Dumbest thing a supposedly clued-up horse person has told you?

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Shadowdancing

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I know non horsey people come out with some corkers, but these people who have been around horses for years and years don't half come out with some useless tosh.

My example- livery yard owner. Had horses for years. Turned around to me and said...

"Really you shouldn't have a horse of your own if you work. They're a full time job in themselves."

Ummmm. Ok. so you ride and muck him/her out and put her in the field. Then what? Sit and watch them graze in case they injure themselves?
Apart from that- how do us normal, everyday people pay for this privilege- indeed pay you to keep the horse in the first place?
Insane.

Your corkers please?
 
There was an instance where a girl I knew had her first pony. She was a teenage and had been riding most of her life.

He was getting fat, I told her several times over the winter, he is a Welsh Cob he will get Laminitus if you don't get his weight down. Feeding him wheelbarrows full of hayledge and buckets of competition mix will make him ill!

Didn't listen. Horse got Laminitus 3 weeks after my last warning.

Her dad fully believed that a grazing mussle would "cure" him and he would be as right as rain...

I was so angry that the pony was now suffering and I may have torn an educational strip off him... I believe his weight has been closely monitored since.
 
"You can tell he's [4y/o horse] going to grow big because he's got a lot of loose skin." um, so foals must be born like those wrinkly dogs then?
 
You need to put that horse to sleep, he has fractured something in his hind leg, for no reason.
Vet standing beside both horse and I and pips in, if that horse has a fractured leg then I don't have a veterinary qualification.
 
Where I used to work the YO had been riding and had owned horses for all of her life. (She was in her 60's.) A very knowledgable lady and a fantastic rider.

We had a livery who weaved very badly and had been with us a year. After about a year, YO suddenly pipes up that we should put weave bars up incase it taught anything else to weave.

Horse had been in that stable for a year, on a yard of about 7 horses that had also been there that whole time. Not one had learned to weave :P
 
Old bonkers YO - had horses for years, used to cluck disapprovingly at us. 'I feel sorry for your horses having to go out in the rain'.
 
'Not riding my horse and leaving her shut in stable with loads of food would make her live longer.'
Fastest way to kill her off with dust allergy, arthritus and the fact that she would be bored shitless lol Can't believe the amount of experienced horse people that still think an animal that is designed to be roaming outside is better shut in a dusty box doing nothing.
 
I had someone tell me me my cob (living out 24/7 on good grass) losing his coat because he was underfed and I should give him hard feed twice a day. It was April! Guess how fat hers were & whether they kept getting laminitis.
 
hairycob said:
I had someone tell me me my cob (living out 24/7 on good grass) losing his coat because he was underfed and I should give him hard feed twice a day. It was April! Guess how fat hers were & whether they kept getting laminitis.
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This is what upsets me, when people have false information and can't bare for their little cherubs to be without food when its infact killing them! Hence my tearing "Educated Strips" off my friends father :)

Neglect through either stupidity or ignorance. (Neither of which is acceptable). Some stupid things people say can be really damaging to a horse and their health.
 
"If you hold the neckstrap - you wont fall off" (WFP's mother - watching me ride a very naughty baby racehorse)
I did hold the neckstrap - the whole time the horse was bucking it's brains out. And as I flew through the air, and straight out through the fence of the indoor school. I still had it in my hand as I peeled myself off the floor and clambered back through the fence...
 
Person who'd ridden for year and had their own horse. regarding chestnuts on front legs

'They stop horses who are narrow in front brushing their forelegs together so they mustn't be trimmed'

RS owner - if a horse has a blue eye it's blind in that eye.
 
It never cease to amaze me what some people come out with.

Someone recently told me her horse was coughing due to dust in his hay, he's on really nice haylage (and it wasn't anything to do with him stuffing down sliced apples she was feeding him!) �� she then proceeded to tell me she once had to perform the heimlick maneuver on him. Was walking past YO once and heard a livery telling the YO that her horse was too fat (on full livery and owner had been away for few days), was stood with YO the following day when the same livery approached and thanked YO profusely as her horse was looking much thinner (in one day???) ��
 
Auslander said:
"If you hold the neckstrap - you wont fall off" (WFP's mother - watching me ride a very naughty baby racehorse)
I did hold the neckstrap - the whole time the horse was bucking it's brains out. And as I flew through the air, and straight out through the fence of the indoor school. I still had it in my hand as I peeled myself off the floor and clambered back through the fence...
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This killed me... :D Hope you weren't too sore!
 
JillA said:
PMSL @ the Heimlich manoeuvre on a horse
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Me too! :)

Auslander, that's hilarious!

My favourite from this week..."I chopped his ergots off, they were so big they were rubbing together". I said that I hoped she meant chestnuts and that you don't have to chop them off, they will peel off quite easily if you keep on top of them.

A few weeks ago, same girl..."the faster you trot on the road, the less concussion as the less time their hooves are on the floor".
 
Got told by a lifetime horse breeder and trainer that I should never spend more than 3 hours a day with my young horse, or else he'll become "herdbound" and "wild", and won't be able to socialize with other horses anymore.
 
"I always feed him polo mints because otherwise he nips."

"We ride the same route every time because he doesn't like going anywhere different"

"Of course this saddle fits... it was really expensive"
 
Fellow livery to my daughter (in the knowledge that I'd instructed YM to cut down on pone's hard feed and up her hay) - 'It's no wonder your horse is so wappy now you're just feeding her mostly hay' :eek:
 
It isn't just horsey people though. I had a person contact me because her pony was having epileptic seizures and she knew that my mare was being successfully controlled with drugs. I told her what I was using and she spoke to her vet who told her that the pony would be dead in 6 months from liver failure. Hmmm, my horse was on them for 15 years and just before she was finally PTS at rising 30, she was routinely tested for liver function - her results showed her liver was not only perfectly healthy, it was healthier than would normally be seen in elderly equines.
 
You shouldn't feed a horse before exercise (even hay). I had a livery arrive here from a large equestrian centre. She would turn up to ride and then just leave shortly afterwards without riding. When this had happened several times I asked her why and she said, 'Oh I saw that he was eating.' 'But it's just hay,' said I. 'Yes but I don't have time to wait an hour before riding him,' she replied. Turned out the equestrian centre manager told her that he didn't have hay because she knew she was coming to ride and that horses must not have feed or forage for an hour before they were ridden. Livery refused to believe me that it was not the case for quite a while. Although in the end I think she must have done her own research and realised I was telling the truth, because suddenly one day I saw her tacking up whilst hhe was munching a hay net.
 
_GG_ said:
Me too! :)

Auslander, that's hilarious!

My favourite from this week..."I chopped his ergots off, they were so big they were rubbing together". I said that I hoped she meant chestnuts and that you don't have to chop them off, they will peel off quite easily if you keep on top of them.

A few weeks ago, same girl..."the faster you trot on the road, the less concussion as the less time their hooves are on the floor".
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That last one !!
 
There are so many...
Horse dealer/breeder - You can't keep horses barefoot around here, it's cruel. 7 rock crunching years later we are still managing just fine, thanks.
Livery owner - horses don't mind standing in (damp cold dark) stables (for days and days and weeks on end) when the fields are wet, if you let them out they just stand around in the field anyway.
Batty livery owner - No rugs to be hung to dry anywhere but inside (damp dark stable with closed door). Too untidy otherwise.
Gah!
 
Auslander said:
"If you hold the neckstrap - you wont fall off" (WFP's mother - watching me ride a very naughty baby racehorse)
I did hold the neckstrap - the whole time the horse was bucking it's brains out. And as I flew through the air, and straight out through the fence of the indoor school. I still had it in my hand as I peeled myself off the floor and clambered back through the fence...
Click to expand...

Sorry Auslander, I know it's not funny you fell off but am chuckling to myself here. You told the story so well I have this mental image of the whole thing!
 
"Ragwort isn't poisonous to horses" This seems to be fairly common around here!

I've also been told off for riding straight after feeding (a handful of fast fibre). Apparently you can ride after they have eaten grass but nothing else (even hay).

A previous YO was convinced horses should be warm to the touch all over, otherwise on went the rugs. I tried in vain to explain about thick winter coats but never made any impression.

Another one from that YO which had me practically in stitches, when advising another livery who was looking to get someone in to help with her mad TB, "Kelly Marks is okay with cobs that won't load but knows nothing about TB's" - er, yes, I'm sure the daughter of a racehorse trainer and former jockey knows nothing at all about TB's!!
 
My OH has never let me forget the day I asked him to hold up the front leg of my unbroken three year old while I was trying to wash his tail and the horse proceeded to hop all over the place in spite of me saying it would stop him moving! :o (I know better now!)
 
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