I must say, I wish that the “Something, anything cheery” thread could be moved from CE to the Off Topic forum.
I’ve had mostly very great experiences with horse people throughout my life. A few backbiters, like with any group, but I just didn’t hang around with them.
Just curious, why do you wish for that thread to be removed? I think it’s quite fun!
I love it. I don’t want it to be removed, just relocated to the Off Topic forum. Since many people don’t visit the Current Events forum, I think more people would see it in Off Topic. 
You can start a new topic here…
Then, so many of the fun things on that thread may be lost.
Perhaps @Moderator_1 can move it if they think it’s a good idea.
You could give the thread a new clever name. 
Lots of people who post on this topic don’t got to CE.
Edited to add: the thread was started in CE as an antidote to the often negative political news.
That’s why I was hoping it might be moved to off topic, because some people don’t visit current events. Not all of the cheery thing are horse related, thus the thought that off topic might be the place for it.
Surely a few of you also have positive stories to share.
I have had great support in the horse world. Specifically, this forum back in the day.
Horribly Sad News - Jingles for Nootka - Sport Horse Breeding - Chronicle Forums (chronofhorse.com)
Of course, Ive come accross my share of A**holes too 
That’s interesting. I would imagine it’s difficult as well: we’re participating in a sport where many of us ride under instruction, so we’re constantly being corrected, ‘judged’, explained to. Seems a natural extension of that to becoming someone who corrects, judges, explains. (I also imagine this would be the case in any setting where one is willingly under instruction, and trying to improve. Improvement requires analysis.)
I kind of didn’t think much about this angle when I saw the original post, tho. I thought more about how horse people seem, to me, to often be missing the ability to read social cues and/or don’t spend time on the human sides of relationships (because they’re spending a whole lot of time elsewhere). My experiences with horse people demonstrate that they are also some of the most generous people, too, because they have an understanding of this somewhat esoteric field, or at least an empathy for what someone in a hardship might be going thru.
My horse people down in San Diego were a ragtag bunch, but when we needed to do something (evacuate horses from fire, fund raise to buy our riding grounds, fight City Hall who wanted to impose severe limits on horse keeping), we were elbows locked with each other. I was there a long time, and haven’t found such an embrassive home since, but there are other horse associations around that I am sure are similar in nature.
I started this thread on Off Course about the Colorado Wildfires.
“Once again over 100 horses evacuated to The Ranch in Loveland, and once again the community has stepped up and lent their trailers for the evacuation effort. Big trailers of hay have arrived and people are bringing supplies, so much so that they say they are set and don’t need anything more at this time. 
Horse people.”
“The Alexander Mountain fire is now 6,800 acres with 0 containment. There are two other wildfires burning as well. Firefighting resources are stretched thin.”
The fire is much larger now so I’m sure the number of evacuated horses has increased.
Anytime you get passionate people together, there is going to be conflict and egos.
Combine the monetary and time output that horses require…
It really is not just horse people, any group of passionate people is going to have drama.
Another part of it, I feel. We brush off work drama because it is work. The horses are supposed to be our relaxation, so the drama hits different.
At least twice a day, I go to respond to something on here or social media. Most recently, I read a response to one of my posts, and my fingers started typing… Did you even READ my post? or just respond. Then I deleted it. No, it was obvious the point of my post was overlooked by someone that just wanted someone to be wrong. I don’t care to internet scream at people that are not prepared to listen.
I ask my students to leave the arena if they are not listening, I can remove myself from a situation the same way.
As a third generation HS English teacher, this is my default. Luckily, maybe, because I was a dance student and teacher for a few decades, too, and a lifelong rider – ergo student – I can sometimes manage this teach-y, explain-y reflex in a way that enables me to keep few good friends.
And yes, in the disaster-help department, horse people show up. In the first hours of the Thomas Fire, Dec. 2017, the prep school where I taught had to evacuate 35 horses directly in the fire’s path. Ignited about seven miles away, carried on winds blowing 50 mph in our direction, this fire was the first of several huge, high octane California wildfires. It took all the riding staff, the school’s three trailers, two staff-owned rigs, and basically anyone who knew anyone with a trailer to get the horses to safety.
If you’ve ever loaded horses into strange trailers in 50 mph winds and pitch black – power lines started the fire, so electricity had been cut – you have some idea of what this task was like and people volunteered to do it. Despite the sandblasting and the increasing smell of smoke, the horses and people got it done. Within a few hours of our evacuation, the girls’ dorm had been destroyed, and the fire was burning close enough to the barn to melt a huge section of rubber mats.
Pulling in one direction, we’re mag-freaking-nificent.
I’ve been deeply involved in book publishing, THEATER, running, various literary fandoms, and many other toxic subcultures. I still think the horse world is the craziest, simply because you’re dealing with people with a much higher risk tolerance than the average person, safety-wise and financially. This is true of every income bracket in the horse world. The Internet quarterbacking happens everywhere, but the stories of people doing physical harm to one another or to animals in the horse world adds another level of crazy.
Plus, some people who might not feel comfortable criticizing someone directly will do so because they want to “save” the person’s horse–i.e., say things about a rider’s weight, what the rider is feeding their horse, the rider’s discipline–in a way that would be hard to justify in other contexts if an animal wasn’t involved.
I’ve met so many fascinating, literate kind horse people in my life. It’s just that the horse people who fit the stereotype…whoa, were they crazy.
Horse people are definitely craziest but HOLY MOTHER OF GOD are fiction writers a close second. Talk about cliques!!
The best thing about horse people is that they tend to put the horse ahead of anyone’s feelings. Therein lies our strength. It doesn’t matter if you’re a top athlete or trainer. If you handle a horse in a cruel manner, you will feel our wrath.
You are dead on
Yeah you’re right, it does belong on Off Topic but I think the OP put it in the CE section because people can get really heated on there. Mods probably like that idea, because the post is still there.
I never thought of it that way.
I’m in Colorado too and I was going to comment the same thing. Horse people, at least around here, show up in a big way for each other. It warms my heart. Trailers posted everywhere to help evacuate, people offering up their private farms to house animals, all the donations.
That’s what I’ve seen here in Colorado as well. When we came close to evacuating due to a fire just over the next ridge (luckily it started snowing and we didn’t have to leave) and I realized it had been ten years since any of my horses had been on a trailer, I had offers to bring a trailer over and see how well they loaded. My friend came over with her slant load, and we tried it. I was pleased to see them just walk right in. My large pony, Salt, seemed mad that we didn’t go anywhere. When he saw the trailer coming in, he was practically jumping up and down and asking “where are we going?” That was a huge comfort to know they would load, and I had a couple of offers of three spots on trailers if we ever had to evacuate. Luckily we did not.
Rebecca
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