You have got to be kidding me...

      Terribly sorry about my recent spike in YouTube rants on the horse world but I really can't seem to stop watching them! Wow, it is so hard to believe how STUPID people can be! There are so many things wrong with this here. I mean, what was that moron thinking?! Every sane (true) horse person knows that horses and concrete don't mix. So why, for the love of pickles, did this guy think that these poor creatures could walk across TILE? I have a hard time my self traversing my small bathroom floor, and I don't weigh Lbs. Oh, wait a minute, what is that whistling sound? Oh yeah, that's right, what I am hearing is the steam pouring out from my ear holes! I find it very hard to find (appropriate) words to describe the way I feel right now. This was the result of one of two things:
1. Ignorance- Which is why I strongly believe in equine education (for the human of course)
2. Idiotic noggin overload- Dur! I don't care about my horses, durrrr, they are just like cars right?
    Come on, people! We can do so much better than this! Why must we not cater to the needs of the animal that not only relies on us for survival, but has carried our fat, lazy butts into battle for thousands of years! (not to mention loyally worked themselves to death and help build society as we know it)

For the Love of Wiffle

    I am sure that most of my readers have heard about the wiffle bat woman video but if not, then look here. I will not go into detail about the sheer idiocy of this "horse woman" but talk about something interesting I found while browsing the interwebs.

  Excuse me? In what way is it better than a whip or crop? It can hurt the horse and yes, you could use it for desensitizing, but NEVER to hit! Easy to use. Oh please! I can see how people could be tempted to use this to "move and control the horse's head". Nice training methods guys! *Sarcasm*
    But really, I should comment on one thing that I noticed about the horse in the video. He has stopped moving   and has locked his legs. I call this shutting down. I have seen it multiple times when the horse has repeatedly been punished or whipped (mostly at the water on XC, in front of a jump, trailers, etc.). At a certain point the horse is to scared and just SHUTS DOWN. Once you get here, it is very hard to get back. The best thing to do is get the horse moving again.
   If anybody reading this ever has issues with loading here are some quick (BUT TEMPORARY) fixes:
1. Open ALL windows and escape doors especially in slant-loads with feed doors.
2. Make the opening to the trailer as wide as possible.
3. If possible, collapse the back tack room of a slant load
4. In a straight load push the divider over.
5. Walk confidently BESIDE the horse.
6. Let him sniff the ramp/step and slowly get in, let him back out if he needs too and reward with scratches while he is IN only, not out.
7. If the step up/ramp is too steep find better ground but make sure that no dangerous gaps are present.
8. Wear gloves.
9. Walk forward with horse up to the back of trailer and DO NOT HESITATE!
10. Don't forget to take things slowly and no mater what: do not get impatient.
11. If the whip MUST be used have it in your left hand and use it being you on the horse's rump.
12. If a SAFE escape route is available and easy for the person to exit but not the horse then do walk up with the horse.
13. ask him to load with encouraging clicking sounds
14. Of course a bucket rattling with feed helps too!
15. sometimes a friend of the difficult horse can set good examples by loading in front of the difficult one

But remember: these are only temporary EMERGENCY fixes every horse should have a day or two set aside to teach loading and unloading in the trailer.

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!

I LOVE this guy!

People that complain about NYC carriage horse abuse need to watch this and ACTUALLY do some research.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXPiZYl3a_o&feature=related

Oh noes!

I am sure that most of you have seen this picture before. This picture is a XC disaster! The turn-out of the pair is dangerous and unacceptable for use on the XC course, schooling or other wise. THIS IS NOT OK!

1. The horse is wearing ZERO boots. Not good. XC is very stressful on a horse's legs. This horse needs at the very least a pair of well-fitting bell boots. The best thing would be bell-boots on front and taped boots on all four legs to protect cannon bone, splint bone, fetlock, and tendons and ligaments.
2. I believe that at this level NO MATTER THE SADDLE FIT a breastplate is very important. It keeps the saddle more secure, especially when going down drops. It is true that the horse is wearing a "breastplate" but the only purpose it serves is to hold the standing martingale.
3. Standing martingales are OK for lower level eventing (just amoeba) however above that they become dangerous because they do not give if the horse falls. I have seen on two occasions (at tadpole level and training level) where a horse has fallen and the accident was made worse by the restriction of the horse's head. Only a running martingale should be used because the loops make it able to slide effortlessly around when no contact is exerted on the reins however it remains useful while the rider had contact.
4. I can't tell but the bit looks too large.
5. The rider is not holding a crop. There is no excuse not to ride with a crop on XC. (if your horse was abused, then desensitize it!) It should always be carried by the rider in case of problems (which are inevitable on XC at some point) If the rider is not experienced enough to use a whip properly then they should not be riding XC.
6. The lower leg position is good and look like she may have had a fight right before the horse leaped into the water. This is a schooling picture, and from experience, learning to do XC for either horse or rider is not always pretty. Trying to figure out the "drop" position can be tricky and scary.
7. Cute face on the horse though he looks pretty smart.

How is this amusing?

Some people just don't get it. I did a google search for "funny horses" and I will admit somethings were pretty dang funny.

   But mixed in among these humerus horse follies are some pictures that aren't quite so funny (usually posted by non-horsey people which isn't surprising)

I don't even think that this is real but, um... WTF?!

Lions, tiger bears, oh my! How is an animal scared out of its mind funny?

Not laughing yet?

FACT: Pony rides are cruel

I hate pony rides. The kind that where the ponies are hooked up to a hot-walker and just walk in a circle,  particularly tick me off. Problems with pony rides:
1. Boring life for animals
2. constant circles are hard on joints
3. most that are uses are minis and some Shetlands
   -Shetlands are OK for use with small children but NOT FULL GROWN PEOPLE!
   -minis should NEVER be ridden by anything but an infant
4. most of the pony ride operators have no clue about how to act around horses

Poor things... here are some examples:
BEST EXAMPLE
Watch till the end
not as bad but still bad
radio show ponies
Now THIS is a pony ride! This is OK with me! (and cute...)
so cute!