Horse Shoeing and Barn Suckage

[Saydrah]

So, before I say this, let me first enunciate the following: I love my barn. I have ridden there for almost 12 years now. I love my farrier. He has shod my horses for almost 8 years now. He is competent and tends to inspire trust in horses (though he sometimes scares humans a bit) and my horses stay sound when he cares for their feet. However, it is well known in the horse world that if you want a good farrier, you deal with terrible customer service, because they'd rather lose a client than be inconvenienced- since any really good farrier is already turning people away at least weekly because he is full up on clients, so more the better if they lose someone.

Anyway.

Yesterday I left work two hours early and drove over 35 miles in blowing snow, at rush hour, to make an appointment to have my horse's hooves trimmed. I worked late two days last week to get permission to leave early, because my farrier will not make evening appointments past 5:00 or work weekends. I made the appointment in plenty of time, only to have someone tell me, "Oh, he was just here, he just left!"

So it turns out the farrier showed up early, checked my horse's feet and decided they didn't need a trim, and rather than call to see if I wanted anything done or let me know, just left! That's an hour and a half of driving I didn't have to do, and in the snow, and while I could have been at work! And if he had stuck around or called, I would have asked that he put front shoes on Ember to help his feet grow, because if they still don't need a trim after 4 months, time for SHOES to make them grow! He finally called to say he could come out next week while I'm working and have his assistant hold Ember for shoes- but I am not sure I trust Ember with a stranger banging on his feet. He was a racehorse and is pretty iffy with men sometimes, though he likes the farrier.

Then I found out the blanket I ordered doesn't fit Ember- even though it is the same size as what he's wearing now. And the catalog makes you pay shipping for returns AND shipping again on the new item you're exchanging it for! ARRGH. I know it's policy, but if I order a 76, isn't it reasonable to expect that it be a 76?

Then the last straw is, as I'm leading my horse through the arena, calling "DOOR!" as I entered on the way to put him back in his stall- let's see, I've got a wet, snowy horse wearing two layers of blankets. I'm not dressed for riding, and we are walking purposefully diagonally across the arena to the other door. A toddler could have told you that I was just going across the arena to the other door.

Does Little Miss Teenybopper riding her horse at breakneck speeds around the indoor arena use spatial reasoning to deduce this? Of course not. She stares at her horse's neck instead of looking where she is going while piloting a 1,200 pound animal, nearly collides with my horse, and in her best sneering Do-You-Know-Who-I-Am voice, complains, "Could you call RAIL if you are going to the door?"

I politely say, "I'm sorry, I thought it was pretty clear where I was headed." I resist the impulse to tell her that perhaps she should use the eyes whatever deity she prefers gave her to tell if there is an obstacle in her path. Because yes, technically, I should have yelled DOOR or RAIL again, 5 seconds after yelling DOOR as I entered the arena- but with ONE single rider in the large arena, one would think she could find some place to be besides exactly where I am obviously walking.

Does she graciously accept my apology? Of course not. She rides off snapping, "Well duh, it obviously WASN'T clear, I almost hit you!"

.....And your inability to look where you are going is MY FAULT?

[Saydrah]

Other barn pet peeves, so long as we're commiserating...

People longeing a nutty greenie in the middle of an arena full of children, when there are three other areas available, with no children in harm's way, for your horse to do his best bronco routine at the end of the long line while you yell, "Whoa! Whoa!" and he ignores you.

Instructors who let tiny children off the longe line in a crowded arena before they are ready to steer their own horses, forcing everyone to interrupt their schooling sessions to dodge meandering school horses.

People who think just because they pay higher board for their horse to be stalled, all the tie rings in the barn belong to them, and if anyone takes the one nearest to the tack room before they get there whose horse is not stalled, pitch an epic hissy fit about how they pay more and should get the best spot to tie their horse.

People who ignore the other available hitch rails and tie their horse where it is clear you had a horse tied, have gone to ride, and will be returning when you are untacked- as evidenced by grooming tools and halter and lead left at that spot. Then they usually complain loudly about having to hand you your halter and lead so you can tie your horse at another spot.

The real winners who, rather than mind their business and groom their own horses, stand over your should and announce, "You're doing up that blanket wrong," or, "You're supposed to pick the hooves in a different order," or some equally inane, totally personal preference statement.

People who get offended if you don't want to chit chat about your life and their kids while riding- excuse me, I'd like to use one of the two days each week I have to train my horse, TRAINING him, please.

13 year olds with horses that cost more than a brand new car, which they blame for every error. It's usually a case EEAS- Error Exists Above Saddle.

The ringsitters who yell, "SPANK HIM FOR THAT!" when your horse acts up. 1. I'm not carrying a crop 2. I can make my own decision about when to discipline my horse and 3. My horse is a sensitive man- the sort who would gladly launch you into the ceiling if you had the unmitigatedly poor etiquette to SPANK him!

[Shabo]

We were always taught to bring the horse in and turn them around to face the door so they don't get used to just rushing in their stall, thus ripping someone's arm off.

My horse is quite the gentleman, but occasionally he acts up. The last time he did that, he wasn't standing still for me to mount (he knows how to do it, and he's pretty spook-free, but he was acting like a jerk that day because the mare he was with was in heat) so I lightly smacked his nose. Certainly wasn't hard enough to hurt him, but he was all like, omg, I'm so sorry, I'll stop! And he did. So we were walking around, and he was acting like he was a nervous Arab (he is an arab, but not a nervous one like he was acting), so I yelled at him to knock it off, and no lie, he stopped short and was just like OMG! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! And he was perfectly fine afterwards. I would never ever dream of hitting him with a crop because he doesn't need it at all, and if I were to hit him with a crop, he would react quite negatively to it. He's smart enough to know when he's being a jerk, and if you get after him, he'll stop.

However, I have had horses that needed to get a good whack with the crop in order to get them to behave. I've noticed that the smaller they are, the more ornery they get. For example, one pony I used to ride I absolutely loved because he had such wonderful gaits, but he made you work to get him to move faster than a snail's pace. The best way to get him to respond to you is to be tough with him right off the bat (IE the strongest leg you've ever had in your life plus a good whack with the crop just to get him to trot! No lie!) but after 2-3 whacks with the crop, he would respond to just your (still incredibly strong!) leg. I don't like to use the crop like that, but this horse was just so lazy that there was no way to avoid it.

Additional pet peeves:

Hunter/jumpers who are not calling their jumps in a tiny indoor and are liable to run into you

Boarders who think they own the ring just because their horse lives there and will blatantly ignore that there is a lesson going on

People who roll leg wraps incorrectly- really not that hard...

People who don't clean bits when their horse is done, especially if they pulled the horse off pasture to ride (icky green gunk dries quickly!)

and others.

[Princess-Snake]

We used to have a horse named Ginger. Ginger was a little wild and uncooperative. Understandable, since she was abused when she was younger. My mom decided to sell her and warned the new owner that Ginger did not trust humans that well. Well, one day, I'm riding the arena on Cody, and I watch this spectacle. Ginger's new owner had a teenage son. The son was out with Ginger trying to impress his girlfriend. The kid tries to mount without a mounting block, slips, and falls on his back. Then he gets a mounting block, and tries to mount on the wrong side of the horse. Ginger calmly steps to the side as he tries to mount her, sending the wannabe cowboy down to the ground. He finally gets up on her, and the first thing Ginger does is walk underneath a tree branch. The branch hits the Lone Star in the face and has him sprawled on the ground again. He wasn't hurt because he had on a helmet. The only smart thing he did that day. I was laughing so hard that Cody looked up at me giving me a strange look.

[Shabo]

Well, in all fairness you weren't hitting the horse because he did something wrong, you were using your leg then tapping with the crop.

True, I wasn't punishing him for doing something wrong, but these were no love taps either. When I say hit him with the crop, I'm talking about reach behind the saddle and hit him so hard you could hear it across the arena and other horses would feel the pain. Then he would move. If you hit him with a "love tap", he would completely ignore you. I've never met such a lazy horse in my life. But in all honesty, if he were for sale, and I had the money to buy him, I would in a heartbeat. Such a cute pony, and an absolute love to work with, just really lazy. And to be fair to him, he used to be a trail horse, so he got really accustomed to ignoring a ton of crap. He would only move off your leg if there was another horse in front of you doing what you wanted him to do, other than that, it was pretty tough love with him. The only horse worse than him was a paint at the same barn that was nearly as lazy, but ornery as well. There was only 2 people at that barn that he would behave for, and that was the manager and the girl that ended up buying him. He wasn't a bad pony, he just gets bored with lesson kids and would give them crap, like not moving, or deciding to go where he wanted, or something like that. He was a PITA, but a good challenge for his current owner.

Ah yes, the farting horse. My horse does that very occasionally but there was another horse I rode (she was a strange one!) that would do that. She was also claustrophobic, so you could only tack her up very loosely tied to the fence, and if she spooked at anything, you had to just get out of the way. She was fun to ride though, as long as she wasn't in heat.

I want to go riding now :-( (no indoor where we keep our horse right now, and no money for lessons at a barn with an indoor)

[Saydrah]

PrincessSnake, that is HILARIOUS! I love when horses are obviously outsmarting their owners. I used to ride a little Quarab named Pooh Bear who had everyone at the barn baffled into refusing to ride him. He'd developed a little trick where as soon as you put your foot in the stirrup, he went right up into the air. The funny thing was, he could follow the rear with one buck, and after that he had no clue where to go- nobody ever stayed on when he reared, they all bailed, so he didn't really know how to get rid of a rider that stuck to his back long enough for him to get his one buck in! Amusingly, after a few repetitions of on and off and staying on, he decided to knock that nonsense off and move forward like a normal horse- he was only three years old, so of course very babyish and occasionally went in seven directions at once if he heard a loud noise, but he ended up with beginning riders on him by the time he turned four. Shoulda seen the dirty look he gave me when I didn't jump off when he reared, though!

Shabo, I find that with lazy horses and former trail horses the best option is to borrow some dog world tactics and use a clicker. Certainly have used the smack approach too, but I rarely carry a crop anymore since having figured out how quickly the laziness and sucking back to away when you start rewarding forward motion- but clicking and treating on horseback is confusing and fiddly until you get the hang of it, so there certainly are situations where a SPANK is called for (and doesn't really hurt badly, since crops are designed only to sting a bit and mostly make noise). Just not on my squirrely ex-racehorse, who is willing to work with anyone on the basis of mutual respect, but will gladly give you a free ride to the next county if you get rough with him.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Ah, yes, farriers. When they're good, they're great, and when they're not . . . you get suck. One time we were picking up my grandmother from the airport, and were late getting home for the appointment. We found the farrier already in the corrals with the horses, which, well, no problem, I guess. She had already finished with the mare, Candy, and had started on Spunky, our newb, and a stallion who was gentle but unpredictable as he'd been severely mishandled by his previous owners.

He was still iffy with the idea of having his feet and legs handled (where he'd been before they declared him as wild and unsafe and simply left him in a round pen and threw him food and hay in the dirt), so he danced around a lot when she was trying to give him a trim. I went out as soon as we got home to go and hold him to make sure he didn't go berserk, and explained this to her. Spunky kept on dancing, and in her frustration, this woman takes the flat end of a HOOF RASP and whacks him in the ribcage with it. Needless to say, we no longer saw a need for her services after that. I can understand if someone's had a long day and is frustrated with an antsy animal, but that generally would come with the job description, on occasion, and I would NEVER hit someone else's animal. Maybe we made too much of the situation, but I thought that smacking a stallion that doesn't know you with a heavy metal object to be entirely uncalled for.

We had one horse that was literally scared of it's own shadow, and was scared of it's own farts. he would let one rip then bolt a couple steps then half-buck LOL. Even funnier were the horses that would let out a toot with each footfall of the trot.

Ol' Spunk was infamous for this as well Though he didn't always spook when he did it. We used to laugh till our sides hurt watching him trot around the pasture with Candy and the foal, tooting with every step and then letting loud ones rip when he bucked. Oddly enough, he would get scared and spook when the dirt in the road was kicked up in an odd pattern, but I could ride him right next to a (stationary) semi truck with both the refrigerator unit and the motor running and he wouldn't give it a second thought.

[Shabo]

Saydrah, if he were my horse, I certainly would have found some other ways to get around his laziness, but alas, I only had 1 hour every time I rode him to get him to behave and continue on with my lesson. If I could work with him every day on my own, I absolutely would have worked on training him, but not the case here. His owner was working with him, and he was better by the time I left that barn, but he still had a long way to go.

[Saydrah]

And of course, ponies will be ponies!

Wonderful but stubborn. I used to ride a little Welsh fellow, aptly named General, who on a good day would pack a toddler anywhere she pointed him- and on a bad day could unseat the instructor in two jumps.

[Shabo]

Yep, I used to ride a little Welsh cross that would perform beautifully for you... then decide to take off across the ring, and nothing you could do would stop him. He especially liked to do this during shows, lol. But he was so highly trained in dressage (level 2 or 3!) that he was around to stay.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I rode for 15 years; sadly don't have the time to do it any more. Here are my peeves tho:

* Snobs. The kind of people who look down on you, just cuz they own their own horse and you just ride the school horses. Was fun tho teaching them a lesson at the annual gymkhana tho. XD

* Know it alls. The kind of person who thinks they know best, even if all they've ever sat on is a seaside donkey. A lot of mothers of leading rein kids fall into this category.

* People who flap their hands around horses.

* People who blame their horses for their own stupidity. I used to ride this great Irish Draught cross named Ebony; she was a bit of a bitch, but if you showed her you were boss, she was fine. This new kid once rode her and couldn't get her to do anything; she was saying, "Get me off this stupid horse and put me on a decent one." I and the instructor were both annoyed with her so I was swapped with her temporarily to show her that Ebony was fine with an experienced rider. She was put right on Ebony after she'd seen me canter her round the school and put her over a jump; not a peep out of the new kid after that.

* Noobs. Yes, you get those in riding schools too. -.- Those are the new riders who after having three lessons ask "When can I gallop?" or "When can I jump?" and then get bratty when told they won't be doing either for ages yet. They also ask to ride the horses that only the experienced riders have, and then sulk when told no. They either give up riding, or hang around for months, annoying people.

* Rich kids. I used to do work for rides in the summer holidays, and it used to get on my nerves and the other work for rides kids when Little Miss Snotty rides up, tack and horse gleaming (not thru her work but thru her daddy's or groom's work), throws the reins to one of us and acts like we're her paid servants. This one girl used to really get on all of our nerves cuz the stable was one where students did the business by the horses they rode, so we just threw the reins back and told her so. She tantrumed and tried to get her mum to get her let off, but the owner told her in no uncertain terms that it was the same rules for everyone.

* Messy people. Put the flipping tack back in the right place, on the place reserved for the horse you're riding; don't just stick it anywhere and certainly not on the floor!

* Leaning back over jumps. Well done, you just pulled that poor horse's mouth and forced them to jump with your fat arse on their rump. Would serve you right if they threw you on the jump next time.


Will probably come up with more later. XD

[DesignFox]

Horsey people! Hello!

I agree with may of your pet peeves. This is why I am glad I ride at a very small barn, with an instructor who doesn't take any crap.

Fortunately, we don't have the snobby kids with the horses that cost more than I make in a year. They annoy me. I have to work very hard to afford the lease that I have, and before that, I worked for all of my lessons doing barn chores. Actually, if it were my choice in life, I'd just work at the barn...I liked doing barn chores and being with the animals all the time.

I'm lucky. The kids where I ride are pretty good eggs. They can get annoying sometimes (they're reaching that teenager phase) but they aren't generally bratty, they do chores on the weekends/in the summer and for the most part appreciate what they have. And like I said, my instructor doesn't take any crap. She won't hesitate to knock one of 'em down a peg if they get too obnoxious.

I've got a great story...Actually, as I write I realized I wrote way too much about the horse I lease and took it all out just so I could tell this gem. (anyone want to talk horsies please PM me! I love to talk about my horse and hear about other people's horse experiences)

Ok, so this is what happened. One day, my instructor notices there's a chunk missing from one of the horses tails. Like someone took scissors and snipped a chunk of hair out. It's important to know that he is a gray- whitish flea bitten. He has a grayish-white tail.

A couple days afterward, the instructor finds gray-white horse hair in the garbage in the bathroom.

Soon after that, the one girl, I'll call her Andrea ('cause it sounds nothing like anyone's name who rides there) comes to ride. While she's there, her mother asks the instructor if she would mind cutting some white horse hair for her. She wanted to make a realistic goatee/beard for a Halloween costume. My instructor's horse has a beautiful white tail. My instructor was a little taken aback, but they are good long standing clients, so she carefully snips some hairs from the underside of the tail for the mother, who thanks her.

Well. Now she puts two and two together. Andrea is known to be a little sneaky from time to time. She stirs the pot occasionally with the other kids, too.

Funny that the only other white horse in the barn is missing tail hair. Funny two, that it ended up in the garbage can. Funny three that someone's mother would ask for white horse hair for a halloween costume.

What the instructor thinks happened- Mom said, "Andrea, ask your instructor if she will cut us some white horsehair." Andrea cut the hair from whatever horse, didn't ask, and hoped no one would notice. She took it home and Mom said, "that isn't white enough." Rather than admit her mistake or ask...she throws out the "bad" hair. She won't dare touch my instructor's horse, so we don't know what she told her mother, but her mother then had to ask...

What did my instructor do? She couldn't call the kid on it, 'cause she couldn't prove it. So, she tells the other kids in the barn, "Oh, gee. Look at [horse]'s tail... it looks like someone cut a big chunk out. Why on earth would someone do that???"

She let the kids ask each other around and wonder aloud at the mysterious chunk of missing tail... Andrea didn't say a word, but she knew that everyone knew what she did.

[Lace Neil Singer]

That girl sounds weird; you are so lucky to only have relatively sane people around where you ride. XD I rode at quite a large stable, so there were a few snobs, noobs and general idiots around sadly. I used to love the annual gymkhana; one of the snobs actually burst into tears and threw a temper tantrum after she came last in the Chase me Charlie. (Race where everyone jumps one jump that keeps getting higher; last person in is the winner.) She came last cuz she jumped badly (check my last peeve), but afterwards she was whining about her horse being expensive and how the race must have been fixed. I came second in that; it certainly was not rigged, she jumped badly. Doesn't matter how much the horse costs, if the rider isn't worth tuppence.

[DesignFox]

Chase me Charlie sounds like a lot of fun! I want so badly to get better at jumping. Unfortunately, this past month has really set me back as far as progress. I've been too sick to ride more than once or twice a week and I've had to stay at a walk/trot because I can't breathe deeply without going into a coughing fit in the cold air...

If she has the nice horse, it's too bad she doesn't learn to ride it well... that really is a shame for both of them.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Yeah; her horse was a part bred Arab, really pretty chestnut but she never rode him properly. Like you said, a real shame.

I came second mostly cuz I was riding Ebony and her hind hooves just clipped the bar as we went over. Just bad luck; but second is good, too. ^^