Stupid idiot children!!

I would have responded in, probaly, a less measured way to children running out and grabbing my horse's tail. It would have been fuelled by rage at their parents for lack of guidance/supervision/vigilance, and fear that the pleasant, well mannered safe horse that I own/ride would respond as the prey animal he is and kick the child's head in, and cause even more grief/aggravation than I already have. I'm not responsible for the world's children, I have no further capacity left to be responsible for anything/ anyone else other than me and mine, so I applaud OP for managing to respond in a way that was effective and proportionate.
 
It takes a village to raise a child. I *******ed one last week (not swearing or screaming) but time and time again he kicks his ball against other people's cars/houses/windows. He was booting the ball against my window. You don't need to shout, a "mum glare" and a DO NOT do that worked!

Believe it or not some children are bleeding feral. Around here they ride their bikes or walk in the middle of the road. They don't move for cars or react if you use your horn. All my neighbours (and me) sound our horn and carry on driving at them, they've had enough warnings. Not saying I would hit them but if you stop the car and wait they just stand in the road
 
I had an incident with a dog a couple of years ago.
Dog ran up snapping at my (green but quiet) horses heels, I nicely asked owners to call it off, they did, no harm done. Two minuets later dog again runs up behind horse, snapping. Asked owner to call dog off, this time not quite so politely.. Again they call it off so still no harm done.
The third time it came for my horse it got kicked, hard enough to send it yelping back to it's owners.

Had it's owners used a bit of sense then the poor thing wouldn't have gotten kicked.

The kids in the OP were lucky to have got away with a severe telling off. I'd feel really bad to make a kid cry, it's better than a hoof in the head though and hopefully they'll approach appropriately next time.

Another candidate for Darwin was the parents who watched their very small child pilot a trike straight into my horses front legs.
I'm afraid I wasn't very polite to them and did suggest that underneath a half tonne animal might not be the safest place for a toddler - and got a drunken torrent of abuse back :)
 
Darremi said:
There is nothing insane or useless about my horse, and there is certainly nothing defective about the way that I train him. He is not a happy hacker, he is a somewhat highly strung WB eventer. Having a football kicked at him, or a drinks can thrown at him is not something I can really prepare him for. I think you will find that there is a fair number of horses that would not cope in the situations you describe.
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I don't think I did say horses that cannot cope with every situation are useless or insane, quite the opposite, so maybe a little over reaction on your part.
Apart from Hairy Boy, none of my horses have been happy hackers, they have been/ are highly strung DWB, ISH and TB's. Former horse was a 4* eventer who had never hacked out until I introduced him to the joys of double decker buses and village life. Current horse is a super sensitive Hanoverian X TB, but despite being a show jumper by trade, is also a bombproof go any where ride.
Training and environment won't cover every issue as all horses are different, but don't assume horses that are bombproof are born that way. It's the result of hard work, which for me is useful skill for horses once their competiton lives are finished.
 
Well, I've just been out on a hack through the estate and met the 'spud gun' kids again. One was holding the spud gun and pointing it at various things including my horse's hindquarters. I don't mind admitting that I was very scared.
One of the other kids said 'Don't shoot that one, they're police horses!' I wasn't wearing a 'Polite' tabard, just a blue and white check thing. I glared at them; he put the gun down but I didn't trust them one bit and didn't relax until we were well past them.

Now my horse is very good in traffic and is a joy to hack, but being hit with any sort of missile is likely to send him off at considerable speed, possibly into the path of a car.
In this case, it wasn't the kids who were in danger but me.
It sounds like the only reason they didn't shoot the spud gun was because they thought Finn was a police horse! (He is a 15hh Connie...) - but I do think I had a lucky escape.
Unfortunately they then started chasing us on their bikes and it took a while to lose them.

Sorry, but when kids are like that I don't think a nice smiley calm chat is the way forward. Had they done anything to hurt my horse or endanger me I would have found it very difficult not to 'lose it.'
 
Long gone are the days when any adult had the right to reprimand any child - big or small!


I can terrorise most kids and not by shouting at them but by talking very quietly and telling them exactly what I will do to them if they do not desist.
Of course, you get either abuse back or threats of calling in Child Protection to which I retort, they can put me in prison but I will have had the pleasure of teaching you a hard lesson!

Said in the right voice with the right tone and, if possible to hold their arm working ones fingers into the bone which hurts but does not bruise!
 
good grief-some of you really seem to think that everyone else-kids/cyclists/dog walkers should know how to act around horses and give you the respect you deserve eh? No wonder people think horsey types are arrogant. I don't have kids of my own-you probably couldn't find anyone who was less interested in children but every kid I meet out hacking gets spoken to nicely and allowed to approach horse if appropriate and say hello. Same with cyclists and dog walkers.

I can understand that OP took a fright (and the spud gun kid would be dealt with differently). Every person you meet out hacking is an opportunity to let people see that horse riders are normal people and that horses deserve a little consideration.

And is this really a competition about what we chose to hack? woe betide the world doesn't stop for your high strung warmbloods (not sure why that is even seen as desirable). As someone else said, producing a good hack takes work.
 
My god, some of the bleeding heart responses on here beggar belief. Those children deserved everything they got - if you had seen a child yanking the tail of a cat or dog for fun would that be defensible and warrant a counselling session? Kids who tease and torment animals need to reprimanded severely and early on - whether it be by the parents or anyone else who sees wrongdoing. I can't bear these people who say to their children "now darling don't do that or the nice lady will have to tell you off" when they're swinging your cat around their head or grinding cake in to your carpet while beaming at the all too understanding mother. (I speak from experience).

I think the OP was brave to go back to try to talk to the parents and I applaud her.

*and breathe* ;)
 
Unfortunately There are a large number of parents who never put any boundaries around their childrens behaviour, expecting that everyone else considers that child to be the centre of thm universe. The child then becomes over entitled and disliked by many, often into adulthood.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
good grief-some of you really seem to think that everyone else-kids/cyclists/dog walkers should know how to act around horses and give you the respect you deserve eh? No wonder people think horsey types are arrogant. I don't have kids of my own-you probably couldn't find anyone who was less interested in children but every kid I meet out hacking gets spoken to nicely and allowed to approach horse if appropriate and say hello. Same with cyclists and dog
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Not arrogant at all? There's a difference between walking past a child who is inquisitive yet sensible and inviting them over. Totally different story when a child runs at you, spooks the horses and has put themselves, you, your horse and other road users in danger.

If you ever have children, maybe you'll then understand sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. I'd rather my daughter comes home in tears with this story then kicked in the head at the side of the road.
 
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I think it the way you reacted was exactly how I would of, it happened all very quickly and you responded out of shock and fear for their safety and your own safety. Its not like they told you they were going to run across and pull your horses tail, in which case (for all the posters who think she should quietly told them why they should not do so) then the quiet educational talk could of been done.
 
I've had similar. Girl and boy aged 10ish out walking on bridle way by themselves. Girl is carrying a long stick which I think nothin of, as I pass, giving them plenty of room she belted my pony across his back legs with it! :eek: :mad:

Said pony is very quick to kick on occasion (mainly at his field mates) but he didn't react at all, didn't even speed up! :rolleyes:

To say I went ballistic at her was an understatement, I was not far off getting of the pony and beating her with the stick herself the little shyte, still gave her something to think about, and I'm not proud of myself but she potentially (or maybe not the little chav) learnt some new ripe words that day :o
 
If my son had done something so stupid without an adult present Id expect him to get a telling off!!! I don't agree with people speaking to a child when they have a guardian present (of certain ages)

For instance shouting at a young child in a cinema for knocking the chair when I asked him to pick up something he had just dropped on the floor, as his guardian I was very angry, was very calm to the lady despite wanting to rip her and her younger friends head off, I am more than capable of telling my own son off, as it was an accident, but she flew off the rails at him (he is 4)

I was a terrible teen and I can still remember a good few tellings off I have had, I remember them over the gentle talkings to, which I can not remember any of!

I think your reaction in this situation was brilliant, not many would have taken that approach, they may have cried, but the outcome could have been a lot worse, should a car have come along, horse reacted differently, rider been in a different mindset, The children should count themselves lucky they were not seriously injured or killed!!
 
I have to agree with what the OP said.

I also totally agree with people saying that they let children talk/ stroke their horse but I think that is a different situation if the children ask and don't run to the horse and pull its tail.

When I was young, probably 6 or 7 I was allowed to play out with my friends as long as we stayed in the back lane behind our houses, once we went to the end of the lane and during playing a game I ran out in front of a car, the driver lived on our street and got out and gave me a real dressing down, I was mortified, (even thinking about it now I go red!) and when I went in my mum did the same as the driver had been to see her. I never did it again though.
 
We can only go from what you have told us, considering that the title to your post was 'stupid idiot children' and then you proceeded to say, and I quote 'I'm afraid I absolutely lost it! Swung him round and really went through them. Yes they both started crying, bl**dy well pleased they did. Then I think people may have got the wrong end of the stick. If you had phrased it differently (like your later post) ie, I turned my horse and gave them a stern talking too' - maybe you would have got a different reaction from some posters. A little tongue-in-cheek but I hope you see where I'm coming from.

Well it is what you wrote in the first place......(grammer - apols) I too have given children a stern talking too over the years (in the appropriate circumstances - such as the hunting field, and frequently to my own kids) - and I have four childrten of my own - and I know that they would never behave like that in public - unless, they thought that someone was being a bit high and mighty with them.....
A case in point - I had three kids hacking home from a PC rally one day (a few years ago) at the time they were possibly 13, 12 and about 7 years old - the youngest was on a slightly traffic shy pony - and hacking home with his siblings for the first time (on V quiet country roads, less than half a mile from home) A woman passed them in her car, quietly enough without any issues. But she then got a bee in her bonnet about not being thanked for passing them by my elder child (I expect his only thoughts was on keeping his younger brother tucked well into the side of the road). So she then decided to reverse backwards towards them (badly) and got out of her car and cursed them all - my youngest son by then was in tears....and his pony very jittery due to her erractic reversing. She was a horse woman herself (she said) and they (my kids) were giving horse riders a bad press by not thanking her......) Well it certainly taught my children a lesson in how mad adults can be... Therefore, I am still a bit of a sceptic in how adults feel they should deal with kids - Despite this all of my childrfen show impecable manners on the road, and all have their Riding and Road Safety PC tickets - I wave like mad to everyone - regardless. The only time I don't - is if I am riding a youngster, so do not dare take my hands of the rein (so smile, shout thanks loudly) or if I am really scared - and, then I think - should I be really riding out on the public highway anyway?
 
YorksG said:
Unfortunately There are a large number of parents who never put any boundaries around their childrens behaviour, expecting that everyone else considers that child to be the centre of thm universe. The child then becomes over entitled and disliked by many, often into adulthood.
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Beautifully put, and sadly so true!!
 
Good for you BudsMum. I personally think you should phone social services and voice your concerns regarding the kids being left on there own. They should have had some supervision even if it was from within the house. You did right to tell them off and if they went off crying then maybe they have learnt a valuable lesson. Who would have been there for them if one of the horses had kicked out? And guess who everyone would blame if they got hurt? Not the darling little brats that cause the problem in the first place.
 
To be fair i would have reacted the same way, Im sure a stern telling off is better than a boot to the head by something not as relaxed ?. Yes horses should be able to deal with things, and the horse in question did ! didn't kick out and remained calm, but then shouldn't children be educated not to do that to animals ?

It should be common sense, a child is taught not to pull dogs tails, not to approach dogs and why shouldn't parents teach them not to do it to horses ? I for one don't mind stopping for kids to pat her on hacks if they ask nicely and approach calmy and quietly. Pulling a horses tail it just plain stupid !

For those saying they would have kept calm etc, you don't know until you are in that situation. Something very dangerous could have happened and budsmum will have hopefully prevented it from happening in the future !
 
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