Ignorantopia

Dear fellow equine enthusiasts,
   

                                                     I. Am. Speechless.

       I have just recently made friends with a girl in my study group who, as I happily discovered, owns horses. I was so happy to finally have a horsey friend that I can see on an everyday basis. She boards her horses at a self care barn just across the street from my favorite tack shop. Every time I drive by I think "What a lovely place." It is one of those quaint farms that are just so.... artistic. Upon meeting this girl she proceeds to tell me that she is retraining her two western paint horses to do eventing. So of course I am thinking "YES! Finally somebody I can have REAL horsey conversations with! Wa-hooo!"
    But no. She then proceeds to tell me that one of the horses wouldn't stay on the rail when she pulled on the outside rein and she couldn't figure out how to fix this. Here is our conversation (thoughts in red) I would like to point out that at first I gave her the benefit of the doubt:

Me: WTF! And you are training this horse? You madame, need the help of a professional coach. So, do you have a trainer or a coach that can help? 

Her: No, I do everything on my own. I started to ride a year ago and quit lessons about eight months ago. I don't need a trainer I watch Clinton Anderson videos and do Parreli.

Me: What... why... how... when... um... Do you need any help um... exercising your horses. I hate to be a know-it-all but maybe I can squeeze in a few helpful tips on the side. She has no business training horses. Either her, her horses, or somebody else is going to get hurt.


Her: No, it is OK they only get ridden 1-3 times a week anyway.

Me: Oh, they must be young and you don't want to stress them out, riiiight, okay I get it now. So, how old are they?

Her: 2 and 1 and 1/2.

Me: It probably isn't the best idea to be riding them that young.

Her: It is OK. They already have plenty of training in them.

Me: Just walk away before somebody gets hurt. Oh well if you ever need any help you have my number.


Her: Actually, since I want to go to Rolex as soon as possible would you mind teaching me cross country?

Me: Um.... maybe that's not the best idea. You would need a professional coach. And maybe a psychologist! 






      On another particular occasion when doodling occurred and she drew a horse with cloven hooves (she is an AMAZING ARTIST!):

Me: Oh, that's cool is it some sort of unicorn type horse?

Her: No, just a normal one.

Me: Dafuq! Horses hooves are one piece...

Her: No, stupid! Some can have cloven hooves it just depends on the farrier's specifications.

Me: What kind of farrier are you dealing with? *insert questioning look here*




      A very good (and attractive ;D) guy rider that I am friends with said the most... well dumb thing I have heard this weekend, I don't know how he survived pony club. We went to a XC schooling and my horse was sweating and breathing hard. Here is how the conversation went:

Me: Oh, she needs to be cooled down I will be right back.

Him: Give her a big bucket of cold water right now, that will help her out.

(please tell me somebody gets this)

      No joke. These were things that were actually said to me. Why people. WHYYYYY! Please explain to me why, in a world in which Google exists, do we not have any knowledge of the horse what so ever! Ugh. Please. I don't want to sound snooty, but really guys (especially the first girl I told you about) how can we not know basic horse management! This is a reason why certain people should NOT be around horses. Or they should at the very least do some research.

   
     As far as the "trainer" girl goes I really have no words to describe her. We are no longer friends because of an argument over why a picture I saw over her riding in shorts, flip-flops, and a baseball cap was dangerous. She. Was. Jumping.

     People with thick skulls (myself included) really puzzle me. The ones that have no knowledge of horses really get to me (cloven hooves?). They have the nerve to give right minded horse-people advice, but no sense to take advice from people that know what they are doing.

     Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention. That girl? The "trainer"? Yes, I asked her how she found the time between work and school to take care of her horses and do you know what she told me? "Oh, I only clean their stalls out every three days. It is basically the same concept as a hamster cage."

JUST. NO.

     I feel that this is a perfect time (given the_____ of these two people I have discussed) to present to all of my thepostingtrot.blogspot.com readers a brand new land that I have discovered. Ignorantopia! Here lives the utterly and hopelessly clueless:

Whenever I feel as though this is the birth place of the subject I am discussing, this lovely new map will be presented. Enjoy!

Yours Truly,

The Posting Trot

YouTube is... interesting!

     YouTube is an interesting place for horse lovers. I took a sick day yesterday and basically spent the day watching videos. The pure insanity and stupidity of some of these "riders" made the vomiting worse (probably).  I found a few interesting horsey categories.
1. Animal Abuse
     I find that some of these can be particularly accurate and tear inducing. My attention is draw, however, toward people that have created these propaganda videos without the proper education and research. (sounds like PETA to me). This one really makes me mad. I believe that this is what is wrong with the fight against animal cruelty today, people with weak arguments (and grammar) that make these uneducated videos. Here is how the "story line" of this video goes: 1. horse is great; preforms well dressage or otherwise 2. falls down 3. owner/rider beats the horse and starves it. See it here. First off, only a mentally insane person, or an asshat would do something so stupid. Second, WHY WOULD YOU BEAT A HORSE FOR FALLING DOWN?! The person that created this video is obviously uneducated. What is that you say? But maybe that is just her well thought out opinion. I bet ALL of her horses are spoiled! Yeah the probably are. Any person that thinks an impatient pawing horse tied in concrete cross ties with no breakaway capacity is cute should not have any say in the debate, not because they are stupid, just uneducated. And with that I end my animal abuse video rant... maybe not.

    This next video, like the last, has some valid points. It is a good video that flows well and is mostly agreeable. Except for a few BLATANT things. Starting from the beginning: 1. around 0:13 a picture of a cave drawing comes up when Makala is talking about people riding horses. Um... yeah... the people in that video... they uh... ATE THE HORSES! Not really good for her argument. 2.at approximately 1:32 the text says quote "Why did you make me jump so high?" So now jumping is cruel? Trust me if the horse didn't want to jump he wouldn't, and I have the hospital bills to prove it. Plus, she jumps her horse Ringo in this video... hypocrite much? 3. at about 2:18 there is a picture with a horse that has some drainage in his eye. Makala is trying to pass this off as a tear of sadness from the horse. Reality check: horses don't physically cry. And lastly: number 4. How come jumping and dressage were attacked but not racking horses that have had the soring process done? Which one do you think is more cruel? Excuse me? Yeah, that's right.

   Please don't misunderstand what I am trying to say here. I love horses. I am against cruelty and will do anything to help out the cause, but I ALWAYS do my research! I have worked at a racking horse barn just to see first hand how the horses were treated (not very well I'll tell you that much). People just REALLY need to take the time to further educate themselves. Opinions are OK, that is what this rant is, but FACTS must be straight or the whole argument in invalid.

2. Barn Tours
     Type barn tours into the search bar on the main page of YouTube and about 60% of the results will be breyer/model horse tours, 20% will be actual barn tours, 10% will be random stuff, and the last 10% of the results will be horrifyingly dangerous situations that are basically death traps for horses. I could write an entire blog on what is wrong with this farm. But I will leave the watching to you, the reader. Enjoy!

...

     I know, right! These poor girls are unfortunately uneducated and misled by the irresponsible adults who paid for this institution. Behold, my reactions to this video:

Wow maybe this category came out a little harsh. Anyway... on to the next category!

3. Horse Breeding Videos.

   Just. No.

4. Videos that make me sick to my stomach

    Like this one

There are many other but you are probably getting tired of listening to me so, until further notice I bid you goodbye!

Know-it-all

   As a horse person I have come across PLENTY of know it all's. Most were less experienced as I was, even when I just started to ride! They come at you when you least expect it. Hey, maybe they could be right! But then again, maybe not... 
    On one particular occasion a friend of mine told me that I was trailering my horses wrong. He said that I needed to leave my drop-down windows down so that my horses could see out. I knew this was wrong! But he was SO convinced that this would help with stressful trailering that he tried it with his horses. Well a few thousand vet bills later and one eyeball short on one of his horses later... yeah. You get the point. 
    It isn't only in the real world that we find know-it-alls. As most of us know, forums and blogs (ironic right?) are FULL of know-it-alls. People hiding behind their computer and criticizing others. What is really bad is saying bad things about a sport that you have no idea about! People rat on saddle seat, eventing, hunters, dressage, and even HALTER! What is this insanity about halter horses?!?! I found a disturbing article on the famous fugly horse of the day blog (http://fuglyblog.com/ which I LOVE to read!). The article talks about how useless halter horses are and just- UGH! Here read over it yourself: http://fuglyblog.com/2011/12/27/halter-horses-yummy/. The article is originally talking about slaughter but then goes off on other things. Read it? Good. Here is my experience with halter horses. I used to board at private facility with my old pony. They bred appaloosa horses and had some world champs standing at stud. Those horses got ridden everyday. They worked on hills, did trails, some even jumped! They had as much turnout as they wanted but after about 5 hours they were at the fence ready to go back in. They were versatile, (points in DRESSAGE, hello!) athletic, and beautiful. Not even spoiled! 
    Another know it all REALLY pinched an anoyance nerve the other day. The last post made on ihateyourhorse.blogspot.com was this: http://ihateyourhorse.blogspot.com/2010/12/about-to-fail.html. Just so that you know I own a book printed in the 1970s called The World Of Horses (or something like that). The picture in question here was in the eventing section by an article talking about how dangerous it is. Back in the day, horse boots, good helmets, and protective vests were NOT available. Today, to compete helmets and vests are required. Any person, even a non horsey person, can tell that this is from an earlier time. But not this person. They absolutely verbally rip apart this person for ruining a perfectly good horse. Point made? Alright everybody have a great weekend and give your horse a cookie for me! Buh-bye!