how can people be so ignorant? wow.

Im sorry if this is in the wrong section, I just took a wild guess haha.

Anywayyy, I went riding with a friend of mine this past saturday. I was just chilling out, and riding my very calm TB mare through the park, a beautiful day. There is a community type playground and picnic benches right by the park ranger's station. We where walking along the road, and a middle-eastern (no intention being racist lol) man and his two children come charging up to us (the kids where about, oh I dunno. 2 and 3? A boy and a girl).

I (and my riding partener) see him comming, and patently wait for them to walk up. We tell them clearly that if they want to pet the horses, they must walk to see them. They listen.

The man steps up, and says "May we pet your horses?" he has an accent, but both myself and my riding partner understood him clearly. Of course I return a yes, I don't mind when people come to pet her, jersey loves the attention!

The man procedes to pick up his young boy, and approaches jersey from the side. I tell them "this is jersey, she's a sweety. Feel free to give her a pat." the man then tries to throw his kid up on to my horse!! He didnt ask, he dosent know me, the kid has no helmet, and im still on my horse! I grabbed the kid by the leg, and pushed him and his father backwards. I said "woaahh! Excuse me! You can not just throw your kid up onto someone else's horse like that! That is dangerous, you never know what they are going to do." or something along thouse lines.

The guy began speaking jibberish, and I left. I was venting to my riding partner, who said the same thing, not once did he ask permission, but he did ask if he could pet the horses.

This makes me so mad. That boy was so lucky I wasnt riding my green arab! That boy would have been in the hospital!(well, I wouldnt let someone pet him, just because he is so unpredictable. He would have freaked at the sight of thouse kids running! Lol )


I was furious. I have had no problem like this before. Have any of you guys encountered such a thing while riding? (let it be on the trail, in the ring, or even people comming to pet the horses!) what are your experence with these kind of...experences?


I could have said something so much worse! That is so frustrating how dense people can be! although its a good laugh later. Haha.


Milk and cookies to all who read this! LOL.

Wow! Can't say anything like that or even close to that has ever happened to me. A bit bizarre wasn't it?

Golly. How disrespectful?!
I've never had anything that bad happen to me on a trail.
The worse I've had was a young girl, (maybe twelve?) she came up to me while I was riding through a nearby park on my friends very skittish TB mare. And she asked if she could pat the horse, I hesitantly said yes (she's normally good with patting and such, just when riding she's skittish). After giving her a pat, she asked for a ride. D: I said no. Reasons being; A) Not my horse. B) She bucks/bolts/rears. C) She needs a experienced/confident rider. D) I didn't know the girl! After saying no, she started swearing at me, yelling and crying. I didn't know what to do, so I started to ride off. She then yelled "I DON'T WANT TO RIDE YOU'RE UGLY HORSE ANYWAY!" Then slapped the horse on the rump. D:
She almost bolted, she was so stressed and confused. :(
Poor Chloe, ey?!

I hope you don't get any more ignorant people approaching you. :)

Boy, after reading that, I feel better about the coyotes, bears and moose that are on the trails I ride on. They're more predictable and civilized!

WOW that sounds like a total brat! Oh these crazy children. a little girl sweetly asked to ride jersey (about a year ago, when she was alot hotter) and I had to say no haha.

That's awful, at least the kid didn't stress jersey out, poor chloe :(

Same to you! I hope that dosent happen to any of us again haha.

How awful! I've not had something as bad as that happen to me, and that's a little creepy. But when I am riding, everyone assumes they can charge right up and rub all over my horse. I only have one horse who isn't an abuse case, and half of my abused ones have head phobias with new people, understandably. It's incredibly annoying how stupid people can be.

Wow, how weird are people. The worst I have had is kids at school who would wander over when we were practicing as part of out equestrian team and ask to ride our horses. And then get all crappy when we said no and yell at us, thankfully teachers and parents where present and it was strictly not allowed. If you didn't own the horse you were not allowed to ride.

And sometimes at shows random people wander over, horse people, and just hug Kai's head. He loves it and knows he is cute hehe, but it kinda annoys me that no one asks to pet him, they just go for it. I always ask if I want to pet someone else's horse out of respect for their property, is it too much to ask for the same respect in return!

WOW! I can't believe that. I've never had that problem before. I did have some guy come jumping out of the bushes once (totally on accident!). It was early spring time and the berries were ripe on a few bushes off to the side of the trail. Well, I was riding my Clydesdale on trails for only the second time and we heard this rustling sound in the bushes. So, we slow down and approach cautiously and all of a sudden some guy comes bursting out of the bushes with this basket in his hand! LOL My Clydesdale was like "holy hell!" and jumped! I jumped! The guy jumped! He turned beat red and started to apologize, and Luther was all prancing and snorting (and little old me is trying to hold him in one spot...I'm only 5'3", 110lb, Luther is 18hh and close to 2000 LOL). I told him it was fine, that we just didn't notice there was someone there and I asked him if he'd just pet Luther to show him there was nothing to be afraid of. He did, and was actually a really nice guy. Thankfully, it didn't go worse, like Luther flipping out and tossing me! :)

Look, people do dumb things all the time. You've read posts from people who have horses but cannot afford them, have too many horses, etc.

My kids have service dogs. They wear vests that clearly state they are service animals. Children often come up and pet without asking. Who is so stupid as to pet an animal you don't know? Apparently, quite a few people. People talk about the dogs in very loud voices as we pass by. Most often Moms say something to the effect "They're training those dogs as guide dogs." They are not guide dogs and the mom has not a clue.

My siblings are all adopted. My parents and I are white. I have a Native American brother and sister, a brother from Korea, and a sister from Vietnam. I cannot even tell you the number of dumb things people have said and done. Some of my favorites: "Will she speak Vietnamese when she is old enough to talk?" "Do you have any real brothers and sisters?" My answer to second question, even as a child, was, "The last time I checked nobody is plastic."

People don't think before they speak or act. Non-horse people don't know that horses can kill them. Non-dog people assume that dogs are all friendly or all scary. People with disabilities (or service animals) are assumed to be deaf so it's OK to talk about them very loudly and in condescending manner. People often don't think much further ahead of themselves than the nose on their face.

I work for a company that does business all over the world. Our language is very complicated and I personally give kudos to those that learn it. It is VERY possible that he THOUGHT when he said pet he meant ride.

The 'jibberish' was probably his native language he was speaking to his kids to help them to understand why the lady changed her mind.