I’m not even sure. My friends and I just stood there with our mouths hanging open there was so much crap on that poor animal. Too much dumb at once.
Oooh yes I always have my horses able to do this, it really helps in tense situations.
For the ones thinking it means “crank horse’s head down”, picture it more like when a horse is just chilling with its head lowered. It’s not a dynamic thing (not done to influence movement). It’s kind of like taking a deep breath and releasing tension in your jaw and neck, but for a horse.
2 Likes
re trailers and BLM:
I have a stock trailer with a full size door then a ramp, which is absolutely ok. So horses run up the ramp, door gets shut/spring automatic latch, then you can go in and lift up the ramp which closes outside the door.
What they want is a door you can slam closed FAST!!! from outside the chute. A ramp closure means too much time and they would have to get into the chute after the horse(s) have been run into your trailer and then they’d be the only thing between the wild horses and a pathway back out. Not a good thing.
2 Likes
Well, I got basically chewed out for telling another boarder they needed to drain the hose after hooking it up in sub zero temps.
They thought that unhooking it was the same as draining it. Uh, no. They were super indignant when I called them out on it. I was as nice as I could be, while still telling them I wasn’t going to do it for them…
I swear some of these people wouldn’t know how the place actually runs if their life depended on it. Several frozen hoses this winter, now I know what happened.
11 Likes
geezus…
1 Like
I’m not a big Craigslist Browser, but I jumped on a couple days ago to scroll through trailer listings (my favorite past time) and ran across this ad:
‘Help need a free horse’
I know longshot but my daughter has recently rode horses with some friends and asked for a horse and I just can’t afford to buy one shes really needing a hobby and I think this would be great I have a lil trailer and live on a few acres but just can’t afford to purchase one right now.
4 Likes
She’s the same one that called up her farrier to tell him what a terrible job he did… while not being able to pick her horse’s feet up 50% of the time (horse just says no, and grows roots). She wanted my backup there, and I flat would not support her decision to call the guy and give him the what-for. I told her to look into other farriers if she wasn’t happy, don’t burn the bridge.
She’s a real special one. It’s a shame, because her young daughter is super nice with a lot of potential, and I’d love to have the girl ride my horses if she wanted.
Between her and her husband, it’s a real peach. I have not had confrontation with them, but have stopped talking to them altogether. They have nothing to offer me. The only one I talk to is the little girl.
When the little girl is riding their horse, the mom is ultra micromanaging and you can hear the girl muttering “mom… mooommm…” because she’s embarassed. 
1 Like
Oh boy. That’s a doozie.
I have seen variations of that ad on local CL. I just wonder if it is somebody like that vet student at Tuskegee ( forgot her name) that is collecting them for free and taking them to the auction.
6 Likes
That would be my first thought.
2 Likes
I had a tb mare that you knew was going to spook 3 strides after it happened; I was on a percheron cross one day and something happened to spook her. I swear, I could feel the “spook thought” leave her brain and run down her spine to her hind end. I was completely ready for her spook, which amounted to 1 sideways step.
9 Likes
Good point! Locally, someone has been looking for a free mini/pony & cart & free harness (or free goat) for their “kid to ride around in”. Ad has been up so long that kid must have their Driver’s License by now. If they even exist…
My contribution this week: a FB acquaintance that I’ve never met irl bought a young import by forming a syndicate. Plan is to show 1.10-1.30 ish this season. Nothing too crazy there. Until two weeks ago, when there’s an incident where FB person is thrown when young import explodes within the first 10 seconds of the first ride. They take to FB Live with the sordid tale of a dishonest dealer in Europe who conned them with sale video of the horse jumping 1.20 when it had actually only been backed 2 weeks prior.
There were more red flags ignored than Lenin & Trotsky impersonating matadors in a May Day parade in Red Square. The biggest being that even if the horse had never been ridden, the groundwork FB person describes doing in preparation for their first ride on the horse would’ve been sufficient to get it to the point a pro could get on. And how do you not recognize that the horse clearly has massive holes in its training in the first place? Well, apparently because FB person who told their syndicate they were investing in a GP contender that would be competing at 1.20m this season has…
… never ridden in a USEF-recognized show. At any height. And only just joined as a fan this year. (No FEI number, either.) I’m not sure what the investors have invested in. 
11 Likes
From last night.
So, I loaned my bareback pad to one of the ladies that follow Mister Trainer around. It was her first time riding bareback. This pad has a real cinch and a latigo. It’s a nice pad, and I’ve had it for forever.
At any rate, I’m riding my Old Man Horse around, she puts it on on in the aisle and asks me “how does it look?”
Guys. Instead of a cinch tie, she had wrapped the tail of the latigo around and around the tightened portion of the strap. My eyes were wide realizing the implications of what I was seeing…
I said “well, the knot is wrong, but come in the arena and I’ll show you how…”
Guys. She had been doing her SADDLE up that way!! I flat out told her “eventually, your saddle will fall off with you in it if you only wrap the tail and don’t secure it somehow.”
UN. BE. LIEVABLE. that this trainer can take these people’s MONEY and not even either a)know how to or b) teach them how to knot a latigo.
I am DUMBFOUNDED.
11 Likes
Oh! I have a sweet and charming one for a change of pace. I have delightful neighbors who enjoy having the horses next door, but know very little about them. They asked for and received, permission to feed treats occassionally over the fence.
Part of our routine is to rotate paddocks every couple of weeks, and the horses always take off and play and act silly when turned out in the new paddock. (Otherwise they are a sedate, late middle aged bunch.)
Neighbor once asked me when were going to move paddocks again, because she and her husband loved to watch the horses rejoicing.
For the rest of my life, when I turn horses out and they play, I will think of it as “rejoicing.”
67 Likes
Love that.
I joke and say we should be happy with them when they play under saddle… 
4 Likes
that is so freaking dangerous. WOW. I have not ridden in a western saddle in over 20 years and I still remember how to cinch up properly.
2 Likes
hahaha I love how you write! I might borrow this phrase for later 
9 Likes
Aww, thank you! Have at it 
I learned the tie a western cinch from an Austrian woman who was on a mission trip to Texas when she met her Virginia-born husband. And if that doesn’t just about sum up America, I don’t know what does 
3 Likes
When you say “around and around the tightened portion of the strap” do you mean between the rigging dee on the saddle and the cinch ring?
1 Like
Yes. I think. The part of the latigo that goes between the saddle (pad in this case) and the girth.
This was not a conscious choice to avoid a knot under the knee. She had never seen a cinch tie before. The loops she made were loose and messy.
1 Like
