Lost in the translation

[WYORider]

Hi again from me, Kristy with Dutch in the wild west Wyoming. I was hoping someone might be kind with my American english and teach me the English terms for horse stuff. Like numnah. What the heck is a numnah? And when I read about people doing the long line, it almost sounds like you're running with your horse? Long line, if it is what I think it is, is called lunge line here, and the person stands in the middle and works the horse in a circle around. Can get very dissy sometimes :-)

Anyway, back to my question... what is a numnah? And other horse terms... difference between livery and yard? Etc.

Thanks everyone :-)

[Little Dolphins]

OK, a numnah is a pad which goes under the saddle, and is saddle-shaped.
A saddle-cloth isn't shaped but is sort of square, but does the same job of protecting the saddle from sweat damage and preventing the horse getting sore or rubbed. People here use either type. Some have fancy sheepskin numnahs, I have a plain cotton fabric one, which is quilted.

Over to someone else for the lunge/ long line difference!;)

[SupaTania]

Long lines is standing behind the horse with two long reins, and working him in that manner. So yes you are running around behind him in a sense.

Lunging is one line, connected to halter, or bit, and horse goes around you in a circle.

[LindaAd]

Livery is an arrangement where you pay someone to keep your horse, usually but not always stabled. If they do all the looking after, then it's full livery; if you do some, it's part livery, and if you do it all, that's DIY (do it yourself livery).

A yard is a place where horses live. A livery yard is where they have horses at livery, a competition yard is one where they do lots of competitions, and so on.

But a stable yard is a concrete or paved area in front of the stables!


Linda

[WYORider]

Numnah and saddle cloth here are called the same thing, a saddle pad, with the square one being called maybe a saddle blanket in some cases (western), or dressage pad, and the saddle pad shaped like the saddle is typically called a hunt seat pad.

Thank you for everyone having patience with me to explain the English horse terms!!!

[VickiGG]

Here in New Zealand - the trailer that carries horses behind your 4WD is called a Float!

[rowdent]

A float? very interesting, that's what we call something that delivers the milk around here! A milk float...LOL actually the more I think about it, the more silly it sounds....LOL

[Wally]

...but in the US don't they float teeth too- where in the UK we rasp them?

[capalldubh]

the trailer that carries horses behind your 4WD is called a Float!

I don't know why but I got the impression a float was like a UK trailer but with no roof...

When I was a wee nipper many many moons ago, our milk float was pulled by a horse... ;)

[Wally]

I know those days, when I was a nipper, I remember my granny's milk being delivered in a horse drawn milk van!

[laura jeanne]

Sorry if this is getting too OT, but when I was a kid, we had a milkman who would deliver milk a couple of times a week. Everyone had a metal box on their back step and the milkman would drive around and fill the box with ice and the bottles of milk and pick up the empty bottles.

[jenren!!]

And nowadays? Good old supermarkets ;)

[capalldubh]

Getting further and further off topic, but I have a strange feeling that my fascination with horses traces back to the lovely milkman's horse when I was a toddler - he always let me pet the horse who was sweet, and my dad loved the "little presents" the horse used to leave behind, which were added to the compost heap :)

More O/T, is long-lining mainly a UK thing, then?

[Roheryn]

To add a question to this thread--

What do you call the different brushes these days in England? I grew up with "dandy brush" and "body brush"--now everyone where I live (SE US) says "stiff brush" and "soft brush." And we roach manes, which I grew up calling "hogging" (no doubt from reading a lot of British horse-care books) but have to explain to my non-horsey friends as "giving the horse a buzz cut."
And we don't "muck out", we "clean stalls" but we do it using a "muck bucket."

By the way, do any American readers know when hard hats started being called helmets? I was sort of bilingual with horse talk as a child; now I just feel out of date sometimes.

Here we ask each other "Are you going the barn?" or say "I'm at the barn"--in the UK do you say "Are you going to the yard?" etc.?

[Little Dolphins]

"Just going down the yard!" Yes, that's what we yell to OH/family/ other animals on the way out of the house...

"I'm at the yard" is what you say when the mobile (cellphone) goes when you're there . It's like people on trains saying "I'm on the train"; obvious answers to silly questions!!!!

I worked in an American school for years, and I learnt that pretty well EVERYthing has an alternate name/word/ expression. "More foreign than France" I used to tell myself:rolleyes: They must have thought me pretty odd, too:D

Shame about the old words you love being phased out like that, Roheryn! Make a stand and keep on calling it a Dandy brush!;)

PS I know that in the US, a 'yard' is a garden, so 'barn' is more appropriate.
We have a barn at the yard, but stables too. Actually, when I was a kid, we'd say we were 'going to the stables', even if we meant the fields a mile away:confused:

[cazrider]

"giving the horse a buzz cut."Had to smile when I read this, Roherin.:D Reminded me of that haircut you only ever see in US movies, like Michael Douglas had in that one where he was some kind of vigilante renegade (can't remember what it was called now). It would look odd on a horse, sort of like a brush and square on top.:D

[rowdent]

http://sweetobsessions.co.uk/sob/images/smiles/hehe.gif

[WYORider]

What is the difference between an RA and an RI? And is schooling just having someone else ride your horse for you, not really training but not just a pleasure ride?

RA = riding associate and RI = riding instructor?

[Roheryn]

Kristy--WYORider--
I don't know if your question was meant for just the UK riders or not--in my part of the US "schooling" is training your horse, whether you do it yourself or have the trainer/instructor do it, or both of you doing it. But since every time you work with your horse he's being schooled (for better or worse!), then even a pleasure ride is a schooling session.

Little Dolphins--
Thanks for your reply about words!
I know that in the US, a 'yard' is a garden, so 'barn' is more appropriate.
We have a barn at the yard, but stables too. Actually, when I was a kid, we'd say we were 'going to the stables', even if we meant the fields a mile away

We have a yard at the barn, but I've never heard anyone call it a "barnyard"--I think that's just for the yard outside the barn on a farm that isn't just a horseback riding facility but a farm with cows, chickens, pigs, etc., maybe a horse too? (Actually the only things I've heard the "yard" called are "the parking lot" (where we park our cars, and our trailers if we have them), or "outside" (as in "Are you going to mount in here or outside?" as one is wondering whether to drag the mounting block out into the barn aisle or "outside"). What I call a "yard" is like a UK garden, I think--a space with grass and maybe flower beds/hedges/trees--if it's just a paved or gravel area we don't think of it as a yard (which is probably why we call it "outside" at the barn!)
I think horses have it easier--I've met horses from England, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Iceland, and they seem to "talk" just like the American horses I've known.:)

[bexj]

What is the difference between an RA and an RI? And is schooling just having someone else ride your horse for you, not really training but not just a pleasure ride?

RA = riding associate and RI = riding instructor?


An RA is a Recommended Associate - someone who is specifically trained by Kelly Marks to work with problem horses (and owners). RI - is a riding instructor, and usually work at a riding school, or freelance, going to give lessons at a riders premises on their own horse.

Schooling is training - whether in the school (arena or manege) or out on a pleasure ride (hack!) You may school your horse yourself or have someone else do it.