Children! Evil!

I don't much like kids. But he was being a kid and nothing more. I sped down roads on my bike all the time as a kid as well. :P

It's worse when it's 'adults', we have a stupid 18yo driver who will drive slowly up behind us, rev his "fully sik bro turrrboo" engine, blast the horn. Spin tires and take off. If he's coming towards us he'll snake up the road.

Had to laugh the other day too busy being a d@ck he went off the road into the ditch totaling his front end and I think he sprained an ankle getting out of his totaled car. Sadly it was his old bomb not the shiney new one.
Posted via Mobile Device

Kids are great de-spookers. Our horses are on our family farm with my brother's 5 kids. When I bring my 2 our there, it is crazy. Bikes are in and out of the shed, they run up and down the feeding area, they are screaming and jumping on the haybales. And then when we get the horses out, they are swinging on the playset, jumping on the trampalene, swimming....The trampalene is even close to the round pen. But when the kids moved out to the farm, they were city kids. They did not know what to do with the horses or what to watch for. The kids and the horses have finally come to live in harmony. It took the 7 kids and 10 horses 2 years to learn to live in harmony.

I agree that any horse that has been around kids is probably used to just about anything.
However, we have these kids down at the arena that will buzz your horse as fast as they as close as they can just to make it spook. Those kind of kids really twist my knickers!

I can see why some of you have horses and not kids. My kids are the highlights of my day and any animal around my place will either adjust to the kids or be gone. I couldn't imagine having such a negative attitude towards kids. All they really want to do is play and eat good food. Sounds like a good time to me......... :)

One thing to consider, if your horse ends up accidentally hurting the kid, you have a liability nightmare. I try to keep small children and horses in separate parts of the world. I have a friend whose horse accidentally injured a small child. She got sued for about $100,000. It happened on the horse owner's property. The kid should not have been allowed to play where the horses were but the horse owner didn't realize the danger. It really wasn't the horse's fault. The horses were being fed treats and the dominant horse attacked another horse. When he bolted away, he accidentally stomped the kid while trying to escape. The kid survived. The horse owner went into a severe depression because she felt so bad about the poor kid. The whole thing was due to neither the parents of the kid or the owner of the horse having any idea about the danger.

Well, we were each once children, and probably did stupid things. Children must be taught, not hated, not ignored...taught. My personal children not only don't act like that, they are experts with horse care, because they were taught. My horses also can handle go carts, tractors, screaming, saws, any number of things....because of those self same kids.
Posted via Mobile Device

I tend to agree with Prinella - adults are worse. Kids really only know what adults teach them.

I was riding in a parade on a new horse. We were shocked that this seemingly been there, done that horse was a nervous wreck in the parade (I'm talking lathered halfway through). The parade stopped - as parades often do - for a quick performance by one group or another. The club I was riding with turned our horses at a 45 degree angle to the parade route when we stop - looked pretty cool when we do it as a unit.

Domino (the horse) was calming down a bit just being allowed to stand and be petted and adored by the parade watchers. One dad walked up with his maybe seven year old kid and a balloon in tow. Dad told the kid to pop the balloon and watch what the silly horsey does. Kid didn't know any better - he was doing what daddy told him. Kid popped the balloon right in Domino's face.

Domino jumped straight up in the air - I swear it felt like he jumped up six feet - and came right back down in the same spot - which meant he nearly landed on top of the kid. Daddy started screaming at me about my dangerous horse and how we nearly killed his kid - I really wanted to run daddy over - I really did! Fortunately, there were tons of witnesses - one of whom was a local cop. Daddy went to jail for being drunk in public (it was only 10a.m.!) - don't know what happened to the kid.

I'm with Dreamcatcher.

I'm a mom to an ornery, horse lovin' 6 year old girl. She is by far the best desensitization program! Bikes, hula hoops, jump rope, pool noodles, umbrellas, baby stroller, wagon, power wheels mustang, anything noisy she can get her hands on pretty much, they've seen it. She plays free will with anything of her choosing in the barn aisle while I work green horses in the indoor arena. In the outdoor she has her area (a corner blocked in with round pen panels) and spends her time flinging sand with her shovel and singing or yelling or....you get the picture

By the time I send a client's horse home, she's pretty well made them unflappable

These kids are always tearing about the neighbourhood and are on the bad side of my barn owner for sneaking onto his property without permission and playing on stacked round bales. They got chased off sharpish, once noticed.

Normally I'm not bothered by their shenanigans in the village but was unimpressed here due to being completely startled myself and thinking I could have been anyone and it could have ended quite badly; a car, a pedestrian, another cyclist, someone on a spookier horse. Flying out of your driveway without looking is a generally bad plan.

I really only related the story due to being amused at how flipped out I was, verses how non-plussed my horse was.