Stupid Mistakes and Confessions!

Went to pony club when I was about seven, and my mother was doing her usual flapping. Loaded the pony up and got everything sorted to go home....and when we got home my mother realised she hadn't hitched up the trailer and my poor pony was still standing in a field! Hence why I now have a lorry...no danger of forgetting to hitch up.

And my last groom (who was eventually fired for stealing sadly) phoned me one day to say he was incredibly confused and could I come home to help him out. His task for that day had been simple - bring one horse in, check all the others. The one he had to bring in was my 17.1hh grey gelding, wearing a rug. He had to walk through the "park" (which is a forty acre field in front of the manor house) to get to the field my boy was in with his friend Blossom.

As he was walking, he saw my lad hooning about across the other side of the park, so went over and ended up spending two hours trying to catch him. Eventually got him, and took him down to the yard, but when he put him in his stable and went to rug him up all the rugs were far too big.


I got there to find one of my liveries in my horse's stable, her 13hh frame drowned in 6'9 rugs, stuffing her little face with haylage. In his defence....she's also grey.
 
Many many years ago I bought a horse at auction - went to collect it after paying the auctioneer. I started to walk away with the horse only to have one of the yard hands yell after me 'What about the others' - it turned out I had bought a job lot - 1 horse and six ponies. Felt like a total idiot
 
Clannad48 said:
Many many years ago I bought a horse at auction - went to collect it after paying the auctioneer. I started to walk away with the horse only to have one of the yard hands yell after me 'What about the others' - it turned out I had bought a job lot - 1 horse and six ponies. Felt like a total idiot
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OMG!!!

Good excuse next time I go horse shopping... :D
 
After a long hack I was nearly home when I decided to kick my feet out of the stirrups and just drop the reins on the saddle and light a fag, as we just slopped along in walk the mare stopped and suddenly shook like a dog. I slipped down her neck like it was a kids slide and landed in a heap on the floor in a sitting position, the fag that was in my mouth was all bent and crushed but was still stuck in my mouth. I jumped up quickly and looked around to check no one had seen me, no one was about so I just straightened the fag out and took a drag, thinking "oops", then out of the bushes popped the local rabbiter with his ferrets and said "that was the best dismount I have seen in a while". :p
 
At one yard I was on my horse was in a field with the yard owners sheep and I managed to let them all out into the yard minutes before someone was coming to see a pony she was selling! Cue a very red faced and stressed me and a very amused YO who calmly handed me a bucket with some feed in and told me to go and shake it in the field. I didn't know sheep could move so fast they were back in the field in seconds :)
 
A friend caught my pony, pony jerked head and gave him small rope burn, I gave friend lecture about always handling youngstock in gloves

Two days later pony spooked while I was leading him, tanked off and I ended up in A&E with rope burns as I wasn't wearing gloves

I was fully prepared for the counter lecture and took it meekly
 
The_snoopster said:
After a long hack I was nearly home when I decided to kick my feet out of the stirrups and just drop the reins on the saddle and light a fag, as we just slopped along in walk the mare stopped and suddenly shook like a dog. I slipped down her neck like it was a kids slide and landed in a heap on the floor in a sitting position, the fag that was in my mouth was all bent and crushed but was still stuck in my mouth. I jumped up quickly and looked around to check no one had seen me, no one was about so I just straightened the fag out and took a drag, thinking "oops", then out of the bushes popped the local rabbiter with his ferrets and said "that was the best dismount I have seen in a while". :p
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:D:D:D
 
At PC camp a few years ago and younger daughter was on an 11.2 pony. She was doing a run and ride race on the last day and I gave her a leg up and shot her straight over the pony and she landed on her head the other side!

Took older daughter to BS qualifier to find we had no girth. Luckily it was at an equestrian centre and so I was able to borrow one from the tack room!
 
Yesterday I took two horses out to their field together (my own and another mare). My boy has a favourite pastime of trashing electric fence, so I was just about to take off headcollars when I noticed the snapped fence at the bottom of the field. Cue me leading two bouncy horses down the bottom of their field then trying to hold both leadropes whilst repairing the fence so they couldn't charge through to the other side :o

In the end I let the mare go because she's an oldie and therefore more sensible. Chased her off in the opposite direction and carried on my handiwork. Released my boy and watched helplessly as he trotted off, turned sharply and took a flying leap at my newly fixed fence, clearing it completely and trotting off triumphantly to stuff his pants on the forbidden lush grass :(

Sometimes I wonder why I bother....
 
I was working on a schooling/breaking yard and there was a really thin but long field that had a group of mares in. I went to turn one out, got shocked on the electric fencing and horse bogged off, along with all of the others out of the field. I had to ring my boss to help me round them up :/
Another one was in a RS. They had brought a new horse onto the yard and said horse was to be in quarantine. I was bringing him in from his field and couldn't lock the stable door. As I was trying horse shoves the door, knocks me out of the way and trots onto the main yard to say hi to everyone. My boss was NOT happy :(
 
At a hunter trial last year, loaded everything and the horses arrived and realised the key to the tack room on the trailer was still at home about 60 miles away.:(
Friends mum spotted that the door hinges were held on by screws visable from the outside, we got our hands on a star head screw driver and had to take the door off to get our tack, and screw it back on again for going home. :D:D
 
Managed to let a youngster I was riding for someone out of the field, he bogged off at a gallop for several miles crossing a main road and went through someone elses fencing to get in with their horses. :(

Left the hose on all night and flooded the yard.

Walked my cob through a gate with the stirrups dangling, needless to say he got caught :(

Once I managed to ride without doing the girth up only realised when it swang loose mid jump :o

I also rode one of the riding school where I used to work horses with childrens stirrups as I couldn't be bothered to swap them over which was a painful experience as he decided to bronc, then trampled me all in front of lots of children and their mothers :o
 
When I went to try Lady, her previous loaner gave me a headcollar and said shes the dark bay, in a field with 3 dark bay horses in it! I ended up bringing in her neighbours horse!
 
Haha these are great! Nice to know everyone does stupid things sometimes ;)
I once managed to let 3 horses loose, which i wouldnt have been so embarrassed about if it wasn't for the fact that someone else was bring in their horse as mine went charging down the strip (cue lots of sorry's! :o) and then the YM came out of the barn and *******ed me for being so stupid. Annoying thing is that i had been doing this for weeks with no problem and normally there was nobody around as it was so late, but obviously horses are there to show you up and so the one time people were around one spooked at the gate banging behind them (nothing new mind:rolleyes: ) which started a chain reaction whereby they all galloped off and i fell on my face :o.
I managed to forget my riding boots once at a show and dad had to go back in the lorry to get them :o:D and i regularly forget my gloves/hairnet but at least you can just about get away without them :p
Only fall i have had with the baby one was because i got a dodgy leg up, managed to kick her slightly on the back and land funny in the saddle. She understandably got upset dived to one side nearly crashed into a trailer, then dived back in order to avoid it and i just about manage to cling on to avoid a barrow of poo but was too far gone to recover and landed in the gravel a wee bit winded :o. Poor girl, it wasnt her fault at all especially as she was fairly freshly broken at this point :(. I have also not done up polo's girth tight enough, before trying to get on from the ground and the whole saddle slid round to the side of his belly, fortunately he's a good boy and just stood there looking a bit confused :o. I now always get on using steps, not much can go wrong with them :p

And not me but my dad, whilst showing polo to a prospective buyer he was chatting about some rubbish whilst tacking him up and managed to put his numnah on back to front and inside out :o. I laughed at him saying your supposed to have roughly 14/15 years of experience with horses and you can't even put a numnah on :p:D.
 
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I was hacking out with a friend, and we were crossing a golf couse. We knew that there was a bridleway across it,and that they had applied and been granted the option to move the original route. So being good riders we were following the blue markers, asuming they were the bridleway markers. Only to be shouted at - as apparently we were following the ladies tee off markers - and the bridleway was a completly different route!! Whoops!!
 
Out hacking with friends. Well I say friends! Tree whips my silk off, so I jump (ok, scramble) off george to retrieve it. Then comes time to get back on my strapping 16.3 heavyweight. Being only 5 foot and a little bit, need something to stand on.

Decide that a grassy bank will give me enough, So pops foot in stirrup, one two three and pop went my hip, and I'm dangling upside down underneath George's belly.

Friends are wetting themselves Laughing at me. George just looked shamed. I did finally manage to get back on, and all I Can say to my friends is, at least my saddle was dry :D
 
I forgot my saddles last season, meant I have to belt it home to pick them up, got back to polo, jumped aboard my first pony and she promptly bucked me off. It wasn't a good day!

And as a polo groom in NZ we forgot to load one of the ponies...and only realised when our boss asked to play her in a certain chukka. Got home and she was in her pen, headcollar on, looking really confused about where all her mates had gone!
 
Little Welsh 2 year old kept appearing on the wrong side of the electric fence, often asleep on the ground next to it. No damage to fence at all, other pony happily on the right side. Every day (sometimes twice or three times) I led him back to the right side and he would be on the wrong side as soon as I checked.
This went on for several weeks and I was convinced that he was either jumping it (fence 4ft, pony 11.2!) or someone was letting him out (own field, very rural so no idea who!) as a joke. I tried watching and of course it never happened while I was there but, guaranteed, if I came back after a few minutes, he'd be out again. I was starting to go insane...
One day I checked them, put him back and went to get some water and hubby borrowed my car to go somewhere. As soon as he heard my car start up the little wotsitt tested the fence with his whiskers, pulled up the top strand with his teeth and sideways bunny hopped (technical term!) over the bottom strand. Both wires then twanged back into place and he was free. It turned out we had an intermittent fault with the fencer but for several weeks I really did think someone was playing mind games with me!
 
My daughter and i where having a xc country schooling session together, all going really well.

Daughter jumped down a step then walked on a few strides, cheeky pony stopped and put her head down to eat the grass, daughter slid off very slowly. Then complained she had hurt her arm.

'theres no way you've hurt yourself from practically standstill, get back on'

We finished the lesson.

Ended up in A&E that night, she had broke her elbow:(

Will never doubt her again !
 
Boxed to the common for a nice hack round the sand tracks. Went to tack-up and had forgotten my girth, so ended up hacking bareback (got a few odd looks from walkers).:D
 
back in the days when my old mare was on livery i did the schoolgirl error of forgetting to actually put the newly filled water buckets in the stable and didn't realise until my return the next morning:o
I have also done 'oops where my hat' halfway through a hack, was riding along on a lovely day thinking how nice it all was and refreshing to have the wind blowing through my hair.................'wind? hair? wheres my bloomin hat:eek: '
 
I was working fo a lady with driving ponies and we were doing a comp at Sandringham. I was meeting her there as was driving the car and caravan and she was driving the lorry with the ponies.
We got there and started to unpack and she realised she hadn't put the centre pole in for the carriage.
She had to drive all the way back to Sussex to collect it!!
 
Oh, just remembered another one.

Went with bff to turn out some ponies and on the way back we were messing about and skipping with the ropes etc, I swung a headcollar and it hit her in the face breaking her front tooth!

She has a false tooth in the front now. I feel bad every time I see her and this happened about 25 years ago.

Mind you we are stil bff's. :)
 
I've done the accidently turning out in stable rugs before...in the days of working early on yards, turning out half asleep, that was my excuse anyway :o

I didn't put the gate catch on properly at my old yard, cue me hearing thundering hooves and turning around to see 11 horses escaped and galloping down the track towards me :eek: I ran and shut the next gate but the just rolled field was totally churned up and there were shoes flying off horses...I put my horse to bed as quick as possible that night :o
 
I've cocked up numerous times over the years. Every days a school day with horses though hey! I have a thing about not over tightening girths but I came unstuck many years ago whilst cantering across a field and then suddenly found myself upside down and hit the deck big time, as the saddle swung underneath the pony. Pony legged it home, across a main road and I had to limp all the way back. I still have cold sweats thinking about what could have happened.

Icey morning, yard like a skating rink, decided I'd still turn my horse out. Very sensible type, so my plan was that we'd just slowly inch across the yard, to the field and she could have a few hours out, stretching her legs. Made it half way across the yard and then I realised it was just too dangerous to carry on and horse was going to have an accident. We were stranded though then. Early morning, so no one else around. Tied her to the tree that just happened to be next to us and legged it to the muck heap to get a barrow full of muck, to spread on the floor, creating a path, so we could carry on. Had to do this numerous times. Was lathered by the time I'd finished and couldn't believe how stupid I'd been. It truely was one of those 'oh s__t' moments.
 
Mother over sold my riding abilities for a beach ride when I was 8 and I was put on a piebald tank, should have known when they handed me two reins!

Long story short... ended up being rolled with in the sea, jumping over some sunbathers then bolting across a golf course and churning up several greens. We weren't the favourites on the ride...
 
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