How many of you get messages, calls, or are asked things by non horse people that makes you raise an eyebrow. 

Example: Random neighbors asking if they can come ride your horses, or if you'll teach their kids to ride ect. 

I saw a hilarious story on one of our BHW threads where a horse owner was left a really mean message by a passer-by threatning to call the Sherriff and report her for blindfolding her horses. (They were wearing fly maskes in the pasture).  

I don't usually receive messages, but I've had a lot of people over the years insinuate that i should let them come ride, or their kids come ride, or their mom, aunt, friend whatever. Once a gal I went to middle school with message me and to say she was moving to an area I live near and asked if it was a good area and I said yes, that's about 2 miles down the road from me. "Oh we should go horseback riding sometime, I haven't ridden in years." Ummm. No. We have not spoken in years and I can count on one hand the people I will actually allow on my horses. 

Rude? Maybe. But save for my daughter's little old mare, the horses I have are for competition and I'm just not going to let anyone jump on them. 

My sister did ask once what happened to my horse's eyes (she had a flymask on....lol!)

I have this pic as my background on my computer and it's on the screen of my projector in my classroom.  The kids ask why some are wearing masks and one's not and socks. lol (she is a cheater and caught hers on the fence kneeling for grass.) 

People at work ask if their children can come out and see the horses.  I did that a couple of times and it seemed they didn't like the smell of horses or thought manure piles were "yucky."  Totally missed the beauty of a horse. They don't come anymore. 

Nice horses Nateracer.  

Agree! There are always those people, "I haven't ridden in years, you should take me riding sometime...or teach my kid to ride". I don't mind having my non-horsey friends (close friends) come for a trail ride every once in a while though! But random people...I am not going to be liable, nor would I put my horse in their hands. 

Also - this was a few years ago, a city kid had moved out in the country (I believe he was a freshman in high school at the time). He came over to ask about the horses, and my older mare who did NOT like small animals, happened to aggressively chase a rabbit out of her paddock. The boy turns around and said, "I didn't know that horses hunted rabbits!?" ... *face palm and trying not to laugh*

Thank you! 

Yeeeeep... the "I need to come ride your horses" we ran into an old friend of my husbands at a local bar and I overheard him tell my husband to let him know when he could come ride "his" horses... I cleared my throat loudly.. my hubby says "well, they are my wife's horses so you'll need to as her" lol! I wanted to punch him! So the guy says "I'm sure your husband is the one who pays for them, so he can tell me" .. The look on my face made my hubby spring into action and he grabbed my hand and we walked away haha!! Boy I had something good to say to that guy but wasnt given the opportunity.. needless to say ol boy hasn't paid us a visit to come play cowboy ....

I have had several message me or stop by our house wanting to know if we teach kids or could give lessons. Most don't own their own horse. Normally we just don't have anything we would put other peoples kids on. Our friends kids have ridden a time or two but perfect strangers are a little different. I wonder why it is so common for people to ask this of horse owners but it wouldn't be acceptable to ask strangers to drive their car or ride their ATV..take their boat for a spin..   

No he didn't!! That would have lit a fire under me as well! Put him on a bronc lol.

OR ..... I am borrowing YOUR trailer to haul my 5 (or 6) unbroke, wild, never been handled yearlings 30 miles to another pasture ...... Don't think so ......

Seriously, this guy is a loon. He refers to himself as "cowboy" living the "cowboy way" all the time on Facebook.. makes us giggle... "cowboys know how to treat a woman " , he always posts... yeah, um ok, and you're single bruh.

Apparently my son mentioned to his neighbor (we're over twenty miles apart) that I had horses.  She called and wondered if I would bring them to her one year old daughter's birthday party for them to ride.  Uh no.........Since I turned her down, she snootily added that they would just buy her a pony of her own then.  Go for it!

I know a few like that. 

I had someone ring my doorbell several years back. A neighbor whom I’d never met asking if they could rent my horse for pony rides for their daughters birthday.  I politely declined, stating that they aren’t kid horses. She had no idea what that meant.

I did have a neighbor call cops on me for sexually assaulting my horses. He even had picture proof!!!!! Cops showed up. As it turns out , it was sheath cleaning day!! And yep, both my horses were slightly sedated and dropped. Cops asked me if I touched my horses penis. Yes sir I replied , that’s how you clean it. I asked them if they would like to contact my vet and they did! They asked her if it was necessary for me to touch my horses penis for any kind of at home procedure. She said “ yes, how else you gonna clean it” lol. Cops laughed after that. They did ask me to try and wait to do it when neighbor kids are at school. So I try. 

My older sister has an actual traveling petting zoo, so she has all kinds of animals. Whenever my other sister or I post photos of the animals, random people will comment "Oh I need to bring my kids out to see all the animals!!" Uh no, they're not mine and her property isn't open to the public.

I have no idea why people feel so entitled to other people's stuff like that! Like someone else said, I don't comment on other people's photos and say "Hey, you should take me out on your boat sometime!"

Bahahaha! You must have some nosey neighbors! Good grief people are nuts lol! I'd go over to them and knock on their door and offer a handshake for being so caring of your horses... and after,  mention I just finished cleaning their junk again 

Reading these responses is bringing incidents to mind...  

Once someone from church asked if they could take my trailer on a 10 hr round trip to pick up a horse for their kid. I just said no, because the trailer is in my mom's name, which was true. But I was baffled. 10 hrs!

Another time, just a few weeks after we moved into the house we are currently at, a neighbor we hardly knew, only met once, knocked on the door and said they were having a 4th of July party in a few days and the grandkids wanted to come pet our horses could they bring them. I said absolutely not, I will not be home. He acted like I was a major brat for telling him no. "We won't feed them, we won't go in with them." All Icould think was we hardly knew these people and they were upset bc we were essentially telling them to NOT bring a slew of kids over to pet our horses on our property when we were not going to be home. We ended up putting the horses in the barn that night and locking the field just in case they decided to attempt it anyway. Ugh. 

Extremely nosy is an understatement. So much so I can’t even get mail at my house anymore. Lol 

Flitastics story reminds me of one I have from childhood. I  lived on a horse/cattle property down at the end of road that went right through a subdivision. I rode my horse all over the place and sometimes up and down the streets. We had this lady that lived across from us that was just an ugly person and she didn’t like us. One morning before school the cows had gotten out and I ran to saddle a horse while my step dad was calling for them with a feed sack. Right as I was cinching up the cows came out of the woods (near the houses) and went right back into the pasture. Later that day my mom was visited at work by some deputy Sherriffs she knew. They said they’d been called by previously named mean neighbor to report that I had gotten my horse to poop on her outside AC unit. My mom said “Well first of all she’s in school, second she’s good with a horse but I don’t think she’s got him pooping on command. Third that woman is a real idiot if she can’t tell the difference between horse and cow $#%t. 

I would have taken that opportunity to tell the whole county, niegbhors included to F off

Oh wow! We live really rural and I started noticing mail disappearing and packages not being delivered. UPS and FedEx are too lazy I guess to drive up our driveway to our home so they started leaving our packages at the road! Even left a saddle I had ordered at the road, in a large box. I was furious! So I got us a PO box in town for stuff. The postmaster will hold the big boxes for me and put a note in my po box. People just help themselves to stuff around here 

Had someone ask us two winters ago where we got coats big enough for our horses . . . Guess that's not too far off the mark tho!

I think this one takes the cake!!!

I've got a better one than that.  A neighbor with a wild animal farm wanted to borrow my trailer to haul a water buffalo to the vet.

Nope!    Nope!   Nope!

I would have let him borrow our old stock trailer just to watch and of course,  video

I do get really annoyed when I will post a pic of my horse on FB or whatever and I'll get a comment from someone I'm not very close with about how they'd love to come ride with me one day. No thank you. My husband can't even safely ride my horse without me having a heart attack and them both narrowly avoiding a huge disaster! LOL

People do the same thing with our boat, and pool. 

We are invited to bbq's all the time at my husband's cousin's house. At least one person on will always ask if they can come ride my horses.  His cousin thinks that because they ride horses every year while on vacation they are "experienced."

I went to a company party and one of the employee's daughter was just learning to ride. I did not know this girl.  He sent her to me to ask what kind of horse would be good for her to buy.  I told her since she was a novice rider something older and gentle would be a good start.  Later I looked out the window and her parents were plainly having a huge argument with her.  They had had to drag her outside because she was so loud and angry.  Turned out she was furious at being called "novice" and they were having to deal with this.  I didn't know she had emotional problems but "novice" is not a bad word.  Some kids want to be told a three-year-old wild stallion would be perfect.  I think this was one of them.

We are on a cut through road from housing developments south of us to Manassas and beyond. Someone anonymously called called AC at least twice a week because I had coats on my horses in the summer. AC came and visited twice and commented on how nice of fly sheets my guys had. After that AC put a note on our account that unless someone left callback information they would stop coming out. 

I also have work friends and other peeps we know that want to come ride. The only horse I've ever had that I trusted with non-riding peeps is now in a rehab program. So, no, I won't let you ride my stallion. He's a stallion. He acts great with me because he knows I'm dominant. Anyone else he takes advantage of (not badly, just pushy). And no, you can't ride my new DFT mare. 

Lol.....reminds me of my FIL. He had horses decades, and I mean decades ago. Probably close to 40 years at this point but he was probably just a back yard rider. 

He used to love to tell my husband I was spending too much on this or that, hay, shoeing, horses don't need that much hay. It drove me nuts. 

I finally told my husband if he came to me saying his dad said this ever again, and there was no need for anyone in the family to know what spent on anything, or he (my husband) could sleep on the couch bc I wasn't having it. 

That was the end of that.

We could have the same FIL lol! Except he has his ol buggy horse still living in the pasture.. she gets nothing but a coffee can of oats he buys in bulk and a flake of hay per day. She started dropping weight really badly.. we finally talked him into taking her to the vet.. they floated her teeth and wormed her ... she began picking up weight immediately... smh.. he reluctantly agreed to have our farrier put her on our schedule to get a trim ... but we have to pay for it LMAO!!!  I almost fell down when he actually asked me what kind of fly spray I was using on my horses because old mare was getting ate up. But I think he finally stopped getting mad when I blanket my horses,  so theres that... 

Yesterday a non-horsey coworker asked if I had ever had a horse spook with me on it. Oh no, never...

I have another one! My sister had a young bull for sale many years ago. Had a guy call and asked if the bull could be delivered. He wasn't too far away, so sure. He then asked if he could shoot the bull while it was still in the trailer since he didn't have a corral or anywhere small enough to confine him...guess he was going to butcher the bull himself

That was a hard no. He never got the bull.

a gal i used to show with in butts county ga rural county her neighbor took her to court as her gelding intimated him when he peeded

there were several other thing about the gelding dropping and peeing she was court order to put trees to shield the neigbor  i am dead seroius. she had to get a lawyer in superior court

Oh these stories are so entertaining.   

Yep, frequently, only just the other day one of our bosses asked if he could bring out his kid and have her ride one of ours... uhm.... nope. I just told him I couldn’t but luckily a friend of mine has a boarding stables closeby and she does lessons too, so I always refer people her way. Win win. She gets more customers and I don’t have to deal with them.... normally I ask if I could drive their cars in return... but I like my paycheck....

Oh heavens. I have no idea what type of "horse person" he was. I just know he had several. My husbands maternal grandma had some as a kid too, like a large herd and when they found out what I pay for shoeing they all croaked bc they trimmed their own. I told my husband I work to pay for this stuff (otherwise he makes enough I'd just stay home with my kids!) So don't be sharing anymore. Not. Their. Business!

Snowflake city! Wow... 

Ha ha ha ha, did you heard they are adding this {Snowflake}  as a new word to the new dictionarys that are coming out, using the meaning in this way about over senitive people, LOL

No I didnt but it's perfect! Lol! 

A couple years ago, one of my neighbors stopped me as I drove into my driveway. He says "that colt is so friendly, she just runs up to me to be petted - can it have treats?"  Noooo, she's 3 weeks old - are you crazy?  Now I have a hotwire fence about 20' back from the front fence.  Last week, same neighbor and family came walking by with my mare and tiny colt out front - they started to walk up my drive to pet him, until I walked out with the dogs and they left.  I'm going to have to put up signs - don't feed or touch the horses.  People just don't get it. 

One of the doctors where I worked always wanted to bring his daughter out to ride with mine. I let it happen, but I was super young then and it was a PIA.  Now I just say no, that mine aren't very gentle. 

PLEASE---can I ride LOVE---PRETTY PLEASE. LOL

OMG LOL

On a side note....his family also thinks because we own a truck that we will haul this or go pick up that whenever they need it done. My hubby has gotten an earful more then once about this because he would agree to it without checking with me first to make sure I didn't need OUR  truck to pull OUR trailer!!

Haha!! My hubby bought trailers and flatbeds with goosnecks so no one else in his family would ask to borrow them lol! We own 2 pickups that have a gooseneck ball ... so jokes on him not only do they ask to borrow the trailers or flatbed but also one of the pickups bahahaha! And usually he ends up just hauling it for them .. I laugh and tell him let them borrow your truck and trailer ... but not mine! No one has asked to borrow my LQ thankfully because it would be really awkward when I said no! Use the stock trailer ... when he bought his kubota tractor I was just waiting for someone to ask for it... sure enough a friend of his did ... had it for 3 days and he couldn't get a hold of the guy! Finally he brought it back . Never again.. if someone needs it he will help them but he will be operating it for them! We dont mind helping people out at all, but you've just got to watch being taken advantage of! Lord knows we've borrowed our fair share of peoples things but we always return them immediately and cleaned and filled up! 

This thread makes me laugh 

I really dis-like when people find out I rope and run barrels, the next question is always.... Are you good? Um..... sure, best in the world, just ask me again and I'll be the best in universe. Maybe it's just me, but its always so awkward. My kids are in 4-H and some of the parents are... well... they own a horse and do the yearly "family rodeo" and they always ask "what's your fastest time". I always follow up with "where", it usually ends with, again, awkward stares.

Now that I type this out, maybe it's just me.... awkward

I had some loser walk over to my house , he was the dork that lived in the neighborhood. I was cleaning my horse trailer and he said to me can you show me how to hook up to the trailer (gooseneck)! I looked at him and didn’t say anything! He said I have some horses to haul later and I need to use it! I said no, I don’t lend my trailer out the insurance would not cover you! He got offended and left! He had his mom call me but I told her no also. They both acted offended and felt because they lived in the neighborhood they had a right to use my trailer! People are weird!

Um yes, this too! Lately my husband has been letting his younger brother borrow our truck whenever he needs to go pick up something. He does put fuel in it but I hold my breath every time. If he wrecks it, it's paid for, but what insurance will give us won't do crap toward buying another. I wish my husband would put a stop to it. It hasn't happened a bunch but if it keeps happening I'll have to put my foot down. 

Besides, I'm finally about to start hauling again (horse tore up a leg earlier this spring. Ugh) so the truck won't be available on weekends. Most weekends. 

I'd be putting locks on my hitches if I were you! 

Maybe you should take those covers off them in this heat. (Fly sheets). Mine do not sweat with fly sheets on even in upper 90 degree heat. 

MY WORST PET PEEVE EVER...... " WHats your fastest time". " Well, my daughter ran a 14 last weekend, thats just as fast as the NFR girls".... I cannot tolerate that. 

For you - YES - any time you'd like to meet at a show I'll let you take her for a spin on the pattern!!

I have a hard time not laughing when people have said things like that to me.

SAME!!! Like how do you answer the “are you any good” question. I think I always say “I try”. Same with the fastest time thing. 

This is something that even horsey people do and I’ve heard some professional horsemen do it and it’s kind of become a peeve of mine. I’m sure I’ve been guilty at some point in the past.

When someone is talking breeding and says “out of” when referring to the sire. 

The first time my cousin and her husband came home for Christmas, he said he wanted to ride my horses.   I just looked at him.  He told me "I know horses. . . I'm from Dallas. . . " Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit---you ain't gettin on my horses, there Tex. . . . 

This exactly! You would be the one stuck with having payments, not the person that borrowed it. His cousin bought a 20 ft camper 6 or 7 years ago. Almost every year since then he has relied on our truck to pull it to the campground because it is too long for his Tahoe to handle. At dinner about a year ago I asked him "Don't you think its about time you got a truck of your own to haul YOUR camper?!" He hasn't asked us since. His son in law has been towing it for him.

I can relate to so many of these...

My response to the "how good/fast are you?" question is usually "not the best but also not the worst." Or I like to throw out that I once won $960 at the BRF... but don't mention that it was because I got 3rd in the slowest division

My biggest pet peeve is when I actually take a friend or family member riding who doesn't offer or bother to help and I'm stuck putting away all the tack on my own, rinsing horses off, fly spray, etc while the person sits on her duff and drinks tea. Or the same said family member who offers to take her friends riding because her sister-in-law has nice horses. And this is riding WITHOUT me present. Um, no!!

Once someone called me up asking me why she kept seeing "all these poor horses wearing blindfolds" on her drive down to Kansas. She felt pretty silly when I straightened her out.

And I don't know how many times I've been asked to give kids riding lessons. Nope, don't have the right horses or facilities.

Let me tell this one about this girl, who was newly married to a guy that lived close by. We knew them but were NOT close friends. Heck I wouldn't even say we were friends at all. We just knew who they were and they had stopped by a time or two when we had other neighbors over. She "owned a horse" and pretended to be a super competitive barrel racer but "in mexico". It was painfully obvious she was telling stories and didn't know much at all about horses. Anywho..she showed up at our house one day and said that her dad was bringing her horse to her from Texas and that she told him that she could keep him at her friends house "meaning our place". My husband was like "uhh it can't come here, we don't have room". She argued with him and said "but you have plenty". I was not home when this happened but OMG. The audacidy!!!!!!!

I have also had people message me on FB asking to teach their kid to rope or barrel race. They don't own a horse, tack or anything. I know they have no idea but those things cost a lot of money and we all have our tack adjusted perfectly for ourselves. Not to mention our horses... fine tuned competitors..  We are supposed to provide you all of that to learn?

Latest message "I see your husband outside training all the time. Does he train kids? I have a 14 year old that has ridden barrels a little but not alone. She wants to learn to rope"

Most honestly don't realize how much they are asking of someone when they send those messages. 

Thank gosh there are a couple of folks in my area that give lessons and I refer them there.

I am going to get backlash, but oh I don't care. 

I see so many responding, how dare they ask?  Does anyone remember when you first started riding?  Do you remember being a girl/boy in the city, who just wanted to pet a horse?  Sure, what they are asking - to ride your horse, use your trailer etc isn't feasible or something you would do.  But, come on folks, I surely hope you aren't this way in the real world, as you are with what you are posting on here. 

People have to start somewhere if they aren't used to horses.  They need the knowledge from someone who has horse experience. 

I am not saying, let them feed them treats, come to your house when you aren't home to pet the horses, ride your 1D barrel horse, or even use your tack/vehicles. 

But, maybe, just maybe extend a hand and think of a way you could help a kid, an adult etc to get into horses the proper way. 

I think the point of most of these stories is the fact that people aren't asking a way that is acceptable.  Most of the stories is they already think the answer is yes and the question is an after thought. 

Getting a genuine person started typically doesn't start with the dumb questions most of these people are asking! It starts with a quiet kid sitting on the bleachers every week watching intently, or watching across the yard for days before every approaching the owner or the horse. But coming onto property without consent is a NO-NO! 

Agree 100%. If their intentions are right, I don't mind helping out. If they just assume I'll give in to their every whim, or they "ask" in a way that implies they expect you to say yes, then that's when I have a problem. Especially if it's someone I never hear from until they need a favor.

And, I stated that you wouldn't let people on your property without your consent. 

Again, not all people even know at first where to go to watch horse activities.  Their parents might not be aware of where to go.  I surely couldn't tell you where all the ball fields are in my area. 

And, like in all things, we are uneducated to make intelligent statements until we "learn the lingo", which would mean hanging around with knowledgeable horse people.  And, no question is dumb.  Not asking is. 

Yep. It's the few people I've dealt with (like the gal from middle school I hadn't spoken to in 10 plus years, or the neighbors who we didn't know who wanted to bring their grandkids over when we weren't home) that assume that just because I have it they're entitled to it are the ones I have no tolerance for.  I've given pony rides to my neices, close friends' kids, and I've let a few girls that were doing 4H/fun shows climb on my horse and trot a few patterns to get a feel for something I was trying to convey when we were just riding around at an open ride. I don't mind helping others out. Plenty of people  have lended me a hand, that's for sure. The difference here is I knew and trusted these people and had a relationship with them. 

I was at a rodeo in Alberta years ago. A father and young child were standing just on the other side of a fence, watching me mud my horses legs. The father waited for as long as he could, then finally coughed, said 'excuse me' "But, is that what you call a paint horse?"

..................'cuz i was painting her legs'

I see what you are saying. I do think it is important to remember that we all started somewhere. I have taught many people how to ride. When I was in midde/high school we had a couple of broke geldings and I pretty well forced all of my friends to learn to ride when they came over to stay with me. I recently taught a 10 year old kid to run barrels on my good horse. I was that kid you are speaking of at a time period when my parents had divorced and sold all the horses and lived in town. I'd do anything to be around horses. Feed, brush them, anything. When we are hauling somewhere and I get asked by kids at the gas station if they can pet the horses my answer is always yes. I welcome spectator kids to pet my horse at rodeos. Had a van full of my childs daycare mates come over and tour the barn. You can tell the difference in people who genuienly want to learn and are respectful. The questions are different. "Do you know anyone that gives riding lessons" "Do you have any advice on how to get into this sport" "do you know of any beginner horses for sale" "can my kid do some barn chores in exchange for instruction" "can we go to a show with you sometime and see what it is all about" "are there any local riding clubs we can look into"

These are the types of questions that make me want to be involved and help out. 

I know that most non horse people genuinely don't know better, because they have no experience in this area. I don't think it is mallicious. I think asking the right questions and doing a little research on your own before hand is key.  

My neighbors come over and pet my horses all the time. I don’t see a problem with that at all. My horses love the attention and they aren’t hurting anything 

we used to live in the city limits but had 5 acres. People would pull over in my driveway just to watch me ride. It was harmless and didn’t bother me, if I wasn’t in a hurry I would lead my horse and ask if they wantef to pet him. The excitement they got out of it was awesome and it just took a couple minutes. You never know what people are going through and sometimes it’s the small things that make people’s day.

I get more annoyed by people who think they are horse people and ask or say dumb things!

Exactly.. I'm not about to have that jerk of a guy who basically told me to shut up because he was certain my hubby paid for my horses come over and attempt to ride my horses and take goofy selfies so he can post pics of himself living the cowboy way on social media. Nope nope and nope!!! If I knew a kid that was eager to learn and didnt just want to hop on horsey and walk around, I'd be all about mentoring him or her... theres so much more to it than just owning and riding these horses! I'd teach them how to catch, tack one up, cleaning stalls, feeding, grooming etc etc... that would weed out the ones that are just looking to ride a horse once just because I have horses ... as far as borrowing our trucks and trailers ... we've been burned in the past... my hubby will typically always help someone out but will do it himself instead of lending out everything... we know maybe 5 people we would turn our stuff over to, to borrow without even a thought... 

I think people don’t know they are not asking in an appropriate way. They have no idea about our culture and how we feel about our animals. 

This 1000 x over on the "what's your fastest time." Duh, I always say "where?" Always have people from work wanting to come ride, most have never, ever ridden. OH and just TRY to explain the "D" system! Many blank stares!

I remember when a steer wrestler with a very nice horse had a youngster ask if he could get on his horse.  No parents around.....just the kid in bare feet.  Cowboy reluctantly said okay thinking he would just sit there, so he let him on.  Kid dug his heels in and took off.  It was a chore chasing him down.  Bet cowboy never did that again.

This thread is fascinating because my experience has been the polar opposite. I have a quiet, beginner safe gelding that anyone can ride. I've offered rides on him to friends, family, coworkers, heck even my massage therapist. I've yet to have one actually take me up on it lol. Nobody has ever once actually asked me to ride my horse or anything like that. I do board though, so nobody knows I have horses unless I tell them. 

I also have to say, I do appreciate those of you who are patient with well-intentioned people that clearly know nothing and might show up at your house and ask to pet your horse. (Not the entitled a-holes though, obviously). My dad had horses and rodeo'd and all that (a looooong time ago), but my mom has never in her life been on a horse. I remember when I was little, she would stop at our neighbors houses who owned horses and ask if we could pet them. They were always nice about it and I remember two that we stopped at frequently. They taught me how to feed horses bits of grass out of my hand. Whenever we saw a big facility that looked like it might be a boarding/lesson facility, she'd stop in and ask. I got my intro to horses and riding lessons thanks to nice people that were willing to help us out.

I guess I have had different experiences than most. I don’t mind the people who have never been around horses, the ones that drive me crazy are the people who do only local play day or horse show a couple times a year and think they are expert horseman. They think everyone who wins drugs their horse, you never use the horn going around the barrel, going to the vet is for three legged lame horses, etc. Before anyone gets their panties in a wad, I will freely admit that there are playday people who know their stuff. But, most of those compete at bigger competitions, too, or used to. 

I'm gonna revisit my post. . . My cousin's then husband was a turd, that was the reason be wasn't getting on my horses.  He wanted to prove something and it just wasn't happening on my watch; you just had to know him.  

I WAS that little girl that wanted to just pet a horse.   My grandmother was completely terrified of horses, but there was a rodeo arena about half a mile from her house in Lake Village.   I spent every Saturday night with her, and sometimes she would stop in and let me sit on the bottom row to watch for a little.   It was the highlight of my Saturday.   My dream was to one day get to just ride double in that arena---never did, and it's gone.   But I have ridden my own horses in other arenas now, and it felt as great as I thought it would!   We have been involved with a therapeutic riding center where we hauled horses (our own and others) and kids to events and trail rides. We've taken our horses and a local boy to a hunting event for handicapped/underprivileged kids and let anyone that wanted to ride get on.  And what a blessing to see a young boy in a wheelchair want to ride while his mother cried with joy.  He rode and I cried too.  Chandler has taken kids on rides while we were at a Civil War remembrance event.  I'm not saying this to pat myself on the back.  I just wanted to clarify that I remember what it was like to just touch that soft nose and look into those dark eyes and know pure magic. . . .  And believe me when I say I thank that friend that put me on her trained cutting horse.   I told her I'd mess him up because I didn't know what I was doing and my leg wouldn't move on the left side.   My angel said "Deb, have a good time on him, you can't mess Copey up."   And I've never looked back.  

I bet we all figured he was a buthead! You are such a good person and are always willing to help, encourage, uplift etc.! Never would I imagine you turning some one away without a VERY good reason!

i should clarify too.  Not everyone who comes up to ask about our horses are doing so with good intentions, I realize that. I am not the most approachable person so maybe the jerks don’t want to talk to me. Some of the people mentioned definitely don’t need to be tolerated. But I always remember me as a little girl carefully begging my dad for a horse. I won in the end, lol. But what if I had not? I would probably be the one asking to just be near some ones horse, if only to breath their scent in and revel in the horse’s presence. 

Thank you so much Miss Glenda

I feel the same way about being around horses---there's just something about them to me that's majestic. . .

IMO, I think it all depends on "how" the person approaches you and asks......many times at rodeos while walking out my horses, people with youngsters in hand would "ask" if they could pet my horse. Not a problem .... but if they approached with the "air" about them of .....we ARE going to pet your horse, they were shut down.