What is the DUMBEST thing you’ve seen someone do with a horse?
May 24 2011
The other day I saw the STUPIDEST THING EVER and unfortunately I missed the shot with my camera phone. Some guy was riding down the side of a busy road – a 45 mph 4 lane undivided road – on his mare. With her baby following…loose. And baby was not following too closely! OMG! Foals are totally unpredictable…he could have a playful moment and jump into traffic at any second. I mean, he was not on some sort of separate bridle path. We are talking about riding on the dirt right up the curb from the road. I drive through the area all the time, so if I see it again, he WILL be famous. But in the meantime, I figured it was an awesome blog topic and now that we’re into the show/event season, we’ve all already seen something that made us craaaaazy because it was just 145 kinds of stupid. So have a vent day. What have you seen someone do lately that made YOUR head explode?
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dumbest thing I’ve heard of lately:
an upper-level eventer who got into an accident on the way to an event with a trailer full of horses, skidding off the road (sideswiped by the big end of a tractor-trailer but luckily skidding onto flat open ground), damaging the horse trailer with two horses inside. Apparently “none of the horses were hurt” but at least one that I know of COMPETED the NEXT DAY, the horse that was in the most damaged part of the trailer. That horse ended up with a broken split joint and a torn suspensory. My suspicion is that that the wasn’t as OK after the accident as first thought. The blog of the accident says “How is it that he can walk away uninjured after being hit by a semi and then injure himself doing what he loves??” but I think it STUPID to think that the two are unrelated.
Oh, and even though she had insurance, she asked for donations for a new truck. As if!
stupid thing that I HATE–when I am riding near a rode in our rural area, those idiot folks that ZOOM by and stay as close as possible or worse yet…HONK their horns. Thankfully my current horses are calm, but these folks are trying to get someone hurt–argh!
“road”
Girl at 4H last week. She’s really hard to deal with – when you talk to her, she gives you a blank, bovine stare, then proceeds to do NOT what you told her.
Sooo in the makeup ring she’s riding this (skinny, but her family won’t admit it) REALLY upset TB mare in a Western saddle and a nasty twisted wire snaffle. I’m like, “hey there, isn’t that a TB? She looks like a hunt seat horse.”
“Yeah, I’m riding her English at the Fair.”
“OK *friendly lulz* maybe you should practice what you’re showing in!”
*crickets*
“OK then, I see you’re seesawing your hands. I’m letting you in on a secret. People do that a lot, but it’s WRONG. With this mare, you want to just walk and relax for awhile, then she’ll….. [grope for simple terminology for dropping base of neck and relaxing into correct movement] ….. chill out and relax her neck for you. Tonight, just get her relaxed and comfortable in her surroundings. DO NOT pull on those reins – that bit is HARSH! yadda yadda yadda…..”
So she gets the mare walking nicely, mare is being cute and moving her ears all about, listening to everything in a happy way. So I go deal with my own kid, and my horse and my husband.
Aaaaaaand this girl’s mom calls me over to the BIG ring, because every time she asks the horse to trot the horse half-rears and evades like nobody’s bizness.
OK, so now they have a TOM THUMB on this horse, direct-reining her, and … well…. it’s going as well as you can expect. So I tell the mom to ditch the Tom Thumb, ditch the twisted wire, get a French link snaffle possibly, make the daughter KEEP HER HANDS OUT OF THE MARE’S MOUTH, and spend a few days just WALKING the horse until she regains some trust in the human race.
Instead they have their “trainer” (some overly made up contesting girl I think) get on her, and she seesaws like crazy …. ugh.
They are planning on jumping her at the Fair, btw. Which is….. June 19.
Horse spooked, ladys fall off, and gets dragged by her foot back to the barn and right into the horse’s stall. She wants to put halter on horse, asks for my help. She gets DOWN ON HER KNEES in front of said spooky horse and holds halter over her head and expects horse to put his head in it. Of course, ignores her. Said Parilli says to do this to build trust with your horse! She’s darn lucky she wasn’t trampled. Asks me to check that her tack fits. I find her string girth hangin by it’s last two dry-rotted strings. Lady sold horse, now has llama.
4-H mother looked at me like I had two heads when I told her that her child was geting run away with by her pony because her curb bit was upside down and no curb strap. The bit rein rings were up by it’s eyes! The pony kept taking her to the exit gate and refusing to move. Child in tears and mother confident that SHE was doing everything right and didn’t need any of my help. Okay lady….good luck with that.
My head is still reeling from the lady who tryed to pull ticks (really were nipples) off her male dog story. Hope she doesn’t suddenly notice that her husband has them too!
OMG the nipple thing made me spray milk all over everything, it even came out of my nose. Great. LOL.
I used to have a neighbor who’s daughter (about 12) tied her horse to a lawn chair. You can imagine what happened. Yes indeed, the horse ran around the neighborhood being chased by a lawn chair. The mare finally stopped in my yard so I was able to free her. Those people were always doing stupid stuff.
The stupidest thing I ever saw resulted in death.
At the state 4H show in Perry, GA a few years back, a girl was leading her horse down the main barn aisle, which has a cement floor. Apparently the horse was being a little bit naughty so the girl snatched her…really hard. Hard enough that the filly reared. Because she was shod, she lost her balance and fell over, hitting her head on the cement. She kept trying to get up but the damage was done and she kept falling and smacking her head on the cement over and over again. The filly had to be euthanized in the barn aisle.
I see it ALL the time at the Georgia International Horse Park- people doing things other than just walking on cement. At one show the owners put a ribbon on their horse’s bridle and he freaked out and bolted. He ended up making it up to the cement road and his feet slipped out from under him and he scraped himself up, but he ended up being alright.
Something I REALLY can’t stand- most barrel racers. I ran barrels for a long time on my trainer’s older Arab in a tom thumb. The things those people do to their horses. I know of one show ground that had to put a time limit on how long you could take to get into the arena. There was one horse who reared and fell over…the saddle horn broke the girl’s nose. Her trainer or whoever wanted her to get back on. Thankfully she didn’t.
And of course, barrel racers “don’t need to wear helmets” and have the right to run their horses full out in a small arena where little kids are warming up. Those poor horses. It makes me sick.
Hell, last year at ABRA World, someone flipped a horse in the aisle and it died.
Folks, don’t shank on them on the concrete…really…it is never a smart move. Actually, why don’t you just stop shanking on them, period? I’d be good with that.
Another time I went to help out a friend at a rated show of some sort. We got there Friday night and this guy was on this 2-3 year-old paint riding western pleasure and just cranking on it. He was there very late that night- still riding when we left at about 10pm, and he was riding when we got there at about 6:30 in the morning. A different person was riding the horse in a flat class later that afternoon. Remember that this is Southern Georgia- it was easily 95 degrees and humid. Eventually the horse had had enough and reared and refused to work anymore. It was then that I got a good look at what was in the horse’s mouth- an ugly thin bit. The horse was dismissed from the class and that guy got on and kept cranking. Poor thing.
I knew a horse whose tongue was nearly in half because someone had wrapped barbed wire around his bit when he was younger.
A barrel racer who used to board at my barn was frustrated with her horse always wanting to run. Wanting to be helpful, I suggested that she spend a lot of rides just walking him, work on calming him down and on relaxing and bending, etc. Instead she insisted that he needed the twisted shanked bit and that he needed to just run before doing anything else. She also eventually strapped herself to her saddle.
In a single word: halter. I’m really sorry if this is offensive to anyone, and I truly believe to each their own, but dear god- WHY? I fundamentally do not grasp the enjoyment behind this “discipline.” My biggest issue with it is simply that good conformation is such a miniscule part of overall function of an animal, it seems ridiculous to devote an entire discipline to it. It’s not “stupid” in terms of being unsafe (mostly because you’re just… standing there) but it is immediately what I thought of when I saw this prompt.
I always wondered what would happen if the major breeds required that, in order to participate in halter, your horse had to also show in something else — ANYTHING else — that has a real, functional use, whether it’s driving or any form of western or English riding, or even trail. Perhaps that would help ensure that halter horses would be bred with soundness in mind, and when their halter careers are over, they would have an actual, marketable skill (beyond reproducing and making more halter horses!).
I used to board my horse in Brooklyn, NY (the dark, bad times) and basically all riding was done in Prospect Park, which is a huuuuuuuuuge, busy urban park. On the weekends and holidays, a 40-person-strong drum circle forms, and it’s LOUD. One particular Memorial Day, I believe, I had the day off, so it was a great day to go ride. Unfortunately, all of Brooklyn also had the day off and figured it was a good day to go to the park. As we entered the more-populated part of the park, my horse was FREAKING OUT. Something about the drummers, or the illegal barbecuing, or the soccer balls flying overhead, or the crazy children darting across the trail was really getting to her, and calmly walking was NOT on the menu. She was bucking so hard and so much that I felt I was floating above her, and the fact that I managed to land on her back was pure coincidence. So, I got off her and hand-walked her through the area. This was a little better — there were moments of calm, and there were moments of in-hand “airs above the ground” where I felt that I was holding a horse-shaped helium balloon in my hand. The stupid part came when, during a moment of calm walking, a mother ran up holding her toddler and asked if he could ride my horse.
No. No, you could never ever ever put your child on my horse! Not in a park, not without a helmet, and not without signing a waiver! But to ask right when the horse was CLEARLY distressed, to not have observed that the “horsey” had, only moments before, been leaping and rearing and bucking and instead to just automatically assume that all horses are automatically “for kids,” left me flabbergasted. I just said, “No! She’s really freaked out right now!” and kept walking, and I think she thought I was being mean or selfish.
Of course, the stupidest part of the whole story is probably that I kept my horse in Brooklyn to begin with.
I have had numerous encounters with members of the public who ask if their kids can ride my horse and then get offended when I say no! I can’t believe it, I don’t even let them pat him because people are stupid and something would go wrong.
I remember one day at pony club, I had left my appy tied up at the trailer during the break. I came back after about 5 minutes and saw a mother, father and two kids. One of the kids was SITTING ON MY HORSE! Now, this appy was 16.2 but dead quiet and continued to munch on his hay.
I politely told them to remove the kid, lead them away a little and then went ten kinds of crazy on them. They couldn’t see the problem, so I threatened to call the police for messing with my property (I don’t know if I can do that but they believed me). They were lucky I didn’t have my QH gelding, he sees children as horse eating midgets and gets nervous around them.
Pre-teen girls who rode with me were having a jump painting party in the arena at a public barn, but came looking for me saying they were afraid to stay in the arena. Seems one of the boarders, mid-30s guy who fancied himself both a bull rider and a horse trainer, had his crazy mare on a lunge line in the arena and he had decided the best position from which to handle this horse whizzing around him was LYING DOWN! He had started out by sitting, which made them uncomfortable enough (partially because they’d seen him do other idiot things with this poor mostly-out-of-control horse). When he laid down, they were out of there. I congratulated them on having listened well to all my talk about safety and we had a nice discussion about all the reasons the guy was doing his horse a big disservice. They realized he was probably trying to impress them (Ewww!) and hoped their absence would cut short his behavior. They were right. You really ought to have to pass an IQ test before you can own a horse …
EWWWW is right. But it’s AWESOME that even the teenagers realized he just looked like a douchebag!
Carriage driver refused service at McDonald’s, gets served at KFC. In Great Britain…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390787/McDonalds-refuses-serve-woman-horse-cart–went-KFC.html
Wow that horse should really see a farrier, those are sme funky looking hooves
Wait, what?!?!
“We often stop off at pubs and leave the stallion in the car park, it’s usually no bother whatsoever, and is mostly a good talking point.”
UNSUPERVISED?! WHAT?!
I live near an area with an Amish community, and it’s not uncommon to see horses with buggies tied up to a light pole in the parking lot. In fact, I recently took a picture of a horse and buggy in the Walmart parking lot, with the big Walmart sign in the background. If I knew how to post pictures here, I would.
Yup seen this one – I live in Cumbria, England and there are quite a lot of gypsy’s around here – I saw one complete with coloured cob at the drive thu at macdonalds. Horse didn’t seem to have a problem with it and it’s fairly common to see coloured cobs and small carts in the city round here.
I am going to hug my trainer the next time I am at the barn. She is the most patient person and even when I do something incredibly dumb, she just looks at me and says, “Hmmm, you might not want to do X”. Guaranteed I remember that better than being yelled at – which she only did once, when my 7 1/2 year old daughter popped one of the drll horses in the sides (instead of asking gently, which she had been reminded to do). 21 year old been-there, done-that Drill Horse went “You sure? OK” and got 1 1/2 steps into a canter before Trainer had his reins (she rides alongside). She apologized to me afterward and I told her “When we cross that driveway, we are in your house and follow your rules. You feel free to yell all you want” which I don’t worry about because in 3+ years, I’ve only seen her yell once, and only heard about one other time – new girl on drill team got pissed when her horse didn’t do something right, and started swearing and smacking her mare. Trainer was on her like a shot – there is no swearing at the barn (because there are always kids around) and you WILL NOT blame your horse for your errors. Excused new girl from the rest of the practice and has never had a problem again. Have I mentioned I LOVE LOVE LOVE my trainer?
The dumbest thing I’ve seen was parents who ignored the professional advice they paid for. A trainer had explained to them to get a snaffle bit for their three year old horse, a quality used saddle, a round pen, etc. The horse was already well trained but the trainer rode him without incident for another 30 days. Their child was only 9 years old but they already had the horse before they asked for help. The horse was gentle and the child’s mother was one of those that mouthed off nonstop about what a great horseman her child was. Later when the trainer made the two hour drive to check on their progress, she found that the bridle they were using was a draft size that the kid had wadded up into knots to make it fit.
The trainer had carefully explained what a snaffle bit is, but they got one of those nasty tom thumb things AND put it upside down into the bridle and without a curb strap. The saddle they bought was a brand new piece of crap that was cheap cheap cheap and could not be made to fit the horse. The trainer explained all their problems then called a couple of weeks later to see how they were doing. They had sold the horse and gotten an old horse (a good thing), and acted as though everything they had done wrong had been the trainer’s fault.
I can’t believe I forgot this one… once, driving down the highway (65mph) I saw two horses loaded into the bed of a pickup truck with panels on the sides. I hit my brakes and whipped my head around going “WHAT THE FUCK???!!!!” as they passed going the other way. My trainer, who was driving behind me, almost rear ended me as she did a double take. True story. People do some dumb shit in rural AZ.
Currently it’s Top Chef Canada planning a show on how to cook horsemeat.
It was supposed to have aired on May 16th. I live in the US so I don’t know whether they aired the thing.
Check it out on their Facebook page. No, I’m not jivin’ ya…
They aired it. Raw horsemeat, just to make this even grosser!
On the plus side, that dish was on the bottom. Foodies of the world will not be rushing out to try it.
Usually love Top Chef and was watching that episode…as soon as she drew “horse meat” I turned the channel…friggin’ disgusting:(
As my landlady says, “you don’t eat a friend”. Don’t know if I will tune into that show again.
i was at my fairground during fair and i was riding probably around 8 under the lights in the arena
my horse was scared of all the noise and wanted to go back to the barn… so she was friekin out and trying to run back to the gate
of course there had to be idiot people standing on the fence outside the arena screaming and trying to get my horse to spook and run off… my sister and her horse were riding in the same arena and our horses get very buddy sour during the week of fair (they hate each other at home) well her stirrup fell of her saddle and she got off to grab it and took her horse out of the arena to fix it. of course then my horse went totally nuts. my trainer told me to hop off and lead her around the arena and she came in the arena to help me with my horse. so outside the arena i have about 4 idiot guys trying to scare my horse even more.. well then some other lady walked up to the fence to watch the people ride. she starts watching my horse and saying stuff like ” is she in heat? theres probably a stallion around.” she was clearly scared and just didnt want to be in the arena. my trainer says to her ” yea i dont think thats the problem”
of course that lady knows best so she says “ohh i bet it is”…. right….
i was at my fairgrounds during fair riding at night under the big spotlights
there were like 4 guys hanging on the fence trying to scare my horse even more by screaming and beating on the fence.
my sister was riding in the same arena. our horses are very buddy sour. so my horse is already scared from all the noise and bright lights. my sisters stirrup falls off her saddle so she takes her horse out to fix it. that just made my horse mad and even more scared that she had to be in the arena and her buddy didnt. my trainer told me to get off and walk her around the arena. she came in to help me with my horse. some lady starts saying things like “is she in heat? i bet theres a stallion around” my trainer says ” no i dont think thats the problem” and of course the lady knows best so she says “ohh i bet it is”….. right…..
Oh the many, MANY stories I could tell. I’ve seen more stupid than I know how to process.
Last year there was a “trainer” who did wp peanut-roller types. He’d haul in to the public arena with a gooseneck full of horses, some as young as two (and already w/t/c broke). He’d unload all six horses, tie them to the trailer, and use the same saddle on ALL of them, regardless of their body shape – one 3 y/o gelding had white spots on his withers where saddle sores had healed. He never warmed up or cooled down horses, either. The closest he got was to put a horse on a lunge line and chase them around at warp speed for 15 min or so before he got on. No walking, no trotting first, just gallop on the lunge line and get on. and when he DID get on, he’d ride the horse in a curb bit with ONLY draw reins, chin forced between the front legs and spur, spur, spur until they either had dead eyes or they stopped fighting him. He regularly had horses worked and fighting until they were shaking. He then tied them up, sweaty and breathing hard, to the trailer, and did the same with the next one. The worst part was that he would yank and spur horses into the path of other riders, cutting off people who were cantering, and even jogging horses though the middle of the pattern while people were using the barrels. He nearly caused more wrecks than any single person I’ve ever seen riding.
another good one – there was a woman who had bought a 2 y/o gelding she kept in her side yard – fenced in with ancient, 2′ high splitrail fence that was sagging in some places – right next to a busy residential road. The horse was kept in the yard with kid’s toys all over, a tree swing, etc. When she got pregnant with her second kid about the time the horse turned 4, and still didn’t have any groundwork done with it, she let a woman who had NEVER RIDDEN BEFORE lease, and eventually buy the horse. The woman found a guy down the road who fancies himself a Native American Shaman (he’s not ethnically Native American, either, just believes in a local tribal religion) who gallivants bareback around the trails at a dead gallop bareback on a horse he has extremely limited control over – to teach her to ride and help her break the gelding. Both goals were “accomplished” by ponying her around on the little gelding for hours at a time, no helmet, no bridle, just the Shaman guy dragging them around on a lead line. The gelding is now about 7 and she owns him and another horse – both saints. She rides them both in HUGE mechanical hacks or elevator bits she has no idea how to use, flops all over, and is generally a hazard to those around her – ties horses to trash cans or metal fences sunk in concrete by the reins, and whenever she is approached about it, she says that ‘its fine, he won’t pull back”. >_<
A woman I worked for had two draft crosses. She regularly went out with girlfriends, got rip-roaring drunk, took a cab home after last call, and then went out for a pre-dawn trail ride. Luckily no one ever got killed.
at a friend's stable, there were two teen girls with some VERY patient horses, would Roman ride – barefoot, bareback, no helmets, in curb bits and nothing else, sometimes double, or sitting on each others' shoulders – around the track, spooking horses left and right. They even rode, standing up, into barn isles. Lots of people complained, no one ever enforced any sort of real punishment. It went on daily for nearly two months, until they stopped paying board and got kicked out for THAT.
Probably the worst one I've seen, was a pair of moronic baby boomer age people about a year ago. they showed up while I was teaching a lesson with an intermediate student where I was also mounted. They had quite obviously bought the first two horses they saw, and bought the cheapest synthetic saddles they could find on ebay, used the craptastic grazing bits that came with their $9.99 nylon bridles, got on with no helmets, and proceeded to be absolute passengers on their nervous, out of control horses. My student and I went to the far side of the arena, and basically just tried to stay out of the way. About 20 min. later, the woman puts their mentally handicapped adult son on her horse (the more nervous of the two). She put a lead shank on the horse using the bit, no less, and put him on (again, no helmet). and started leading him around. He was kicking a lot, and yanking on the horse at the same time. I knew it was going to get BAD, FAST at that point. So I told my student to stop what she was doing, and started to head over – just as the woman started wailing on the horse's lead shank – horse finally has enough, and rears up, falling over backward. The retarded man, who was in his 30s, get the horse to the chest and breaks his sternum. I saw it, dismounted while my horse was still walking and left him to ground tie (he's VERY reliable) told my student to dismount, hold both our horses, and dial 911. I get to the guy, check his injuries, and start doing first aid (I'm trained). The woman is hysterical – no help, and the husband/dad comes over (he had put his horse back in the pen at their campsite nearby when the accident happened). He catches the horse who is still trying to rear, and I run over, yank the saddle off – because now I can see that not only is the saddle crap, it's WAAAY too narrow for him and is causing him obvious pain. once the saddle is off and the horse is being held by the reins, with the shank off (I literally threw their stuff on the ground and growled at them never to use that equipment again, that it hurt the horse and that was part of why their son was injured) and in less than a minute I was back at the hurt man's side. My student handed me the phone and I worked with the ER operator for another couple minutes while the firemen and ambulances arrived. The guy was going to make it, but his lung had started to collapse by the time the paramedics arrived. The couple never did thank my student or I, and i never saw them again.
Holy crap…
These were not done by me:
Turned out a horse in a field full of horses that he had never met before, because the person was mad at him. Let said horse run himself into a tizzy for a good 4 hours, pacing the fence line, sweating, pulled both hind shoes off while pacing. Said horse was lame for a very very long time. He was only pulled in after she realized he was dead lame.
Gave a show horse 10cc’s of ace, instead of banamine. b/c she was not paying attention. Luckily the horse lived, after her heart almost gave out.
Trying to get any horse on a horse trailer with a broom. There are better ways, its called patience.
Oh my the list goes on, but I don’t have time to write everything down…..Maybe later!
10cc’s of ace…holy shit!!!
Yeah, folks, if you don’t know what you are doing…leave the shots to the vet. PLEASE.
We’ll do shots on a limited number of drugs but we get them pre-prepared by the vet, they come in the syringe, already measured out to ensure we don’t get the dosage wrong.
Granted, this is nowhere near as bad as some of your stories, but it’s still worth the telling:
When I was a grad student many years ago in a small mountain town, a co-worker who owned a few horses was kind enough to offer me occassional rides. One day, I hacked out with her and her husband (think typical redneck good ‘ol boy type). Hubby was riding their 4 year old green-broke paint mare, and we crossed a freshly-plowed wheat field. The kind that contains nice damp, soft dirt, perfect for rolling in. Young horse starts pawing. Hubby does nothing. Young horse starts lowering herself to the ground. Hubby makes no move to bail. Horse, sensing that she’s in control of this situation, hurls herself over to to her side to get a really good roll in. Hubby still makes no move to bail, instead yelling, “Ouch” when his leg is ground into the dirt and he eventually gets dislodged when young mare rolls far enough to tip him out of the saddle.
So, mare gets up to have a nice shake, and hubby scrambles to his feet. Of course, he reacts by grabbing the reins, yanking the poor mare’s mouth, and grabbing a clod of dirt to hurl in her face, while yelling “See how YOU feel when someone throws dirt in YOUR face????”
I’m sure the mare made the connection.
I have two—
My friend and I went to haul an older Arabian gelding a neighbor had just bought. When we get to the house the old owner gets him ready to load by going through Parelli games with him—this should have been my first clue. Every time she brought him up to the trailer and he would resist a little ( nothing major) she would circle him and start the games again. There was no way he could get any forward movement going. Next she decided to use grain -handfuls of it. After a couple of minutes he didn’t need to get into the trailer because he could just stand outside and eat the grain off the trailer floor. She was throwing it around and there was grain in every seam of that trailer. I really wanted to send her into the house. My friend suggested we take the longe whip and just tap him gently with it. Oh NO- she said he FREAKS OUT if he is touched with a whip. After a few more minutes we ignored her and tapped him lightly on the rear and he just hopped right in.
The other one I have: I was boarding my horse a couple of years ago and another boarder was getting her mare ready to ride in the round pen. I was walking to my truck which was about 30 feet away. I saw her get on the mare, then got distracted and looked away and when I looked back over the mare was laying on her left side and the woman was stepping off. The footing was great in the pen and I hadn’t heard any noise like a horse was freaking out. I went over and asked her what happened and she said she mounted the horse, the horse reared with her and fell over. This didn’t seem right—so I asked her what she did when the mare reared up and she finally admitted she did what she was always taught to do when a horse is running away – that is pull hard on the right rein! WHAT? I told her the horse wasn’t running away but REARING UP and she had pulled her over. Surprise, surprise, the woman didn’t get it.
I’ve seen the Parellis do a lot of dumb things with a horse.
Not so much a stupid horse person- rather, a bad driver.
About 3 months ago, my friend and I were riding our horses on the road (max speed limit was 40, pretty much no cars ever come on it, the ones that do gladly slow down and swerve around horses). Eventually we encountered some dogs and we decided to turn around, I got off and lead my horse because he was freaking out a little (this is a big horse to, think 16 hands and the definition of warmblood chunk). As we were walking back, we would wave our hands at cars in and up and down fashion so as to ask them to slow down. Every car was courteous, except one. This man nearly ran my friend and I over- he didn’t even bother swerving and was going at least 45 (it’s Oregon state law that a vehicle must slow down if a rider waves their hand up and down). My friend and I were (to say the least) extremely upset… until he screeched to a rubber burning stop about 50 feet from us and started backing up.
At the point my friend yells “Oh sh-t. RUN” (we were about 100 feet from the barn). But of course, I couldn’t, because I was on the ground. The man finally jerks to a stop and starts cussing us out as loud as possible. If my big *very un-manly* horse wasn’t freaking out before, holy crap, I thought he was going to sit on me and then beg me to cover his eyes and make the big scary man go away. By that time, my friend had started crying and yelling “IT’S NOT ILLEGAL, IT’S NOT ILLEGAL” over and over (the man had accused of riding illegally on the road and being stupid). I’m actually pretty decent in stressful situations, so I alternated between telling my friend to shut up (I thought he was going to gun us down), and telling baldy that “We’re very sorry sir, please leave us alone, you’re scaring our horses.”
I honestly don’t know how he eventually left, but after he left I uttered some very choice swear words (and, I’m not the type of person to swear. Ever). We went back to the barn and I kind of went into shock. I haven’t ridden on the road since. It was much too horrifying.
Ooh, ooh, I have another! A couple years ago my fiancee and I were hiking at the Grand Canyon, and every now and then a group of mules would pass us by. The NPS has these trail rides on mules down to the bottom of the canyon and back up, and these mules KNOW their business. But for some reason, the NPS hands out CROPS to all the patrons anyway. So here I am, schlepping up the side of a canyon, and I see an 8-year-old boy beating his mule about the neck, constantly, with a crop!!! The poor mule had his nose in the tail of the mule in front of him; this kid was just being a jerk and the parents didn’t say ANYTHING. I didn’t say anything then because I don’t like telling other people how to raise their kids, but I really regret it now.
Went hacking with a horribly ham-handed coworker. Because she was older than me she always ignored my constant but civil pleas to let up on the horse’s face when she rode-she literally made me cringe watching her ride. So anyways she was on an old school horse my boss had put her on to escort me on one of my bosses neruotic auction finds for his very first trail ride, a big and flashy paint with a bad rearing habit and a very sensitive mouth. My coworker started bitching at me as soon as we got out of sight of the farm that I always got to ride the “good horses” and was the bosses pet etc etc. She thought she was the shit when it came to riding and didn’t need lessons-she was that good LOL!
So my horns came out, and I suggested we switch horses
Did I mention said kooky Paint went in a double bridle? Hehe…..she eagerly jumped at the chance to ride fancy kolored horse and I got on the old schoolmaster. Of course the first time she went to slow down she hauled away on his face like usual, we were going down a slope, and Paint horse rears straight up and sits down, she slides off and ends up behind his butt on the hill. Then she decides the horse is an idiot (it’s never the rider!) and wants schoolmaster back. No go….I made her ride the Paint the whole time, reminding her that she wanted to, and Ol Apple…pat pat….was just a crappy old school horse 
I do think that hour or so taught her more about not ripping a horses face off than everything I had ever said to her before that 
Another crazy kind of stupid was at my childhood friend’s house. Her Dad ended up with a colt to settle a debt…the cute little colt we dreamed of arriving turned out to be a strapping 2 year old barely halter broke Anglo Arab STALLION. Her Dad had no interest in him and left the colt to us to train, we were maybe 13-14 at the time. Believe it or not, with the help of Horse and Horseman magazine articles and each other we got him lunging, ground driving, and eventually backed him. Neither of us had ever done that with any horse. We took him in parades and to shows, and I rode him in a Ride-A-Thon….all before his “brain surgery”. Dad didn’t think that was important…my friend eventually saved up enough for it when she found many stables didn’t want to board a stallion after leaving home (and he never bred anything-althouh temperment-wise that may have been a loss LOL) . To this day I wonder how and why that worked out….! Was the colt just an amazing individual? Did we do something right? Did our total ignorance on how a stallion *can* be protect us? We just treated him like a big baby, no chain on the nose, cotton lead rope, just doing whatever we would do with other horses with him….I would have people ride up behind me and spot his parts and be so stunned he was an intact male…knowing what I know now I can see why, but he turned out wonderfully….despite the obvious recipe for potential disaster!
I was one of those 12-14 yr old girls that was playing with and putting manners on colts and young stallions.
They all turned out remarkably kind, well-mannered, and sensible.
I think part of it was breeding, definitely, but I also think that there is A LOT to be said about someone taking the time to try and educate themselves and approaching the boys with no anticipation that they’re supposed to be some sort of psycho, over-sexed, insane ball of hormones.
“there is A LOT to be said about someone taking the time to try and educate themselves and approaching the boys with no anticipation that they’re supposed to be some sort of psycho, over-sexed, insane ball of hormones.”
I have said a million times, if you EXPECT them to have the same manners as geldings, it works and they do. If you make excuses for bullshit and say, oh well, he’s a stallion, then prepare to get dragged around like you’re holding on to a supercharged kite.
That makes sense, we didn’t expect him to be anything but our oversized play pony…so he was LOL! I feel bad for stallions so often kept in isolation. I don’t mind working with them for the most part, but when people don’t turn them out or let them socialize it makes them a problem, and not the horses fault tro be sure.
Absolutely…bad stallions are created. There is no reason that if a stallion grows up being turned out with geldings that he can’t continue to have gelding companions through his life, which will make him a MUCH happier horse!
After a 20 mile beach ride, a woman worked her horse on a lunge line with the ‘carrot stick’ for another 2 hours touting the benefits and amazing connection she got with her horse using these ’7 games.’ Clearly the horse was tired from hauling her butt all day, but she continued. Then, in the morning when she went to leave, the horse would not load, despite the carrot stick and all the other PP acoutrements. I had to chuckle–what a great relationship she had after all that.
Totally OT, I’m a New Zealand rider travelling to LA – San Francisco in a couple of weeks and would love to trawl a US tackshop – preferably with English gear. I’m hoping to find some different bridles and bits & bobs from the run of the mill stuff that makes it to our end of the world.
We’ve got a car for a few days and can leave the beaten tourist path (a little) off the Pacific Coast Highway, especially if there’s somewhere that is really good for gear shopping!!
TIA
In Los Angeles:
http://www.calabasassaddlery.com/ (not too far from PCH)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/damoors-feed-and-tack-glendale
There used to be a saddle shop right on PCH in Malibu but I believe they moved.
It may be a bit too far out of your way, but if you have time you should check out The Broken Horn: http://www.brokenhornsaddlery.com/
I know they have a larger selection of western vs English, but the store itself has three levels… three stories of horse stuff….. I think I just drooled remembering it.
I felt like Charlie when he steps into the chocolate-mixing room at The Chocolate Factory the first time I stepped in there. The place is enormous!
This actually just happened the other day. I went out to the barn where I board my horse at, I pull up in my car and the gate leading into the barn was wide open. Mind you, this barn is right next to a well travelled road. Well, the very next thing I see, is the barn owner’s 30 year old horse grazing under a heavy piece of machinery with her halter on, dragging her lead rope!! Basically, right next to the open gate! I literally face-palmed! She was very content just eating grass, but what if she got it into her head that the grass was better on the other side of the fence?! How many don’ts can you fit into one situation?! Leaving the gate open, letting a horse wander with it’s halter and lead rope on, and I could just imagine her lifting her head up from eating grass and hitting her head on that piece of equipment! The barn owner saw no problem in what she was doing. :/
At the farm where I used to board, the land was owned by the parents, and the first few horses were bought by the father, but the oldest (adult) daughter was the one who owned all but a few horses and the breeding/boarding/lesson business, and my friend. I got there one day when she was absent, and her dad was going to let some friends of his ride. He has out their nice QH mare, who was good with beginners, so that was OK. But luckily I got there as he was getting ready to bridle her. Not only was he using my mare’s bridle, which had a harsher bit than this mare was used to (young and stupid; I’d never use that bit now tho I did use very light hands so no damage was done) but he was trying to put it on upside down — that is, bit over nose and curb chain in mouth! Thank God I arrived then and offered to help, which he was happy to let me do. Can’t remember about the saddle; either he’d gotten that part right or I fixed it too (this was probably 25 years ago).
Then there was the time my friend and I were riding, and we passed a couple people who kind of sneered at us, we figured cos it was a really hot day and our horses were soaked. Of course, these were fit distance horses and they were soaked cos we’d just sponged them down in the creek (sponges were hanging on the opposite side of our saddles so they couldn’t see them). And even if it had been sweat, I’d rather see 2 sweaty fit horses than a couple of horses who were at least 150# overweight and if I remember right one even being ridden double. Again, this was a long time ago. I’ve been lucky not to see too many stupid things lately.
The dumbest thing I see on an almost daily basis, is someone putting the reins over the horse’s head to hold it, whilst then proceeding to put the bridle on.
If the horse pulls away at that moment and/or is inclined to drag the owner, bridle is dropped and horse trots off with bridle dragging, or bolts because the bridle is slapping its legs.
Another one is not running the stirrups up upon dismounting, though I don’t see that as much as I used to.
Pony club teaches you to bridle that way, with the halter around there neck. Do you just let pony cruise with nothing on him?
I was taught to bridle with the reins over the neck. That way if the horse spooks or tries to move, you can grab the reins and have control over the horse.
Umm. That is exactly how I was taught to bridle, it is how I bridle every single horse, every single time. I have NEVER heard of an accident caused by this practice.
Putting the reins over the neck and then putting the bridle on is the way you get taught to through the BHS. You obviously keep hold of the reins and it allows you to have something to hold onto should the horse be a little awkward whilst bridling.
Have to agree with the masses here . . . that was how I was also taught to bridle (as has everyone I have EVER known) and I both fail to see why this is dangerous and fail to see an acceptable alternative (if you don’t put the reins over the head first are you just leaving the horse totally loose? This is extremely unsafe).
One of the ways around this problem that we were taught was when you unhalter your horse, do it up tentatively around their neck. Then you still have some control of them while bridling, without having the issue of the reins and bridle flopping everywhere if the horse gets free. I was also taught to bridle and halter my horse with my arm over their next, not pushing their head down with my arm strength, but simply as a reminder that should they try to leave, I am there. This often allowed me to used the bridle (which I was holding with my right arm over his neck and my left hand holding the bit to his mouth for his divine acceptance) as a lead rope when he tried to back away suddenly due to some fit of temper or just plain amusement on his part. Albeit, I realize there are always safety issues, even with the actions that I am talking about, but we were discussing stupid actions were we not?
oh this is how i spent every summer of my youth!!!! me and my freinds did this on beaches farms every where we could go, sometimes doubling, or riding breakins, we somehow survived to, and all have gone on to be really succwesful riders….hahai guess it was only dumb cos we could get hurt it was no problem for the horses
-A mom that used to ride bought sweet old slow pony for young inexperienced daughter. Problem: Daughter complains about how pony won’t move. solution: Buy a younger, green pony. New problem: Pony stops before every jump and daughter falls off a lot. Solution: Beat pony over jumps! … then realize that now pony has become a manic and hire someone to train it for the daughter. Quarter pony shows hunters and western and does well. The daughter decides to take it to a pony club rally, she doesn’t make it over a single stadium or xc fence. So she complains to her mom that she hates mares and that she needs a more athletic horse (even though 1/4 pony jumps 3ft with anyone else, but whatever). They now have some $40,000 wb thing that jumps everything from and pace and distance. Of course whenever someone other than the girl gets on him there are lots of “oos” and “wow he’s actually nice”
-Years ago I was walking old bombproof paint around the sand arena. One of the younger girls thought it would be lolsy to turn the sprinklers on right as i was walking past them. Poor horse got shot in the side of the head with water and I got a broken tail bone.
-One woman nonchalantly took her two year old horse on trail but “it’s ok because he’s been trained by clayton and have seen everything.” Lady he’s two, no he has not. A few minutes later I’m holding a riderless horse that came galloping back home (suprise!). She then went into the arena to do some “ground work” which in her book means whacking her two year old on the head with a parrelli carrot stick until a trainer intervenes.
-The barn I used to ride at gave childrens lessons on a horse that was notorious for attacking people in her stall and striking out when being led. They also turned out a momma and foal in a field with no gates. i’ve pulled a small piece of barbed wire our of the head of one of their school horses. A horse that wouldn’t tie was tied to a tree until it stopped pulling and flailing around. And the on sight vet told a the owner of a horse that fell down a steep hill to just ice his leg for a while, the next day a different vet came out to check it’s leg and told her it was completely broken and put the horse down. How can you not see a leg thats bending the wrong way and not know its broken?
I could go on, but these stick out from the rest of my stories of the dumb people, mean people, mean trainers, incompetent trainers…
Wait I take that back. I took a hunter jumper clinic with nick karazissis on my dutch wb (retired 4th level dressage horse, self started hunter/jumper). He was very adamant that jerking my hands upwards to get my horses head in the air while thumping him with my leg would make him round and over his back. I kindly told him that i strongly disagreed with this approach (*cough*dumbasss) and that as a c-2 pony clubber and 3rd level dressage rider I’s say have a pretty good understanding of how to ask a horse to work over his back. When I told him the general process he said “Yes, yes i know how to do that, that’s how you make a horse round” So I asked him why he wasn’t teaching me this. NICK “BIG TIME TRAINER” KARAZISSIS proceeded to balance on a ground rail, look around at the arena dirt, then people watching my lesson and say absolutely nothing until changing the topic. One of the experienced lady’s watching the clinic came up to me afterward and said “Wow have you got bullocks, he sure did embarrass himself”
I regret forgetting to proof read this. =/
Not flashy perhaps, but here are just 2 of the dumb things I saw yesterday:
A couple of yayhoos has just taken up residence at my boarding barn in some sort of nebulous caretaker/barn manager/resident trainer capacity. Mrs Yayhoo gave a lesson to a 7-year-old on a 3-year-old rescue horse that has never been out of the round pen. Later on I overheard her remarking to another trainer, “Peanut’s dead broke, he just ain’t trained.”
Then, as I was sponging off my delicate orchid of a horse with cold water to keep her from fainting in the heat, I observed that once again Mr Yayhoo had decided it would be a good idea to wait until the heat index was 104 degrees before lunging an obese teenage Andalusian in a deep sand dustbowl of a round pen for half an hour. I would have enjoyed sending his fat ass around that deep sand dustbowl furnace with a whip, but I was busy cooling my mare Miss Scarlett with a silk fan and a block of dry ice.
Ok, now it’s time to admit the stupidest things *I’ve* done on a horse XD
- Rode bareback in a bathing suit
- Jumped a fairly fresh OTTB for the first time at a canter (we’d been trotting crossrails before) in a Western saddle (ripping my bra off when I caught it on the horn on my way to faceplanting when she refused…)
- Agreed to ride a *really* fresh – fresh enough that he equated ‘trailer ride and ring and other horses’ with ‘RACE TIEM!’ – OTTB in his first show. And continued with classes as he continued to melt down.
- Took naps on my barely two year old, unbroke pony’s back. In the pasture. The one full of barb wire.
Stupidest of all:
Walking home through the 200 acre pasture/woods, I came across my favorite TW/Draft cross grazing near some old downed wire, which we’d been marking with haystring to pull up later. So for some weird reason I decided to untie a piece of haystring, make an impromptu war bridle, and go for a gallop on said mare. Even her normal gaits were incredibly smooth, but the transitions…. were not. So we’re going at a full gallop along the edge of the woods and where woods ended and pasture began she decided that rather than keep going straight, she was going to follow the woods in the other direction and downshifts to canter while turning. I go flying off, *under* her 16+ hand, drafthorse-size hooves. I feel something sharp and *heavy* hit my head, and next thing I know she’s standing over me looking puzzled and I have a *horrible* head (and everything else) ache. I managed to get up and back on her, had her walk me to the edge of the pasture, and went to my friend’s house because I did *not* want to let my mom know I’d hurt myself. I *knew* I had a concussion – my head was throbbing, I had a fist-sized lump on it, I had a chunk of hair missing (I concluded she’d stepped on my head. No idea how my brains weren’t spilling out!), I was seeing sparkles even though it’d been nearly 30 minutes since the fall, and I was incredibly sleepy – but I just *couldn’t* go to the hospital because I *knew* it would mean my mom wouldn’t let me ride anymore. So I took some aspirin, we made a huge ice bag to drape over my head, and my friend kept me awake for the rest of the day. I felt *pretty* normal by then (though I was still seeing sparkles) so continued home. I kept ice on my head, kept myself awake, and avoided my mom as much as possible for two days just to be safe.
All of this I did between ages 13 and 16. I can not believe I survived it all. My mom always commented how I was such an awesome teenager who never got into trouble… it was because I was too busy trying to kill myself with horses XD
I didn’t see this, but was told about it by the person who did it who also emailed me a photo of the absolutely ridiculous episode. Novice rider, very green Friesan mare who was bucking everyone off; he was told by a local idiot of a “trainer” that he should crosstie the horse and get on her. He did this in a concrete boxstall. No helmet. I have the photo! While I’m glad nothing horrible happened to him, I really wish he had at least experienced what could have happened without getting him or the mare hurt. But because nothing bad happened, he now thinks this is a viable training technique. I have tried to tell him otherwise, but because it went “well” he thinks I’m just being overly safety conscious. I know Fugy, you’ve done rants about getting on a horse that is tied (I actually sent him the link to that one); but how about CROSS-TIED, in a BOXSTALL, with CONCRETE walls?
That has DARWIN AWARD written all over it. That’s just amazing.
Last weekend at an open show, I watched a group of gaited riders smoking while sitting on their horses waiting for their class. WTF?!?!? I already get mad with people who smoke near barns, but sitting on the horse?!?! That’s just so stupid!!!!
A few years ago, I also witnessed another act of stupidity that ended in the death of the horse at a show. This non-horsey family bought little princess the “horse of her dreams,” a 5 year old palomino somethingorother gelding. Of course, he had next to no training, but little princess “just loves him and he loves her and they have a special bond.” One of his lovely habits was rearing as little princess mounted. At the show as she was getting ready to mount, he did his little rear as she hopped on. One of the show workers of course quickly offered assistance to hold the horse and help her mount safely but the little princess said “no no, he always does this, it’s okay.” She got on and went into her warm up. Once she finished she got down to get her show clothes on and then brought him to the mounting block (solid, wooden, chute type of mounting block so horses can’t wiggle sideways). As usual, the horse began to rear, only because he felt more confined than normal when she ground mounted, he reared much higher. He reared so high that he fell backwards, and smashed his head on the corner of the mounting block. He bled to death right there outside the show ring before a vet could get out to euthanize. I have never seen anything like it in my life. People- little habits can turn dangerous in a matter of seconds. Nothing dumber than a rider allowing her horse to rear, except parents allowing it to happen.
God, that is horrible. That is so traumatic for all the OTHER kids to have to watch, too!
Reminds me of a story I read about a horse dying from a HYPP attack at a 4-H show while all the kids watched. Made me want to personally punch every breeder of HYPP positive stock in the face…awful.
That’s horrible!
What is it about shitty parents buying their kids palominos though? My boyfriend is trying to sell his palomino pony, and some people called him wanting him for their 13 year old and 7 year old daughters to barrel race with. He told them multiple times over the phone that this isn’t a good kid’s horse, but they wanted to come try him anyway.
They showed up with one girl wearing her baseball outfit (they had just come from practice or a game or something) and the other one in shorts and flip flops, so we assumed that it was just the parents who were going to ride. The dad got on first, and rode horribly. At first we thought that he was testing the horse to see how he would react, but nope, that’s just how the guy rode. After riding him in the round pen (the horse has already bucked multiple times at this point), they decided to take him to the arena. They rode him around there, then decided to put the kids on the horse. My boyfriend literally told them “That’s a really bad idea, I really don’t think you should do that. I’m not liable if anything happens.”
13 year old girl gets on first and immediately tries to take off like she’s barrel racing or something; she has her hands as far up the horse’s neck as she can reach, is kicking the shit out of him, and is trying to neck rein him. She had no idea what we were talking about when we kept telling her to direct rein him. She lopes him around the arena, and every time they get near the gate, the horse stops. Every single time. And she never tries to make him keep going or anything.
Then they put the 7 year old on him. Again, “I really don’t think that’s a good idea. He’s not a good horse for kids, especially her size.” At least with this one they led her around first before turning her loose. The dad was leading the horse while the girl held the saddle horn, then the dad randomly let go of the reins and walked off. The girl kicked the horse, so he jumped sideways, and the girl tried to jump off. She had never even picked up the reins, they were laying across the horse’s neck from when the dad was leading them around. Luckily the dad was close enough to grab the horse before anything bad happened.
After all of this, the people still wanted the horse! My boyfriend told them that he knew of a good trainer who could work with them and the horse so the kids could learn to ride and the horse would actually be safe. “$750 a month?! Shit, that’s almost as much as my truck payment! I’ll just ride him myself.” The girls just loved their new “Palomino Buddy” (that’s what they changed his name to) because he was just “soooooooo pretty Mommy look at him he’s my Palomino Buddy I love him I love him I love him please Mommy we have to have him he’s so cute and so sweet look he’s letting me give him hugs I love him!!!!!!” (say that to yourself all in one breath)
Holy CRAP, I hope your friend didn’t sell to this joker! D: That poor horse.
I can’t think of any particularly stupid ones I’ve witnessed other than one of my first riding “instructors” trying her 18.2 hand Percheron gelding to the horizontal rail on a rotting wooden fence. The horse spooked at something and took off, dragging the 15-foot-ish splintered rail behind him. I don’t remember how they caught him, he was going at warp speed out to the huge pasture with the rail still attached.
My current riding instructor teaches equitation classes at the university here, and she told our class about one girl who took the class several years ago. Apparently she was almost always stoned out of her mind, and for the most part managed to avoid getting killed by the lazy beginner horses. Then one day she didn’t tighten her cinch enough and her saddle rolled off the horse while she was trotting him around the arena. Stoner Chick fell off, landed on her back, with one of her feet stuck all the way through the stirrup. And she just laid there and laughed like only a stoner could. Luckily for her, the horse is a total saint and he just stood there staring at her with the saddle hanging under his stomach. My instructor got her foot out of the stirrup and screamed at her, telling her to never come back to the class again. Exit Stoner Chick, still laughing.
Sad story…At a barn I boarded at when I was younger, a woman had brought her adorable Haflinger over from Germany and boarded him at our barn. Norbert was the sweetest little guy, he quickly became the barn fave. There was a round pen panel leaned up against outside of the barn one day (it was only there temporarily). The woman tied Norbert to it with a double knot and then walked away. The sweet little guy he was, he wanted to follow her, so as he backed up to go with her, the round pen panel began to fall. Norbert spooked and took off running through a nearby gate down into a pasture dragging a huge metal round pen panel by his lead. He made it to the end of the pasture before stopping. By them everyone had run down to the field and found him with his back hoof nearly severed off, he had to be euthanized. It was a VERY sad day.
That is just awful, but I’m glad you shared it. It’s a great example of how quickly things can end in tragedy when someone does something flat out STUPID.
Oh gosh…I could go on for awhile. I was on the equestrian team for a year in high school. There was one girl that rode a young gelding (probably no more than 5 or 6) in a harsh curb and spurs, neither of which she knew how to use. She was supposed to side-step her horse along a pole but the gelding didn’t know how to side-step. So she would sit there and kick him with her spurs for several minutes until he finally tried to take a step and then she’d just keep going and going. He would move, back-up, take a step forward, anything to try to please her. If he did happen to take a step in the right direction, she wouldn’t reward or let up on him or anything. Just keep kick, kick, kicking. My mom tried to help her out by explaining what she was doing wrong but she just didn’t get it. Mom just sat there and watched them struggle and didn’t say a word.
I went to fair once with my 4-H club. There was a set schedule of who was supposed to feed and water horses and how much. Girls used to disappear for hours at a time, “forget” that they were the ones who signed up to take care of the horses, and whoever was around the barn at the time would have to do it. As far as I know, none of them were ever called out on it.
And the queen, my first riding instructor. She had a lesson horse that I’ll call Candy. Candy was a very nervous, spooky, five-year-old gelding and she had beginners riding him on a daily basis. He was TERRIFIED of the crop and for good reason. He once bolted with me simply because I had it in my hand (instructor thought it would help him canter instead of just trotting faster and faster…well, it worked).
At Christmas the barn put on a schooling show for everyone. All the jumps had presents and other decorations around them. At this point in time I was riding Candy with another girl. I let her try to the course first. Candy, already freaking out over the decorations, refused the same fence multiple times. Each time he refused, she’d circle him and try it again. So…instructor comes over to help. She gave the girl a crop and that girl smacked him so hard on the rump that he jumped about a foot and you could hear the sound clear across the arena. She tried again but Candy still wouldn’t listen. So Instructor got on him and muscled him over the fences, got off, and handed Candy back to the girl and told her that was how to do it. Needless to say, I scratched all my classes and left the barn not too long after that.
Poor Candy.
They probably ruined that poor horse.
-Cyg
At the local 4H clinic, I helped a youngster who put her snaffle bridle on upside down on her saintly Arab gelding. We have a young lady in 4H now who has a quarter horse gelding that is very naughty and sometimes just down right dangerous. At a recent local show, she decided that the horse wasn’t ready for the riding classes but decided that she would walk around the show grounds with him. She rode him with people leading him – one person on each side with long lead ropes so that she could trot a little bit ahead of them, sometimes the horse would run and then pull the two ground handlers and then they would grass ski behind the horse until they pulled it to a walk and the girl was still riding the horse. It was not safe. If it took two people to handle him from the ground, why did she think it was safe enough for her to ride him. I walked her back to her trainer – yes trainer – and asked that she please not ride the horse with two handlers grass skiing behind her. If one person were to let go and the horse bolted someone could get hurt. She got miffed and tied the horse up next to the trailer for the rest of the show.
In my mind, driving is both fun and a great way to condition young horses, and make them ready for riding. It is also one of the most dangerous things you can do with a horse, making doing proper prep work incredibly important.
When we were about 14, my friend got a pony. They basically bought the first pony they saw for her, with very little research going into it. He seemed quite nice and steady in the beginning, but did demonstrate after a while why previous owner sent a chain lead with him as he liked to rear when led to get out of working…
Anyway, the real stupid came when they decided to drive this pony. Previous owner had told them he was broke to drive, but it had been a while since his last drive. So they dig up an old harness and just as old cart, spend a lot of time restoring harness and cart and zero time preparing the pony. I did ground drive him once, and he seemed to quite like the work, but it is a far way from ground driving to hitching!
The day comes when harness and cart is ready to use, and dad is going to hitch pony. He seems a bit nervous/unwilling going into the cart, so the obvious solution is to put a jacket over his head so he can’t see and hitch him like that. Yeah… Pony survived, but cart, harness and the church yard fence did not. They were incredibly lucky no people got hurt or killed. Pony could never be driven again, he would freak the hell out any time you came near him with anything resembling a cart.
Not a particularly terrible story, but it irks me all the same.
I was backpacking in a national park with a large group of people one day on hiking trails that doubled as riding trails. We passed many people, who obviously were renting the trail horses for the day, riding in sneakers and baseball caps, with absolutely terrible positioning who held their noses when they passed manure piles.
The first thing that appalled me were two wome, dumpy and green, riding beautiful TB’s who wouldnt look out of place at Rolex. The horses were spooky and excitable, and did NOT like the sight of twenty people with bulky, rattling packs and orange hiking staffs. The one horse started rearing and bucking, and the woman almost fell off. The other lady, who could have been slightly more experienced, dismounted, grabbed the other horse, gave him a huge smack in the face, and dragged him by us. She held him in a way that he was right behind her horse, who could have easily given him a right kick in the face.
The second thing, less than an hour later, was when we came up to a river/creek thing that went through the trail. The people riding were in a group of six, on the other side of the water from us. It was two trainers who mustve worked for the local barn and then four others who were just along for the ride. The lead trainer had a very green 2 year old on lead, trying to train him to go through water. She was yelling to her companions that it was the first time he’d done this. Whever he shied away, she would smack him with the lead. Once they finally got across, the poor thing spooked when he saw us. He almost bucked into the trainers horse. She got quite furious and started screaming and whipping the poor thing. I wanted so badly to go up, take the horse from her, and give HER a good smack.
FUGLY!!! You posted a few weeks ago about trailering. Last weekend I drove 2 horses in a LQ from the Twin Cities to an eventing tune up weekend at Catalpa Corners near Iowa City, (@ 5 hours). I was convoying with 2 friends in another rig. Had a great weekend. I am hauling with a Ford one tone diesel manual tranny. 40 miles from home, on I 35, I switch to the left lane to pass a slow moving travel trailer as they are so slow I will have to go down to 2nd and it will take miles to rebuild to 5th. Fine. At the last moment, travel trailer asshat jumps in front of me (he is behind super slow idiot in a car). I hit the breaks, (swearing involved). All is well until I notice the brake light on the dash. Call friend. What is this? He says “Well you might not have any brakes or it could be nothing.” Jeez. I come onto my exit, lift a mile ahead. Downshift on the exit ramp (wildly), brake pedal won’t even go down, get the rigged stopped at the top and coast into an empty lot. Sweating, shaking. Your post mentioned to be aware of others on the road. You were so right. They insist on getting ahead of you for no reason. Any way, it was a great weekend and it ended well. Was so glad to unload the boys at home!! Thanks!!
I didn’t *see* it so much as hear it in a conversation with an up-to-that-point allright person in my book. It seems that miss wannabe western star has spent the last 2 years breeding for the next big AQHA halter star. Well, she is now pregnant and wanting to sell off all but a couple saddle horses. So, she is taking her REGISTERED horses to auction, as grade, with no papers. Why, you may ask? Because she has been breeding all of her mares to an H/H stallion, and most of them are H/H or N/H. I am wondering how I would go about alerting the auction staff that these horses are HYPP+? And if I did, would they care? I know she is planning to “dump & dash”, should I put notes on all the stalls of her horses that they are HYPP+? I would hate to see them go to the meat man, but I would hate even more to see an honest horseperson get duped into buying one of theses defective horses. They are NICE looking horses, well cared for and all but very young stock has enough training to be rideable. I can not see this ending well…
The worst I’ve ever seen was the daughter of one of my first instructor’s friends. She had this cute little shetland pony mix (I think the pony’s father was a Hanoverian of all things, but it was one cute pony). Said pony was supposed to be super hard to handle and kinda crazy, but with that kid riding it I can totally understand where it was coming from.
I never really saw much of her, but the one time I saw her ride this poor guy, she hit him in the HEAD with her crop. On purpose, and then she had the crop right beside his eye so when he took off to flee whatever was smacking him in the head, he ended up seeing the whip out of the corner of his eye and getting more freaked. He ended up ditching her and running off and it took my trainer quite a while to get the poor guy calmed down.
I think they ended up selling that pony to some nice old lady who had him keep her ancient mare company in her fields.
Stupidest thing I’ve seen someone do? Must’ve happened last week. I work at a trail riding place and a lady called to schedule the ride. So she says she’s a riding instructor and has ridden stallions and hot blooded horses and has jumped 4’6 and all that stuff. I don’t match the riders to their horses, but she ended up on a big black MFTH stallion. She was fully aware Of the rules- stay at least 20 feet away from the other horses because he could kill a gelding or try to breed a mare. Well, on the trail I just looked over my shoulder to check on the group and I see Duke (the stallion) bump into a mare that was carrying a 9 year old girl. Fortunately she moved… The other guide told her she was way too close before I could.
Whoa…wait…you work at a trail riding place that rents out STALLIONS?
Whatever they’re paying you, it’s not enough to assume that kind of personal liability if someone gets hurt or killed. Time to job hunt!
They only have one. He is only for very advanced riders and many questions are asked before they are assigned (ex. Height, weight, number of hours spent riding, if they’ve ever ridden a stallion before). Its on a beach, so there’s lots of room for the rider to ride far away. They don’t go in a line like you would on a narrow forest, it’s more of a cluster along the shoreline with the stallion a safe distance away. It actually is quite safe, the trails are guided and the guide tells you what to do.. And the people who ride know the risks, they sign a waiver. They don’t have to ride the stallion, they can ride another horse if they want. Hundreds of people have told us that he is the best mannered stallion they’ve ever ridden. But I can see where you’re coming from, because not every stallion is good enough to have this job and not every trail riding barn assigns horse-rider combinations as carefully as we do.
P.S. I don’t mean to sound rude, defensive or anything along the lines of that, but I love what I do. I actually don’t get paid, it’s a summer volunteer job.
But once in a while we get a person that is experienced but won’t listen to the guide.
I have quite a list:
1: I went to a trail riding facility out in Sunriver and they kept all their horses in a pen with saddles on all day. Most of them were either mustangs or drafts/draft crosses. The horses were FIGHTING. Two horses just would NOT lay off of each other. and they did nothing. Needless to say, that could ave ended badly.
2: I was holding a mare for a riding camp (we were lining them up for dismount, each leader was assigned a horse/camper and stayed with them the whole time). Well, girl next to me LETS GO of her camper’s horse. This is only the first day, little camper is on stubborn little pony. Stubborn pony walks happily up to dominant mare I’m holding, mare whips her head around at him, teeth bared, whacks into me instead. I had to catch the pony because he was starting to run away while the my mare’s face has just smacked into mine. Ouch.
3: I was on a trail ride, one of those you can let the reins go, they’ll just follow the horse in front of them kind of things. Well, before it started, we all got the ‘horses are flight animals, please remove all flashy, noisy things” speech. Well, one guy ignored it and kept his backpack, which we later found out if you push a button it makes noises and has flashy lights on it. Needless to say his horses decided it didn’t like that and ended with the whole line stopped while one of the guides chased after the now -not-quite-galloping horse on their mule shouting at the guy to drop his backpack.
4: I’m jumping a gelding for a lesson. Another lady (the kind who thinks everyone just needs to keep an eye out for her, she doesn’t need to watch where she’s going) is warming up for the lesson after me. I’m jumping a line, it’s been CLEARLY stated that I will be jumping the line, and just as I’m getting to the last jump, she – looking the other way – kicks her horse into a trot (she’d been walking) and passes RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY JUMP. The gelding I’m riding is infamous for attacking other horses. He’s gotten better and I can keep him from charging across the arena like he used to, but get up close like this woman did and I have no control over him trying to murder your horse. The second his front feet hit the ground, I basically had to crank him to the right and smack (not a hit, but a firm smack) on the shoulder and just BARELY managed to swerved around her, fighting him the whole time to keep him from trying to murder her horse. She got yelled at by my trainer. I had to stop my horse and let myself calm down, I had seriously thought we were going to have a bad accident. We’re also lucky her horse was bombproof.
5: This one was all me. I hoped on the mare I’ve been riding for 5 years without saddle or bridle or any way to control the horse. I’ve ridden her bareback tons of times, but bridless is just not something this horse can do (I can’t either). Of course she takes off at a canter around the arena and I’m sitting easily on her, not really at risk of falling as long as she doesn’t spook or anything. But I honestly had no control over anything but to tell her to go fast, which I did my absolute best NOT to do. Needless to say I was quite terrified and will not be doing that again.
6: I went to a small show just to see what it was like (not competing, I got a blue ribbon, now I’m done, lol) and it turns out it was a show commonly used as stallion’s first shows to get them used to being around other horses and show grounds and such. I’m proud to report that all of the stallions deserved their balls and they were all very well mannered. They were being walked right by mares, warmed up next to mares and stood next to mares without any issue. Well, next to the indoor arena, there was a side gate that was attached the barn isle by a short hallway. The gate of course is closed. Me, my mom and about 6 other people are in there watching the show and some lady comes barreling in with her stallion. Apparently she doesn’t trust him to walk past another stallion in a barn isle and thought it best to cram her massive (he was a rather large gypsy horse), fairly excited/upset stallion into this little niche with us. This stallion was well behaved, just a little excited sine this was his first show and all. But seriously. You have a massive, worked-up stallion trapping 8 people into a small area. Something could have spooked him and everyone would have been in some SERIOUS danger! We were all holding our breathe, scared to spook him and make him flip out or something.
7: Last one, I promise. I was putting a gelding way, his owner told me to put him in the arena. She said he’d be fine separated from mommy and his girlfriend for a bit. I was putting said gelding away after riding him into the arena. His mommy and other herd mate were in a field a little ways off. I took him out into the back pasture and let him loose out there, then made my way back to the gate. Of course, he realizes his herd mates are not in here. After a brief conversation that involved a lot of loud bellowing, he comes tearing up the pasture, into the arena and I had to haul ass and vault over the fence to save myself from being trampled. I cleared the fence just as he slammed into it.
At my last yard, there was a lady who owned an icelandic pony. We used to ride out together for 1-2 hacks in the woods. That icelandic was of substantial size, he seemed well up for the job of carrying his rider. Yet he would come home panting and dripping after every single ride. Meanwhile my horse barely had a dark spot under her saddle, so I knew we hadn’t worked very hard. This continued into the winter and both horses grew out their coats. The icelandic had it even worse. We all begged her to clip him but she refused.
One day, I came to the stable and saw her horse panting and sweating over his door. I thought she must have just come back from a ride. I looked over his door, and he still had his saddle on. The owner was long gone, I couldn’t believe it. She had left her horse, who we all knew to have a serious sweating problem, with his saddle on. I let the stable owner know, and soon the lady “left” the stable. I recently started riding at a new yard and met her there. She arrived with her dog, off lead. She couldn’t control it enough to keep it from getting in a fight, and it wouldn’t come when called. She was a really nice woman, but she just had no idea when it came to animals.
I’ve seen my fair share of just plain stupid and/or cruel myself.
Granted, I did a lot of stupid when I was a kid… I just thank the heavens our horses were miraculously calm enough to endure the crap we did with them when we were kids without us getting hurt.
But some of the worst:
The second day riding at a new boarding barn, the barn manager has not yet met me (large barn, I made arrangements with her father the owner, so this was the first time she’d been in since I’d arrived) and I ask how to close the overhead door to the arena so I can turn my horse loose. This is in the middle of the afternoon and there is NO ONE around but us. She says “this isn’t a turn out. who are you?” rather rudely, and I reply that I’m a new boarder, and I’m just going to free lunge my horse since he didn’t have any turn out and give him a few minutes to play. She calms down and closes the door, but not before her 3 mangy dogs run in loose. One of her dogs is barking wildly in the arena and trying to “heel” my horse and she just looked on without doing anything. I had to be firm and ask her to please remove her dogs as one was attacking my horse and she said “he’s just playing, your horse needs to get used to dogs” but finally calls him out of the arena where he ran up and down the fence barking for another 15 minutes before she left. Thank goodness the 4yo horse was actually really good for his age. The look on his face I swear said “MOM MOM GET HIM OFF ME, WHAT DO I DO?!?!”.
Another time is back when I was a senior in high school and leasing a pony from my trainer for pony club. One of her other young (8 or 9yo) student got kicked out during gaming day because her pony was all over the place (because the rider was all over the place flapping and kicking and yanking), so what does the trainer do? Orders me off MY pony – one of the hottest in the crowd that I have spent almost a year learning to control safely, and proceeds to adjust my stirrups and put this kid on my pony to compete in gaming. My pony was very well patterned but HOT HOT HOT (I did not make her this way, the trainer did, in fact of all the riders that had leased her in the past, I’d had compliments that she was by far the calmest with me, including when the trainer ride her herself). The trainer had to lead her in, rearing and leaping, the girl thought it was funny and was so excited to ride the very well known pony, and then the pony wheeled off and did a frantic and all over the place pattern, while the girl flailed and steered in the general direction she need to, then nearly ran the trainer down on the way back who had to catch the pony on the run to stop her by grabbing her reins and holding her. Pony is then handed back to me, I’m fuming, my parents are fuming, and trainer gets a HUGE lecture by my dad (attorney and judge) including threats of lawsuit and breach of contract on our lease for the crap she’s pulling. Young girl gets bored and distracted and wanders off to go play with friends for the rest of the day. I spent 20 minutes before my next ride trying to get the pony to calm back down. That was the last day I rode the pony – she went home with the trainer. Thank goodness it was the pony club year end show.
This one is the worst though. And I’m not even sure I can name names and the facility because it’s public and high profile. I did an apprenticeship at a VERY well known breeding barn owned by a state university. The director/head trainer is by far the most abusive, racist, arrogant, cruel, piece of #$%^% I’ve ever met in the horse world. I whitnessed and am horrified to admit a party to several case of severe abuse in training for the horses there. Now I wish I’d had the balls to stand up to him, but at the time I would have been kicked out of the program or worse. The last day of my one year internship, we had 2 horses on cross ties in the aisle and the alcove. I was grooming my favorite stud in the alcove, while they had a 3yo filly in the aisle. The stud was being his usual angel self, and the filly was sweet, but a very high strung and nervous temperament. They were saddling her up in a western saddle and she had major issues with being girthed too fast – would freak out. So the assistant trainer and another intern were doing it very carefully – had a lungline on her, talking to her, girthing her slowly. She was making good progress. In storms the head trainer in one of his foul moods, and flips out and starts screaming and swearing at them to girth that horse up properly and stop coddling her. (I’m hiding behind my stud grooming his other side to stay out of the line of fire). The head trainer grabbed the girth and jerked it tight very fast and the filly FREAKED. Went up over backwards and came down against the stalls there… catching her shoulder on the hooks that hold the name plates… ripped her entire shoulder open. He proceeds to smack her with the chain off the lungeline until she leaps up and he ripped the saddle off her and through on an english one instead and did the same thing – girthed her up fast. This time she just collapsed because he was holding her head to prevent her from going up. He took a lunge whip and beat her up. Ripped the saddle off again and proceeded to scream at the intern and assistant trainer to take her out and lunge her. So they did, keeping her at a gallop or fast trot for about 10 minutes or more. They brought her back in soaked in sweat, dripping blood, scared out of her mind, and were told by the trainer to cross tie her in an empty stall and call the vet who was planning to come out that afternoon for preg checks to be prepared for stitches. That poor filly stood in that stall for a couple hours before the vet got there and proceeded to stitch her up with 127 stitches. Even worse: the filly was already sold and continuing training at the barn until her new owner finished the barn she was building just for this filly. From what I heard, they never told the new owner of the incident, and had the vet make sure there was no scar… at least not a physical one.
I also witnessed that trainer being horses in the head and chest with large shovels in their stalls, whipping the hocks and heads of stallions and young stock that wouldn’t load in trailers (he loaded 2 15-16hh breeding studs in a tiny 2 horse straight load together), he banished for a day and intern who refused to beat a horse in the head with a whip when he instructed her to, they sored one of the stallions who’s feet grew dished (and bred him repeatedly even though his foals had the same trait), he gingered horses both at shows and home despite it being illegal at shows, he was EXTREMELY active with using whips when working with the young and show stock…. I could go on. I never wanted to be in the horse industry for a living after that.
Hi,
First time posting here.
OK dumbest thing I’ve ever seen done is when we boarded a horse for a friend she bought at auction. We had the horse in a seperate pen for quarantine. She decided, when we were gone, to let the horse out and it infected all of mine with, guess what, respiratory infection. After a good ass chewing and a call to the vet for HER to buy my horses meds, she moved them out. Thank God!
Another dumb thing I’ve seen people do is put little kids in buddy seats on horses that only had a few rides. The breeder of the horse, who unfortunately is a friend, brags about how “calm and kid safe” this horse is. What the hell??? This same rider decided to push another horse from said breeder past the point of what it would handle by riding the hell out of it. Well this horse, who is young, decided thats enough. He bucked and reared and threw the rider into a fence. Knocked the guy unconscious and the horse will be up for sale shortly. The rider bought a few other horses to train and resell and had the same problem. THey keep blaming the horse. Four times of it happening means the dumbass needs to send the horses out to a good trainer instead of saving a few bucks. grrr…Sorry I’m tired. Hope you guys can make sense of it! lol
Super late to the party here, but I had to share.
I worked at a horse hospital for several years, and we would get in some real gems.
We had all the usual nightmares, like 3 year old stallions that had never actually been turned out, or a 10 year old beast of a warmblood that had spent it’s whole life turned out and was apparently just going to magically generate ground manners because he was at a hospital.
The one that really sticks in my head though is this lady who brought in five horses in one go, for “physical evaluation.” Turns out, this woman had all five of these horses living in the same field, and only two of them had ever really been handled.
They consisted of:
One very sweet palomino mare and her nearly two year old uncut, unweaned colt.
The mare’s previous filly, a three year old named “Princess Baby Buckskin.” We soon gave her a more fitting nickname.
One sweet but skittish chestnut stallion.
And one massive 17 hh stallion who had never been handled in his life. They had to rope him to get him on the trailer.
She left these horses at the hospital for three months. The vets finally managed to talk her into gelding the stallions, which was a relief, but couldn’t convince her to take them home for a long time. We tried to help the horses out the best we could by turning them out into the tiny paddocks reserved for research horses, but they all started going crazy after a while just from being penned up.
Princess Baby Buttface was the worst, and would actively try to kill people. She took a chunk out of my shoulder while leading her one day, and I had to fend her off with a pitchfork while cleaning her stall.
The poor black stallion spent the first month being terrified of anyone who looked at him, and would try to climb the walls if anyone came into his stall. He was never vicious, just scared out of his mind. Some of the nurses and myself worked with him and after a lot of bribery he’d eventually let me pet him and pick up his feet. I would have bought him in a heart beat if I could.
Things got worse when the woman did decide to take them all home. Most of them loaded just fine but when it came time to get the big guy out, he panicked. He’d finally adjusted to being in his stall and the idea of being outside it was terrifying. The worst part was that if the vets had just let me and a few of the nurses work with him, things probably would have been much smoother. Instead, he got manhandled by complete strangers and eventually was so terrified he just laid down in the doorway. They had to use a cattleprod to get him on his feet.
When the woman got them home, the men transporting the horses had no idea what they were doing and let the big guy get back into the hundred acre pasture with a nylon halter and two lead ropes still attached.
The whole thing was just nightmarish and could have been avoided if this woman (and all her entourage of advisors) hadn’t just been so stupid.