Really mad stuff you've done with horses....

Pink_Lady said:
Put a black sock over the plaster cast covering my broken leg (to resemble a long riding boot) and then persuading my dad to put a step ladder beside the pony so I could compete in the open SJ class in which we can second!

Mad AND stupid really - the craziness of youth

What a difference all those years makes - now hardly venture over a pole on the floor!
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Thats detemiation lol Love it. :)
 
FionaM12 said:
Isn't it funny that this forum is full of threads about confessions of mad things we do with horses, alongside threads warning about the importance of health & safety?!
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It may seem like it has gone a bit H&S mad at times, but I think people have lost the ability to manage their own risk.

Exposure to risk is essential to develop a risk awareness; if children are never allowed to experience risk then they do not develop an ability to manage their own risk and in fact are more likely to take unnecessary risks in the future.

‘Aversion to risk poses its own risks. A generation is coming to age with an atrophied sense of personal freedom and an expanded waistline. In the long term, delayed health problems due to childhood obesity will probably trump the short-term risk of running on the playground’ (Louv, R. 2005)
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The overall point though is the balance between risk and benefit - horseriding is risky but it has huge benefits (fitness, emotional wellbeing etc) which make the risk 'worth taking' for most of us. Conversely, riding without a hat - where is the benefit? (not having sweaty hair - is that really 'worth the risk' when the consequence could be fatal)

Of course for everyone this process is different - and that's before you even consider risk homeostasis or risk compensation theory, which I won't bore you with :p
 
I've 'jousted' before using schooling whips. Both ponies hated each other but we still thought that galloping at each other and riders trying to hit each other with the whips was a great idea. The ponies got quite into it, hand break turns into full gallop by the end lol.
 
When we were younger (when the yard owner wasnt around) we would ride our horses down the track to the fields bare back with a head coller on in gallop racing each other (with no hat,the horror!!! :D)

Fun times wouldnt do it now far to aware of how much it would hurt to come off.
 
tooo may to mention tho up near the top has to be riding my horse on a daily basis through our housing estate.. there was a green area. .... made a jump to impress my friends..... made my younger brother lie down under the jump to show just how clever my cob was... lol
No brothers were harmed in the making of this fun!
 
Went xc with already broken ribs once, thing is horse didn't really jump, queue me coming off as she demolished another jump and my dad running toward demented crazy terrified of strangers horse yelling 'please don't touch her she's scared!' then once he had horse, dragging her toward me yelling 'please don't move her she's got broken ribs'. I think they thought he was psychic!!

He was kind enough to bunk me back up to jump 1 simple fence before we went home! My dad was my worst aider and abetter doing silly things as a kid lol, I had a hat and a bp but he was very much of the get back on school of thought.

Me and my sister used to ride along with our feet nearest each other in each other's stirrups and swap our nearest reins too, but we were in our 20's on 15 -16hh horses then!
 
rhino said:
if children are never allowed to experience risk then they do not develop an ability to manage their own risk and in fact are more likely to take unnecessary risks in the future.
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Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown. I swear if I ever have kids, I'm living by this ;)

Oh I remember once jumping on my 5 year old tackless (literally nothing on him) in the field with my other horses during a thunderstorm, not realising until he was having a paddy, bronching like a twit the length of the field to get back to the others that I was wearing a baseball cap :rolleyes: And that was only the other week.

When I was a teenager I raised eyebrows by riding my older horse (he was young then!) around a barbeque and bonfire bareback, before heading off to jump in the paddock - totally gazebo-ed :D Between galloping bareback on stuble fields by moonlight, jumping anything we came across, our complete disregard for tack, I don't think we had much time for "normal" riding :cool:
 
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when i was about 12 i used my pocket money to buy a headcollar and leadrope and a little grooming kit. I found some ponies in a field near school and used to spend every lunchtime with them:o think i convinced myself they were negleted (they werent:o) As a horse owner now Id freak if I found some kid in my field catching my horse!:o
 
rhino said:
The current terminology seems to be 'make life as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible' (RoSPA) but I agree Arthur Ransome put it so much better :)
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Perhaps RoSPA were concerned some levels of society would take the drowning analogy too literally? :D
 
JFTD said:
Perhaps RoSPA were concerned some levels of society would take the drowning analogy too literally? :D
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I've just realised... if you replace 'duffers' with 'witches' that is actually quite a disturbing quote... or maybe it just means I've just had too much redbull this morning :confused:

ETA Off topic much?? Sorry :o
 
JFTD said:
Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown. I swear if I ever have kids, I'm living by this ;)
QUOTE]

eek,im pretty sure the parents of children who have drowned wouldnt agree:o i found it a disturbing quote, with or without the witches part. i do agree we dont take enough risks nowadays but society has changed in the past 20 years as well.
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When I was little (before I could even ride infact) I used to go to a field were there were tetherd Horses in. I didn't know these Horses. One day there was a storm and I didn't have my coat, so I sat underneath one of the cobs to keep me dry. I used to tell passers by, all the Horses were mine hehe. One day one of the owners caught me, she was very nice actually and gave me a rubber curry comb and pointed out which were hers and let me groom them, I still have the brush now.
 
NeverSayNever said:
JFTD said:
Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown. I swear if I ever have kids, I'm living by this ;)
QUOTE]

eek,im pretty sure the parents of children who have drowned wouldnt agree:o i found it a disturbing quote, with or without the witches part. i do agree we dont take enough risks nowadays but society has changed in the past 20 years as well.
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I'm glad someone else said this. That quote disturbs me too. I was a child with problems myself long ago, a duffer if you like. Perhaps I should have been drowned.
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Some of these are great!

When we had 12.2's we always wanted to ride them side saddle, not realising that you actually need a special saddle to do this so we would clamp our right hand to the pommel and swing the right leg over that, hey presto improvised side saddle! Worked quite well on the flat but I don't think I ever managed to stay on over a jump like that, didn't stop me trying though!

I never appreciated just how good the ponies we had in those days were, I just assumed that all horses would have no problem with hacking down a busy A road or being able to do a showing class and mounted games at the same show without blowing their brains and then hack back again behaving perfectly!
 
FionaM12 said:
NeverSayNever said:
I'm glad someone else said this. That quote disturbs me too. I was a child with problems myself long ago, a duffer if you like. Perhaps I should have been drowned.
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Steady on, Arthur Ransome (/Commander Walker) wasn't suggesting drowning anybody intentionally - in context, the quotation was a telegram sent to the children's mother in Swallows and Amazons, whereby their father gave them permission to sail on the lake and camp on the island. He's merely saying that if they didn't behave responsibly, they would risk drowning, and that if they were stupid enough to behave in such a manner, it would be for the best. Also giving it the deserved context - the children could all swim reasonably well and were competent at sailing - not just chucking them in at the deep end.

Clearly I am too familiar with this story and I need to get a life...

I do think the "witches" replacement is concerning though :D
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Lynsey&Smartie said:
I never appreciated just how good the ponies we had in those days were, I just assumed that all horses would have no problem with hacking down a busy A road or being able to do a showing class and mounted games at the same show without blowing their brains and then hack back again behaving perfectly!
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Mine still do... I used to do the sidesaddle thing too, even managed a few jumps :D I looked pretty rubbish though ;)
 
I've just remembered that I used to take my TB ex racer (who was nuts) out in a bitless bridle and bareback - he had a saddle sore, but I really wanted to ride. He was uncomfortable to ride bareback being a TB so I got a blanket, folded it up and put a surcingle round it. Very sensible. I think I wore my inadequate hat though.
 
I love swallows and amazons :)

And I too have had a variety of secret ponies hidden from my mother over the ages of 16 and 17, one I had for about 6 months but just kept telling her it was someone elses who had put it in the field and would pretend to go get the rent money off them when really I had been trying to make as many tips as possible at work and was using them ;) My current pony was a secret for 3 days (decided to tell my parents in the end as they were off to france for a few weeks the same day so nothing they could do) another I got given and resold in a couple of weeks and they never knew and the other again was given to me and I resold after a few months and they just thought it was someone elses, oh the joys of unhorsey parents, I get to do whatever mad things I like :D
 
McDonalds Drive Thru :D

We also used to jump fences and benches, hack out in just our headcollars and ride and lead several ponies at a time down the main road in headcollars and ropes only.

We would sometimes ride backwards, play leapfrog onto the shetland and do various other silly things.

We also used to pay a game where we tried to push each other off of our ponies :o
 
Oh dear. I'm in my fifties and I STILL hide the existence of my horse from my mother! She'd give me such a hard time (I'm too old, too poor, too ill etc to have a horse). Also to be fair, my owning a horse years ago slmost resulted in my death so she'd worry.

But since when did fear of poverty and death put horsey people off? :D
 
rhino said:
It may seem like it has gone a bit H&S mad at times, but I think people have lost the ability to manage their own risk.

Exposure to risk is essential to develop a risk awareness; if children are never allowed to experience risk then they do not develop an ability to manage their own risk and in fact are more likely to take unnecessary risks in the future.



The overall point though is the balance between risk and benefit - horseriding is risky but it has huge benefits (fitness, emotional wellbeing etc) which make the risk 'worth taking' for most of us. Conversely, riding without a hat - where is the benefit? (not having sweaty hair - is that really 'worth the risk' when the consequence could be fatal)

Of course for everyone this process is different - and that's before you even consider risk homeostasis or risk compensation theory, which I won't bore you with :p
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the thing is when I was at school at some point most children had a broken arm or leg ( apart from me, I hoped I could get a plaster cast) but now its rare so see someone with a broken arm etc at school... this is because schools etc don't have slippery tyres for kids to climb on, and other such stuff... times have changed totally! I think we all did all these things on ponies when we were younger,the question is do children still do it????? When you fall off when you are older ( I am now 35) it bloomin hurts and you ache for weeks, but when I fell off as a child it didn't hurt! Maybe children don't do reckless things these days?? Sure someone will enlighten me?
 
Went to work for the summer in Italy for a holiday riding establishment...

Not really mad? I hear you ask...

-I had never ever worked with horses before
-I had never been to Italy
-I spoke NO italian
-I had only been in contact with the boss a few times by email
-I get really bad sunrash if the tems are above about 25 degrees
-I wasn't sure what the work WAS exactly
-It was my first ever full time job
-I had never been away from my family for so long

I go home tomorrow... I don't want to! :(
 
I think children would be fitter and healthier if they were out doing physical activities rather than stuck behind screens watching tv, dvds and playing video games all day.
 
Devonshire dumpling said:
Maybe children don't do reckless things these days?? Sure someone will enlighten me?
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Sadly, very many don't have the opportunities.

1 in 6 children in Scotland have no access to outdoor
space /facilities to play
A survey by the Home Office revealed that as many as 25% of 8-10
year olds have never played outside without adult supervision
One in five children in P7 was estimated to be obese in 2004-05
and the research has estimated the growing problem costs
Scotland £17M per year.
One third of children never play outside.
51% of children and young people have at some point been told
to stop playing in the street or area near their home(Source: PlayScotland)
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So many reasons why - restricted access to the natural environment (resulting in so called 'nature-deficit disorder), fear of accidents ('bogeyman syndrome;' in part due to media exposure) and litigation, lack of funding for outdoor sports and activities (at school or otherwise)... all of these lead to the 'cotton-wool' children we seem to be developing.

And, personally, I think that when adults spend their time criticising the 'nanny state' and refusing to take responsibility for their OWN safety, the more legislation will come into place. If only common sense was common...
 
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