The daftest thing you have done when you should know better....

[Tormenta]

Jumped on my pony to bring her in from the field, her rug slipped, leg strap went up her backside, she bucked, I flew off and banged my head, saw stars for a while.

Walked round the back of a mare while she was eating in a field shelter, surprising her, she landed me one clean on the hips, I flew back about ten feet and ended up with a horse-shoe shaped bruise on my hip, that hurt like hell.

Once thought I would be clever and let two of our horses out of the field and follow me into the stables a few feet away for their feed, they had other ideas, they clambered over the ditch and spent twenty minutes galloping and farting around the Farmer's enormous field next door, I was absolutely petrified and had no idea how the hell I was going to catch the pair of them until they both decided to calm down, came back of their own accord and trotted into their stables. Close shave. My Father still has no idea that I was so stupid to this day.

 

[CatStew]

pretty disgusting tbh!

At my old job I was 'given' an irish hunter to ride which tbh I really didn't like and didn't feel safe on..

I had to get it canter fit but was nervous of going into the big field with it so thought I would go for a nice steady canter along a verge up a really quiet lane nearby.

Cue a massive bucking fit and me going out the side door landing right in a pile of dog ***** and numpty horse running back to the yard...

If that wasn't bad enough..

Luckily I had a spare pair of jods in my car so got changed and put the dirty ones in the washing machine. About half an hour later I was looking for my mobile when it suddenly dawned on me where they were....

 

[CatStew]

*where it was rather, can't edit on phone

 

[Mince Pie]

Ok

We very tragically lost my kids pony at pony club camp and my daughter (probably about 6 at the time) didn't have a pony to ride for a while.

One day, driving down the lane, my daughter points to a little grey pony in a field and says she wants to start riding again. Well to me, all little grey ponies are Welsh A's - aren't they? I know the owner of the pony (bought for the grandchildren who visited about twice a year and weren't interested) so said I would phone owner and see if we can use the little grey pony.

Owner of pony is delighted that someone has taken an interest and we agree to meet at 2pm at the field and try the pony.

Daughter and I turn up, the owner hasn't arrived yet and we wait around, as time passes I find a headcollar and go to catch the pony. But on closer inspection, the little grey pony actually turns out to be an enormous Highland along with its goat companion!.

I catch the pony, fight off the goat and bring it in and tie it up.

Still the owner hasn't arrived. We find a grooming kit and start grooming the enormous grey Highland pony. Already I have realised that this is not going to work - my daughter's legs won't barely go round it! But the pony is soooooo sweet, and soooo docile my daughter has already fallen in love!!!

Still the owner hasn't turned up!

I hunt around for some tack but can't find any. My daughter has come to the conclusion that the owner has forgotten So, we leave the pony tied up and decide to jump in the car and go the owners house (down the lane in the village), about 50 yards down the lane I spot the owners car in a gateway!

I pull up, poke my head over the gate and there is the owner, with a little grey Welsh A pony tied up looking extremely bored!

The owner thought I had forgotten and was about to give up! I tell her that I already had a pony tied up in a yard up the lane

She tells me that the owner of the Highland is a right old Battleaxe and looks shocked!

I throw daughter at owner of little Welsh, jump back in the car, race up the lane, put Highland pony back in its field (still fighting the goat) and try to put everything back where I found it!!!!


I am absolutely sure that to this day, the owner of the Highland has absolutely no idea that I commandeered her pony!!!

To this day - almost ten years on, both ponies are still in the same fields and we very affectionately call them Misty 1 and Misty 2 although I have no idea what the Highland is actually called

Well worth the wait!! That's brilliant

 

[brighteyes]

I took a newly clipped, 16.2 warmblood mare I had barely sat on and which hadn't been out of her box for a week to the BEACH in JANUARY in a bitter wind

I really shouldn't be here to tell the tale nor even gone in the first place, as my lorry needed jump-starting and my partitions were frozen onto place!

And I'm 5'2" and less than 8st I'd have been daft to try it on a 13.2, never mind a proper horse!

 

[Hacked_Off]

Ok

We very tragically lost my kids pony at pony club camp and my daughter (probably about 6 at the time) didn't have a pony to ride for a while.

One day, driving down the lane, my daughter points to a little grey pony in a field and says she wants to start riding again. Well to me, all little grey ponies are Welsh A's - aren't they? I know the owner of the pony (bought for the grandchildren who visited about twice a year and weren't interested) so said I would phone owner and see if we can use the little grey pony.

Owner of pony is delighted that someone has taken an interest and we agree to meet at 2pm at the field and try the pony.

Daughter and I turn up, the owner hasn't arrived yet and we wait around, as time passes I find a headcollar and go to catch the pony. But on closer inspection, the little grey pony actually turns out to be an enormous Highland along with its goat companion!.

I catch the pony, fight off the goat and bring it in and tie it up.

Still the owner hasn't arrived. We find a grooming kit and start grooming the enormous grey Highland pony. Already I have realised that this is not going to work - my daughter's legs won't barely go round it! But the pony is soooooo sweet, and soooo docile my daughter has already fallen in love!!!

Still the owner hasn't turned up!

I hunt around for some tack but can't find any. My daughter has come to the conclusion that the owner has forgotten So, we leave the pony tied up and decide to jump in the car and go the owners house (down the lane in the village), about 50 yards down the lane I spot the owners car in a gateway!

I pull up, poke my head over the gate and there is the owner, with a little grey Welsh A pony tied up looking extremely bored!

The owner thought I had forgotten and was about to give up! I tell her that I already had a pony tied up in a yard up the lane

She tells me that the owner of the Highland is a right old Battleaxe and looks shocked!

I throw daughter at owner of little Welsh, jump back in the car, race up the lane, put Highland pony back in its field (still fighting the goat) and try to put everything back where I found it!!!!


I am absolutely sure that to this day, the owner of the Highland has absolutely no idea that I commandeered her pony!!!

To this day - almost ten years on, both ponies are still in the same fields and we very affectionately call them Misty 1 and Misty 2 although I have no idea what the Highland is actually called

Hahahaha! That's hilarious

 

[Solo1]

Filly tried to kick me, I retaliated by kicking back... we then proceeded to have a kicking battle and guess who won.... Never again!

 

[flutterby321]

I've taken off rugs without undoing the leg straps before- oops
And I did manage to put my pony's snuggy hood on back to front, he stood there for about 20 minutes, completely blind, with Lycra over his eyes before I managed to find the right holes for him too see out of... thank god for patient horses eh?

 

[Devonshire dumpling]

Filly tried to kick me, I retaliated by kicking back... we then proceeded to have a kicking battle and guess who won.... Never again!

Lol!!!!!!

 

[brighteyes]

Ravenwood Ha,ha - that's BRILLIANT!

Just remembered nother 'scrape' I nearly had. A local farmer used to graze various horses and ponies for people (I know, very strange) and they used to escape regularly through his non-existant fencing

Mad keen and pony-less, I would grab a headcollar and ride them bareback 'the long way' to the field they had escaped from. A 15.2 whale of a thing (mare, again) turned up for some grass and duly 'relocated' via one of the many gaps in the boundary to her field. I caught her using Lord only knows who's headcollar and manoeuvred her into position next to a gate so I could scramble aboard. I spent at least half an hour ambling about the fields in no rush to take the direct route and cut short my illicit hack

A few days later, the owner turned up to ride - and proceeded to tack up (with the apparently very necessary) help of a burly, 6'2" chap. I watched with some amazement and not a little shock as the mare tried to kick and bite each of them in turn as they fitted a rather complicated and quite dazzling array of equipment. It soon became clear this was no ordinary nag, but a rather specialised ride only to be undertaken by the experienced and fully-prepared .

I'm pretty sure I didn't even have a hat on and I didn't die that time, either

 

[Jesstickle]

Brighteyes, that reminds me of a pony I had as a child.

My mother bought it untried (from the field) for me. It was meant to be quirky I believe. It was to be turned out for a week to acclimatise and then she would get on to see how it behaved.

I am not a patient person, and as I child was positively impetuous, so on day two (mother out of eye line) I climbed on from the fence and was merrily cantering round the field in a headcollar. Got off, let go of pony, thought nothing of it.

Mother got on it after the week was up and it reared vertically until it was nearly coming down on top of her. She got off, tried again the next day, another rider tried too. Same reaction every time.

Needless to say he had to go back which I thought was terrible as he'd been fine for me but in retrospect I don't doubt he'd have done it with me too. I probably just shocked him in to submission.

 

[Kadastorm]

i swear i do the daftest things almost daily.

Accidentally left the stable door open when we had just put a new, young connie pony in after it arrived from ireland. luckily it was more interested in the hay.

forgetting that said young pony has never had a rug on before, i just go in and chuck it on with straps all flying around, the pony is so laid back it didnt care and just stood there.

Vaulting on our dopey cob in the field with no hat on or anything...

once went into a field of mares with a bucket of feed (i really dont know why!) i very quickly left, getting a shock as i ducked under the electric fencing.

Im always walking around the back of the horses, crawling underneath, sitting on the floor to bandage etc.

And i have gotten into the habit of dismounting by swinging my leg over the front of the horse and sliding off - i should really not do that infront of the pony clubbers >.<

 

[Foxhunter49]

I think that all that has been mentioned has been done at one time or another by most of us. I know that I have often learned the hard way of taking horses for granted.

I could fill this page and many more with daft things I have done over the years!

When I first was allowed to stay at the stables all day and ride the ponies bareback out to the fields I decided, having seen some circus riders, that it would be fun to stand on the ponies back. I was riding one and leading another. Now, the ponies were very good and would have taken someone doing this but to do it for the first time cantering across the field was a little to much. I did it and was standing, at a canter, until they went either side of another pony and I fell off breaking my arm.

After watching a John Wayne and Kirk Douglas film where Kirk jumped off a balcony landing on a horse that Wayne was leading, at a gallop I decided that it would be a good thing to try.
In itself that was stupid but a friend riding one of the school ponies was leading a cobby mare of about 15.2 that had not long been broken. We were out on an official ride but the girl taking us would meet up with her b/friend and let us go off and jump gorse bushes.
I clambered to the top of a brick and concrete building that had once held an ackack gun during the war it is about 10 feet high. She came galloping along, I jumped, the horses spooked and we had to go catch them. It took three rides before I managed it . Poor horses but they survived. I was about 11 at the time.

 

[Devonshire dumpling]

I think that all that has been mentioned has been done at one time or another by most of us. I know that I have often learned the hard way of taking horses for granted.

I could fill this page and many more with daft things I have done over the years!

When I first was allowed to stay at the stables all day and ride the ponies bareback out to the fields I decided, having seen some circus riders, that it would be fun to stand on the ponies back. I was riding one and leading another. Now, the ponies were very good and would have taken someone doing this but to do it for the first time cantering across the field was a little to much. I did it and was standing, at a canter, until they went either side of another pony and I fell off breaking my arm.

After watching a John Wayne and Kirk Douglas film where Kirk jumped off a balcony landing on a horse that Wayne was leading, at a gallop I decided that it would be a good thing to try.
In itself that was stupid but a friend riding one of the school ponies was leading a cobby mare of about 15.2 that had not long been broken. We were out on an official ride but the girl taking us would meet up with her b/friend and let us go off and jump gorse bushes.
I clambered to the top of a brick and concrete building that had once held an ackack gun during the war it is about 10 feet high. She came galloping along, I jumped, the horses spooked and we had to go catch them. It took three rides before I managed it . Poor horses but they survived. I was about 11 at the time.

HAHA you nutter!!!! Are you a stunt rider now??

 

[Devonshire dumpling]

i swear i do the daftest things almost daily.

Accidentally left the stable door open when we had just put a new, young connie pony in after it arrived from ireland. luckily it was more interested in the hay.

forgetting that said young pony has never had a rug on before, i just go in and chuck it on with straps all flying around, the pony is so laid back it didnt care and just stood there.

Vaulting on our dopey cob in the field with no hat on or anything...

once went into a field of mares with a bucket of feed (i really dont know why!) i very quickly left, getting a shock as i ducked under the electric fencing.

Im always walking around the back of the horses, crawling underneath, sitting on the floor to bandage etc.

And i have gotten into the habit of dismounting by swinging my leg over the front of the horse and sliding off - i should really not do that infront of the pony clubbers >.<

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh i did the whole walk into a field with a biucket with 10 thoroughbred yearlings, boy did I run!!!!!!

Have also done something very stupid as a teenager.... riding ponies from farm across a road to shed to put them to bed, rode in rug and headcollar and galloped along grass verge, resulted in very out of control pony, but did this everyday!! STUPID

Another very very stupid thing I did as a teenager ... the lady running the riding school was getting her 2 yr old used to the horsebox and was taking him on his first ride, she asked me to stand in with him holding him I did it and he was rearing.... never been so scared in my life, and this was an adult asking me to do so!!!!

 

[Ibblebibble]

when i was 17 i worked at a trekking stable, we always used to ride the ponies to and from the field bareback with just a headcollar. over the winter one older gelding had to come in overnight and i put him back out every morning, no problems until the day we'd moved the rest of the herd up to the end of the long track up a hill, i got on pony as normal, no hat etc etc and started up towards the other ponies, cue mr old chap getting a sudden burst of life and setting off at flat out gallop, not a problem thought i , he'll just go to the top and stop by the rest of the ponies. well i was half right, he stopped alright, but only half way up the track next to a different gate and i somehow went over the gate but caught the top of my long boot on the gatepost and was hung upside down with a very confused pony looking down at me

 

[Vizslak]

Mine is trying to catch my late TB in the field, he was in a cheeky mood, you know when you walk up to them and they start eating rapidly whilst watching you, you just know they are gonna bugger off, I played this game for 30 mins, cat and mouse!! I then lost my temper and threw the headcollar at his arse, all this did was make him gallop around very pleased with himself, was very counterproductive!!!!!! Bet others have done that, come on admit it!

Do you know what, I did this once and at the moment of loosing it and throwing the headcollar thought to myself 'nice one now you have bought yourself another hour or so out here', 2 people watching also later admitted thinking 'silly cow, thats done it now'. My horse however stopped, looked at me with an expression of 'jeeeze, keep your hair on it was only a game' then looked over to his mate he had been careering round with like he was saying 'I've pushed it too far, better go mate' and walked straight over to me, followed me over to retrieve chucked headcollar and stuck his nose in it! Myself and spectators were howling, literally howling with laughter. This sums up my lads personality to be honest and I was very thankful that day that I dont have a 'normal' horse that would have severly made me suffer for my moment of temper loss!

 

[Devonshire dumpling]

Do you know what, I did this once and at the moment of loosing it and throwing the headcollar thought to myself 'nice one now you have bought yourself another hour or so out here', 2 people watching also later admitted thinking 'silly cow, thats done it now'. My horse however stopped, looked at me with an expression of 'jeeeze, keep your hair on it was only a game' then looked over to his mate he had been careering round with like he was saying 'I've pushed it too far, better go mate' and walked straight over to me, followed me over to retrieve chucked headcollar and stuck his nose in it! Myself and spectators were howling, literally howling with laughter. This sums up my lads personality to be honest and I was very thankful that day that I dont have a 'normal' horse that would have severly made me suffer for my moment of temper loss!

HAHA!! You got to love their personalities!! They definately do play!! You knew exactly what I meant by them grazing furiously whilst watching you didn't you? xx

 

[Vizslak]

Yes said horse has been known to do that but on this occasion was just being a little sod running round, letting me get near enough to think I had him then storming off again with his mate, bucking and kicking and being a total little git! At the moment of flinging the headcollar at him (I was late to get somewhere and had already had 20 or so minutes of this bloody game) I called him all the names under the sun very loudly and told him he could fugging stay out there then!

 

[Cassiethecob]

Love this thread! Are we allowed to say 'get married?'

When I was about 10 I think, I decided my long suffereing Welsh pony Sparky could become a Canadian logging horse and duly tied an old Xmas tree behind him. He took off in absolute terror, clearing several fences and disapearing into the distance before the tree snagged on something broke away and he was able to stop and be caught. My Dad who was fence mending at the time, watched, said nothing but reported me to my Mum who duly beat ten bells out of me (she aint no fluffy bunny hugger!). No lasting damage was done to Sparky, ponies were made of sterner stuff in them days

BTW those of you in favour of lekkie prods don't let my Mum catch you!

 

[Devonshire dumpling]

Love this thread! Are we allowed to say 'get married?'

When I was about 10 I think, I decided my long suffereing Welsh pony Sparky could become a Canadian logging horse and duly tied an old Xmas tree behind him. He took off in absolute terror, clearing several fences and disapearing into the distance before the tree snagged on something broke away and he was able to stop and be caught. My Dad who was fence mending at the time, watched, said nothing but reported me to my Mum who duly beat ten bells out of me (she aint no fluffy bunny hugger!). No lasting damage was done to Sparky, ponies were made of sterner stuff in them days

BTW those of you in favour of lekkie prods don't let my Mum catch you!

HEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!!! Its so wrong to laugh, but this has amused me highly!! xx

 

[xspiralx]

When I was about 16 my dad was coming up to the yard to bring my lunch for the day. He was going to meet me at the gate, which was down about a 300m drive from the yard.

At the time we were due to meet, I was riding my very highly strung tb, and decided it would be a good idea to ride down the drive to meet him and pick up my lunch.

All went well until he handed me my food in a rustly plastic bag. Horse promptly started freaking out, which made the rustling worse - he went mad and bucked me off.

Learnt a bit of a lesson!

 

[Kokopelli]

This out on a hack:


Luckily pony is an absolute saint but still a very stupid thing to do.

Also clipping a superman into his bum (you can just make it out in the picture)

 

[Devonshire dumpling]

This out on a hack:


Luckily pony is an absolute saint but still a very stupid thing to do.

Also clipping a superman into his bum (you can just make it out in the picture)

We've all done the riding backward thingy on hack, haven't we??

haha at the clip!!!!

 

[Kokopelli]

We've all done the riding backward thingy on hack, haven't we??

haha at the clip!!!!

You haven't live until you get cantered off with backwards on a hack!

The worst thing about the clip is it's upside down! I'm such a numpty!

 

[tonitot]

One thing I did recently was I handed Ethel over to my friend (montyforever on here who some of you know hasn't been well and she has to walk with a crutch to help her balance) and off I toodled knowing Ethel would be good enough to leave with monty as I went off to do something. I came back and decided to whip her boots off, and started with a hind one .. Whipped off the first velcro strap which scared the life out of Ethel as she was half asleep and completley unaware I was there, she shot forward and nearly ran poor monty over who had to hobble around with her crutch trying to sort herself and rebalance I felt a bit bad after that, for both of them!

Another thing I've done was when I first started riding Ethel I decided to do around the world on her. She stood like an angel and wasn't fussed at all. The next day my friend was riding in the school with me and I told her to watch how good Ethel was when I did around the world. I got to sitting backwards on her and lost my balnace a bit so put my hand on her bum to rebalance, thinking she'd be fine. She promptly shot forward and bombed around the school broncing and all I could see was her bum coming up towards my face. I had no stirrups and wasn't holding onto anything and eventually flew off backwards. I hurt my shoulder quite a bit but I just cracked up laughing, I don't know why I found it so funny! Certainly haven't attempted that one again

 

[Megibo]

hmmm...i sit on the floor when i clip feathers

oh and once i cut ponys tail and pulled it tighter than i meant to ...so it was hock height...luckily it grew back quickly!!

can't think of anything else except the time the pony was being skittish on a windy day and i gave her a long lead and walked infront of her-que her spooking and running me over! luckily AFTER she'd stood on back of me calf and bum she went 'oh ***** standing on mother' and leapt off to the side to continue her running away

 

[Chico Mio]

I often round pen a HUGE 2.5 year old Anglo Arab, who's favourite greeting is to stand up on his hind legs and wave at you, whilst I am wearing flip flops, a bikini and shorts...I do have protective sunglasses and sunscreen on though...

The stupidist thing I did recently was to do a high speed 'Chase me Charlie' style round of jumps on an excitable FB while I was wearing shorts....

 

[MrsMozart]

Loosely did up the top bolt with the new mare in the stable, completely forgetting she wasn't yet used to our ways... Had half a rug over its rack when mare decided to go walkabout. Oops. I'd have yelled at D1 for that one

A friend brought my last horse in. Unrugged 'her'. Started to rug up when, oops, not my soft as a brush mare, but the gelding with a serious attitude that didn't like being caught/brought in/rugged.... He was so good lol, think he was in shock

I turned out a friend's pony in a stable rug. Took me forever to catch her again to get it sorted out!

 

[Clannad48]

Too many to post but a couple

1. bent down to pick something up behind a known kicker - got double barrelled into the 'fresh' muckheap - had to be hosed down before being put into the ambulance

2. When very young on the first day of a riding holiday (that my parents took out a loan to pay for) galloped pony across a heather field despite being warned not to, pony tripped and fell, I fell off and broke my ankle - in plaster for rest of holiday - no more riding - my father was not pleased to say the least.

3. Called the wrong test for my daughter in a dressage competition - she has never forgiven me for the humiliation.

Oh so many more........