How to screw up a horse in one easy lesson....

We've all heard horror stories about train wrecks, but these videos are first hand accounts of the stupidity that goes on in the horse world. Not all are show related, but they do indicate that the mentality of the horse owning community slips pretty low sometimes. This first video is just horrific. I can't believe people this stupid are let out without keepers.









How fricking stupid do you have to be to hitch up a horse with NO training, no safe fencing, no safe clothing and equipment that belongs in the trash? And then to do this crap in a neighborhood, with kids around, just puts you at the top of the dipshit heap. I really like the segment where you have the kid ride bareback n front of the crazed horse, as he lunges up and down, almost hitting the pony, in his efforts to break free.


Gotta say I love this one:






And the no-riding dumbass on his back should have kept his spurs out of Cutter's sides because he caused the prolonged bad behavior. Looks like your horse doesn't appreciate your sloppy riding and poor handling.




I get the fact that reining has changed from the good old days. I know the "fencing" is an accepted practice. But when did reining horses start to hang their heads like WP horses? And when did the constant jerk and spur become standard? And when did reining trainers stop learning how to actually RIDE a horse? These people look like shit. I wouldn't place them at a local show. No posture, bad legs, horrible hands, the horses look miserable and stiff. Where is the beauty of reining?










These next two videos showcase something that is very wrong with the show system: The warm up pen. Show management better get off their asses and start really monitoring the warm up pens. It's bad in everything from reining to dressage. The two following videos show how awful the riding and treatment are outside of the ring. In my opinion these riders should have been banned from competition.














And WTF is this? You haul so hard on the reins that your horse's tongue turns BLUE? Fricking BLUE!!!! Why wasn't this asshole dragged off that horse and beaten to within an inch of his life? Someone needs to rolkur this jerk for several hours until he learns to ride without his hands holding him on!









Really, there is so much to be ashamed of that happens behind the scenes that we should be ashamed of, but to see this kind of blatant abuse in front of spectators, other competitors and show personnel is disgraceful! It has got to stop!




A huge thank you to epona TV for featuring some of these idiots and refusing to back down from showing abuse!

In Sickness and in Showing

This is copied from another forum and all credit goes to Dr. Tanis MacDonald DVM

EHV-1 – What Do I Need To Know RIGHT NOW? For the purposes of this post right this moment, I am not going to get into a lot of scientific details about Equine Herpes Virus 1 (EHV-1) – you can find the science with a Google search. What I am going to give you the down-and-dirty version of how it works and what you need to know RIGHT NOW to prevent this in your barn. First, the EHV-1 virus has been around for a long time. This disease is nothing new. However, it is the kind of virus that mutates frequently. This makes it hard to target long-lasting vaccines toward the virus. EHV-1 can cause 4 kinds of disease in a horse – but we are going to focus on the respiratory version and the neurologic version. In many horses that contract EHV-1 viruses, they spike high fevers, become lethargic, have clear runny noses and generally feel like crap. Many horses only get the respiratory version and clear the virus after a few days and have no further problems with it. In some horses, and no one understands why they do this, the respiratory form can become the neurologic form. Literally, the virus gets into the spinal fluid and causes a myeloencephalopathy – a severe viral brain and spinal fluid infection. This infection is what causes the horses to become suddenly neurologic. The EHV-1 virus is RIDICULOUSLY contagious. It spreads via nasal secretions, and horses can contract it by touching the nose of another horse, through the air or from simply being in a barn that was previously occupied by a horse that was shedding the EHV-1 virus. The current outbreak has been linked to a cutting horse show in UT and linked cases are now popping up in several other states. As such, several vet school hospitals are closed or not seeing emergency patients, many horse shows are being cancelled, etc. STEP 1 – STAY HOME! The first step in prevention of EHV-1 is to take a deep breath, and STAY HOME. There is no such thing as an Emergency Horse Show. This is not the time to go visit your friends down the street with horses. This is not the time to load up and meet 20 different trailers at a trail ride and head out for the day. The BEST way to prevent EHV-1 exposure is to quarantine your horses and barn from other equine traffic. If you have been in contact with horses associated with the Utah show, you should start to take temperatures on your horses twice a day. The fever spike is one of the very first signs that happens in horses. If your horse spikes a fever, you need to contact your equine vet IMMEDIATELY for further instructions and testing. STEP 2 – VACCINATE There is NO EHV-1 vaccine that is labelled for the prevention of the neurologic form of EHV-1. However, several are labelled for the prevention of the respiratory form. This is the “rhino vaccine” that your horse normally gets in its regular vaccine series. It is KEY to note that the rhino vaccines generally have a very short efficacy even under normal circumstances. If your horse is high risk, or has had exposure to horses or barns that are affected, even if your horse just had a recent “flu/rhino” vaccine in its spring series, it would be a good idea to consider boosting your horse with a rhino-only vaccine. The two most effective rhino vaccines to use in the face of an outbreak are Rhinomune (modified live virus) or Pneumabort-K (killed vaccine). Rhinomune vaccine should be used ONLY in non-pregnant animals because it is a modified live vaccine. It should be noted that there is a small chance of a horse developing colicky symptoms secondary to the vaccine administration, so monitoring the horse after the vaccine is important. Pneumabort-K is a vaccine that is labelled for pregnant mares, so is definitely safe for them. It can also be used in stallions, geldings, and non-pregnant mares as well with no problems as an off-label use. It is a high-reaction vaccine, and often makes a lump in the muscle where it is given. *Edit here to add Prodigy by Intervet Schering Plough to the list of high-antigen load vaccines that are useful in the face of an outbreak. Again, the key here is to try to prevent the respiratory form of EHV-1 so that the horse doesn’t develop the neurologic form. The reason these vaccines are the ones recommended is because they are the most potent vaccines against EHV-1 – they contain the most dead or modified live EHV-1 virus per dose. In the face of an outbreak, it is important to boost those antibodies hard and fast and these vaccines can do that. If you cannot get ahold of either of these, the third choice would be to reboost one of the normal Flu/Rhino vaccines that are on the market. STEP 3 – IMMUNE BOOSTERS The immune booster, Zylexis, is labelled for the treatment of the respiratory form of EHV-1. The idea is to help boost the horse’s natural immune system and make it stronger, therefore making it easier for the horse to fight the virus naturally. Zylexis is given on day 0, 2 and 9 as a IM injection. Another immune booster is EqStim, which is similar to Zylexis only given IV instead. STEP 4 – BE SMART Again, to reiterate, stay calm and stay home. Quarantine your barn from unnecessary horse traffic. Do not travel with your horse unless under emergency circumstances. copyright Tanis MacDonald, DVM 2011

Now back to your regularly scheduled bitcher and moaner, ME! I have to agree completely that there is absolutely no show worth taking a sick horse too. I don't care if it's the fricking Olympics, if the horse is sick he stays home. On the other side of the fence is the healthy horse that can show, but shouldn't. If there is a contagious disease at any facility you are planning to go to, within the next 60 days, DON'T GO! You are not going to win enough prize money to pay vet bills or buy a new horse if your horse gets sick and dies. Stay home and spend some time brushing up and getting caught up on other stuff. Do not think for a second that your horse is safe and that it couldn't possibly happen to you. That's exactly what the people that have infected horses now thought and look how wrong they were! So for your sake and your horses, stay home and stay safe.

Soring, it's not just for assholes anymore....

I'm sure anyone that has read this blog knows my views on soring in the gaited horse world. Trainers that sore are the bottom feeders of the horse world. Owners that keep their horses with trainers that sore should be banned from ever owning an animal.

So now a federal grand jury has handed down indictments on incidents that have happened since 2002. You can read the full story here:

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=18167

My question is: What took so fucking long? When you found out the first horse was sored their asses should have been in jail. To dick around for 8 years is just unacceptable. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you busted these idiots. There should be a special jail for Barney Davis, Christen Altman, Jeffery Bradford and Paul Blackburn. They should have to walk across nails every day, have their heads tied back to their ankles so they get jerked on every step and had to live with a tail speculum stuck up their ass.

The fact that this kind of shit is still happening is a disgrace. The state of Tennessee should have the balls to stand up and BAN padding. They should ban tail harnesses. And they should tell those abuse enablers that run the Celebration to clean their act up or find another venue. Governor Bill Halsam, are you fricking listening? Your state promotes, condones and encourages the most abusive and messed up treatment of horses in the entire United States. Your state horse is a padded walker. You can't drive through Tennessee without seeing the padded up walker silhouette on signs, U-Haul vans, farms and bumper stickers. It's messed up. You might as well get a license plate that says: Tennessee; We're Animal Unfriendly.

I'm sure a bunch of you will pop up and say: You can't blame Tennessee for all the soring. Wanna bet? They host the Celebration, the biggest clusterfuck of abuse in the US. I don't care if the HPA inspectors are on the grounds, the abuse that takes place leading up the show is horrific. The padding, chains, long shanked twisted wire bits, tail braces and all the other accoutrements are just WRONG! There are no excuses. There is no legitimate reason to brace a horse's tail. There is no reason to use huge pads on a horse. It just serves NO purpose except to condemn the horse to a life of being stall kept, constant pain and not living the life that most horses lead.

Stop the crap Bill Halsam, grow some balls and clean up the horse show industry in Tennessee!

OF COURSE, that ribbon is way more important than my kid's safety!!!!

I grew up with horses and probably did things that should have gotten me killed. As teenagers my sister and I would ride anything with hooves, sometimes just to prove we could. But our mother, who was a horsewoman and competed along side of us, never, ever let us put our safety aside to get a ribbon. It just didn't happen. So while we swam the horses in ponds that the ecoli bacteria would probably avoid, and rode bareback until the flesh rubbed off of our butts, we were never put in an unsafe position in an arena. We wore helmets when jumping, we used tack that was age, and experience, appropriate and we never had a parent breathing down our neck to "win".

For some reason a lot of horse parents see their little darlings as ego extensions and no matter how dangerous the horse, or the event, they want the kid to ride to win. I've seen this taken to the extreme in just about every discipline, but it usually pops up in three majors events: Jumping, barrel racing and gaited horses.

Let's look at a few barrel racing videos that just piss me off. Where is the fricking helmet? There is not a youth organization out there that doesn't allow, and in some cases require, helmets.

This is a prime example of a stupid parent with a cute kid and show off aspirations.
No helmet, no stirrups, carrying a whip, holding the leadline too long, jittery gelding, wearing inappropriate clothing ( the thought of sand rash just makes me cringe). It's like a billboard for bad choices made in the shortest amount of time.



This one really outrages me! I've shown it before, and it showcases the point that some parents should be banned from having horses and kids at the same time:



No helmet, horse is too big, feet are banded in the stirrups, no control. WTF? 5 year olds running barrels are not cute, unless they are doing it on size appropriate horses with proper equipment. My niece used to jog her welsh pony around the barrels when she was five, wearing her helmet, no whip, never had her feet tied in the stirrups. 5 year olds on huge horses, jerking the mouth at every stride, carrying a whip and wearing no protective headgear are just advertisments for how screwed up their parents are. Stupid, stupid, stupid!


Now on to jumping. Jumping is an expensive sport. Those USEF and Pony Club fees are nothing to sneeze at and to really rig out a kid on a good hunter or jumper is going to cost you an average of five figures. But for some reason jumping, which is one of the most dangerous equine sports, makes the ego driven parents lose what little minds they have. It's as if they want to prove how brave they are by sacrificing their child. I have seen 7 year olds on 16 hand fire breathing jumpers, faces pale, fists locked around the reins, take courses that I wouldn't take a horse over without a parachute and mattresses beside every fence. These kids, as a whole, ride biting their lower lip, eyes cast down, a dull sheen on their sweaty frightened faces, and meanwhile mom and pop walk about in their "tweeds" sipping iced tea and bragging about how much they paid for "Fencebreaker the Wonder Horse". It's enough to make you puke. WTF are these parents thinking? We know what they trainers are thinking. They are getting paid, no matter if the kid survives the ride or not. But the parents really have to be crazy to put their kids through this shit.

The explanation on this video just screams out how stupid the parents are. New horse, check. Horse reacts badly to new home, check. Horse clearly not a finished animal, check. Recipe for disaster. I have to give the kid credit because she sticks the bucks far longer than I thought she would. But even so her parents were beyond stupid to take a fearful pony they'd had less than a week to a show. It's clear the pony is freaked from the first moment they start filming. Here's what you do dipshits, you untack the pony and spend the day leading her around the show until she calms down. IF, and only IF she calms down you tack her back up and let your kid mount up, while you hold a leadrope, and lead the pony around in a controlled situation. You don't not throw your child on the pony's back and let her pretend to be a rodeo bronc during a class. In the one scene it is very clear that the pony messed up another competitor's ride and had the horse not skittered out of the way there might have been a bad wreck.





Of course on the other end of the spectrum is this child, his clearly pissed off pony and his parents that allowed him to ride the pony with a whip, a second set of reins attached to his saddle and stupidly tried to get him to take the pony over fences. It's been on facebook and fugly, but I thought it was applicable here because it showcases how stupid some parents are, even when they do put some safety measures in place.



Another pony wreck. The kid clearly hits the rail. Do they get an EMT in there? NOPE! They "man" the kid up and walk him out of the arena. Why? Because you "gotta get right back on". Bullshit! If the kid hits the jump get him checked by a doctor. The pony was too hard for the child to rate and clearly had his mind set of not taking the fence before they even got there. I have seen more promising riders ruined by jumping too soon on inppropriate horses than I can count. Back the hell up and take it slow. Five to seven year olds do not need to be battling their way around jump courses, I don't care how cute those fricking Thelwell cartoons are.




I freaking hate padded up horses. But I really hate parents that perpetuate the abuse, poor riding and bad ring manners that are rampant in this discipline. So let's teach our kids to ride with hands so heavy they numb a horse's mouth. Let's teach them to ride in bits that are illegal in just about every other equine event. Let's teach them that screwing up a horses back and legs is just fine, because that fricking blue ribbon means so much more than the horse being comfortable and pain free. You might as well put out a sign that says: I'm raising a child with no morals, no feelings for other living things, and I don't care if he gets hurt, or hurts the horse in the process.




And just because I think it's funny as shit a video about Paris Hilton getting dumped off a horse. Her parents weren't after ribbons, but despite all their money they can't seem to buy this dipshit any common sense. No helmet, no brains, no ability. Perhaps if she'd practiced riding more horses than sleezy porn movie directors she could have stayed on.

Use it on yourself first, asshat!

Just WTF is this thing and what is it doing in a horse's mouth?












A curb prong bit? Are you kidding me? Just the leverage on the shanks alone makes this bit a potential killer and then add PRONGS! And it's endorsed by Tim McQuay? Seriously, Tim McQuay, whom I used to respect as a trainer? Well buddy, you are now in the Cleve Wells Hall of Idiots. I am staggered that any self respecting horseman would put his name on such a piece of shit. It's obviously illegal to show in. The ONLY objective of this bit is to cause pain and you ENDORSE it? I think that any equine organization that even allows these bits in the warm up pen should be blacklisted!





Here's another one of the damned thing! Who is James Morris and why is he stupidly endorsing this bit?

I seriously hope that your punishment in hell is to wear one of these things for all eternity with some ham-handed asshole constantly plucking the reins to reset your head! Are you kidding me? You're such a poor trainer that you have to prong your horse's mouth? I can set a horse's head with a fricking bosal and you need a PRONG bit? You should be fired from ever training a horse again.

And this is the WORST one yet. Prongs above and below! Who the hell is Flaharty and why in heavens name can someone sell this shit and not get arrested?

The place selling these travesties is KO Trading in Ft Worth and they should be blackballed. Do not shop at a store that promotes abuse and cruelty. These bits are unethical in the extreme. They do not give the horse a fair chance and they can cause terrible damage to the tongue surface and nerves. It is a disgrace to the industry that these things even exist and the fact that top trainers endorse them just shows how low things have sunk. If this is what pleasure and reining have sunk to then they need to start getting looked at by the USDA just like the walking horse shows do. No horse should ever have one of these pieces of junk in their mouth.