Cruel or incorrect methods and practices...

[MizElz]

How many instances of cruelty/ignorance/negligence have you actually witnessed throughout your lifetime? We all talk about certain methods and practices that abhor us; I just wonder how many of us have actually worked/trained/competed etc at places where some of these things take place. And if you have seen something you disagree with, did you disagree with it enough to speak up and say something, or did you feel obliged to keep quiet?

 

[zigzag]

I got the sack from one place cos I didn't agree with what they were doing

 

[Solstar]

[ QUOTE ]
I got the sack from one place cos I didn't agree with what they were doing

[/ QUOTE ]

I did too. They were closed down soon after, after someone rang the RSPCA and the trading standards.

 

[Nudibranch]

First thing was a local "farmer" - I use the term loosely - who half starved a group of mares and foals. I did contact the RSPCA, being much younger and more naive, though I don't think anything was done. The same guy left a headcollar on a youngster, I came across it out riding one day and it had literally grown into its face. A real mess. This time the RSPCA did some out and remove the headcollar, though they didn't take the horse away or anything.

Also remember a school fair where one of the teachers brought her ponies for rides, their feet were disgusting and I said so. She kicked off at me and gave me hell in school for months afterwards but they really were a cruelty job and I hope it shamed her into doing something about it.

I just wouldn't work or train anywhere I didn't like a practice.

 

[MistletoeMegan]

I left a yard I was working at because I didn't agree with what was going. Won't mention names though!

I've reported things a couple of times at BE that I've seen in the collecting ring too.

I find the mis-use of pink horrific too, but it happens all around me

 

[MizElz]

I agree, Nudibranch. I couldnt stay somewhere where such things were taking place; my morals wouldnt allow me to. There's a rider local to me who frequently advertises his services as 'Top international SJer' - breaking, schooling, competing, training, buying. I do my best to put everyone off him, for a friend of mine once went to him for a lesson and he made her wear electric spurs because her gentle, kind young mare was frightened of jumping water.

She continued to go back to him for lessons, which I could never understand, but I did (and continue to do) my best to sabotage his trade!

Has anyone ever been in a situation where a close friend or relative has treated a horse in a way you object to? My SJ trainer - who I love to bits - once left a 4yo mare - who had been naughty on the lunge - in her stable with very tight sidereins on in order to get her to submit to them. She did, but only having reared, hit her head on an overhead beam and cutting her eye open.

I've never quite forgiven him for this, and I never let him put sidereins on my own mare!

Also my father was notoriously cruel to many horses in the latter stages of his career as a farrier...but there wasnt much I could do to stop that

Other than disown him

 

[Kenzo]

My mum has, in the past on a couple of occasions, politely asked certain individuals to refrain from nearly half beating their horses to death trying to get them to load into their trailer/horseboxes.

There's a difference between giving a horse an encouraging sharp crack once with a crop (if you have to resort to it) than setting about it with a showing cane, lashing it repeatedly around its neck, belly etc just because you loose your patience etc.

This was at county show, of course this very well spoken lady in her beagler and smart hacking jacket just turned round to my mum and said ''whats it got to do with you!, you no nothing about horses!'' just because my mum wasn't dressed in showing gear and was walking a dog with a ice cream in hand, anyway she said quietly ''I've had horses for over 40 years actually and was riding before you were even born'' then walked off to report her to the show secretary.

Another occasion...at a show again (would you believe it) young spoilt little brat a of teenage girl (sorry nothing against teenage show jumpers but she was real bad penny) decided because her horse refused and nearly made her fall off, she decided to get off and again proceed to beat the horse several times with her crop, my dad looked at me and said ''If I was her father I'd take that horse of her right now, put it back on the box, go home and it would be advertised in the paper the very next day, because she doesn't deserve to have a horse, and if I ever ever see you do anything like that, same goes for you too young lady (this was when I was about 12) and quite rightly so.

So its not just horse sales/rough dealers/gypsies etc (typical stereo types) that ill treat horses...it goes on under our very noses at horse events which is very disappointing to know, not only that but if they carry on with them at horse shows like that....what are they like at home with them, when there not in a public place?

 

[Santa_Claus]

I have seen a few things that really shocked me.

Once at a BSJA show a pony rider didn't do so well (her fault) so took her pony back to the trailer put it it and beat it like you wouldn't believe. she got what she deserved for that in return

I also saw a well known BSJA rider absolutely lay into her horse (i.e. beat the c**p out of it!) when it dared touch a pole in the collecting ring when she and I were the only people in there with only her parents watching.

Due to who she was and who I was (lets just say she miss popular i miss no one) I didn't say anything as what proof did I have and there would have been no question who had reported her. She has a 'reputation' for it though and it is now generally public knowledge and her once thriving business has become somewhat delpleted...

 

[Irishcobs]

I've not witnessed anything that I thought was cruel but I have witnessed some incompetence that has led to some unnecessary treatment to a horse.

For example, horse was very ticklish and was being washed off so was kicking at the drips running under its belly. Person washing was ignoring the kicking and trying to get it done asap. Owner of the horse went and got a stick and hit the horse several times while shouting as they were scared the horse was going to kick them. Horse was no where near kicking at a person and the person washing was the closest to said horse, but wasn't worried about its behaviour.

 

[suzysparkle]

I've seen a lot of horrible things at shows. One that stood out was a girl riding in a pelham with the curb chain done up way too tight. She kept digging her Horse in the ribs with her spurs and then socking it in the teeth so that it kept rearing. I'm pretty sure she was doing it deliberately to show off. I have also seen young kids beating ponies up on numerous occasions, and many cases of the loading scenarios mentioned above. I'll be honest and say I haven't reported things, but mainly because the show organisers can see them happening themselves.

The worst thing was at a yard I worked at. A mare had a seriously deformed foot and lower leg, she spent 23hrs a day lying down and was very thin. I reported to the ILPH who could do nothing as a vet and farrier saw her. Between myself and another girl we eventually managed to convince the YO to have her put to sleep. It shouldn't have taken till she reached the age of 10 before he saw that she had no quality of life and was in constant pain.

 

[Kenzo]

Its a poor do when you see children treating there ponies like this and like one of the posts above regarding bits/spurs....arhhhh don't get me started on that topic.

Sorry but children galloping around showgrounds that can't even ride correctly on small strong ponies wearing spurs, riding with a whip yet using a harsh bit..?

hello !! I mean where is the sense in that?

I feel like saying to the parents, look do your self and a your child a favor and take them for some proper riding lessons and buy a well schooled/novice pony that you can ride in snaffle!

Don't get me started...but yep its another form of cruelty if you ask me.

 

[blackcob]

I have been at a livery yard where negligence was the order of the day. I wouldn't call it true cruelty so much as doing the absolute bare minimum. For example, the YO would only employ one person and refuse to take on any more staff, leaving this one woman with a yard of 25+ horses stabled and probably another 10 out in fields. As a result the horses were lucky to get mucked out every other day, usually once every three days; they were always stood in on several days worth of dung and no bedding, or bedding so saturated with urine that the ammonia would sting your eyes. The lady had thursdays off, so on that day the horses were not done at all. The YO would sometimes bribe one of the liveries to chuck hay over the door for them if they were lucky.

Many times I witnessed him tacking up horses for a ride only for a client not to turn up, in which case the spare horse was left standing on the yard in its tack with no access to food or water. They would go off for a 2-3 hour hack and leave the horse standing there in the full summer heat without so much as a scrap of shade.


The RSPCA were called several times by different people but they could do nothing as the horses were given hay (intermittently) and had water (again intermittently), and apart from being filthy and run up there was nothing really wrong with them.

The amazing thing was that most of these horses were there on livery and the owners carried on as if nothing was wrong! They were all sunday lunchtime fair weather types who didn't know any better and carried on doling out huge amounts of money to him. It beggars belief.

 

[Hullabaloo]

We had a kid at my old yard who was a nightmare. Part of the problem was he didn't want to ride but his mum made him (she even used to pay him to do it).
One day out hunting we were standing around and he got bored. He pulled his (very sweet) pony in the mouth until it stood up then he pulled him over and kicked him in the head. One of the yard staff who was escorting the hired horses saw it and gave him a real dressing down but I don't think it made any impression.
That was a couple of years ago and the pony is now for sale - hopefully he'll find a better home this time.

 

[suzyseymour]

I've witnessed a few. There was a pony on a yard I was on that had cuts chest open and someone went round to tell the loaner, who didn't bother comming down let alone treating the pony, the next day no sign of her, so I sent the person round to tell her if her vet wasn't out the next morning, the RSPCA would, she turned up with vet the next morning and i would have called them. She even tried to sell this pony on loan!!

Had to report someone to ILPH for the state of their horses feet, which resulted in the feet being sorted.

Also was at a show there was a man in a highly strung chestnut mare, she knocked a few down, so he beat her in the ring, carried on out of the ring, even when the mare was on the floor on the concreate. He was dragged off by several blokes. It wasn't even his horse, he had it on loan. The same horse was at the next show the a teenage girl, both having a fab time!!!

 

[Flibble]

I watched a Pony Club kid get well and truly bolted with and then severely bucked off and the parent picked the small child up and slapped it good and hard for letting the pony bolt out of the ring and being stupid!!

 

[Natch]

I watched a girl who was working on a big yard trying to catch a horse and it wouldn't come to her for love nor money. She seemed so calm and quietly followed it round the field for an hour or so until she did catch it and bring it in to its stable... but then I saw her go into the box with a whip and hit/kick/smack poor horse thoroughly to "teach it a lesson" - I was gobsmacked at the time, her mum eventually pulled her out, but I regret not taking that whip off her and teaching HER a lesson to this day.