'All horsey people are horrible'

My YO can be VERY abrupt and borders on scary sometimes, but I know that if you don't make yourself heard and make your point short and sharp right that instant, there might be an accident.
She's a lovely woman really though, so I never take it to heart when I get a verbal pasting :P

Though I have been to some yards where the people are nasty all the time, even away from 'horse time'.
 
I actually used to work on a fantastic yard - the staff all got on and adored all the horses (was a RS & livery yard) but there were only a handful of liveries and the YO didn't take no crap lol. It closed down though, was absolutely gutted because I probably would have stayed there.
However I worked on 2 other yards after this and did my BHS exams at college and every horse person I met at those places were nasty, bitchy and downright spiteful (to horse and others!) & hence I left the equestrian world to pursue another career.
I got back into horses a few years later and to be honest I wish I hadn't, I can probably count on 1 hand the amount of nice people I have come across in the horseworld (FYI since owning my boy I have been on quite a number of yards and had the delights of allsorts of misfits!!)
So in answer to your question, I would say the majority of the horse world are exactly like you describe!
 
Hello!!

I think there is quite often less professionalism within the equine industry than they might be in "real" jobs were everything has to be much more PC!!!

I've worked at riding schools, studs, dealers yards and competition yards. I wasn't unhappy in any of the jobs. Yes, my bosses were abrupt, the boys played a lot of pranks, we worked very long hours and things could get a bit stressful at times, there was a certain amount of adultery too (not by me), specially on polo and show jumping yard (I felt I was part of Gilly Coopers books!). I never got sworn at by any boss but they did swear at other members of staff. But then, these particular members of staff weren't exactly great workers, they would never have survived in a corporate environment!!

There largest amount of bitchiness was not in the work place but on livery yards or at shows. I formed great friendships with the people I worked with.

I would spend the summer working on a yard. It is a great experience, and one that has taught me very valuable things to bring into the now corporate job I have!!
 
I'd agree pretty much with what auslander & jesstickle said. The biggest percentage of truly horrible people i've met have been on diy yards. ( & i'm a Diy, only ever had mine on comp yards when I've worked there)
 
Princess Jess said:
So it got me thinking...do 'horsey people' have a reputation for being rude and abrupt? I've certainly met my fair share of those types, but then I suppose its a hard industry and there are just as many friendly types out there right?
Just wondering what your experiences have been working/riding/visiting yards, any horror stories or stories of generosity and kindness?
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I think you find a lot of not particularly nice people in the horsey world unfortunately but I've found that everyone on my yard is lovely (lucky? I think so!) they do occasionally have a wee stress moment but then I think yards can be quite stressfull sometimes so I can get over that especially as it's not a regular thing.
I would think (having no personal experience) that a competition yard or similar would be a high stress environment and therefore have lots of shouty/swearyness going on at regular intervals but I like to think that for the most part it wouldn't be personal and you'd just have to be slightly thicker skinned than you normally would be.
Don't know maybe I just live in a rose tinted world though ha ha! :rolleyes::D
 
Just to be slightly controversial: I wonder whether it has something to do with the combination of very rich people employing people on very low wages? They seem to assume that because they don't pay you very much, they can also completely take the p*ss

I've had two horsey jobs in which I was treated like *****. At one, the owner's poncey daughter's yearling almost killed me by rearing up and kicking me in the head. Unsurprisingly I let go of the lead rope, at which point I got fired for "endangering her foal". She shoved a cheque in my hand which I later calculated amounted to roughly £2.10 an hour. Half the riding school ponies had problems that really ought to have been seen by the vet while her children's precious ponies lived in utmost luxury.

At the other one, the YM was more concerned about the yard looking flawless than the well being of the horses - we were only allowed to turn them out for one hour a day because she wanted the fields to look green all year round. I didn't stay at either place very long.

On the other hand, I have also worked for lovely, down to earth people who really take care of their horses. They tend to be the sort of people who are constantly broke because all the money goes into ensuring the horses are happy.
 
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