What did you think it meant....?

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Mongoose11

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When I was very new to horses and helped out on a yard poopicking and being a general 'sweeper upper', I used to hear a lot of horsey chat and I still cringe when I think of this misunderstanding....

When I would hear people say 'oh he has a lot of bone' or 'he has good bone' that sort of thing, I used to think they were talking about the cheek bone of a horse, in my head it made sense as the horses they were talking about having a lot of bone usually had a large head that corresponded with their frame. I have no idea what made me assume that is what they were talking about or why I thought it would be a good thing for a horse to have a very deep cheek :p

I thought it for a fair few years too. Does that make me a complete idiot? (yes)

Did anyone else ever have any similar misunderstandings?
 
I was never sure what "change the rein" meant - I thought you had to swap hands or something.

Some great things came out of one of the liveries on our yard (she has now left). Numnum and Wheelbarrel were two of my favourites.
 
I've only recently had lessons after 40 years of riding (don't get me wrong - I can ride pretty much any sort of horse etc. but wanted a bit of professional help with schooling my young horse..>) anyway, worked out what "go large" meant the other day during the lesson...
 
When I was little (the 80's) there was one lady on the yard who was into dressage & very serious about her schooling. She was also a teacher, & for a while I thought schooling was something to do with her job.
I also was confused by the word 'posting' & wondered why people talked about it round horses.
And thinking that fetlock & feathers meant the same body part. And when I was older, maybe 11 or so I thought elementary dressage was very simple & for beginners learning to canter, medium was for average riders & advanced was the best in the world.
 
we bumped into a jack the lad mate of my oh one day. he said he had a girlfriend who lived a long way away, he said he went there on his motorbike every other week. My oh said something about thats an awful long way, and his mate replied "its a good ride". i burst out laughing and told him that was a bit personal.......they both stood there with blank faces. he had meant a good ride out on his motorbike!
 
Love these. The lady I used to work for as a kid, supposedly mucking out/poo picking/getting horses ready for lessons in return for the odd free ride, used to use the term "sparingly" really frequently as she was tight as a gnat's wotsit. Not only did the free rides materialise once in a blue moon, but the horsey jobs got "expanded" to include things like, creosoting, unblocking drains and fixing machinery. Luckily, I somehow always assumed "sparingly" to mean, "generously". So I kinda got my own back by wasting a lot of her stuff! :D
 
I'm always getting things wrong.
On a first date with my OH he wanted to take me to highgate cemetary (don't ask). Went to the old part then the new part. Came to Karl Marx grave. Puzzled I asked why he was buried here? Cos he died in London said OH. Oh I thought they would take him back to America to be with his brothers!
I can also remember my mum telling me all about being a Mod. The clothes, the music and that they would go to Brighton on scooters. Wow you mean you hopped all that way ?
 
One of my exes used to think Cobs were a rare breed and actually called "Cobbles". I tried to explain it numerous times but gave up in the end. I wouldn't have minded but he would attempt to discuss this wonderful rare breed with various very experienced horsey friends of mine, and he would argue until he was blue in the face that he was right. He has never touched a horse in his life by the way.

I think I could feel a part of my soul dying of shame. :o
 
My partner is learning how to ride and likes to try and pretend he knows the lingo (in a sweet way). Somehow in conversation he told me he thought a horse had navicular. I wondered, how does he know what navicular is, so I asked him what it was: "A disease that affects the spine" He does make me chuckle!! He does it quite a lot and I'm sure manages to fool a lot of people!
 
I was talking to a non horsey girl at work about horses (her family have a dairy farm so I think she think she knows horsey things too) and were talking about thoroughbreds. Apparently a thoroughbred is a pure bred horse ie. thoroughbred Arab or thoroughbred thoroughbred I just nodded along!
 
I was told that someones horse had wingles and they were very worried about it. Eventually turned out to be windgalls!!
 
About 35 years ago I heard my horsey cousin telling someone that her pony 'got his hocks under him' while she was doing some jumps. I was a pony mad kid who was not allowed have anything to do with horses at the time and I didn't know what she meant and honestly, I still don't. I had the impression at the time that it was not a good thing. If anyone can enlighten me, please do......
 
ZondaR said:
About 35 years ago I heard my horsey cousin telling someone that her pony 'got his hocks under him' while she was doing some jumps. I was a pony mad kid who was not allowed have anything to do with horses at the time and I didn't know what she meant and honestly, I still don't. I had the impression at the time that it was not a good thing. If anyone can enlighten me, please do......
Click to expand...

Its when a horse uses his back end properly.
The power comes fom behind, so when a horse gets his hocks under him he powering himself.

Its a good thing.

better than when a horse is on the forehand so not using his hocks to power himself
 
When I was a kid I got completely confused when I was told to "take a check", check what? It was only when my riding instructress kept telling me to do it in one lesson and then saw me looking around my pony a bit confused that she explained what it meant. I seriously had no idea what I was supposed to be checking!!
 
Hi,

Early learning to ride confusing terms and my thoughts (circa 1987):

Going large : Just grin and keep riding - hope instructor would explain and not just keep throwing equine terms at me.

In-hand : Erm - whip? reins?

Off the leg : :eek: ? Erm

Serpentine: Sounds like a river - help.

In later years I came across an instructor who explained everything in simple on-horsey terms thank goodness.. :D
 
Non horsey.... I used to think vivid meant blurry/unclear :o

Had only ever read it in books... for example someone describing a really vivid dream... I pictured the dream being all hazy :p

Till a school teacher corrected me :o

Horsey - Serpantine got me... I thought snake and just made it up as i went :p
 
My mare has always done flying changes, she's just very naturally balanced, & while I have done all the ridden work, her flying changes weren't something I would claim credit for. First few times people commented on her lovely changes, I really didn't have a clue what they were talking about. At first I thought it was a delayed comment on a nice trot to canter transistion. Then I thought it meant a lovely change from the 2yr old she'd been. I knew she did something when I changed the bend in canter, but I didn't know exactly what or that it was a flying change. Until one lady was having a lesson, teaching a horse simple changes & I finally put 2 & 2 together.
 
Between hand and leg = umm, the horse is, well some of him!
On the bit = who is? (thinking some sort of musical chairs where the winner stands on the bit!!)


My classic of all time ;

''Don't let the cat out of the bag!''
''Why was the cat in the bag?''
 
We used to practice turning on the forehand at pony club. I had not a clue what we were trying to achieve and its only as an adult now I actually get it. I think I was so bamboozled by my pony club that I just assumed it was beyond my understanding and thought no more about it :D
 
When I was learning to drive- tyres and tarmac... Umm, what? I'd changed instructors and had never heard it before. (and I'm still not sure what it really means.)
 
When you stop you should be able to see the back tyres of the car in front plus some tarmac - in other words, dont get too close!

Posting to the trot was one that got me early on. The term splint also had me confused, I thought the horse had broken it's leg!
 
Used to be a lovely young lass at my yard, always getting her words mixed up. She always used to say "transactions" instead of transitions so now everybody at my yard does "transactions"! I'm a dressage judge as well though and it's very VERY hard not to write, nice transactions!
 
I have been very lucky and have had my OH explain stuff to me as we have gone along so not to get confused :)

When i started to have lessons i said to the instructor no point in using horsey words just go layman's terms and i will understand much to some of there disgust
 
Not horsey but was walking dog in the park a few weeks ago and a guy came up to me and we were chatting about my dog, told him what breed he was (Lab X Staff) and the guy said 'Oh I know about labs, they're 1st on the Dangerous dog list in the USA'...just nodded along :p
 
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