Japanese-language proficiency, which was gained from his 11 years of education in Tokyo between 1911–1922. This is why he was labeled as a “Kibei,” American born but educated in Japan.  After working 14 months in Community Welfare, providing the camp’s social services, my father was ready for a change. My Cal Berkeley/Harvard Business School-alumnus, ex-businessman father asked to be transferred to the agricultural division to work as a ranch hand. He achieved personal satisfaction from working outdoors as a Kibei cowboy, tanned and healthy, herding cattle astride his favorite horse, Red. At age 39, he was undoubtedly one of the oldest “cowboys” amongst the riders at the Topaz cattle ranch. In 1951 he rejoined Mitsubishi and was charged with establishing its New York headquarters as the new Mitsubishi International Corporation. After Topaz, my father never rode a horse again.

Michael Yamashita

[whywishesarehorses]

“Bottom of the Barrel,” as it were!

A barrel racing piece for a friend of mine

[riddles-n-games]

So we all know the Hawthorne brothers are all fine as heck Texan born-and-raised gentlemen which means other than the fancy schmancy stuff they do throughout the series, they probably know how to ride. And I don’t mean English riding, I mean down and dirty in the dusty sand, bucking bronco Western riding. Given that ole Tobias Hawthorne was loaded, not only did he make riding lessons an essential for his grandsons but he also owned a big-ass stable on his property. I know it’s never mentioned in the books, only that Vincent Blake owns a ranch, but you can’t convince me otherwise that this Texan billionaire didn’t have his own stable on the property. No chance, no way; I think he’d be considered a fraud if he didn’t. Anyways, when the boys were comfortable in the saddle and more skilled with controlling their horses and riding, only then did their grandfather start making them choose specialties. As they got older, they took part in rodeos and competitions, producing another bout of trophies for the old man to put up in his office. Like always, the boys proved Hawthornes came and conquered, being the best of the best.

Nash-Of course, this man’s the best of the bunch. He is the most experienced and rather well rounded in all disciplines. It’s part of what lets him live his cowboy fantasies but he does have practical use for what he learned. His grandfather has many prized cattle breeds, mostly the famous Texas Longhorns along with Ankole-Watusi, American  Brahman, and even water buffalo (Hawthorne cheese is where it’s at) so he often leads the cattle roundups and if he ain’t a sight to see when he’s  roping up stray calves (those muscles though; I see you Nash). As said earlier, he’s pretty good at everything in this style of riding but competitively, he’s mostly into western pleasure yet also enjoys reining just about as much. His Appaloosa-Quarter Horse mare, Chili Pepper (yes, named by the one and only Xander and no, it’s not because of Horseland; if you know,  you know) excels at these and is a bit of a showoff (Nash is pretty sure the feisty thing is self-aware whenever she prances sassily around the ring after a win). But, for them, that’s easy stuff, light work, and Nash likes a bit of an adrenaline rush now and then so on the more energetic side of things, his favorite event is  cowboy mounted shooting. In practice, he’d sometimes sneak out one of his grandfather’s Winchester rifles to get a kick out of it (lowkey this boy always tried finding small ways of rebelling against his grandfather’s wishes). However, when he was 19, he quit the rodeo shows and big competitions in another effort to show the old man he didn’t have control over him and that actions spoke louder than words. Nowadays, Nash does mostly local events for the fun of it but has attended some major ones  in the last few years, twice at the State Fair and once at the Calgary Stampede; Xander and Jameson even went with him in a show of support.

Grayson-Though he prefers English riding and excels in classic dressage, his Western specialty is cutting and his Arabian stallion, Onyx (known as Bandit Noir in the show ring) is a nightmare for the calves when he starts switching sides at lightning speed with his front legs. Sometimes he gets so excited after Gray has singled out a calf that he starts zipping towards it in a zigzag motion that Grayson has to restrain him a bit so that he doesn’t go overboard. When he was younger, he trained him to do this move after he watched  a documentary showing gazelles use this technique as an evasive maneuver to escape cheetahs and thought it was a cool trick. He perfected it in two months flat. His Shagya Arabian mare, Moonlight, is more calm but  her focus is unmatched when she’s cutting and she’s also his chosen horse for working equitation. Grayson was the one who inspired  Xander to also  learn this discipline and they would do training sessions together; he also let his youngest brother ride Moonlight in competition at times. Surprisingly, he also did barrel racing alongside Jameson and of course, these two got very competitive over this sport. They set several records at competitions and even a few national records at rodeo events but Jameson had more in the end.

Jameson-Barrel racing, need I say more? It’s his favorite event and discipline of choice. The faster his horse goes, the better the thrill and the dizziness to go along with it. His Nokota stallion, Rhubarb, is the speediest barrel racer of the Hawthorne horses and proudly bred by his grandfather. For fun,  he would get more barrels and see how fast he could go bareback and one time the crazy boy decided it would be a good idea to ride backwards while his steed ran the course. Of all the brothers, Jamie’s the one who loves the riskier events (because of course, not that that’s surprising) including saddle and  bareback bronc riding, calf-roping, steer wrestling, even bull riding (steer riding until he was 14). But he’s also the one who has the most bruises and scars from Western events. He was banned from doing bull riding after Nan attended two of his competitions and both times the rider before him had a nasty fall, ending up in hospital. Jameson may have never fallen in the most major competitions but he did have some close calls with being almost run over and even suffered a bad kick to the ribs during one of his practice runs. Although the old woman is weathered from her rough years and is still a badass, she still cares for her great grandsons very much and hates to see them get hurt. So as reluctant as he was to leave the sport, for his Nan, he did. Occasionally he also participated in team roping with Nash, always taking up the heeler position while his brother handled the horns because Nash didn’t want him to get hurt until he got older and insisted on trying the header part for himself. He got used to it quickly from all the times he watched Nash during practice seshes but his oldest brother always watched off to the side with pursed lips knowing his risky behavior. They were three time champions in a row from 2016-2018 with one time him being header. Being the adrenaline junkie he is, it’s no shock that he loves doing stuff at breakneck speeds and other than barrel racing, he is amazing at pole bending. Jameson enjoys a good test of agility and has a great Mustang-American Paint mixed mare named Misty who whizzes by the poles so quickly that everyone in the stands is always quoted saying they blinked and missed the entire round.

Xander-He was a bit more reluctant to even start out any events but Nash and Grayson coaxed him into them and eventually he got settled quite quickly into trail class, working cow horse, mounted drill with Jameson and Grayson, and versatility ranch riding. He dabbled in western dressage but got annoyed with it because he never felt synchronized enough with his horse and his trainer got frustrated with him many times. Trail class ended up being his major and he trained with two Quarter Horses that were bred by his grandfather, Rona and Rolo (nicknamed Roly Poly). He would switch between the two and both were extremely good at delivering but Rona, his mare was ultimately better equipped and motivated while his gelding, the mare’s full blooded younger brother served better in mounted drill. Xander conducted experiments to see as to why but it seemed like the gelding thought the routines were simpler to learn and always finished with a happy buck when they finished. But as he got older and hit his growth spurt, Xan felt like his height was becoming a negative factor to riding anymore of his horses in competitions so he stopped. His grandfather offered to buy him a ready, trained horse better suited to his stature so he could continue but Xander declined since he didn’t want to restart with training and he was awfully attached to Rona and Rolo. Instead, he continued competing but in halter and western showmanship classes where his horses shined just as brightly with shiny ribbons often being pinned to his horses’ halters as a prize.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this! This has been sitting in my drafts way too long but @hathorneheiress has given me the push I needed to get it out here for you guys to read. It's only part one of my horse headcanons. There will be more about the Hawthorne family's current horses and their equine history in the next one.

[rhinestoneprincess]

Horse riding Barbie🎀🐴💗

[suspiciousmammal]

x

[the-evil-hag]

Hugo Boss my big boy

[cryptixotic]

Day 28 : After hours

"Come on, let's head home. This silence is making me uneasy."

[j0them0971]

OK FINE

I INSTALLED SSO AND IM IN LOVE WITH IT

I MET MY HEART HORSE THERE

His name is nacho and I love him and I wish he was real oh GOD I HATE MY LIFE RN

Jk

He's amazing, here's an instagram-esque gif of screenshots of my boi

SSO FUCKS SO HARD

[cal-tastrophe]

Peeps, I made a design and threw it in my Red Bubble shop. Every penny earned with it will help me finance the surgery for my horse. Maybe you know someone or do like horses yourself. Please do share the message! https://www.redbubble.com/de/shop/ap/144357613?asc=u

[maiares1974]

My first try on posting.

This is my favorit “me time” horse CA Kemt.

He is a purebreed arabian. Born in Denmark in may 2000. So he is an older gentleman.

[whywishesarehorses]

Thea and I went with 8 or so barn buddies to a cow sorting event! It was a first for us both, and only her second time ever being hauled out to ride. She started super keyed up and panicky, but after I got off and stood next to her through someone else’s whole round, she calmed all the way back down.

Our first go, she was scared of the cows but I could kinda push her into them. Second go she was mostly confused - why was I asking for forward/backwards/switch direction every time she went to the cows?? Obviously that must be the wrong choice because she then has to do so much???

At the end of that round I had the idea to give her her cue for soccer while we were chasing the whole herd back to the far side to reset the arena and it “clicked” - she pinned her ears and dug in and loped after them. With lots of praise there, she then really Got It for our last round, and we actually got a clear round with L. She was happy as could be when we wrapped up, and I’m really looking forward to doing it again

The old hats said she did spectacular for how new it all was to her!

[dykeofalltrades]

some pictures i took at the county fair horse show thursday night. it went ok. we didnt place. thankfully it suddenly cooled down so having to ride smokey an hr there by unshaded road wasnt too bad

[rhinestoneprincess]

Horse riding Barbie🐴🎀💗

[cleverwitch-wolfskin]

Hey, fellow equestrians!!

Does anyone use the Equilab app and want to be friends? I just like seeing everyone's rides 🤩 It inspires a sort of competitive feeling in me that motivates me to work harder.

Message me if you wanna be friends on there!!! 🩷

[barrelracingangel]

This is why I’m single