Scariest thing you have heard a person say that owns horses

A girl at my barn offered me some helpful advice - my TB mare was just coming off stall rest and was rather hot on the lead - "Put her in a bit and when she misbehaves, just yank on it really hard!

Girl who keeps her horse in the pasture - "When he doesn't come to me right off, I don't feed him so he'll learn that he gets rewarded when he's caught."

Woman whose gelding needed a sheath cleaning so badly that he was permanently dropped with nasty, scabby, crusty gunk all over his stuff, swollen sheath, and the poor thing could barely pee - "Oh, he's always been like that. He's fine."
 
Years ago after I had lost my horse of a lifetime to colic, I went in to work and another lady who had just brought a horse said " So sorry I heard you lost her " Yes I replied " So what happened she asked ?" Colic I replied " Oh she said and what is that then ?"
 
"If you're going to ride your horse xcountry, you'll ruin her for dressage because she'll have no breaks, it screws them in the head, even if you do it only once..."

Well meaning work colleague today.....

Please explain the concept of a 3 day event to me?
 
The people whose mare has broken down for the 2nd time due to poor foot and front leg confirmation that are putting her in foal as she "is so sweet" , a real headdesk :(
 
A livery at the yard, who has been riding another novice liveries just hap-hazardly backed rising 4 year old cob, came up to me and asked "Have you got any spurs?" when i asked why she replied "because [cob] is ignoring the whip now and i need something to give him a good jab with to wake him up" :eek::eek:
Thankfully cob owner was persuaded my YM to have lessons with the regular RI and her cob is now doing so much better under saddle and owner is thrilled :)
 
Grossly overweight welsh a (i mean bad, she was as wide as she was tall!!) -

"No no, my grass doesnt contain laminitus, never had a horse in 15 years on this grass get laminitus"

Prev horses had all been arabs/arab x's - needless to say while i was looking after them i exercised welsh a - lots! Then she started feeding her senior mix .. because she "would drop weight" if i carried on lunging her so much :mad: Luckily pony was on loan and was taken back not long after i quit!
 
Going back to what I said earlier about being told to hit the pony until it moves. It would nap but if you used your whip it would buck for England. So she made me dismount and hand her pony, she then held onto the reins and smacked him 3 times hard over the quarters and handed him back to me and told me to teach him a lesson if he napped again! She was the YM as well :rolleyes:

Mind you this was the same yard that techinque to stop on the RS horses from rearing was to hit it until it went forward and they didn't have it's back or anything checked out first and they apparently years ago was they loaded one of their horses with a tractor by pushing it up the ramp :shocked:

This is a well known RS btw!
 
rossiroo said:
Heard at showjumping " my horse jumps too high and fast, thats why we have poles down" and the clasic "The ### horse took the wrong course" thease were at affiliated shows ! Also in warm up after crashing into people " Don't they realise that I cann't stop after the jump!!" I also shan't say where one girl though that the wormer syringe went!!!
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LOL, Oz :)
 
Me: So is she for you then? (4yo 'part-broken tb mare)
Anon: No, she's for my 15 yo daughter, she has had a pony on loan who was such a naughty pony before, but he's retired and she has outgrown him anyway.
Me: (after a moment of silence) Is she having lessons atm?
Anon: She can ride, I mean, he was very naughty, but no, she is riding her friends pony occasionally.
Me: Maybe as she has never ridden a bigger horse, she should get some lessons (anything to get the girl having proper lessons first), and when I have done the initial backing and made sure she is ok (I highly doubt this) I would like to be here to give her some lessons and pointers on riding a young horse (god help us)
Anon: Yes that would be good, she will be fine with just you here, with me she is awful and refuses to do anything (daughter not horse). She won't lead her out of the field because she plays up, she doesn't have a lot to do with her yet.
Me: (laughs uncomfortably)

What is going on inside my head: Lemme get this right, you have bought a 4yo unbroken tb for a young girls FIRST HORSE, when she has never ridden anything but ponies, she IS SCARED OF LEADING this horse, who ok is a bit farty, but not bad, and she HASN'T HAD LESSONS IN YEARS. Brilliant!

What's a bet this horse was cheap?!
 
'I've been around horses since before you were born, go away, i will do it' -- parent girthing up a cold backed pony when i worked at a riding school years ago. He reared up, nearly fell over and ended up sat on the bonnet of her car. And her child had her chaps on the wrong legs. Pony was fine btw.

'pull the reins and kick really hard at the same time'-- same riding school. (needless to say i've never seen so many chronic rearers in one place as there were there.)
 
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working with several clients a day , one of the regular things we hear is " you are right ,i agree with with you 100% but its different for me and my horse "
chris
 
Some of these are reminding me why I have as little to do with livery yards as possible....

Although:
On showing my surprise that someone was giving their horse a huge meal of hard feed by their horse box after a 15 mile xc ride in over 26 degree searing heat: "we always feed after a hack".
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Maybe it's my endurance side coming out but I'd probably feed in that situation too. Albeit a damp one that was either soaked or contained beet. It's drummed into us - keep the gut moving. In that respect eating is as important as drinking, and if the feed is damp it will help to rehydrate them too. When I first upped the distance with my lad, the thing that really clicked with keeping him hydrated was realising that if he ate, he would drink.

Half a bag of dry high energy mix with no access to water, yes, daft idea. But a regular sized feed, damped down, ideally containing something fibrous, and with free access to water, that's a good idea.
 
I find instructors recommending a stronger bit/gadget/spurs/whipping scary when actually the horse is just scared/uneducated/physically incapable of doing what has been asked. Its bad enough when an owner jumps for a quick fix but when instructors are teaching people too its no wonder people have problems.

Whatever happened to horsemanship, patience and understanding? Rome wasnt built in a day.

Along those lines i find it sad when people expect their new horse to behave the same in its new home as its old home. If i had a pound for every time i heard 'Ive had my horse a month and its napping/im having trouble/its a nightmare...Why?'
 
teddyt said:
I find instructors recommending a stronger bit/gadget/spurs/whipping scary when actually the horse is just scared/uneducated/physically incapable of doing what has been asked. Its bad enough when an owner jumps for a quick fix but when instructors are teaching people too its no wonder people have problems.

Whatever happened to horsemanship, patience and understanding? Rome wasnt built in a day.

Along those lines i find it sad when people expect their new horse to behave the same in its new home as its old home. If i had a pound for every time i heard 'Ive had my horse a month and its napping/im having trouble/its a nightmare...Why?'
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I SO agree with you!
Oz :)
 
The young instructor has come from a different background to those who had to learn to ride on lots of different horses, they do all the book learning, but it is not corrected, they are just given a pass if they answer most questions correctly (was looking through one where salt was given as an energy food) I asked one to look at my boys wolf tooth (a tiny eruption just in front of the canine), "gosh yes, its huge, and he's got one on the other side too!"
Their senior instructor (an experienced instructor and international rider) was telling them that when they ride a clients horse, they have to make a show of it, not for me, if i want
someone to school my pony, I am watching the horse not the rider, in fact all the best riders just seem to be part and parcel to their horse.
 
Groom about horse with comic waiting for the vet "awww look she's lying down bless...."

Not being funny but my mum who is sooooo unhorsey knows you don't let a horse with colic lie down!
 
QUOTE "Whatever happened to horsemanship, patience and understanding? Rome wasnt built in a day."

We live in a modern world where the sound-bite and quick fix is the order of the day, I have been asked to sort out horses which have become difficult, I go back to basics, eg long reining to identify the problem : ok no mouth, not listening to commands, otherwise a quiet sort for an ex (failed) racehorse, but it is expected to start where the girl's last pony ended, so she is puting up the jumps, jump jump jump, hit pole, smack, smack, jump jump.
Oh and by the way we treat it like a native pony (when it has never been in a field since it was a foal), no feed in summer, little enough in winter, no grooming to speak of, no rain sheet etc etc. RSCPA came to call, suddenly it was getting fed, a rain-sheet, a bigger field etc etc, teenage child get tired of all this extra work and it is sold on.
 
At a large riding school when the pony isn't going into canter:
"Get angry with it!" - because anger is an emotion that has a place on a horse.
"Smack that pony!"

They used to have an instructor (this would be going back a few years now) that referred to short whips as "beaters", insisted that small children carried their "beater" and could be seen shouting "beat that pony!"

YO says that you should work a laminitic in order to get them to sweat the toxins out.
 
Thought of another, not exactly something said but a kid and parent were about 2 mins late for kids lesson, come legging it into the arena after being told which horse they are on, parent manically screaming 'hurry up!!!!' to kid (pony was going to explode in about 3 seconds if child wasn't on by then don't you know). Then parent proceeds to shove helper out of the way, shouted 'I can do it' at her and lifts kid about 3ft in the air and SWINGS him sideways at poor pony who understandable spins and runs. Kid and parent end up on floor. This happened in the space of about 10 seconds, me and RI were gob smacked, I dont think we could have reacted fast enough if we had realised what was going on in time. Im not sure they came again after the telling off and self inflicted public humiliation lol.
 
CrazyFriesian said:
OMG!!!!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek: Ahh PLENTY!!! Smacking it wouldn't necessarily be high on my list!!!!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek:
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Ok little scenario here your horse naps on the road (naps NOT spooks) into the path of a car. Would you:

a) Say there there darling and hit the car anyway?

or

b) Give it a short sharp reminder and you both live to tell the tale?
 
From an 'observer':

'Why do you bother to school your horse? Just stick in in draw reins and it does it for you faster'

I had the classics when I brought current pony from old novice owner:

me: Has he ever been shod?
her: whats that?
me: Has he ever been clipped?
her: What, you mean shaved?
me: Is he good with other horses?
her: Yes, he currently lives with a shetland and a 17ft horse

upon getting him on trial:
me: The vet says he has a typically licey coat, has he ever had lice?
her: Whats that?

head desk moment!

Once we brought him though, after finding out he hadn't ever had shoes on, we got him shod, and I told her he was very good and stood still with the farrier. Her response was oh yes, he was always very good to stand around when you pick his feet up and brush him...

bexcy-bee x
 
Scariest thing I have heard is in this thread from several people:

that there is never a time or a place to hit a napping horse.

What complete and dangerous nonsense.
 
One said to a friend of mine - 'Now he (a young, unbacked, fairly unhandled pony at a new yard) might try and jump out of the stable, so when he puts his head over the door give him a good whack on the nose so he doesn't try it.'

Oy vey:rolleyes:

I am happy to say she did NOT whack him, and that he stays in his stable and is also happy to be caught, led and handled - even by strangers - due to her patient training...
 
cptrayes said:
Scariest thing I have heard is in this thread from several people:

that there is never a time or a place to hit a napping horse.

What complete and dangerous nonsense.
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Thank God! Not just me that thinks this then :D

I think they have probably never sat on a napping horse in their lives, actually sometimes I wonder if they have ever sat on a horse at all!
 
have heard many things over the years in a big livery yard but the thing that stands out most was having moved to have the horses at home, i went with my mum to the sales to have a look and came home with an unbroken 2 year old pony for me to break in. our neighbours who knew nothing at all saw this and decided it would be a great way to pick up a first pony for their daughter- they returned with a pony with a history of lami, crippled in its stifle that had a horrendous looking back that wont take a saddle, with the idea it could just live in the garden...
 
'School her in a 3 ring gag it's much easier then a snaffle and will make her lighter in front'

Hmm yes not sure that will work for dressage, thanks for the tip!
 
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