# Snobbery within the horse world



## Kenzo (7 April 2010)

This vile disease is still about.

However you have to admit when you hear these comments, they don't half make you chuckle sometimes. 

I heard this one yesterday

 ''those that turn up hunting with their cheep combination saddles'' then continued to slate them because they can't afford expensive tack.

Then proceeded to say his wife's saddle cost £2,500 BUT (and it was a huge but) should of been four thousand pounds...bla bla




Feel free to chip in with any one liners you have heard lately


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## picolenicole (7 April 2010)

Best on is.... "XC it's a dangerous sport, you know" in answer "Yes if your rubish enough to fall off!"

Love it, I think if you don't laugh we would all give in.


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## Sunny08 (7 April 2010)

When I was in pony club I was on the show jumping team ans was told 'It is highly unothodox for a pony that was brought for under £5000 to be on the team, and I couldn't even trace his breeding!'


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## MontyandZoom (7 April 2010)

There used to be a girl at my place who referred to Zoom as 'that one-eyed thing' 

I love it that she now sees pics of my 'one-eyed thing' popping over the plane at RAF Halton or keeping up with the big boys out hunting!


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## floradora09 (7 April 2010)

We didnt have any transport so borrowed a friends ancient box. it was a renault master home converted jobbie, peeling green paint and over 20 years old haha! everyone at shows used to come up to us and say 'did you do that your self?' 'how sweet!' 'i hope it's got a proper floor in it...'

and then i went away from a ODE with a first- ha!  xx


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## Minxie (7 April 2010)

I think one of the sadest was a few weeks ago my 13 year old god daughter being reduced to tears by parents b****hing about her in ear shot each time she went by because she's just wiped the floor with their precious darlings in only her second ever pony club dressage comp.

The kids were over the moon  cause its the first time the team had won a dressage comp but parents were seriously fecked off.

I love her mums attitude though when she text to say she found it hilarious they felt the need to b**ch about a young girl on her second outing riding the mare which cost me just £40.



But it does make you wonder ...


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## stencilface (7 April 2010)

I used to tell people at PC in a snooty voice when asked my horses breeding (something I cannot see the obsession with if your horse is a gelding!) an Irish TB bought from a dealer he was 'Out of Ireland by Boat'  you could almost hear the cogs going in their heads working that one out 

I love snobbery, it keeps me going.  

I love it when a swanky wagon turns up at a show and a herd of scruffy gymkhana ponies comes out - just tickles me, I don't know why


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## BobbyMondeo (7 April 2010)

I just find it so funny when your at a show or a BSJA and you see people bitching about how the rider is riding or you see a cobby-type in SJ class and people are like " that 'thing' will never get round" and it ends up getting places above all the "posh" horses. I love seeing peoples faces when that happens hehe

I often hack to SJ comps and we get lots of looks because we arrive really muddy and things but we end up doing well and better than most with the posh ponies and boxes


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## BBH (7 April 2010)

Yes I agree that there should be snobbery in the horseworld. I recently gave a very smart horse away to a bunch of chavs and what did they do to thank me, 



stole the bl@@dy saddle. 

Vive la snobs


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## Amymay (7 April 2010)

Ginger_Nut said:



			I just find it so funny when your at a show or a BSJA and you see people bitching about how the rider is riding or you see a cobby-type in SJ class and people are like " that 'thing' will never get round" and it ends up getting places above all the "posh" horses. I love seeing peoples faces when that happens hehe
		
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I've been guilty of that.

A few years ago I was with a friend watching her horse go round a ODE - and there was a very nondescript looking horse, of indescrimate looking breeding, and generally lacking in the quality you see eventing (usually).

Wow, what a fantastic horse.  She wiped the floor with the professionals in her class.

I saw her a few times that year and followed her with interest.

It taught me a very valuable lesson!


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## R2R (7 April 2010)

One of my liveries told me she "didnt do DIY" and "I know your liveries think I am above them...well its becasue I am"

I suggested she went to find a yard which was more suited to her social high taste! I would rather have 10 of my liveries for one of her!


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## BBH (7 April 2010)

amymay said:



			I've been guilty of that.

A few years ago I was with a friend watching her horse go round a ODE - and there was a very nondescript looking horse, of indescrimate looking breeding, and generally lacking in the quality you see eventing (usually).

Wow, what a fantastic horse.  She wiped the floor with the professionals in her class.

I saw her a few times that year and followed her with interest.

It taught me a very valuable lesson!
		
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I'm sure Mr President would have had some dressage bods turning their nose up aswell.


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## Cavblacks (7 April 2010)

stencilface said:



			i used to tell people at pc in a snooty voice when asked my horses breeding (something i cannot see the obsession with if your horse is a gelding!) an irish tb bought from a dealer he was 'out of ireland by boat'  you could almost hear the cogs going in their heads working that one out :d

i love snobbery, it keeps me going.  :d

i love it when a swanky wagon turns up at a show and a herd of scruffy gymkhana ponies comes out - just tickles me, i don't know why :d
		
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psml!!!!!!


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## PaddyMonty (7 April 2010)

Does anyone else find it amusing the amount of inverse snobbery in this thread such as 'beating all the posh horses'? 
Snobbery, both upright and inverted is what helps make the horse worl and its characters so colourful.


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## MontyandZoom (7 April 2010)

floradora09 said:



			We didnt have any transport so borrowed a friends ancient box. it was a renault master home converted jobbie, peeling green paint and over 20 years old haha! everyone at shows used to come up to us and say 'did you do that your self?' 'how sweet!' 'i hope it's got a proper floor in it...'

and then i went away from a ODE with a first- ha!  xx
		
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I had a crappy old box on loan for a while. It was common for people to actually point and laugh when we arrived at sponsored rides and competitions


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## Prince33Sp4rkle (7 April 2010)

agree with juno...snobbery in form or another is within all of us!!!

i kind of like promoting reverse snobbery and telling people how my saddle cost more than my horse! (was even better with my prev mare,when i could say she cost less than her bridle!!!)


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## michellev123 (7 April 2010)

Stencilface said:



			I used to tell people at PC in a snooty voice when asked my horses breeding (something I cannot see the obsession with if your horse is a gelding!) an Irish TB bought from a dealer he was 'Out of Ireland by Boat'  you could almost hear the cogs going in their heads working that one out 

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OMG!!!! I cant stop laughing!!!!!!


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## Mithras (7 April 2010)

Despite having been in love with horses since early childhood and hence in the horseworld for many years, I have to agree with this thread.  Its a bit of a cliche but I think its a cliche because its true.  I do another sport to quite a serious level too (I also do BSJA) and I have far more long term, good friends in it than in the horsy world.  Horsy people either seem to be interested in boasting about themselves or in trying to get something for nothing.  And being from a sort of semi-posh background myself, I can see right through the snobs who just don't quite cut it.  My particular hate is one of our local hunts, which is full of untitled pseudo aristocrats who live in cheap houses without land and go home after the first hour.  After I had my letter about hunting in Ireland published in H&H, I was suddenly invited to lots of their "dos".  I went to their hunt ball, full of people who don't even own a horse, never mind hunt, was bored to death and haven't been back.  Ghastly people.  Generally I don't find BSJA quite so snobby, which is good because an awful lot of the people in it do have an awful lot of money.  And I don't have a problem with genuinely aristocratic people - its the ones who think horses can give them that leg up on the social ladder they are otherwise unable to achieve.


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## The_snoopster (7 April 2010)

Of course there is snobbery in the horse world take for instance my old coloured cob mare would hang her head in shame if I tied her up next to a "blood" horse she thinks she is much better than them.


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## Rowreach (7 April 2010)

Juno, my thoughts exactly


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## Kenzo (7 April 2010)

Stencilface said:



			I'Out of Ireland by Boat'
		
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lol love it!


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## MontyandZoom (7 April 2010)

JunoXV said:



			Does anyone else find it amusing the amount of inverse snobbery in this thread such as 'beating all the posh horses'? 
Snobbery, both upright and inverted is what helps make the horse worl and its characters so colourful. 

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I agree!! People love a bit of inverse snobbery! I suppose with Zoom it is more disability discrimination than snobbery


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## stencilface (7 April 2010)

Some of the PC mums who I meet through my mum being the PC SJ team manager crack me up.  Esp the ones who buy fancy hot-headed ponies for their kids, who can't ride them.  Why not buy a decent pony - regardless of looks (doesn't have to be spugly!  ) - that can do the job with the jockey?! 

I am very nondescript when I go to BSJA - grey horse, grey jacket - don't stand out other than when my horse neighs.....   And I used to think he was big (ish) but at 16.1 he looks like a midget compared to all the 'big boys' there.  Came second in a Disco on Friday - the guy who came first had lots of fancy (pointless?!) kit on his horse took his hat off  for the rosettes - where did he think he was - HOYS?!


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## Kenzo (7 April 2010)

JunoXV said:



			Does anyone else find it amusing the amount of inverse snobbery in this thread such as 'beating all the posh horses'? 
Snobbery, both upright and inverted is what helps make the horse worl and its characters so colourful. 

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Good point 

So everyone, what is a posh horse exactly?


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## Shysmum (7 April 2010)

My gypsy vanner ? Manners to burn, kindness, and amazing looks too.


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## PaddyMonty (7 April 2010)

It must be said though that the horse world is very money orientated.
For instance when I went to try my new boy we took the owners Merc CLK320. I drove as owner has smashed up arm atm.  I happened to be wearing a pair of jod boots which retail at £165 which i use as muck about yard boots.  I then change in to my £400 long boots to ride.  Perception = I have money to spend on horses.
Now I wonder if we would have had the same reception had we gone with original plan of driving down in my old L reg rover and had they known those expensive pairs of boots cost me £10 and £45 respectively at a closing down sale along with my schumy jods for £15, my show jacket down from £310 to £40.
Would have been fun to find out.  Owner still had same buying power but would we have been treated the same?


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## FanyDuChamp (7 April 2010)

I was very pleased when I finally found an almost bombproof hack for my daughter, after she had a horrendous accident trying out a horse for someone she become a very nervous hacker. Fany (the horse we bought) is an Ardennes (Trait Ardennais) Elizabeth was so gutted and I was furious when, over the moon with her new horse we went to the RC and someone said "shouldn't it be pulling logs?" What a way to pee on someone's parade! 

I have also had it on here in the breeding section, Fany has the most fantastic nature, good conformation and is a very well bred Ardennes. However I was told, in the thread and by PM that she was not fit to be bred from!  

It is also strange how people suddenly want to talk to us when Elizabeth rides/shows our KWPN Gelderlander gelding. What is the difference? They are both horses, both good for what they were purchased for.

Snobbery is a pernicious and spiteful way for some people to make others feel inferior and themselves superior.


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## PaddyMonty (7 April 2010)

FanyDuChamp said:



			Snobbery is a pernicious and spiteful way for some people to make others feel inferior and themselves superior.

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but only if the person on the receiving end allows them to.


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## MontyandZoom (7 April 2010)

Kenzo said:



			Good point 

So everyone, what is a posh horse exactly?
		
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Posh horses are always REALLY big and shiny! They are usually bright bay or chestnut and have veins that stick out. They also tend to have tan coloured bridles, usually with a mexican grakle. That's my definition


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## wench (7 April 2010)

I think its funny when at shows, all the snobs on their expensive horses. Henry was a cheaop old nag, but he looks as expensive of any of them, and its always good to see the expensive ones playing up, but henry behaving. Just a shame he never wins anything!


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## Quadro (7 April 2010)

Stencilface said:



			: Came second in a Disco on Friday - the guy who came first had lots of fancy (pointless?!) kit on his horse took his hat off  for the rosettes - where did he think he was - HOYS?! 

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This is common place in all line ups and is actually just manners and tradition regardless of it being HOYS or a 65cms class!!


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## PaddyMonty (7 April 2010)

MontyandZoom said:



			Posh horses are always REALLY big and shiny! They are usually bright bay or chestnut and have veins that stick out. They also tend to have tan coloured bridles, usually with a mexican grakle. That's my definition 

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Big ? Check
Shiney? Check
Bay? Check
Veins sticking out?  Work in progress

****toddles off to find a tan bridle****
Will this mean I win more (or even some) classes?


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## NeedNewHorse (7 April 2010)

Snobbery on the face of it is quite pointless really... As there is always someone somewhere looking down on the person who was looking down on you!

x


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## itsme123 (7 April 2010)

I've had all sorts, usually "when are you going to buy her a proper pony?"

My reply? 

"Why don't YOU try and ride it then?" 


The local hunt is THE worst for snobbery. I hacked out with a friend the other week on her  smart cob and the hunt grooms all said "hello! good morning!" to us as we passed the yard, yet when I'm out with daughter's ponies they blank me if I say hello, they know who I am. Presumably because I'm strolling along leading two ankle biters???


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## PaddyMonty (7 April 2010)

Quadro said:



			This is common place in all line ups and is actually just manners and tradition regardless of it being HOYS or a 65cms class!!
		
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Agreed.  I also always nod to the judges on entering the ring.  Tradition and courtesy.


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## FanyDuChamp (7 April 2010)

JunoXV said:



			but only if the person on the receiving end allows them to. 

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Spot on Juno, but when it is a middle aged woman talking to a young girl, and when said girl is blatantly proud of her new mare it is just spiteful, unnecessary and mean! Still it has made Elizabeth determined to get Fany into a dressage comp, believe it or not she is coming along beautifully!


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## stencilface (7 April 2010)

Quadro said:



			This is common place in all line ups and is actually just manners and tradition regardless of it being HOYS or a 65cms class!!
		
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Ok, maybe more so for men - but I wouldn't take my hat off in a line up - hairnets are soo not attractive 

NB and neither is my greasy, sweaty mop underneath it


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## PaddyMonty (7 April 2010)

FanyDuChamp said:



			Spot on Juno, but when it is a middle aged woman talking to a young girl, and when said girl is blatantly proud of her new mare it is just spiteful, unnecessary and mean!

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True but then I would hazard a guess that the said person would be rude in all areas of life, not just horses.


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## MontyandZoom (7 April 2010)

JunoXV said:



			Big ? Check
Shiney? Check
Bay? Check
Veins sticking out?  Work in progress

****toddles off to find a tan bridle****
Will this mean I win more (or even some) classes?
		
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No.....people will just take more pleasure in beating you on their hairy cobs


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## PaddyMonty (7 April 2010)

MontyandZoom said:



			No.....people will just take more pleasure in beating you on their hairy cobs 

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Thats good.  If my misery at losing can bring a little pleasure to others then the day will not have been wasted.


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## VioletStripe (7 April 2010)

Snobbery I've found is often from people who have a bit of spare money, but are very insecure about it. When I went with my friend to a very posh livery yard meet her new pony, everyone there very obviously had enormous amounts of money, but they didn't brag about it and were very friendly towards me wearing my battered johds and wellies. Yet, when I went to a more normal yard, with people who didn't have as much money they acted like they were better than me, and put their noses up at my regular yard clothes. It seems that people who actually do have the money that they put across, instead of exaggerating and inflating it massively, are a little more humble. I know that's not true in all cases, but it's what I have found!  
Just edited to say; I do not mean offence to anyone, this is my experience! The people I ride with do not flash around the bit of spare cash they have, they are nice and ordinary people, and that's why I ride with them!  xx


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## stencilface (7 April 2010)

Quadro said:



			This is common place in all line ups and is actually just manners and tradition regardless of it being HOYS or a 65cms class!!
		
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JunoXV said:



			Agreed.  I also always nod to the judges on entering the ring.  Tradition and courtesy.
		
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Fair point, but the judge in question wasn't paying much attention to what was going on in the ring - ie not noticing that someone had missed the last fence entirely - and from what I know, its tradition and courtesy for judges to watch!!!  

(luckily (or unluckily for her) the girl had 17 faults anyway, so wasn't in contention - but still annoying - you just wonder what else the judge missed!)


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## PaddyMonty (7 April 2010)

Stencilface said:



			Fair point, but the judge in question wasn't paying much attention to what was going on in the ring - ie not noticing that someone had missed the last fence entirely - and from what I know, its tradition and courtesy for judges to watch!!!  

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OOooooh, dont get me started on what judges miss.  I dont have time to type that much.  Gotta go ride me posh pony.


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## Luci07 (7 April 2010)

Well it made me think ...In one way you could call me a snob - I will look down my nose at someone at a show/hunt who really could not be bothered to turn themselves or their horse out properly. By turning out properly I mean a clean horse, rider and tack. If showjumping then plaiting isnt necessary (obviously). People normally make a real effort to turn themselves out and show their horses off and I dont  care if its a TB/WB or cob or all of the above, but someone turning up looking mega scruffy because they can't be bothered to put a bit of elbow grease in gets my nose turning up everytime!


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## Dubsie (7 April 2010)

We heard a few derogtory comments about a pony daughter used to ride - it was a known personality - could be a bit naughty to catch and a bit bargey and impolite, and the concensus was why did she bother to ride it as it was no good - largely because being small it never had a consitent rider and lacked general schooling and manners.  Anyhow, after much practise first time out the pair came first and third in the 2 classes SJ they entered, which somewhat shocked the detractors.


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## PaddyMonty (7 April 2010)

Luci07 said:



			but someone turning up looking mega scruffy because they can't be bothered to put a bit of elbow grease in gets my nose turning up everytime!
		
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But surely thats the grooms job?  People with horses do have grooms dont they?


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## Maesfen (7 April 2010)

Reminds me of when friends were at a big swanky hunt ball and their table was a scratch one in that it was those that didn't have a 'gang' so individual couples.  They knew most of them including the boss of a large horse abbatoir who is a great joker.  One of the ladies was saying in a very upper voice, 'oh I don't hunt, I dressage, my horse is too valuable to hunt'.   She turns to said meat man and asks seriously 'and what do you do with your horses, do you hunt?'  'Oh no daaarling, I do saussarge with mine'  Cue friends nearly falling over with laughter but poor posh lady just didn't get it!


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## stencilface (7 April 2010)

It doesn't really bother me if people look a bit scruffy - I don't like it when people turn up with a lorry full of horses who all look a bit poor (as in malnourished!!) though - that makes me sad.  I couldn't give two hoots if people cleaned their tack.  I'm more bothered about watching what lines they take around the course than how long they spent cleaning.

I also love watching what some showjumpers so to their horses manes - some look like they've been done with shears 

I do like being clean and presentable, but my horse is grey and out 24/7 so for me, turning up in time is more important than bathing him for ages (and p*ssing him off in the process)


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## Kenzo (7 April 2010)

JunoXV said:



			But surely thats the grooms job?  People with horses do have grooms dont they?
		
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why of course darling, what would make you wonder otherwise, did they not teach you anything at PC!

Surely everyone went to PC didnt they?


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## Kat (7 April 2010)

Ahh snobbery if you really want to see snobbery try competing on a riding school horse! 

Nevermind that Ian Stark wants to buy one of them, a couple have been to HOYS, another couple have BD points and a couple more BSJA winnings, they are scruffy rubbish ploddy riding school horses and people with "proper horses" get mighty miffed if you beat them


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## smudge99 (7 April 2010)

I was in a tack shop the other day which had a rather nice second hand synthetic dressage saddle for sale.  Rather posh lady passed me and said "you wont get far in that" rolling her eyes as she went past.  My OH didn't understand so I had to explain about the synthetic snobs of the world.

Liz


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## Biscuit (7 April 2010)

I think the tack related snobbery is really annoying, and the worst is that the big organisations in the horse world support it.  In my ideal world it should be possible to buy 1 set of clean, safe tack and 1 clean safe outfit for the rider and feel welcome in activities across the board on a  local/regional level, whether it be dressage competitions, sj, showing or hunting. This would make it less daunting to start out and and less costly to get involved. For example, who cares whether your helmet is black velvet or a skull cap, as long as it meets the safety standard for helmets?


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## Kenzo (7 April 2010)

smudge99 said:



			I was in a tack shop the other day which had a rather nice second hand synthetic dressage saddle for sale.  Rather posh lady passed me and said "you wont get far in that" rolling her eyes as she went past.  My OH didn't understand so I had to explain about the synthetic snobs of the world.

Liz
		
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that's brilliant


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## skeptik (7 April 2010)

If you want snobbery, go to France ! The Frenchies are fine but the number of Brits who go there,  buy a few hectares and establish an 'equestrian centre' and proudly boast of their experience - which is usually nothing more than having a pony on a rented field in England !
To cap it all, there are so many who have self acclaimed 'instructor', 'breeder', 'yard manager' status, it is small wonder there are any left in the United Kingdom.


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## VioletStripe (7 April 2010)

Katt said:



			Ahh snobbery if you really want to see snobbery try competing on a riding school horse! 

Nevermind that Ian Stark wants to buy one of them, a couple have been to HOYS, another couple have BD points and a couple more BSJA winnings, they are scruffy rubbish ploddy riding school horses and people with "proper horses" get mighty miffed if you beat them 

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So, so true!!  xx


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## cloudandmatrix (7 April 2010)

pfft when i went to a show- my mare was stained- ecven though i had spent all day cleaning her!!! cant be helped sometimes- especially with a part hippo grey
snobbery really hacks me off, its not about the breeding and looks, its about the horse itself! and yes, i got the smae mark on my heinz 57 grey cob as a fellow on a £10,000 irish sport horse
funny how my extremly well bred welsh mountain pony with stunning looks and presticous bolldlines is the one no one wants to own because of his difficult temperament and glass legs!!


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## Foxglove (7 April 2010)

Handsome is as Handsome does!


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## PurplePickle (7 April 2010)

It was there 20 years ago, its there now. Im older now so I get great pleasure of looking down my nose at them with some one off comment which I can now think up after years of practice lol


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## *hic* (7 April 2010)

I've had it both ways. We used to turn up in Delilah d'lorry who was 30 years old and looked so terrible people would try not to park next to her. Delilah was safe and reliable but she really did look dreadful, people very much looked down on us and her. One child with no transport refused a lift because she wouldn't be seen in a grotty old vehicle like that

After my mother died I achieved a 40 year ambition and bought an Oakley, ok it's an older Oakley but it scrubs up nicely (Delilah didn't, she was painted with faded household gloss) and people now think we are dreadful snobs.

We're still the same people, the same horses still come out of it but attitudes have totally changed. It's infuriating.


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## zefragile (7 April 2010)

wench said:



			I think its funny when at shows, all the snobs on their expensive horses. Henry was a cheaop old nag, but he looks as expensive of any of them, and its always good to see the expensive ones playing up, but henry behaving. Just a shame he never wins anything!
		
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How do you know they were expensive?  and were they actually snobs?
I'm very lucky in that I've never really experienced much snobbery in the horse world- although when I was at a riding school the liveries tended to act like they were above me because I didn't have my own pony.


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## TGM (7 April 2010)

I do remember a few years back at a Pony Club Rally, one mother who strutted around in her designer gear and kept bellowing things like "When we are at *HOYS*", "We will put him on the market after *HOYS*", "Will we see you at *HOYS*?" and every time she said the word *HOYS*, her volume went up several decibels just in case anyone in the surrounding vicinity hadn't already gathered they were going to *HOYS*! 

She then looked down her nose rather scathingly at a pony who had run out at a jump and said "I do feel so sorry for those poor children whose parents don't buy them decent ponies"!

Thankfully, she is in the minority and most of the parents in our PC Branch are very different and much more down to earth.


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## d_s (7 April 2010)

mum used to do gymkanas...
they had an old fruit and veg lorry, with scruffy coloured ponies; and got bitched about and people looked down on them...

needless to say mum wiped the floor of them..
especially in classes where they had to untack and ride bareback; the other children had grooms and didnt know how to untack!!! again mum won, she would of joined PC and gone to prince phillip cup?? because she was good enough, but refused to join PC as it was so snobby!!


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## LizScott (7 April 2010)

There's lots of talk of people with "posh" horses being snobs - is it just a given that if you have a nice horse you are a snob and look down on everyone in the same competition as you and are automatically p*ssed off if someone on a less fine horse wins??


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## charlimouse (7 April 2010)

I had a very amusing conversation with a lady when my friend and I were out hunting a few weeks ago. This lady arrived at the meet in a brand new range rover sport. At which point she was handed her gleaming mount (which came out of a gleaming lorry). My friend and I had hacked to the meet. I was riding my TB which had cost me £100, and my friend was riding her nice, but ordinary RC horse. My friend being the nosiest person in  the world immediatly went straight over to this lady (who was rather looking down her nose at us, but seeing as she didn't seem to know anyone decided speaking to us, was better than speaking to nobody). The conversation went like this:

Friend: Hi, lovely horse, I havn't seen you about, do you hunt often?
Lady: Hi, im (insert post forename and a triple barrelled surname of choice). I don't normally hunt, I event my horse.
Me: I also event, have you been to Richmond, Aske, Allerton Park etc???
Lady: I only do BE eventing, not tidily little local stuff.
Me: Oh, so which events have you been to?
Lady: This and that really, you wouldn't know about them, because they are proper events.

At this point my friend and I were a bit stunned by this lady, so made a hasty exit from her. Later in the day I happened to ride past her just after I had jumped a line of fences. My friend and I had noticed she hadn't jumped a single fence all day, not even tiny logs shetland ponies were jumping over! At this point my friend and I couldn't resist another little chat:

Friend: i'm surprised you didn't jump that last line? it rode really nicely!
Lady: The jumps are a bit rustic for my liking
Me: Oh these all ride fine, and are pretty well built. I wouldn't jump them otherwise
Lady: You wouldn't know what a well built jump was, I will only jump BE fences
Me: Well I suppose BE fences are in a different league, especially with all the new safety initiatives they have like the frangible pins.
Lady: Yes they are much better quality
Friend (asks me): Which event was it where you broke the fragible pin?

(lady begins to look a bit wary, beginning to realise I may not just do tidily little things!)

Me: At Oasby in the Open Novice. (to the lady) Have you ever been to Oasby?
Lady: No I havn't.
Me: Oh you should go it is lovely, the Novice course is really well built. They ran a 2* a couple of years ago, so they may run bigger classes again in the future for you.
Lady: Well yes, maybe if they do bigger classes I might go.
Friend: We've got to go, but if you ever need to know what any of the local BE courses are like ask Charlie (me), she knows them all pretty well, and she has ridden to FEI international level!!

At this point we ride off giggling away to ourselves, the lady looking somewhat flustered. When I got home I looked up the lady's BE record, 1 entry in a BE90, she was a Non-starter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## VioletStripe (7 April 2010)

charlimouse said:



			I had a very amusing conversation with a lady when my friend and I were out hunting a few weeks ago. This lady arrived at the meet in a brand new range rover sport. At which point she was handed her gleaming mount (which came out of a gleaming lorry). My friend and I had hacked to the meet. I was riding my TB which had cost me £100, and my friend was riding her nice, but ordinary RC horse. My friend being the nosiest person in  the world immediatly went straight over to this lady (who was rather looking down her nose at us, but seeing as she didn't seem to know anyone decided speaking to us, was better than speaking to nobody). The conversation went like this:

Friend: Hi, lovely horse, I havn't seen you about, do you hunt often?
Lady: Hi, im (insert post forename and a triple barrelled surname of choice). I don't normally hunt, I event my horse.
Me: I also event, have you been to Richmond, Aske, Allerton Park etc???
Lady: I only do BE eventing, not tidily little local stuff.
Me: Oh, so which events have you been to?
Lady: This and that really, you wouldn't know about them, because they are proper events.

At this point my friend and I were a bit stunned by this lady, so made a hasty exit from her. Later in the day I happened to ride past her just after I had jumped a line of fences. My friend and I had noticed she hadn't jumped a single fence all day, not even tiny logs shetland ponies were jumping over! At this point my friend and I couldn't resist another little chat:

Friend: i'm surprised you didn't jump that last line? it rode really nicely!
Lady: The jumps are a bit rustic for my liking
Me: Oh these all ride fine, and are pretty well built. I wouldn't jump them otherwise
Lady: You wouldn't know what a well built jump was, I will only jump BE fences
Me: Well I suppose BE fences are in a different league, especially with all the new safety initiatives they have like the frangible pins.
Lady: Yes they are much better quality
Friend (asks me): Which event was it where you broke the fragible pin?

(lady begins to look a bit wary, beginning to realise I may not just do tidily little things!)

Me: At Oasby in the Open Novice. (to the lady) Have you ever been to Oasby?
Lady: No I havn't.
Me: Oh you should go it is lovely, the Novice course is really well built. They ran a 2* a couple of years ago, so they may run bigger classes again in the future for you.
Lady: Well yes, maybe if they do bigger classes I might go.
Friend: We've got to go, but if you ever need to know what any of the local BE courses are like ask Charlie (me), she knows them all pretty well, and she has ridden to FEI international level!!

At this point we ride off giggling away to ourselves, the lady looking somewhat flustered. When I got home I looked up the lady's BE record, 1 entry in a BE90, she was a Non-starter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
		
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Haha, well done you!! It's people like that lady that really really get me annoyed!!  xx


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## Clannad48 (7 April 2010)

Just after we purchased my daughter's horse she was asked to make up the numbers for a PC Area competition - well I must admit she looks a bit flashy when groomed and several people who thought they knew us thought we had bought her because of her breeding ( we hadn't we just fell in love with her in the stable in the half dark). Before she had even done one round we were asked if she was for sale so felt quite pleased at the choice we had made. However.............., after demolishing every jump apart from the bogey jump which she jumped perfectly the admiring crowd melted away. We have since discovered that she doesn't like to jump anything she considers small ( she apparently thinks it is beneath her) and would rather ride through the jumps than over them. 
My daughter also competed at the Chiltern and Thames dressage competition a couple of years ago on our old pony- we also arrived in a very tatty lorry and parked next to a huge thing with five ponies (and grooms) on it, all for one small child. I felt really sorry for her as her mother could be heard screaming at her after she had failed to be placed "why do you think I spent all that money - for you to make me look a fool"


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## Toffee44 (7 April 2010)

OH yes I have a groom for my wait for it..

on full turn out cobs!!!

My groom responds to mum


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## RSL (7 April 2010)

Silly people, with silly money!


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## Luci07 (7 April 2010)

TGM said:



			I do remember a few years back at a Pony Club Rally, one mother who strutted around in her designer gear and kept bellowing things like "When we are at *HOYS*", "We will put him on the market after *HOYS*", "Will we see you at *HOYS*?" and every time she said the word *HOYS*, her volume went up several decibels just in case anyone in the surrounding vicinity hadn't already gathered they were going to *HOYS*! 

She then looked down her nose rather scathingly at a pony who had run out at a jump and said "I do feel so sorry for those poor children whose parents don't buy them decent ponies"!

Thankfully, she is in the minority and most of the parents in our PC Branch are very different and much more down to earth. 

Click to expand...

think yourself VERY lucky - uptill very recently I worked with someone like that and she always had to discuss HER deals at the top of her voice..... yeuch!

but stand by what I said - no excuse for being scruffy and I do have a gray with a permanent leaning towards skewbald - and no groom to clean him up! and yes I do work full time!.  However whether its affiliated or local show, I would say the vast majority of people do look smart. Dont agree either about needing different hats/jackets etc. If you are really starting off and going to local shows, then you do just need your hat (which you have) and yes, fork out for a jacket or just borrow one!. No need to start investing in different outfits till you are going somewhere on the affiliated trail and know its worth it!


but am loving the stories of people who try to look down their noses. You should have know the "lady" discussed earlier wasn't an eventer - they are more down to earth! And haven't you lot woken up to the fact that the horsey people who like to discuss how much better they are a: dont do it or b: are fondly recounting (fake) memories from the side of the wrong. Not actually riding and doing it!!


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## reindeerlover (7 April 2010)

Ha ha, loving this! I have to admit to having a couple of rather smart looking horses (although cheap or free) but even at RC level, people always seem faintly disapproving of me. I do fall off a lot in fairness but I am usually riding young/mental horses so at least I have an excuse! 

The worst is when people ask me what I do (with my horses) and I tell them I play Polocrosse- they immediately just to one of 2 conclusions- I am very rich and actually play Polo or that I am indeed some kind of numpty who can't ride and likes to play rugby on horseback. One of which is fairly true.......


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## dibbin (7 April 2010)

There are some (not many, they're generally a great bunch of people) on our yard who seem to think that because you don't compete your horse must be useless.  Dylan's pretty flashy looking when he's cleaned up, has nice paces when he chooses to use them, and can jump like a stag, but we're happy hackers and probably always will be


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## Pedantic (7 April 2010)

MontyandZoom said:



			I had a crappy old box on loan for a while. It was common for people to actually point and laugh when we arrived at sponsored rides and competitions






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Love the reg plate, MFD, Made For Dickheads, cool


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (7 April 2010)

Try taking a coloured cob (with lots of feather) to a dressage "do" and you'll know what snobbery is all about.


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## Shysmum (7 April 2010)

I'm ignoring all snide glances at my webbing bridle and synthetic saddle - I don't have a stable lad to clean my tack for me (unfortunately ).


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## FanyDuChamp (7 April 2010)

I am looking forward to taking an Ardennes to the dressage day at our RC that should get some looks!


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## Renvers (7 April 2010)

MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:



			Try taking a coloured cob (with lots of feather) to a dressage "do" and you'll know what snobbery is all about.
		
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A couple of years ago I went to our local Regionals with a friend who had qualified on her well bred but cheap horse (we arrived in a G reg box and I was groom, caller, drink purchaser, paid in bacon butties etc) so not a slick outfit by any stretch.

A beautiful coloured cob with spotless white bits, flowing mane and the most lovely action was warming up and a few of us stopped and watched and oohed and aahed as it warmed up and during its test . 

It looked lovely and stood out next to the Bay/Brown WB brigade. It really showed that a horse can do dressage well if it has worked in the right way with the right muscles and gained the right level of obedience.

Unfortunately it didnt meet the judges approval and my friends bay wb and some others all beat it


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## TinselRider (7 April 2010)

I find there can be quite a bit of snobbery TOWARDS those who own / ride WB's aswell, comments such as "oh wouldn't it be nice to be bought a posh ready made horse" and "err they only have that foreign thing because they want to look good" 

What makes me laugh is when people have a snipe at Ban when we go jumping because he is seen to be too cobby to jump to a good level....needless to say he goes in and usually jumps rather well


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## TheoryX1 (7 April 2010)

Am loving this post.  As a cob owner and happy hacker, tell me all about snobbery.  However, the funniest thing we had happen to us is was at a very posh dressage competition centre, not very far from Cheltenham  .......  Anyway, eventer daughter and I rock up in our trusty Ifor Williams to be told to 'park with the trailers, we dont mix trailers and lorries'.  It was full of dressage darlings on whopping big 'posh' warmbloods, prancing around.  She mounted in the car park and we were told you couldnt walk horses on there, you could only ride in certain parts of the warm up.  OK, we have a very smart skewbald wb/tb cross, but she is an eventer darling, and said daughter did turn up in an HS1 hat and a tweed jacket, which in a crowd of dark blue pikeur and pateys stood out like a sore thumb, and she had scowls and put downs, till she won her first class.......  Laugh, I couldnt stop.  We wont be going back there, but for sheer entertainment value it was priceless.


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## Queenbee87 (7 April 2010)

jemima_too said:



			I've had it both ways. We used to turn up in Delilah d'lorry who was 30 years old and looked so terrible people would try not to park next to her. Delilah was safe and reliable but she really did look dreadful, people very much looked down on us and her. One child with no transport refused a lift because she wouldn't be seen in a grotty old vehicle like that

After my mother died I achieved a 40 year ambition and bought an Oakley, ok it's an older Oakley but it scrubs up nicely (Delilah didn't, she was painted with faded household gloss) and people now think we are dreadful snobs.

We're still the same people, the same horses still come out of it but attitudes have totally changed. It's infuriating.
		
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I do hope your new lorry has an amusing name too.....


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## vam (7 April 2010)

boogles said:



			I find there can be quite a bit of snobbery TOWARDS those who own / ride WB's aswell, comments such as "oh wouldn't it be nice to be bought a posh ready made horse" and "err they only have that foreign thing because they want to look good" 

What makes me laugh is when people have a snipe at Ban when we go jumping because he is seen to be too cobby to jump to a good level....needless to say he goes in and usually jumps rather well 

Click to expand...

Im finding this and i've only been a WB owner for a couple of weeks! The funny thing is its my friend with a cob who is taking the mick out of my dumb blood!
I've been on the other side of it as my last horse was a cob, a lightweight but still a cob. I made the effort to make her look uncob like, cliped legs all year, fully clipped in the winter and pulled mane etc. Unfortunately her butt gave her away! 
I did get looked down upon when i rode her but i learnt to ignore it in the end, she always pulled out all the stops and did well. She was 14.3 so got 'that pony' quite alot 
I now have the problem that my nice new flashy WB i have to 'live up' to it so to speak, its not going to go well i think!


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## Mavis Cluttergusset (7 April 2010)

I can't honestly say I've particularly noticed any snobbery relating to the type of horse I ride or whatever transport I arrive in!  Perhaps Im just oblivious to these things, Im usually too preoccupied by what people might be thinking about my shocking riding to notice what they say about my horse (which is just as well by the sound of it, since she's a large bay WB with a reddy brown grakle bridle and sticking out veins a lot of the time!)


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## zefragile (7 April 2010)

This isn't really aimed at anyone in particular in this thread, but I doubt everyone on their "posh" horses are going to cry into their horses manes because a cob beat them. Snobbery goes both ways.


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## LadyRascasse (7 April 2010)

snobbery isn't something i understand at all!! imo i own the most stunning and brilliant horses in the world and either though i know they both have there faults i always see the postive points to. i am always pleased when i do well with my horses and equal if i do badly i have something to take away and learn from. i and always happy when people tell me they do well regardless of horse. i may own TB but i don't think that makes me better than say someone who owns a welsh cob!! its only chance that i happen to end up with 2 tb. 

people need to be happy with there lot in life, if they aren't happy they only they have the power to change it. money isn't everything. aslong as you nag does what you want and is fit and healthy where is the problem????


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## fireflymac (7 April 2010)

Ha - snobbery! If you want to experience snobbery, try telling people you don't compete at all. You hack. Then watch them look down their noses as if you are a lower life form entirely. 
Never mind that I've many, many years experience of many types of horse. Never mind that I broke my own youngster and she is coming on very nicely indeed. Never mind that I keep an elderly retiree in good nick enjoying her old age. Never mind that my other horse arrived as a narky, insecure, suspicious loner and is now a friendly, affectionate (albeit slightly quirky) useful riding horse. Don't compete? Clearly I'm rubbish!


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## indiat (7 April 2010)

Clannad48 said:



			My daughter also competed at the Chiltern and Thames dressage competition a couple of years ago on our old pony- we also arrived in a very tatty lorry and parked next to a huge thing with five ponies (and grooms) on it, all for one small child. I felt really sorry for her as her mother could be heard screaming at her after she had failed to be placed "why do you think I spent all that money - for you to make me look a fool"
		
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That's awful! Its one thing to be a snob but to verbally abuse your child because they don't shore up your pathetic self image?! Child abuse, I'm afraid, poor little rich girl.


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## BayJosie (7 April 2010)

LadyRascasse said:



			snobbery isn't something i understand at all!! imo i own the most stunning and brilliant horses in the world and either though i know they both have there faults i always see the postive points to. i am always pleased when i do well with my horses and equal if i do badly i have something to take away and learn from. i and always happy when people tell me they do well regardless of horse. i may own TB but i don't think that makes me better than say someone who owns a welsh cob!! its only chance that i happen to end up with 2 tb. 

people need to be happy with there lot in life, if they aren't happy they only they have the power to change it. money isn't everything. aslong as you nag does what you want and is fit and healthy where is the problem????
		
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my thoughts exactly.


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## Rosehip (7 April 2010)

The woman I work for turns her colt out in Eskadron Bell boots and Brushing boots - the ones with the fur in them at £30+ a poop - as the rubber ones arent good enough for him.... hmmmmmm


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## Queenbee87 (7 April 2010)

Rosehip said:



			The woman I work for turns her colt out in Eskadron Bell boots and Brushing boots - the ones with the fur in them at £30+ a poop - as the rubber ones arent good enough for him.... hmmmmmm
		
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...........because colts are well known for taking care of boots they are turned out it. It was money well spent


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## Dubsie (7 April 2010)

indiat said:



			That's awful! Its one thing to be a snob but to verbally abuse your child because they don't shore up your pathetic self image?! Child abuse, I'm afraid, poor little rich girl.
		
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Happens a lot, daughter competed her loan pony in a showing class, would never do well because the pony wasn't 'pretty' enough, but she wanted to do it, and really executed herself well, pony was foot perfect.  A child of sim ilar age was whinging she didn't want to do it whine whine whine and was shoved into the ring with firm orders/threats barked by parent, poor kid sobbed her eyes out flustered her way round cantered on wrong leg, pony was ill mannered in the line barging and spinning, yet she still got a 3rd (out of about 20), because pony looked pretty perfect (and I think was known to the judge from the way judge spoke to her), and was immaculately turned out in what looked like a brand new saddle and bridle...poor child was still sobbing as she rode out.


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## cloptonpartridge (7 April 2010)

a frend owns a a tradional cob most places she goes to people realize who it is and a poilite they know the horse is actuaaly really good but the other week she went somewere new and one of the other competators asked if they could let her know when she was leaving the warm up area as her horse had never seen anything like that before and it was freeking her horse out

Needless to say hairy cob won both classes


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## Queenbee87 (7 April 2010)

cloptonpartridge said:



			one of the other competators asked if they could let her know when she was leaving the warm up area as her horse had never seen anything like that before and it was freeking her horse out

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Doesn't say much for the schooling of the other horse then


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## gabbypinkjessica (7 April 2010)

I love this post!
I really want to be someone on a hairy cob who proves that they can do dressage too, but sadly, after we turn up at some fancy affiliated comp in my gypsy box, with my gypsy horse, and all my gear that fell off the back of a lorry, usually I fall to pieces and we are lucky if we get over 50%.
This doubly upsets me as she works advanced medium at home....
And don't get me wrong, I'd buy a 'posh' horse in an instant, ideally a nice black or bay (much less scrubbing of poop off white bits!). One day..... 
Til then I will continue to embarrass my coblet!


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## indiat (7 April 2010)

Dubsie said:



			Happens a lot, daughter competed her loan pony in a showing class, would never do well because the pony wasn't 'pretty' enough, but she wanted to do it, and really executed herself well, pony was foot perfect.  A child of sim ilar age was whinging she didn't want to do it whine whine whine and was shoved into the ring with firm orders/threats barked by parent, poor kid sobbed her eyes out flustered her way round cantered on wrong leg, pony was ill mannered in the line barging and spinning, yet she still got a 3rd (out of about 20), because pony looked pretty perfect (and I think was known to the judge from the way judge spoke to her), and was immaculately turned out in what looked like a brand new saddle and bridle...poor child was still sobbing as she rode out.
		
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Our yard hires little ponies out for half hour walks for children. There is a couple who come up every week and cattle prod their crying, terrified daughter onto a pony, where she sobs with fear the whole time. They also enrol her into lead rein classes etc, child reacts the same way. Now they are talking about buying her a pony! They don't ride themselves, but they seem to think their daughter "should" be doing it. I just don't get it - no one can be having any fun.

Sorry, I'm hijacking this post a bit!


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## Lanky Loll (7 April 2010)

Hmm well I've witnessed and been the brunt of quite a few of the examples you've all given (I used to showjump, was in a picky pony club etc), but have to say that some of the worst snobbery we've experienced has been since we started harness racing.  
NOT from the people we're competing against, although there is plenty of Welsh vs English rivalry, but from MOST other horsey folks 
This is a sport where if you have any problems with a horse/harness/cart people help one another out - we've even been loaned the wheels out of a strangers cart before after one of ours got damaged. However, because the most people think harness racing is road racing and travellers or flapping (essentially unaffilliated under slightly more relaxed rules) they immediately look down on it.  
They don't realise that:
- We compete under strict rules run by our version of Wetherbys the BHRC
- That the horses are called standardbreds but are actually TBs that have been line bred (over a long period of time) to bring out the trait which means they the fifth gait - pace
- That they pace naturally, you see them pacing in the field as foals, and no their legs aren't tied together to make them do it
- Yes our harness is webbing / rubber - it's washed off EVERY DAY, it's practical
There's loads more but I think I've started to make my point.
Can you tell this bugs me??? 
What really makes me chuckle though is that 5 minutes later they usually ask if they can come and have a go


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## emm0r (7 April 2010)

I am a groom and when at SJ competitions i always make sure the horses are as shiney as shiney can be and spotless clean tack because i take pride in making the horses i care for look their best so when you see the person on their horse with dirty tack dirty boots and stains all over it you just think WOW you really made an effort... If you go out for dinner you dont go out with a dirty face and scruffy hair that you havent bothered to wash or brush so why would you take your horse out in public like that ?! ..... Some people percieve that by saying ew look at the state of that your being snobby but its not snobby at all you would just generally expect people to make a bit of an effort when turning their horse out in public !!


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## dozzie (7 April 2010)

I havent really experienced it tbh. But have experienced inverted snobbery! I always liked to beat the flashy ones that cost lots of money!

Then i bought a flashy one which cost lots of money...well for me it was a lot of money..and what has it done...bugger all!


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## racingdemon (7 April 2010)

brilliant thread.... you'll like this.... when my granny was a child, she wasn't allowed to join the pony club, as her father felt it was full of awful common children on bog ponies! 

i love snobbery, i'm dreadful, i only like thoroughbreds, have to trim sniff of feather/fur/fluff off incase my horses look vaguely like bog ponies, and heaven forbid my breeches don't match my saddle cloth/bandages etc etc

but i am nice....and have my tongue firmly in my cheek, i may just look a bit snooty (and on a bad day, i look like a tramp on a bog pony!) 


when its just innocent fun, it's good fun, when small children are terrified by evil cow bag parents, its not so good....can't wait for my children to start PC, (being so common & having bog ponies!)


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## nemo_ (7 April 2010)

Quite like this post 
Being in Pony club means have experienced quite a lot of this. Have recently come across one particular parent, who has, not a groom but, 'a little man'. First met her at a ODE where she left her child and pony with the 'little man' whilst she sat in her shiny equitrek living area having a rather loud conversation with another parent about her her new oakley supreme being a week late having 'special features' installed. Same woman rang my dad the other day to volunteer her 'little man' for fence builidng which my dad is in charge of! Turns out she also has an on site instructor for her daughter's two ponies at the summer house! I kid you not


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## Fii (7 April 2010)

The only part of the horse world that i hav'nt experienced snobbery, is the heavy horse showing.
If you go to a show as a spectater, and walk around the heavy horse lines, you can go and talk to any of  the people, and they are very happy to tell you all about their horses, and there is'nt an ounce of snobbery between them. If they can help you they will, lovely people.


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## natalia (7 April 2010)

PMSL here! I always find it quite entertaining as my mounts are normally quite scrappy looking, they range from just pulled out the horse sales yesterday to pulled off the irish boat  a week ago normally. But they all perform. They all jump, and yes, some of them are unconventional looking but they have semi nice tack so aren't the worst you would ever see.  No one locally says anything now, in fact, I think our yard is  a bit of a local joke we "take the show out of show jumping" and have a damn good laugh doing it. I can't stand these all the gear no idea types who are everywhere, from local level to affil. The majority of them would be better trading their posh tack in and having some lessons. I've just got myself what I would call a "posh" horse, and she gets lots of admiring looks, but she's got a real attitude and likes to do things her own way. I must admit after years of having some real bog trotters its quite nice to have something pretty and flashy looking that also performs. Still get reg. beaten by my friends coloured cob though! I think its very hard as at a lot of yards esp. competition yards there is a lot of pressure for people to "look the part" and spend oddles of money on expensive tack and gear, however, it's only when you realise those without the posh stuff normally do better as they've spent all spare cash on training.


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## YorksG (7 April 2010)

If people want to talk about posh horses, I think sisters horse is the poshest I know, if she was a person she would wear a pale blue twinset and pearls. she is the Margo Ledbetter of the equestrian world  (she is rather beautiful, but currently a rather nasty shade of mud over regal grey!)


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## spookypony (8 April 2010)

For the most part, I've found people around here to be very friendly and welcoming, no matter what the horsey context, but there has been the odd remark that is extra-insulting and snobby, purely by virtue of probably not having been meant in a derogatory fashion at all:

Pony's previous owner had paid rather...above market value for him; upon learning this, a girl comments: "wow, you could get half of my horse for that price!" (horse belonging to girl in question rears and generally causes trouble)

In a dressage warmup, when I'm trying to convince nervous reluctant pony that going forward, in a straight line, is desirable: "Do you take lessons?" (er, yes, twice a week, thank you for asking! At least I was a bit vindicated by the judge commenting that he'd improved by leaps and bounds, even if we still didn't get anywhere near being placed...)


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## stencilface (8 April 2010)

cloptonpartridge said:



			a frend owns a a tradional cob most places she goes to people realize who it is and a poilite they know the horse is actuaaly really good but the other week she went somewere new and one of the other competators asked if they could let her know when she was leaving the warm up area as her horse had never seen anything like that before and it was freeking her horse out

Needless to say hairy cob won both classes

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I have to say, I unloaded my friends TB at a BD comp to be met by a very lovely black and white cob with all the feathers and mane at the bottom.  My friends pony almost turned himself inside out!!

He did have a bit of a cow phobia, and I can only think he was confused.  That said, I would never have asked the question your friend was asked, if my horse has an issue with another one - thats my problem, not theirs


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## BayJosie (8 April 2010)

emm0r said:



			I am a groom and when at SJ competitions i always make sure the horses are as shiney as shiney can be and spotless clean tack because i take pride in making the horses i care for look their best so when you see the person on their horse with dirty tack dirty boots and stains all over it you just think WOW you really made an effort... If you go out for dinner you dont go out with a dirty face and scruffy hair that you havent bothered to wash or brush so why would you take your horse out in public like that ?! ..... Some people percieve that by saying ew look at the state of that your being snobby but its not snobby at all you would just generally expect people to make a bit of an effort when turning their horse out in public !!
		
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Yes. I completely agree with this actually.

When i go to a competeition (albiet rarely and very low level) I always make SUCH an effort to clean my tack, do my hair nice, wear a bit of makeup. I would always plait my horse for a showing or dressage class (Personally I think it's respectful to do so if you have the type of horse that 'can be' plated) but even if I didn't I'd brush my horses mane with an inch of it's life so that we look presentable.
In short, I want to look neat, tidy and respectful to the judge. doesn't make me a snob just becuase I'm on a bay that's been groomed!


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## Shysmum (8 April 2010)

fireflymac said:



			Ha - snobbery! If you want to experience snobbery, try telling people you don't compete at all. You hack. Then watch them look down their noses as if you are a lower life form entirely. 
Never mind that I've many, many years experience of many types of horse. Never mind that I broke my own youngster and she is coming on very nicely indeed. Never mind that I keep an elderly retiree in good nick enjoying her old age. Never mind that my other horse arrived as a narky, insecure, suspicious loner and is now a friendly, affectionate (albeit slightly quirky) useful riding horse. Don't compete? Clearly I'm rubbish!
		
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Could not have put this better myself !!! Good God, "HAPPY HACKER ??? "
And yes, I broke my boy in myself (didn't have to send him away), so I guess I am with you entirely . 

But the thing is, whenever I encounter snobbery, I can laugh at it, cos deep inside, I know what we have achieved together, and no-one can take away that feeling. AND we are very,very happy on our hacks, tho we may try jumping next year 

The cow thing is  brilliant too - we can ride into a field of cows, and they all think it's their mum, and come running over for kisses and stuff, while I sit above it all watching. Oooooo how common are we, lol ! sm x


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## brucea (8 April 2010)

My experience has been that the longer the name of the horse, the more grandiose the parentage - the more likely it is to be a complete total screwball and be as fragile as glass!!

The owners are often screwballs too! 

Give me a cob of anonymous parentage any day!


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## Shysmum (8 April 2010)

Doesn't some of the snobbery come from the parents of kids at shows, about the ponies and turnout and stuff ? Even at very low key shows, you can feel it in the atmosphere - it's so sad, and so much pressure is put on the children. The last fun show I went to, organised for "the best of the rest" I was gutted that in fact it was all the usual set up of  - well you know. BUT we won the hairiest legs comp, tho we were never sure if it was him or me who earned the rosette


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## skint1 (8 April 2010)

Our horse is rather snobby, and I kid you not. She seems to forge much closer bonds with other TBs than she does with any other kind of horse. She is also inordinately fond of ponies, but other non-TB horses leave her cold. 

For my daughter and I, we're doing the best we can but I am sure we get looked down on for various reasons. As there isn't much I can do about it, I would rather not know! 

What does hurt me is when we're at our local shows my daughter attracts negative comments because she still rides her pony (she is 5ft7,weighs about 8 stone- he is 13.1) Yes she does look tall on him, but he's got no problem carrying her.


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## FinnishLapphund (8 April 2010)

FanyDuChamp said:



			I was very pleased when I finally found an almost bombproof hack for my daughter, after she had a horrendous accident trying out a horse for someone she become a very nervous hacker. Fany (the horse we bought) is an Ardennes (Trait Ardennais) Elizabeth was so gutted and I was furious when, over the moon with her new horse we went to the RC and someone said "shouldn't it be pulling logs?" What a way to pee on someone's parade! 

I have also had it on here in the breeding section, Fany has the most fantastic nature, good conformation and is a very well bred Ardennes. However I was told, in the thread and by PM that she was not fit to be bred from!  

It is also strange how people suddenly want to talk to us when Elizabeth rides/shows our KWPN Gelderlander gelding. What is the difference? They are both horses, both good for what they were purchased for.

Snobbery is a pernicious and spiteful way for some people to make others feel inferior and themselves superior.

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Off topic, sorry, I've posted about this before, that in Sweden we don't just use our heavy breeds in forestry and in front of ploughs. The Swedish Ardenner was for long recognised as a separate sub-group of the Ardennes, since its ancestry is entirely from the Ardennes horses of Belgium and France, but it is now considered an own breed, anyhow, in case you want to show your daughter what Swedish Ardennes can do : 

Palle doing pirouettes

The beginning of an Ardenner race
The finish, but the last horse has decided that it doesn't need to hurry anymore... 



Then we have the North Swedish Horse breed, that has been separated into a light draught horse breed and a Coldblood trotter breed. Harness racing is as big in Sweden, as Horse racing (with Thoroughbreds) is in the UK and 3 times, has Järvsöfaks received the title Horse of the Year in Sweden (2003, 2004 och 2005) and he is a North Swedish Trotter/Coldblood trotter! 







(Most common in Swedish Harness racing is Standardbreds, but we don't have any pacers in Sweden, all our harness races are for trotters, usually with a sulky, but sometimes under saddle in monté.) 

Järvsöfaks started 234 times - 201 victories, 16 second places and 4 third places, the overwhelming majority of those competitions was at elite level, he holds the record for Coldblood trotters of 42 consecutive victories and he holds the record as the fastest Coldblood trotter etc. 
He is, as far as I know, the only horse that has been invited and subsequently participated, in the Swedish Mounted Royal Guards parade! 

His breeder, trainer and half owner, Jan-Olov Persson, did his military service as military police in Sweden's Royal Guard Cavalry Battalion and that, in combination with Järvsöfaks huge popularity, as well as Järvsöfaks proven ability to handle (and enjoy) being the centre of attention of large crowds of people, made the whole idea come up. 

So, as one of 56 horses in the Swedish Mounted Royal Guards, Järvsöfaks has once, in August 2007, paraded up on the streets of Stockholm to the Swedish Royal Palace.

Photo Lars Jakobsson







He is also the first animal to have his hoofprints immortalized in concrete, at the amusement park Liseberg in Gothenburg, the largest and one of the most visited amusement parks in Scandinavia, it will be displayed, next to the handprints of for example, Michael Jackson and Luciano Pavarotti. 

Photo from travbolaget






Can you tell that I'm a big Järvsöfaks fan?  
	
	
		
		
	


	







And to get back to topic, what is probably the most usual snobbery in Swedish stables, is that people who rides Standardbreds will not get far, because "everybody" knows that such horses, can't really do any dressage or jumping blah blah... 
Talking out of envy and/or low self-confidence, is what I think.


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## picolenicole (8 April 2010)

toffee44 said:



			OH yes I have a groom for my wait for it..

on full turn out cobs!!!

My groom responds to mum 

Click to expand...

I have one just like this, but he answers to OH, Goose (don't ask) or please you know I love you!!


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## Hovis_and_SidsMum (8 April 2010)

Ha for sheer snobbery humour value try taking the Destroyer anywhere!
SJ-ing even the commentators have sniggered, dressage we have been known to empty warm up rings!!  I have had to tell people feathers and a moustache are not catching....

I took him to a nearby XC course a few times and there were suggestions from fellow riders that one of the local long horned cattle had got loose onto the course...

I think my favourite video of him is when my husband is jumping him and he's flying around the jump off like a feathered machine and you hear a very snobby voice from behind the camera somewhere saying "well I wasn't expecting THAT!"


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## stencilface (8 April 2010)

emm0r said:



			I am a groom and when at SJ competitions i always make sure the horses are as shiney as shiney can be and spotless clean tack because i take pride in making the horses i care for look their best so when you see the person on their horse with dirty tack dirty boots and stains all over it you just think WOW you really made an effort... If you go out for dinner you dont go out with a dirty face and scruffy hair that you havent bothered to wash or brush so why would you take your horse out in public like that ?! ..... Some people percieve that by saying ew look at the state of that your being snobby but its not snobby at all you would just generally expect people to make a bit of an effort when turning their horse out in public !!
		
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Thats great that your horses are all shiney, as are my friends as she too is a groom.  But for the common or garden amateur who also has a job which doesn't involve horses, cleaning tack may be quite low on their list of priorities.  Yes, I like having clean tack.  But I would never think,  ooh I really want to showjump tomorrow, but I can't go because my tack isn't spotless.  Worse things have happened 

I don't like poor looking horses, but then you canhave an ungroomed horse who looks shiney, thats all in the day to day long term care imho.  I'd rather see a shiney horse and filthy tack, than shiney tack and dull looking horse.  Obviously both is better, but sometimes life gets in the way of exciting things like tack cleaning


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## Kenzo (8 April 2010)

FinnishLapphund said:



			Off topic, sorry, I've posted about this before, that in Sweden we don't just use our heavy breeds in forestry and in front of ploughs. The Swedish Ardenner was for long recognised as a separate sub-group of the Ardennes, since its ancestry is entirely from the Ardennes horses of Belgium and France, but it is now considered an own breed, anyhow, in case you want to show your daughter what Swedish Ardennes can do : 

Palle doing pirouettes

The beginning of an Ardenner race
The finish, but the last horse has decided that it doesn't need to hurry anymore... 



Then we have the North Swedish Horse breed, that has been separated into a light draught horse breed and a Coldblood trotter breed. Harness racing is as big in Sweden, as Horse racing (with Thoroughbreds) is in the UK and 3 times, has Järvsöfaks received the title Horse of the Year in Sweden (2003, 2004 och 2005) and he is a North Swedish Trotter/Coldblood trotter! 







(Most common in Swedish Harness racing is Standardbreds, but we don't have any pacers in Sweden, all our harness races are for trotters, usually with a sulky, but sometimes under saddle in monté.) 

Järvsöfaks started 234 times - 201 victories, 16 second places and 4 third places, the overwhelming majority of those competitions was at elite level, he holds the record for Coldblood trotters of 42 consecutive victories and he holds the record as the fastest Coldblood trotter etc. 
He is, as far as I know, the only horse that has been invited and subsequently participated, in the Swedish Mounted Royal Guards parade! 

His breeder, trainer and half owner, Jan-Olov Persson, did his military service as military police in Sweden's Royal Guard Cavalry Battalion and that, in combination with Järvsöfaks huge popularity, as well as Järvsöfaks proven ability to handle (and enjoy) being the centre of attention of large crowds of people, made the whole idea come up. 

So, as one of 56 horses in the Swedish Mounted Royal Guards, Järvsöfaks has once, in August 2007, paraded up on the streets of Stockholm to the Swedish Royal Palace.

Photo Lars Jakobsson







He is also the first animal to have his hoofprints immortalized in concrete, at the amusement park Liseberg in Gothenburg, the largest and one of the most visited amusement parks in Scandinavia, it will be displayed, next to the handprints of for example, Michael Jackson and Luciano Pavarotti. 

Photo from travbolaget






Can you tell that I'm a big Järvsöfaks fan?  
	
	
		
		
	


	







And to get back to topic, what is probably the most usual snobbery in Swedish stables, is that people who rides Standardbreds will not get far, because "everybody" knows that such horses, can't really do any dressage or jumping blah blah... 
Talking out of envy and/or low self-confidence, is what I think.
		
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What a great reply, ok strayed slightly off topic but a really interesting insight to the breed, the racing looks great down to earth fun too.


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## marmalade76 (8 April 2010)

TheoryX1 said:



			Am loving this post.  As a cob owner and happy hacker, tell me all about snobbery.  However, the funniest thing we had happen to us is was at a very posh dressage competition centre, not very far from Cheltenham  .......  Anyway, eventer daughter and I rock up in our trusty Ifor Williams to be told to 'park with the trailers, we dont mix trailers and lorries'.  It was full of dressage darlings on whopping big 'posh' warmbloods, prancing around.  She mounted in the car park and we were told you couldnt walk horses on there, you could only ride in certain parts of the warm up.  OK, we have a very smart skewbald wb/tb cross, but she is an eventer darling, and said daughter did turn up in an HS1 hat and a tweed jacket, which in a crowd of dark blue pikeur and pateys stood out like a sore thumb, and she had scowls and put downs, till she won her first class.......  Laugh, I couldnt stop.  We wont be going back there, but for sheer entertainment value it was priceless.
		
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If that's where I'm thinking of, just reading the list of lorry park rules has put me off going there!


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## BayJosie (8 April 2010)

Stencilface said:



			Thats great that your horses are all shiney, as are my friends as she too is a groom.  But for the common or garden amateur who also has a job which doesn't involve horses, cleaning tack may be quite low on their list of priorities.  Yes, I like having clean tack.  But I would never think,  ooh I really want to showjump tomorrow, but I can't go because my tack isn't spotless.  Worse things have happened 

I don't like poor looking horses, but then you canhave an ungroomed horse who looks shiney, thats all in the day to day long term care imho.  I'd rather see a shiney horse and filthy tack, than shiney tack and dull looking horse.  Obviously both is better, but sometimes life gets in the way of exciting things like tack cleaning 

Click to expand...

whilst I see what you're saying. I work full time in an office and only see my horse at weekends so don't have time to groom all the time and certainly dont have time to make my tack spotless everytime i ride but i still wouldn't dream of going to a compeition without having cleaned my tack/brused my horse. It's just respectful to the judge to make an effort imo.


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## happyhack (8 April 2010)

was at Patchetts on sunday and a little girl came out of a class on her pony crying her eyes out asking "Mummy, why didnt we win" her Mum said "Because your riding was rubbish and this pony is useless".



I was gobsmacked, I wanted to grab the child and hug her, vile vile woman.


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## spookypony (8 April 2010)

Hovis_and_SidsMum said:



			I think my favourite video of him is when my husband is jumping him and he's flying around the jump off like a feathered machine and you hear a very snobby voice from behind the camera somewhere saying "well I wasn't expecting THAT!"
		
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Ooooh I want to see that video! Can you post it, pretty please??


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## Trakehner (8 April 2010)

I had a group of my students who were tired of the Dressage Queens making nasty comments about their horses and tack.  At the next decent-sized show we took my Shire mare (18.2 hands and a big girl).  They braided her feather, lovely mane rolls and her tail was lovely.  I wore my shadbelly, topper and the fancy boots and entered in training level. 

This mare could do amazing things for short spurts when the planets were alligned, she was perfectly warmed up and I'd been practicing with her for 2 weeks solid...she'd even do single tempi's for a bit with  a lot of leg (lots and lots of leg).

We flying changed our way into the ring, stopped and saluted.  The judge gave me the finger "come hither" command (we were friends and she knew what I was going to do, I gave her a warning).   We trotted up and she asked, "Can I ride her when you're done pissing off the ladies?"  "Of course" I said.  We did all sorts of things, even a piaffe for 4 steps or so (we were both very tired by then).  I stopped and saluted, my girls screamed and clapped and the judge got on my mare.  That older lady could ride and got her doing some single tempis and a nice canter.  She said she felt like a girl again.  I got back on my mare, and when I walked out I commented to the DQ nasty women, "I did things on my draft horse you'll never be able to do on anything YOU might own".

Nasty, but my girls loved it.


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## Horsehead (8 April 2010)

I'm always impressed by people riding Draft horses!! I did my first ever competition on a clydesdale x TB (more clydesdale than TB by a long chalk) He was difficult for ME but that's just because i'm useless, but all the girls that go to that college couldn't talk more highly of him and his jumping ability. I came last out of my 4 because there wasn't that much room to manouvre him but he would've gone over on the dodgy angles because he was so honest! 

I want a suffolk Punch one day!!!

In the snobbery debate, I'm doing an Equine degree, luckily most at my college are down to earth, but I moved from a different one which was purely an Equine college and the bitchyness was through the roof. A girl i knew was riding a dressage test on a horse that she'd never ridden, barely ever seen, and the comment 'OMG look at her, EVERYBODY knows Duke leans to the left' implying she had no idea what she was doing, I turned and said, actually she doesn't do equitation and doesn't know the horse. Shut her up, was so unnecessary. and saying that also that aforementioned competition was at a college where the students at that college, and one of the other colleges were all so so nice, but the team that came and ended up winning were so nasty and competitive and it was supposed to be for fun :-\ not cool!

I think i'm on a bit of a tangent but hey ho

xxxx


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## FanyDuChamp (8 April 2010)

FinnishLapphund said:



			Off topic, sorry, I've posted about this before, that in Sweden we don't just use our heavy breeds in forestry and in front of ploughs. The Swedish Ardenner was for long recognised as a separate sub-group of the Ardennes, since its ancestry is entirely from the Ardennes horses of Belgium and France, but it is now considered an own breed, anyhow, in case you want to show your daughter what Swedish Ardennes can do : 

Palle doing pirouettes

The beginning of an Ardenner race
The finish, but the last horse has decided that it doesn't need to hurry anymore... 



Then we have the North Swedish Horse breed, that has been separated into a light draught horse breed and a Coldblood trotter breed. Harness racing is as big in Sweden, as Horse racing (with Thoroughbreds) is in the UK and 3 times, has Järvsöfaks received the title Horse of the Year in Sweden (2003, 2004 och 2005) and he is a North Swedish Trotter/Coldblood trotter! 







(Most common in Swedish Harness racing is Standardbreds, but we don't have any pacers in Sweden, all our harness races are for trotters, usually with a sulky, but sometimes under saddle in monté.) 

Järvsöfaks started 234 times - 201 victories, 16 second places and 4 third places, the overwhelming majority of those competitions was at elite level, he holds the record for Coldblood trotters of 42 consecutive victories and he holds the record as the fastest Coldblood trotter etc. 
He is, as far as I know, the only horse that has been invited and subsequently participated, in the Swedish Mounted Royal Guards parade! 

His breeder, trainer and half owner, Jan-Olov Persson, did his military service as military police in Sweden's Royal Guard Cavalry Battalion and that, in combination with Järvsöfaks huge popularity, as well as Järvsöfaks proven ability to handle (and enjoy) being the centre of attention of large crowds of people, made the whole idea come up. 

So, as one of 56 horses in the Swedish Mounted Royal Guards, Järvsöfaks has once, in August 2007, paraded up on the streets of Stockholm to the Swedish Royal Palace.

Photo Lars Jakobsson







He is also the first animal to have his hoofprints immortalized in concrete, at the amusement park Liseberg in Gothenburg, the largest and one of the most visited amusement parks in Scandinavia, it will be displayed, next to the handprints of for example, Michael Jackson and Luciano Pavarotti. 

Photo from travbolaget






Can you tell that I'm a big Järvsöfaks fan?  
	
	
		
		
	


	







Click to expand...


Thank you for taking the time to post that. Elizabeth is soooo pleased and is going to email it round her snobby friends!

Snobbery is a very shortsighted and narrow way to view horses, still it is a laugh to see what people have written!


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## only_me (8 April 2010)

see, everyone assumes I'm posh because I simply HAVE a horse  It dosent help that I speak properly, and not slang/deep balfast brouge like because ive been dragged up nicely  oh, and I'd love them to come and see what I do in a day when at home - usually knee deep in ****, stinking of haylage, mud rolling and generally getting very sweaty and smelly 


But as for posh horses i appear to fit the criteria - he is big (16.2), extremely shiney (hours and hours of no grooming), fit (We hack maybe 4/5 times a week!) and has veins that come up on his legs (usually when the hunting horn is blown too) and is very well bred (but, as a gelding, doesnt matter squat ). We dont have a tan bridle, we do black baby  

Oh, and we also have a black bridle and brown saddle 

I love it when people assume im on a posh horse. Because then they usually act snobbish towards me as they ride their "normal horse". But when we warm up they are sure a lot more friendlier 

have to say, pc is defo the worst for snobbery, but for me its the inve


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## Weezy (8 April 2010)

Well I hate to think what people think of me - on my BIG warmblood, with my almost £3k saddle, £300 bridle, Pikeur comp clothing and an ability to f*** up any time things are going well  

But I don't care see, once I was the girl that had crappy clothing and rode only horses belonging to other people...and what a lucky girl I was as it gave me far more ability than I would ever have got from having one pony to myself   And I used to SJ a half Shire, half Hannovarian 18hh+ lump of cob, that people used to laugh at, or say was a man's ride, and oh boy I loved seeing them have to apologise to me after a round, but I didn't revel in it, I just liked proving a point.

I am a snob, but I am nice, like Racingdemon.  I absolutely abhor seeing scruffy riders, dirty horses, loose hair with hats plonked on top or wellies/trainers/etc instead of proper riding boots (they don't have to be expensive, just made for the job!).  I abhor people with the *f it I don't care* attitude when they turn up to hunt with less than perfectly turned out horses and hair nets - it is all in the planning...plan, plan, plan and if you don't have time to ensure you are clean and therefore respectful of the show/hunt hosts, then go for a hack instead!


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## only_me (8 April 2010)

Weezy said:



			I am a snob, but I am nice, like Racingdemon.  I absolutely abhor seeing scruffy riders, dirty horses, loose hair with hats plonked on top or wellies/trainers/etc instead of proper riding boots (they don't have to be expensive, just made for the job!).  I abhor people with the *f it I don't care* attitude when they turn up to hunt with less than perfectly turned out horses and hair nets - it is all in the planning...plan, plan, plan and if you don't have time to ensure you are clean and therefore respectful of the show/hunt hosts, then go for a hack instead!
		
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totally agree!

As for horses being snobbey, my horse is best friends with 2 donkeys. I think he is reverting to mule status!


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## prosefullstop (8 April 2010)

Pleased to say I've encountered zero snobbery Stateside, but then again I'm only riding once a week at a riding school. But the barn's liveries--some of whom are teenagers on six-figure horses--always say hello and smile when we cross paths. 

I ran into the local hunt, too, one week, and several people waved hello as I trundled along the dirt road in my filthy Toyota


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## Weezy (8 April 2010)

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with a dirty vehicle


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## dozzie (8 April 2010)

I realise now why I havent experienced snobbery! It is because I have the best horse! Everyone is in awe of her...


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## gabbypinkjessica (8 April 2010)

In reply to the posts about harness racing, I think it's a damn shame, it's a great sport! Whereabouts do you race? 
Interestingly, my grandfather (who is landed and titled and all the rest of it; so posh it hurts you know the type, a bit like the old posh drunk character from the Fast Sow) was a big pioneer of harness racing back in the day, and imported some New Zealand thoroughbreds and established a long line of marvellous trotters.  
Back then, it was really really posh! 
I don't know why it is so badly regarded now, I suppose people mix it up with road racing and stuff like that. 
It's the best evening out I can think of (and yes, I do wear the pearls daaaaahling...)


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## gabbypinkjessica (8 April 2010)

Oops, I meant Fast Show!


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## Lanky Loll (8 April 2010)

gabbypinkjessica said:



			In reply to the posts about harness racing, I think it's a damn shame, it's a great sport! Whereabouts do you race? 
Interestingly, my grandfather (who is landed and titled and all the rest of it; so posh it hurts you know the type, a bit like the old posh drunk character from the Fast Sow) was a big pioneer of harness racing back in the day, and imported some New Zealand thoroughbreds and established a long line of marvellous trotters.  
Back then, it was really really posh! 
I don't know why it is so badly regarded now, I suppose people mix it up with road racing and stuff like that. 
It's the best evening out I can think of (and yes, I do wear the pearls daaaaahling...)
		
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I think the road racing has a lot to do with it unfortunately 
We race mostly in South Wales/Herefordshire with occasional ventures up to Tregaron.  We have yet to make the trek up to Tir Prince or York.


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## CCLPony (23 October 2010)

"Kick and up, Kick and up"


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## Holly Hocks (23 October 2010)

BayJosie said:



			whilst I see what you're saying. I work full time in an office and only see my horse at weekends so don't have time to groom all the time and certainly dont have time to make my tack spotless everytime i ride but i still wouldn't dream of going to a compeition without having cleaned my tack/brused my horse. It's just respectful to the judge to make an effort imo.
		
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I take it that as you only see your horse at weekends you have it on full livery - schooled and everything done for you.  Maybe you'd feel differently if you had to get up at 5.30am 7 days per week to feed, muck out, water, rug, turn out and ride them yourself - and then going back at the other end of the day to do the rest.  Somehow cleaning tack and sprucing the horse comes at the bottom of the list - sleeping comes higher on my list of priorities, not whether the tack as a bit of **** on it.  And for what its worth, I don't do affiliated dressage because I can't afford it, but I do plenty of unaffiliated dressage with my unplaited TB - and win or am placed every time out.  Decent judges can see past the plaits and tack.  And as for showjumping - plaits and clean tack don't get a clear round - rider and horse ability do.


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## hannahmurphy (23 October 2010)

I know I was subject to a lot of snobbery when I was younger, but seeing as I was a 'townie' I was hard nosed to it & didn't notice these things ...... 


The way I was spoken to out hunting - yes that is a red ribbon & I will swear if you purposely ride up her arse even though you can clearly see said ribbon. Got talked down to for having a kicker (she was 4 & very mare-ish for gawdsakes!) & then the swearing ha ha

The mare was out of action for Pony Club Camp on year, so I took green as grass scruffy cob who the RDA had just taken on. The day before camp he had his first canter/gallop in the saddle, then we went to camp & got him a 2nd in the dressage, popped him round the XC & a little course -whilst the disabled riders from the RDA watched him. It was hard work but lovely. Not that any of the Pony Club rich kids or Pony Club mums thought so ....... I may as well have been something on the bottom of their shoe 

And the worst case of snobbery was from a family I worked for. The mother was a battle axe, two sons, one into showjumping, one into polo - I was the polo groom & apparently that meant the mother could treat me like utter crap, whilst the SJ groom could do no wrong  Charming.

Too many stories ....... 
Think my amazing (free!) ISH makes up for all the rubbish over the years. He's one of those horses that everyone loves & carries himself well so even if you aren't asking much of him he makes you look good  Don't get much snobbery coming my way now - Not that anyone would stand much of a chance now!


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## Apercrumbie (23 October 2010)

fireflymac said:



			Ha - snobbery! If you want to experience snobbery, try telling people you don't compete at all. You hack. Then watch them look down their noses as if you are a lower life form entirely. 
Never mind that I've many, many years experience of many types of horse. Never mind that I broke my own youngster and she is coming on very nicely indeed. Never mind that I keep an elderly retiree in good nick enjoying her old age. Never mind that my other horse arrived as a narky, insecure, suspicious loner and is now a friendly, affectionate (albeit slightly quirky) useful riding horse. Don't compete? Clearly I'm rubbish!
		
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I get this a LOT!!  I used to compete at a reasonably high level (and regularly beat people who had ridiculously expensive horses and riding instructors to boot) and they all turned their noses up at my little mare who went around with her nose in the air.  I was constantly made to feel that I wasn't good enough to compete with them.  I stopped competing because I stopped enjoying it, and their attitudes had quite a lot to do with it.  

Well the looks I get now from them are ten times worse.  Everybody just assumes that because you no longer compete you can't ride and that your opinion is therefore worthless.  People who used to ask me for advice now never do and often I think twice before posting advice on here because people's looks are starting to affect my faith in my own ability.  (By the way, I would never give advice about something that I hadn't experienced or didn't know about)

When I refer to people with expensive horses, I don't mean to cause offence.  If I had the money, then I'm sure I would have looked for more expensive horses and been taught by the "right" instructors.  It's not their spending power or their gorgeous horses I have an issue with, it's the attitude and their cliques.


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## Llewellyn (23 October 2010)

I entered a compertition with a popular horse magazine which shall remain nameless (when I was 7)!!!!! 
When I was young I didnt have my own pony to ride I rode other peoples trouble makers.
When I entered the compertition I said if I won the saddle it would be for my loan pony.
I got a rude letter back saying that to enter the compertition you had to own your own horse....

That is snobbery.


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## miss_bird (23 October 2010)

I am prob bottom of the pecking list, i breed ISH and so all rugs get used year after year til they are worn to death and then i buy second hand ones from ebay.
Acquaintances and friends will ring and say oh we have had someone leave the yard and they have left a couple of rugs behind and we thought of you.
I am so not proud and will happily accept them.
Also i no longer compete as i am always on young horses and people do tend to get short with you when taking a young horse to a low level show.
But then i get the other end of the scale, i have saved and brought all very good tack, which i look after well as i cant afford to replace it and when i ride out horse are clean along with tack and people then assume i have money and am a snob, big shiny horse and expensive tack, but no i am still that person that friends and associates give rugs to.
People perceptions are very strange.


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## indiat (23 October 2010)

We have a lady move onto our yard who means well but knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. My daughter's pony, who we all adore, was given to us for nothing. As a rather elderly and bad tempered exmoor with COPD and sweetitch, she didn't have much of a future. YO said if we could find a use for her, daughter could have her. The mare has turned out to be a brilliant PC pony but the sweetitch is hard work in the summer. This lady was watching me wash her one day and said, "You put an awful lot of work into that pony. Why do you bother when you could get something so much better?"

"Quite frankly, love, if you have to ask the question, you are never going to understand the answer," was my reply.


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## Lolo (24 October 2010)

I honestly think I have never experienced 'snobbery'. I know a lot of stupidly rich people (in our area there is one very wealthy PC branch!) who occasionally make you cringe by saying completely mad things about the value of stuff and who buy their children expensive ponies, but they're all just as willing to turn and chat to you about anything and everything. They lend stuff out willingly, always have something funny to say and don't mind that you rock up in your homemade lorry with your slightly mad horses.

The snobbiest people I know are the ones who are 'inverse' snobs, on their cobs who cost far more that the combined price of both mine and my sister's (smart looking, admittedly) bay TBs, including tack! We did a mini-major SJ relay once- my sister on her flying coblet who looked very smart in action and my on my equally nice looking bay TB. We won by miles and miles- over 10 seconds, because we are both speed demons and our changeover was immaculate. As we exited the ring after the lap of honour, we overheard one woman say "They only won because their mother's the secretary"...

And recently my sister was bitched about, because she rides a 'ready made horse'. Reg is a hurdler/ pointer who has been reschooled for a year now, almost entirely by my little sister. Now, he's a stunning big bay TB with matching tack and a lush jumping saddle, but 12 months ago he was a scrawny thing with cow hocks and pointy hips and a saddle older than he was!


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## Enfys (24 October 2010)

Where would we be with it? Always a cause of amusement.

Such a weird word when you look at it -  s n o b  

I am a frightful snob when it comes to immaculate turnout in public, hunting especially, I couldn't give a monkeys what your horse is though, a 5 pound market buy or if it cost you 5 figures or more, just as long as it is clean, plaited etc, and my biggest hang up, hair in a net and bulled boots.
OK so at home, I look as if I've just finished a days work on the garbage trucks (and nothing wrong with that, honest days work, for an honest days pay, I don't care what people do for a living, or whether they live in a castle or a double wide in a trailer park)


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## hairycob (24 October 2010)

A couple of weeks ago I was stewarding at a ODE/Hunter Trial. Son was warming up for the 90cm Hunter Trial on his very eye catching, very hairy, heavyweight cob. A lady was standing mext to me (not realising I was mum) & said "I love seeing that horse as people who don't know him don't realise how well he jumps & there is always someone making stupid comments before he goes. He did 1.0 m last week & it was so funny watching people's surprise". I confessed who I was & told her next time she can point out he failed vetting due to a severe cataract in one eye so we got him for a bargain price. We did have a good laugh as he went down to the start box & heard someone say "surely he's not taking that cart horse round this height" (came 5th).


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## thinlizzy (24 October 2010)

Excellent post, i have a relative who has a standardbred (trotter)she has won trotting races when younger, does sj, xcountry, etc now she looks stunning shes all clipped out and a lady admired her very posh ,competes etc was asking if she was a polish warmblood-------went on about her conformation , etc and when told  100% s/bred she was clueless so when was explained trotter she trotted off , it was such a shame really becaue shed watched her compete and was intrested in her she gets places regulary  and has won at competitions


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## 3DE (24 October 2010)

I get the one about 'why don't you compete - are you not good enough?'. Well if I wasn't good enough I wouldn't have 2 horses for breaking and one for completely restarting


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## sakura (24 October 2010)

I've had the usual "it's just a cart horse" comments and the opinion that if you're not jumping regularly 1m 10 or out competing that you're just no good...... but I did reback my horse myself.... 

I've had a lot of comments because Joey is shire x gypsy cob, his mother came from Appleby and he was used up on the moors, so a lot of people think he's good for nothing else, but I get the joy of knowing otherwise 
	
	
		
		
	


	









none of this is at my yard strangely, they're all very very supportive there!


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## Wildforestpony18 (24 October 2010)

I have seen parents hitting kids with whips if they didnt win the class!


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## Lolo (24 October 2010)

horselover360 said:



			I have seen parents hitting kids with whips if they didnt win the class!

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My favourite "parenting" moment has to be a little girls pony doing it's damndest to deposit her at the third fence, despite some rather determined riding. She was eliminated (she was about 9 at the time), and when she came out of the ring she gave her pony an enormous wallop on it's arse. Quick as a flash, her mum administered a similar slap on her leg, with the reproof "If you'd done that in the ring, you wouldn't want to do it now!"


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## JessandCharlie (24 October 2010)

Tickled me the other weekend when I was warming up Len for a BS competition and I was just walking around the collecting ring and somebody rode up next to me on her warmblood type. For those of you that don't know; Lenny is a freisian X with HUGE feet! He certainly stands out, but he can really jump  (and he's fast ) Anyway, this woman glanced in my direction and took a double take, before looking at me, then back at Len.
The look on her face wasn't one of snobbery, but total confusion. It was like I was warming up my showjumping zebra, and I genuinely think she couldn't understand what on earth he was! It really made me chuckle. 
I also heard a conversation that went like "He's nice" "NICE? He wasn't built for jumping" Hmm (double clear)
I do love the snobs. Out of Ireland by Boat - that's fab!


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## LEC (24 October 2010)

Having class and looking smart does not need to cost money. Also it does not matter about how you get to a show but what comes out of the trailer and if that horse looks super smart then great. 
Small things like spending time learning to plait and turn out cost nothing yet instantly create a much better picture. 
I am a massive horse snob but you do not need a massive budget to have a nice horse and look smart. Small things can make a huge difference but thanks to ebay they are within everyones reach.


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## Minnies_Mum (24 October 2010)

I think the beautiful thing about riding is that it is a great leveller- natural talent and hard work is more important than what money can buy you.  

I've known some horrendous snobs- I can think of one who went on non-stop about her £10,000 horse that daddy bought for her.....but she couldn't handle it and ended up too scared to get on.  I sympathise with this, because I suffer from terrible nerves too, but I make sensible decision about what I ride, based on my ability, not what it looks like.

"My" two boys (I saw "my" because one is mine and one is not) are chalk and cheese, and I love them both dearly.  My TB is an ex-racer, beautiful, chestnut and shiny. He is also sharp and unpredictable and a large part of the reason that I battle with my confidence issues now.   We did dressage (he's 23 now and has been retired for a couple of years due to soundness problems) and probably looked very nice all plaited up but the performance was never quite so pretty! But we battled on...!

"My" other boy is a 23 year oldf trekking pony, of unknown parentage but we're pretty sure he's a hackney X welsh sec D.  He was bought from Salisbury market at 6 years old, for (most likely) not very much.  I've ridden him for 12 years (on and off) and I trust him absolutely.  I'd take him anywhere, at any pace and he makes me feel brave.  He's not easy, he's extremely strong and can throw a bit of a paddy, but I think it's all fun when I'm on him.  I've heard a lot of people describe him as anything from "funny looking" to "ugly" (he's in a trekking centre and some customers can be rude!).  His hogged mane never grew back down again, even after 12 years, he's never been schooled properly so he's a funny shape and his knees are knobbly where he fell on the road once.  But I don't care- he makes me feel like the rider I never thought I would be again, after my confidence was knocked, and if I could own him I would jump at the chance.  I've borrowed him for sponsored rides and  if anyone commented I didn't hear, I was too busy feeling on top of the world- I'd buy him tomorrow if I could. 

I guess what I'm getting at, is that what a horse looks like or costs should be irrelevant- it's about the relationship.  And the people who look down on someone's hairy cob or inexpensive tack, and exchange their horse for another expensive one the minute it stops winning for them, will probably never understand how it feels to have that bond.


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## silverstar (24 October 2010)

MontyandZoom said:



			I had a crappy old box on loan for a while. It was common for people to actually point and laugh when we arrived at sponsored rides and competitions






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My box is like that but I dont care. Its what comes out of it that matters and at least you have transport.


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## Rouletterose (24 October 2010)

Reading these posts I am absolutely gobsmacked at some of them, I have never ever come accross people who are nasty and snobby as some of the things said to some on here! makes me wonder if I am on a totally different planet, have been to masses of shows, clinics, etc over 40 years and never come accross comments like these. Most horsey people I know are lovely.

Makes me wonder if some of the snobbery is imagined in the minds of some?


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## 3DE (24 October 2010)

Rouletterose said:



			Reading these posts I am absolutely gobsmacked at some of them, I have never ever come accross people who are nasty and snobby as some of the things said to some on here! makes me wonder if I am on a totally different planet, have been to masses of shows, clinics, etc over 40 years and never come accross comments like these. Most horsey people I know are lovely.

Makes me wonder if some of the snobbery is imagined in the minds of some?
		
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Or maybe those that do it don't realise


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## Snickers (24 October 2010)

Have had the usual 'What is THAT?' at pony club... I will admit I like smart horses... I wanted a bay tb type, quite how I ended up with a huge, hairy, spotty thing I will never know!


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## polopony (24 October 2010)

fabulous post darrrlinng! 
I really wish I understood snobbery, but then again myself and my cousin would have a very boring life without them.. they cause lots of laughter, (especially at the colonel! ) as we let it go over our heads.
i think I went up in their expectations when loan pony; a beautiful chestnut skewbald, cob type went back to her owners and grandad bought me a bay NZ TB, ex-polo. Can't wait to go hunting  x


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## Doncella (24 October 2010)

took his hat off  for the rosettes - where did he think he was - HOYS?! [/QUOTE]

Actually, I think he was being polite and we could do with a lot more politeness in this world.


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## RuthnMeg (24 October 2010)

Arriving at a hunt meet;
Its not what 'they' say, it the look of utter 'You're riding a PONY'?  
And the amazed look of 'I can't believe SHE jumped that', when they are clearly struggling to follow suit.


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## MissMistletoe (24 October 2010)

I remember being a keen young teenager, ponyless but 'scrounging rides in return for stable duties' type of kid and being friends with a girl in the year below me at school. She had a pony brought for her who was a chunky, hairy native with all the feathers and fluff,but soon became keen to join the local PC. However, apparently this particular PC favoured TB type ponies and the fluffy pony was soon replaced with a TB type pony just so that my friend could join that PC!!. 

The richest horsey folk that i have come across have been the nicest. They tend to wear old clothes and drive battered old estate cars and the horses are kept beautifully, albeit in older tack, but superbly polished with spit and elbow grease!.  

I once met a lady who answered an advert id put up in a shop offering help with horses. She spoke in a very jolly but posh manner and was keen to throw me on board her 3 year olds and let me muck out and help at hunts. I cycled to her farm on my shoddy old push bike, unknowing of the area that she lived and she come bustling out of her farmhouse full of enthusiasm and thrust a mug of bovril in my hand and invited me into her house and introduced me to her horses one by one and told me of their likes and dislikes. I was just a common kid and she was obviously very wealthy indeed, but her money was held up in the property she owned as she was always hunting for bargains and was very much into the 'repair rather than replace minset!'.

She would happlily let me mingle with her posh hunt friends, even though i probably came out with stupid things sometimes, she would just laugh out loud!. She was amazing, I will never forget the time she scraped me off the floor when i fell off my push bike and patched me up with vetrap and animalintex in her kitchen! and then powerhosed the cow poo off my bike the following day!. The way that she dragged me into the back of her landy and wrapped me up in a witney blanket to 'cool down' after having one too many ciders at the local point to point!. I would spend hours sat on the bonnet of her landy on a cold winter morning waiting for her and her horse to return from the hunt, ready with the bucket and sponge to wash them down!. 

Those were the days and she was a very posh rich lady indeed, and I was just a common kid, but never did I hear a word of snobbery escape from her mouth. It's a shame i have lost contact with her.

My mother used to clean the house of a local posh hunting family. They treated her like gold and brought her many gifts and treated us like part of the family. They wore old tatty clothes and loved a bargain too! You would never have known that they had money as they never showed it off.


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## santander (25 October 2010)

lurobsam2 said:



			I remember being a keen young teenager, ponyless but 'scrounging rides in return for stable duties' type of kid and being friends with a girl in the year below me at school. She had a pony brought for her who was a chunky, hairy native with all the feathers and fluff,but soon became keen to join the local PC. However, apparently this particular PC favoured TB type ponies and the fluffy pony was soon replaced with a TB type pony just so that my friend could join that PC!!. 

The richest horsey folk that i have come across have been the nicest. They tend to wear old clothes and drive battered old estate cars and the horses are kept beautifully, albeit in older tack, but superbly polished with spit and elbow grease!.  

I once met a lady who answered an advert id put up in a shop offering help with horses. She spoke in a very jolly but posh manner and was keen to throw me on board her 3 year olds and let me muck out and help at hunts. I cycled to her farm on my shoddy old push bike, unknowing of the area that she lived and she come bustling out of her farmhouse full of enthusiasm and thrust a mug of bovril in my hand and invited me into her house and introduced me to her horses one by one and told me of their likes and dislikes. I was just a common kid and she was obviously very wealthy indeed, but her money was held up in the property she owned as she was always hunting for bargains and was very much into the 'repair rather than replace minset!'.

She would happlily let me mingle with her posh hunt friends, even though i probably came out with stupid things sometimes, she would just laugh out loud!. She was amazing, I will never forget the time she scraped me off the floor when i fell off my push bike and patched me up with vetrap and animalintex in her kitchen! and then powerhosed the cow poo off my bike the following day!. The way that she dragged me into the back of her landy and wrapped me up in a witney blanket to 'cool down' after having one too many ciders at the local point to point!. I would spend hours sat on the bonnet of her landy on a cold winter morning waiting for her and her horse to return from the hunt, ready with the bucket and sponge to wash them down!. 

Those were the days and she was a very posh rich lady indeed, and I was just a common kid, but never did I hear a word of snobbery escape from her mouth. It's a shame i have lost contact with her.

My mother used to clean the house of a local posh hunting family. They treated her like gold and brought her many gifts and treated us like part of the family. They wore old tatty clothes and loved a bargain too! You would never have known that they had money as they never showed it off.
		
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Now THAT is true class! I'm a counsellor and one of the fundamental things that we learned (by experience) in training for the profession is that people judge what they most fear they are themselves. That is why the aristocracy get on better with the working classes. They are both certain of who they are and can therefore get along and enjoy life. The 'middle' classes are frequently VERY uncertain of their own 'status' in life having often come from indeterminate breeding themselves. This leads to constant one upmanship because they have a totally distorted view of what it is to be very high on the social scale. Your hunting lady is a perfect example of the 'landed gentry'. Cash poor and with manners to burn, just the same as you 


I had a conversation with Henrietta Knight a few months ago about a connemara she had for sale. I ACTUALLY said ' I can't believe I'm having a conversation with the great Henrietta Knight!' She spluttered in genuine embarassment and said 'Oh god I'm just the same as everyone else!! We live very simply here! Come and see us and have a cup of tea and a look around!' 

If she hadn't have been in the south east I would've been there hanging round her racehorses like a lovesick groupie....

A classy lady...


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## Indy (25 October 2010)

Originally Posted by MiJodsR2BlinkinTite  
Try taking a coloured cob (with lots of feather) to a dressage "do" and you'll know what snobbery is all about. 


Aargh we used to get our backsides whopped by a little coloured cob with lots of feather at our local dressage centre.  And it beat us in the novice championship - it wasn't you was it?

I've got shiny bay thoroughbred with poppy uppy veins.  However he's a shiny bay thoroughbred who was going to be be shot so I've got nowt to be snobby about!


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## palomino_pony (25 October 2010)

We used to do some society showing with my palomino and there was a very swanky hgv horsebox - colour coordinated violet with the pony's rugs etc (13.2hh!!) They came to ask my dad if he knew where the catering vans were sited. Dad commented after they'd walked off "In a lorry like that you'd think there'd be a bloody kettle!" It still makes me giggle now, as does swanky lorries holding 1 12.2hh / 13.2hh pony


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## eahotson (25 October 2010)

My lovely instructor has ridden to and trained to 4 star standards.Think Badminton for one.She has also competed very successfully in affiliated dressage and show jumping.A livery on my last yard (I am a BHS stage 2 you know!) laughed at her because she had a battered old trailer.When I was into with  and owned a very good show jumping pony some years ago and went to shows, you would see lots of ponies in flash boxes/trailers etc. with all the latest gear.Round the back some pony would shuffle off an old van with rugs held together with bailer twine.That would be your international JA who would then go on to clean up.


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## jsr (25 October 2010)

Best one some silly ta*t said to me at a fun ride 'oh what possessed you to buy a boring brown cob?'

1 hour later I gallopped my 'boring brown' cob past her as she stood holding her 16.3hh chestnut TB waiting to be picked up, because she couldn't control her and had to pull out of the ride.  Of course I had to shout 'THAT'S why I bought a boring brown cob'.


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## Laura1234 (25 October 2010)

I know someone who events to a very high level, has their own yard and competes other top horses for their owners, and she is very well to do and so is her family, but, she is so down to earth and would never talk someone down or bitch about them.  I think it is the people that THINK they are better than someone else that give horsey people a bad name.  The real good riders etc have no need to brag about what they paid for a horse etc, or tack, as their riding says it all!


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## Fuzznugget (25 October 2010)

Laura1234 said:



			I know someone who events to a very high level, has their own yard and competes other top horses for their owners, and she is very well to do and so is her family, but, she is so down to earth and would never talk someone down or bitch about them.  I think it is the people that THINK they are better than someone else that give horsey people a bad name.  The real good riders etc have no need to brag about what they paid for a horse etc, or tack, as their riding says it all!
		
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This is so true! Have noticed this with the riders/trainers who are very good at what they do vs the ones who think they're all that but wouldn't know an ass from a mule.


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## Lolo (25 October 2010)

palomino_pony said:



			We used to do some society showing with my palomino and there was a very swanky hgv horsebox - colour coordinated violet with the pony's rugs etc (13.2hh!!) They came to ask my dad if he knew where the catering vans were sited. Dad commented after they'd walked off "In a lorry like that you'd think there'd be a bloody kettle!" It still makes me giggle now, as does swanky lorries holding 1 12.2hh / 13.2hh pony
		
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I love at our PC junior/mini rallies when the lorries rock up with one 11.2hh hairy pony on- lots of the mum's event full-time, and normally the 'proper' horses use the lorry. Makes me chuckle when the fat, hairy little grey rolls off the huge great Oakley!!


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## arizonahoney (25 October 2010)

Not really encountered any, would you believe? But perhaps I am not looking for it - am an adult after all, riding is my funtime and if you look for kn*bheads, then you'll find them everywhere. 

Incidentally, my horse is a coloured hairy cob and everyone wants to pet him, regardless of what their own horses or prejudices may be.


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## Cedars (25 October 2010)

We fall in to the "bit of money but not enough to be genuinely rich" category. However, we only surround ourselves with friends who have the same outlook as us, and I am incredibly support of all my friends, as they are of me.

For example, when I took my gypsy cob showing, to a novelty class, for the first ever time, and she came 4th in the only class we did, a friend sent me a text saying "Hannah! Congratulations! I'm SO proud of you with your showing. Well done you". The same day, he'd won something like 4 1sts in huge show jump classes, but it didn't matter because we were proud of each other.

Best to just ignore all the other w*****rs.


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## TBxID (25 October 2010)

This is a great thread which is so true.

Many people have added the comment that those people in our world who have made it to the highest levels are very level headed and down to earth, however saw this comment on a social networking site and its an apsolute classic.

There has just been the last grassroots level BE event of the season in this area, however one of our local pony clubs had their autumn hunter trial yesterday.

This individual who competed at the BE event on the Saturday (BE90 or 100 -not sure) had been asked on the social network site whether they were attending the local hunter trial on the sunday to which they replied;

'Wouldn't be seen dead there'

This is the funniest thing I had seen for a long time - in fact the local XC is about £10 per round and is as high if not higher (Intermediate/Open level) and as technical in many instances as the XC at BE90/100 level!!

Now I am all for Grassroots eventing specifically for young/novice horses looking to build experience and confidence to move through the levels but would many of the people competing would find themselves better off sticking to local/PC events??? - the trouble is it has become abit of a status thing!!

Anyway rant over!!

Would welcome your thoughts!

TBxID


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## SusannaF (25 October 2010)

Lolo said:



			I love at our PC junior/mini rallies when the lorries rock up with one 11.2hh hairy pony on- lots of the mum's event full-time, and normally the 'proper' horses use the lorry. Makes me chuckle when the fat, hairy little grey rolls off the huge great Oakley!!
		
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My mum worked at Rossdales in Newmarket in the sixties, and she said that every spring an enormous racehorse box would roll into the yard and deliver one very small, very fat pony, come to wait out the laminitis season...


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## Bessieboo (25 October 2010)

One of the funniest comments I have ever had about my pony is from my non horsey mum when I first took her to meet her.

On looking at my beautiful 14.1 Dales x Fell x Gypsy Cob mare, whom I had just bought at the age of 45 after wanting my own horse since I was 9, she said "well that's just a cart horse I thought you would have bought a proper horse!'.

I didn't know if to laugh or cry!

Have to say though everyone at the yard I am at thinks my little mare is marvelous and I never find any of them being snobby at all (well not to my face anyway!).  I treat her like a Princess because she is my dream come true.


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## Cop-Pop (25 October 2010)

wench said:



			I think its funny when at shows, all the snobs on their expensive horses. Henry was a cheaop old nag, but he looks as expensive of any of them, and its always good to see the expensive ones playing up, but henry behaving. Just a shame he never wins anything!
		
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How do u know theyre expensive - do u ask? When i take my TBx mare to competitions my oh often hears mutters about people swanning around with their posh horses beating hard working down to earth people. It took aged before we realised they meant me! She cost 400 as 2 yr old and ive worked blooming hard with her. Its amazing what misconceptions ppl have. I dont dress in posh clothes either. The last time this happened my oh asked the woman how much hers cost (her daughter was competing it in my class) and she said 2500!! 
On the otherside of it when ppl find out my pony is off the mountains people often turn their noses up as if being born on a stud farm makes theirs better?

This is my 1st post from my phone hope it works ok!


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## Cop-Pop (25 October 2010)

wench said:



			I think its funny when at shows, all the snobs on their expensive horses. Henry was a cheaop old nag, but he looks as expensive of any of them, and its always good to see the expensive ones playing up, but henry behaving. Just a shame he never wins anything!
		
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How do u know theyre expensive - do u ask? When i take my TBx mare to competitions my oh often hears mutters about people swanning around with their posh horses beating hard working down to earth people. It took aged before we realised they meant me! She cost 400 as 2 yr old and ive worked blooming hard with her. Its amazing what misconceptions ppl have. I dont dress in posh clothes either. The last time this happened my oh asked the woman how much hers cost (her daughter was competing it in my class) and she said 2500!! 
On the otherside of it when ppl find out my pony is off the mountains people often turn their noses up as if being born on a stud farm makes theirs better?

This is my 1st post from my phone hope it works ok!


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## prosefullstop (25 October 2010)

I went to my first show yesterday in sixteen years. I was nervous as hell--even though I was only doing equitation on the flat and the 2'3 hunter class --but everyone there couldn't have been nicer. When a number of teenagers rocked up on their 17hh warmbloods, my heart about sank. I ride a 23-year-old TB who's all but blind in one eye. No, we didn't place, as my horse can't do auto changes, which are crucial in US hunter classes, even at a lower level, but not one person looked down on me. I had a tremendous time, and will attempt the lofty heights of 2'6 SJ next time


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## brucea (25 October 2010)

I had a woman call me a p*k*y becuase I was riding our coloured cob (the kids were on their ponies) - I was riding in the saddle pad and wearing wellies so probably looked a bit "rustic"

Cheeky b.....


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## Tinks81 (25 October 2010)

oh i like this thread !!! but here i am and im sure you all think i have a very posh pony who goes to all the shows wins a lot is in H&H reports qualifies for major shows etc etc but actually he cost me lets say less than most of you spent on your horses !! Hard work determination got me where i am today !! so when i get the sniggers at me i laugh back as you dont ever know the truth !!


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## jsr (25 October 2010)

Bessieboo said:



			On looking at my beautiful 14.1 Dales x Fell x Gypsy Cob mare, whom I had just bought at the age of 45 after wanting my own horse since I was 9, she said "well that's just a cart horse I thought you would have bought a proper horse!'.

I didn't know if to laugh or cry!
		
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When I told my mum the other month I was looking to buy a foal she said 'oh are you going to buy a proper horse this time or another clod hopper!!' If I didn't know how much she loved Kane I'd have been offended!!  (And I'm buying another clod hopper x 'proper' horse...a shire x tb hopefully )


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## marmalade76 (25 October 2010)

Laura1234 said:



			I know someone who events to a very high level, has their own yard and competes other top horses for their owners, and she is very well to do and so is her family, but, she is so down to earth and would never talk someone down or bitch about them.  I think it is the people that THINK they are better than someone else that give horsey people a bad name.  The real good riders etc have no need to brag about what they paid for a horse etc, or tack, as their riding says it all!
		
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Totally agree!


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## kizzywiz (25 October 2010)

I got my first changes last night on my 5 year old, I bought her in March with no flatwork at all, she had previously hunted & been ridden by some little girls.  I've worked really hard, mostly alone, & very much want to show jump, on returning from the school all chuffed because I had achieved a good enough canter & a couple of clean changes each way with no help from my coach, the comment I got was "Oh, show jumpers changes..."  WTF, no love I don't lean in & do that wiggly thing to get her to change, I have taught her a balanced change, quite an achievement I thought.  But no, because I have stopped doing "dressage" clearly means I am crap.  Oh, & for all the show jumpers, actually if you do lean in & do that wiggly thing, fair play as long as the poles stay up!!


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## juventino (25 October 2010)

I'm lucky enough not to have seen any real snobbery - I've not hunted but occasionally help out at the local hunt events (OSBWK) and people have tended to be really down to earth. Generally in my experience people who are overtly snobby to others are just nouveau riche bankers or similar and I will usually treat them with the disdain they deserve. 

Having said that, it's hard not to be snobby to chavscum and that sort.


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## jinglejoys (25 October 2010)

I do Parelli and Drive a pony mule in a Saddlechariot so I get it from all sides...who cares!?We're happy


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## Cadfael&Coffee (25 October 2010)

Stencilface said:



			I used to tell people at PC in a snooty voice when asked my horses breeding (something I cannot see the obsession with if your horse is a gelding!) an Irish TB bought from a dealer he was 'Out of Ireland by Boat'  you could almost hear the cogs going in their heads working that one out 

I love snobbery, it keeps me going.  

I love it when a swanky wagon turns up at a show and a herd of scruffy gymkhana ponies comes out - just tickles me, I don't know why 

Click to expand...

love it!!!

and i just love to see proper thelwell looking scruffy (VERY obviously) pony club ponies with a little jockey on top- i think they're fab!!


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## Esmerelda (25 October 2010)

I used to get this a lot when I was a teenager. My pony was a scruffy Welsh D who just used to pull a cart before I was given her, and I was a weird-looking punk girl. We used to pull up with a rented trailer that was pulled by my dad's builders van. The looks we got! I had absolutely NO friends in the horse scene. And, of course, we wiped the floor with the rich kids in nearly every showjumping class we entered. Which made them hate us more


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## Walrus (25 October 2010)

Interesting thread. I'm going to get shot down in flames now but just a thought (from reading these posts)....

Are the people on the posh expensive WBs and TBs snobby or do the people on the hairy horses have a massive chip on their shoulder and feel they have something to prove.

Plenty of the natives and coloureds at county level change hands for thousands of pounds and plenty of TBs for peanuts. How do we all know that these flash horses all the cobs are beating at shows cost thousands of pounds more? And if we could all afford an Oakley I'm sure we wouldn't say no and carry on borrowing transport or taking an older / smaller lorry - I sure as heck wouldn't!!


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## Chestnuttymare (25 October 2010)

lurobsam2 said:



			I remember being a keen young teenager, ponyless but 'scrounging rides in return for stable duties' type of kid and being friends with a girl in the year below me at school. She had a pony brought for her who was a chunky, hairy native with all the feathers and fluff,but soon became keen to join the local PC. However, apparently this particular PC favoured TB type ponies and the fluffy pony was soon replaced with a TB type pony just so that my friend could join that PC!!. 

The richest horsey folk that i have come across have been the nicest. They tend to wear old clothes and drive battered old estate cars and the horses are kept beautifully, albeit in older tack, but superbly polished with spit and elbow grease!.  

I once met a lady who answered an advert id put up in a shop offering help with horses. She spoke in a very jolly but posh manner and was keen to throw me on board her 3 year olds and let me muck out and help at hunts. I cycled to her farm on my shoddy old push bike, unknowing of the area that she lived and she come bustling out of her farmhouse full of enthusiasm and thrust a mug of bovril in my hand and invited me into her house and introduced me to her horses one by one and told me of their likes and dislikes. I was just a common kid and she was obviously very wealthy indeed, but her money was held up in the property she owned as she was always hunting for bargains and was very much into the 'repair rather than replace minset!'.

She would happlily let me mingle with her posh hunt friends, even though i probably came out with stupid things sometimes, she would just laugh out loud!. She was amazing, I will never forget the time she scraped me off the floor when i fell off my push bike and patched me up with vetrap and animalintex in her kitchen! and then powerhosed the cow poo off my bike the following day!. The way that she dragged me into the back of her landy and wrapped me up in a witney blanket to 'cool down' after having one too many ciders at the local point to point!. I would spend hours sat on the bonnet of her landy on a cold winter morning waiting for her and her horse to return from the hunt, ready with the bucket and sponge to wash them down!. 

Those were the days and she was a very posh rich lady indeed, and I was just a common kid, but never did I hear a word of snobbery escape from her mouth. It's a shame i have lost contact with her.

My mother used to clean the house of a local posh hunting family. They treated her like gold and brought her many gifts and treated us like part of the family. They wore old tatty clothes and loved a bargain too! You would never have known that they had money as they never showed it off.
		
Click to expand...

I love this. A sign of true class!


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## skychick (25 October 2010)

MontyandZoom said:



			Posh horses are always REALLY big and shiny! They are usually bright bay or chestnut and have veins that stick out. They also tend to have tan coloured bridles, usually with a mexican grakle. That's my definition 

Click to expand...

My 16.1hh bright bay TB x WB mare with sticky out veins and a tan bridle probably turns her nose right up at me when i turn up to the yard in my 13 year old hand me down jodhpurs, jodhpur boots and a whinnie the pooh hoodie! Snobby little monkey


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## Saxon_Jasmine (25 October 2010)

I used to compete on a horse I loaned from my local riding school and also took him to PC rallies. He is very hairy, runs along with his nose in the air and never stays clean.

This is him:






Everytime we competed people would always whisper about him and critisise him. 

We proved them wrong by getting placed in every DR comp we did, coming 5th in a 3ft3 SJ, and jumping 3ft6 XC


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## SNORKEY (25 October 2010)

LOL I am enjoying this thread!

I always remember being at a show, watching my friends horse, and some stupid woman on a coloured horse was boasting to me that she just spent £200 on her horses hand made bridle, BIG DEAL! I just looked at her and said in a sarcy tone, is that all? and walked off.

There is no need for it.


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## moodymare123 (25 October 2010)

Tbh with you people in the nower horsie day have gone a bit to far with looks , all the horses that i have had are beautiful and always look groomed when you bring them in from the field and i tell you what theve all been buggers so i just stuck to my lovely coblet


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## Daddy_Long_Legs (25 October 2010)

I am a big snob when it comes to turnout especially out hunting. Apart from my boots which were a birthday and christmas present from my OH all my hunting clothes are 2nd hand or out of the bargain bin! I take pride in what I wear and my horse is immaculately turned out, my saddle was a sample so was dirt cheap and my bridle belongs to my OH.

A friend of mine who hunts with me wore her long her down under her hat and didn't have a hairnet on and I didn't want to say anything in case I came across as being a snob. 

Oh and I have a big fancy posh horse but he only cost me a fiver because he was 18hands!

But I remember the comments when I was younger, I remember turning up to a hunter trial and being asked by DC why my pony wasn't clipped and she looked scruffy because of it. The DC cried after my Dad was finished with her. 
The season before last I hunted with a neighbouring pack because I was working for a dealer, now the dealer was rather scruffy but I always had the horses looking immaculate and myself even got the dealer to wear a stock! But the hunt secretary was a right cow towards me until a friend of mine who was married to a famous showjumper was singing my praises then the hunt sec nice to me! But too late got a different job that allowed me to hunt with my own pack!


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## ridersince2002 (25 October 2010)

I love telling people that ponys saddle cost more than she did- and it was second hand!! (it was a nice second hand one though!!)


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## Cinnamontoast (25 October 2010)

I got Beau when still on a very competition yard full of warmbloods and seriously expensive stallions. Beau was the only cob. The first person to see him when I was screaming in delight at having my own horse, all my own, not half owned etc said 'Oh, chav pony' I was gutted but he showed them! Pic to show you what I mean: 







He won first place in the cob class at Patchetts-nice and posh! 

I left the yard soon after I got him and moved back to my tatty old yard where there's a lovely mix of cobs and competition or happy hack horses. There's a girl with a beautiful cob on another forum and her YO only allows coloureds on the yard s she can look out of the window and see them-love it!

I previously half owned a Hanoverian X and went looking for something similar but saw this filthy, bedraggled soaking cob and fell in love!
Saxon_Jasmine, that horse is gorgeous!


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## Storminateacup (26 October 2010)

_CJ_ said:



			I think the tack related snobbery is really annoying, and the worst is that the big organisations in the horse world support it.
		
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Tack related snobbery really annoys me as I am on the receiving end for this because I favour Western tack for my horse, and Western riding too. It doesn't matter that my western saddle cost, secondhand, MORE than most peoples English saddle and is a top of the range one. People (in the British horse world) still assume that Western saddles are made for elderly, disabled or novice riders, out of cardboard and are slapped on any horse (regardless of fit - 'cos ALL WESTERN SADDLES FIT ANY HORSE DON'T THEY??) that has the temperament and atheletic ability of a seaside donkey!

My local saddler announced to me not so long ago, that  most Western saddles dont fit ANY horses, especially British horses!!!! I did retort that most saddles I'd seen in the local area and, that had been fitted by a qualified saddler, ALSO did not appear to fit!!!!


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## madeleine1 (26 October 2010)

BobbyMondeo said:



			I just find it so funny when your at a show or a BSJA and you see people bitching about how the rider is riding or you see a cobby-type in SJ class and people are like " that 'thing' will never get round" and it ends up getting places above all the "posh" horses. I love seeing peoples faces when that happens hehe

I often hack to SJ comps and we get lots of looks because we arrive really muddy and things but we end up doing well and better than most with the posh ponies and boxes
		
Click to expand...

i hacked to my local show. and ok my horse is probably one of the posh horses  but im not and she doesnt care that shes posh can ruff it with the best. well we hacked 6 miles to the got a clear round and after a quick flick with the brush i had in my pocket we won the riding horse class and came second in the coloured class


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## Storminateacup (26 October 2010)

lurobsam2 said:



			I remember being a keen young teenager, ponyless but 'scrounging rides in return for stable duties' type of kid and being friends with a girl in the year below me at school. She had a pony brought for her who was a chunky, hairy native with all the feathers and fluff,but soon became keen to join the local PC. However, apparently this particular PC favoured TB type ponies and the fluffy pony was soon replaced with a TB type pony just so that my friend could join that PC!!. 

The richest horsey folk that i have come across have been the nicest. They tend to wear old clothes and drive battered old estate cars and the horses are kept beautifully, albeit in older tack, but superbly polished with spit and elbow grease!.  

I once met a lady who answered an advert id put up in a shop offering help with horses. She spoke in a very jolly but posh manner and was keen to throw me on board her 3 year olds and let me muck out and help at hunts. I cycled to her farm on my shoddy old push bike, unknowing of the area that she lived and she come bustling out of her farmhouse full of enthusiasm and thrust a mug of bovril in my hand and invited me into her house and introduced me to her horses one by one and told me of their likes and dislikes. I was just a common kid and she was obviously very wealthy indeed, but her money was held up in the property she owned as she was always hunting for bargains and was very much into the 'repair rather than replace minset!'.

She would happlily let me mingle with her posh hunt friends, even though i probably came out with stupid things sometimes, she would just laugh out loud!. She was amazing, I will never forget the time she scraped me off the floor when i fell off my push bike and patched me up with vetrap and animalintex in her kitchen! and then powerhosed the cow poo off my bike the following day!. The way that she dragged me into the back of her landy and wrapped me up in a witney blanket to 'cool down' after having one too many ciders at the local point to point!. I would spend hours sat on the bonnet of her landy on a cold winter morning waiting for her and her horse to return from the hunt, ready with the bucket and sponge to wash them down!. 

Those were the days and she was a very posh rich lady indeed, and I was just a common kid, but never did I hear a word of snobbery escape from her mouth. It's a shame i have lost contact with her.

My mother used to clean the house of a local posh hunting family. They treated her like gold and brought her many gifts and treated us like part of the family. They wore old tatty clothes and loved a bargain too! You would never have known that they had money as they never showed it off.
		
Click to expand...

The difference here is "OLD MONEY" vs "NEW MONEY" or what we  used to call the Nouveau Riche
Old MONEY folk are whats left of the landed gentry in this country, the remnants of the upper classes, the lords and ladies, Rt Hons, and other titled folk etc. I have worked for them, in my dim and distant past. They are generally lovely, generous kind animal loving, scruffy, country folk who as you say have all their money tied up in land and old unsaleable estates drive around in old Landys and get their quality secondhand clothes from charity shops in the up market towns near their homes. I found they are are far more akin to the working classes in generosity of spirit than the middle class (Upwardly mobile- hopefully and dreadful snobs)  and the Nouveau Riche ( Victoria Beckham types - desperately wanting to appear classy to others - when no class there at all.!)


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## Allie5 (26 October 2010)

I have what might be considered a "posh" horse. A jet black BWB gelding from fleetwater opposition lines. However he is 17 months old so really just a pet just now! We had a new livery (NL) up looking round the yard and the conversation went like this: NL - hi I'm xxxxx Me - Hi I'm allie5 and this is Tommy  NL - And what do you do?  Me - pardon?  NL - Showjumping? Dressage?  Me - Oh well Tommy is only young ( Tommy is going through a fugly stage, bum high and head too big for his body! He looks like a baby!) so we don't do anything  NL - Oh. She then turned her back on me to talk to the only person at the yard who competes. At unaffiliated dressage once evry six months! My view was if she didn't want to know me and my horse or how I had international JA ponies it's her loss!


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## pip6 (26 October 2010)

Come do endurance! No snobbery, don't care what kind of horse you ride. Any dress, any colour tack (usually the more colourful the better) just have a good time & enjoy your horse.

A few years ago I bought a treeless saddle with a green base & girth straps, went down a storm (not!) at the livery stable! I loved their reaction! I'd rather be me, out there & competing at an affiliated level than the rest of them in their expensive tack trying to win a 2'3" class at the local show against little kids!

Then also bough a white bridle (all synthetic so very easy to keep sparkling clean), a green bridle & a green breast plate, worst of all ALL  SYNTHETIC! Yes, you can now put your noses you know where you know who at the yard inot 'classical dressage but to frightened to get out of trot on your horses'!

When I was younger I used to sj a 22 yr old welsh 13.2hh pony for someone. Used to take her to the local affiliated show. Long wooly coat, brown patches where dry mud had been brushed off but stained fur, patches of wet mud that had to be left (not fair to sponge off in cold weather). Took her in the unaffiliated warmup class (3') & beat the pants of the big sparkly affilated horses every time! Definate upward snobbery! Go Solo, you were a superstar.


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## JustMe22 (26 October 2010)

I've quite often found the kids and teenagers are the worst actually. Dunno if it's because they get their ponies/horses bought for them or something, and have no idea of the cost..I'm not sure. The area I live in is the horsey 'hub' of the country I live in  And as a result, there are LOADS of kids/teenagers with really fancy, imported WB's and ponies, and I mean 10 or so of them. They get their results I guess...but I'm not sure I could take a whole lot of pride from only ever competing on fantastically expensive schoolmasters and never producing anything myself. That's me though.

Having said that. I am guilty of reverse snobbery  I admit it. I like people being surprised when I say I have a £300 ex-racer, and he's doing just as well as some of the fancy horses. I've never sat on a ready-made horse, and to be honest, I think it's taught me a lot. The pony I'm riding and possibly going to start competing is a real bog pony, but he's being produced slowly and (hopefully) correctly, and I think he'll do well. We'll get looked down upon given I'm 5'8, he's 14.1hh, and clearly a fat farm horse  But who cares?? I don't.

 I also know, however, that if I could afford it, I too would have (alongside my silly green tb's, which I love!) a fancy, talented WB of sorts.  I try not to get too jealous though! Having a ready-made posh horse would be lovely, but it is rather easy to assume everybody on the big fancy horses has bought it ready, and not done any work themselves. Obviously, somebody has to produce the things 

Generally though, I don't reeeaaallly notice the snobbery. Had a few comments when my tb explodes at a show, but although a couple have been nasty and uncalled for, I've had far more people offering assistance (to mount etc when he's rearing and spinning/kicking, and somebody to read my tests and give me some advice..turned out she was from the top yard in our area! She loved my little ex-racer, the fact that I managed to truck him an hour with borrowed horsebox/car and got him ready myself, and then offered to let me bring him down to hers for a weekend and get some lessons and rides on experienced horses)


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