What horsey things do you do in non-horse situations?

What weird horsey things do you do in non-horsey situations? When I can’t sleep, I often count slowly to myself. I noticed recently that I always start with “land” then move on to one…two…three. :laughing:

5 Likes

— I press my arm like a leg yield to get Mr. Zuzu’s Petals to walk straight when we’re alongside one another. Very one-sided. He drifts into me.

— I cluck at the cats to get them moving. Also give a deep “HEEEEYYYY!” when they’re hooliganing it.

— When dear Zuzu the doggie was alive and we went for walks, “Whoa” to halt on leash before crossing streets.

10 Likes

I have caught myself holding handles on things like a pair of reins- with my little fingers underneath!

I have patted/put my arm against vehicles while walking behind them.

I’ve clucked at slow traffic and my vehicles, and “whoa’d” them. I’ve also gone into a slight two-point over speed bumps!

11 Likes

I hold my dog leash like reins and give half halts (including engaging my core) before change of pace or direction.

12 Likes

Said the words “order of go” in a work context for the order of presenters speaking during a series of demos.

had no idea it wasn’t a phrase used in other contexts. have been working in private equity / ib and tech for over a decade and it wasn’t until my most recent employer that someone was like “wtf does that mean”

18 Likes

I wrapped my kids with vetwrap when they pulled or twisted something in tennis. They realized that all my medical information comes from horse injuries.

When I was a teenager, I remember riding my bike past a tractor and wondered whether the bike would spook.

11 Likes

Maybe TMI here… but when I finish my shower, before I step out of the tub I turn my hands into sweat scrapers and scrape as much excess water off my body as reasonably possible.

I once, and only once, clucked at my DH when he needed to move over in bed. That almost ended in divorce. But kicking is fine!

18 Likes

When I’m walking the dogs I’ll hold the leashes (I have 2 dogs) like reins and “half halt” when they pull. And I’ll even remind myself “don’t forget the release!” :joy::see_no_evil:

10 Likes

I do this! I also tighten my core when driving around tight corners and try to equalize my balance so I’m not sitting and pulling unevenly on my reins, err steering wheel. Wouldn’t want the truck to brace against the bit, err, tie rods.

20 Likes

This is the way since the human version costs twice as much as the horse version even though it’s the exact same thing (I say, having wrapped various sprained parts of my own body with it on multiple occasions).

I too hold dog leashes like reins and will walk both my dogs with one hand like I’m holding the reins while going on a trail ride, ha. I use a lot of the same phrases with them that I use with horses (easy, steady, etc.) combined with that particular tone of voice that the horses get. If I count steps when I’m running (you know, to make it go faster because that’s clearly how that works) I do tend to count “one two three four, two two three four, three two three four” etc. since that’s how I count strides to keep track of them when I course walk.

I’ve also somehow managed to become the person in my family that everyone brings leather items to when they’re in desperate need of some TLC, which is arguably not that weird but still highly amusing to me. Apparently cleaning saddles also makes me the most qualified person to resurrect my brother’s wallet after he puts it through the washing machine multiple times.

7 Likes

I took my car in for a new tire and told the man behind the desk that it was “the outside hind”. He looked really puzzled. Worse, I had to actually think for a moment to translate that into the less concise “the back wheel on the driver’s side” (I’m British).

The British army used to have Landrovers with a particular, though not common, configuration in which the spare wheel was mounted on the side of the vehicle. These were named “Wolf” for “Wheel Outside Left Fore”.

9 Likes

When my slow dog of a car is being a turd about downshifting and getting going when on an entrance ramp, I growl “GIT” or “COME”. Sucker needs to stay in front of my leg, dammit.

3 Likes

Whenever I drive over RR tracks, I go into a modified 2-point :wink:

8 Likes

In the 40 years I taught HS I used a great deal of horse jargon in my classrooms --now up, on deck, in the hole, etc as we did class activities. The usual saying whoa to my truck, or clucking to the dog. I exercise daily and mentally envision what muscles I will use for various horse activities (mounted archery I do standing in my stirrups --so lots of core) --squat-thrusts --two point o/f although I don’t jump any more. Sometimes when I’m waiting where there are many people, I evaluate their stride and look for confirmation details --tracking, bench knee, over striding, etc.

3 Likes

I clucked at my boss so he’d move over so I could see too. As a former rodeo guy, he stepped right over. Didn’t even have to stick my finger in his side.

28 Likes

Here’s a story about horse people in non horse situations for ya…

I had a GP doctor, for years. I enlisted him and signed up as a patient soon after he had graduated from Doctor School. I knew him quite well as a patient. I liked him, liked how he listened to me when I told him about what ailed me, and he looked after me well for several decades. I advised my (horse owning) friends to also sign up at his office when they were looking for care from a GP doctor. Several did so.

I took various ailments, usually equine related, to him for evaluation and treatment. He would often stand there, looking back at me, incredulous. He said, “You know, you horse people… you and your friends you have sent to me, never cease to amaze. You come in to see me, with some amazing injury, which often looks severe, and tell me that you’ve been treating it with some horse cream, and a bandage, and that it’s looking “so much better now”. And I think that it must have looked quite horrendous. And you nod, and carry on with the horse medication, and it gets better. It’s all quite amazing, you horse people.”

I had been poulticing a pus producing burst cyst on my back one of the times I saw him. With Ozmo paste and plastic. It had to be surgically removed to fully resolve, but I had it quite nicely dried up by that point. He said “Ozmo Paste???”. The torn achillies tendon (from pushing a loaded wheelbarrow filled with wet manure up the ramp to dump into the shitbin in the snow), that I had bandaged up with vetrap, he said “carry on” with the mild exercise and support… it was healing well. Rattling lungs, from the secondary bacterial infections from initial respiratory viral infections- his response was “Impressive!!!”, and prescribed the required antibiotics.
He said that treating horse people was a new experience in incredulousness for him. He had previously not known that such people existed.

24 Likes

When my car was hit by a motorcycle going 100 mph and I was trying to stop it, I yelled “Whoa!” at it.

2 Likes

I poked Mr. Cayuse in the ribs once and told him to “get over” fortunately he had a good chuckle over it.
I have not ridden in years but I still practice canter departures in my head when I’m almost asleep.
When I’m a passenger in a car and bored, every fence, fallen tree, stone wall, whatever, looks like a jump.

6 Likes

Pretty much all of my medical advice to my husband starts with “well, if you were the pony I’d…” He hates going to the doctor so he’s usually pretty willing to put up with my at-home vet solutions.

I definitely hold everything like reins - grocery bags, dog leash, the steering wheel, etc. My dog knows what “whoa” and a cluck means.

I count my strides when I walk between sidewalk cracks and lines in parking lots, and when I’m approaching the curb on a sidewalk I like to try to get there at a nice distance.

7 Likes

always getting on bicycles from the left side!! Feels so weird to get on from the right…

18 Likes