hotpointshowjumper
New User
I've been gathering a list of my pet peeves lately, who knew so many thing annoyed me?!
Number 1:
Rolling.
I spent a good hour this morning grooming my horse, ready for our riding lesson this afternoon, then let him out naked and did a silent prayer that he wouldn't roll.
Lo and behold, he rolled, innocently of course (!), in the muddiest patch in the field. He then got up and just looked at me, as if to say "screw you!"
Why?! Cue another grooming session later.
Number 2:
My Mother.
I share the stables with my Mother. I am very good at sweeping and keeping the yard tidy, Mother is the opposite. This really stresses me out.
For example, a little while ago I constructed a hoof picking bucket - I tied a pick onto a rubber skip with a long piece of baler twine. I then pick out my horses' feet into this bucket so small stones, mud, etc. go into this bucket and not on to the concrete for the horse to re-step in. Mother does not believe in this and just picks out her horse's feet straight onto the yard, so then when I walk my horses across the yard they step in them.
Yes, I have tried explaining this to her with no avail.
Number 3:
"Princesses"
I'm not talking, Kate Middleton, Beatrice, etc., I'm talking the teenage girls who get everything handed to them. I myself am a teenager, but I am also a farmer's daughter and do not shy from hard work, and I know the importance of working for what you want (4.30am milkings on a school day
I turned up at her house at 3pm the day before her event and saw her sat in front of the TV whilst simultaneously texting. I was a little confused: she has 3 horses, with one of them going competing the next day, surely she must have something to do. However I sat down in front of the TV with her.
Her mum came home from work about 4pm, and so I asked her if there was anything I could do. She, the mother, asked me to ride the competing horse whilst she mucked out! So I did.
He was a lovely horse, much more advanced than my youngster so I played about doing some fancy dressage movements then took him for a hack down the road to cool him off. When I got back, the mum had moved on to poo picking the fields - a pretty big task with three big horses in three separate fields. So I bathed the horse, rubbed him down and put him in his stable with some hay. The mother then asked me if I could possibly lunge one of the horses and ride the other. I did with no complaint.
We were near enough finishing the chores when my friend emerged from the house, "do you want any help", I just teeth-grittingly smiled and shook my head.
Without boring you with too many of the details, later that evening I plaited her horse and helped her mother with cooking dinner. My friend, I'll admit, did pack the lorry.
The next morning it was a 4am start. I'm used to the early mornings, so when my alarm went off, I drew myself off the mattress and joined her parents downstairs for a cup of tea. She surfaced half an hour later, but by this time the rest of us were outside, turning the horses out and feeding the competing horse. I touched any plaits and stable stains whilst her mum and dad loaded the lorry with tack, food and haynets. My friend then loaded her horse.
When we got to the event, my friend went off with her dad to walk the SJ and XC courses whilst me and her mum had another well earnt cup of tea and proceeded to tack up the horse for dressage. She returned, jumped onto her horse and strided off to the warm up with the rest of us jogging behind to keep up.
She got 48 in the dressage, blamed the horse. 3 poles down SJ, again blamed the horse. 1 run out XC, but she didn't blame the horse, she blamed a spectator for wearing a bright red top.
We met her at the finish line, where she jumped off her horse and handed him to me. No walk off at all. Thankfully it was not a long walk back to the lorry park, so I led him back, put on my hat, hopped on and walked him about the lorry park for 10 minutes before bringing him back to wash off. She was frying up a bacon sandwich.
We left quite promptly after she had finished her Monster energy drink and bacon sarnie.
So much for "moral support".
Number 4:
Horse riders who go wherever they want.
Recently I've noticed that that some of the local horse riders have been taking the liberty of using my field of show jumps as well as galloping around several of my Dad's fields.
We always shut the gates on our fields, so why do some riders feel that they can open a gate and just go into a field and use it without permission. Several of the fields that I rolled out in spring have been torn up by hoof marks
- I was working til midnight rolling some of them! I've seen the riders galloping about in them and tried to tell them, but they won't listen unless Dad tells them, but he's never seen them, so hasn't been able to tell them. They're not really people I know, but they live in the village.
Also, a friend recently told me that if someone comes to harm in my showjumping field, ie. they fall off, their horse pulls a tendon, etc., I could be sued!! Even if they haven't had my permission to use the field! Never have I ever given anyone permission to use the field, me and mum should be the only ones taking the horses in there and we always shut the gate afterwards. But someone has been going in there, opening the gate, altering the distances on the double and altering the heights of the fences. Short of padlocking the gate, there's not much I can do about it!!
Feel free to share your pet peeves!!
Number 1:
Rolling.
I spent a good hour this morning grooming my horse, ready for our riding lesson this afternoon, then let him out naked and did a silent prayer that he wouldn't roll.
Lo and behold, he rolled, innocently of course (!), in the muddiest patch in the field. He then got up and just looked at me, as if to say "screw you!"
Why?! Cue another grooming session later.
Number 2:
My Mother.
I share the stables with my Mother. I am very good at sweeping and keeping the yard tidy, Mother is the opposite. This really stresses me out.
For example, a little while ago I constructed a hoof picking bucket - I tied a pick onto a rubber skip with a long piece of baler twine. I then pick out my horses' feet into this bucket so small stones, mud, etc. go into this bucket and not on to the concrete for the horse to re-step in. Mother does not believe in this and just picks out her horse's feet straight onto the yard, so then when I walk my horses across the yard they step in them.
Yes, I have tried explaining this to her with no avail.
Number 3:
"Princesses"
I'm not talking, Kate Middleton, Beatrice, etc., I'm talking the teenage girls who get everything handed to them. I myself am a teenager, but I am also a farmer's daughter and do not shy from hard work, and I know the importance of working for what you want (4.30am milkings on a school day
:thumbup: ).
About a month ago, my friend asked me to come and be "moral support" for her at an event as her sister had just left home. I thought, why not?
I turned up at her house at 3pm the day before her event and saw her sat in front of the TV whilst simultaneously texting. I was a little confused: she has 3 horses, with one of them going competing the next day, surely she must have something to do. However I sat down in front of the TV with her.
Her mum came home from work about 4pm, and so I asked her if there was anything I could do. She, the mother, asked me to ride the competing horse whilst she mucked out! So I did.
He was a lovely horse, much more advanced than my youngster so I played about doing some fancy dressage movements then took him for a hack down the road to cool him off. When I got back, the mum had moved on to poo picking the fields - a pretty big task with three big horses in three separate fields. So I bathed the horse, rubbed him down and put him in his stable with some hay. The mother then asked me if I could possibly lunge one of the horses and ride the other. I did with no complaint.
We were near enough finishing the chores when my friend emerged from the house, "do you want any help", I just teeth-grittingly smiled and shook my head.
Without boring you with too many of the details, later that evening I plaited her horse and helped her mother with cooking dinner. My friend, I'll admit, did pack the lorry.
The next morning it was a 4am start. I'm used to the early mornings, so when my alarm went off, I drew myself off the mattress and joined her parents downstairs for a cup of tea. She surfaced half an hour later, but by this time the rest of us were outside, turning the horses out and feeding the competing horse. I touched any plaits and stable stains whilst her mum and dad loaded the lorry with tack, food and haynets. My friend then loaded her horse.
When we got to the event, my friend went off with her dad to walk the SJ and XC courses whilst me and her mum had another well earnt cup of tea and proceeded to tack up the horse for dressage. She returned, jumped onto her horse and strided off to the warm up with the rest of us jogging behind to keep up.
She got 48 in the dressage, blamed the horse. 3 poles down SJ, again blamed the horse. 1 run out XC, but she didn't blame the horse, she blamed a spectator for wearing a bright red top.
We met her at the finish line, where she jumped off her horse and handed him to me. No walk off at all. Thankfully it was not a long walk back to the lorry park, so I led him back, put on my hat, hopped on and walked him about the lorry park for 10 minutes before bringing him back to wash off. She was frying up a bacon sandwich.
We left quite promptly after she had finished her Monster energy drink and bacon sarnie.
So much for "moral support".
Number 4:
Horse riders who go wherever they want.
Recently I've noticed that that some of the local horse riders have been taking the liberty of using my field of show jumps as well as galloping around several of my Dad's fields.
We always shut the gates on our fields, so why do some riders feel that they can open a gate and just go into a field and use it without permission. Several of the fields that I rolled out in spring have been torn up by hoof marks
- I was working til midnight rolling some of them! I've seen the riders galloping about in them and tried to tell them, but they won't listen unless Dad tells them, but he's never seen them, so hasn't been able to tell them. They're not really people I know, but they live in the village.Also, a friend recently told me that if someone comes to harm in my showjumping field, ie. they fall off, their horse pulls a tendon, etc., I could be sued!! Even if they haven't had my permission to use the field! Never have I ever given anyone permission to use the field, me and mum should be the only ones taking the horses in there and we always shut the gate afterwards. But someone has been going in there, opening the gate, altering the distances on the double and altering the heights of the fences. Short of padlocking the gate, there's not much I can do about it!!
Feel free to share your pet peeves!!
Or maybe they aren't that up on colours, or maybe they just don't care that much 
