another rant

[arumanii]

Need 2 just rant a bit am afraid!

Just Friday we had an idiot scare both horses to death on a country lane. Big tractor with trailer that both became a bit jittery over so we pulled into the edge n the farmer pulled all the way over onto the other side of the road and slowly crept past us without revving at all (bless him! -some considerate folk do exist). Horses chilled out just for a complete and total...lets just settle for calling him an idiot shall we?...flew up and undertook the tractor!?!?! Obviously ther was a problem -tractor & trailer creeping on wrong side of road with horses on the other -u'd at least slow down n hav a look first! But no-y not speed up n drive right next to the horses that are doing cartwheels instead! Grrr! Sometimes ppl's inconsiderate behaviour just drives me nuts! Horses were then freaked for the rest of the ride!

Then this morning was taking out the so called problem horses (they're really quite sweet they just have issues that have been left to get worse for far too long as the owner doesn't have the experience to deal with them...so pays us to!) and conquered all sorts of scary obsticles -skips, bin men, blue bins being out, someone slamming car door and got passed all of their psychological problem spots on a loose rein (has taken many MANY months) only for another idiot in the relative safety of the woods to loose an uncontrolled dog on us! Why take a dog off the lead if it doesn't come back?!?! Mine come when called or wouldn't go off-there's just too much that could go wrong. Stupid man! Dog came right up in our faces barking n snapping. I was just going up n down n wavering from side to side as I kept having to drag her off balance to get her down n stop her from kicking the dog (typical that it would come after the one I'm on who just happens to be the more nutty!). We had to set them into an almost controlled spook round the dog n past the owner as was worried it was gonna get kicked or we were going down! Horses were drenched with sweat n weary of every dog we passed for the rest of the hack. I wouldn't mind so much if we hadn't just gotten them over the fear of dogs n feel like we've now gone back 10 steps again.

Why are people so inconsiderate of horse riders!?!? When such situations are potentially infinitely more dangerous?!?! Grrr!

Rant over...for now

[maximum]

report to BHS they are currently collating figures for dogs attacking horses.

my dog comes out with me on Max ( well i am on Max the dog just follows) and I would never take him if he did not behave correctly. have to confess though he does just' herd' max and stays behind us the whole time, I forget he is there sometimes!

[arumanii]

really? Will have to add as is not the first time I've had issues with dogs running at us.

I used to take my two dogs out with some of the more sensible horses I rode & used to have them pace to heel when not running free but have recently stopped as remaining dog getting old & can't keep up. (And I'm getting lazy n can't be doing with getting off n on to sort lead!)

Is nice to take them out with u tho as not only gets two birds with one walk but also is extra company n entertainment if hacking out alone.

[arumanii]

btw I luuuv ur avatar! Wish I could figure out how to put my pics on as one but am not technically minded enough!!!

[kateflashy]

its the dogs that are terrfied when they meet me esp on flash or when i had mash they turn on the dogs just put there heads down and stamp there feet and if the dog dont move walk towards it dogs then run whimpering away though one particulary brave gsd did stand his ground once until flash stood on him just his tail then he ran

[maximum]

I dont have Ben on the lead as we are not on the roads - I dont take him on the roads just in case.

have PMed you about avatars!!

[arumanii]

ooh thankyou! (Will prob still not get it but thatnks 4 trying!)

[racaille]

I always used to hack out with my white boxer. Even with such a short nose he could keep up all day over the mountains, he was super fit. He was also very obedient - and hey, that is no mean feat with a boxer! ;D
But other people are dorks, aren't they? I have perfected a technique with dogs that snap at Paco - I turn him to face the dog and then 'run the dog down' - they always, always turn tail and flee. Even the vile alsatian that lives near me (God I hate that dog, he kills my chickens, attacks cars etc, in fact I don't like alsatians at all) backs right down and Paco is much better when he is facing a scary thing. In fact, Paco is no longer scared of dogs. He thinks they are paltry compared with big brave him!!
But people in cars are the pits (OK, not all). I can't understand why they have to be such jerks. And (sorry to say it) Frenchmen in cars are worse than anything!!

[duckles]

A friend of mine also chases dogs with her horse and they leave her alone. I am lucky in that my horses are so used to dogs they don;t really seem to mind them barking and yapping but then again maybe I am lucky not to have a really bad experience. Try the dog chasing, you know what they say, meet a bully, be a bigger bully. However i have to take issue with Racaille over German Shepards who I have always found to be really sweet obedience sensitive dogs. (Perhaps I am just lucky). My own dog (not an alsatian) is a bit mad despite all my efforts to train her. I would love to hack out with her but i don't think she would survive the traffic

[arumanii]

I like shepherd breeds myself (have a german shep x border collie x hamster I think!) and have always found them real easy to train. Some breeds are def more difficult and even some dogs between breeds have their own personalities. I had one do lally border collie bitch that sould just not settle to anything and was real nervous about anyone outside her circle. Only way I could keep her without her being dangerous was to have her supremely obedient so could say 'down' n have her hit the floor even if in the middle of a fight or flight situation. But then I did get it all drilled into me at an early age as my rents were obedience competitors...and later I did agility with mine too. Hav even got the gerbils trained to come when called n sit up on command -yes, I do have waaay 2 much free time some days!

I luv the idea of being able to ride at them and have them back down but really don't think that is ever gonna happen with either of the two we met the dogs on. They are complete scatter brains over everything still -tho 4 some strange reason found nothing out of the ordinary about a big jcb thing swinging about and dropping (loudly) piles of earth and bricks into a skip pretty much next to them and then passing it! Skip sat alone doing nothing was scary yesterday!?! But don't think we'll ever get them to confront a dog -let alone a snapping snarling one that is matching them as they try to dart from side to side to get around it. Really quite scared me n I'm not easily scared! (Not the whole rearing business-tho def not a fan or the dog as not bothered about dogs really but the whole my horse could get bitten/ is prob gonna fall over as I drag her sideways one of these times/ am gonna end up with a kicked and possibly dead dog!)

But then this morn was lovely again. Ppl slowing down n even stopping their cars to let us turn right infront of them. Turning off machines as we came by n one woman even grabbing a kid and shushing her-will miracles never cease! Someppl really do care but others just drive me up the wall and make life far more dangerous than it need be!

[racaille]

I know, Duckles, I deserve to be scolded for that silly generalisation It' just that when you meet a couple of lunatics, you tend to think it's the whole breed. I suspect that the problem is the same for any intelligent dog: if it is not trained it can get up to all sorts of mischief and, let's face it, a GS is a scary looking dog.
Re horses kicking dogs: I don't know how the law works in the UK but I've never worried about it. If a dog attacks Paco and he kicks out and injures it, tough. The horse is only obeying its instincts and it is a prey animal so those instincts are pretty strong. You can, however, train a dog not to go after horses.

[arumanii]

Lol! Yeah is not the law I'm concerned about -I'm already in close proximity to that everyday (no not as a criminal tho sometimes I wonder if it wud b easier) and could easily defend my horse kicking out but wouldn't wanna hurt the dog. It's not its fault its owner is an idiot.

[jennyrose]

i have been on so many hacks when dogs come running towards me and its so inconsiderate because the dog owners do not know how the horse is going to react it is so dangerous!

[popsicle]

I know what you mean, some people have no idea do they.

a few months ago 3 of us were riding up a B road and I was in front on Poppy. I could see in the distance a tractor and trailer on the other side of the road next to a machine. We approached slowly over a number of minutes giving the driver and operator plenty of chance to see us and as we drew level with the trailer, the stupid twit emptied about 10 ton of sugar beet into the empty trailer with a sound like rumbling thunder. Well the normally pretty chilled Poppy, just paniced and took me into the woods at the side of the road right under a branch barely high enough for her to get under, let alone me, so i came off, luckily didn't hurt myself and poppy very luckily came to a fence and couldn't get any further, but for weeks she was very spooky at tractors and trailers.

[gnuton]

As with anything else you have to start small. We have a competition here called team penning. There are 30 cows with numbers pasted (washable easy to remove body glue), 3 #0's, 3 #1s, 3 #2s etc. Three riders go into the arena and as they race towards the small herd someone calls out a number, like number 1, and they must remove all the cows with the number 1 pasted on them from the herd and put them into a small pen. Each group is timed to see who is the winner.

I took Jazz a couple of times. The first time I quietly urged him towards the herd but he was pretty skeptical. Cows can be very scary you know. He's a brave lad though and was soon walking through the crowd. He then discovered that cows were afraid of him.

I could see the light bulb go off inside his head. 'They are scared of me, I can boss them around, I can make them go where I want them to.' After that he had no problems chasing cows.

The moral to this little story is, find a little dog that your horse can move around. Once your horse knows that dogs are more frightened of him than he is of them then you can be the ones doing the chasing.

P.S. There is no cure for stupid drivers and it is a universal thing.

[sherr002]

grr i hate stupid people with dogs! i was in the woods on my own and a man came walking with a small dog and a whippet off the lead saw me on tabby and so did the dogs as they came running barking their heads off at tabby! man managed to get whippet but the yappy dog was around tabbys back legs and she is ok with dogs but was getting abit worried stupid man said "it wont kick will it?" i said "yes if it doesnt move!" and he ignored me didnt even attempt to get yappy dog so i made tabby walk on and if she kicked it then its his fault.
was also out in the woods with another guy on the yard whos horse has a reputation for being spooky and a bit dangerous we were walking down towards a young couple with a dalmatian they saw us and got the dog by the collar and moved off the path
so we said thanks and walked towards them the other horse anouska is very scared of dogs and was in front ,tabby was quite chilled behind then the stupid couple let the dog go

[flash7]

It seems that we all have encountered problems with dogs. The question is how do we make people aware of this?