Re: What's your top 3 pet hates in the Equine World?
Jane, your #2 reminded me of an interesting encounter.
Daughter of an aquaintance wanted to come with me to the yard. So I said sure.
Now, she doesn't have her own horse, but she does ponyclub someplace.
We got the horse in from the field and the girl stood there and very shyly asked me if I'd teach her how to groom...
Turns out she wasn't allowed to do any of it where she goes riding. It took a while, but she listened and practiced (Willow is a very patient creature lol) and really enjoyed it.
I showed her how to pick hooves, what to look for, explained that grooming isn't just to get the horse clean, but also to look for any signs of injury or inflammation etc.
She was soooo thrilled to get her hands dirty.
I think sometimes we judge too harshly. Just because those kids don't know how, doesn't mean they don't want to do it, or don't know how difficult/expensive it is to keep one. The girl gets everything paid, wouldn't have to lift a finger -- but she is dead keen on learning exactly what's involved, right down to the cost of things. (She nearly fainted when I told her how much a good saddle costs lol)
She told me she wants her own horse, but before that, she wants to learn exactly how to look after one properly, and what things cost and what to feed, what can go wrong, how to spot stuff like that etc.
(She's 15 btw)
Definitely a pleasant surprise. :)
And yes, I'm taking her to the yard to introduce her to my Paso, once he's not being a big chicken anymore. :) She can learn with him, as he's very friendly, learns very fast...and it'll get her used to something that *will* jump if she's not patient lol. (He's not bad, or dangerous, but sometimes I wonder what goes through his mind...)