Snobbery within the horse world

[Walrus]

Interesting thread. I'm going to get shot down in flames now but just a thought (from reading these posts)....

Are the people on the posh expensive WBs and TBs snobby or do the people on the hairy horses have a massive chip on their shoulder and feel they have something to prove.

Plenty of the natives and coloureds at county level change hands for thousands of pounds and plenty of TBs for peanuts. How do we all know that these flash horses all the cobs are beating at shows cost thousands of pounds more? And if we could all afford an Oakley I'm sure we wouldn't say no and carry on borrowing transport or taking an older / smaller lorry - I sure as heck wouldn't!!

 

[Chestnuttymare]

I remember being a keen young teenager, ponyless but 'scrounging rides in return for stable duties' type of kid and being friends with a girl in the year below me at school. She had a pony brought for her who was a chunky, hairy native with all the feathers and fluff,but soon became keen to join the local PC. However, apparently this particular PC favoured TB type ponies and the fluffy pony was soon replaced with a TB type pony just so that my friend could join that PC!!.

The richest horsey folk that i have come across have been the nicest. They tend to wear old clothes and drive battered old estate cars and the horses are kept beautifully, albeit in older tack, but superbly polished with spit and elbow grease!.

I once met a lady who answered an advert id put up in a shop offering help with horses. She spoke in a very jolly but posh manner and was keen to throw me on board her 3 year olds and let me muck out and help at hunts. I cycled to her farm on my shoddy old push bike, unknowing of the area that she lived and she come bustling out of her farmhouse full of enthusiasm and thrust a mug of bovril in my hand and invited me into her house and introduced me to her horses one by one and told me of their likes and dislikes. I was just a common kid and she was obviously very wealthy indeed, but her money was held up in the property she owned as she was always hunting for bargains and was very much into the 'repair rather than replace minset!'.

She would happlily let me mingle with her posh hunt friends, even though i probably came out with stupid things sometimes, she would just laugh out loud!. She was amazing, I will never forget the time she scraped me off the floor when i fell off my push bike and patched me up with vetrap and animalintex in her kitchen! and then powerhosed the cow poo off my bike the following day!. The way that she dragged me into the back of her landy and wrapped me up in a witney blanket to 'cool down' after having one too many ciders at the local point to point!. I would spend hours sat on the bonnet of her landy on a cold winter morning waiting for her and her horse to return from the hunt, ready with the bucket and sponge to wash them down!.

Those were the days and she was a very posh rich lady indeed, and I was just a common kid, but never did I hear a word of snobbery escape from her mouth. It's a shame i have lost contact with her.

My mother used to clean the house of a local posh hunting family. They treated her like gold and brought her many gifts and treated us like part of the family. They wore old tatty clothes and loved a bargain too! You would never have known that they had money as they never showed it off.

I love this. A sign of true class!

 

[skychick]

Posh horses are always REALLY big and shiny! They are usually bright bay or chestnut and have veins that stick out. They also tend to have tan coloured bridles, usually with a mexican grakle. That's my definition

My 16.1hh bright bay TB x WB mare with sticky out veins and a tan bridle probably turns her nose right up at me when i turn up to the yard in my 13 year old hand me down jodhpurs, jodhpur boots and a whinnie the pooh hoodie! Snobby little monkey

 

[Saxon_Jasmine]

I used to compete on a horse I loaned from my local riding school and also took him to PC rallies. He is very hairy, runs along with his nose in the air and never stays clean.

This is him:

Everytime we competed people would always whisper about him and critisise him.

We proved them wrong by getting placed in every DR comp we did, coming 5th in a 3ft3 SJ, and jumping 3ft6 XC

 

[SNORKEY]

LOL I am enjoying this thread!

I always remember being at a show, watching my friends horse, and some stupid woman on a coloured horse was boasting to me that she just spent £200 on her horses hand made bridle, BIG DEAL! I just looked at her and said in a sarcy tone, is that all? and walked off.

There is no need for it.

 

[moodymare123]

Tbh with you people in the nower horsie day have gone a bit to far with looks , all the horses that i have had are beautiful and always look groomed when you bring them in from the field and i tell you what theve all been buggers so i just stuck to my lovely coblet

 

[Daddy_Long_Legs]

I am a big snob when it comes to turnout especially out hunting. Apart from my boots which were a birthday and christmas present from my OH all my hunting clothes are 2nd hand or out of the bargain bin! I take pride in what I wear and my horse is immaculately turned out, my saddle was a sample so was dirt cheap and my bridle belongs to my OH.

A friend of mine who hunts with me wore her long her down under her hat and didn't have a hairnet on and I didn't want to say anything in case I came across as being a snob.

Oh and I have a big fancy posh horse but he only cost me a fiver because he was 18hands!

But I remember the comments when I was younger, I remember turning up to a hunter trial and being asked by DC why my pony wasn't clipped and she looked scruffy because of it. The DC cried after my Dad was finished with her.
The season before last I hunted with a neighbouring pack because I was working for a dealer, now the dealer was rather scruffy but I always had the horses looking immaculate and myself even got the dealer to wear a stock! But the hunt secretary was a right cow towards me until a friend of mine who was married to a famous showjumper was singing my praises then the hunt sec nice to me! But too late got a different job that allowed me to hunt with my own pack!

 

[ridersince2002]

I love telling people that ponys saddle cost more than she did- and it was second hand!! (it was a nice second hand one though!!)

 

[Cinnamontoast]

I got Beau when still on a very competition yard full of warmbloods and seriously expensive stallions. Beau was the only cob. The first person to see him when I was screaming in delight at having my own horse, all my own, not half owned etc said 'Oh, chav pony' I was gutted but he showed them! Pic to show you what I mean:

He won first place in the cob class at Patchetts-nice and posh!

I left the yard soon after I got him and moved back to my tatty old yard where there's a lovely mix of cobs and competition or happy hack horses. There's a girl with a beautiful cob on another forum and her YO only allows coloureds on the yard s she can look out of the window and see them-love it!

I previously half owned a Hanoverian X and went looking for something similar but saw this filthy, bedraggled soaking cob and fell in love!
Saxon_Jasmine, that horse is gorgeous!

 

[Storminateacup]

I think the tack related snobbery is really annoying, and the worst is that the big organisations in the horse world support it.

Tack related snobbery really annoys me as I am on the receiving end for this because I favour Western tack for my horse, and Western riding too. It doesn't matter that my western saddle cost, secondhand, MORE than most peoples English saddle and is a top of the range one. People (in the British horse world) still assume that Western saddles are made for elderly, disabled or novice riders, out of cardboard and are slapped on any horse (regardless of fit - 'cos ALL WESTERN SADDLES FIT ANY HORSE DON'T THEY??) that has the temperament and atheletic ability of a seaside donkey!

My local saddler announced to me not so long ago, that most Western saddles dont fit ANY horses, especially British horses!!!! I did retort that most saddles I'd seen in the local area and, that had been fitted by a qualified saddler, ALSO did not appear to fit!!!!

 

[madeleine1]

I just find it so funny when your at a show or a BSJA and you see people bitching about how the rider is riding or you see a cobby-type in SJ class and people are like " that 'thing' will never get round" and it ends up getting places above all the "posh" horses. I love seeing peoples faces when that happens hehe

I often hack to SJ comps and we get lots of looks because we arrive really muddy and things but we end up doing well and better than most with the posh ponies and boxes

i hacked to my local show. and ok my horse is probably one of the posh horses but im not and she doesnt care that shes posh can ruff it with the best. well we hacked 6 miles to the got a clear round and after a quick flick with the brush i had in my pocket we won the riding horse class and came second in the coloured class

 

[Storminateacup]

I remember being a keen young teenager, ponyless but 'scrounging rides in return for stable duties' type of kid and being friends with a girl in the year below me at school. She had a pony brought for her who was a chunky, hairy native with all the feathers and fluff,but soon became keen to join the local PC. However, apparently this particular PC favoured TB type ponies and the fluffy pony was soon replaced with a TB type pony just so that my friend could join that PC!!.

The richest horsey folk that i have come across have been the nicest. They tend to wear old clothes and drive battered old estate cars and the horses are kept beautifully, albeit in older tack, but superbly polished with spit and elbow grease!.

I once met a lady who answered an advert id put up in a shop offering help with horses. She spoke in a very jolly but posh manner and was keen to throw me on board her 3 year olds and let me muck out and help at hunts. I cycled to her farm on my shoddy old push bike, unknowing of the area that she lived and she come bustling out of her farmhouse full of enthusiasm and thrust a mug of bovril in my hand and invited me into her house and introduced me to her horses one by one and told me of their likes and dislikes. I was just a common kid and she was obviously very wealthy indeed, but her money was held up in the property she owned as she was always hunting for bargains and was very much into the 'repair rather than replace minset!'.

She would happlily let me mingle with her posh hunt friends, even though i probably came out with stupid things sometimes, she would just laugh out loud!. She was amazing, I will never forget the time she scraped me off the floor when i fell off my push bike and patched me up with vetrap and animalintex in her kitchen! and then powerhosed the cow poo off my bike the following day!. The way that she dragged me into the back of her landy and wrapped me up in a witney blanket to 'cool down' after having one too many ciders at the local point to point!. I would spend hours sat on the bonnet of her landy on a cold winter morning waiting for her and her horse to return from the hunt, ready with the bucket and sponge to wash them down!.

Those were the days and she was a very posh rich lady indeed, and I was just a common kid, but never did I hear a word of snobbery escape from her mouth. It's a shame i have lost contact with her.

My mother used to clean the house of a local posh hunting family. They treated her like gold and brought her many gifts and treated us like part of the family. They wore old tatty clothes and loved a bargain too! You would never have known that they had money as they never showed it off.

The difference here is "OLD MONEY" vs "NEW MONEY" or what we used to call the Nouveau Riche
Old MONEY folk are whats left of the landed gentry in this country, the remnants of the upper classes, the lords and ladies, Rt Hons, and other titled folk etc. I have worked for them, in my dim and distant past. They are generally lovely, generous kind animal loving, scruffy, country folk who as you say have all their money tied up in land and old unsaleable estates drive around in old Landys and get their quality secondhand clothes from charity shops in the up market towns near their homes. I found they are are far more akin to the working classes in generosity of spirit than the middle class (Upwardly mobile- hopefully and dreadful snobs) and the Nouveau Riche ( Victoria Beckham types - desperately wanting to appear classy to others - when no class there at all.!)

 

[Allie5]

I have what might be considered a "posh" horse. A jet black BWB gelding from fleetwater opposition lines. However he is 17 months old so really just a pet just now! We had a new livery (NL) up looking round the yard and the conversation went like this: NL - hi I'm xxxxx Me - Hi I'm allie5 and this is Tommy NL - And what do you do? Me - pardon? NL - Showjumping? Dressage? Me - Oh well Tommy is only young ( Tommy is going through a fugly stage, bum high and head too big for his body! He looks like a baby!) so we don't do anything NL - Oh. She then turned her back on me to talk to the only person at the yard who competes. At unaffiliated dressage once evry six months! My view was if she didn't want to know me and my horse or how I had international JA ponies it's her loss!

 

[pip6]

Come do endurance! No snobbery, don't care what kind of horse you ride. Any dress, any colour tack (usually the more colourful the better) just have a good time & enjoy your horse.

A few years ago I bought a treeless saddle with a green base & girth straps, went down a storm (not!) at the livery stable! I loved their reaction! I'd rather be me, out there & competing at an affiliated level than the rest of them in their expensive tack trying to win a 2'3" class at the local show against little kids!

Then also bough a white bridle (all synthetic so very easy to keep sparkling clean), a green bridle & a green breast plate, worst of all ALL SYNTHETIC! Yes, you can now put your noses you know where you know who at the yard inot 'classical dressage but to frightened to get out of trot on your horses'!

When I was younger I used to sj a 22 yr old welsh 13.2hh pony for someone. Used to take her to the local affiliated show. Long wooly coat, brown patches where dry mud had been brushed off but stained fur, patches of wet mud that had to be left (not fair to sponge off in cold weather). Took her in the unaffiliated warmup class (3') & beat the pants of the big sparkly affilated horses every time! Definate upward snobbery! Go Solo, you were a superstar.

 

[JustMe22]

I've quite often found the kids and teenagers are the worst actually. Dunno if it's because they get their ponies/horses bought for them or something, and have no idea of the cost..I'm not sure. The area I live in is the horsey 'hub' of the country I live in And as a result, there are LOADS of kids/teenagers with really fancy, imported WB's and ponies, and I mean 10 or so of them. They get their results I guess...but I'm not sure I could take a whole lot of pride from only ever competing on fantastically expensive schoolmasters and never producing anything myself. That's me though.

Having said that. I am guilty of reverse snobbery I admit it. I like people being surprised when I say I have a £300 ex-racer, and he's doing just as well as some of the fancy horses. I've never sat on a ready-made horse, and to be honest, I think it's taught me a lot. The pony I'm riding and possibly going to start competing is a real bog pony, but he's being produced slowly and (hopefully) correctly, and I think he'll do well. We'll get looked down upon given I'm 5'8, he's 14.1hh, and clearly a fat farm horse But who cares?? I don't.

I also know, however, that if I could afford it, I too would have (alongside my silly green tb's, which I love!) a fancy, talented WB of sorts. I try not to get too jealous though! Having a ready-made posh horse would be lovely, but it is rather easy to assume everybody on the big fancy horses has bought it ready, and not done any work themselves. Obviously, somebody has to produce the things

Generally though, I don't reeeaaallly notice the snobbery. Had a few comments when my tb explodes at a show, but although a couple have been nasty and uncalled for, I've had far more people offering assistance (to mount etc when he's rearing and spinning/kicking, and somebody to read my tests and give me some advice..turned out she was from the top yard in our area! She loved my little ex-racer, the fact that I managed to truck him an hour with borrowed horsebox/car and got him ready myself, and then offered to let me bring him down to hers for a weekend and get some lessons and rides on experienced horses)