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

Horse owner for 30+yrs. Vet told her that her cob was morbidly obese. Her response to me, "of course these vets are so used to seeing thoroughbreds they don't know cobs are supposed to look like this".
 
How much bran shall I feed, I don't think it will last long, can't feed much or will cost me a fortune........produces a cereal box of kellogs all bran!
 
"My horse only gets a small net at 4pm til I give him his morning net at 7am because he needs to rest his stomach. It's bad for them to be eating all the time."
 
Someone who's horse had bad colic once... 'I feed him mint so he burps reguarly and doesn't colic again'. She also fed tiny hay nets and left him stood with nothing for 12+ hours because otherwise he would colic...

Eta. The first bit was said to a friend who also couldn't believe her ears!
 
Last edited:
That they had to leave the light on in the stable overnight so the horse could see to eat its food. Also friend of said person had screaming fit on yard when grooming her share horse's back legs and fetlocks and came cross his ergots for the first time :)
 
Constantly being told "He needs more weight on" from people who of known much better than I do of course ;)

- He being a Highland pony prone to laminitis, I openly admit I like him lean, rather that than vets bills and a sick pony!
 
c2b said:
Horse owner for 30+yrs. Vet told her that her cob was morbidly obese. Her response to me, "of course these vets are so used to seeing thoroughbreds they don't know cobs are supposed to look like this".
Click to expand...

The next time someone says this to me I'm going to roll my eyes so hard they'll fall out of my head! Funnily enough it's only those without experience of laminitis that think obese animals are acceptable...wonder why...
 
Got to the yard one day to find fellow experienced livery virtually hopping from one foot to another telling her horse they only had to wait 3 more minutes. I overheard and asked 3 minutes until what. To ride apparently. She'd fed him 57 minutes before but needed to wait the full 60 minutes before she could ride :o
 
College lecturer to student, "You can't teach a horse to long rein unless they have learned how to lunge first." Student, "well my horse long reins and she has never been lunged." Lecturer, "She must have been before you bought her". Student: "But she came to me as a semi-feral foal!".

Horses don't eat in the dark.

Standing up in the stirrups takes the weight off your horse's back - only if you float!!!
 
Rugs cause laminitis. (From an equine lecturer!!) Now if she had said it was wise for fat ponies to shiver the weight off over the winter then I get it, but it was just rugs apparently.
 
EQUIDAE said:
Quite often sweet itch is caused by lice
Click to expand...

Umm, is it?! I've never known sweetitch to be cured by delousing :/

c2b said:
Horse owner for 30+yrs. Vet told her that her cob was morbidly obese. Her response to me, "of course these vets are so used to seeing thoroughbreds they don't know cobs are supposed to look like this".
Click to expand...

I despair how many people think my fat cob is "perfect" Hes not, hes fat :( My YO wont accept that hes fat. Hes gained 50kgs in the last 6 weeks, but shes adamant hes lost weight?! Lots of people think very fat cobs are fine and I just dont get it!
 
FrankieCob said:
I despair how many people think my fat cob is "perfect" Hes not, hes fat :( My YO wont accept that hes fat. Hes gained 50kgs in the last 6 weeks, but shes adamant hes lost weight?! Lots of people think very fat cobs are fine and I just dont get it!
Click to expand...

Whenever my YM sees me weigh taping mine, she says he looks fine, cobs are meant to look like this. I tell her he's fat and needs to lose a lot of weight.
 
cinnamontoast said:
Whenever my YM sees me weigh taping mine, she says he looks fine, cobs are meant to look like this. I tell her he's fat and needs to lose a lot of weight.
Click to expand...

Mine told me off a couple of weeks ago as apparently I wouldn't like people measuring me all the time?! I'd blumming love it! I might lose more weight if I thought someone was chasing me down with a tape once a week :lol: But all joking aside, she genuinely doesnt see it, and to be fair he looks amazing, just fat :( I think pretty much everyone doesnt recognise a fat cob!
 
FrankieCob said:
Umm, is it?! I've never known sweetitch to be cured by delousing :/
Click to expand...

The prescription only sweet itch remedies are the same active ingredient as the louse treatments - draw what you will from that

ETA - clever marketing as no one likes to think their horse has lice.

ETA 2 - clipped out my friends sweet itchy horse and sure enough little biddies...
 
Last edited:
My horsey friend (who owns two natives herself) saw my Sec A companion pony wearing a grazing muzzle in the height of summer and asked, "why's he wearing that - does he bite?"

Speechless haha!!!
 
Pmsl auslander, that's great. I did tell a starter once on the XC to get the ambulance ready as I was bound to fall off (my sisters nuts pony, who would either go at 100mph or spin amd plunge and refuse to do anything) sure enough I flew off at the 3rd finde, although did carry on.

Since going bf, the amount of stuff people say about shoes, supporting tendons and all other kinds of rubbish is mind boggling. I can't convince them otherwise, and don't bother, just nod and walk away.
 
ester said:
they often do - if a horse can't get it's head up
Click to expand...

A friends.horse went up and over on her and cut her face open because she was told draw reins stop rearing. His horse had learnt to tuck her head in as.she went up, unbalanced her self and went over backwards because the draw reins went too tight as the rider didn't release.

I hate them and they should.be.burned.
 
'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.

'How will he manage without shoes - there is gravel and tarmac at the yard!' - this from panic-stricken Pony Club instructor who thought horse would never cope at camp if he had to put his tootsies on anything but the softest turf without shoes on. How he managed at camp and still came away with trophies for dressage and jumping, and with all four feet intact, I will never know!

'He is old now - his feet are really worn down' - this from a horse owning friend (bless her!). In fact old cob just has legs that are hairier than mine and in winter his hair comes half way down his (beautiful barefoot) hooves.
 
EQUIDAE said:
The prescription only sweet itch remedies are the same active ingredient as the louse treatments - draw what you will from that

ETA - clever marketing as no one likes to think their horse has lice.

ETA 2 - clipped out my friends sweet itchy horse and sure enough little biddies...
Click to expand...

Or 3 - the same active ingredient kills both lice and midges.
 
Micropony said:
Someone I know, who has forgotten more about horses than I will ever learn, is emphatic that it's high levels of protein in feed that makes horses fizzy, rather than sugar or starch. Is that a thing?
Click to expand...

Someone explained this to me the other day. Apparently when compound feeds (nuts and mixes) first came out they were differentiated by the protein levels. So you could buy mix with x%, x% or x% protein. The protein level was printed in big letters on the bag. Of course the higher protein feeds were designed for harder working horses and were also much higher in starch and sugar, but this wasn't mentioned on the bag so of course everyone blamed the protein levels when horses went nuts.
 
EventingMum said:
Someone who had a lifetime of experience came onto the yard when one of their horses was clearly colicking and proceeded to feed a bag of carrots then put it on the lunge for a good canter round.
Click to expand...

This is a well known traveller cure for colic and it often works. Another variant is to put them in a lorry and drive as fast as you can on bendy roads. I am NOT joking, both these things can work, and were very useful in the days before drugs. A proportion of horse sent to hospital to be treated for colic arrive and recover spontaneously, suggesting that the journey helped.
 
Last edited:
Isn't sweet itch specifically a allergy to midge saliva?

So a lousy horse can be itchy, but only a horse allergic to midge saliva can have sweet itch?
 
ycbm said:
Isn't sweet itch specifically a allergy to midge saliva?

So a lousy horse can be itchy, but only a horse allergic to midge saliva can have sweet itch?
Click to expand...

As far as I understand it ;)

I also know plenty that lunge in the early stages of colic, no added carrots though :p
 
Slightlyconfused said:
A friends.horse went up and over on her and cut her face open because she was told draw reins stop rearing. His horse had learnt to tuck her head in as.she went up, unbalanced her self and went over backwards because the draw reins went too tight as the rider didn't release.

I hate them and they should.be.burned.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. Never use draw reins on a rearer. They learn to go up with them and then cannot rebalance themselves as they are unable to stretch their necks forward to save themselves falling over backwards. On a rearer, draw reins can be lethal.
 
laura_nash said:
Someone explained this to me the other day. Apparently when compound feeds (nuts and mixes) first came out they were differentiated by the protein levels. So you could buy mix with x%, x% or x% protein. The protein level was printed in big letters on the bag. Of course the higher protein feeds were designed for harder working horses and were also much higher in starch and sugar, but this wasn't mentioned on the bag so of course everyone blamed the protein levels when horses went nuts.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see! Thanks Laura.
 
PonyIAmNotFood said:
Someone who's horse had bad colic once... 'I feed him mint so he burps reguarly and doesn't colic again'. She also fed tiny hay nets and left him stood with nothing for 12+ hours because otherwise he would colic...

Eta. The first bit was said to a friend who also couldn't believe her ears!
Click to expand...

Mint is good for the digestion, nothing to do with burping but something that improves digestion could help a horse who colics.

If the bad colic was recent, the feeding almost nothing could also be necessary. I saw a horse repeatedly colic (3 bad colics in less than 3mths, getting closer and closer together) and on vet advice was virtually starved to prevent it happening again. It started with 2 slices of small bale hay in 24hrs, by the end of the week it could graze half hour wearing a muzzle and eat a feed balancer in a handful of chaff. The amount of food was gradually built up from there over many weeks. At it's worse it looked like an emaciated charity case, but the regime was necessary and the horse made a full recovery, returning to a normal diet and weight.

ETA: my "dumbest thing" was the YO who insisted acorns aren't poisonous to horses because pigs like to eat acorns. The yard had no pigs, so it wasn't a case of the pigs getting there first. More that she considered horses and pigs to be similar.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top