worst advice you have been given

[ex racer rider]

so whats the worst advice you have been given or heard?
the best i have recently been given was to whip like hell and force my very green to jumping and nervous ex racer over a fence she was having a stress at... needless to say i didnt and she is now jumping 85cm courses a few weeks later and loving it.
the worst i heard recently was in response to someone complaining about their horse being wide backed, she was told "if it feels wide when you ride it just put a narrower saddle on it".........

 

[Sukistokes2]

I dont really remember the bad advice, goes in and then slips out my left ear. I remember the good advice more.
I remember trying to jump my pony and him stopping , so I kept hitting him. This woman asked me to stop (I was a child) she told me to pat him as she felt he needed reassurance. I did as I was told (as children did then) and then tried again. He flew the jump. This taught me to stop and think things through and I often think about it.

 

[kassieg]

the worst i heard recently was in response to someone complaining about their horse being wide backed, she was told "if it feels wide when you ride it just put a narrower saddle on it".........

you are not serious !!! how could someone be that stupid :|

I am lucky I'm on a pro point to point yard only me & 2 other liveries, 1 who is just as experienced as me & producing her 5 year old for dressage & the other is my yard owners granddaughter so I don't really get the crazy things happening thank god !

 

[MyDogIsAnIdiot]

God, I could write a book and I've only owned my own since November!

Being told that lunging in a Pessoa for 40 minutes every day was the only way to get my just-backed 3 year old to go in an 'outline'. Or to 'squash' her with my legs and hold with my hands to get her in an 'outline' (WTF). Or to saw the bit back and fore to get her 'on the bit'. And that every time she leant on my hands (y'know, what with being newly backed and not able to carry herself yet) I should give a big hard yank on the reins and hit her with a whip. Because being understand with a young, green horse is soooooo overrated.

And that she 'needed' two big feeds a day of Fast Fibre, chaff, nuts, and a Hi Fibre mix so she'd have energy. This is a good do-er Sec D who definitely /didn't/ need extra energy unless I wanted to spend the first 30 minutes of a ride flying round at high speed looking like I was riding a giraffe. And I couldn't have a synthetic saddle as the person hated them. And that she looked 'poor' (I LOATHE that phrase with a passion, fk the fk off to the far side of fk!!) when she was about condition score 6/10 and the vet had said it wouldn't do her any harm to lose a few pounds.

These all came from the same two people (family). Incidentally they have rearing problems with their horses (this might be more to do with the teenager teaching the one to rear by yanking on its mouth and kicking the crap out of it - I saw the video before it was deleted). I really miss my last yard but I certainly don't miss that pair.

 

[EbonyJayne]

[QUOTE="if it feels wide when you ride it just put a narrower saddle on it".........[/QUOTE]

Oh my god! :-s

 

[EbonyJayne]

God, I could write a book and I've only owned my own since November!

Being told that lunging in a Pessoa for 40 minutes every day was the only way to get my just-backed 3 year old to go in an 'outline'. Or to 'squash' her with my legs and hold with my hands to get her in an 'outline' (WTF). Or to saw the bit back and fore to get her 'on the bit'. And that every time she leant on my hands (y'know, what with being newly backed and not able to carry herself yet) I should give a big hard yank on the reins and hit her with a whip. Because being understand with a young, green horse is soooooo overrated.

And that she 'needed' two big feeds a day of Fast Fibre, chaff, nuts, and a Hi Fibre mix so she'd have energy. This is a good do-er Sec D who definitely /didn't/ need extra energy unless I wanted to spend the first 30 minutes of a ride flying round at high speed looking like I was riding a giraffe. And I couldn't have a synthetic saddle as the person hated them. And that she looked 'poor' (I LOATHE that phrase with a passion, fk the fk off to the far side of fk!!) when she was about condition score 6/10 and the vet had said it wouldn't do her any harm to lose a few pounds.

These all came from the same two people (family). Incidentally they have rearing problems with their horses (this might be more to do with the teenager teaching the one to rear by yanking on its mouth and kicking the crap out of it - I saw the video before it was deleted). I really miss my last yard but I certainly don't miss that pair.

I know a pair like that! The crap they come out with..unbelievable. For a second I was reading this and thinking 'omg its them' but then I read about the teenager and I was like 'ah it's not'

 

[windand rain]

worst bit of advice I have ever been given which could have been disastrous was to shoot my 5 year old pony as she had a boney splint in her knee, from a young vet she insisted there was no cure and I was being cruel as she was lame. Got a second opinion from an equine hospital you could hear them laughing the 60 miles away at the idea you can get a splint in a knee. Turned out she had a badly balanced hoof from a brief episode of concussion laminitis She came good in about 6 months with special farriery and is now sound as a pound and approaching 20 years old

 

[bakewell]

Possibly drunk instructor ordering "whip him until he does it" (pass another pony) Amazingly at about 9 I said I don't think that's going to help. She then hit him without warning pretty hard behind with a lunge whip. He bolted at full tilt, around the arena, over the jumps, banging the boards, no kidding about 10 times. When I pulled him up, she came over to "show him who's boss" with the whip and he went up and boxed at her. Think he might have had a beating once or twice...

Happy ending: my father (watching, possibly not realising seriousness of incident, shouting keep your seat) asked afterwards what I thought of it. I said horse was great but I never want to go back to that riding school. He bought (I think a threat of legal action was involved with the offer) the horse. He never bolted again.

 

[minkymoo]

I got a brilliant piece of advice when lunging my unbacked 3yo at the beginning of the year. He was a bit fresh & being a bit naughty, it was suggested <by an interfering busybody> that I lunge him in a chiffney. Yeah, great idea that. I ended up persevering and then he settled down fine.

I would like to say that 4/5 months later he was such a lunging star, he was used in our apprentices lunging test thing, and is now known around the yard as 'the best behaved on a lunge' <beam!>

 

[Frumpoon]

"You best have that horse put down, he's never going to be ridden again"

For a simple case of side bone, brought about by unnecessary remedial shoeing....

Well I didn't have him put down, turns out the root cause of his problem was kissing spines which was successfully operated on and going on 15 years old he's as sound as a pound...apart from the suspensories he's just done but that's new

 

[NZJenny]

OMG I could write a book ! The one thing that gets me about so many horse people is they never question what passes for "conventional" wisdom - they just repeat it like the well known "flat earth" theory, aka "earth is the centre of the universe" theory.

As a four year old my gelding reared. It was a big wide world outside of the paddock, and he wasn't sure he was ready to meet it. The cures for a rearer - take your pick: pull him over backwards (eek!), hit him over the head with a plastic bag full of water ... hmm. Smash him over the head with an egg (where to put the egg when riding????). Hit him over the head with a dead chicken - still looking for a chicken to volunteer. Hit him over the head with a dead pukeko (Oz native resident in NZ for the last 200 years or so, about chicken sized, lives in swamps, doesn't fly very well).

And the thing that really amazed me, was that the people offering this expert advice, had never actually tried any of these training methods.

 

[Red-1]

I can also think of loads, but I think the worst at the moment would be to not have bought my horse Jay. He had a longstanding rearing problem, and even the owner did not want me to buy him.... When I had him vetted even the vet said he would pass him medically, but he was very naughty and he would recommend I did not buy him (I was not present but I can only imagine what the ginger one did at the vetting).

I would have missed out on my very good friend. We have had each other for 3 years, two of which I have had a bad hip and back, and the ginger one has nannied me along, looked after me and tried his best at everything we have done, even when I was pretty much restricted to walking only.

We have not achieved the competiton record I hoped for, but that is entirely down to me, he is game for whatever I ask.

 

[Hedge_pig]

"Just hold the front in and kick"

 

[BlackVelvet]

'Feed him oats and sugarbeet'
Blind bolting, a broken collarbone and a cracked hat later, that was terrible advice!

 

[Rudders74]

Not really advice but more an opinion....on my first weekend of ownership of my first ever pony at the livery yard I had moved into that very day...I was making up my first stable bedding when another livery walked by and said "oh thats so offensive" promptly marched past me and picked up my fork and finished it herself then walked off! Nice welcome!

 

[el_Snowflakes]

I remember when u bought my first horse who was quite a sharp ISH I explained so the previous owner that I might invest in a body protector to which she recommend I didn't as they cause worse injuries ie. bruising around the neck if you fall.

Can't think of anything else, fortunately I'm not often offered any unwanted advice but I have heard some ridiculous advice being given to others & just bite my tongue!

 

[Slightlyconfused]

When my mare was diagnosed with Kissing Spines I was told "oh well you have four others, she is just a feild ornament so send her off yo live in a feild some where and get another one"

Or when the same mare did her suspensory in "she is only retired, don't need to send the money finding out why she is lame, just bute her up and ignore it."

People do my head in, my horse my money if I want to spend it on a feild ornament then I will.

Or to get horse into an outline put a gag or double bridle/Pelham on it force it's head down

 

[nicelittle]

Advised by (ex) instructor to feed up misbehaving child's pony with something sugary !!!

 

[Woolly Hat n Wellies]

My novice friend was advised by a self-proclaimed 'horse expert' that cleaning the inside of the girth would cause it to be slippy and the saddle would 'slide off the horse'.

 

[Celtic Fringe]

'Put one shoe on him' - this from a supposed osteopath for my lame, barefoot chap. Fortunately I ignored both the YO and supposed osteo and got out the vet. It took a long while to get the correct diagnosis but after keyhole surgery for damaged cartilage in his stifle he made a full recovery. Have never used a 'back person', osteo etc since.

 

[3Beasties]

'Shoot it or give her to a little hill farmer to round up his sheep with' - About my Section A who had attitude :biggrin3:

 

[Highlands]

Shove the pony through Leominster, its evil... My 4 year old highland pony, 7 weeks away came back bitten to death by flies one night, escaped twice near main road. Never be suitable for me.

Turned pony out, rang a show producer with my tale of whoa, pony went next spring, a week later I was riding him. Now had 2 more ponies broken by the chap and a third off in the spring...

 

[Pearlsasinger]

We have always been lucky in not having loads of other liveries around and have been on our own land for the last 20 yrs BUT I do remember one woman whose horses' beds were always filthy and whose mare had horrendous feet, which neither vet nor farrier could make much impression on.

She 'advised' sister's novice OH not to throw so much straw out when mucking out. No idea why she felt the need to comment, she wasn't involved in any way in providing the straw for our 4 horses. Interesting though that she knew better than to 'advise' me or sis, we had been keeping horses for about 15 yrs by then, had multiple horses, had been on that yard longer than her and would have told her exactly what she could do with her advice - and probably why her mare's feet were so bad!

 

[DragonSlayer]

Overheard a discussion on what to feed a very fat and verging laminitic pony...

'Why don't you feed him sugar beet, not much in that, is there?'...

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

When riding a recently backed green youngster at an equestrian centre, the whole ride trotting, most of the horses stuffy and sluggish but the youngster onward bound. The horse is stepping out smartly, reasonably balanced (for a green youngster), keeping an even rhythm and tempo, swinging through his back, tracking up and feels great. The instructor insists I slow down the trot, I comply with gentle aids, but the problem is the horse has insufficient muscle to slow down and also keep the same balance. The horse disengaged his hind quarters and was now undertracking by about 18" , dropped onto his forehand and felt as if I was riding downhill, but he is now keeping pace with the rest of the ride. The instructors comment? "Well done, that's better".

 

[PoppyAnderson]

"Box rest and remedial shoeing", from a very well thought of vet at a big horse hospital. When are vets going to move away from their default position of box rest and remedial shoeing? Probably when they get out of bed with farriers who charge £150 a pop and insurance companies.

 

[dreambigpony]

"Sell your horse, you can't even handle her, she's a little s***, you'll never do well with her"

...Look where we are now thank you very much!!

 

[NinjaPony]

When I was much younger I was riding my pony whom had been brought from a riding school/trekking centre, she was in a thick rubber Pelham and leaned on it like crazy, I had no brakes at all, this is a shoulder heavy cob with a long back and I wanted to swap her into a 2 ring French link gag so I could, you know, actually stop her. "Don't ever put her into a gag she's already so up in front that she will just rear".......
Now, I wouldn't describe a cob mare whose head was on the floor in all paces as 'up in front' personally...so I totally ignored that and she went in that bit very well and I could actually stop! Once she had some reschooling and actually had some muscles over her top line she went into a snaffle. She did many things, but rearing wasn't one of them....just goes to show that you can't rely on 'expert' opinions about your own horse...

 

[linperrie]

To not put my horse thru surgery to get the bone in her head removed that was too big and causing facial paralysis. The vet said a course of anti-inflammatorys would suffice but due to the underlying problem still being there she would gradually get worse until ataxia set in so I wouldn't then be able to ride. I opted for a surgical assessment and 2 days later the bone was out and 1 year on her face is 95% ok again and no problems riding!

 

[thewonderhorse]

And that she looked 'poor' (I LOATHE that phrase with a passion, fk the fk off to the far side of fk!!) .

Yes someone said that about my sec D the other day funnily enough. He isn't carrying loads of weight like he usually is in the summer, but I still cant feel his ribs easily!? - therefore he must be starving to death!!