what are your pet riding hates....?

This will annoy you all :D

I just dragged my shetland across the field, tacked it up and hopped on said pony with no hat on, trainers on and my MP3 player on. Took her for a walk, trot and a quick canter, cooled her down and then untacked her and left her in the middle of the field.

She will get brushed down properly when she comes back in later. She doesn't need much work as her next ridden show isn't until September and she is just back in work after a month long holiday after being broken to ride. And yup, technically I am far too tall to ride her but she has no trouble carrying me.

As for the no hat - I am really bad for not wearing one when at home. I did have one on for my first sit on my latest breaker this morning so no excuse not to keep it on really. The trainers - I was too lazy to find my boots for a 10min ride. Again, not setting a good example but when riding in public everything is done ipso facto and I would never let any kids ride any of my ponies without boots, hat and a long sleeved shirt or jumper on. Yup - I am the perfect hypocrit :D
 
people who can reel off a list of other riders faults but never admit to their own;)


the only thing that irks me is people who blame their horses/ponies for every mistake and imagined mistake rather than looking at themselves
 
people that big their riding up and then when you go to watch its not so 'amazing'
people with big strong bits then are doing pony kicks and arms flapping every stride to get the horse too move,
people that think there amazing cause they jumped a big fence or people that think if they do/join BSJA they will auto be such an amazing rider,
riders that make excuses/blame the horse
Biggest one is people that ride without a hat and say 'i trust my horse' just cause you trust him doesnt mean he wont spook and you go head first on the floor!!
 
A lot there that have already been posted, but at the moment it's the competition hackers, yes you read it correctly, on a yard if you go out for a hack and you get back, there is always one that feels the need to have been out for hours longer than you, ridden faster ( on solid hard ground) and to top it all, with a horse drenched in sweat, proceeds to feed it a massive bowl of food before having even untacked !!!!!
 
people riding when it is clearly cruel & unkind to that particular horse/pony - the ageing,unfit, thin, feet falling apart mare at my yard who is occasionally dragged in from field, dressed in appalingly badly fitting tack & cantered madly round the school:(
 
boe said:
A lot there that have already been posted, but at the moment it's the competition hackers, yes you read it correctly, on a yard if you go out for a hack and you get back, there is always one that feels the need to have been out for hours longer than you, ridden faster ( on solid hard ground) and to top it all, with a horse drenched in sweat, proceeds to feed it a massive bowl of food before having even untacked !!!!!
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Oh I have one of these at my yard!!! It also extends to "I've just jumped ..... height" with a big patronising grin - but when it comes down to it, the pony refuses at every show it has been taken to so far... I never tell her that I jump that height as well without the refusals!

Not going to repeat all the other pet hates but I agree with them all.
 
1) people who slap their horses on the shoulder just before every jump.
2) a girl i saw at a show who had a standing martingale, short short reins, spurs and a whip, turning so tight into a fence and digging the spurs in (you could actually hear the sound of spurs hitting ribs) and then slapping it on the shoulder if the poor thing knocked the fences or didnt jump right. It had a standing martingale on so couldnt round and cat leapt everything :(
3) Riders who big themselves up and brag about what they have been doing when really, they arent that fantastic.
4) Flappy nagging ankles/legs.
5) Sawing on the mouth to get an 'outline'
6) Having lots of gadgets that arent needed.
7) Over bitting because 'you cant stop your horse'...stop galloping around the countryside everytime you ride out and in the same places, that may help.
8) People who pull back on the reins over jumps or have chicken wing arms.
 
KristmasKatt said:
As I said 9 times out of 10......

Some people do it as somekind of tick, slap with the stick before every fence and often it backs the horse off rather than sending it forward. For horses that don't react well to a smack behind the leg I find one down my boot works well.....
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I agree, and yet in the time i have been riding that was the one pony/horse i ever needed to take a whip round cross country on. i personally don't use whips and try not to.......maybe an exception for a lunge whip but i don't hit the horse with it.....i think when i raise my voice the horses know i'm not happy and it says it all.
 
1) People riding with no hats!!!!!!! annoys the hell out of me. No-one is too good to fall off.

2) That slow, pathetic trot that a certain livery does continuously throughout riding with the horse strapped down in draw reins, bitted up to the nines and looking thoroughly peed off

3) People that wack jumps up to 1.40m and go round and round over them and leave them up so everyone can see how high theyve jumped but then go out and jump only in discovery classes

Oh I could go on and on..... :rolleyes:

Probably the way I plod around on my happy hacker at weekends annoys some people :D
 
People who are quick to judge others after seeing them ride once or seeing them on an 'off' day and then saying 'so and so has an awful horse and is an awful rider'

People who see a horse wearing a gag or a martingale or whatever and say 'look how well/quiet that horse is going, it doesn't need those gadgets..' If the horse is going well then they're probably doing their job!

Over use of whip. I was watching someone ride today, and every now and again she would randomly slap her poor horse (who was totally immune to the feeling) on its bottom multiple times... :confused:

People who don't wear hats. Stuff your head, I don't care about that if you don't take it's safety seriously, but I bet your mother/kid/OH doesn't want to spend the rest of his/her life wiping your bottom because you damaged your brain falling off with out one just because you wanted to look cool, or whatever.

Saddles that have the stirrup bar things set too far foreward *cough* WINTEC *cough* so you are constantly fighting against it when doing rising trot and end up with an unstable lower leg and chair seat. I have one at the moment and it is insane. Why make them like that?!

People who work in a RS and are really rough with the horses/ponies, and give them no love or fuss, they deserve more than that, they should be kept as well as privately owned horses.
 
People who can't control or ride their horses properly, know this but refuse to have lessons because they feel that all of instructors in the area are too 'negative'
 
Mine HAS to be people (mainly adults) teaching their kids in the practice arena at a Show Jumping comp. They completely take over the practice fences! I was at a show on Saturday and some one was doing it then, in the end I had to ask them to lower the fence as it was much higher that the course of jumps in the arena :mad:
 
My glasses sliding down my nose when I've finally got horsey between hand and leg ... To the point where I've just booked an appointment to get them surgically corrected!
 
Another slightly annoying thing is when someone deliberatley says "going round some really small jumps"- when infact their like 4 foot :L
 
Untidy riding doesn't really bother me (I would be a massive hypocrite if it did, considering that my toes stick out at a 90 degree angle from the horse's sides most of the time :o ), as long as the horse isn't suffering for it. Mouth-yanking, thumping down in the saddle, pony club kicks with spurs on etc are all unbearable, but I couldn't really care less if someone rides with chicken wing arms or sticky-out toes, as long as the horse is happy and comfortable.
 
People who walk around in riding gear at shops covered in poop or just so people know they have been riding...
People who dress head to toe in Joules
Parents that have spoilt, brats that when lose take it out on their ponies and don't do anything about it...like a clip round the ear!!
People that let their horse follow them behind them without a lead rope or them holding on the the reins, normally also have stirrups flapping, girth undone and flash strap dangling.

Riding pet hates...people who don't know how to pass in a school and just laugh when they nearly take you out!
People who go from a 1ft cross pole to 4ft spreads and wonder why their horse knocks it down or just jump and don't do any other schooling or hacking and wonder why their horse goes stale.
 
People who blame their horses every time something goes wrong and they don't win ,(especially when it's their own fault) then damage them by over jumping/over bitting/not noticeing that they are lame, then getting rid of them to buy another one because the last one wasn't good enough! Three times !!
 
I hate clucking noises, I've never ever seen a horse respond to it and a girl i have lessons with sometimes will go literally the whole lesson clucking at the bemused horse like some kind of chicken. Another one is girls who are far more concerned with what they look like, with baggy reins in a handlebar position almost on their knees, chest out, head bobbing... Then they wonder why they can't get results out of their horse!!
 
Parents who dont ride teaching their children the finer arts of dressage.
Draw reins.
Pushy parents who say things like 'Oh god thats the dressage leader, hope she has some poles down or falls off', not realising that the mother of the 'dressage leader' is standing next to them, or maybe they did?
Parents that scream at their kids if they dont win - walk through any lorry park after any form of equestrian event and you will find loads.
Kids that have to win every time and strop when they dont.
People that ride without hats.
People that think that cobs are ploddy, thick and not worth anything. As a friend of mine said (cob owning) 'Look beyond the fur'.
 
:o Some of you guys would probably cringe if I went past you on a ride, an adult pony squashing my bro's 11.2, sometimes on my phone and usually in jeans and muckers because I forgot proper kit. And I click. Can't help myself :D It works though, he's very voice controlled, great for the times when I'm too tired to flap :cool:

I don't really have any pet hates, obviously I don't like to see people abusing their animals but I'm in no position to criticise anyone's lack of finesse :)
 
He, he, I would annoy the heck out of some of you. I click/cluck when I'm riding, that's when I'm not talking my horse to death. Heavens knows what she thinks but she does have an ear turned around listening to me.

I have a really bad habit of holding my breath when riding and the above makes me breath.... pretty essential really :D Other than that, I rely on someone yelling at me to breath!

I don't really waste any effort on being annoyed/irritated etc at other peoples riding or being an armchair critic. I'm much more concerned with riding to the best of my ability and doing the best for my horse.
 
Think most of them have been covered; but I do have a pet hate which reallllly really gets my back up....

People who say to me 'you're a right wimp because you don't jump'. Well sorry I don't enjoy it, but my horses, they are young, and I don't fancy aiming them and going- I like to school them and take things slowly- I hate this whole rush to be 'the best' (although I'd beg to differ haha).


Another thing which really winds me up is instructors who growl and don't actually have any idea on how to teach- I can tell a bad instructor if they fail to pick up errors which I can pick up on. They should be able to see the issue, apposed to pushing their students too far and then wondering why they get nowhere or get thrown off- the result is a lot of unhappy ponies and horses, riders who think they are doing it right and a big fat fail.



Oh and then my new pet hate is people who ride (or should I say gallop) their horse around the car park area at a show (well trailer park), I had my young horse on the trailer who'd never been out, and the rule was to not ride on the trailer park as there were a few rabbit holes. So said girls think it's a GREAT idea to bomb around the trailer park, their horse stumbles, so they stand there and whack it whilst parents are laughing at 'how naughty the pony is'. Oh my god I wanted to hit the lot of them!
 
Sawing hands to get an outline (or more correct head in!) in fact I really hate it when people say "didn't he look lovely with his head in" when they don't understand where a true outline comes from.

Also people that don't spend anytime with their horses - why have them? Use them or not, ride them or not that doesn't bother me but people who have them even though they are obviously an inconveiniance winds me up - let the poor thing go to someone who will make it's life worth living!

Oh and people who slag off what others do but don't do anything themselves! i.e. why do you only go to local shows? - when was the last time you even went beyond the yard gates?

and breathe!
 
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