Never talk about politics, religion or HORSES!

S

Starbucks

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 May 2007
Messages
15,799
Visit site
Seriously, I think talking horse is much more dangerous with horsey folk!

Very much so on HHO!!! I'm 29 but can remember in my younger days there was more of a set way in which you should deal with horses. Now everyone has so many opinions? Shoes / no shoes, rugs, feeding, bits, supplements, it's a mine field!!

Not everyone can be right, but everyone thinks they are right. Is everyone wrong most of the time or do we just know our own horses? Or are there just a lot of unhappy horses out there?

Thoughts?
 
Dear Star Bucks - I have 20 years on you - but despite your youthfulness, you speak much sense! But I have to say though I wade in on responses, I have also learnt much from this forum - and ideas do move on, and we would be poorer if we did not acknowledge that. What does bore me is when we get people who think that their way is the only way, and woe betide those who don't agree. Confuscious (might had said) there are many ways to skin a cat................!
 
Tell me about it! I started riding two years ago and though it would be a relatively straightforward task. It took me very little time to find out it was anything but and that's Before you embark in the whole horse care and tack / equipment, training and handling. I think that all we can do is find what works best for you a your horse, understand why it works and stick with it. As long as the first priority is respect for and wellbeing of your horse. And keep an open mind. :)
 
To be fair to the horse owning community, it really isn't just us :D I was in a craft group and cast on some knitting, to be told rather forcefully, by a normally quiet and retiring woman, that the 'thumb' method I was using was wrong :eek: She is as passionate about knitting as we are about horses :p :D
 
There wasnt the communications there are now. More owners, less training before ownership and many many sofa experts who no one meets. Criticism much easier than demonstrating. Still no one makes us read these forums....:D
 
its strange isn t it , i mean everyone has an opinion on other poeples horses, and they are more likely to come forward with the negative than the positive.
Coutless people told me where i had gone wrong buying my monster and how i should get rid of him. that he was too much for me and i had over horsed myself.
One older gentleman commented on how well we had done getting him going.Other than that no one had anything positive to say when i was hacking him out for hours on end in just a snaffle a year later.
 
Yup agree!! Gone are the days when you didn't have to justify your every action with your horse and folk just let other folk be.

What annoys me are the folk that use 'welfare' as a reason to do things with other folks horses. Yes there are things that are done that are downright cruelty in its many forms but for the average horse on a yard that isn't managed the same as yours should you really be sticking your oar in just vecause its not what you would do? I wouldn't, I may have opinions on stuff but it doesn't give me the right to impose myself on another.

I just think the horsey world has gone a bit mad and folk just can't leave others be and agree to disagree :(
 
I think too that even the mildest person can get unintentionally involved when its something they have good reason to feel passionate about. I know a lady who's horse has suffered from lami in the past & needs careful monitoring because he still has the odd mild attack. Initial attack caused by her own admission by too rich grass, despite him not being overweight. As a result, she is somewhat paranoid. When daughters pony got a piece of metal jammed in her foot & subsequently minor bruising & abcess, she was quite insistent I treat as a lami attack too just incase. Despite the obvious cause & the fact farrier had been out to treat. Not because she's a horrid busybody, just because she'd hate to see another go through what hers did. So I accepted her talks on autumn attacks etc in good grace, because I could understand her good intentions. Likewise I am rather zealous over headcollars left on. Years ago I knew a horse who was left for seconds, got headcollar caught on door & was pts days later because the damage was irreversible. So I do often politely mention the danger if I see it done.
 
I don't think it's horses in particular I just think it's the access to the Internet that is meaning people read more information and find their own way of doing things based on what they find, some people are swayed by charismatic personalities, others by gadgets, others by flash rugs etc etc others just come to a happy place of what they feel comfortable with and stick with that

It's probably the same in all hobbies, I show poultry and the differences in opinion there are huge especially now that chickens can be seen as pets. A mention of plastic coops can easily result in to a spiral of lectures!
 
I think it is pretty clear whom to or not to listen too - and yes care does vary horse to horse... the ones in RL that get me are the ones that bang on about treating each horse as an individual..... but then feed/rug/excercise them the same - even though they are different ends of the scale ie a tb and a cob.... always made me laugh when the cob was rugged up to his ears like the tb and she could never ride the cob as it was on the same feed as the ribby tb..... yeah right - treated as individuals you say ! ?
 
I agree! I have Murphy (the little guy in my avatar!). I started riding him Easter 2001 and we got on great after we figured each other out.

Two years ago I was told he was being pts as the SSPCA kept being called out over trivial rubbish such as too much mud at the gate and a horse being tied with a bag over his face. A nosebag... His owner was getting worked up and panicky as Murphy was losing weight due to his age. Of course there was no way I was letting this happen-I rugged him up earlier, bought him extra feed on the sly and fed him every day having to take feed to work to get him on the way home etc and saved him that year.

This time last year was the final straw, I was allowed to take him provided I could find a place to keep him and not loan him out as a companion etc. Luckily I did.
He lost weight this year-at 26 and after a move of course it was going to happen I just wasn't expecting it.

All through this summer I was told he wasn't going to make it to next spring, his coat was dull etc. Instead of trying to help, I was being told my pony was in fact on his last legs, nice! This weekend, I had his rugs off for a groom, the same person told me that he looks better now than he did all summer, shiny coat, bright eyes etc. Although still under the weight I want him at, I would have liked the support I needed at the time to help him instead of working it out alone.

I have to find what works for him, but because his feeds were so big-I have to add water to his VV so it looks much bigger than it is-it was wrong, I should feed him XYZ instead. Well it didn't work for him, that's why I changed it!!
Rant over...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top