is there anything that indicates to you, if someone can ride?

DragonSlayer

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Fook sake, some of you need to chill....

Whatever else someone wants to do, let them get on with it for fooks sake!!!

Someone told ME what they think I should be doing, they would be told in no uncertain terms where to get off....

I don't care what people think of the way I ride my horses, they are happy, healthy and I have a lot of fun.

A lot of you should be the same and butt-out of peoples business...

'Oh, it drives me nuts!'....is it harming you personally? NO.

'Oh, I hate when I see.....'...is it harming you personally? NO.

So mind you own bleedin' business.
 

rubysmum

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i tend to assume [ prob wrongly] if someone ask to get on my horse & then adjusts the stirrups & girth from on the horse that they have some riding ability - has worked for us:)
Re plodding - my 21 yr old mare has worked hard all her life & now finds downhill out hacking a bit tricky - we hardly reach plod level then - i would like to think that it indicates that i have some awareness of my horses' physical needs - my hacking companions wait patiently for us at the bottom of the hill:)
 

SplashofSoy

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I ususally cant stand hacking at a snails pace and insist on walk on which on a big striding horse can do other peoples heads in as they have to really march! However was guilty of it yesterday. Had schooled in the arena for about 45 mins and worked really well so we went for a hack to really warm down and in both trot and walk we were buckle end and mooched along quite nicely.

From helping occaisionally at the riding school where I livery you can usually tell the riders from non-riders as soon as they approach the horse to get on. Snap judgements made but in majority of cases correct ones.
 

riding_high

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i rode out with someone a few times from the yard, my lad would walk along at a nice steady pace, her pony would be slower than an OAP on crutches. she would shout to me constantly to wait. my horse got very narked about having to stop every 5 strides to wait for her.
she got all huffy when i stopped riding out with her and couldn't understand why no one wanted to.
she never once accepted her pony needed to walk a bit faster to keep up instead of others having to slow or stop for her. that was very frustrating.

when i see people turn up to view a horse wearing brand new gear i think oh heck they are trying too hard. then they would ask for the horse to be trotted up a few times and i would hear them saying to each other that they didn't have a clue but it must look good and makes them look like they knew what they were talking about! lol.
 

Kat

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when i see people turn up to view a horse wearing brand new gear i think oh heck they are trying too hard. then they would ask for the horse to be trotted up a few times and i would hear them saying to each other that they didn't have a clue but it must look good and makes them look like they knew what they were talking about! lol.


Ha ha I never know what to wear to view a horse! As I don't have one at the moment my gear tends to be fairly clean and I have riding things and non-riding things. Somehow it looks presumptious and a bit daft turning up in long boots, beige jodhs and the works, but on the otherhand if you like the look of the horse you want to be able to get on and have a go in safety and comfort. You also don't always know until you arrive whether you will find a super smart competition yard or a dump!

Recently I've tended to wear jeans and a fleece with my boots under the jeans so I can hop on if I need to (although I don't like riding in jeans). I leave hat, stick, gloves etc in the car boot. It also means that if I don't much fancy getting on I can make the excuse of not being dressed for riding. DH finds it even more difficult, a bloke turning up in long boots and jodhs looks even more "OMG we've got a right numpty here" but he finds riding in jeans really uncomfortable, and hates to see people riding in jeans or trackie bottoms.

However I do know why I'm asking for the horse to be trotted up and what to look for!
 

MerrySherryRider

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So often people make superfical judgements that are based on snobbery. Due to illness I had to sell my Warmblood and ISH mares but kept the family H/W coloured cob. New liveries arrived during that time, some of whom were 'serious',competition riders. Once able to ride again, I'd hack the hairy lad out and sometimes take him for a hooley in the school for a bit of light relief.
These new riders never asked me to ride with them or ever asked my opinion about anything. Fair enough, I thought, until I bought a Hanoverian X TB and an ISH. The new horses were quite a handful at first but settled and started working well. Suddenly, I was deemed worthy to be talked to and asked for advice.
What changed ? Not my riding ability. Having a 100% all round cob that is anyones ride, is not an accident or a fluke. Opinions based on what you ride and what you wear (Hi Viz seems to attract snobbery too- luckily motorbikers and runners don't seem to suffer from the same affectation.)
 

dibbin

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Hey, when I had Dylan, then if my normally turbocharged eejit wanted to plod along out hacking I was more than happy to let him!

I don't like seeing horses suffering or in pain due to a rider's incompetence, but beyond that I couldn't care less what someone does with their horse.

Should I be handing out "not only do we have cr*p tack, we can't ride either!" bells of shame?
 
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cobgirlie

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Very interesting your comment Horserider about people asking you ride when you had a cob!!! I found the same with new liveries who have a few TB's. They needed someone to help them exercise them as the lady had broken her ribs, they asked the alot of people on the yard but never me.

So on Sunday I'd come back from hacking out BC and was just taking LC into the school to do some fittening work, he was doing his handstands and party tricks to avoid going into the school, then once in he did his wall of death and trying to bolt out of the door tricks. The TB's owners where in the school having a cuppa, the lady asked if I fancied hacking out with her hubby so her 18hh TB could get out? I said yeah no problem as I'd never ridden anything that big or skinny so as long as she guaranteed it was road safe I'd have a go!! During the hack the husband said they'd not asked me earlier because seeing my 2 boys they'd assumed I was a 'pleasure rider' and with me being over 40 they'd made opinions on my ability!!! After seeing the insane horse that LC is, and how demanding his nature is they thought if I rode that with a smile I could cope with their TB's!!! Turned out after getting over feeling like I was riding a camel, the TB was a lovely hack..and didn't feel as big as he was!! :D
 

MerrySherryRider

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Very interesting your comment Horserider about people asking you ride when you had a cob!!! I found the same with new liveries who have a few TB's. They needed someone to help them exercise them as the lady had broken her ribs, they asked the alot of people on the yard but never me.

So on Sunday I'd come back from hacking out BC and was just taking LC into the school to do some fittening work, he was doing his handstands and party tricks to avoid going into the school, then once in he did his wall of death and trying to bolt out of the door tricks. The TB's owners where in the school having a cuppa, the lady asked if I fancied hacking out with her hubby so her 18hh TB could get out? I said yeah no problem as I'd never ridden anything that big or skinny so as long as she guaranteed it was road safe I'd have a go!! During the hack the husband said they'd not asked me earlier because seeing my 2 boys they'd assumed I was a 'pleasure rider' and with me being over 40 they'd made opinions on my ability!!! After seeing the insane horse that LC is, and how demanding his nature is they thought if I rode that with a smile I could cope with their TB's!!! Turned out after getting over feeling like I was riding a camel, the TB was a lovely hack..and didn't feel as big as he was!! :D

Good on you ! Mind you, after dealing with tank-like cob gittishness with a neck that could pull a steam train, ballet dancing TB's aren't so bad, at least they are slim enough to wrap your legs around and hang on.:D
 

cobgirlie

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Good on you ! Mind you, after dealing with tank-like cob gittishness with a neck that could pull a steam train, ballet dancing TB's aren't so bad, at least they are slim enough to wrap your legs around and hang on.:D

Lol! It was the worry of just slipping off cos he was so thin and remembering to relax my hands, I'm so used to needing brakes it was lovely to just say 'whoo' and he slowed down!! These are very nicely behaved well trained horses I add...not sure I'd have been keen to get on some of the other TB's on the yard!! Was warned to not let his feet hit grass though..ex-hunter and apparently still have alot of running left in him!! Walk and trot I could do but TB speed I think I'd have cried!!! Cobs do have power but speed isn't something I'm used to!!;)
 

RunToEarth

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I don't wear a large amount of Hi Viz, I think it looks stupid, and I don't ride on the road. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I just don't like it.
Generally I don't have a choice about walking on out exercising, however, I like to get things done, I do not ride out for the fun of it 90% of the time.
I tend to judge lots of things about riders in my head, and just giggle along to myself.
I guess I don't go for a type, although I do think people sitting wonky on horses, ambling about, decked in hi viz, full of green brushing boots tend to attract my attention.
I'm not bothered about who can ride or who can't, unless they are getting on my horses, or about to come into contact with them!
Whilst I'm here I also don't think I am a perfect rider either, I have my faults.
 

TicTac

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Fook sake, some of you need to chill....

Whatever else someone wants to do, let them get on with it for fooks sake!!!

Someone told ME what they think I should be doing, they would be told in no uncertain terms where to get off....

I don't care what people think of the way I ride my horses, they are happy, healthy and I have a lot of fun.

A lot of you should be the same and butt-out of peoples business...

'Oh, it drives me nuts!'....is it harming you personally? NO.

'Oh, I hate when I see.....'...is it harming you personally? NO.

So mind you own bleedin' business.


My thoughts exactly!
 

Starbucks

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Crikey. I'm speechless for once.

Why? I just think it’s rude when people go on about how stupid people are for not wearing Hi Viz – it’s personal choice and I think people should be able to make their own mind up on the matter without having people tell them they are stupid/a moron/don’t care about their horse etc. etc.

There was/is no reason for people to get so defensive, no one else has – apart from the pro hi viz people!

I DO wear I Viz BTW.

Kerelli – I think I’ve seen in the past that you like to use the word “Cretin” to describes people who do not wear Hi Viz, which is.. nice!
 
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abina

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It is just a personal viewpoint that I whenever I ride either in the school, a lesson, or riding out on the roads that my horse and I are turned out correctly and neatly, Example - horse groomed, no mud and certainly no bedding in the mane or tail, Hoof oil on and mane and tail dampened over. Corectly fitted exercise newmarket sheet if cold, clean tack and saddle pad. Myself clean breeches (certainly not jods) correctly fitting jacket, that is zipped up, (Hi Viz if on roads,) Clean boots , hair net, gloves at all times regardless of the weather, and of course a correctly fitted hat.

I'm just a stickler for old fashioned horsemanship. Blame Colonel and Mrs Molly Sievwright and Pammy - my old training ground when Tallands was like a finishing school ! I'm probably the only person on here that straps their horses as well !

Scruffyness = in my mind that you don't care. Personal view only ! ;-)

Incidently all my RS horses are always turned out for every lesson in the same code, and hell fire if they are not !!
 

kerilli

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Why? I just think it’s rude when people go on about how stupid people are for not wearing Hi Viz – it’s personal choice and I think people should be able to make their own mind up on the matter without having people tell them they are stupid/a moron/don’t care about their horse etc. etc.

There was/is no reason for people to get so defensive, no one else has – apart from the pro hi viz people!

I DO wear I Viz BTW.

Kerelli – I think I’ve seen in the past that you like to use the word “Cretin” to describes people who do not wear Hi Viz, which is.. nice!

Yep, I do. I think ANYTHING one can do to give drivers an extra few seconds to notice you and perhaps start slowing down, and so give your horse a better chance, is worth it. It's so easy to forget that we can hear a vehicle coming, and hopefully get out of the way etc, but in a car with windows shut, radio blaring or chatting handsfree, even just doing 40mph, a driver is oblivious, sometimes until it's too late to react appropriately to a horse being in the road...
tbh i hadn't even mentioned hi-viz on this thread, but the attitudes to it shock me to the core!
 

Starbucks

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Yep, I do. I think ANYTHING one can do to give drivers an extra few seconds to notice you and perhaps start slowing down, and so give your horse a better chance, is worth it. It's so easy to forget that we can hear a vehicle coming, and hopefully get out of the way etc, but in a car with windows shut, radio blaring or chatting handsfree, even just doing 40mph, a driver is oblivious, sometimes until it's too late to react appropriately to a horse being in the road...
tbh i hadn't even mentioned hi-viz on this thread, but the attitudes to it shock me to the core!


I didn’t say you had! Well you can be shocked at my attitude and I can be shocked that you call people cretins for not wearing Hi Viz. Do you think you should just be able to say whatever you want about non Hi Viz wearing people without anyone saying anything back? How is my attitude any worse than yours? You think you are in the right and so your cretin comments are justified – but people have different minds and different opinions!!
 

MerrySherryRider

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Why? I just think it’s rude when people go on about how stupid people are for not wearing Hi Viz – it’s personal choice and I think people should be able to make their own mind up on the matter without having people tell them they are stupid/a moron/don’t care about their horse etc. etc.

There was/is no reason for people to get so defensive, no one else has – apart from the pro hi viz people!

I DO wear I Viz BTW.

Kerelli – I think I’ve seen in the past that you like to use the word “Cretin” to describes people who do not wear Hi Viz, which is.. nice!

Personal choice or personal responsibility ? The decision not to wear hi viz affects the horse and other road users too. There was an accident outside my former yard, 4 horses and riders, The two girls of 11 and 13 were wearing hi viz, the two adults weren't. A mother driving her two small children home didn't see the adults and those two horses ended up on her bonnet and died in the road. I don't think that motorist got home that night, put her children to bed and forgot about the horror of the accident.
Think the dead horses might have preferred their riders had given them a few seconds grace by wearing hi viz too, it just might have ended differently.

I'll happily look like a novice, a numpty, nervous rider or what ever other justification the scoffers use.
 

Dobby

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I agree with Starbucks actually. Where has this obsession with going riding absolutely bedecked in bright yellow come from? I'm not talking a general tabard btw. Obviously we can understand WHY you would wear hi vis...but then if the danger is so great that you WILL DEFINITELY DIE if you go on the road without wearing it then why do you go on the roads anyway? Once again I say that drivers are not blind, they CAN see you without hi vis, and if they aren't paying attention then whether you are wearing any or not it's not going to help.

Also if you think that hi vis will give you an extra 3/4 seconds for a driver to see you if they are speeding round a corner not looking at the road you are sorely mistaken because in many situations there ISN'T time for them to slow down.

Yes accidents happen, but the amount is not dictated by how many flashing lights and POLITE tabards you have (which I find distracting actually as a passenger in a car).

Not having a go at anyone - just offering a different viewpoint. And for the record I wear a basic hi-vis tabard when I go on the roads.
 

kerilli

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yes horserider, exactly.
fwiw i wear a tabard, that's it. my horses aren't bedecked in eye-searing yellow, one in particular would have a meltdown and wouldn't get out of the stable in it actually.
i guess the thing is that i cannot for the life of me think of any good reason NOT to wear hi-viz, just in case, for the sake of the horses and other road users.
 

paddi22

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anything that helps a driver make a decision a fraction of a second earlier can only be a good thing. i hate when riders or cyclists don't wear high vis. same with pedestrians on country roads at dusk.
 

Tharg

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It is personal responsibility to wear hi-viz/reflective gear. It is up to each road user to do the utmost to make themselves visible. A rider/cyclist/walker/driver can't expect everyone else to make all the effort.

Horse riders get a hard enough time on the roads as it is.
 

RunToEarth

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Hi Viz gurus-
Now I rarely ride on public roads, I am very lucky, but-
Personally, when weather conditions are bad (IE foggy, dull, dark and poor visibility) I just will not ride my horse on the road, no amount of Hi Viz could cange my mind on that, I would just dabble around the school or the fields.
IMO I think it is extremely stupid and dangerous to ride out on any public highway on a horse in such conditions, when all other roadusers find the driving conditions such that they need to use their headlights. I have seen so many hi viz-ers riding out in these conditions, evidently thinking their hi viz is a lot more hi viz than it is in the fog- I would think they had far less common sense than myself.
And really isn't think what it comes down to, common sense?
If people, personally feel they don't need hi viz, why ram it down their throats. Most people (asides from the hi viz clan that love to hack in the dark...) have a reasonable level of common sense when it comes to deciding what they should or shouldn't do, and the hi viz debate is rather like the hat debate...yawn.
 

Kat

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Can we leave the Hi-Viz comments to the Hi-viz thread?

The thread was about those things you see that make you go "argh numpty", it was (I thought) supposed to be a light hearted thread for a bit of fun.

I appreciate that for some people seeing someone be-decked in every item of hi-viz available is something that screams "argh numpty" - perhaps because it has that air of "I've just bought the whole shebang from the ride-away catalogue and am wearing just what the model wears". I don't think anyone is saying that anyone wearing a stitch of hi-viz can't ride, or that wearing a tabbard is stupid.

Some-people may chose not to wear hi-viz, like some chose not to wear BPs or hats, we are all free to draw our own conclusions about the merits of their decision making, but can we keep the attempts at conversion and the justifications to the dedicated threads? I was enjoying this one earlier, sniggering at the back to front half chaps :)
 

Starbucks

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can we leave the hi-viz comments to the hi-viz thread?

The thread was about those things you see that make you go "argh numpty", it was (i thought) supposed to be a light hearted thread for a bit of fun.

I appreciate that for some people seeing someone be-decked in every item of hi-viz available is something that screams "argh numpty" - perhaps because it has that air of "i've just bought the whole shebang from the ride-away catalogue and am wearing just what the model wears". I don't think anyone is saying that anyone wearing a stitch of hi-viz can't ride, or that wearing a tabbard is stupid.

Some-people may chose not to wear hi-viz, like some chose not to wear bps or hats, we are all free to draw our own conclusions about the merits of their decision making, but can we keep the attempts at conversion and the justifications to the dedicated threads? I was enjoying this one earlier, sniggering at the back to front half chaps :)

thank you!
 

RunToEarth

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This is probably going to get up someone's nose... but horses ridden without any noseband, yacking their heads about as they please, with the rider being tugged one way and the other.
 

Becca-84

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I was enjoying this one earlier, sniggering at the back to front half chaps :)

I met my Spanish neighbour out hacking a few months ago...his horse was wearing brushing boots upside down and back to front :rolleyes: Numpty :p He was also tugging its head about in massive bit while jabbing in the side with huge spurs to make it jog about on the spot because he thought it made him look cool :mad: Idiot.
 

Brambridge04

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I ride with no noseband, she had a large head and the noseband doesnt fit, so i am searching, however i dont feel this actually impacts her whilst being broken/backed??

One thing ive seen that makes me think ARGH NUMPTY, is teenage girls, bragging how uncontrollable there 13hh "ponios" are that they need a gag, grackle etc, when said pony never seems to put a foot wrong!

OR people fully clipping only very very very lightly unregularly worked horses, as it looks nicer.....and they hate moulting.
 
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