This bothers me way more than it should...

[swillowness]

I certainly can’t be the only one, but it pisses me off to absolutely no end when people show up at a barn to just pet the horses, play around them, run amok, or ask if they (the people) can ride (often for free). This is not a petting zoo nor a playground. It’s a barn with electric fencing, thousand pound expensive animals, and liability problems waiting to happen.

A group of four kids just walked down the drive way in flip flops and swim suits after looking at the horses and throwing grass clippings at some of them if it costs money to ride the horses.

Yes. This is a lesson and boarding facility for Christ sake. I know many kids just don’t know, and these were possibly an avenue for business, but NO! Go away! RAWR!

And so many people just show up asking to see the horses. Um…No. Again, not a petting zoo. At least most people ask, though. Some just start feeding the horses and petting them through the ELECTRIC fence! Geez…

Please tell me I’m not completely insane for finding this so irritating!

[Preposterous_Ponies]

This is why I love that my boarding barn is surrounding by a forest, up a long drive and not visible from the road.

[midstride]

Agree. I don’t try to watch your (stranger) kid play pee-wee football and give him candy…

I also hate when people find out I have horses and ride, and hint around for chances to ride. I know they don’t know, but it bugs me to no end. They don’t understand the blood,sweat,tears, love I have poured into my horses and sport, and can’t even understand what the difference is between riding competitively and letting a stranger flop around on.

Sorry for mini-rant. …but also not sorry either…

[TWH_Girl]

Not insane at all! That would irritate the crap out of me too. I have a very low tolerance for ignorance and stupidity, I just do. If I didn’t know how to act around something because I was not familiar with it, I certainly wouldn’t be all causal and flippant about it. I think horses and riding are serious business and I get irritated seeing people who don’t know how to ride, trail ride double, bareback, no helmet on a poor horse…ugh. I should really get my own place…

[saddleup]

I could see you being mad about it if it was a private barn, but it’s a lesson facility? A boarding barn? My old BO acquired several new clients over the years who wandered in with their horse-crazy child to see the horses and ask some questions.

Ended up doing years of lessons, buying a horse, boarding there.

I know it most often doesn’t end that way, but you never know.

[Gorgonzola]

Not at all.

I was tacking up my horse when a random car pulled up and out came a dad and a little boy. They came up to me and started asking questions.
I asked that they back up from horse as they were both in sandals. I turn around to grab my saddle to put on my horse and BAM kid is up on my horse’s back, while he is tied to a post, with just a saddle pad and lamicell on his back.

I tell the dad to take the kid down immediately, as it’s not safe.
“Can’t he just go for a ride?”
“No, take him down, or I will.”
“Come on, this is fun!”
I remove the child, and ask what they are doing at the farm.
“Well the gate was finally open, so we took our chances. I’m glad you’re here, otherwise I was going to have to catch one of the horses and put all the stuff on myself. I guess that’s what I’ll do now, if you won’t help us.”
“Well, as you were not invited on to the property, you are trespassing. I can do 1 of 2 things if you don’t leave. 1) Call the cops 2) Call the Barn Manager, who was a sniper in the Army and doesn’t take kindly to trespassers.”
“These horses are here for everyone to enjoy! Why are you being so rude?”
“These are privately owned animals. They are NOT here for you to ‘enjoy’.”
Barn Manager pulls up, “What’s the issue here?” I tell him what’s going on.

Barn Manager: “Sweet, I’ve been needing some target practice. Hey Buddy, what do you bet I can shoot out all 4 tires on your car there?”

Dad flees with Kid, just as BM grabs his shotgun out of the bed of his truck.:lol:

ETA: This was a private boarding facility. No lessons, no lesson horses. Just individuals who were invited by the Barn Owner.

[Kwill]

Lighten up, people! What’s wrong with non-horsey people expressing interest?

Sheesh, no reason to be mean because people don’t know anything. We all had to start somewhere.

Sounds like it does bother a lot of people, but doesn’t bother me.

[Kwill]

[QUOTE=Gorgonzola;7692237]
Not at all.

I was tacking up my horse when a random car pulled up and out came a dad and a little boy. They came up to me and started asking questions.
I asked that they back up from horse as they were both in sandals. I turn around to grab my saddle to put on my horse and BAM kid is up on my horse’s back, while he is tied to a post, with just a saddle pad and lamicell on his back.

I tell the dad to take the kid down immediately, as it’s not safe.
“Can’t he just go for a ride?”
“No, take him down, or I will.”
“Come on, this is fun!”
I remove the child, and ask what they are doing at the farm.
“Well the gate was finally open, so we took our chances. I’m glad you’re here, otherwise I was going to have to catch one of the horses and put all the stuff on myself. I guess that’s what I’ll do now, if you won’t help us.”
“Well, as you were not invited on to the property, you are trespassing. I can do 1 of 2 things if you don’t leave. 1) Call the cops 2) Call the Barn Manager, who was a sniper in the Army and doesn’t take kindly to trespassers.”
“These horses are here for everyone to enjoy! Why are you being so rude?”
“These are privately owned animals. They are NOT here for you to ‘enjoy’.”
Barn Manager pulls up, “What’s the issue here?” I tell him what’s going on.

Barn Manager: “Sweet, I’ve been needing some target practice. Hey Buddy, what do you bet I can shoot out all 4 tires on your car there?”

Dad flees with Kid, just as BM grabs his shotgun out of the bed of his truck.:lol:

ETA: This was a private boarding facility. No lessons, no lesson horses. Just individuals who were invited by the Barn Owner.[/QUOTE]

Some serious insanity here on the part of the father … that’s pretty bizarre.

[Gorgonzola]

[QUOTE=Kwill;7692241]
Some serious insanity here on the part of the father … that’s pretty bizarre.[/QUOTE]

Ya, they made the gate a remote one after this experience. And added security cameras! I love my BO!

[midstride]

[QUOTE=Kwill;7692239]
Lighten up, people! What’s wrong with non-horsey people expressing interest?

Sheesh, no reason to be mean because people don’t know anything. We all had to start somewhere.

Sounds like it does bother a lot of people, but doesn’t bother me.[/QUOTE]

I get that. But I think there is a difference in being respectful and wanting to learn, and acting entitled (as in post above yours) and willfully ignorant. I can explain stuff to people when they genuinely want to know, no problem, but when just want to use me so they can play cowboy or don’t listen…no thanks.

[KateKat]

[QUOTE=Gorgonzola;7692244]
Ya, they made the gate a remote one after this experience. And added security cameras! I love my BO![/QUOTE]

I can’t believe the father actually thought the horses were there for everyone to enjoy? WTF?!? Its not like they are a park or government owned piece of property that everyone pays taxes to support. IN-FREAKING-SANE!

[RhythmNCruise]

I’ve had to tactfully withdraw any “horsey time” access to my best friend’s kids. I used to give her daughter “lessons” (glorified pony rides) a few years ago. I was trying to be nice, but the girl listens to no one and despite all of her enthusiastic talk about wanting to ride and show, she has no interest in learning and even less in working hard. Some of it can be blamed on her young age, I guess, but she was 9 when she was coming out to ride, that’s not terribly young. While I was distracted with her, her two younger brothers were usually running all over the farm with their mother hot on their heels trying to keep them out of mischief. I got sick of the girl refusing to listen, yanking in my horse’s mouth and confusing him to the point he’d just stop and look at me like, “Really?” He’s my retired AQHA show horse, raised, broke, trained, and shown exclusively by me. He’s an absolute saint on hooves, but that was what bothered me so much. He isn’t used to inexperienced riders, so he was trying his heart out to do what was being asked of him. Unfortunately, he was punished for it every time, and no matter how many times I tried to get the girl to listen, she’d choose to instead tell ME what she was going to do.

The last “lesson” was on the lunge with a halter and no reins for her. She wasn’t happy, and thankfully my friend seems to have gotten the hint. Every once and awhile she’ll mention her girl wanting to ride, and I suggest looking into barns with lesson programs. She usually replies, “Well, she just wants to play around a little. Nothing serious.”
Exactly. That’s why she’s not torturing me and my horse anymore.

[the_other_mother]

Im so glad my barn, paddocks and horses are behind the house, at the back of the property and not accessible from the road! I would worry if my horses were up close to the road and people had access to them. Even so, I have a drive way bell that rings whenever anyone drives in, a gated driveway at the road, and liability signs visible posted. Not.taking.any.chances.

[Daventry]

[QUOTE=Kwill;7692239]
Lighten up, people! What’s wrong with non-horsey people expressing interest?

Sheesh, no reason to be mean because people don’t know anything. We all had to start somewhere.

Sounds like it does bother a lot of people, but doesn’t bother me.[/QUOTE]

Agreed! For what it’s worth, this is how I basically got my start in the horse world. Growing up on the Saskatchewan Prairies, the city agricultural grounds had two skating rinks attached…to a riding stable of all things! You would walk through the door on the second skating rink and enter into the seating area in the indoor arena.

While my brother was playing hockey and my parents were watching, I would go and sit and watch the riding lessons, or go back into the stabling area and feed the horses carrots and apples I had brought from home. Sometimes, some of the riders would take me around and show me some of the horses. Oddly enough, I never asked my parents for riding lessons at the time…just liked to go back and pet them. When we eventually moved out to Alberta, I had the opportunity to start taking riding lessons and obviously fell in love with it.

For people who have never been around horses before, they don’t understand they shouldn’t wear flip flops or that they shouldn’t go and pet the horses. Out in our area, there are dude ranches all over the place, where people can stop in and go for a guided trail ride. To a non-horsey person, any barn with horses may be an invitation to see if trail rides are available.

Life is too short to be that irritated. If I hadn’t been allowed to sit and watch the riding lessons or go back and pet the horses in the barn when I was younger, I likely would never have started taking riding lessons! Fast forward 30 years later and I’m an EC & USEF judge, trainer, breeder, stand three stallions, do our own ultrasounding & freezing semen and get hired for court cases as an equine expert witness…and I honestly owe all of that to the couple of riders who took the time to show me around the stable all those years ago and cause me to fall in love with horses.

[HorsesinHaiti]

In reference to the Entitled Dad a few posts above: Good grief. POTABLE WATER WELLS WITH HAND PUMPS are not even ‘for everyone to enjoy’ here in Haiti! You have to help with the upkeep or ask the pump manager for some grace. Otherwise, surprise! the pumps get broken every few months, no one has water, and the intended users get too discouraged to keep paying repairs. If it’s true for the neighborhood water source, it’s true for a private animal.

Just want to ask if this is a lesson barn or a private barn? want to ask a few questions? It’s nice to try to accommodate casual interest, but people have to show some basic respect for safety and for private property. I like the car analogy - you wouldn’t walk up and ask to drive someone’s sportscar, don’t ask to just ride the horse.

[ACP]

Once at a show at the Kentucky Horse Park over the fourth of July, I had to ARGUE with several sets of parents.

No, your child can’t ride.
But I’ll sit behind him/her.
No.
But he/she wants to ride.
Go get lessons, I have a show horse, not a lesson horse.
Well, can we cut some of his tail for a keepsake?

OMG, awful. Just dumb as a box of rocks.

I finally asked him, “If you had a really expensive sports car, say about $100,000 or so, and you could never replace the brakes, and I didn’t know how, would you let me drive your car?”

He got the point and went away, with the brat handing on his arm and pulling at him, and yelling, “Make her let me ride!”

[horsepoor]

[QUOTE=Preposterous Ponies!;7692220]
This is why I love that my boarding barn is surrounding by a forest, up a long drive and not visible from the road.[/QUOTE]

Replace “boarding barn” with “my house” (where my horses live too), and I’m with you!

[Gorgonzola]

[QUOTE=HorsesinHaiti;7692373]

Just want to ask if this is a lesson barn or a private barn? want to ask a few questions? It’s nice to try to accommodate casual interest, but people have to show some basic respect for safety and for private property. I like the car analogy - you wouldn’t walk up and ask to drive someone’s sportscar, don’t ask to just ride the horse.[/QUOTE]

Not a lesson barn, a private home with 80% of the horses owned by the BO. He only invites good friends who are uninterested in drama! It’s been the happiest 5 years of my life!

I was happy to answer questions, after they backed up from my ‘likes to dance around while being tacked up’ horse, since they were in sandals. But Dad took that as ‘Oh, lets get our feet out of the way by throwing the kid up there!’
I’m not nice to anyone who messes with my horse, or anyone who thinks Open Gate= Free Horses for anyone who wants to play!! Haha

[Lady_Eboshi]

I usually wink at the kids’ Mom or Dad, and give them the names of two prominent local lesson programs that the kids are JUST the right age for . . . :winkgrin: And tell them we don’t do that here. And about the Vicious Horses lawsuit.

[AmarachAcres]

The dad who was going to saddle up a horse takes the cake.

I love sharing the horses to people who are pleasant about it, because as others have said, that is how I got my start.

The entitled ones need a nerf bat up the head though.