"Horsey people" that havent got a clue!

I had a call about my 15.3 TB advertised as highly strung needs quiet confident rider as can be quirky.
This lady was very very experienced and had owned/ worked with horses all her life. She was going to have my horse (didn't need to see him, we could just deliver) for her 3 year old daughter to learn to ride on..... Umm really?
 
I haven't managed the crossed reins yet, but I have managed to have one rein on the snaffle ring and the other on the gag ring on my universal :o took me a good 5 mins to realise why he was responding weirdly to my aids!

The more I read this thread, the more I remember... such as when a pony has a phase of not loading, this bloke thought he was some kind of horse whisperer and claimed that he would get the pony loaded- by running up behind it with his arms out shouting 'GERRR OOOONNNN IIITTT!!!' . The bloke was quite overweight so couldn't move very quickly and ended up in pretty much the same situation as the pony.. on his backside in the middle of the yard! But of course, not to look a fool he THEN went on to lecture on how he'd connected with the pony and would therefore eventually be able to load it after a few days, would you believe it?! :rolleyes:
 
Another one to admit crossing the reins over the head, good job my pony was so good!

I had a mates mare at my yard once, she was terrified of it, so mum volunteered me to reschool it so they could get the price they paid for it back. It was out in a field with other mares and geldings.

Lad who bought her was obsessive that she was pregnant, because she was milking, explained she couldn't be as only geldings in field. He told us we were paying for vets bills etc if she was, so we began to worry that maybe she was and it had happened before she moved there, or my pony was a rig.

Anyway, he paid for a vet to come out, stated it wasn't pregnant. Lad said it was rubbish and that she definitely was, so paid for another vet to come out.

Upon the 2nd vet saying it wasn't pregnant, the lad decided the mare must have 'absorbed' the (by now 6 month old) foal! Idiot!!

Bexcy-bee x
 
My friends husband was left in charge of the pony while friend went on shopping spree and was asked to rug it up if the weather turned to rain. It did and he went to rug her, she stood quietly by the fence while he proceeded to dress her unwittingly having included the lower fence rail in the surcingles. Luckily the pony being a poppet had accepted she was 'tied up' and stood still until someone rescued her later that day!!
 
We just bought my son a new horse from a lovely novice lady. He was advertised as a 14hh irish cob 5 yrs. When we got there he was bigger but that was fine with us we fell in love and bought him home. We decided to measure him a few weeks later and when we contacted her to let her know how he was and told her he had measured in at 15hh she said "wow you must have good grass "
Bless her she still thinks he grew that much in two weeks
 
Hoopsa said:
Love these stories! :):)
My 'best' ones are about a novice livery who told me that his horse had suddenly become one sided and very difficult to 'steer'. He hadn't put the reins over the head so both reins were on the same side of the neck..... Then he put the saddle on with the numnah on top! I am not kidding and was very pleased for the horse when it got put on working livery. At least it got looked after properly.
Then there was another livery who was so happy to have bought her pony a rug to wear in the field. Shame it was a quilted stable rug.....
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I went to a livery yard once where the "Yard Manager" quite happily turned the "Full and Part Livery horses"
out in their stable rugs!!!!!!!
 
The ignorance is astounding. I find it hard to believe that there are so many people who think its ok to drive a badly maintained horsebox.
 
I got on with crossed reins during my Riding and Road safety exam :eek: Luckily they realised nerves had got the better of me and I'm not a total div (maybe) :p

I used to be on a livery yard with a lady who bought a very tricky, fit TB because she felt sorry for it. She'd ridden once when on holiday in NZ but thought it would be ok because she could ride a motorbike.

There are people on my current yard who treat their pony like a proper child - right down to buying it new things 'because she likes showing off new rugs' to over rugging it 'because she likes to be cosy' :rolleyes:
 
Brilliant thread! (scary that there is so much material for it) Just some of the ones I can remember:

A buyer who turned up to try a horse and asked how to put a headcollar on (the frightening thing about this was that she was not going to keep the horse on a livery yard - just at home by herself)

A foreign riding trainer who had worked with horses for 40 years but on the odd occasion he did yard work managed to put a rug on backwards and I had to rescue him from a yearling who had put her ears back at him (when I got there the yearling was calmly stood at the front of her stable looking quizzically at the large man curled up on the floor in the corner)

A woman who turned her horse out in high vis so that the other horses wouldn't accidentally bump into it.

And perhaps most worryingly - a woman who asked quizzically why sugarbeet pellets had to be soaked, since the liquid in the horse's stomach would do the same job, and surely that was how the manufacturers had designed it to be fed.
 
Bobbly said:
My friends husband was left in charge of the pony while friend went on shopping spree and was asked to rug it up if the weather turned to rain. It did and he went to rug her, she stood quietly by the fence while he proceeded to dress her unwittingly having included the lower fence rail in the surcingles. Luckily the pony being a poppet had accepted she was 'tied up' and stood still until someone rescued her later that day!!
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what a good pony lol
 
My friend, who has been a horse owner for 12 years bought a 4yo in January this year. I commented that the hoofs looked very long and friend delightedly told me how great this horse was with shoes. 15 weeks and they still hadn't fallen off!!!!!!! I killed him, I read and spelt him. The farrier did the same. Horse now gets shod every 6 weeks. He also insisted that his other horses' saddle was a perfect fit on the new one. He wouldn't listen to anyone until the horse was visibly flinching. Is it any wonder the horse lost a load of weight and was very ribby and hippy. Of course friend didn't notice, it had to be pointed out. I eventually managed to persuade him to get lessons from a very good instructor so at least he is not ruining the horse any longer.

I'm amazed at how clueless he is. He has a great relationship with his old horse but it is obvious who wears the saddle in that relationship. He is treating the new horse as if it is the old horse and it is not working for the new horse. However, he is learning and doesn't repeat his mistakes. Those are all the big mistakes. It is going a lot better now.
 
I used to work in a book shop and one day an older lady came in and asked if we had any horse care books. she said her son and his family had just bought two horses and didn't know anything about them, she said they didn't even know how to brush them. She was so worried about the horses, bless her. I felt sorry for the horses and her.
 
Theres a girl at my yard. She recently arrived with a fly rug for her horse. Horse is 15.2hh, takes 6ft-6ft3 rugs. She arrives with a 4ft9 rug, puts it on her horse and turns it out. When we got there, the poor thing was rubbed all over, so we took the rug off her and texted the girl saying ''we took your horses rug off as it was rubbing her raw, it is about a foot and a bit too short. So she calls us going mental ''you are going to pay the vet bills when my horse gets skin cancer from getting too burnt in the sun!'' your horse is dark bay, with no white whatsoever, and no pink skin anywhere :rolleyes:
That same girl also watched me pour hibiscrub into one of my feed buckets, what she didn't see was that i actually cleaned the bucket before that, and i was going to use it purely as a washing wound bucket from now on, as my horse had a nasty overreach cut. Next thing i know, the amount of my hibiscrub has gone down by half. We check her horses stable and sure, she added hibiscrub to her horses feed :eek: luckily poor thing had enough sense not to touch the feed!
Wrapped her horses leg in vet wrap, just because it had grazed its skin, it wasn't even a cut. The bad thing was that she wrapped in round so tight that the skin above and below the vet wrap was bulging and restricting blood flow. I took it off as soon as i saw it!
She also regularly turns her horse out in fleeces, stable rugs etc.
She also once put on its fly veil, and turned it out with the fly veil tied to the horses mane, no headcollar, nothing. This was harmless though so we just laughed about it.
I probably have a lot more but am to sleepy to think of them all :o
 
I have seen a horse owner of 6 years, terrified to ride her own horse, put her new brushing boots on upside down and back to front and then ride out in them.... I thought that was awful ignorant owners... this thread is just OMG! There should be a competency test before you are allowed to keep a horse!
 
PingPongPony- That's the lack of common sense I was talking about :eek: how can..? ..just.. no words..

Oooh the laminitis post just reminded me of when my friend's Shetland suddenly went lame on the lush grash- I said to the owner, 'get the vet out I think that pony has laminitis'

But guess what?

She was insistant that the pony had itchy legs from the grass (because she had itchy legs herself) and that's why he was walking funny. She did get the vet out thank god
 
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Young lass took my pony out for a two hour hack was a little disgruntled when she struggled to gallop however was deeply embarrassed when she got off and realised the reins were firmly crossed behind the pony's jaw. Good pony had just done what she was asked in spite of not being able to move her jaw.
 
Hoof_Prints said:
PingPongPony- That's the lack of common sense I was talking about :eek: how can..? ..just.. no words..

Oooh the laminitis post just reminded me of when my friend's Shetland suddenly went lame on the lush grash- I said to the owner, 'get the vet out I think that pony has laminitis'

But guess what?

She was insistant that the pony had itchy legs from the grass (because she had itchy legs herself) and that's why he was walking funny. She did get the vet out thank god
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OMG is she still your friend? Was the shetty OK?
 
I must admit when my sister and I were younger, after much nagging and many riding lessons my parents gave in and bought us a pony to share.... we didnt have a clue...but had someone to oversee us... but the funniest thing was the horse dealer who sold me my second horse... and who I asked to clip my horse declared "you should not clip a dun horse!" "you just dont clip duns!" weird! lol
 
Have to admit, I was one of them idiots who thought hey, I can ride a bit, so a nice ex racer will be great....woah...reality check. I thought I was real confident, pah! No, it was ignorance...I couldn't even put a bridle on, the headcollar was like a Rubiks cube, I'd laugh, but it really made me fear horses...so my stupidity cost me a hell of a lot. Now, I have a cob x, but still can't get back on him, because of my first experience of the thoroughbred. Hey, I aren't as bad as some on here, lol, but I am and have always been willing to learn. But ladies, we have to start somewhere, so please for the horses sake, help out the novices when you can, show them the ropes and cut them some slack. I was just excited to fulfill a childhood dream of ownership, don't worry, I paid the price, strapped to a hospital bed...I was a bloody idiot, hands up x
 
Yes , cut the novices some slack but teach them.Have to agree with you cherrydan. The sad thing is that with each generation we loose so much of our equestrian heritage. I have been so privileged to have learned from ,for example the old git who used to come down to the yard where we kept our horses. But the old git had been a "corporal of the horse"during the first world war (think war horse) . What he didnt know ,probably wasnt worth knowing. He must have thought we were such mugs yet he never said and he always helped . Rest his soul.
 
Thank you Mike007, the old git sounds lovely, lol, I could have done with an old git a few years back, but hey that horse taught me a lot, some of it I'm grateful for, a lot I'm not. Thank god I was on a livery yard with just another guy, I think my ears would have been burning, lol, had it been women. And when I look back, I can honestly say I've never wanted that horse soo much, I had no right to own an ex racer, but while he was with me he was soo loved and well looked after, albeit with a badly tied bridle. I just can't wait to be confident, but that's another bloody issue....x
 
Confidence is like a bank account. you have to keep putting small amounts in and avoid any major withdrawls and eventualy you find ... you are confident. PS I am seriously overdrawn at the moment:D
 
Lol, I like that, trouble is I'm not even spending, but its still taking standing orders. I think it's brave of us to admit it though, lol, god, I'm in awe of anyone brave, three years after my horse accident and it still cuts like it was yesterday. My horse has a real good time though, mooching about a field, no riding, just eating...little beggar!
 
Aaah that is so true Mike.

Loving these little stories. I think my favourite is the post about having experience with the beautiful palomino Arab stallion from the facebook game, I must add computer game related experience to my CV... I've been a plumber, a hedgehog...

I mostly think it is quite sweet when people get it wrong and am happy to help out. Some of these are shocking though!

My friend who has had horses for years and years was told by some other 'experienced horseman' that they can't get laminitis til they are 4... bet they're dreading that birthday!
 
OMG people!! If those stories are true then I am terrified! Never, ever selling my horses if I can help it!!!

I haven't had anything as bad...

One lady turned her ponies out one a rainy day, in cottons.

At TAFE, after 6 months of handling horses 4 times a week for 4-5 hourse each day, we still had a few idiots who would put halters on upside down, couldn't saddle a horse to save themselves and put boots on upside down, inside out and back to front.

But the worst was a lady who spent 45 mins trying to load her 4 yr old stallion (who was a bargey little maggot with no manners) onto a float with a float boot that was worn by a mare, thinking because he could smell her, he would load straight away. After 45 mins, I couldn't take it any more. I grabbed a bucket of feed and pretty much turned myself into a molasses covered treat (because said stallion liked to throw his food everywhere too) to get the little prat (ok 16.3hh soild as a brick s**tter) onto the float. With the help of the feed bin, a bum rope and a whip... he loaded in 2 mins.
 
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