Strangest thing said to you while out riding?

A few years back I was hacking my Arab and the husband of one of the liveries next door to me was walking towards me, he said that my horse looked like he had been punched in the face, I think he was taking the piss out if his dished face.

My reply wasn't very complimentary to say the least:D

They were not known for being the nicest couple she was reported to the police for threatening behaviour towards other liveries, I think everyone was so glad when they left.
 
I got told that my horse was refusing to pass a scary object (that he had passed 50 times before) because I wasn't being nice to him. She actually got out of her car to tell me that ?

I also got told by a man who had seen my horse march over a rubble car park that I should have shoes on him.

A neighbour I stopped to introduce myself to when I was new here adjusted the buckles on my horses bridle to put the bit higher. I told him to put it back as it was.
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Hacking down a busy road, car overtakes dangerously close and fast and pulls in and screeches to a halt just in front of us. I’m mentally winding myself up for a fight with the driver. Old bloke gets out.

Old bloke: you know horses need to be on the other side of the road
Me: <genuinely puzzled> what?
Him: they need to see what’s coming, you should ride into the traffic not with the traffic
Me: <blink blink.gif> errr, no
Him: they do, the Highway Code says so
Me: Nope, you’re thinking of pedestrians
Him: well as a horse rider you are a pedestrian
Me: <brain gives up at being bombarded with this dumbassery> ok sure, I’ll just ring the police and check later then?
Him: good, make sure you do

He then gets back in the car quite happily and drives off. I still can’t understand what he was thinking.
 
There's an old lady in the village who is convinced my roan mare (actually an Appy with varnish) is really old because she has white hairs.

I've said nope, she's just an odd colour many times. She still says it when she sees me. Every Single Time.

But she's very nice so I pretend we've never discussed it ?
 
If we see a double decker bus on the short bit of road we ride on I always trot to the nearest driveway to let the bus pass as the road is quite narrow. I had an older gentleman in a car behind the bus wind his window down and tell me I shouldn't have my horse on the road if he is scared of the traffic. He was stood as quietly as a lamb watching the kids waving in the back window of the bus?‍♀️
 
While riding one and leading others who were wearing zebra fly rugs I was told that I should not dress them up like that because it is cruel and demeaning to them. I explained about flies but they just told me that if they had to be worn the rugs should be white.......
 
SEL said:
Oh and if you have an Ardennes then you actually have cars stopping on the road, windows down and people asking What is THAT?!

Followed by - look at the size of his feet, nose, ears.....

He just wants to know if they have treats
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To be fair, I, a "horse person" felt the same way when I first met an Ardennes. His head was SO BIG. What a wonderful, gentle, and kind creature he was though. Fantastic disposition.
 
CanteringCarrot said:
To be fair, I, a "horse person" felt the same way when I first met an Ardennes. His head was SO BIG. What a wonderful, gentle, and kind creature he was though. Fantastic disposition.
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I had a shire and a Clyde and I still feel this way about big drafts! They’re so so big. It fries my brain.

On a related note, someone asked me why the Clyde had leg warmers...he had white stockings and lots of feather.
 
Elderly woman from very horsey family drives her car right up to my just backed 4yo at quite a speed, and keeps on going to the point we are forced to try and move into a ditch. Horse plants in protest, woman winds down the window and says, "What's wrong with your horse?". I was so gobsmacked I didn't even have a reply.
 
My Arabs wear tail bags in the winter I pulled over on a track to let a couple pass with dogs, the lady said what a lovely horse I say thank you, she then catches sight of the tail bag and says that's a good idea tying your bag to his tail, I nearly choked laughing I couldn't even manage to explain it's just to keep the tail clean.
 
There's a mechanic who rents one of the units on the farm. Older man, knows a lot about everything.
He came over while I was tacking up once, and said "I wouldn't want to ride a horse in that saddle". I looked at my beautiful, expensive dressage saddle, and wriggled my eyebrows a bit.
"You should get a western saddle" he said "then you could run for 7 or 8 hours across the plains, and you'd be really comfortable"
I politely refrained from saying that my horse would have palpitations if I made him run for 7 hours - and that there weren't many plains in Berkshire anyway
 
Nudibranch said:
Elderly woman from very horsey family drives her car right up to my just backed 4yo at quite a speed, and keeps on going to the point we are forced to try and move into a ditch. Horse plants in protest, woman winds down the window and says, "What's wrong with your horse?". I was so gobsmacked I didn't even have a reply.
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He doesn’t like dickheads is the only appropriate response to this!
 
"Your Shire is beautiful. I know quite a lot about them." Blue is 15hh on her tiptoes, and hogged. Her fluffy pantaloons were little out of control at the time, though.

"Is the little one the big one's son? Will he grow as big?" My friend was on her Shire gelding, I was on Blue, a mare.

And a few months ago, after Blue and I parted company on a hack and she bogged off down the Trans-Pennine Trail (because our companion decided to chase her, rather than just let her amble back to me *headdesk*) a walker said, "Ooh, isn't she going fast?" while I limped at high speed after everybody. My response was a very short, "I just hope she stops before she reaches the road so she doesn't get killed."
 
Stopped by two older ladies whilst hacking out. Both greet me and then one turns to the other.
“see I told you we’d see a racehorse up here, I know all of them by sight”
She paused and pondered.
“not sure I recognise this handsome fellow though, he looks really ready to run.”

I was on a quite rotund unfit Iberian, who would have had a heart attack if he ever had to gallop.
 
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