My gelding's ability to pack mud tightly into his freshly cleaned hooves. We're working on ground manners right now and I'm teaching him that it's okay for me to clean his hooves. I pick them out without a problem, wipe the soles with a rag and inspect them. I like to wipe his feet down so I can familiarize myself with how they look, so I can easily spot changes or issues. They look great all clean.
Until he puts his foot down and wanders to his waterer. By the time he moseys on back to me, it looks like I haven't cleaned his feet in weeks!
1) My right knee is injured permanently and I can't ride with stirrups. I'd have loved to jump but my knee won't support me and hiking up my stirrups even further sounds like hell.
2) Due to said injury I've had the wrong leg position for quite some time and my lower legs won't stop moving.
3) I get too frustrated sometimes which doesn't help at all.
My pet peeve - when my friend does an average dressage test, then when reading the judges comments proceeds to pick it apart - ie. Judge says 'Horse's head tilted to the left', my friend reads and says 'head tilted? As if! That judge is useless'
Also, when people pay for a lesson, and when they are told how to do something/correct something, they try to justify to the instructor why they were doing it their way - and continue to do it, without trying the instructors way.
Why pay for a lesson if your not going to listen anyway?!?!?!?!
My personal peeve - my loss of confidence since having my kids - 18 months after the last one was born, I am only *just* starting to feel more confident with green horses in strange situations... :-(
People being inconsiderate in the jumping/warmup ring! Make sure you know where the other horses/riders are, and that you stay out of their way, and all will be well. Also make sure you know the other horses in the arena, and the riders! If there's a green horse or rider in there, be particularly mindful of them. If you're ON a green horse, make sure you let other people know!
Over-bitting. MAJOR pet hate. I hate seeing kimblewicks and pelhams on horses that I know can and do go kindly in a snaffle. I don't mind it if the pelham is being used with a snaffle rein and a curb rein (I like pelhams when they're used correctly), but with roundings or just on the curb rein is bad news.
Not sure why, but I hate seeing tiny kids on 17hh horses, yet I wouldn't hesitate to get on one myself, and I'm not much bigger than a 12 year old. Plus I firmly believe that a horse isn't too big for you unless you can't get on it safely.
My own riding pet peeves? Ummm... my hands/arms creep backwards, it causes a tendency to ride into the back of the saddle and that's when Monty doesn't move forward properly - and he's a forward kinda horse so it's when he starts rushing and it all snowballs into disaster. My inside hand, especially, has a tendency to creep back. I have a tendency to want to jump and canter too much, because trotting is boring, but if I vary the speed within the trot I'll trot for a lot longer before I get bored.
If I'm not riding 'backwards' I tend to lean forwards a little bit and my upper body isn't strong enough. Also, I tend to collapse my inside half on turns to the left, which is only a fairly recent discovery but makes sense because 3 of the last 4 horses have been rusty on that side - clearly it's not the horses that are rusty, it's the rider.
I would like my lower leg to be more stable but it's getting there.
It use to bother me when I was little that someone always felt that they had to help me lead my horse when I could do it myself. So now it still irritates me to see teenagers leading a horse for a child who prefers to do it them self.
If I listed my pet-peeves I'd probably be here all day, so I'll just list a few.
In others:
~ When my dad tries to tell me what to do whenever my instructor isn't around. I'm sorry, but my horse needs to work on something for a while longer, I'm not going to stop working on that RIGHT THIS SECOND just because you want to see me doing something more "exciting". I'm also not about to break the rules just to get something done more quickly.
~ When you (politely) give someone advice and they get angry with you.
~ When people who haven't even been off the lunge-line yet are asking if they can do cross-country. It's great to have goals but seriously, kid, you haven't even started trotting yet!
In myself:
~ I have a horrible time remembering to keep my shoulders back.
~ My leg position is *finally* getting a lot better, but for the longest time my legs were all over the place.
~ Piano hands!
At the barn the tack room has a door that is suppose to be closed when your not in there. The reason is there is a cat the goes and pees on the tack and this is nice private tack. The door being open and no one there is BAAAA!!!! One thing i keep doing some times at lessons and not as much now is looking at the horses ears.
People who are up tight with their horses. Like I pet a horse once and the women went all ape s*** on me "Don't you go pet that horse without my permission!" and such, and I was like chill out! I was just patting its nose, I ain't gonna sue you if it bites me. My apologies, I didn't know simply touching your horse was a sin. I'm gonna pet a horse if I want to. You can just get over it, cause it ain't hurting nothing.
I understand the not wanting to let anyone else ride it and such, but petting it on the nose for just a few seconds. Sheesh.
Kids who are "show kids" who are rich and pampered and always get what they want etc etc. I told one girl that I started riding at age nine and she looked at me like I was insane. She started riding at age three, showing by age 7. She also frequently stops during lessons for stupid reasons. (I'm tiiiired! My stirrups are uneven! Can you check my girth?(We checked it a minute ago and it was insanely tight.)
People who think they are better than you even though you each have strengths. Yes, you ride a 3' 4" courses, but its on a show horse that is absolutely perfect in every way. You also jump ahead a lot, so you're lucky that he is so absolutely perfect. I bet you couldn't ride the height I'm working with on my horse that is far from push button! Also, please stop whining when we work on low jumps and cross rails. Everyone can gain a lot from low jumps!
this might get long, i have a lot of pet peeves! :3
-people that aren't experienced enough to be in your lesson and slow everyone down.
-overcrowded lessons.
-if I'm working at the barn and someone tells me that I need to do more work, even though they're sat there talking to their friend or just not doing anything helpful.
-people who don't do any work when supposedly helping out.
-backyard breeding.
-horses that put their head up when I try to put the bit in their mouth and won't stand still when i'm trying to mount.
-people who scream when their horse does something scary. Some people may have reason too but it's not going to help.
-instructors that have you trotting around for half an hour while talking t people on the other sside of the fence. I didn't pay them for that.
riding:
-having my hands too far out and too far down.
-not having any bend in my elbow.
-when my thumbs are to the side and not up.
-unstable lower legs.
I could go on but it's already long enough, bitchy barns and horses are not good.
A personal riding pet peeve of mine is that I often catch myself holding the reins with just my fingertips. I am trying to fix that bad habit. Posted via Mobile Device
I am with you Courtney. I am a trainer, and I try to ride my horses first thing in the morning to beat the heat. People can see me riding and come ride only to ask questions about thier own horse! Let me focus and work on my babies!
The second thing I hate is when other boarders bring kids and kids friends to the barn and let them go horse to horse feeding and petting others horses. Hasn't anyone heard of barn etiquette? Control your children and keep them away from everyones elses horses!
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