May 10th, 2010 • 21:05
What Things Drive You Nuts When Caring For Horses?
I was just thinking about winter coming and how I hate dealing with frozen water lines in pastures. I also dislike rubber mats that lump up and won’t lay flat and people that roll bandages the wrong way. Just wondered what things drive you mad – unswept barns, blankets not hung up…..?
Let’s have a collective moan!
May 10th 2010 • 21:05
by hhqh01
After I have given the horses a bath and they are clean and combed and looking nice they go out and roll in the dirt.
All that work gone to waste.
I have never had water lines freeze before (thank goodness) and my stock tank has a heated that goes into the hole in the bottom so no one can pull it out. The mare would do just that.
They get free choice hay and are turned out on pasture in the am and and brought in at night. No big hassels. Just part of horses.
May 10th 2010 • 21:05
by lisa m
I was just thinking about winter coming and how I hate dealing with frozen water lines in pastures. I also dislike rubber mats that lump up and won’t lay flat and people that roll bandages the wrong way. Just wondered what things drive you mad – unswept barns, blankets not hung up…..?
Let’s have a collective moan!
May 10th 2010 • 22:05
by tbjumper
I dont have electricity to my mules at the place where I board.
So no heated water tanks. So my main gripe is…
Frozen water tanks that I turn over and stomp out and then moving the buildup of ice on the ground.
Then the wyoming wind at 6am, feeding with headlights in a sleet at 70mph wind and the alfalfa sticking to your face and hair and work looking at you like chewbaca just walked into work.
Spontaneous flat tires on wheelbarrows that you just know some gnome stabbed in the middle of the night.
Oh the clencher was a frozen chain around the gate at 5am. I couldn’t get to their shed to feed them inside and with the wind, it blows their hay away. So crawling then through the wire, carrying each section to the barn with hungry hippo mules hot in my tracks.
Snow drift that totally eats your wheelbarrow and hides the gate.
The latest one was a hoof print 2 feet on the outside of the wire, and no cuts on the culprit. Still pondering that one…….
PS, I really do love WY, and I do look like something out of Jabba the Hut when I’m feeding.
May 10th 2010 • 22:05
by Ravanne_
That bloody ragwort!!
Dark nights in winter,
when there sick & you feel so useless.
The money i spend but its all worth it:)
May 10th 2010 • 22:05
by American
I really hate it when other boarders leave all their supplies scattered all over the grooming area. I have to clean up their mess before I can begin to make my own. I don’t like cleaning my gelding’s sheath (who does?)….which he is due for again and I am NOT looking forward to. I also can’t stand watching riders who are always in their horse’s mouths. I just want to run out to the ring and say “relax! ease up on the death grip, he’s not going anywhere!” Humm, lets see my biggest pet peeve is horsey “know it alls” at the barn. No matter what you are doing, they ALWAYS have a way that is better and no matter how long you’ve been around horses, they’ve been around them longer. Funny, those are usually the same ones who leave the biggest messes in the grooming area. One more thing that drives me nuts is seeing halters and lead ropes laying in the barn aisle. There are hooks to hang them on every stall and even more located near the tack rooms, yet they still seem to end up in the middle of the barn where a horse could step in them. Other than that, I love being around horses and dealing with the everyday chores, routines and mishaps. Most of the annoyances come from other people, not the horses. I’m sure most of the things that drive me nuts will be eliminated once I get my own land and can keep my horses at home.
May 10th 2010 • 22:05
by nwcowgir
mud and dirty reins! its a pet peeve of mine, when i come into the tack room and find reins on the ground i go nuts! reins belong in your hand, on a hook or on your horse lol
May 10th 2010 • 22:05
by horsesar
Forgetting to turn the water off and flooding my pens, alfalfa hay that sticks all over me so I can go to work looking like Daisy Mae with hay stuck in my hair, leaving halters on the ground so the dog thinks he has new play toys, and my neighbor who plugs up the drainage ditch and floods my barn. And ice and cold in the winter. I grew up on the Gulf Coast (where humidity is a season) and had never even seen snow until I moved the the DFW area. My horse spent 5 days in his stall since he was terrified of the white stuff falling from the sky.
May 10th 2010 • 22:05
by Strive for Perfection
rain having to change rugs and wash them getting hoof iol one my hands. cleaning tack
May 11th 2010 • 00:05
by suze335
ICE!!!!!!
Seeing my guys standing in their stalls because it is too dangerous to turn them out!
May 11th 2010 • 00:05
by Shawna
Constant wetness and sloppiness
Having to blanket horses
Winter Coats
Iced over water buckets
Worrying about your horse in general
Frozen poop
Dangerous horses
Horse hair on your clothes
Being bit/bucked-off/kicked
Bad smells
Horses that don’t get along with other horses
PMSing mares
Poor management at Boarding Facilities
Poor quality hair
Flys
The costs!
May 11th 2010 • 00:05
by Kicking Bear
If I am coming out to work with your horse, would it be totally out of line to have the horse ready. Could the horse be waiting in the stall, or in a small paddock. Even if you can’t get up to the horse, you can usually drive it into a smaller paddock so it is not an all day project. I hate having to walk across a knee deep paddock full of **** to get to a horse that was in it’s stall for grain 30 minutes ago.
May 11th 2010 • 00:05
by Kayla L
My personal pet peeve… bathe a horse. Get him all nice and clean. Brush him down, comb out his mane and tail and then watch him go roll and get dirty all over again. Especially one of the grey geldings who specifically seemed to attract manure and grass stains on his coat.
May 11th 2010 • 01:05
by kayleigh…
RAIN… I live in Texas and it has been raining for like three months straight. I don’t have a covered arena so I haven’t been able to ride and my horses feet are completely destroyed now… UGH!
May 11th 2010 • 01:05
by appys
Oh yeah, good ole winter! I can agree with you on that, -20 and nothing wants to work right, tanks still frozen over do to the wind, just not as thick that you can’t break it open. Getting up in the morning and having to do chores before you get plowed out… other half plows for his company in the winter and I’m always the last one plowed out. I have 8 pastures scattered about from in front of our horse to behind our barn which is 300 feet from the house. When the drifts are too deep for the 4 wheeler to break through and I have to trudge my way with feed and hay…. THAT PISSES ME OFF! LOL
GNATS, FLYS, MOSQUITOS!
People who leave twine thrown all over instead of putting it in the barrel where it belongs.
Gates and electric left unhooked, lights left on and the tack room door open for the goats to have a feild day in there.
My biggest thing though is when I see people aboard their horses yanking, jerking, hitting and kicking their horses at the same time… I’d like to knock them off!
I better stop there, lol.
May 11th 2010 • 01:05
by equestri
Bridles that arent hanging properly!
May 11th 2010 • 01:05
by texasnas
I love winter! Here in So. California it’s the best time of year for me
The flies are gone, the weather is perfect for nice rides without the oppressive heat. Someone forgot to tell my mare that she really doesn’t need to grow such a woolly coat though. So cooling her out after a good ride is difficult.
I hate mice in the tack room I share with another girl. She stores supplements in there…..mice urine reeks!
Messy wash racks and hoses not rolled up.
People who can’t park trailers right.
The chick that bogarts the big turnout for hours on end…..
May 11th 2010 • 01:05
by tlctreec
Where I am we don’t get much of a winter so I can’t really gipe about those things. But, we have a heck of a summer and I HATE,HATE flies, mosquitoes, knats any little flying bug that bothers my horses!
I guess my worst gripe would have to be when my husband saddles my horse for me. Yes, he is helping but I always have to go back and re-do what he did. I am anal about how my saddle fits! The pad has to be even, the saddle in the right spot, cinched up just right, breast collar just right. Then he tries to help by taking the saddle off and he doesn’t pick up the girt and breast collar, just leaves em hanging. That makes me so mad! Everything has a place, saddles, bridles, halters, ropes, buckets, feed. I like my barn to be orderly. I get that from my grandfather.
When you goto a barrel race and those whoopidy girls leave all their crap all over the place. Their trailer looks like 4 yr olds have been in it, they leave trailer doors open and their 5 dogs are running around barking at my horse. That gripes me like no other. Can you see the hazards in that! haha
I could go on and on…but I won’t. haha
great question for a wednesday.
May 11th 2010 • 01:05
by totallyh
mine would be the mud/rain. i hate going out into the pasture in knee deep mud and sh*t to retreive my horse, i hate washing off the mud and trying to brush it off of them. and i hate the winter because i hate trying to saddle when i cant feel my fingers, and the frozen water lines, frozen water buckets, the frozen sweet feed, oohh and do i mention walking thru the pasture and falling on your butt because you happen to step on the only patch of ice in the whole pasture…however there are things i hate, but when its winter and im in the barn out of the cold with my horse, there is nothing i love more than when my horse puts his nose/mouth up to my face and breaths on me ( he gives me kisses, literaly, he flat out licks my face! lol ) i love the warm horsey breath on that cold cold day, and cuddling up to them to keep warm. face it guys, there are things that we hate about it, but would you ever give it up?? nope..not in a million years.
May 11th 2010 • 02:05
by Karens BCS
not a whole lot annoys me, until it comes to human stupidity.
When one of my guys cleans the water holding tank and forgets to plug the heating element back in when its -10 outside, Or I order propane and it arrives 3 days after it runs out. The delivery trucks that have drivers that dont understand that when you back up you have to actually look in the mirrors and back into a main support beam on the front of the barn.
Yep the horses are pretty easy to get along with, its the out sources service and hored help that make it difficult.
May 11th 2010 • 02:05
by rockerch
when a young horse i now decided to jump the fence and went smack bang into the back of his trail or
May 11th 2010 • 02:05
by mike0930
I work at my barn on Saturdays and I HATE it when the horses get their water buckets really dirty. Some of them drop so much feed in the water that its more like a mash than water. Another foams while he drinks and his water is always covered in foam.
I also hate when some of the horses won’t come in from the field in the morning. Three or four horses will stay in the back of the field and then I have to go get them or they stay in the field for another hour or two until they realize everyone else is in. Then they start whinnying for their grain.
May 11th 2010 • 02:05
by Jennifer T
Messy crossties. I’m obsessive, I clean them every time I go into the stable, twice while I’m there and once again before I leave.
The tack in the schooling locker getting mixed around so I have to sort things into the correct buckets so students can actually tack up.
When people put things away in the wrong place.
Blankets being left in the aisle when there horse’s bucket is two feet away and OPEN.
Hot walkers, I hate figuring out how to start and stop the hot walker and what speed all the horses need to go on at for how long, etc.
Feeding, I hate carrying stumbling around in the hay barn looking for the right feed cans and bashing my leg in on the tractor and carrying heavy buckets all the way across the yard and through the stable. I hate that the boys all stick their heads out and dump feed on me when I’m not looking and try to tackle me as soon as I get through the door with the buckets. Feeding is generally evil.
May 11th 2010 • 02:05
by Tanya
I can NOT believe I am the only one that’s gonna say sheath cleaning.
May 11th 2010 • 02:05
by RedWhite
I’m going to go with what Caitlin said – rain.
Evil stuff. Yes, it’s a wonderful thing since it keeps the pastures green and horses fed. But when there’s too much of it, it’s hell. We had a couple years of bad rainy seasons a while back, and the barn I boarded at had flooded pastures forever. We couldn’t ride in the arena for months because the stupid water wouldn’t drain and more just kept coming. And of course, covered/indoor arenas are far too expensive. We had to wade through knee-deep puddles to get to the pastures, rinse the mud off the horse’s legs every night when they came in, and went through gallons of Koppertox trying to keep their hooves from falling apart. It was miserable.
May 11th 2010 • 02:05
by Mulerein
I hate cleaning my horse after she has rolled in mud. I hate it when she cuts herself on a fence while she is in season. i also hate brushing her while she is shedding her winter coat in spring, Yuk!
May 11th 2010 • 03:05
by beezersm
i hate pushy horses and hate when they cut corners! other than that little things dont really phase me. well other than this weird lookin huge black bug that loves to buzz around my horses **** when im riding bareback. oh and i dont care to much for all the dust that flies up in the arena when it isnt watered down, i blow dirt out my nose none stop. oh yeah forgot clogged gutters that make a gushing noisy plop when my horse goes by it and scares the boogers outta them. and well of course cold and rain, but atleast are arena is covered since we live in the rainy state of WA!
May 11th 2010 • 03:05
by Paint Pony
Mud!!! Then flies!!! & My little sister leaving tack out side & then the horses chewing it up.
May 11th 2010 • 03:05
by caitline
having the hay get stuck in my gloves and knit hats every time I go out to fill, my water sled that slops half the water on the ground when my lines do freeze, the tank deicers that my horses think are their personal toys to go and chuck across the pasture for me to try to retrieve lol
May 11th 2010 • 04:05
by delta_da
I hate mud, and I hate when my horses tear up their stalls….ughhh! Just learn to take a crap in one area! And sweet feed that gets frozen solid. It doesn’t get cold enough in Louisiana to freeze the water lines up very often so no worries about that. We do have rain and mud, and humidity, which makes the cold worse than it really is…I still prefer winter to summer, any day. I’d like a little snow. I love that the bugs are dead in the winter. And warm horse breath and kitty fur are the best in the cold…
May 11th 2010 • 04:05
by kat
Brushig five malting horses in the wind you end up with hair in your mouth, eyes, nose and then it sticks to you for the rest of the day! yuk! And i hate it when flys bother my horses its just why were they invented.