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

fatpiggy said:
In America, it is far from unknown for them to drop or allow to drop, a colicky horse in a lorry then physical roll them down the ramp. It can untwist the guts. A last resort maybe but if you have nothing less to try and the nearest vet hospital is a 3 hour drive away (this is quite common) then I suppose you may as well give it a go.
Click to expand...

We had one that was walked, lunged and travelled to no avail. At the vets he was knocked out and hand rolled, again didn't work so ended up getting surgery. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
 
fatpiggy said:
In America, it is far from unknown for them to drop or allow to drop, a colicky horse in a lorry then physical roll them down the ramp. It can untwist the guts. A last resort maybe but if you have nothing less to try and the nearest vet hospital is a 3 hour drive away (this is quite common) then I suppose you may as well give it a go.
Click to expand...

How do they know which way to roll them?
 
j1ffy said:
Me: "Where's your new horse from?" Former YM: "Holland. Or The Netherlands. Actually I think it's The Netherlands."

Ok the last one is more geographical numptiness than horse numptiness. It was day one on a new yard for me so I was desperately trying to keep a straight face!
Click to expand...

Actually she is right. Holland is PART of the Netherlands. You can actually upset some Dutch people by saying they come from Holland.
 
Celtic Fringe said:
'Horse must be stabled if you want to Event' - this from a well-respected local trainer. Horse is perfectly happy living out 24/7 with the herd and somehow still competed successfully to BE Intermediate/one-star for many years.
Click to expand...

I've heard this one! I used to work for somebody who rode badminton in her heyday, and she was adamant that you couldn't event a horse off grass!
 
This was a comment to one of the liveries on the yard, who expressed her concern about the shocking state of the yard's straw from the foul-mouthed husband of the yard's resident know-it-all. Livery "this straw is terrible - it's wet!". Foul - mouth "so what? it's going to get p****d on isn't it?"
 
cowgirl16 said:
This was a comment to one of the liveries on the yard, who expressed her concern about the shocking state of the yard's straw from the foul-mouthed husband of the yard's resident know-it-all. Livery "this straw is terrible - it's wet!". Foul - mouth "so what? it's going to get p****d on isn't it?"
Click to expand...

He has a point...
 
baran said:
The dominant hand of the rider can have a major effect on the way the horse goes. Many riders struggle to supply even contact on both reins.
Click to expand...

This is absolutely true. I'm right handed and my mare wasn't so good on the left rein although, curiously, given free choice she preferred to canter with left leg leading.
 
not something I was told, but on my first livery yard I was on assisted DIY which included morning feed and turnouts, I got to the yard one winter day to find my horse had been turned out in her stable rugs...they were sopping wet and covered in mud and the poor horse was freezing
 
fatpiggy said:
This is absolutely true. I'm right handed and my mare wasn't so good on the left rein although, curiously, given free choice she preferred to canter with left leg leading.
Click to expand...

yep agree with this, I'm left handed and every horse I've loaned or owned has been worse on the right rein
 
Mike007 said:
Used correctly it does,but cover it over and it doesnt work.
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't, sorry . It cools the skin until the clay reaches skin temperature and dries a bit and that doesn't take long. It does diddly squat to cool the tendon fibres but it makes the owner feel like they are doing something. If you want to cool below skin level, you need to ice, or cold hose for a long time. I find frozen cabbage best for icing :)
 
Last edited:
When I was 15, my first horse was a 3year old TB on loan due to owners pregnancy. In reality she just wanted someone to foot her winter bill.

I got him in at the beginning of winter, and he was rather lean probably having just had a growth spurt and she only had him in a thin rug as she was obsessed with him "turning soft" instead of guaging what the horse actually needed.

I put the rugs on he needed to feel warm, upped his feed slightly and worked him gently maybe twice a week if that. I was under the supervision of the YO who was friends with the Owner and the Owner's mother and an incredibly experienced horsewoman.

Come February a Dentist was due, I asked if the horse needed a dentist and owner said no he had just been done before I got him. Grand.

March comes, horse is a TB and still not a great weight but better then when I got him. We were on a hill and it was cold even though it was sunny. I was informed I had to remove his rugs during the day or she would remove him from me. I told her it was actually quite cold on the hill and he'd drop weight if rug removed. She held fast saying she didn't want him to be "soft" so I removed the rug during the day and upped his food in the hopes of keeping some weight on him.

He dropped all his weight and looked horriffic. She removed him them blamed me AND posted it on Facebook... a grown "experienced" 30 year old woman and accused me of not having a "rotten front tooth" seen to.. The YO actually stepped in and told Owners mother that her daughter was unreasonible, the horse had the best care, I did everything right by him and she had undone all of my work. Owners mother agreed.

ETA: The pics are still on FB. But this was 10 years ago before camera phones were a big thing so I didn't have pictures of before the rug removal to refute what she had said. Horrible woman.
 
ycbm said:
No, it doesn't, sorry . It cools the skin until the clay reaches skin temperature and dries a bit and that doesn't take long. It does diddly squat to cool the tendon fibres but it makes the owner feel like they are doing something. If you want to cool below skin level, you need to ice, or cold hose for a long time. I find frozen cabbage best for icing :)
Click to expand...

Clay can hold a large amount of water. the continued evaporation of the water creates a cooling effect which will continue for some hours .There are quicker methods and more effective methods ,but remember,it dates back to a time when many yards did not even have mains water let alone frozen cabbage. This does not mean that it doesnt work though.
 
Discussing my latest riding lesson (I had been learning square turns) and my co-worker piped up with 'Oh my wife rides & she doesn't need lessons anymore, I don't understand why you even have a horse if you can't even get it to turn? She just pulls on the reins and it goes the way she wants. Sometimes if it doesn't go the right way she just pulls that metal thing through it's mouth so it has to move.'
 
cremedemonthe said:
Whilst saddle fitting and flocking on site at a yard and being quizzed accusingly by a riding school owner in I.O.W. if I had scratched her saddle in my clams when I flocked the saddle!
For those in the know will wet themselves laughing at the thought of this for those who don't know, wooden clams are used to hold various saddlery together whilst it's being hand stitched together such as bridlework.
Why she thought I needed to try to put a saddle in my clams to flock it was anyone's guess and would have been a task in itself to do. What made it worse was her Daughter had been on a saddle making course and had made a saddle (she didn't hold it in clams to flock though I hope!) :)
On examination of said saddle, the scratch was easily identified as a rider leaning forward to dismount and the zip on their coat had scratched the saddle, never got an apology of course.
Same stables I found horses tied up and left for a few hours with no one checking them at all. Came across a Shetland tangled up in his headcollar and rope with front foot stuck up in the air and was slowly choking himself in the rope, managed to man handle him to freedom.
I was never asked back!
Click to expand...

We arent all idiots down here I promise! I've got a good idea which riding school it was though!
 
lindsay1993 said:
Discussing my latest riding lesson (I had been learning square turns) and my co-worker piped up with 'Oh my wife rides & she doesn't need lessons anymore, I don't understand why you even have a horse if you can't even get it to turn? She just pulls on the reins and it goes the way she wants. Sometimes if it doesn't go the right way she just pulls that metal thing through it's mouth so it has to move.'
Click to expand...

*shudders*
 
http://www.trm-ireland.com/study-comparative-efficiency-topical-cooling-agents-equine-limb/


Mike007 said:
Clay can hold a large amount of water. the continued evaporation of the water creates a cooling effect which will continue for some hours .There are quicker methods and more effective methods ,but remember,it dates back to a time when many yards did not even have mains water let alone frozen cabbage. This does not mean that it doesnt work though.
Click to expand...

See the research above Mike. It doesn't work.
 
sydney02 said:
Isn't sugar beet low sugar because its just the pulp left after the sugar is extracted?
Click to expand...

The British sugar corporation are not in the business of leaving any sugar in sugar beet pulp,What it does contain is readily digestible non water soluble carbohydrate. Molasses is added in very small quantities to the pellets as a binding agent ,but not to shredded beet pulp. Speady beet is merely shredded beet pulp which has been processed so that it absorbs water quickly.Here is a good link that explains all you need to know http://equusmagazine.com/article/4-didnt-beet-pulp-26851
 
Last edited:
Mike007 said:
The British sugar corporation are not in the business of leaving any sugar in sugar beet pulp,What it does contain is readily digestible non water soluble carbohydrate. Molasses is added in very small quantities to the pellets as a binding agent ,but not to shredded beet pulp. Speady beet is merely shredded beet pulp which has been processed so that it absorbs water quickly.
Click to expand...

Molassed sugar beet brands such as Supabeet have a sugar content of approx 20% whilst Speedibeet is unmolassed and is only 5% sugar, so there is a fairly significant difference in sugar levels between the two, indicating that perhaps the amount of molasses added is not that small!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top