- Joined
- Jan 1, 2020
- Messages
- 729
It was years ago, so I doubt it's even the same people now, but at one point I went to Gatlinburg with a good friend of mine and we ended up going horse riding. It was maybe the second or third time I've ever been on a horse in my life, so it's not something I'm particularly familiar with, but the idea was that we would all ride on horses and be taken on a guided tour through the woods. I don't remember seeing much other than foliage. The path was kinda narrow, and could only fit one horse at a time.
More importantly though, I got seriously bad vibes from our guide. Before we started riding, he introduced us to all of the horses. It took a moment for my brain to register it, but every single horse was named after money. Ben Franklin, Cash, the one I ended up riding was named Ka-Ching. That alone was utterly disgusting to me. I ended up getting the lucky spot immediately after the guide once we were on the trail as well, so I got to listen to him ramble off endlessly. He spent the entire time complaining, complaining about absolutely everything. The dude had quite an attitude, and my horse in particular he'd labelled as a problem horse. He kept wanting to eat all of the foliage around him, the guide kept telling me to "kick him, hard, whenever he does that."
I felt so guilty the entire time, I honestly couldn't bring myself to follow this man's instructions and kick the horse's ribs as hard as the guide wanted me to. Then he went so far as to tell me that the hose could eat something poisonous and die, if I don't make him stop eating everything.
It was horrible. The entire thing, I really... I don't know much about taking care of horses - well at the time I basically knew nothing. I've been trying to learn more about it since then, and I understand the importance of good discipline, but... surely, that wasn't right?
None of what I experienced gave me confidence that these horses were being treated well. I always find myself thinking back to that experience. Maybe someone with more horse experience can tell me if it sounds suspicious or poor to them, too? And if it does, if I were to ever run into something like that again, is there anything I could do to help those horses?
Could the horse have been legitimately hungry, or do they actually just do that out of defiance sometimes? And I would imagine that if it's acting out of defiance, it's surely not happy, anyway... Or maybe it's bored, I don't know. This is why I would rather get to know a horse before riding it...
More importantly though, I got seriously bad vibes from our guide. Before we started riding, he introduced us to all of the horses. It took a moment for my brain to register it, but every single horse was named after money. Ben Franklin, Cash, the one I ended up riding was named Ka-Ching. That alone was utterly disgusting to me. I ended up getting the lucky spot immediately after the guide once we were on the trail as well, so I got to listen to him ramble off endlessly. He spent the entire time complaining, complaining about absolutely everything. The dude had quite an attitude, and my horse in particular he'd labelled as a problem horse. He kept wanting to eat all of the foliage around him, the guide kept telling me to "kick him, hard, whenever he does that."
I felt so guilty the entire time, I honestly couldn't bring myself to follow this man's instructions and kick the horse's ribs as hard as the guide wanted me to. Then he went so far as to tell me that the hose could eat something poisonous and die, if I don't make him stop eating everything.
It was horrible. The entire thing, I really... I don't know much about taking care of horses - well at the time I basically knew nothing. I've been trying to learn more about it since then, and I understand the importance of good discipline, but... surely, that wasn't right?
None of what I experienced gave me confidence that these horses were being treated well. I always find myself thinking back to that experience. Maybe someone with more horse experience can tell me if it sounds suspicious or poor to them, too? And if it does, if I were to ever run into something like that again, is there anything I could do to help those horses?
Could the horse have been legitimately hungry, or do they actually just do that out of defiance sometimes? And I would imagine that if it's acting out of defiance, it's surely not happy, anyway... Or maybe it's bored, I don't know. This is why I would rather get to know a horse before riding it...
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