Looky-Loos at the Stable

I have a horse who I board at a stable. The current stable is a nice stable that is on the owner’s property, so all the looky-loos and people wanting to pet and feed our horses random things are not allowed in the stable. However, I did used to be at a stable where anybody and everybody came wandering into the stable to see the horsies.

I have so many stories about people doing interesting things around the stable that I could write a fairly sizable book. Several of the stories that come to mind is the story of the groups of looks-loos I encountered all in one day. I was mentally exhausted by the time I left the stable. It all started with a man who wandered into the stable with his 2 year old son while I was riding my horse. The little boy climbed through the railings of the riding ring and started running around the ring. I rode over to the father of the boy and I asked him to please come and get his son out of the ring. The guy just looked at me like I was being rude and told me that his son needed to burn off some steam, and he wants to see the horses, so why can’t run around in the ring. I asked him if he was serious, and then he accused me of being rude. I explained to him why this is dangerous, and how the stable is not a playground. So the guy tells his son that they are leaving because the lady is being rude and won’t allow him to play with the horsies. Apparently I’m a meanie. A few minutes later a woman wanders into the stable and sits down at the table that is near the ring. She whips out her phone and starts filming me, so I stopped and I politely asked her to please not film me. The woman got pretty upset and started yelling at me (she was filming the entire time) and told me that this is a public place so she can do whatever she wants to do. I left the ring and decided to go on the trail because clearly I wasn’t going to get any peace working my horse in the riding ring.

I was wandering down the trail when I encountered a group of people who stopped me and asked me where I rented the horse. I explained that this is my horse. They wanted to take pictures of my horse and I said no, so then they asked if they could take pictures standing next to the horse and I refused. I was walking away, and one of them called me a bitch. I just kept on riding and ignored them.

When I returned to the stable, there was a group of women with strollers and little kids sitting in the grass area of the stable. I muttered “What the fuck” to myself. My horse was not thrilled about all the strollers in a large circle. I wandered over to the group and I SUPER nicely asked why they were there, and one of them told me that they are a mom’s group and they thought it would be neat to eat lunch at the stable and let their kids see the horsies…..there is that silly word again. So anyway, I explained to them that this is a private facility and we need to be able to get the horses out without having to worry about people who are not used to being around horses getting hurt. The woman got really pissy, put her sandwich angrily back into the paper bag she had and said to the group really loudly, “Ok everyone! Pack up because this woman is kicking us out! Apparently we are getting on her nerves!” I snorted and told her, “Way to be nasty. I was nice to you. But ok, if you would prefer that one of your kids gets injured by a horse, then please stay.” I admit I was close to tears, and I am not a crier. I just put my horse away and went home.

Later on I came back to put my horse’s blanket back on him for the night, and there was this couple standing in front of my horse’s stall, and there was a dog in my horse’s stall. I wandered over and asked if I could help them, and the lady told me that she is training her dog to be around horses. She kept trying to feed my horse hay under the stall door so he would come over and get close to her dog. I watched for a couple of seconds and when the dog growled at my horse, I got angry and said, “Ok look, this is my horse, and I definitely did not give you permission to do this. It is not ok for you to possibly injure my horse, and what if your dog gets injured?” The husband tried to pull his wife away, and told her that he knew this was not a good idea. The woman starts going off on me and telling me that I am a nasty person because I am not allowing her to train her dog, so I asked for her address and told her that I would be by her house later on to feed her dog through the fence because that’s what I wanted to do. The woman became really angry and started yelling at me. About that time one of the owners of the stable wandered down the barn aisle and asked what the problem was, and the woman told her that she was just enquiring about riding lessons, and that I had gone off on her for no reason. I felt like I was being punked. Fortunately, the owner had been on the other side of the aisle and had heard the entire thing. She threw the woman out and told her to not come back. Ever. The woman was leaving but as she was leaving, she yelled threats at me and said that she would get me and my horse somehow. I moved my horse to a different part of the stable just to be safe. All of this happened in just one day…….It’s so interesting when people don’t consider the circumstances or consequences.

Happily at the stable where I currently keep my horse, nothing weird happens. If anyone should wander onto the property, they are immediately escorted off the property, and told that this is private property, so please do not come into the stable. The thing that blows my mind is that there are private property signs everywhere, and it is clearly someone’s house…..but people want to do what they want to do no matter what.