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

another person used to talk to her muck heap. she would take the barrow up to the muck heap and then ask it where it wanted to go on the pile. she would then tip it and pat it down and say things like there you go, you can make friends with such a horses poo etc etc.
or she would insist on us poo picking the fields twice a day. one day she marched up to my husband and told him he wasn't doing it good enough, got on her hands and knees and scraped it up with her bare hands, all the poo went under her nails. she would then go back to the tack room and get a cup full of mouse droppings off the shelf and tip them out, make herself a cup of tea in it and then eat a biscuits. she also kept a big chest freezer in the tack room which was full of meat joints which she would take home to cook.
this was the YO as well, we left there after a couple of months as she was completely cuckoo!!
 
Too many to go into detail about but as a brief summary...

1. a couple of YO's who have threatened to put client's horses on the road as punishment for perceived slights by the clients

2. The ghastly groom at a well known showjumpers yard who stabbed my horse in the neck with a pitchfork....wellknown showjumper then proceeded to lie then get aggressive about it...I left

3. The YO who put me in hospital for complaining about shoddy care for my horse

I think horses attracts a lot of people who mistake kindness for stupidity...my present yard is fantastic and very well run
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Had a livery here once who was into "natural horsemanship"; boy was she weird - when she started hanging Rose Quartz crystals around their necks really cracked me up totally.

OK, so someone is gonna now say "but it WORKS"............ ha ha bleddy ha.

A good thing to do if you really wanna meet some fruitcakes is to advertise your horse for sale or loan - that'll do the trick properly and you'll be positively infested with every oddball, fruitcase & downright nutter on the planet.

If you don't believe me then try it and see :)
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To be fair, I've just ordered some rhythm beads (partly as it might help us and partly because I think they might look pretty) ... and whilst I do practise NH, I don't see it as being any different to someone wanting a hand beaded blingy browband or something?!

Mind you, I'm probably on someone else's 'weird' post for regularly turning up in the mornings in PJ bottoms to turn out and muck out before work (I don't sleep in PJ's BTW!), chatting to my pony, choosing to do Parelli and hanging beads around my ponies neck. Swings and roundabouts eh?! :D

Definitely met some odd characters ...

I was a grass livery at a private yard (about four liveries in total) which was owned by a semi-professional show jumper. Who routinely said things like 'I really hate having liveries around' and would make sly comments/digs, make you feel uncomfortable to be there ... and then wondered why I/other liveries left?!

Then at a previous yard there was the livery that actually reported their head collar and lead rope set as stolen to the Police. Turns out another livery had bought their horse in as it was freaking out in the field at being left and put it by her feed bin. :D :rolleyes:

Then there was another livery that literally would only put matchy matchy on their horse/in their stable?!

There's one or two slightly odd characters on my current yard ... but, it's a big yard and I don't have much to do with them, thankfully.
 
Hm...

Well what about the mad middle aged lady who has had more lessons than you can imagine but still looks like a sack of potatoes; who thought she would do well by buying a lipizzaner until came to her senses and loaned him back to his old owner and got a cob instead, bought a horse for her daughter so they could go on hacks together but then daughter didnt fancy hacking. As her horse was a bit spooky when hacking alone she took to singing an entire Fairport Convention repertoire on hacks to 'relax' them both. Then just because there weren't enough horses in the family bought a 6month old colt with dreams of breeding from him.... (Think she has now seen sense on that one though)

... oh and had a brand new equitrek trailer for about 3 months before having to accept she couldnt reverse it and had to trade it in for a lorry. Then deciding her horse didnt like that particular lorry because it was herringbone so traded that in (at a huge loss) for a rear facing instead.

... who hardly has any time for the horses because of working full time but could probably have retired by now if not for the amount she spends on her horses, which probably works out an average of about £300 per hour in the saddle.

Oh yes and she does the please and thank you and mutters to herself when doing any yard jobs.

............... ok I admit it, its me :p
 
riding_high said:
another person used to talk to her muck heap. she would take the barrow up to the muck heap and then ask it where it wanted to go on the pile. she would then tip it and pat it down and say things like there you go, you can make friends with such a horses poo etc etc.
or she would insist on us poo picking the fields twice a day. one day she marched up to my husband and told him he wasn't doing it good enough, got on her hands and knees and scraped it up with her bare hands, all the poo went under her nails. she would then go back to the tack room and get a cup full of mouse droppings off the shelf and tip them out, make herself a cup of tea in it and then eat a biscuits. she also kept a big chest freezer in the tack room which was full of meat joints which she would take home to cook.
this was the YO as well, we left there after a couple of months as she was completely cuckoo!!
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Oh wow, she sounds amazing! I especially love the freezer full of meat!

I do talk to the robin that visits me at the muck heap to uncover worms, but I draw the line at talking to the poo :-)
 
I've mentioned this before on here but my boss in my first job when I left school was a total nut job. I found some files with a whole load of time tables for feeding, mucking out, rooming etc, instructions and rules for a livery yard as well as a list of clients. There were pages and pages of this stuff.

The yard did not exist and none of the "clients" were real people, except me and my horse....:eek::eek:
 
Don't see what's crazy about half these people, the other night I was walking my horse round the school on foot going through a dressage test with her. 'make sure you don't cut this corner, Grace, otherwise it'll spoil that diagonal. Now don't forget we've got to trot as we hit the track then within four strides we have to walk so don't get ahead of yourself in that canter...'
 
loving these posts.

only had my own lad just under a year, bought as a project (relatively unhandled 4yr old colt). he lives out year round at a local farm with no others around him (with exception of a few months when i first got him) but even there, not so much the mentalness but a lot of pettiness and comments about my "wild stallion" (always beautiful natured but now calm gelding :p) glad i've got the place to myself now. was fed up of every so often having to rectify something amiss with her horse. :rolleyes:

However, worked at a yard for a couple of years and yes i recognise a few of the characters described. Happily the majority were the slightly nutty ones not thoseyou get worried about :)
 
love the thread! makes mine seem sane!

She has this TB (which are totally different from ALL other breeds of horses) that she appears to be scared of. She lies about everything. Hates children and old people, talks behind all our backs. Called me 'not very horsey' (i have 2 ponies and an NDHM) and gives out terrible advice ('dont get a companion, he'll get over it'). Everything I consider is a terrible idea, and i make a point of doing the opposite where possible. she feeds her horse packets and packets of mints everyday (he can apparently count how many are in a packet) and everything seems to set him off. because she never tells him off he bites. i've seen her riding on the road a couple of times, if her horse doesnt feel like it she gets off and walks for half an hour or so, and when me and a friend rode past he threw a fit and almost sat on a car. she's known as the mad post lady on her round apparently.

I talk to my ponies alot, serenade my 14.2 when cooling down in the school and tell them to 'be good' every night when i go home. I hate to think what people think of me!
 
gmw said:
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!!
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I work in an office with someone like this- whatever you have done, they can better it, regardless of how mundane a topic! Drives me up the wall!
 
Elevenerife ^^ LOL!!

I've encountered many oneupmanshippers but the worst was the complete liar! We worked together and she told me about the horses she used to own, how high up she competed etc and she was the same as me, getting back into it with some lessons after a while away from horses. I let her join me for a shared lesson, she gave our instructor the same info about her experience and off we went. 5 minutes later she lost her balance in trot and fell out the side door. Both me and my instructor saw what happened but she made up an over animated story about being given a dangerous horse that threw her off. I was mortified.

Another one was an instructor I had as a child, she used to pick up roadkill on our hacks to take home and cook. Great lady, taught me so much but incredibly odd dining habits!
 
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 knew one lady like this! Completely adorable, but completely batty
 
tobiano said:
Hm...

Well what about the mad middle aged lady who has had more lessons than you can imagine but still looks like a sack of potatoes; who thought she would do well by buying a lipizzaner until came to her senses and loaned him back to his old owner and got a cob instead, bought a horse for her daughter so they could go on hacks together but then daughter didnt fancy hacking. As her horse was a bit spooky when hacking alone she took to singing an entire Fairport Convention repertoire on hacks to 'relax' them both. Then just because there weren't enough horses in the family bought a 6month old colt with dreams of breeding from him.... (Think she has now seen sense on that one though)

... oh and had a brand new equitrek trailer for about 3 months before having to accept she couldnt reverse it and had to trade it in for a lorry. Then deciding her horse didnt like that particular lorry because it was herringbone so traded that in (at a huge loss) for a rear facing instead.

... who hardly has any time for the horses because of working full time but could probably have retired by now if not for the amount she spends on her horses, which probably works out an average of about £300 per hour in the saddle.

Oh yes and she does the please and thank you and mutters to herself when doing any yard jobs.

............... ok I admit it, its me :p
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Kudos to you :D Love it.
 
Loving this thread.

I had a young horse who proved to be dangerously aggressive and was returned to the vendor. The breeder contacted me with all sorts of recommendations, one of which was an animal behaviourist who would send horse healing vibes if I emailed the photo to said expert.

I have since heard said horse continues to be a bully and has to be kept apart from others on his yard.
 
I could tell you about the woman with a mare brought to visit my stallion....

.....but then I'd have to spend the rest of the day resting in a darkened room to recover my composure!

SIX phone calls the first day the mare arrived, then more or less the same every day for weeks...and weeks...and weeks....:eek::eek::eek:

Finally arrived, unannounced, in the middle of hay making between the showers, to remove the mare. It took her nearly three hours to get the brute to load!:rolleyes:
 
After my mare died and various promises of rides fell through (as they usually do!) I took myself of for a regular fix at several different yards ( not wanting to commit to ownership again, immediately at least) and I found a lovely looking yard complete with groomed gravel drive and all th right sort of noises stemming from the large indoor school. Only block mounting was allowed and no one was to ride out before being thoroughly checked out by an instructor indoors - all wonderful, I though and booked myself in despite it being a good 40 mile one way journey.

Thus I was soon elevated to being allowed out hacking and would I like to join their Christmas Ride? This mark you, involved all concerned crossing a main "A" road by means of a traffic lighted horse crossing both ways - we all left trotted up the immaculate drive and even at this stage some of my compatriots were giving cause for concern, weaving, unable to steer and two in front kept allowing their mounts to pull them almost out of the saddle. By the time we reache the crossing I felt as though I was acting chaperon!

Out on a rolling common the trot became a canter and all of a sudden I realised that while there were the same number of horses with me all the riders were somewhere behind - including the Y.O.!!! I did a quick gather up and handed them off the soem walking wounded and then when to rescue a bloke who was face down in big puddle - I really did think twice before turning him over! Luckily his big puffa jacket had kept him alive. Unbelievable - but then.... none of 'em could get back on!!! I had to get off and give everyone a leg up... I had two hours of this!

Gave them a miss and took up with a great yard in the Cotswolds that did a lot of hirlings for the Hunt - now that was something!
 
So glad I now have my own yard!

I did move to one yard where one woman immediately wanted to be my best friend , used to ring me every night , muck out my stables without me asking ( and I like mucking out ! ) and we eventually came to an arrangement whereby she would put my two out in the morning ( who are as good as gold ) and I would bring her two in at night and put them to bed . Unfortunately , due to her constant babying of them , and making excuses for bad behaviour ( they were both big 16.3hh creatures for goodness sake ! ) they had no manners whatsoever . One in particular you could only change his rug with him tied up really short to stop him either taking a huge chunk out of you , in which case he would try and kick you , or crush you against the stable . He was shocking , and frankly dangerous , so I took to carrying a short whip . All I ever did was use it as a barrier , and never ever used it , but it was enough to make him not try to hurt me .

Next thing I know , I'm getting a phone call from this woman's husband , saying she'd locked herself hysterical in a bathroom , and it was all my fault , because one of the other liveries had mentioned me carrying this whip whilst changing this creatures rugs . So I stopped doing them , and she got someone else to do it , who carried out her instructions to the letter , until the horse tore a chunk out of her throat and tried to trample her in its stable .
 
tobiano said:
Hm...

Well what about the mad middle aged lady who has had more lessons than you can imagine but still looks like a sack of potatoes; who thought she would do well by buying a lipizzaner until came to her senses and loaned him back to his old owner and got a cob instead, bought a horse for her daughter so they could go on hacks together but then daughter didnt fancy hacking. As her horse was a bit spooky when hacking alone she took to singing an entire Fairport Convention repertoire on hacks to 'relax' them both. Then just because there weren't enough horses in the family bought a 6month old colt with dreams of breeding from him.... (Think she has now seen sense on that one though)

... oh and had a brand new equitrek trailer for about 3 months before having to accept she couldnt reverse it and had to trade it in for a lorry. Then deciding her horse didnt like that particular lorry because it was herringbone so traded that in (at a huge loss) for a rear facing instead.

... who hardly has any time for the horses because of working full time but could probably have retired by now if not for the amount she spends on her horses, which probably works out an average of about £300 per hour in the saddle.

Oh yes and she does the please and thank you and mutters to herself when doing any yard jobs.

............... ok I admit it, its me :p
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There's nothing wrong with making sure your horse knows all the lyrics to every song on Liege & Lief...that's not madness, that's just good taste :D
 
Mythical said:
Don't see what's crazy about half these people, the other night I was walking my horse round the school on foot going through a dressage test with her. 'make sure you don't cut this corner, Grace, otherwise it'll spoil that diagonal. Now don't forget we've got to trot as we hit the track then within four strides we have to walk so don't get ahead of yourself in that canter...'
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:) I think I might be the one one our yard! I have the dressage diagram sheets, and can often be seen showing the horse the pictures and saying "right.... can you remember this!"
 
Met a few strange ones over the years. Only one really stands out, though.

I was about 14 at the time, on a DIY yard with a 17yo Welsh D who was on loan to me. We had a new livery move on, didn't seem too bad to begin with. She had a bright chestnut youngster.

Couple of weeks in, I start noticing bright ginger hairs on my saddle (communal tack room, and I had a bay). This saddle was brand new, and belonged to pone's owner, not me. The only ginger horse on the yard was an unbroken 3yo. Permission hadn't been asked. I decided not to confront, but wrapped a wire bike lock around the saddle and through the saddle rack, purely for "security" purposes.

What happened? We started finding huge keyed scratches on my mum's car, on one occasion a metal allen key wedged in the tyre (as she moved off, it punctured). My Welsh suddenly developed a fear of lunge whips (was fine with them beforehand), I found him tied to the fence by his fly rug, he had chunks cut out of his mane, and binfulls of feed were going missing, along with bottles of mane and tail.

Needless to say we moved off shortly after. It's scary how some people react.
 
i haven't had a really bad experience... some of these stories are wicked!

I worked for a yard (first job just finished college) got there the first day all normal.. then i started to notice 'yard manager' didn;t know that much... (not saying im Monty roberts..) but some of us noticed the horse she loaned looked tucked up.. ''what does tucked up mean?'' all things like that.. over fed her horse on competition feed never rode but it made it look shiny? then would say he was fizzy?

On her days she couldn't be bothered to walk to the end feilds (i was only paid for 3 hours work i ended up doing 12hours a day nearly...) to hay or take the oldies rugs off in the boiling weather.but on my day she'd check the CCTV to see if i had done it.. All the rules applyed to me not to her tho..

one day she said to me that i could do 'extras' for some extra money, which i did never got paid for that and im owed about £957, complained to the bloke who ran the yard who did give the foggist about it his sheep were his main concern. later decieded i wanted my money kept asking ectt nothing, in the end i quit and went up to finish off my last day, when she found out through a headcollar at me and stamped off because i asked if she needed help catching a horse that she kept throwing the headcollar at..

once i left i recieved a text off someone of the yard saying ''oh my god Becky, i can't believe your preggers...' i was like what?!?!? she was a bitmad and i think a natuarally B*tchy person.. and she was always nice to my face...

needless to say i have heard no one remains on the yard and she is the one of the only few left.. It was hell working there!!!! and i would never work in the horsey world agian.

(oh yeah she worked for a couple of riding schools and the RSPCA yeahhhhh right!!!)

Becky x
 
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The crazies come out at shows - usually the local miscellaneous shows with a bit of this and a bit of that. One lady sitting on her horse drinking a beer while waiting her turn to jump:eek: unhinged mothers ( not necessarily PC mothers either). I remember one mother with teenage son, very unhinged. We were parked next to their box, and everytime he returned, she would take over the horse, shrieking, agressive voice which would send the horse mental, then horse bouncing around, stirrups not done up while she yelling at horse to settle down. I walked over while this was going on and ran up her stirrups and said to her that horses do not like loud voices. Obviously mental, horse, son and husband all seemed perfectly nice but resigned to mum's behaviour, I guess.
 
ShadowFlame said:
Met a few strange ones over the years. Only one really stands out, though.

I was about 14 at the time, on a DIY yard with a 17yo Welsh D who was on loan to me. We had a new livery move on, didn't seem too bad to begin with. She had a bright chestnut youngster.

Couple of weeks in, I start noticing bright ginger hairs on my saddle (communal tack room, and I had a bay). This saddle was brand new, and belonged to pone's owner, not me. The only ginger horse on the yard was an unbroken 3yo. Permission hadn't been asked. I decided not to confront, but wrapped a wire bike lock around the saddle and through the saddle rack, purely for "security" purposes.

What happened? We started finding huge keyed scratches on my mum's car, on one occasion a metal allen key wedged in the tyre (as she moved off, it punctured). My Welsh suddenly developed a fear of lunge whips (was fine with them beforehand), I found him tied to the fence by his fly rug, he had chunks cut out of his mane, and binfulls of feed were going missing, along with bottles of mane and tail.

Needless to say we moved off shortly after. It's scary how some people react.
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Thats terrible!!
 
Samuelissimo said:
The crazies come out at shows - ...... unhinged mothers .
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OMG yes! First place we were on had a crazy woman!! She was always buttonholing anyone who'd listen about little Missy ( her daughter ) and Bronc her amazing - hugely expensive ( but oh isn't wonderful we can afford it now hubby is doing sooooo well ) competition pony - (here picture a combination of Fury, Champion the Wonder Horse and Brahna ) stamping and pawing the ground and snorting while wheeling on lead rein between both of them barely contained.

Oh we're just off to so&so show - Missy will be taking this one "All the way to Wembley" - thing was, the child didn't ride Bronc much and when she did it was on a exercise area where it used to dump her unceremoniously - the mother would then catch up the pony and literally kick her daughter around to the box punctuating the kicks with little gems like "will-kick,you-kick never-kick, learn-kick.

I tried to ignore it because you can get into a lot of trouble butting in to this kind of thing but one day when the girl did manage to get Bronc out of the front gate, he came back at the gallop without her and I managed to catch him. Very worrying as he'd obviously fallen - a short foray up the lane found little Missy with part of her leg bone out in the open. No helicopters or paramedics in those days so it was into a car up to the hospital. The mother tried to thank me for helping but I couldn't help telling her exactly what I thought. For godsake buy your daughter a donkey and if you want to live dangerously - do it yourself and not through your child!
 
Wowzers, this thread has kept me entertained through an entire shift at work :D The over friendly/familiar and then later pure psychotic yard member is a dead ringer for someone I've been dealing with recently. Luckily I think I'll spot the warning signs next time I encounter someone like that. I don't have any corking stories myself, just some average run of the mill stuff you get in most places. I had quite a sheltered life on my old diy yard it seems.

Just lately someone on the local horse communities' facebook group page has taken to buying riding gear from catalogues and trying to sell it more expensively from home :rolleyes: she tried to persuade me to buy several pairs of half-chaps even though I only ever wear knee high riding boots :D when I said I didn't really have footwear to go with them she tried to tell me they'd go super with my riding boots and it didn't matter what footwear you used!
 
Before I moved up to Leicestershire I didn't think i'd ever met any, but I wonder now whether I was just young and my mum was shielding me from them.... because I have met too many in my short time away from home for that not to be the case!
 
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