Guest Post – Horse Training: Redneck Style
Feb 08 2012
1. No helmet. On a very green horse. Aside from the ruination of this horse, this is my biggest pet peeve here. On the other hand, if this rider removed himself from the gene pool via massive head trauma, that wouldn’t be so bad.
2. Inappropriately dressed “cowboy.” Flat sneakers and shorts? Really? At least get a boot with a heel! It’s like this guy wanted to get hurt.
3. Pulling on a horse to make it move. It seems logical, until you remember that a horse weighs a thousand pounds, and can lift you off of the ground with its neck alone. You can’t out-pull a horse! What you can do is pull so hard on a horse’s face that it gets pissed and rears away from the pressure– just like this poor thing. My favorite part is when the “handler” on the ground leans on the rope so hard he’s almost laying down– it would have been perfect justice if the horse had chosen that moment to leap forward and squish him.
4. Totally inappropriate tack. First, of course, is the bit– a long-shanked monstrosity designed to exert maximum leverage. In the wrong hands (these guys’ hands) it’s a jaw-breaker. Even in the right hands, you don’t start a young horse in it! Next, that’s not a real leadrope– it looks more like a random, thin nylon rope from the back of a truck. No wonder it broke! And that saddle? Okay, I can excuse them for using a cheap one on an unbroke horse, if they’re trying not to damage a good saddle on the first go-round; but at least make sure it fits the rider! It looks like the cantle is crawling up the guy’s butt crack, and no one bothered to adjust the stirrups, so that even if he had gotten his feet in, he’d nearly be hugging his knees.
5. Yelling. Yeah, ’cause yelling loudly and angrily at a horse to is really going to want to make it move towards you!
6. Incredibly, awfully, terribly bad riding. Feet not in stirrups half the time, heels up, kicking and yanking back on the reins to make the horse move forward. This rider deserved to come off.
7. Wire fencing where you’re breaking a horse to ride. Arghhh!!!! Smooth-wire pasture fencing itself isn’t too bad; I use it myself. Wire fencing in an area where you know a horse is going to act up in a big way? Stupid! One of my biggest nightmares is losing control of a horse and having it run through a wire fence, there to get itself (and possibly me) tangled, lacerated or dragged. Note: people, do NOT try to make a “roundpen” out of wire and posts!!
8. Dangerous environment. Besides the issue with the fencing, I see a whole lot of forest that’s going to A) spook the horse and B) be a potentially deadly hazard to a rider, if the horse becomes scared enough to start bolting through the brush. Oh, and did you glimpse the front of the ATV parked next to the fence? The cameraman is sitting on it. I bet the noise from that thing driving up really made this green horse feel calm!
9. This is a “maybe,” but I’m betting I’m right– this horse looks way too young to get broke. He’s on the small side, and looks like he hasn’t filled out yet– like a two year old. If so, these idiots are doing him lasting harm physically as well as mentally. Of course, we could give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that it’s just a small horse… but I wouldn’t trust these guys to know how to use a bathroom without pissing themselves.
10. Too many players on the field. We’ve got Cowboy Idiot, Pulling Idiot, Spectator Idiot and Camera Idiot. All of ‘em are making noise and making it more difficult for this green horse to chill out. If I had that many people around me while I was training a young horse, I’d tell them to back the hell off or prepare to get kicked in the face (by me, if not the horse). I especially liked it when Spectator Idiot stood in front of the horse next to Pulling Idiot. I wanted to tell that horse to leap forward “NOW!” and get two-for-one squishings. What a deal!
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Today’s guest poster is North Horse – check out her blog here!
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I just spent 5 minutes watching that dude fall off over and over and over again – kind of like what I did with that scene in Titanic when the guy hits the propeller…
Anyone else think that horse just got tired of those jackasses laughing at her confusion. Dude had it comin’. Way to go Sassy.
86 comments to “Guest Post – Horse Training: Redneck Style”
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I don’t think you need an entire post to sum up the video, but I admire the guest blogger’s ambition. Personally, I think four words wraps it up pretty nicely:
You can’t fix stupid.
Un-fricking believable! This is exactly why I prefer to take in unstarted horses instead of ones who have potentially already been ruined by people like these. The audio in the video is just as bad as watching the horse being abused. “Yaa, put some corn in yo han.” “Aww ya shoulda seen it. She fewl. She broke the woar. Her leg got cauwt in it and then she ran” Well, it is too bad the guy on her back didn’t get impaled by that thar uncapped t-post and then they’d be in line to win a Darwin award.
I have to disagree about smooth wire being a safe form of field fencing. Some horses do fine in it (older, mellow horses that don’t test fences). I don’t think it is appropriate for young stock or horses in small areas. I’ve seen horses get tangled and injured on smooth wire from fighting over the fence. There are better alternatives out there; I prefer not to risk it.
It seems the “breaking activity” is more of a form of family entertainment that an actual training exercise. It doesn’t appear to me that they planned to have the horse learn how to be ridden. They clearly are recording the video so that they can get the horse rearing, bucking, and getting tangled up in the fence again. Must be cheaper than taking the family to the movie. Unfortunately there are morons like this ruining horses all over the world. Breaks my heart to see it, but you can’t fix stupid.
That is just so sad
Nothing wrong with starting a 2 y/o correctly, but that is just sad sad sad.
Define “start”??
I am afraid I am very firmly in the “horses should not be ridden before three, and not ridden seriously before four” camp, and I think, these days, most real horse people are, too.
If you want to truly, unfixably, ruin a horse, start it before it is three years old and ask it to do things it is not physically and mentally able to do.
You only have to look at racehorses to see how well this works out, even when done properly. How many racehorses (percentage wise, I am sure a lot of people have one ) retire sound?
Just as bad is the industry standard Futurity system for Western Pleasure, reining, cutting etc.
And just as horrible as Thoroughbreds’ long-term soundness being bred out in favor of early speed, is stock horse breeders opting for teensy feet and toothpick legs on these high-octane performers.
Oh, here it is AGAIN: http://www.robertmmiller.com/andthcaushol.html
I will keep posting this forever, because it’s so awesome.
Sorry, yes, I completely agree, but do not know enough about cutting horses to have made the analogy myself. I do know about racehorses, that was why I made that analogy.
Also, insidiously, in Europe at least, is the tendency to show animals form 1-3 years old, in youngtock Hunter, Welsh and Children’s Riding Pony classes and then never ever hear form them again. I would say a small percentage of them go straight to breeding, on the basis of their performance in youngtock classes (now these are all RIDING animal classes, remember ) and a very small percentage go on to be shown under saddle, but the vast majority of these animals, overtopped and overshown through their formative years, are never seen again…
These really are the times when you wish the horse would just get fed up and stomp someone. That would have made me so happy. And I need some happiness in my life right now…
Life’s A Beach
http://www.36andsingle.blogspot.com/
Aaah… SweetPea- you can haz a happi?? {{{{{{HUG}}}}}}}
This video is why baseball and football were invented. To keep bored men away from inventing male bonding games with their free time. Gosh dang it, the cable musta went out igan. Letsus go out back while Linda Lou’s shoppin for grocrees and give that thar philly a ride. Hop rite up thar Billbob!
Ladies, note to selves. Keep the cable bill paid, gas in the 4-wheeler and steaks in the fridge and tell any bored non-horsey men that all your horses have explosive diarrhea until further notice. Sooo glad the filly made a sail pigeon out of dimwit. He deserved worse.
As horribly and relentlessly sexist as that is, I can’t find a single fault in your logic!
I wish that this sort of thing was confined to barbwire fenced home “farms.” But all you have to do is go to any horse show and you will see similar idiocy. Just covered up better – sometimes. that’s why I quit going to breed shows – and avoid 4H competitions because lots of the parents and “leaders” seem as clueless as some of the kids, though there ARE some astute, caring, consistent child riders out there who could teach the adults a thing or three, but unfortunately the bad tempered kids to are mean to their horses because they think it makes them look like they are in charge tend to outnumber the good ones, by far.
Not sure which is worse, the deliberately abusive trainers or the angry abusive clueless beginners.
Does it seem to anyone else that there is more of this going on these days or it’s just reported more? IMO there is a lot more and my heart breaks for these horses especially the babies.
Geesh poor horse. This stupid hillbilly BS mentality is what I delt with on a daily basis when I worked in West Virginia att he feed store. You can have a Southern Accent with out Hillbilly grammer.
Yelling at the horse to “go on Sassy” is realy going to work (rolls eyes), she’s confused enough yelling at her isnt going to help. Pulling on her and yanking on her bridle (with that stupid effing curb bit) is not even logical but then again logic has realy escaped this entire scene. Another saga of “Dumb asses R Us”. Another reason why so many horses have trust issues and training problems. Big Fat FAIL in every respect.
That was so horrible I couldn’t even bring myself to comment on their video. Based on the recent comments, it appears plenty of Fugly readers have already done so. Worst.video.ever.
I objected to Lard Ass sitting down HARD in that saddle. Didn’t watch beyond that point. Hope the horse stomped the heck out of both of those jerkwads.
First I want to say that I practice SAFE horse riding/training (helmet, propet boots, safe tack, ect). Aside from all the safty features that were ignored in this video the one that scares me the most is the smooth wire on T posts . The smooth wire can cut up a horse that is tangled and what happends to the rider that gets tangled up with the horse in the wire? And the T posts— my greatest fear is seeing someone thrown onto one and impaled.
How heartbreaking..
Give this horse a couple of years, and she’ll be the “demonstration horse” when Clinton Anderson’s Walkabout Tour comes to a location near these rednecks. There are always complaints about how aggressive Clinton is with these outlaw horses. Well, I just saw 2 prime examples of what redneck training produces at the Walkabout Tour in Perry Georgia two weeks ago. Both horses were dangerous, but the last one to work tried to pin Clinton up against the arena wall, repeatedly. It took all of his horsemanship skills to get just a tiny bit of respect out the horse in order for it to start listening and stop reacting. I think it was about 6 years old, unbroke, wouldn’t trailer, etc., and if things didn’t work out, the owner was going to breed it!! Everyone in the audience groaned. Unfortunately, the stereotypes about the rednecks are usually closer to the truth than not. The idiots on this video are a prime example. Horses aren’t born dangerous, people make them that way. Too bad we can’t send these people to slaughter.
Painful and sad to watch.
=O
That poor horse. Too many people, making too much noise, completely inappropriate tack (ugh, don’t like that bit!), completely inappropriate clothing (people don’t ride in shorts and sneakers for a reason, hillbilly) and a completely inappropriate area to be starting a horse.
I always have the first ride (and sometimes up to the first dozen rides) in a roundyard, just lightly walking and trotting around and THEN move to a paddock. I’d be willing to bet that these morons didn’t bother to ground drive her, so she has no idea what stop, turn or back up means, so having her first ride in a paddock is NOT a good idea.
Pulling the horse, really? Why not try lunging her (which she shoul well and truly have down pat, seeings how you’re riding her). I’m usually lunged for the first ride, just to get the horse understanding that the leg squeezing means walk forwards. That idiot sure stayed on the groud long enough too – all I was thinking was ‘do you WANT the horse to run over you?!’ Along with all that, the guy in front was facing the horse, which is a threatening way to lead so OF COURSE the horse didn’t want to go forward!
As for her age, I don’t mind if people lightly ride a 2 year old provided they aren’t in that gangly ‘I-look-like-a-yearling’ phase and it’s done properly (meaning very minimal work for the horse). I would prefer to start a 4 year old than a 2 year old, but honestly if I rescued a 2 year old that was unbroken, I’d be training it so that it had a better chance of finding a home.
All those people being there would only contribute to the horse’s fear and that bit – WHO starts a horse in something like that?! I just don’t understand. I bet that was the first thing they pulled outta the old tack box they have going – sheesh, go spend $15 and buy a nice snaffle to start a baby in.
Agree with the smooth wire – that’s what I use for our pasture fence, but as I mentioned above, I ride in the roundyard and make sure we’re comfortable before going into the pasture.
The rider really can’t ride! I don’t have great equitation, but one would think that ‘heels down’ on a green horse (and, you know, NOT yanking) would be something that you would REALLY work for. Who wants to have their foot slip through the stirrup and get dragged around by a scared horse? Not me! Yet another reason to ride the horse in a small enclosure before a field, if you DO get into trouble the horse can’t run far.
http://www.operationhorserescue.blogspot.com
Oh yeah, I can’t stop watching the horse fling him off. She definitely got tired of it and decided to eject his dumb ass — watch how she flinches when he kicks her, and then a moment later, tosses her head, like, “Screw you, I’m done!”
The sad thing is, I could see my in-laws trying a stunt like this — getting on an untrained horse and having someone try to pull it forward, as if that’s going to teach it to move out.
No, she didn’t get tired of it — she froze. The next step after freeze is *explode* — which is exactly what happened.
Is it wrong of me to want that guy to have ended up with hoof prints in his head ? It is ? Really ? Bad, bad me.
Unfortunately, the video information is entitled “my dad trying to break a horse”– so it’s too late to remove him from gene pool: he’s already reproduced.
That poor damn horse, surrounded by at least five people with a cumulative IQ total just about lukewarm, given the important point of the narration is, “I hope you got that!” vis dad getting dumped, instead of concern about horse OR human being. And what a sweetheart the horse is, waiting and waiting for something – anything – to make sense with Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest yanking, kicking, and getting in the way. My god.
Poor thing went the only way she could, straight up. Asshats all of them. Poor Sassy. Hope they didn’t “teach her a lesson” after the camera was off.
Poor lil critter.
I like the part where he gives the totally untrained horse a big ol’ kick in the sides. Which she interprets very logically as meaning, “I want you to buck me off.” And shorts? Shorts with tennies? Great gosh a mighty.
I know sometimes people who don’t know about horses read this blog, so… the first time you get on a horse, getting on the horse is enough for the horse to think about. Just sit there. Calm and praise the horse. Then get off. Do it again later if it went well the first time. Sit there until the horse is just bored with you sitting there. When both of you have completely mastered sitting there, you are ready to do other things. Personally I think that should not happen until at least the next day. I am not in a hurry, and one thing a day is more than enough to figure out. This does not mean jackass around with your feet half out of the stirrups talking to your buddies and not paying attention to your horse, like the guy in the video. It means sit properly and quietly and paying attention.
And if any of this is news to you, you really shouldn’t be anywhere near an unbroken horse.
Re: smooth wire. I hate the stuff. The worst fence injuries I ever saw came from smooth wire – horse nearly severed its hoof at the fetlock.
Poor thing. What a love she was that it took her so long to pitch the guy off — and it was nearly effortless on her part. She deserved better.
I have a five wire fence on my big field (approx. 5 acres). Two smooth horse wire — three white coated wire (love it! Horses could play in great loops of the stuff lying on the ground and never get tangled) — and a hot wire on the inside to keep them off of it. Have had no trouble, even with silly young things in three years. We keep the wire tight. Hate barbed wire with a passion.
The first thing that hit me about the video was how stupid the people were, of course!
The second thing was…what a good youngster she is. Sometimes well prepared, properly tacked youngsters ridden by people with a clue aren’t as calm as she was. It took a LOT of stupidity to eventually make her react. Wish I could wave a wand and get her out of there…..and try undoing what they did. That poor baby is the smartest thing on that farm by a mile! It is much easier to start from scratch than try to undo the damage stupid people do
We can only hope that this experience taught the HUMANS a lesson and they haven’t attempted to further screw her up. Put her with someone who can properly start her… and, I don’t know… teach her to STEER and I bet she’d be just fine.
Though if they keep doing what they are doing with her she’ll definitely get someone killed/severely injured when she flips over on them thanks to their stupidity. And curing a flipper is not an easy task.
Agreed Trish, guess all we can hope for is they are now leaving her alone and perhaps even contacting someone with as bit of knowledge. Flippers are scary and often end up being condemned because of it…when it wasn’t their fault to start with.
Obviously the redneck attention whore family is so ignorant of horsemanship skills they didn’t realize how stupid they would look on the internet. But I do get tired of the BB’s (Barn Babies or Barn Bitches, choose appropriately:) constantly preaching their Barn Style-ista Shit. It just advertises that you don’t actually haul hay, fix fences, drive a tractor, load feed sacks, doctor horses, worm horses, or even work FOR horses on a routine basis. Have you ever broke a sweat shoveling shit? Have you ever dealt with a dozen horses at once? Have you ever gone into a herd in a large pasture to retrieve just one specific horse? Have you ever tried to lead one horse away from the herd? Have you ever done it in mud that sucks your boots off? Have you ever dealt with frozen hydrants? Or frozen gate latches? Have you ever lead a herd of horses one by one from their stall to the field? I just wonder how your sense of style holds up to actual barn WORK. How about ripping those expensive breeches on a loose nail you haven’t fixed? Do your fashionista boots hold up to caked on mud? Have you ever been in ankle deep mud? It’s probably a stretch for some of you, but check into your genealogy. How many of your ancestors were killed or maimed by horses? Back when Great Gramps and all the Uncles worked all day with horses without helmets? Stood behind them hooked to a clanky implement with no helmet? Rode the spoiled pony to school with no helmet. Lord help the ones who were killed milking the cow without a helmet. Sorry, got off track there remembering how heads are right in the cow kick zone. Someone recently posted a comment that the farther we get from the horse and buggy the stupider horse people get. That’s true. The absolute BEST safety equipment is knowledge, good judgement, and awareness. Not $500 of the latest fads you find promoted in one of your magazines, books, or videos. And if you listen to a trainer or coach you better be darn sure they do possess knowledge, good judgement, and awareness to accompany their title/degree/certification. Back in the day before applied safety equipment was vogue, it would appear the idiots and unsound of body or mind did not live to reproduce. If you do find that Great Gramps was a vegetable due to lack of a helmet please post all over the internet so I’ll find it.
Huh? Wha…..?
Dude, people died ALL THE TIME from accidental brain injuries back in the day. Now that we know better, we have helmets, and they help a LOT.
People also died all the time back in the day because bleeding a patient with tuberculosis was industry standard treatment. Or maybe a poultice of cow shit for your sucking chest wound. Noooo, obstetricians don’t need to wash their hands in between birthing babies.
Dude. We KNOW better.
Hey Dude! I believe that does put you in the Barn Baby category. Just sayin’:) Tuberculosis- irrelevant. Birthing babies, another BB, also irrelevant. The sucking chest wound, very applicable if the impaled Tpost has been pulled out by fellow BB’s. However, since the cows were a sidenote, let’s just say there are no cowpies available. That leaves ripped breeches, fleece, Sleezies, horse blankets, apples? In fact the actual helmet would probably seal the sucking chest wound quite nicely. What to do? Protect the head or stop the air leak, lying maimed on the ground. Which is the correct choice my expert BB? Also please refer me to your stat source on finding ancestors killed/injured by equine dastardly deeds.
Have I broken a sweat shoveling shit? Yes.
Have I gone into a 40 acre field to get one particular horse? Yes. At 7am. In peasouper fog. To get one of six 12.2 GREY Welsh ponies.
Have I been in ankle deep mud? Yup.
Let’s see, what else have I done:
1. Ridden in driving, horizontal, freezing rain ’cause we didn’t have an indoor, the fields were flooded so we couldn’t turn out and that dang horse was going to go insane if I didn’t do something with him.
2. Treated a horse for lice. If you want unpleasant, treat a horse for lice. That stuff *stinks*.
3. Been bitten, kicked, stepped on.
4. Come off in pretty much every imaginable way and a few you probably couldn’t. Including having a horse fall on me.
5. Ridden insane Thoroughbreds right off the track, green horses, horses nobody else would get on.
6. Jumped over four feet. On a 13.2 pony.
7. Ridden cross country (albeit only a small course as I was never hugely into it)
8. Ridden across moorland, down country roads, across fairly busy roads and up and down the freaking Rocky Mountains.
9. Been one of two people getting thirty plus sets of tack cleaned, inspected and oiled. In one day.
10. Gotten up at 5am to make it to a show.
So, I’m a barn baby, am I? Because let me tell you one thing. I do not ride without a helmet. EVER. This does not make me either a coward OR somebody who relies on safety gear over common sense. Guess what it makes me?
ALIVE.
I can’t give you an ancestor of mine that got killed in an equine-related accident, but I AM ALIVE TODAY BECAUSE I WEAR A HELMET.
Every time. Every ride.
So you’re saying you had a hard time finding the GREY ponies in the peasoup fog? And your point is? Referring to your points 3,4, and 5, wearing a helmet is a very good idea for you. You might want to brush up on my three safety points:
1. Knowledge
2. Good Judgement
3. Awareness
I hope to hear from you in about 40 more years after you’ve grown into BIG horses to see how it went for you. Good luck.
Ah, so, basically, falling off is always a result of lacking good judgement and never a result of, say, a wasp stinging the horse, or the horse stumbling, or your girth breaking (that last has never happened to me but it *can* happen* and I’ve certainly seen it happen). Anyone can fall off. At any time. From any horse.
And you know what. Some people ride green, crazy or difficult horses because they’re stupid. SOME of us do it because we like the challenge of sorting out their issues. By your words, all trainers lack knowledge, good judgement and awareness. Do you only ride horses somebody else has got to the dead broke stage?
You don’t get to claim knowledge or good judgement if you don’t have sense enough to wear a helmet.
My babies top out something over 17 hands. Big enough for you?
If you are still breeding you don’t get to claim knowledge, good judgement, or awareness. Do you think?
Judging by your statement referring to Jennifer R’s points 3, 4 and 5 she should wear a helmet because she is lacking knowledge, good judgment and awareness. Please explain what part of being bitten, kicked and stepped on, coming off horses and riding OTTB’s that others were too inexperienced to get on makes her stupid and unaware – that sounds like you’re saying you should only ever deal with a perfectly mannered horse because anything else makes you stupid and unaware (that sound like a barn baby)! I’ve dealt with some less than pleasant horses, but they didn’t stay that way. With some work they became good equine citizens – does that make me stupid for working with them?
I have been bitten, kicked, stepped on, thrown off and when I get a rescue in I ride them, so I think Jennifer R and I have a lot of the same experiences, yet I think I measure up pretty well on your list and I firmly believe wearing a helmet can save your life. If you are suggesting that only stupid people die from horse riding accidents that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I am knowledgeable in what helmets can do (apparently you are not), I have the good judgement to wear a helmet when I ride (apparently you do not) and I am aware that wearing a helmet CAN save your life (apparently you are not). BTW, I don’t go to a barn. My horses live with me. As for your list:
Haul hay – nope, we have Lucerne in our pastures.
Fix fences – yes.
Drive a tractor – I can, but don’t need to.
Load feed sacks- yes.
Doctor horses – When the problem is small. If you mean do I not bother calling the vet for large issues, then no. That would be neglect.
Worm horses – yes.
Have you ever broke a sweat shoveling shit? Yes. (Speaking of knowledge, one would think that being so intelligent yourself you would be able to tell that it should be ‘broken’ not broke.)
Have you ever dealt with a dozen horses at once? No, because once again – I live at home. I only have 4 horses. *gasp*
Have you ever gone into a herd in a large pasture to retrieve just one specific horse? Yes. How is this hard work?
Have you ever tried to lead one horse away from the herd? Yes, my horses actually have manners. They will do as I ask, so I don’t see why leading a horse from the herd would be difficult.
Have you ever done it in mud that sucks your boots off? Yes.
Have you ever dealt with frozen hydrants? Or frozen gate latches? No, we don’t live in a freezing climate.
Have you ever lead a herd of horses one by one from their stall to the field? No, because ours are outside 24/7.
I just wonder how your sense of style holds up to actual barn WORK. How about ripping those expensive breeches on a loose nail you haven’t fixed? What expensive breeches? I have ONE pair that are 2 years old and are covered in stains.
Do your fashionista boots hold up to caked on mud? Have you ever been in ankle deep mud? I’ve been in mud that nearly overflowed into my gumboots.
Just because someone wears a helmet, doesn’t mean they are stupid, in fact I think it means quite the opposite. Nor does wearing a helmet make one a BB.
As for your argument that you can get a head injury from a lot of things – yes, you can. But why do you think trying to prevent a head injury is wrong? Just because you don’t walk around with a helmet constantly on your head doesn’t mean a thing. You can’t stop it from happening in every situation, but there is no harm in trying to prevent it in the situations that are reasonable (like, wearing a helmet when horse riding, motorbike riding or wearing a seatbelt in a car).
http://www.operationhorserescue.blogspot.com
Lady you are too fun. I don’t know if I can even remember all I want to comment on. I did say a dozen horses not four. I did start my original post on fashions and attire for equine activities. The helmet just became a focus point because of all you modern horsewomen who have been indoctrinated to follow the crowd because somebody said to. Nobody provides hard numbers from scientific studies. It is just anecdotal heresay; Which is where much of modern horsemanship has gone. If the right so and so says it, all the followers hop on board and start buying whatever…. It doesn’t even have to be horse or helmet related, human nature is everywhere.
You did agree with me that your breeches are more work oriented than fashion statement. I was just defending the idiot horse trainers ‘right’ to wear shorts.
In regard to being bitten, stepped on, and kicked. My three safety points will prevent that. IF you have the knowledge and awareness to read the horse, awareness of your body position, and the good judgement to align your skills with the proper horse none of those accidents should happen. By the way, do you wear your helmet only when riding? Horses are actually more life threatening when on the ground, case in point, helmets are moot if you don’t fall off or ride into objects. People have been kicked in the head. Oh, and the belly too. And hands and legs have been broken by kicks. Oopsie, dare I start a need for full body armor? BarnBlingBody Protectors?
Were you asking about riding skills and training skills? Again my three safety points continue to serve well. If you don’t have the knowledge of why and how to accomplish a task. Stay away from horses. If you don’t have the awareness to assess events as they unfold, stay away from horses. If you don’t have the good judgement to assess your equipment, assess your skill level, assess your horse’s nature. Stay away from horses.
Accidents happen, same as shit happens, but you will find the victims always fit one of two categories. They were stupid or they were unlucky. My three safety points take care of stupid.
Driving home from the bar is stupid. And irresponsible. Walking under a tree on a windy day could be either stupid or unlucky. The motto every ride every time is stupid. It needs to be every horse every time. Do you understand why? Because accidents with a horse can happen any time any where. You and Jenny R said so.
Now back to, how does fashion really impact outcomes of equine activity or how did our ancestors survive without helmets. For that matter, how did the work horses survive without probiotics, waterproof blankets, and support boots?
If you were simply talking about fashion orientated things, then I tend to agree that a lot of people will buy into certain things, thinking it will make them ‘better’ (example, NH carrot sticks). Helmets on the other hand are hardly something to scoff at.
I don’t see how the number of horses in a paddock makes a difference. If you try to lead a buddy sour horse from a paddock away from ONE horse, it would be harder than leading a well behaved horse away from 11 others.
With regards to being stepped on, bitten and kicked – I take in problem horses and try to straighten out any kinks. That means that a horse that has never been taught to pick up his hooves may kick. It means that they may bite or be unaware of personal space. Until I’ve taught them that they are to behave, there isn’t much I can do about it other than correct the behaviour. I’ve actually been kicked and bitten surprisingly few times, but it happens. For instance, I was blanketing one of the rescues I just bought in once and as I was doing up the leg straps she turned around and bit me on the leg. If I had of been facing her mouth to ensure that she couldn’t have bitten me, she could have kicked me. The person holding her evidentially didn’t think anything of her swinging her head around, but you can’t see everything with every horse, all the time.
As for me ‘following the crowd’ with regards to wearing a helmet, no. I wear a helmet because I know that if I do come off, I’m better protected if I am wearing one than if I’m not. I don’t wear one because someone said so, in fact I ride western and helmets are not considered ‘trendy’ in western by most people.
Saying wearing a helmet on the ground is more useful than on a horse is like saying that pedestrians should wear helmets to protect their heads in case they are hit by a car. Some people might be for that idea, but that doesn’t mean car drivers shouldn’t wear seatbelts.
I don’t recall asking you about riding or training skills?
http://www.operationhorserescue.blogspot.com
Also forgot to say that if all accidents are either due to stupidity or being unlucky, I don’t see what is wrong with trying to protect yourself from bad luck. I’m not at all suggesting that helmets are a substitute for knowledge, but I disagree vehemently that knowledge is a substitute for helmets.
http://www.operationhorserescue.blogspot.com
I often do wear a helmet for ground work. It depends on the exact circumstances and what I’m doing.
Of the times I’ve been bitten, only one was stupid. If a horse is, in order to get out of work, biting anyone who bridles it…guess what, that horse has to get over itself. And somebody has to get it over that. And that person may well get bitten, because if you don’t ignore the signals, the horse gets its way. The only time I was kicked it was while I was fixing a pony that was stall aggressive. It managed to get me once before I found the right method to get the dang little thing to quit. As for stepped on…a horse stepping on your foot is going to happen. Awareness can make it happen less, but always wearing boots will make it less painful if it does.
And yes, people should align the horse with their skills, but saying I am stupid for riding green horses when you have never seen me ride is being just a little bit judgmental yourself. So is calling a helmet a fashion statement when 60% of equestrian related deaths are the result of traumatic brain injury. Sure, you have the right not to wear a helmet – I firmly believe we have the right to take whatever informed risks we choose, even if I think somebody is an idiot. But what does wearing one cost? Now, one could make a legitimate argument that somebody who only rides quiet, trained horses doesn’t need one as *much* as somebody who’s riding greenies or engaging in more dangerous equestrian sports. But… Courtney King-Dye was a professional rider. Now she’s struggling with things like walking and talking.
As for the trainer wearing shorts. He has the right to do so. I have the right to think he’s silly doing so and would never do so myself, but it’s minor compared with everything else going on.
People should take all reasonable safety precautions when working with horses. To me, that means helmet use, wearing solid, closed-toed shoes or boots at all times when around horses (NOT steel-toed boots, which can actually make the damage worse if a horse steps on you), getting rid of barbed wire and unsafe fences, keeping the barn aisle free of debris, grooming tools, etc. AND it means knowing your limits as a rider, yes. It also means fixing a horse’s unsafe behaviors…and thus sometimes risking being on the receiving end of them. I am also a very strong proponent of fall training for all riders, something which is hugely neglected but can make the difference between getting back on the horse as if nothing happened and a trip to the emergency room.
Getarealjob, you live in a fantasy world where by your superior mind control your horses never stumble or fall, are never stung by a wasp, step in a hole, are attacked by a stray dog, or otherwise are caused to end up on top of you. Do you horses shit rainbow-colored candy, too?
Since you obviously don’t know, a grey is the *hardest* color horse to see in a pea-soup fog. Many of us have done everything you mention, probably for longer than you’ve been alive.
BTW, great use of specious argument when confronted with facts you can’t refute.
Well, yes, I have done a lot of those things. What’s your point?
Getarealjob, please continue to ride without a helmet.
Kthanks
“Ridden insane Thoroughbreds right off the track”
I’m sorry but this stereotype just rubs me the wrong way. Either trainers in the US are complete incompetents… Or the people pronouncing TBs off the track to be “insane” and such are the ones lacking in skills.
I have not only ridden numerous TBs right off the track, I have actully ridden TBs who are ACTIVELY RACING and yes, they can be “hard to hold”, high on their oats, strutting their shit after many, many hours stuck in a stall and no turn-out, but I would barely describe a handful as insane (mostly due to bad training and handling) or even overly difficult to direct and control.
As a matter of fact, almost all of these horses are regulalrly exercised in a group, at all gaits, and the rider is required to keep the horse in their place at the gait and speed prescribed by the trainer, AT ALL TIMES.
Racehorses are used to discipline, and a lot of it, many recreational riders can just not handle them in as competent and confident a manner, which can unsettle the horse in such a way that it may become very difficult to handle for that person. Lack of exercise may of course “irritate” anyhorse, the results are just magnified if the animal is in racing condition and used to actually doing some work every day, usually several times.
This can also easily happen whith other young horse, it is not an occurence strictly reserved for TBs, off the track or otherwise.
Mind you, jockeys and most exercise riders are professionals and earn their money in this manner, something that can not be said of everyone who rides “insane Thoroughbreds right off the track”, they are very cheap you know, even in places where the horse market is not as fucked up as it seems to be in the US atm, any dick and their dog can get one…
I’m thinking of one specific horse who DID fit that stereotype…he was flighty, spooky, randomly remembered he used to be a racehorse at highly inopportune moments.
And his owner was trying to turn him into a stadium jumper. He was a steeplechaser and he had a ton of scope, but he’d only ever jumped brush. We never DID convince him that, you know, leaving the poles up actually, you know, *matters*.
I’m well aware that not EVERY OTTB is insane, but that one was a serious handful…he could, I swear, canter in place…
Actually….my dad (born in 1928) would never allow me to have a horse when I was young and crazy about them because his older brother was killed by a horse kicking him in the head when the horse slipped and went down as my uncle rode him. As the horse tried to get up he kicked my uncle (experienced horseman, farmer, sheep herder, cattleman) in the head and between that hard kick on his uncovered skull and the ride to the doc in town in the back of a buckboard wagon, he died of massive brain trauma. Don’t have a record of it on the internet….only the journal of my broken-hearted grandmother. Dad never got over it and never trusted horses for his kids. I realize they didn’t have helmets in those days and didn’t worry about it. I imagine Uncle Joe would have died laughing if he had ever even heard of such a thing as a riding helmet. However, I DO know about helmets and because of a moment of “bad judgement” on my part, the concussion I got falling off a rearing horse convinced me that my brain was more important than my vanity or anything else while riding. I still work on good judgement, awareness, and knowledge everytime I ride. The helmet just adds more “knowledge” about the fragility of my puny little skull when it hits a harder object….like the ground….or a hoof….or a fence….or a rock….or…..?
Our troll is a typical one dimensional thinker who doesn’t know how to deal with applicable analogies.
And really, I’ve never used a sleazy (so dorky), a neck sweat (even on myself, which some teens tried in vain efforts to whittle their waists), I ride in unflattering breechess and fake blundstone boots cuz they’re comfortable, I’ve been scraped off, bucked off, fallen on, tripped over, kicked, bitten, and had my boots sucked off more than a dozen times in primo Indiana clay. my horse is a hard keeper who only wears a blanket during cold rain. I’m old enough to have worn out a cassette tape of Thriller purchased before it won any Grammys. My helmet cost me under $40 at TSC. Totally unfashionable.
Sheesh. People don’t need street cred to justify helmet use anyway. Who cares if you’ve captured brumbies in the Outback or ridden in the Grand National or birthed foals in the Himalayas or personally took Secretariats temperature or carried an injured Clydesdale on your shoulders 164 miles in a blizzard uphill both ways. Doesn’t makenyournhead any less breakable.
You go right on ahead riding without your helmet. You probably don’t use a seatbelt either or wash your hands after you wipe poop off your ass.
I tire of Dumb.
Boy, that helmet comment really got to you, didn’t it?
Speaking as someone who actually comes from that era, has always worked hard and has shovelled more shit (verbal and real) than you are ever likely to see in your lifetime, yes, I have done ALL those things that are knotting up your knickers so very badly.
You know what happened?
I grew up!
I realised that risking MY life was being selfish and stupid.
You know why?
My KIDS told me- “We have to wear helmets….SO DO YOU.”
So now, I wear a helmet, because, at the end of the day, it makes sense to do so.
Once upon a time you could drive down the middle of pretty nearly any road and get away with it (still do in Ireland- joke, you guys, it’s a JOKE)
Want to try that now??????
And now a word from the other BB type. Shit is not really all that dangerous, but you wear a helmet anyway? Does it also have a bug shield to prevent flies in the mouth? I do not wear knickers. Sorry. But I do wear shorts, even on hot days in January when I am poop scooping. Do you people wear helmets walking under trees on windy days? What about driving home from the bar? I can provide states on head injuries and motor vehicle crashes.
Ooh lookie, Fuglyfriends, we have our own little baby Troll.
Now then, we all know how we look after Trolls, don’t we??
We DO NOT FEED!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woySeSNBL3o&feature=related
Please stop feeding the troll.
Usually an effective argument for or against something does not immediately start with a dick measuring contest.
Okay, maybe that was crass, but polemical introductions to serve one’s point make me yawn.
There’s a lot of this crap that goes on in the driving world. Take this video for instance- http://youtu.be/dbKPnNLyDfA
That video is downright disgusting. That horse told them over and over that it was scared as shit. At what point do they intend to stop? Did you see how close the horse came to the pile of bikes? AND the harness was a piece of shit, no breeching, shafts flying up in the air…that has to be one of the worst lack of horsemanship videos I’ve seen. I’d personally love to slap those idiots upside the head.
A horse taking off in a buggy has the potential for a heck of a lot more damage than a horse taking off under saddle. We break horses to harness where I work and desensitizing is incredibly important, almost as important as having a capable handler who’s paying attention to the horse and can correctly stop a potential bad situation from happening. We make sure they are used to noises behind them and confident enough in blinders that if they hear a sound they don’t do something silly.
As the video of the Arab in the harness class (well, mostly around, through and over the harness class) form a few years back attests only too well. How they got away without a person or horse being seriously injured, I will never know.
I can attest to the power behind a spooked and ill prepared harness horse, too, and it is incredible- I hitched up a little 11.2 hh Welshman too soon, and well, I was 17 yrs old, knew no better (but should have done) and we both survived, is about all that can be said about that.
He was not stoppable!
He did go on to drive and drive well, but I was just plain lucky on that.
This is just unbelievable. Kudos to the mare for putting an end, albeit temporary, to the ass-hattery and breaking their crappy cart apart.
Oh and just to note, people here make a lot of fuss about being impaled on a T-Post, and that’s all I ever read whenever a T-Post is mentioned- impaling. Let’s not underestimate the sides of the post- I find them to be more dangerous than the top of it. A T-post cap won’t prevent a panicky horse from getting cut up from the sides of it.
They’re also pretty hard on rider’s knees.
I agree that this kind of idiotic horse ‘training’ needs to be brought to light.
What I don’t like, though, is the way so many have chosen to ‘present their case’ when posting replies to the video. I see name-calling after name-calling. There is more idiocy in the name-calling fingerpointing responses than there is in the video itself.
What is the POINT of just going on there and saying very crass things…. for example, calling them FUCKTARDS.
GOOD GRIEF — how very, very ***ORIGINAL*** can you get!???
What *IS* the point? Do you just want to vent your disgust?
Do you want to jump on the finger-pointing, crass-acting bandwagon?
Do you want to show that you know ‘bad words’ and you’re not ashamed to use them??
Or did you *really* intend to demonstrate that there is a better way to handle a horse… and that the kind of idiocy perpetrated by this group of poorly educated, trash-talking, proud-to-be-moronic morons is not acceptable and is NOT good entertainment. (sigh… they seem to think it’s great entertainment… at the sad cost of probably ruining what looks like a very nice young horse)
All y’all have done, in trash-talking responses, is given people call to disrespect GOOD horsemanship and see ‘us’ not as the good guys but as a bunch of mean bitches who love an excuse to put people down.
MY BELIEF is that change is not brought about by crassness or lowering oneself to the level of those who offend us.
Change is brought about by presenting one’s case with clear language, with forethought, and without (blatantly) pointing fingers.
It is imperative to maintain one’s own dignity when trying to point out that something that is WRONG (but is apparently OK in the eyes of the do-ers) without name calling or crassness.
TEACH, don’t preach…
Don’t ALIENATE — **EDUCATE!****
gena
who is ashamed of some of the comments posted (probably) by fugly readers
Admirable sentiments Gena. However, in this day and age if they don’t know that there is a better way, they are either living in a cave somewhere on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or they are just plain stupid. And ignorant.
I make no apologies for my original comment.
Maybe I’m naive, but I believe that there are SOME people out there who can change their ways if they are SHOWN (not told) that there is a better way out there. This will *never* be accomplished, though, if the people who know a better way are spending their energy spreading venom around, alienating those who just MIGHT see something going on that works better than their ign’ernt way.
Nobody learns anything from people who are jeering at them – except to jeer back.
I might have had some sympathy for these people (lets face it we have all done things we ‘aint proud of) if:
(a) They didn’t think it was funny.
(b) They didn’t feel the need to show off to the world by posting it on You Tube.
Bring on the names and the expletives then, but like the Gena says, show some imagination !
Oops wrong person – that should have been replying to Walkonaire. Sorry.
I’m the writer of this guest post. I believe that yes, it’s important to educate people, and that’s part of why I write my blog. I know that I’ve done some stupid things with horses, changing only because someone was nice enough to point out my idiocy– or because I learned better from a blog like Fuglyblog. However, people have to WANT to be educated in order to learn.
These people did not want to be educated. I know that, because this video could not have been so incredibly awful if they had made even the slightest effort to learn a little bit about… well pretty much anything horse-related. I understand that you want to reach out and teach people like this, but please keep in mind that they are not helpless children. They are adults, with numerous resources at their disposal– library books, local horse organizations, professional trainers and the internet. They were willfully ignorant, in a situation where both horse and humans could have been seriously injured.
If horse abusers refuse to learn/change, and we can’t actually get them arrested, the only weapon we have left is public shame. Even if they never bother to learn a single thing about horse training, knowing that the world is watching them critically may stop them from attempting something like this again.
Unfortunately, I also agree that posting grade school swear words on a Youtube video isn’t terribly effective. What I’d LIKE to do is get ahold of this family’s mailing address, so I can send every one of their neighbors a copy of this video and the list of things wrong with it…
JennyR… I know they don’t know there’s a better way. But that doesn’t make it ok for those of us who DO know a better way to allow ourselves to come across as nasty, rude, ill-bred, ill-mannered, and illiterate.
And if ‘we’ feel the need to call names or cuss-out.. SURELY, we-the-enlightened can do a better job of it than what’s’ being done in the comments on that video! I mean.. if you’re going to ‘vent’… at least show a little class instead of resorting to the same ‘fucktarded’ words that we’ve all heard so many times that all they accomplish is to show that the ‘utterer’ has a small and rather crude vocabulary.
Geeze… might as well at least make your rude comments INTERESTING instead of using the same old names and expletives that everyone else is over using!
As John Wayne once said
“Life is hard. Harder if you are stupid”
Another thought…
Maybe they were TRYING to win a DARWIN award?!
That video reminds me of one that a friend and I made for an animal behaviour lecture, except that we did it to show what *not* to do, and to make the point that using force to teach an animal is unnecessary. It was a fun video to make (and it’s fun to watch!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcP7xqqPIV8
That was HILARIOUS!
And I choose to believe that the JRT was merely being inquisitive, and not trying to climb inside the nice horsey……
The Jack Russell sniffing butt is the best.
It’s amazing how many people think that horses are born “broke to ride”… That you can just get on a young horse and they automatically understand what that bit is in their mouth and why it’s there, why that person is sitting on their back and poking at their sides, they know that because you kick that means go forward… AND!! They automatically know how to steer!!
It’s ridiculous. We got a young horse a few weeks ago who’s owner put her dad on him and promptly got dumped off. THEN she decided she should probably send him to a professional. He didn’t have the faintest clue of steering and luckily his calm demeanor has made him a willing learner (though abit slow, but that’s okay) and he was ridden for the first time after learning something and what do you know! He’s doing well.!
This video worries me because they “rescued” the small filly and my god that saddle pad/saddle/and the man trying to mount her and failing horribly seem to be clueless that anything is even wrong.
Please excuse my convuluted sentence above. I was really shocked of the main video on the Fugly site and then came across another video–with a cutesy song–meaning well, but doing not-well-at-all. The saddle pad alone extended from her tail to past her withers. It couldn’t have been a comfortable experience for either the man or the horse. :/
Um, people, that’s how it’s DONE. at the rodeo. Y’all like to clap and cheer when they buck, right? This is funny to people. Like a bucking bronco is really fun and exciting!
Apparently, it’s tradition. No, really! It is!
Why, I don’t know.
Cowboy up;)
That’s not how it’s done– unless you think that this video was a good example of good, safe training that works? Personally, I saw a dangerous disaster and a horse that will never be broke by such methods.
We clap and cheer when we see broncos buck the same way we clap and cheer when we watch a demo derby. We appreciate it, but we also know that’s not the normal way to treat a horse or a vehicle.
Cowboys might have once broke a horse with rough, crude methods– but their horses were merely disposable working tools, to be made usable as quickly as possible, regardless of the consequences. Now we know better. Or at least, we SHOULD.
Smarten up.
Well, you may…..in Europe it is called horse abuse and is illegal!
Not really sure how I feel about it one way or another, but if the horses, bulls and steers did not have bucking straps around their tender parts, and if the “riders” (they are rarely up there long enough for it to be a ride!) were not wearing spurs of a proportion that often leaves me speechless, I think I would feel a lot happier.
We had a little “bucking pony” show come to our County Show , one year, no straps, tiny little 11.2hh ponies (so a weight limit that I was well under) no-one was able to ride them, me included (I lasted two seconds flat) The show was watched all the way through by the RSPCA, then they shut it down. I think they had a point though, as repetitive strain alone would eventually have wrecked the ponies backs, and I am not at all sure how they were “encouraged” to learn to buck in the first place…..
These horses that are ‘broncs’ are selected, bred and trained to do what they do the exact same way we select, breed and train to jump, perform dressage movements, etc… There was a pretty awesome article in one of our magazines “Western Horseman” that talked about one of the bronc farms and how they’re cared for, trained, etc.. The strap actually a guide so they kick out properly, not endangering themselves or the riders (you know, any more than they actually are being on a bucking horse). Like other sports there are suitable horses and not so suitable ones personality wise. Good broncs are worth a ridiculous amount of money. (Now mind, backwoods rodeos you may not have this same treatment)
I don’t have interest in it personally, but I have some respect for it after learning that it isn’t just grab a wild horse and make it stressed out and uncomfortable thinking there’s a horrible predator who’s got him by his gonads so to speak. I mean if our riding horses can learn how to buck without a strap when we’re NOT trying a horse can certainly go through training to learn purposely to do it. I mean if anything they’re more suited for this than some of the other things we do it them. It’s an instinctive reaction in the wild for both fear reactions -and- play… Mind rarely with 180+lbs on their backs unless there’s claws >.>
The bucking straps are *not* “around their tender parts”. The strap can NOT be too tight — that would *prevent* the animal bucking or even moving (there’s a gadget widely sold for milk cows called a “no-kick” that is applied to the same area to prevent the cow from moving during milking). Notice that most bucking straps are PADDED with sheepskin. The strap encourages the animal to kick up high and to buck.
As for the spurs, they are designed to regulations. Notice that you never see spur marks on any of the rough stock. Never. If a stock contractor saw a mark on one of his/her horses, they’d be demanding that the cowboy’s spur be checked — and if it’s illegal, he’ll be disqualified and fined.
The horse’s or bull’s performance is half the cowboy’s score — they’ve got no interest in doing anything that prevents the animal from doing its best to get ride of the rider, because that would get in the way of winning. The harder the animal is to ride, the higher its half of the score.
The horses and bucking bulls are as professional as the cowboys, and they live better. They are well-fed, never over-worked, allowed vacations, properly vaccinated and vetted, have good hoof care, and generally have good lives. Do some fall into bad hands? Yes. Do some top performers in every area fall into bad hands? Yes. But the “name brand” stock contractors not only pay big money for top prospects, but also keep their retirees for their entire lives.
Frankly, if reincarnation sends me around the wheel, I’d like to be a high-class rodeo bronk, please.
And a bucking horse (or bull) is a horse doing a job. Assuming the stock manager and wranglers are competent and know what they are doing, there’s no danger to the *horse* in bronc shows. These horses are selected, quite often purpose bred, used relatively rarely and overall have a decent life unless they’re in the hands of idiots. I don’t see bucking stock as worse than anything else we do with horses. The cowboys who enter those classes are a bit crazy (bull riders are a LOT crazy), but they’re also choosing to do it and aware of the risks, so…yeah. Bronc classes are a different thing from idiots in their back yard with a horse.
What an interesting comparison. And a telling one. A demolition derby uses cars, which the last I looked, aren’t alive. Rodeo broncs are very much alive, aren’t they? Demolition Derbies are not held up as some grand tradition of how it used to be done, and that is precisely why we see lots of really craptastic videos like this. YOU, western people, by clapping and cheering at a horse struggling against a flank, perpetrate the bullshit. Over and over and over.
It’s hilariously funny to see a horse buck. In the same breath, you’ll say these horses are fabulously expensive, sure, some of them are. They are cloning the buggers. Why? Let’s quote from Canada’s equivalent to Western Horseman Magazine, shall we? Jan/Feb 2012, if you don’t believe me.
“Traditionally, the method of breeding bucking horses is all based on numbers….It takes hundreds of foals to get a few who buck”. Sound familiar? “For a rodeo stock contractor, the price of cloning an animal is very steep and the actual value of each animal might NOT be recoverable… It’s just like the racehorse business: if you increase the odds, the better chance you have of winning.” The actual value might not be recoverable, because OMG, the horse might not buck!! So, please breed as many as you can, ayup. Awesome.
(sidenote)Why, oh why, is the PRCA pro-slaughter? And why did they, along with the AQHA, fight AGAINST a ban on the use of double-decker trailers for horses? Hmmm. I so wonder why.
Now, if, I say IF, these horses ARE “born to buck”, what on earth do they do with the horses that aren’t with the program? Hmmm. I hear Euorpean dinner bells ringing. They are using gelding DNA for cloning, because the horses just don’t show that lovely “I wanna kill you” attitude until they’ve been introduced to the “Joys” of “learning how to buck”. Now those are genes we want to propagate, I suppose? The clone of Airwolf (a gelding) is “one of those horses that would look right through you”. Perfect! If he doesn’t buck, he can kill Aunt Sally when she tries to break him! Or he’ll star in a you-tube video, like the above. Lucky horse, eh?
The clone will ONLY be used for breeding. They aren’t even going to try bucking him. Which I also find funny as hell. Performance proven? Hell no, not in rodeo!
Born to buck, always, always makes me laugh. ALL horses will buck. and then quit. But hey, we want them to KEEP bucking, so we flank ‘em, and shock ‘em, and generally scare the ever-loving snot out of them in the chutes. This is GOOD. This is RODEO.
Some of you western folk turn into rabid animals when any part of rodeo is denigrated. Rodeo Broncs are an utter disgrace to watch. I know I’m a minority. Don’t care. I’ll bet you a thousand bucks these idiots in this video love to go to the rodeo, and got their “idears” on horse-training by watching the broncs. ONLY the western discipline celebrates this type of treatment. Or hadn’t you noticed?
Yippee-kay-are you frickin’ kidding me..
Don’t even get me started on the Wild Pony Races…
A heads up, unless someone already posted it:
Wizzard’s Baby Doll passed away from traumatic injuries sustained while rolling/being cast in her stall. They also couldn’t save the unborn baby. A double loss, and certainly a sad situation.
If this is on U-tube does anyone know who this is? Cannibal? Do you know these people? How do you know this pony was a rescue? Do they still have this little girl? Can we here network to have someone from Snarky perhaps find out where this little girl is and check on her? See that she doesn’t end up neglected or on CL with a “Free” or $50.00 price tag on her.
Teekin
Unfortunately, I do not know the young girl or her father. The indication that the horse was a rescue came from the video itself–the girl has text come across the screen proclaiming where the horse came from/how old she is/etc.
It’s a good example of people who probably do mean well, but just don’t know any better.
I have “started” a few horses by teaching them to accept a rider. I had my husband hold a lead line while I put pressure on a stirrup and slowly worked up to sitting on a greenie. After that point of trust, I didn’t need a second (or third or fourth) person. Moving out was usually the same as a walk command on a lead. The first loop around the property did involve a lead line attached to my saddle horn that I could throw out if I needed help. I never did though, I went with the horse’s pace.