Why are "OTHER PEOPLE" such a nuisance

[Mossy]

Due in part to lack of facilities I do our schooling whilst hacking, and the looks and comments I get hacking a highland pony in a Pelham and two reins is starting to annoy me! He goes a treat, beautifully light, responsive and balanced, no overbending which he often does schooling in a snaffle. I don't make comment about the ubiquitous flash noseband or 3 ring gag so why do I get it in the neck from total strangers about a pelham and two reins? Schooling out and about gets Moss concentrating whereas exercises in a school switch him off altogether. For instance where in a school can you do a balanced collected trot using different gradients, or prove you can leg yield despite the odd distraction aka sheep!

[Queenie]

Coz life would be too simple, stress free and fun without them. Anyway what do mean a highland pony can do leg yield and go on the bit.... only joking feeling very sarcastic today, I been arguing with my mare's breeder AGAIN as I'm not riding her... I'm beginning to believe goldfish have a longer memory span than him.

[Harriet]

I can sympathise totally I've posted many topics about my awkward Arab who needs to be completely retrained I got him just recently and he can barely go in a circle of course his poor performance is certainly down to the way I ride and not to the fact he's never done anything in his life before. I just get that feeling people are thinking 'I bet he wouldnt do that with me....' OH YEAH how much you wanna bet then??
The most comical thing was... we have trouble with puddles its on the list of niggles I need to sort out with him, Out on a hack recently my fellow hackee said "your going to have to get him sorted out you know, if you go over a cross country course he'll drop you right in it at a fence", eeerm yes I realise this, but one thing at a time ok, how about we concentrate on trying to achieve collected trot first or maybe even jumping his 1st jump...jeeez!
Thats an example of just one of the 'USEFUL' comments I've had, it really gets to me and I wish it didnt.
Thanks I feel better for that whinge.
Harriet

[Sharon H]

If you smile sweetly at them and say "Yes you're quite right" and then totally ignore them they go away feeling quite pleased with themselves and don't bother you any more. Works for me!

[Wally]

Smile sweetly, put it down to their ignorance and ignore. If I had a £ every time someone told me my horse was lame or hurt his back because he was pacing or tölting........
If you try to explain they don't want to know because they already know in thier minds. You can't change folk like that.

[merlon]

Hi Mossy

Laugh inwardly to yourself at these people and feel sorry for them or should I say their Ponies/ Horses as they have obviously not found this wonderful method.
I am now going to change to a Pelham so I'll probaly get much of the same.

[Frances]

I totally sympathise. I have been asked to leave a riding class at the local show on the grounds that my horse was obviously lame. He was pacing.

I have been told there is something wrong with my horse by well-meaning others who definitely should know better (in the Icelandic world) because he cannot trot (never has, probably never will).

I have been told he will never jump - he clears over 1 foot beautifully.

I have been told my horse is 4 years older than he really is (crucial in breaking and training terms).

I have learnt to trust my own judgement, knod my head politely and then ride off thinking "what a load of rubbish".

[Wally]

We have also been told not to buy Ljossie, Iacs, Hákon, Ugla. Kvikur was as mad as a brush, In fact if you listen to some folk all our horses seem to be killers!! All the above horses are perfectly well behaved, well mannered nags. Ljossie is mega sensetive, but it's no reason to write him off. I love him to bits.

As you can imagine Frances and I don't listen to others who pass opinions on horses they havn't even seen, let alone ridden, or for that matter been within 400 miles of them!!

I have yet to see Frances nod politely and ride off, She usually tells someone she thinks they are talking rubbish!

Especially when being told her horse was 7 and not 4 by someone quite senior in the IHSGB. He was left with no doubt about his opinions!!

[Edited by Wally on 3rd Nov 2000 at 09:41 AM]

[ZoeEnglish]

"Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity."

I think of this everytime I hear something idiotic and it helps me just go on my way.

[Gwenllian]

Know exactly what you mean, Mossy.Heather advised me to try a Pelham with Rosie, beacuse she just will not stop sticking her nose out. It has made an enormous dufference.I switch back to a snaffle for my lesson as my trainer doesn't agree.She should see the state of my hands after trying to get Rosie's head in through 'persuasion' alone!!So, thanks to various members of this site, I now use a Pelham out hacking with two sets of reins.And.....Get this.... I've even been told that I'm....'a disabled rider and therefore shouldn't be using a Pelham'!!! I normally hold the reins in my hands,I don't know about everyone else,and it's my hips *** are disabled.I think it was meant to imply that my brain must also be one sandwich short of a picnic! So, think of that, next time someone has a go at you.I do,and I thank the Lord that my brain is fine(ish!), that I HAVE a pair of legs, albeit a wonky pair, and above all that I CAN ride!! You have to laugh at their ignorance,honestly.I've never seen it carved in stone..."Thou shalt not use a Pelham and two sets of reins for hacking.." have YOU??

[Mossy]

Gwenillian
If Rosie is happy and you are happy LLAMEDOS to everybody else. I have a gifted son who happens to have Asperger's and am fed up with the people, who are supposed to be encouraging and funding his support, looking at the Asperger's not the highly intelligent teenager underneath. I get frustrated, so how he must feel I am unable to even guess. If your trainer does not agree with a snaffle can you change trainers?
Get this, call us a show offs if you must, but Moss in pelham was leg yielding in trot to and fro up the lane yesterday just as a VERY well dressed lady happened to walk past. Just as she was passing I happened to ask him to legyield. He really got his legs right and it was brilliant. The idea of a pony doing lateral work for fun was totally alien to this good lady.
Stick with it, it will come right in the end

[Wally]

Funny you should say how quick people are to know what's best for those with disablities. They don't think to ask the person with the disability.

I once worked in a riding school who had a blind man as a regular client. He was not my pupil, he was another lass's.

One day I had to teach him because the other lass was ill. To my horror I found that he was still plodding round on the lunge after about 8 months. His instructor had decided it was not safe for him to EVER come off the lunge.I couldn't see what harm he could possibly come to in an indoor school, on a very safe horse! I asked him what he wanted from his riding and he told me he wanted to be able to hack out. I couldn't see why this was not possible. So he changed instructors and within the next few weeks we worked towards his goal. He was a very competent rider, his balance was superb, he had great empathy with the horse. Eventually he made it to his goal and we went galloping over the hills with me shouting for him to duck for any low branches, he even did small fences, (try that with your eyes shut, then decide who has the disability!!) The freedom he had on board a horse was, to him, something he had only imagined, speed, power and a real feeling of independence.
And he rode with a Pelham with two reins!!