Strange horsey people you've had the misfortune of meeting!

Ilovefoals said:
A yard I was at had an alcholic livery who was always turning up to see to her horse drunk. It would frequently appear back from a hack riderless cos she had fallen off in her drunken state. The final straw was her driving up to the yard very drunk one day and attempting to load said horse (fat, unfit and wearing a hackamore made out of a bike chain) into the trailer to go to a hunter trial. Some adults at the time had to wrestle her car keys off her and she was driven home. When she left shortly after, we gutted out her stable and found a dozen empty vodka bottles hidden in the straw banks!!!

Another was a married couple (different yard), who would go to the field together to catch their horse and be gone ages. Turns out they were having sex in the field shelter, completely unaware that the neighbouring farmhouse had a perfect view :)
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I don't know if I'm shocked more at the fact there were empty vodka bottles in the straw banks or the couple that were at it in the field shelter!:eek::D
 
All this and more! But the one that really drove me nuts was the one who always had done better, bigger, than you. If you had been show jumping, she would have been to Hickstead, if you had done a dressage test, she had done PSG. If you had a cold she would have pneumonia. Drove me nuts! Thank goodness I have my own place and don't have to put up with any of these nutters anymore. . Mind you miss them in a funny sort of way!!
 
Once on a yard with a bloke who avoided chores at all costs....he would make a point of going into the field to poo-pick....then could quite clearly be seen lobbing his barrow over the hedge into the lane and re-entering the yard by the back entrance- unseen by YO.....:rolleyes:
 
My OH always says you horsey lot are nuts.
We were at a small place shared with two other owners. I had a little mare and this girl that I worked with had three. She started getting a bit odd with me and then rang and left me a message at home asking me to do all hers that night, muck out etc. I thought it was a bit of a cheek as I couldnt have said no if I wanted to but did duly go and look after all of hers aswell. When I saw her the following day I strangely expected her to at least say thanks. She never spoke to me again !!. She tried to make my life a misery and push me out of the yard but she ended up ;eaving . we had the stables ransacked. The rugs shredded off our ponies backs. Everything stolen that wasnt nailed down and some that was. We saw her boyfriends car parked up one day and could see our stuff in the back but the police said we had no proof.

The other people that sided with her at the time because they listened to her lies all gradually realised what had really gone on. It turned out that the other owner had been told that I had been kicking and hitting her pony etc.
Mad as a box of frogs
 
When I was little, there was a lady who lived with her mother in a filthy cottage, you know the kind where you would politely refuse a drink because the glass would be encrusted....anyhow, rumour had it she paid for her horses shoes, and hay (2 separate men) in, um, other ways....she had literally 30 horses and no one could ever understand how she afforded them....:o

Learnt later the rumours were totally true so it wasn't gossip!!
 
Caol Ila said:
A person who kept her horses at another livery yard I used to be at once, after falling out with her horse -- not an uncommon occurrence -- said to me, "Do you know why the parade horses for the military are so well-behaved?"

"They're trained?" I suggested.

"Yeah, if those horses misbehave, they're tied up for three days without food and water."

"Uh," I said, "I really doubt that."

"No," she answered, "It's true. That's what they do."

Okaaaay.
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I know where they got that gem from. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron!
The bad guy (a military man) says, after Spirit has successfully thrown all his best riders off "Tie him to the post, no food or water for 3 days"
 
Rebels said:
Oh, and our next door neighbour buys bags of feed that are broken or spoilt for his scruffy herd , turns out they look quite good on Chudleys Original!!!
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Holy heck! :eek:

JellyBeanSkittle said:
Had one YO padlock horse in is stable because we had given notice and was out day to move - she didn't want us to leave.....!
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One of my old YOs did this and also tied horses up outside because he was annoyed at the owner!

The school was locked because someone left one poo in there. :rolleyes:

One guy I knew took wet straw off the muck heap for his horse: yuck! And he caught his horse's wee in a bucket and threw it out to the yard. :mad:

I know a serial non payer who has been on every yard and has now pretty much abandoned her mare, owing loads. Crazy people!

An old YM used to write stinkingly awful notes on the board but would never confront the ones she directed them at, threats to throw people off etc. quite mad.
 
holeymoley said:
Just curious to see how many other bizarrely strange horsey people are out there that you've come across!

We have a woman at the yard who is strange to say the least. We all have ample space for stuff yet, she takes all her rugs home everyday ! can you imagine the state of her car?! She also sweeps the same patch outside her door to an inch of its life, so much so the concrete is wearing down. The other thing I seen her doing the other day was checking her bolts were done up by shining a torch on them, even though we have a substantial ray of light coming from the numerous light bulbs in the barn! :rolleyes:

So c'mon lets hear yours :p
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Not myine but my cousin tells the tale of a woman being disparaging about her (cousin's) gelding and asking about his breeding, Cousin was thoroughly "hacked off by the whole thing and said

"He's a Hungarian Bitza and very rare in this country due to the strict rules about exporting them from the National Stud in Hungary."

"Oh yes", Said woman, very knowledgeably "My friend has one of them"

She was puzzled by the muffled snorts of laughter from on-lookers and really displeased when she was later talking about about "Hungarian Bitzas" only to be told that Bitza actually meant "Bitza this and Bitza that"!

Cousin's horse is a Heinz 57 but a sweetie with it.
 
:LOL: :lol: :D Great reading and great characters :D ...
:) I am not sure if it was my misfortune to meet or not ..... an education I think ...
There are a few I have met over the years. The first was our first groom, ex-groom of Col. Harry Llewellyn. He was a star. The horses loved him, everyone loved him, with all his tales about Foxhunter in the 1950s ......
One possibly not so fortunate was an Instructor in our riding school who scared all the children away.....
:D
 
Janesomerset said:
Springy said:
has a brush head across the front of his stable door so a draft doesnt come under the door....

"whispers"...I sweep a shavings "barrier" to stop the draft coming under the door...pony always lies down opposite the door and I'd hate to think of a draft on his tummy...
"slinks off back to padded cell"
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And I say ""Please" and "Thank you" to my horse when he does as I ask. (Well I was taught to do so when I was a very little girl!)
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An old YO I knew was crazy! She threatened to shoot someone's cat and regularly threatened to turn horses out on the forest. She had a nice 3yo advertised for sale who I enquired about. I messages her asking what the reason for sale was (pretty Normal Q) and she replied 'I've got cancer, is that okay with you?' odd thing is a friend knew her son well and she didn't have any such illness!?! Crazy bat.
 
years ago a new girl came onto our yard .. she had just bought her first horse, a 3 year old just broken pure arab. She went to a local auction and bought it a set of tack - cheap foreign leather, including a saddle and a complete bridle with a pelham bit. She then proceeded to put the pelham bit on the said youngster and started to work it ... met her again a few years later, she still had the arab but didn't do much with it as she "had little control and absolutely no brakes!".

Now I wonder why, only 3 year old I'd ever met to be to start his education in such a hard bit .. and she wouldn't hear from any of us that it was a hard bit!!!

AND, the funniest .. the lady who bought an ex trotter. It was a lovely horse, but only knew how to pace at high speed. not a problem, this lady would stand in her stirrups and the horse would pace beneath her. However, it was hilarious out hunting; middle of the pack, galloping across an open field and you would have this woman standing up in her stirrips whizz past on her trotting horse ... my god, but he was fast! and it was funny and she did cause quite a stir within the hunting fraternity!! but she took it all with such good humour and loved that horse to bits. She kept him right to his end of days ... RIP Pacer, you lovely, funny horse!!!
 
I say please and thank you to horses, and sorry if I make a mistake that affects them. I am pretty clumsy by nature so occasionally I slip and knock them or fumble a buckle or something - oddly enough I have worked with some pretty headshy horses who adjusted to this very quickly, it was like they knew it wasn't deliberate.

In some ways it is more for me than for them - it's about making sure that the way I think about them is as a sentient being which needs to be respected as one (not that I think that people who don't chat to their ponies don't). Weird I guess :).

I have known some pretty funny ones though, there is a classic version of a certain kind of Arab owner which I have come across a couple of times and heard many tales of. Buys a young and very very pretty, often well bred Arabian, buys every single bit of kit in matching colours, feeds it on competition mix or similar and does absolutely nothing with it other than pat it and occasionally 'loose school' (read stand in the middle of the arena looking bemused while it farts it's way around with every single available boot on). Lets it get away with murder using the 'she's young' excuse even when the horse is now 8 or 9 or the 'she's an Arab they're SUPPOSED to be energetic' excuse.

Of course there is another sort of Arab owner who is possibly nearly as nuts :) - turns out her ridiculously fit, barefoot Arab in all weather until it grows a coat that makes people ask where she got a Welsh A so big, rides in all weather in a synthetic saddle and an outrageously colourful synthetic bridle. Usually an endurance rider.

I have to admit I think the second type probably has more fun - I aspire to be one (probably with an ArabX though - pure breds can be expensive) when I can afford a pony of my own. :D
 
Met some right strange horsey people in my time! One of the oddest was a oldish lady who use to spit on the radio that was in the indoor school, she said she did this to get it to work! :eek:
 
I say sorry if I bump into them etc and please when I ask them to move over in the stable etc, I frequently talk to them, and the full liveries that I do at work, so they get some human interaction when they're owners don't come up.
 
There was a girl on a yard I was on many years ago who had a lovely hanovarianx youngster that she had bought to bring on herself. We had never seen her ride but she told us she had backed lots of horses and she had done a bit of everything such as jumping and xc since she was a child. She was very capable handling horses from the ground and very confident even with strange horses so we believed she must have been just as capable on them. She asked to ride out with us one day as she said she had been working with her horse, none of us had seen her ride him, and was ready to hack out. There was me on my little 14hh sect d, my MIL on her 20 something arabx and this girl. All was going well and we decided with her in agreement to trot up a lane, only walked up to this point, as we started trotting with us in front and her behind she started screaming her head off for us to stop as she couldn't hold him. We stopped and then had to wait for her to catch up!!!! She never rode out with us again and told everyone else on the yard that we were mad out on a hack and galloped everywhere. :(
 
Ellen Durow said:
Not myine but my cousin tells the tale of a woman being disparaging about her (cousin's) gelding and asking about his breeding, Cousin was thoroughly "hacked off by the whole thing and said

"He's a Hungarian Bitza and very rare in this country due to the strict rules about exporting them from the National Stud in Hungary."

"Oh yes", Said woman, very knowledgeably "My friend has one of them"

She was puzzled by the muffled snorts of laughter from on-lookers and really displeased when she was later talking about about "Hungarian Bitzas" only to be told that Bitza actually meant "Bitza this and Bitza that"!

Cousin's horse is a Heinz 57 but a sweetie with it.
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:D:D:D LMAO
 
Thought I'd come back to admit to a few things myself. My mare was usually watching for me as my car/truck pulled up in the yard and as I opened the door she'd usually give a loud Huh-huh! To which I answer - "Hi Honey - I'm home!" - more whickering. ( Her name wasn't Honey btw, I'd just watched a lot of American films.) Once I had her in the box, I'd watch while she ate her hard feed and as soon as she moved on to her haynet, I'd groom out the tangles in her mane and tail while singing one of these:- (apologies in advance to youngsters for the archaic choices!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO_XnBm4PfE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU-QExgydz0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyc6QyDaOBg

Working around to her face called for this one:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY4uxdAt4-M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXK0JTed2G8

Exactly what she thought of my singing I don't know - opinion was divided amongst the other liveries but as I was usually the first in the morning and last out at night it didn't really matter. I was pedantic to the point of an ROD about the good night ritual; indoor door shut, bolt on, everything out, rug check ( despite just being checked ) water buckets full, handles turned to the wall ( in case tail swishing could catch and the pulled out bucket frighten her); outside door shut, top bolt, bottom bolt done, check; now does she need the top door closed??? Hmmm decisions.... Who else in the world goes through things like this but Horseypeople?
 
Aww I love the good crazies, they make life brighter! I talk to my horse a lot especially walking past something scary like loud traffic, it makes a big difference so I don't care if I look batty. I always find it weird in films when they don't really acknowledge the horse or pat it or anything!

I really do think horses attract people with mental health problems, I don't mean this to be offensive but there seem to be an unusually high frequency of this sort of thing that you wouldn't see in most other hobbies!

The bad crazies, well I hope I never meet any of these people as it can be a very hard situation to get out of :-/

I do know of a few people who are best kept at arms length and observed from afar, but they are harmless as long as you don't get sucked into trying to sort out their drama filled lives too much!
 
I met one woman who after she rode one of her horses got her groom to put a bucket under the horse after untacking it and whistle to it to make it wee in the bucket because she didn't want it seeing in its stable!! Very strange as it had been in the stable most of the day and all night... Poor horse! :P
 
I think i'm my yard's crazy. Pottering along on jekle and hyde horse that is b2 today singing to tune of popeye the sailor man, 'i'm beetle the grumpy bum, I go hacking with my mum, I pull nasty faces but i've got nice paces, i'm beetle the grumpy bum. I'm beetle the grumpy bum, I just want to have some fun, I like to buck and I don't give a *cough*, i'm beetle the grumpy bum.' I always talk to them. Bodged it last time I went jumping and yelled 'Sorry' as pony bailled me out and jumped it anyway.
 
We were on a yard that if you got there first (any you werent allowed on the yard before 830am incase you woke them up :eek: ) then you had to feed the whole yard.... so EVERYTHING had to have breakfast even the horses that didnt need it ie our Shetland!!! It was a nightmare feeding the whole yard of about 30 horses before you did anything. :mad:

Then the tack room key was only allowed between 10am and 7pm..... :confused:

Funnily enough they struggle at keeping liveries for long!!!
 
Another yard we were at one of the liveries told everyone on a local horse forum that the roof had blown off the stables in a high wind..... erm it was a brick building and the roof deffo wasnt off nor did it have a hole in it :confused:

Same woman also then told people the yard had been broken into and stuff stolen (it hadnt :confused: ) and then the police had found all her stuff and she has to go and ID it (nowt was found as nowt was nicked) :confused:

Same woman trots her horse around the yard inhand to keep it fit... rather than lunge it in the paddock coz it doesnt like circles and gets dizzy?? :rolleyes:

On the same yard the nutter prior to her used to mount her horse in the stable and then trot it past our horse stables with no hat go into the paddock canter round 3 times on the same rein (no walking at all) jump the jump on the top of the barrels 6 times on the same rein then trot up the road still with no hat to cool down and then shove the horse away for the next few weeks until it took her fancy to do it all again :confused:


:rolleyes:
 
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