What did you think it meant....?

I was a pony mad kid that rode once a week at the local riding school. We werent taught much and I didnt get my first horse until I was 20. i can remember reading adverts all the time dreaming and always thought that a 2nd pony meant that if you wanted more than one they were ideal :)
 
When I was 5 or 6 and at riding school my instructor used to talk about lower leg. I couldn't work out if she meant my left or my right!
 
When I started having "proper lessons" RI pulled us all into the middle and asked us to name and give the sex of our ponies, after hearing the other children's reply I didn't know if mine was a mare or gelding, so decided that as "marmalade" was a girl she must be a gelding as it sounded like girl!! (I was only about 6!)
 
Non horsey but I used to think mild meant it was cold and I used to wonder why there were so many toilets in town (To Let signs).
 
Littlelegs said:
. 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.
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But thats kind of how it was years ago - prelim was for very novice horses, then you went novice etc. There were no walk and trot tests and people didn't stay in prelim forever! Eventing started at novice (1m 10) there was no prenovice or intro etc....

DragonSlayer said:
When buying a horse, I used to think you went to a special pet shop and horses would be in stables, going up in size and sorted by colour. :D
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Would be quite useful

FlaxenPony05 said:
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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I've read that in the papers too. There are more bites recorded at A&E worldwide from labs than any other dog - but thats because labs are the most popular dog worldwide...
 
Non horsey but I was most of the way through my nurse training before I figured out the difference between Dr (physician) and Mr (surgeon).
My daughter's just started her BHS and is discovering that very small children rarely know their left or right and size, e.g 20 metres, means nothing
 
I remember when I was little watching a friend having a jumping lesson, the instructor kept saying ' look at the fence ' so my friend was looking at the fence around the arena! The instructor kept shouting it and my friend kept looking at different bits of the arena fence. I wondered what she was doing wrong and why he was getting louder and louder! it took a good few jumps for him to realise and change to 'look at the jump'!
 
A lady on our yard was trying to work out how she could get bute powder onto her horses swollen leg without it going everywhere.

She has had horses for years!
 
Yes, you're right honey, except at that age I thought it was more based on the rider. Also remember showjumping being grade d & e too, although entry point still a lot higher than now.
 
I used to sneak in on adult conversation about a lady who had paid big bucks for an awfull horse...I then thought i knew all the terms and used to go round screaching at shows about how 'over the knee' and 'on the forehand' peoples horses with. I didnt have a clue!

I also used to think that 'go large' meant gallop around edge, much to my mums embarresment!
 
Non horsey but I remember once when my dad had taken my sister and me to a new music teacher, who stood us up by not being there when we arrived for the lesson. The teacher's dad said to my dad: "I'm afraid I've been left rather holding the baby". So my sis, all eleven years old, pipes up: "I'll hold it, I love babies!"
 
Spotsrock said:
When I was 5 or 6 and at riding school my instructor used to talk about lower leg. I couldn't work out if she meant my left or my right!
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aahah I used to think this too! when the instructor used to say something like "bring your lower leg forward a bit" I used to have to work out weather to put my left or right leg forward! normally just sat there and smiled and hoped instructor didn't realize
 
Half halt - only halt one side i.e. either pull back on left or right rein :o

Years ago taking lessons in Belgium - change the rein was 'Change Diagonale' in French so I used to carry on in the same direction but change my trot diagonal and then meet rest of ride coming towards me.
 
For ages my OH thought that 'equestrian' was what eventing was called. Ok, not technically incorrect as they are equestrian events but if I was going to a dressage competition he would ask "are you just doing the riding, or the equestrian bit too" and if we went to watch my friend event he would say we're going to watch equestrian.

He explained its because whenever its on the TV they call it equestrian (like at the olympics it was equestrian-dressage etc). Took me ages to explain to him there's loads of different types of horse sports and equestrian is just like a collective term! Still don't think he really gets it.
 
I used to have an instructor who could freeze boiling water just by looking at it - very scary lady. She didn't speak, she screeched and could make your ears bleed but in her younger days she had been a very good eventer and was now a Dressage rider. To have lessons with her made you feel very grown up but you never rode your best as you were always slightly scared of her.
During a lesson on my previous horse who was bit of a beggar for diving onto his forehand she screeched 'DONT LET HIM GO DOWN ON YOU !!!!'
It was one of those moments when everyone stops and stares at you. I had to stop as was crying with laughter and so was she once she realised what she'd said. I was never scared of her after that :)
 
I had a few lessons over in the Netherlands. The main issue was that my Dutch wasn't great, neither was her English.. luckily I realised what she meant when she asked me to 'gallop in a small circle'- she switched to giving her commands in Dutch after that and I just had to figure it out myself!
 
I remember being most surprised that horses had teeth all up the sides of their mouths! Just thought they had the ones in the front! :confused:

Non horsey - my mum at her first job training as a nursery nurse was sent to clean the oven and to use plenty of elbow grease. After a good search in the cupboards she went back to her boss to ask where the elbow grease was kept.

As a child I was a reluctant Brownie and thought the motto was Linda Hand - whoever she was - was only later I found it was Lend A Hand
 
when i was tiny and started trotting and said change my diagonol i really use to get upset about it, i have no idea why i didn't even know what it meant but use to start crying to myself yet carry on riding... it still makes no sense to me now!
also when people use to say change the leg to my brother he use to bring one of his legs over the front of the saddle as a joke to confuse me... he was 7 years my senior! i thought it was the most skilled thing yo could do on a horse!!!
 
A non-horsey one:

at nursery school I didn't know all the words to the alphabet song. Instead of being taught it, you just had to join in with the song and figure it out for yourself. I always used to think the alphabet went "H I J K lemon lemon P"
 
Elbie said:
A non-horsey one:

at nursery school I didn't know all the words to the alphabet song. Instead of being taught it, you just had to join in with the song and figure it out for yourself. I always used to think the alphabet went "H I J K lemon lemon P"
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Love it :D Similarly, when I started primary school, we were expected to sing to the residents of the old people's home - newbies like me had to just sing along, without knowing the words. For many years I thought the hymn 'Goat Tell it on the Mountain' was about mountain goats - obviously :)
 
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