to be furious at suggestions that show jumping/x country is cruel?

[MitchyInge]

grrrrrr! put up some pictures on another forum to celebrate the launch of my international show jumping career (starting at a small village show, haha) and someone said 'poor horses, that makes me feel very uncomfortable'

my horse LOVES to jump, he is much more competitive than me!

aibu to want to stab her in the face with a hoof pick?

[KingCanuteIAm]

Podrick, fair enough, not unreasonable no, but yes I doubt many would agree as such. Thanks for explaining

[chienpointu]

show jumping is fun. I can get worked up about show jumping

[chienpointu]

what was that bad tempered man called? Harvey someone

[ABetaDad]

quelleSod - at 'sideways jumping'.

A pony did that to me but threw me over the fence sideways and then calmly walked round the fence to check my landing.

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

Smith

[QuelleSodMaMingeEstItchy]

haha betadad

I ride one sometimes (not mine) who runs out after every jump and then bucks in the opposite direction (so you are tipped first one way then the other) and when he succeeds in dumping me headfirst into the sand does a victory lap round the school!

[chienpointu]

SMith yes! The geoffrey boycott of horse riding

[thumbwitch]

at ABetaDad - horses/ponies do smug really well, don't they? Plus injured innocence - "what on earth are you doing down there?"

[KingCanuteIAm]

My best sideways jump was when I took the saddle off after a jumping session to cool down, jumped back on and my horse took one sideways stride, whipped round and jumped the full height jump one stride away... [ouch]
It was just over 5ft tall - I was very proud at staying on, I just couldn't walk for about a week

[QuelleSodMaMingeEstItchy]

you jumped 5' bareback, sideways?

RESPECT!

[Biccy]

Erm, MitchyInge and QuelleSodMaMingeEstItchy, you two seem to have more than horse riding in common... is there a link?

[KingCanuteIAm]

lol - sounds good, I am pretty sure that it was more luck than judgement or skill though

[booyhoo]

is mitchy and quelle not the same person except quelle is the french?

does that sentence even make sense?

[booyhoo]

cause its bastille day i mean.

what im saying is...
mitchy has translated name to french as it is bastilee day and othe mnetters have done the same.

[UnquietDad]

They only released 7 prisoners from the Bastille,didn't they? And two of them were a forger and a rake. (Hoping I remember O-Level History properly.)

[Loshad]

naah biccy - it's the riding what irritates your thrush

[QuelleSodMaMingeEstItchy]

yes it is my slightly-late-in-the-day bastille self

sometimes I do get a mitchy inge when riding in small scratchy knickers though

[Biccy]

Mmm, that was what I initially thought too (although hadn't made the Bastille Day connection)... moi, je suis tres stupide... mais, je suis enceinte... je m'excuse...

[booyhoo]

i wish i could speak french. im sure my dsis insults me when she mumbles after me in french.

[MitchyInge]

what was upshot of this discussion? am I BU or am I NBU?

I don't actually care that much today, except the comments were from someone I know and if she's been thinking for ages that I am cruel to ride my horse and pop a few fences she could have told me when I was not in full euphoric flow!

[bumptwitknocker]

YABU. Horses, and any other animals shouldn't be forced to do anything. Your horse is probably scared of what you might do if it does it wrong, ro refuses to do it. Horse racing is terrible, too. It's fantastic though when the stupid, if a little poncy horse riders are thrown off the horse, and injure themselves, and the horse stands and laughs. If you gave the horse a choice, it wouldn't choose to have a saddle and reigns put on it, and a silly metal bit through its mouth. It would choose to do what wild horses choose to do, and graze in a field.

[MitchyInge]

in some ways I wish my horse was a bit scared of me! just scared enough to let me set the pace now and then, not so scared he doesn't trust me completely

I don't FORCE him to jump, when we're hacking it's usually HIS idea to jump puddles and fallen bits of tree and the occasional ditch - what do you think I'm going to do if he stops or runs out at a jump? beat him? I just circle and try again, am pretty sure that is not cruel, and even more sure that a snaffle is kinder than a bitless bridle

[HuffwardlyRouge]

Well, I don't really know enough about it to have any strongly held opinion, but in my experience any industry that involves money and animals is not always a great gig for the animals.

I'm not saying your horse doesn't have a wonderful, cushy and much loved life, but I am sure that many horses aren't as lucky.

[MitchyInge]

well showing is probably further up the cruelty ranks than eventing, what with them getting so fat and being rugged/stabled to within an inch of their lives all year round, even the natives

but it's more slightly less than ideal than actual cruelty isn't it?

[Rindercella]

Oh dear bumptwitknocker you seem to be living up to your middle name there . By the way, I think you must mean reins. After all, if horses had reigns, it would surely mean they lorded it over us humans which cannot be the case. Us horse lovers beat them into submission dont'cha know.