Am I a humourless killjoy?

[nikkimariet]

I could scroll past the unfunny and clearly poor riding / horse management at first but that became the primary content of the ‘shite horses whatever’ groups so I left them all. I don’t think there’s much in the groups, if anything, to be celebrated.

 

[SDMabel]

I've not looked at the page for a while and it seems the one i did look at has gone ?

But we were driving through town the other week and at a set of traffic lights a horse lorry infront of us , had a horse leaning on the side of it , turned out it was itching its bottom - the panel was completely bowed out so i could see the horses leg , tail etc when it was leaning back. At the bottom of the lorry they had a SEU sticker .... we raced up to them at the next set of light and caught the man drivings attention , he laughed it off and said yes they were aware of it and how the horse had been taught it by his wife.

I didn't find it remotely funny and thought how flippin dangerous for everyone around him and the horses on the lorry !! The sticker now makes sense from the replies above !!!

 

[SantaVera]

Awful images, and people thinking it's amusing to call their horse all the worst names imaginable. If that's how you feel about an animal, you shouldn't be anywhere near it.

Agree

 

[SilverLinings]

I don't understand the sort of owners who regularly use derogatory terms (usually offensive/swear words) about their horse. I realise that the horse doesn't understand the meaning of the word, but IME it usually isn't said in a particularly nice tone either, and the users of said language don't tend to behave in a particularly empathetic way towards their horse (or other animals).

It tends to be the sign of a bad rider too as the cries of tw@t/ba3tard/b!tch/etc tend to be most frequently heard when the horse has produced behaviour that results from either pain or poor training (or lack of any training). Even professionals (the good ones) who deal with large numbers of highly strung and inexperienced horses every day treat them with respect.

I am not unknown to use swear words so not being a prude about language, but I don't direct them at my horses, or blame them for my mistakes.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I don't understand the sort of owners who regularly use derogatory terms (usually offensive/swear words) about their horse. I realise that the horse doesn't understand the meaning of the word, but IME it usually isn't said in a particularly nice tone either, and the users of said language don't tend to behave in a particularly empathetic way towards their horse (or other animals).

It tends to be the sign of a bad rider too as the cries of tw@t/ba3tard/b!tch/etc tend to be most frequently heard when the horse has produced behaviour that results from either pain or poor training (or lack of any training). Even professionals (the good ones) who deal with large numbers of highly strung and inexperienced horses every day treat them with respect.

I am not unknown to use swear words so not being a prude about language, but I don't direct them at my horses, or blame them for my mistakes.

Slightly different tangent but your post reminds me of those really awful jumpers that seemed popular a while ago “my cob is a knob” and similar.
I hated them so much!

 

[equinerebel]

I hated that group when I was briefly a member. I can’t stand the “patchy twat” nonsense

 

[claracanter]

I joined it many years back but soon left the group. It wasn’t helping my confidence seeing people falling off all the time.

 

[Annagain]

I joined it many years back but soon left the group. It wasn’t helping my confidence seeing people falling off all the time.

I was just coming to say this. I joined to see what the fuss was about and lasted about a week on there. I don't mind the genuinely funny falls but 99% of it really wasn't funny. I think what gets me the most is they had a presence at Badminton last year (I didn't go this year so not sure if they did again) so somebody somewhere is clearly making a lot of money out of it which really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[Ceifer]

In the early days with the genuine “oops” moments I did kind of find it, not amusing but probably ok sh*t happens to everyone.

As it went on and it became a breeding ground for sharing bad horsemanship and derogatory names for horses I left.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

Am I the only person who doesn’t find the Shiteventers Facebook group amusing?

A small number of posts are funny, meet the original aim of the group. Some are just people showing off and there is no element of anything going wrong in an amusing way. Some are just baffling - eg a two minute very boring video of two people hacking along a road at about 1 minute 45 one horse does a very minor spook and is overtaken by the other horse. Then there are people doing very stupid, dangerous things or horses that are clearly in pain, badly trained, badly ridden but no one is allowed to post anything negative.

Happy to be told I am a humourless old bag and if I don’t like it don’t look. But if anyone does agree me would be nice to know I am not the only humourless old bag around.

Don't see the point of it really, if your not good at it, why post it on the the public groups. Nothing to boast about imo.

 

[Sossigpoker]

I don't understand the sort of owners who regularly use derogatory terms (usually offensive/swear words) about their horse. I realise that the horse doesn't understand the meaning of the word, but IME it usually isn't said in a particularly nice tone either, and the users of said language don't tend to behave in a particularly empathetic way towards their horse (or other animals).

It tends to be the sign of a bad rider too as the cries of tw@t/ba3tard/b!tch/etc tend to be most frequently heard when the horse has produced behaviour that results from either pain or poor training (or lack of any training). Even professionals (the good ones) who deal with large numbers of highly strung and inexperienced horses every day treat them with respect.

I am not unknown to use swear words so not being a prude about language, but I don't direct them at my horses, or blame them for my mistakes.

I call mine all sorts of names but affectionately. My pony is my little crackhead.
But I know what you mean.

 

[ThreeFurs]

That research paper is excellent. A real eye-opener!

Yes for me too. Its forever changed the way I 'read' situations.

ps: A common such situation might be seeing a friend on a horse that's totally about to lose its shit, and the SEU types will be like 'g'aarn ride 'im through it' and the other types, [usually older and often more experienced] will advise, 'no, get off and do some groundwork, this is not safe'.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Or ‘your horse isn’t coping. Let’s go back a step or 5 and help him re-focus /regain confidence/understand the question etc’

The irony is SEU was originally about humility - the willingness to laugh at mistakes and acknowledge fubars.

Now it’s a mahoosive ego trip.

 

[spacefaer]

The original group was set up by a friend of mine with very good intentions.
It sat with a tiny membership for some time then somehow went viral and got 300k+ membership very quickly. That group was shut down by FB. And its now in its 3rd incarnation.
It has morphed into something far from its original premise which is sad.
In terms of making money from it, proceeds raised from the selling of "merch" ir stickers, calendars, hats, t-shirts etc has raised 10s of thousands of pounds over the last few years.
The proceeds go to equine charities worldwide- this year I think its the Brooke, Prince Fluffy Kareem and WHW.

I'm not defending the majority of the content as its not for me, but the founder started it with the best of intentions and is trying to do her best. She is definitely not making a lot of money out of it for herself!

 

[Ample Prosecco]

I did like the original premise . I often wondered what the founders made of the beast it became! That’s the problem with social media accounts. They can take on a life of their own.