The things non-horsey people say......

[TelH]

When my youngster was about 3 months old my non-horsey brother asked why hadn't he got shoes on yet

Once after a very long day having spent hours on my feet I told a friend that my feet were hurting and I had laminitis. She believed me and insisted that I ring the doctor the next morning

Someone once watched one of my ponies being shod and said oh no it's cruel, he's putting nails into his foot, that must be really hurting him

Someone else said to me I thought the only people who had horses were either really posh or gypsies and you're neither

 

[Blythe Spirit]

GG2B - thats hilarious your BF thought they ate meet.

One very unhorsey and very ex BF of mine once said to me the day after my pony was put down " oh well you didn't do much with her anyway" it's the only time I ever poured a drink over anyone but it felt good at the time - the pony was 27 and actually I still rode her two or three times a week just hacking which she loved.

 

[NikkiF]

New livery,first horse, very novice horse owner, when being told she had forgotten to put her horse's night time haynet in, replied 'But don't they sleep all night?'

Honest you could't make it up

 

[texas]

Agree with the 'do you really go everyday' thing.

Also my mum always asks if they don't get bored of eating grass all day long!

 

[Shantara]

My ex-sister-in-law thought horses were predators and that they might eat her! She also thought they made a mouse-like noise

 

[Po Knee]

Yet another flymask related question....

Why are those horses blindfolded?

 

[katiper]

Am currently in the process of re-schooling an ex pacer. BF (who is completely non-horsey but does give my lot their feeds every morning) came and sat on the fence whilst waiting for me yesterday.

BF; "Can you make it run?"
Me; "No, he doesn't know how yet, we're learning to walk and trot without panicking or going too fast".
BF; "What? He knows how to run, are you honestly telling me you've never seen him do it? He runs at me when I feed him every morning".
*sigh*

This resells made me laugh D

 

[slumdog]

My non-horsey (but should know better!) oh thought they had the same lifespan as dogs, and was horrified to find out he'll be mucking out for the next 20 odd years!

I get the posh/rich thing a lot at work. I also told someone I have my own yard for my horses, who said "well why do you work here then?" Erm, to pay for them?

 

[Dizzy socks]

Sorry to resurrect dead thread XD

It's amazing how many people will go,

"Ooh, they've got big teeth, so I'll just walk right behind them to they can't hurt me"

Luckily mine wouldn't kick, not not great practice.

 

[exmoorponyprincess1]

Agree with the "so do you need to see them every day?" comment...combined with "what if you can't be bothered. What do you do then?" Emmmmm go anyway!!!!

Also - as I have ponies - I get a lot of "aren't you good enough to ride the big horses yet?" .... Argh!!!!! I have been riding for almost 30yrs - perfectly capable of riding most things but I choose to ride my ponies because they are so much fun!!!!

 

[AmieeT]

My mum tells me I'm cruel for rugging him in the summer when all of the others are naked.

All of the others don't have sweetitch!

She also says I don't feed him enough. He's a good doer and only gets a handful of Healthy Hooves- thats only really because he's spoilt! She saw the amount one of the others was getting (a 30yo TB!) And decided Red must have the same amount.

And the classic from my FB friends- how mean are you blinding your horse?!- err... It's a mesh fly mask!

Ax

 

[Gloi]

Whenever I said I was going to have a lesson or go on a course I got from my dad "You've been riding since you were at school, what do you need lessons for?"

Sometimes when I was out on my pony with my friend on her horse the same colour but 3 hands bigger I'd get "Is yours that one's baby?"

 

[Mad_Cow347]

We've had a kid shout while out hacking "look that horse has a blindfold on"... Yes another fly mask.

My non-horsey work friend also told me another colleague was teaching a riding lesson that night and I said ooo I didn't know she taught, turns out he had assumed she was teaching as she could already ride. Although I think it was partly because I haven't had a lesson for years so I had never had to explain it before. I always tell people who don't get the whole lesson thing is like footballers or tennis players, they can play football/tennis but they still train to learn new skills/practice what they're already doing. People seem to get it then.

 

[Emmac82]

Along with the ' you just sit there' type comments, a girl at work who's never been out the city genuinely asked me 'do horses cry'......

 

[poiuytrewq]

A friend of mine was horrified meeting my horses recently at the "state" of my poor neglected Shetland and commented my farrier should be ashamed...
In slight shock I enquiries why? "His fringe is so long it looks like they haven't bothered to cut it in years"
I managed to keep a straight face and explained farriers do feet (still unimpressed as poor pony has no shoes on!)

 

[Foxy O]

My OH always thinks riding is just sitting on the horse and doing nothing but if I'm going out for a long ride always asks if I need to take food with us to keep our strength up for both horse and rider

 

[exmoorponyprincess1]

Almost forgot this little gem...lady in the next village genuinely believes my 2 ridden Exmoors are twins because they look so similar. She has been heard asking if anyone else has seen the twin ponies too!!!!!

 

[Ladyinred]

Almost forgot this little gem...lady in the next village genuinely believes my 2 ridden Exmoors are twins because they look so similar. She has been heard asking if anyone else has seen the twin ponies too!!!!!

Thats kind of sweet!!

 

[caileag]

Some people think riders are all at the same level. For example me " i'm going to Bramham at the weekend", non horsey friend "ooh are you competing ?" lol - I wish!

 

[littleshetland]

Whilst out hacking one summers evening on a huge he tank of a gelderlander (like a cross between a horse and an elephant) we stopped for a quick drink outside crowded village pub, a man comes and pats Ivor on the nose- "He's a racehorse isn't he?" Yes, I said (It just seemed easier than trying to explain the difference) "I thought so, I know quite a lot about horses actually......" sigh.

 

[exmoorponyprincess1]

Thats kind of sweet!!

It really is I do worry about her though as the youngsters start being ridden - how is she going to cope when I appear one day with what she will likely assume are quadruplets??!!!

 

[redtiftaf]

A friend at work when i was talking about getting the farrier out. "oh so do they put the hard bit on the end of the fluffy bit of the horses legs". I explained once i stopped laughing

 

[LadyGascoyne]

I took non-horsey friend to feed sensitive mare some carrots. Told friend to stay on the other side of the paddock fence and went to get head collar. Got back to find horse quivering in fear at opposite end of paddock.

Apparently friend had been throwing carrots for horse and she hadn't caught a single one!

Poor horse was absolutely traumatised by having bright orange projectiles hurled in her direction.

 

[nervous nelly]

Whilst discussing the horses with a friend a young lady butted in
"I used to ride you know... I was really good"
"Oh really how come you gave up"
"My mum got thrown from a horse and wouldn't let me do it anymore"
"Oh that's a shame"
"Yeah it is really I was really good I could do half scissors and around the world and everything, we were going to start trotting the week after I gave up!"
Bless her she really thought she was really good. Friend and I didn't really know how to reply

 

[DragonSlayer]

I took non-horsey friend to feed sensitive mare some carrots. Told friend to stay on the other side of the paddock fence and went to get head collar. Got back to find horse quivering in fear at opposite end of paddock.

Apparently friend had been throwing carrots for horse and she hadn't caught a single one!

Poor horse was absolutely traumatised by having bright orange projectiles hurled in her direction.

Love this!

 

[Fransurrey]

Agree with the "so do you need to see them every day?" comment...combined with "what if you can't be bothered. What do you do then?" Emmmmm go anyway!!!!

Also - as I have ponies - I get a lot of "aren't you good enough to ride the big horses yet?" .... Argh!!!!! I have been riding for almost 30yrs - perfectly capable of riding most things but I choose to ride my ponies because they are so much fun!!!!

Another who gets the 'really? Even on Christmas day?' questions. Rather insultingly, an old friend (now acquaintance) was genuinely relieved when I loaned a horse as companion to my exmoor years ago. She thought I'd never be 'confident enough to ride horses'. We'll gloss over the fact that before I got an exmoor, I'd only ridden 14.2 hh and upwards...

 

[Fides]

Keep them coming!

 

[Antw23uk]

My mum asked me yesterday where my new horse was from so I said Ireland originally. "Oh I love him already then" was her reply (she is Irish)

 

[Woolly Hat n Wellies]

Hi I've been lurking for a while and thought I would slip in here for my first post.

At age 11 my PE teacher informed me that my 'exercise diary' homework wasn't good enough. "Horse riding doesn't count, you just sit there!" I was on the local PC mounted games team at the time. My mum is still fuming about that incident and I'm now in my twenties!

My poor bf, being shown a youtube video of Andreas Helgstrand riding Don Schufro (this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqd7cHIVF2k I thought showing him something with more exciting music might interest him a bit more in my wobbly little intro tests) said: "I suppose they can't afford the rights to the whole song?" I think they have enough money that they could pay for the bands to play live if they wanted... including Pink Floyd! (Still it's a nice change from 'all horsey people are rich'!)

Finally, a person who claimed to be a 'horse expert' and assured my novice friends that they would be there with their years of experience to support them with the care and management of their first horse then informed them that "You mustn't clean the inside of the girth! Soap makes it slippery! It will slide off the horse!" ...the mind boggles. Yes folks, your saddle stays on your horse's back by being glued in place with grease. (This is now fixed and since I started sharing the horses all tack is now scrubbed and polished to within an inch of its life!)

Now slinking back to lurkdom...

 

[montanna]

Always get the lessons 'you've been doing it 20 years, surely you know how to ride!'...

And the belief that ponies are 'baby horses'....

A friend of mine had taken her horses brushing boots home to wash and had them drying on the radiator. Her BF had his mates round and one of them said 'oh I didn't realise Kirsty played football' - he thought they were shinpads...!

Not something he said however my Dad brought my pony in from the field one day... With the headcollar on upside down so the headpiece was done up like a throatlash with the leadrope clipped on top of his nose like leading a bull!