Are you a tack bigot?

dibbin said:
Wow ... I'll need to order more Bells of Shame ... hang on ...

You're all appalling and clearly know NOTHING.
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How very dare you Dibbin of bell shame!!!

If you read ANY of the above posts, you shall quite clearly come to the conclusion that we are all EXPERTS in tack.

We are tack BIGOTS you see? Now, I hope you go away and remember that o' Dibbin you shameful creature.

eta: oopsie, how did pink get in there???
 
What a thread.
I dislike flash nosebands, and can't understand why more people don't use drops.
I see nothing wrong with waterfords, and in fact own and use several types.
I prefer to see kimblewicks instead of pelhams used on ponies if needed.
There is nothing wrong with using neck straps!! - no matter what your riding ability is like.
Why are people anti black tack??
Nothing wrong with numnahs - saddle cloths are a 'fashion'.
Kids riding horses, when they have not learnt to ride ponies first. People forget that unless you are on the 'large' side, a pony is quite capable of carrying kids with long legs!
I don't understand the 'passoa' training gadget, and will never own one.

One of my biggest ''grrrs'' is the health and safety 'thing' getting way out of hand. Children should be able to 'ride round the world' and should not be made to wear bp everytime they sit on a pony, where is the freedom in that? Never use to be this way, and it would be so nice to turn back time and show peeps what it was like and how much fun it really was. Children have been falling off ponies for years, but noone used to complain as much as we do now.

sorry, I've gone on a bit.
 
tallyho! said:
How very dare you Dibbin of bell shame!!!

If you read ANY of the above posts, you shall quite clearly come to the conclusion that we are all EXPERTS in tack.

We are tack BIGOTS you see? Now, I hope you go away and remember that o' Dibbin you shameful creature.

eta: oopsie, how did pink get in there???
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Sorry :( I am ashamed, and will slink off into a corner and clean my flash noseband.
















Psst ... Want a bell? :p
 
I hate that almost all "showjumpers" (talking local shows here) require a sheepskin over load to compete with. Why does a section C pony need sheepskin eskradon boots....................................why does it need boots in the first place?????????

I cant stand cheap treeless saddles, I spent a decent amount of money on mine because I actually give a &*(^ about my horses back and bothered to do the research before going treeless, I also cant stand people not using the correct numnahs with treeless saddles.

I actually dont like sheepskin numnahs and polypads (although makes lovely bed for the dog) as I find the saddle is now perched higher and therefore increased pressure points and then it slips everywhere which in my book means the saddle no longer fits??
My opinion that is.

Why does everyone need to wear a half pad, what is it anyway lol.

Ditto flash nosebands, grackles have a place....


But to be honest if the tack fits and isnt causing discomfort and the rider understands that it is not going to make their riding better, then each to their own.
 
RuthnMeg said:
What a thread.
I dislike flash nosebands, and can't understand why more people don't use drops.
I see nothing wrong with waterfords, and in fact own and use several types.
I prefer to see kimblewicks instead of pelhams used on ponies if needed.
There is nothing wrong with using neck straps!! - no matter what your riding ability is like.
Why are people anti black tack??
Nothing wrong with numnahs - saddle cloths are a 'fashion'.
Kids riding horses, when they have not learnt to ride ponies first. People forget that unless you are on the 'large' side, a pony is quite capable of carrying kids with long legs!
I don't understand the 'passoa' training gadget, and will never own one.

One of my biggest ''grrrs'' is the health and safety 'thing' getting way out of hand. Children should be able to 'ride round the world' and should not be made to wear bp everytime they sit on a pony, where is the freedom in that? Never use to be this way, and it would be so nice to turn back time and show peeps what it was like and how much fun it really was. Children have been falling off ponies for years, but noone used to complain as much as we do now.

sorry, I've gone on a bit.
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Well said R&M on that last paragraph,totally agree....as a kid i thoroughly enjoyed it all,even the falling off,Health and Safety gone mad,has taken the enjoyment out of it for kids and given the parents someone to sue...Madness :(
 
dibbin said:
Thanks Faracat :) anybody else want a Bell of Shame?
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I will take a job lot :D!

Black tack, crank noseband (hasn't cropped up yet but it will ;)), flash, spurs, martingale - standing and running, grackle, dead sheep, half pad, saddle cloths, synthetic saddle, three ring gag, pessoa, waterford - you name it I probably use it now or have done quite recently :p . .

They all have their place though imo, most as a temporary measure though not permanent. And tbh I couldn't give a flying fig what tack everyone else uses either, they either have their reasons or they don't and will get caught out in the long run.


Kids riding horses, when they have not learnt to ride ponies first. People forget that unless you are on the 'large' side, a pony is quite capable of carrying kids with long legs!
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Though I do fill one good criteria I still ride a pony!
 
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dibbin said:
Thanks Faracat :) anybody else want a Bell of Shame?
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better pass one this way too. Black tack on a ginger horse, saddlecloths rather than numnah, blingy browband, neuschule snaffle bit for dressage, gag and martingale for jumping, lit up like a christmas tree when we hack out.

but, OP, on a serious note, i couldnt give a flying horsepoo what anyone else thinks, because he's MY horse, all of his tack fits him properly, and I KNOW MY HORSE. I know that he schools best in these bits, and this tack, through trial and error.

When you look at someone at a show or out hacking and they have a bit which you dissaprove of, you have no idea what their horse is like, their mouth conformation or their temperament, nor what bit suits that horse best. Same for martingales.

I suppose everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Sometimes people are just too quick to judge.
 
It's getting a tad festive in here with all these bells :P

I've let you all down, I went for a hack yesterday on my friend's chestnut mare, with brown tack, a loose ring snaffle, cavesson noseband and no martingale. The tack bigots will ADORE me now ... Oh no wait, it was a SYNTHETIC saddle with a black SADDLECLOTH under it. Mwahahahaha!

More bells!!!
 
String girths put grit in my ****! But thankfully haven't seen one for many years. Other than that I really don't care so long as it fits and is used correctly.

Oh, and pink should be banned!
 
Eek at mandatory body protectors on under 14s. I would have hit the ground so much more if that had been the case when I was a kid which would have been depressing as I hit the ground enough as it was. Trying to do mounted games and slinging myself off the side of the pony, twisting in the saddle ect ect with a back board keeping my pelvis and shoulders paralell is a nightmare.

Kids bounce, and heal well, get them a nice pony and hope they survive, want them to be safe? stop the riding, it isn't.
 
I hate foreign tack which has that distinct sweet smell. I hate plastic tack. I hate bright numbats except for xc. I don't worry about martingales as would rather see a martingale fitted correctly than some of the bits you see especially the gags. I don't have a problem with flash nose bands but wish you could buy a bridle without one. It is hard to find one now. I hate nickel anything. And I hate coloured overreach boots. I also hate xc skull cap covers with bobbled on them and I hate orange leather....

Bigot...me....never!
 
No I am not a tack bigot. I feel myself extremely lucky to own two horses, to worry about this or that sort of tack is silly, as horses are extremely expensive to keep, anyway! Life is too full of stress at any rate- my time with my horses is my fun time and I don't ride to be a poser!
 
Oh, just thought of another one - girths left buckled when on the saddle rack; FGS undo both ends.
And while we're at it - please wash your bit, and do up your flash strap when you take off the bridle.
Phew, off to work now!

Before I go - if you have girths with elastic at one end (yuk), can you please alternate the side the elastic goes, so it's not always done up on the same side? Thank you.
 
Hm. People would have loved to have seen me out on the Dizz when I first got her.... :D :D :D

Tri Zone Cross Country boots all round - she didn't always know where all her legs were or what they were doing, so reduced injuries :D

Five point breasplate, with a martingale attachment - gave me something to grab and kept her ears out of my nose :D

Dressage saddle - old, without blocks :eek:, but fitted her (saving grace, it is brown and she is a chestnut :D) :D

White show jumping saddle cloth as D2 had given it to me when I had Tigs, but I hadn't the heart to tell her I couldn't use it with a dressage saddle :D

And lots and lots and lots of high viz :D :D :D


Now we still have the breast plate on, with the martingale - did ditch it for a while, but head started going back up, so it's back (see comment re. ears and nose :D).

Still wears the Tri Zones if she's likely to be a loop fruit or the ground is a bit boggy.

In our defence, she goes in a mullen mouth Happy Mouth bit, and so far we've been able to stop :D

Pet hate: flash nosebands on almost all new bridles!!!! Why? Not all horses need their mouths strapped shut (and if they did, I'd try a Mexican grackle or a proper drop noseband before trying a flash), so why do they almost all come with one?
 
mashnut said:
Apparently tack only came in orange (I mean brown) once upon a time. Black is a newer development. My YO was telling me about those days. And about all the oiling it took to get it from orange to a brown.
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Inferior quality leather was dyed black, to hide the fact that the colouring, etc. was not good enough to remain brown :D

Some people still have that snobbery about it :D
 
kez1001 said:
roundings! i hate them use two reins!

standing martingales done up too tight - they have their uses but only if correctly used.
draw reins for same reason as above, actually most gadgets!

oh and a weird one, people who dont put cheekpieces/nosebands into keepers! Ian Stark gave me a lesson once and said if your keepers are undone your going to fall off :D ok a bit superstitious but its stuck with me!
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My mum (of the same vintage as IStark) always says that if you have a keeper out the horse will be unbalanced and fall over! :D


I suspect I'm a tack bigot.
I hate anything that is more PVC than leather, the unecessary use of boots (or any piece of tack), over tight flash/grackle nosebands, pale poo brown saddles :)
 
Crikey this thread brought out the worst in some people didn't it! Don't see any reason why you need to swear at the OP - there were loads of people with harsh views!

I think that any tack that fits well, is on for a good reason, and is not being abused by the rider, then live and let live!

For the load of you that have asked why people all wear martingales - most o which don't work - probably for a neck strap to avoid the rider hanging off the reins...

For those of you who think all ponies should be in snaffles - have you ever ridden one of the naughty little things? Both of my son's lovely ponies have been little gits when they knew damn well that he wasn't strong enough to stop them - so they have gone into dutch gags with the rein on the second hole now and again. He wasn't strong enough to do any harm at all with this harsh bit. When he got stronger, they went back into snaffles again...

Totally agree with the person who posted "there is no such thing as a harsh bit, just harsh hands" - will borrow that one!

Thank goodness for Tallyho and co with their bells - who took the thread as light hearted as it should have been, or this would have been too full of self righteous silly people!

ps. Theres a young girl near us who gallops her pony up and down the lanes yanking on its mouth at corners, but I guess she's ok because she's in a snaffle and has no saddle? Yes I have had many a go at her!
 
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Nope - I pay no attention to what other people choose to use on their horses because I have no idea why they are using them.

I used a dutch gag on Arion when jumping - I jump him on the second ring and he goes better in that than he does with roundings or two reins in it as it is so Im not going to change it. I take my lead fro him and what works for one horse wont work for another. He gets far too strong on a snaffle. I have used a Waterford to re-school a horse who took off with me after every jump - by the time I sold him I could jump him in a snaffle over 3' courses and he went great - so I dont know why someone is using a certain piece of equipment so I dont judge.

I have also seen top eventing riders use roundings and I certainly wont be judging them any time soon :D


Horses for courses - and where did you get a 70's book of tack - would love to have a read at that :D
 
I don't mind what tack people use on their horses so long as it fits correctly, however I do have a couple of things that annoy me,

not seeing cheekpieces, throatlashes etc in their keepers! Or when a throatlash is too loose (or too tight).

And badly fitting rugs! I'm a sharer of a 15.1hh middleweight and the other sharer bought a nice new heavy duty winter turnout, but she didn't properly check what size to get him (all his rugs have the size label on, saying 6ft) but she measured it (?) and bought a 6ft 9!!!! So the poor horse is wearing a rug that is far too big for him. Grrr!!
 
Honey08 said:
Thank goodness for Tallyho and co with their bells - who took the thread as light hearted as it should have been, or this would have been too full of self righteous silly people!
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You can have an honorary Bell of Shame, even if you haven't committed a heinous tack crime :p
 
Honey08 said:
Crikey this thread brought out the worst in some people didn't it! Don't see any reason why you need to swear at the OP - there were loads of people with harsh views!
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Aw thank you!! Although, when it turned into a monster I stopped reading the thread even tho it was mine...will try and read now.

FWIW any opinions on cheap tack, i.e. synthetic or whatever, were not mine. I was more on about people using stuff just because the tack shop flogged them it, rather than because they knew exactly what effect if would have. I do hope noone swore at me, blimey.
 
Snowy Celandine said:
People like you (Skewby) make me feel very sad. Why not just get on with your own life and let others get on with theirs? So what if their tack is black rather than your preferred colour? So what if your saddle cost more than theirs? If you are perversely proud to be a judgemental bigot then I think you should consider seeking treatment to see if you can become a more tolerant and happy person. People who are happy with themselves and their life choices don't need to go round picking fault with others you see. Good luck!
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How sad that I've had the power to make a random internet person sad. Did I say I had a preference over colour of tack? Did I? Did I say how much my saddle cost? Did I? Read again, and be sad over something that actually happened. By starting a thread, am I suddenly responsible for the thoughts of others? I think not. Do hope you're not too sad, for too long.
 
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