Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Say What?!?

What's the weirdest, oddest, WTF-est, thing you've heard regarding horses?  We had something come up at our barn yesterday that had both me and BO going WTF and it got me thinking about all the weird things I've heard horse people say.  So I though I'd share a couple of mine.



A few years back BO had a rescued TB that she sold then got back.  He had your typical TB shark fin withers, with white hairs from ill fitting saddles. It wasn't a good match with him and the girl and the girl's "trainer" was very concerned about some physical issues with him.  When they brought him home the "trainer" proceeded to tell us that with his broken withers she didn't think he'd be able to do what they wanted.  Cue WTF. When asked about it, she said that the white hairs indicated a broken wither.  She had trained with an Olympic dressage rider in Europe and learned that there. OK....... When we politely tried to tell her that no, white hairs come from bad saddle fit, she would have none of it and kept going on about how it was wrong to ride the horse and he was crazy and blah blah blah until BO's husband told her to get out and not come back. Our vet was out a couple days later and when told about it he busted out laughing saying he'd never heard that one before.  The horse was fine and is now eventing at training level, even with a "broken wither."



Yesterday one of our boarders had a horse that was in training sent home. He's a green broke 6yr old QH that hasn't done much and was out of shape when he left the barn.   He had been at the trainer's for two weeks.  Apparently the trainer believes he has ringbone and navicular and shouldn't do anything more than light walk/trot. He's also stocking up behind. She has a "strong feeling and believes he has it" but was very clear that she's not a vet and that the owner should get x-rays. Now, I'm not saying he doesn't have either ringbone or navicular, but considering that ringbone is usually pretty obvious to see, and he had pretty clean looking legs when he left two weeks ago both BO and I were a bit skeptical. And I fail to see how stocking up behind could mean ringbone or navicular.  And she said he didn't feel lame, she just "felt he has it."  What I want to know is, if she can feel debilitating conditions on horses after two weeks, why isn't she marketing these services?!  I mean she'd make money hand over fist if she can diagnose stuff like this on a PPE!

So, what's your weirdest WTF with horses?

5 comments:

  1. She could be an over the phone psychic!

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  2. Someone at the expo told us that you can tell if a horse is a mare or a gelding from the side of their ears...mares have large ears. Haha.

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  3. I overheard someone in a tack store explaining to her daughter that the de-wormers were "horse toothpaste"

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  4. Horses can get those white hairs from various things... Mine have even gotten them from blankets that put pressure on the withers.

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