Crazy stuff horseshow judges say?

I got some e-mail from a reader who has a TWH she has shown at some of her local open shows and I had to giggle:

"One time, we were pulled to the middle of the ring during a class. The judge walked over and said... "Your horse is lame, its bobbing its head when he moves" I had to explain my horse was Nodding his head because he was a TWH and he was gaiting!.... we actually ended placing a couple of times under that judge in that show. another judge told me I should not put "pink" on my horse because he was a boy... I told her it was not pink but rather "Fuchsia" and my horse was perfectly secure in his maleness so he was fine with wearing this color! (my horse is solid black and he had a fuchsia brow band and a cream/black/fuchsia show pad and I wore a fuchsia blouse with a black vest and black pants so we were not making anyone color blind! Maybe you could do a blog on the stupid stuff horse show judges say???"

I laughed because I once asked the judge what they did not like about my horse and they told me he was the wrong color for a hunt seat horse. Given that he was a dark bay/brown, I can only assume they got me confused with someone else or did not remember why they didn't place me, but at the time I seriously rolled my eyes!

So everybody - tell me - what's the strangest thing a judge has ever told you about you or your horse?

(The picture is totally unrelated except it's THE BEST costume class outfit I've ever seen on a horse! LOVE IT!)

TWH fans, check it out!

We've discussed the horrors of soring here before, but I want to bring to your attention an online list of individuals in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry who have been suspended for soring violations:

List of suspended TWH trainers and exhibitors

If you own and show TWH's, you need to bookmark this and keep it as a reference. Do not do business with these people. This means you do not buy from them, send your horse there for training, take lessons at their barn, partner with them on horses, etc. Just don't. This is your opportunity to vote with your wallet.

Where can we find this sort of resource for other breeds? Responsible owners who love their horses need to know how to avoid the abusers! Good for Friends of Sound Horses for making this information so accessible to all.

Curtis and Craig Heyden, come here, I want to show you something...

I want to show you how it feels to get kicked in the nuts by a woman in pointy-toed heels!

(Warning: link #1 has graphic pictures)

http://www.rockymountainrider.com/0908_abused_horses.htm

http://www.topix.net/forum/city/alpharetta-ga/TG5NO843468627D0D

OK, Someone out there knows these sad excuses for human beings. It's your job. I want them publicly humiliated in every way known to man. Go to their church? Great, tell everybody what they did. Print off the web page! Live in their neighborhood? Awesome! Make sure all the neighbors know the whole story!

Craig Heyden lives in Roswell, Georgia. Curtis Heyden lives in Woodstock, Georgia.

(I pulled the pic for now because the age is off and I can't confirm one way or another if this is THE Curtis or a family member with the same name...could be a Curtis jr. and sr. going on here)

And before they use this as a defense: IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE! You want to go "live off the land," go do it and go starve to death or fall in a hole and die like every other asshat suburbanite who should have realized his survival skills stretched no further than "roughing it" at the Motel Six. BUT LEAVE THE ANIMALS OUT OF IT!

Update: Going down...

Just to update: Gerry Trupia was charged!

http://www.wetmtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=a79aa6f8-2400-480a-9ec2-5793b8e1c9e5

Let's hope everybody involved has the guts to testify!

On your mark, get set...

Check out today's collection of Youtube asshattery before it all gets yanked!

Look, I can make him rear, aren't I kewl?

She's not skinny and that had nothing to do with her crumpling to earth!

The pony is not naughty. Try going forward to the jump and that won't happen. Try not getting left behind when the pony finally jumps. Try going back to ground poles and working without your stirrups until you have some of these basics down.

"Show training" is not the problem here. Fucking with and annoying the horse because you saw someone do this on RFD-TV is the problem here! I would bite you too if you kept poking me in the legs for no earthly reason. I think the stallion is quite smart and sensible and the woman needs to put down the remote control and take some lessons from a real trainer.

Your mare would probably stop bucking if the saddle wasn't halfway up her neck. And why are you longeing where the horse can run into a car?

Is that your yard or a junkyard? Now there is a training venue for you!

Nestor, you're an asshat. (Does ANYBODY properly train small ponies outside of the h/j world? Or do they just assume, eh, not far to fall, let's just hop up there and see what happens?)

All of the good trainers in Texas would like to lodge a complaint at the reference to your training as "Texas style."

For those of you whose heads hurt now - here's some good riding. This girl is schooling without her reins and when her saddle slips to the side and her horse loses it, she handles it extremely well. Watch the slo-mo. What saved her is that she got her upper body vertical to the ground again while also regathering her reins and turning his head to take the wind out of his sails. Very nice job handling an explosion! (The people on the comments criticizing her need to STFU. Let's see YOU sit that. She did it.)

More to come...busy day!

Looks more like the dumbasszone to me...

http://www.dangerzonehorses.com/



(I know this thread is going to disintegrate into a fight over pit bulls, so I'll address that up front. I know many good pit bulls. However, as a whole, the breed is often selectively bred for aggression and often poorly trained or trained to be aggressive. The breed has a very high prey drive. Do I really think anybody needs to be breeding more pit bulls? No. If you own one, and you are responsible, and yours is properly trained, not used for fights, and not running amok loose in the neighborhood, all the more power to you. Now can we PLEASE talk about the horses?)

First off, I am not sure if she thinks she is a rescue or a dealer. She seems sort of confused. Many of the horses look like this one - underweight, saddle sitting on their withers, badly ridden if ridden at all. Of course, the eye-burning hot pink background just adds to the horror!

But hey, what did you expect from someone whose photobucket name is slutbucket_2? (Can I just say how much I LOVE people too dumb to make their photobucket private? They are my favorite! Check it out fast before she pulls it down!)

And even better - you KNEW she'd be all over youtube with her scraggly looking horses and ill fitting tack. I don't even know where to start:

So not a western pleasure horse, and honestly looks pissed.

Leads? What are leads? But look, I can stand on his back!

Don't we all ride our green horses with a loose horse in the field? (Wanders in about 2/3rds though)

Oh, here's the skinny one from above ... and boy is HE pissed. Don't you love how it doesn't matter what way she's circling, she's always on the wrong lead?

Holy SHIT I think Jabba the Hut is riding this poor mare! It's WAY wider than she is, whatever it is!

Good grief. I don't have the time to look at them all and my lunch hour's over so, erm, enjoy doesn't seem to be quite the word for it...but hey, $10 says Slutbucket will show up here to defend herself and that ought to be a serious good time!

OMG shut up already - are YOU going to feed them all?

Some equine pro-life wackos named Juli and Caitlin are running around the Internet bashing Days End Horse Rescue for euthing some horses that had behavioral and health problems. (Days End Horse Rescue site)

Shut UP already, Juli and Caitlin. Just STFU.

Here's a clue, sunshine. Every responsible rescue is going to have to euth more horses in the coming months. It's really quite simple:

a) No one wants them to go to slaughter. Slaughter equals torture.

b) No one can AFFORD to feed them, house them, vet them, trim them all, either. You can't, Juli and Caitlin. Nor can I. And the government isn't going to pay for it.

c) There is no magical way to make their owners and breeders suddenly be responsible for them. Trust me. I'd go to a damn voodoo practitioner if I thought it'd work.

d) Some rescue horses are unadoptable. They are too screwed up behaviorally and have a high possibility of hurting someone. If they are adopted out and kill someone, trust me, "someone's" parents are gonna sue. That will take the whole rescue down. As I have stated a million times here, ALMOST NO ONE is (a) qualified and (b) wants to (!) take on a rank or unhandled or explosive horse.

From their web site:

"Maggie JUST learned how to walk/trot when she was adopted out to a family with a child. A few weeks ago, Maggie was returned to the rescue. Apparently, she was in a freak accident that seriously injured someone....The rescue considered her "dangerous" and treated her like a "crazy pony". After 3 weeks, Maggie was euthanized.
Yes, Maggie injured her rider, but it was an accident! Maggie was sent to the wrong home and she suffered for it. ALL horses are considered dangerous, and MANY horses have injured their riders! Just look at Jessica Forsyth, a young girl who had her horse Boomer. Jessica was riding her horse, when she fell off and died. Jessica is dead, but Boomer is still alive. He killed his rider, but he is still living. So why isn't Maggie?"

You know why? Because PEOPLE SUE WHEN PONIES KILL OR MAIM THEIR CHILDREN. That's why. Jessica's parents didn't blame the horse, and kudos to them, but it was their long-term horse. They hadn't just gotten it from someone else. And of course someone said they'd have taken Maggie if they knew she was going to be euthed. OK, so have they adopted another horse to fill that space? $50 says no. People will ALWAYS take another horse if you threaten to kill it. Doesn't mean they can afford it or have room for it. DEFHR chose to be responsible and not play that game. They simply euthed the unpredictable pony, end of problem. Pony had two good years with them. You can't say they didn't try. Sometimes we fail.

e) Some rescue horses are crippled and hurting. They have problems that can NOT be fixed. Just because they are eating and whinny for a carrot does not necessarily mean they should be kept alive. Putting a horse to sleep, as I have ALSO commented many times, is not stressful or traumatic for the horse. They get tranq'ed into lala land, get the second shot and off they go. They don't know they are going to die. They don't have time to anticipate. They are not terrified like they would be in a slaughterhouse. There is absolutely nothing wrong with euthanasia and just like with dogs and cats, the end of slaughter (hopefully!) means that WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DO MORE EUTHANASIA. Deal with it! Do you prefer they hang from a fucking hook in Mexico with their throats cut, Juli and Caitlin? Or starve in the backyard of some faux rescuer with "a big heart" and a thin wallet?

Good God. The last thing a decent rescue needs is some wacko running around the internet bashing them for actually making responsible choices and not being death-phobic ninnies. I guess Juli and Caitlin love the people who euth nothing and just let it hobble around the yard until it goes down and can't get up. That's great, you two. That's just so much better. Again, just more death-phobic, reality-avoiding idiots running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

We are going to have a lot more euthanasia until people stop:

1) breeding low end horses
2) failing to train effectively and appropriately (for ALL levels and prices of horses)
3) failing to provide proper care (nutrition, feed, deworming, etc.)

If you don't want to see horses dying, address those three issues. They're what's causing it - not the rescues that are trying desperately to clean up the mess caused by 1, 2, and 3. I have absolutely no problem with DEFHR's euthanasia policy - in fact, I think it is an excellent model for other rescues to follow.