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

[sandi_84]

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....

Learnt later the rumours were totally true so it wasn't gossip!!

Heard a similar one from an extremely reliable source about a lady who after having work done on her horse by any male horsey person invites them into the house where there is a big bowl of condoms on the table.... I think you know where this is going

I tend to do the whole "please and thank you" thing with my boy but it's generally done in a sarcastic way when he's not doing what I'm asking but I do talk to him lots and I catch myself apologising for accidentally bumping into him etc

The worst one I've come across was the lady who ran a B&B and a tourist treking yard. My dad went up to ask if I could help out (being a horse mad teenager but I was too shy to ask for myself) and she agreed that I could indeed come and help with the horses and I'd get rides for free in return... fabulous? Not so much!....
She called me and the 2 other girls who helped out "the slaves" (even to other people) and we were treated as such. We had to do everything at the B&B from cleaning to serving guests (which wasn't in the arrangement), she was regularly horrible and abusive towards us, were made to go bracken pulling with no gloves on (which results in extremely shredded hands!) and at the oh so responsible age of 13 (the other girls were 11 at the time) were allowed to take the tourists out on hacks! She told my best friend she wasn't allowed to sit on the quad because she'd brake it because she was too fat, she wasn't even overweight!
Her daughter was a lovely woman who got married while I was helping there and the girls and I were all delighted to get invites to the wedding reception which was to be held on the grounds in a big markee. So on the day we got dressed up nice and put on a little make up (as you do), one of the girls mum's even made her a dress specially. We turned up to be told by the crazy horrible bat that we looked like sl*ts and to wash the make up off immediately! We were upset obviously but went and washed it off and went to the markee all excited to be allowed to be there for the lovely daughter only to find out that the horrid mother had only invited us to save money on serving staff! We had to serve all the guests their food and drink.
I fell off one day in front off some prospective riding guests who then apparently decided to cancel and I got a lovely shouting at for it being all my fault... I was riding one horse and leading another when the one I was leading unexpectedly stopped dead to eat grass and I got pulled off backwards... not that she was concerned about whether I'd hurt myself or not!
The final straw for me came when myself and one of the other girls asked if we could pay for the use of our favourite ponies, trailer and the guy who drove for a day so we could take part in a local gymkhana. Surprisingly she told us that since we'd worked so hard we could take them for free!
We had a lovely day and between us came back with a fair few rosettes and the other girl got a big trophy for "best in show" or "overall winner" (can't remember but it was the major prize anyhow) with only a minor blip where some silly woman tried to squeeze her horse between mine and the horse in front (in the line up going into handy pony), her horse had a red ribbon on it's tail and there was clearly no space between me and the horse in front. Her horse kicked out and the only reason I didn't end up with both barrels in the chest or stomach was that my pony pulled me back when she tried to get out of the way and I only ended up with a little scar on my hip instead. I eventually got back on my pony at the end of the gymkhana and jumped a clear round in the practice area just for fun and to boost my spirits because I was quite sore and hadn't been able to compete for the rest of the show.
We got back to the yard and excitedly told the woman all about our day... she took all out rosettes and the other girls trophy from us and she screamed blue murder at me for getting kicked and told me it was all my own fault She displayed our winnnings in the B&B lounge for a month and then refused to return them and threw them away! Needless to say after that I left and never looked back!
The nice lady who ran the gymkhana heard what happened and was appalled so she sent us both doubles of what we'd won but in even bigger sizes including the trophy and she sent me a little extra one for "being brave and getting back on" after getting kicked She was such a lovely lady
I had a load of fun on that yard with the other girls and the lovely horses but the lady who owned the place was an absolute b***h

 

[1stclassalan]

On my last yard some of the quite lardy-da ladies were all having coffee and talking about certain parties that were going on in the village that invloved all the male guests putting their car keys in a bowl ---- I think most can follow that? However; I couldn't help but burst out laughing when the one I was closest to said "isn't awful? You might end up with a complete dog!"

I got to drive a new BMW when I went - hahahaha!

I bought my mare from an extremely upmarket place - the owners were quite famous but the bloke thought that you should actually bow down in his presence. They started divorce proceedings as I moved in as a livery so witnessed some blazing rows in which they would shout and scream like Eastenders despite being on first name terms with the Royals. They also misused young helpers by promising rides that never materialised but of course the youngsters still came because they were hooked on horses and we did have some fantastic ones there. One day an irate father came in and lifted the bloke Y.O. off the ground by his neck while holding up against a wall and demanded answers to a few pertinent questions - rides for his daughter! I think the poor girl was sat on a horse for 24 hours! I also saw the same sort of thing develop over a dispute about a certain horse's ownership - seems like the owner had left him on the understanding Y.O. would sell him well but instead had hiredhim out for profit!

 

[Skipadeedooda]

I liveried at a really small private yard so I dealt with advertising and vetting liveries as owners weren't horsey at all. I had advertised a space and a lady called me up to say she was loading her horse up right away and would be at yard in 30mins (she was hysterical on phone). I replied with please don't do that, I was dressed on-route to a wedding. So I said I would meet her the next morning for a chat but please don't bring your horse as we have other people interested. She turned up told me how she had fallen out with previous YM (turned out to be a farmer she was renting field from) and decided her horse was better living in her garage....so she had been keeping it in her garage on a housing estate. I got told her whole life history a breakdown of everyone she's fallen out with and it's never her fault. Livery was £85 pm and she started asking if I would look after her horse in case she didn't have enough fuel to get up the hill in her Range Rover, she made a big thing about how steep the hill was and it wasn't fuel efficient (no love that's the RR not the hills fault). Needless to say we got someone else which didn't go down well. But recently found out she was at a really fancy yard and lost the plot so was thrown off for threatening the owner...poor wee horse. But she was definitely a psycho...think there's a shortage of normal horsey people of course all of us HH peeps are the exception 😉