Phrases that get up your nose?

PolarSkye said:
I'm with you . . . surely, if either dam or sire are shared then they are half siblings? If not, can someone explain how that works?

P
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It's just the way it works and always has in horses. Siblings share a dam. If you want to be pedantic, you could argue the mare brings more to the equation anyway so siblings are more likely to share commonalities than horses by the same sire.
 
Cortez said:
Anything with an american origin: bronc, spook, longe, buckskin, lope, being a horse's "mum", etc., etc.
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I can guarantee any phrase with 'mum' in it isn't American. ;)

'Longe' isn't either. They almost always say 'lunge'. It used to be you only saw 'longe' in English books, now you see it almost exclusively from people (myself included) who had their early training from old continental teachers and books.

Why is that different than an American using 'color'? It may irritate but it's not incorrect.

What do you use for 'spook' then?

As to 'lope' and 'buckskin' I can see why they bother you used out of context, partly because they would then be inaccurate.
 
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dogatemysalad said:
You're right, I'd forgotten that. I don't often hear the word shy anymore.
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To me, shying is different - my lad will shy at genuinely scary things out hacking, but he's not spooky. Shying is the looking, maybe a half step sideways, you know something is there but doesn't do anything horrible. My lad has shied at a golfer swinging a club, a dog suddenly appearing out a gate barking etx.

Spooking is when they jump out of their skin, cat leap sideways or spin as a reaction to something that might not even be 'scary'. Spooky horses are a pain - shying is something most horses do in a genuinely scary situation.
 
TarrSteps said:
See, those two words mean something different to me. Which shows you how subjective the whole thing is!
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That's interesting. What's the difference? Just interested because I had a long break from riding and when I came back to it nobody used shy any more, so I assumed spook was just the new word for the same thing.
 
Yes, I'd forgotton about horses shying! Blast from the past there.

Fburton, I suppose the suffer the little children... also implies comfort.
A "come to Jesus moment" is another of those phrases/words that is full of all sorts of meanings. I dislike it still!
 
khalswitz said:
To me, shying is different - my lad will shy at genuinely scary things out hacking, but he's not spooky. Shying is the looking, maybe a half step sideways, you know something is there but doesn't do anything horrible. My lad has shied at a golfer swinging a club, a dog suddenly appearing out a gate barking etx.

Spooking is when they jump out of their skin, cat leap sideways or spin as a reaction to something that might not even be 'scary'. Spooky horses are a pain - shying is something most horses do in a genuinely scary situation.
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Hmm, my mare does a mixture of these. I would call her spooky because she will look at lots of non-scary things and take a couple of joggy steps sideways, or just fall through her shoulder away from it, but she never does anything bad like spinning etc.
 
khalswitz said:
To me, shying is different - my lad will shy at genuinely scary things out hacking, but he's not spooky. Shying is the looking, maybe a half step sideways, you know something is there but doesn't do anything horrible. My lad has shied at a golfer swinging a club, a dog suddenly appearing out a gate barking etx.

Spooking is when they jump out of their skin, cat leap sideways or spin as a reaction to something that might not even be 'scary'. Spooky horses are a pain - shying is something most horses do in a genuinely scary situation.
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Ah but you see back in the dark ages our horses were far to well trained to spook, a very small shy was all that was tolerated. This spooking stuff is a modern problem generally caused by too much food and too little work.

PS I still say shy and still dont consider it acceptable behaviour.
 
Pongwiffy said:
It's really funny what annoys some people and not others. I am sure all hobbies, professions and sports will have their own slang terms and I LOVE that the horsey world has so many weird and wonderful phrases.

"A leg at each corner" doesn't annoy me if it is used in context because the phrase tells me something about the horse in the same way "he has both fore-legs coming out of the same hole." means something.

I wouldn't get annoyed at someone describing my horse as herring gutted because it makes my horse sound like a fish that lost a fight with a knife. I would know the person meant and actually agree with them!

You have horses that brush, dish, plait or speedicut, some have a daisy cutting movement. You've got cribbing and weaving or windsucking, some horses have socks whilst others have stockings and parrot mouth or a ewe neck; they can shy, spooky, jib, bolt, nap or tie up and get thrush. You muck out, skip out and water your horse, you can even strap it or quarter it.

All of it sounds bonkers when you think about the words 'literally' but they all means something and is usually a quicker way of saying something long winded.

Horsey phrases only annoy me if they are so vague they have no meaning or if they are used in the wrong context or an outright lie - but that is the fault of the user, not the phrases!
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Agreed!

I find vernacular fascinating. It's 'secret handshake' stuff. :) I'm amazed so many people feel personally offended by different phrases, particularly ones that are new them, especially since language is constantly evolving. I think it's fun!
 
Cowpony said:
That's interesting. What's the difference? Just interested because I had a long break from riding and when I came back to it nobody used shy any more, so I assumed spook was just the new word for the same thing.
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I think it is. Spook is a relatively recent term in regard to horses with the same meaning. We used to say, he'll shy away from, or he shied, which meant the horse was frightened, distrustful of something and would suddenly start away from whatever the situation was.
 
PaddyMonty said:
Ah but you see back in the dark ages our horses were far to well trained to spook, a very small shy was all that was tolerated. This spooking stuff is a modern problem generally caused by too much food and too little work.

PS I still say shy and still dont consider it acceptable behaviour.
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Yes, I've certainly been told many times that horses in the UK were paragons of virtue until all this unwanted New World influence came to town. ;) (Although that would be somewhat contradicted by my beloved childhood Pony Books.)

I'm interested that 'spook' is a modern word here. Horses in my childhood certainly 'spooked' and I can guarantee they weren't overfed/underworked. In fact some of my old photos would give people on here conniptions.:D
 
Personally I'm a**** shovellor. Hate ads for old horses who have given their lives in service then owners looking to dump them. Also annoyed by middle aged horses being described as having potential. If it was that good it would have got there already. It's not going to take the psg competition world by storm as an oap. Another vote for 'confirmation', 'bronc' and 'ponio'.
 
TarrSteps said:
Yes, I've certainly been told many times that horses in the UK were paragons of virtue until all this unwanted New World influence came to town. ;) (Although that would be somewhat contradicted by my beloved childhood Pony Books.)

I'm interested that 'spook' is a modern word here. Horses in my childhood certainly 'spooked' and I can guarantee they weren't overfed/underworked. In fact some of my old photos would give people on here conniptions.:D
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Ah but was your childhood back in the early 60's?
 
Nessa4 said:
It's not so much words or phrases that irritate me as the misuse or misspelling of them - confirmation for conformation, "nothing phases him" - the word is *fazes* (phases is something else entirely). And it has taken years for me to get used to the idea that an arena cas be either a manege or a menage!! But then I am old and pedantic.:-)
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Thankyou, thankyou Nessa4! I have seen 'phases' so regularly that I started to think I had imagined 'fazes'.
 
I dislike "potential" even if it's used to describe a young horse. When used by those who really know their stuff it means something, but in the majority of horse adverts I'm afraid my cynical side rephrases it as "just trying to justify an extra £1,000 on the price". ;)
 
Lol, confirmation always gets in on these types of thread.

I was a child of the 60s (and earlier) and don't remember the word spook used back then.
 
when your at the brink of no return falling off and people shout 'SIT UP!!'

Are these people unaware of the fact you've been spending all this time trying to sit up :S
 
Cowpony said:
That's interesting. What's the difference? Just interested because I had a long break from riding and when I came back to it nobody used shy any more, so I assumed spook was just the new word for the same thing.
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You can't take my word for it because I'm foreign. (Although I also had 'more British than the British' instruction as a child so probably more old school than many of my peers here.) But since you asked. . .

A 'shy' for me is a singular reaction where a horse moves away from an object or situation. It doesn't necessarily describe or denote anything about the horse or the circumstances, other than that one action. It can be a noun or a verb but not usually an adjective or an adverb.

A 'spook' for me is more complex. It can mean everything from a horse having a hard look to one heading for the hills, depending on context. Horses can be 'spooky' both by nature and because of tension or other outside Influence. Also, a situation/jump/area can be 'spooky' which means it has elements that are likely to create tension in the majority of horses and can be the undoing of a horse that's naturally spooky.
 
khalswitz said:
Spooking is when they jump out of their skin, cat leap sideways or spin as a reaction to something that might not even be 'scary'. Spooky horses are a pain - shying is something most horses do in a genuinely scary situation.
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Would it be true to say that a leap or spin away from something that can happen in both a spook and a shy? If it is true, then what other behaviour do you see which lets you tell one from the other? I guess it boils down to being able to tell what is 'genuinely scary' for a horse and what 'isn't scary but still provokes a reaction that resembles being scared'.

ETA: Ah, crossed posts with TarrSteps.
 
PaddyMonty said:
Ah but was your childhood back in the early 60's?
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No, 70's but also influenced, at least in my English riding, by many people who were trained here in the 50s and 60s and in a part of the world where time lagged a bit. :) My initial riding was western though, and even the most die hard BHS types must have been somewhat influenced by the other local culture, however unwillingly.
 
I'm a 60's child and don't recall spook being used until recent times. Perhaps we should consult the ultimate authority. Ruby Ferguson.
 
PaddyMonty said:
That explains it. The rot had well and truly set in by the 70's!
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Well, I was taught by someone in the 80s who made us ride in shirts and ties, weigh all feed every meal, measure banks with a ruler, take all tack apart to clean after every ride, 'quarter' the horses properly (folding the rugs up not taking them off), square the manure pile daily, take regular longe (:D) and sans stirrups lessons, 'set' manes and tails. . .so she was definitely holding out against the rot! :D

Then again, I was also taught by Germans working from cavalry texts and a western trainer who rode in bikini tops, shod her own horses and used the lesson horses to skid logs the winter! Diverse influences!
 
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