Fugly Wank of the Day
One fine day in February, every angry equestrian's favorite blog, Fugly Horse of the Day, had an anonymous guest blogger post about the many irritations of being a horse trainer, particularly when beginning riders are involved. Said post is very, very angry indeed, earning a figurative "you go, girl!" from Fugly herself. Opinions in the comments, however, are divided on whether she's 100% correct, right on several points but kind of snotty and condescending about it, or right on a few points but mainly just a wannabe know-it-all with a god complex. And they all lived angrily (but very happy about it) ever after.

I'll expose my bias and admit that I think that most of the wank is coming from the article itself, but there are a few gems to be found in the comments as well. But enough of that, have some quotes.

From the article:
I hate all of your tack. I swear every time I go to a new job I find the exact same crappy tack, tack that I wouldn’t put on my horses even with a gun to my head. It is the tack that your “friends” gave you because surprise they realized that it sucked so they gave it to you. The saddles you have are dry rotted and synthetic (I don’t care what you paid for them, a saddle that is $300 or lower new is crap), they nose dive on the withers and swim all over the back, so you have to cut the horse in half to get them to sort of stay on and then you have to balance the saddle on the horse while trying to ride, because it slides all over the place. A good western saddle new is $800 up, and tolerable one will be $500- $800.
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Your way wasn’t working, that is why you called me, so just shut up and listen. I love it when I get a new client who regardless to what I say or accomplish with their horse still thinks that they know what they are doing or their way is better. You don’t. That is why you called me in the first place.

From the comments:
I used to burst screaming into The Vapors song, “I Think I’m Turning Japanese”, grab my hair and stomp around when I finally snapped.
I was mildly famous for it.
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Well, I’m glad some people are keeping horse ownership to be something only the rich can afford. I’m so glad that the multitude of reasons I have a synthetic (including health reasons that preclude me from having a heavy and expensive “real” saddle) cause someone who has nothing to do with me or my horse so much grief.
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Newsflash to people who use the “life happens” excuse: Unless your job involves riding horses, NONE of us have time to ride our horses! We do it anyway. I’d rather function on 4 hrs of sleep than function in a state of bitchiness because I didn’t get to ride my horse.

Edited to make it a little clearer which quotes come from which section. Sorry for the confusion!

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ravenscanary
2010-02-24 03:40 am UTC (link)

If actual working horses make up more than one percent of the horses in North America, I will eat my gym shoes.

In other words, we're not talking about the "show horse industry" versus "working horses" here. We're talking about the 1% of horses who earn their keep in work versus the 99% of horses who don't, who are all considerable drains on an owner's resources.

Hell, even make it (in a fantastic, Western fantasy dream world) that 10% of horses are working animals. The other 90% aren't. People don't make money off of owning horses. They are expensive. That's like arguing that because maybe people use sled dogs for transportation in Alaska it's unfair for people to consider dogs to be animals that only people who can afford to take care of them should own.

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altoidsaddict
2010-02-24 02:23 pm UTC (link)

That's true, owning horses in an urban or even suburban area is very expensive. Land is expensive, pastureland is unreliable or overworked, and hay has to be trucked in from more remote areas which drives up the cost.

But the idea that a horse must be inherently expensive, or less practical than more expensive working vehicles, or that you cannot own horses inexpensively would come as a shock to the people I grew up with. I boarded at a place that was transitioning to a show barn from a working ranch and still had both reliable pasture and grew the bulk of its own hay. My main horse was a $350 donation and someone gave me an Arabian former broodmare along with all of her tack. We were dirt poor, but all I had to do was work at the ranch for board - maintenance and upkeep mostly - and win a couple of all-arounds and even with three horses I was making a profit. 90% of the people boarding at my barn were not even middle class, and we did just fine by pulling together and sharing what we had.

The vast majority of the unadvertised boarding stables around me right now have the same arrangements - grow their own hay, low costs, work in exchange for expenses, etc. Working off a $100/mo board and feed bill is not that hard. These places limit how many animals they support to keep the cost low, but it's not like anyone has a waiting list either - because most people out here who do ride recreationally think they need indoor/outdoor paddocks, a dedicated tack room, and a heated, lighted indoor arena surrounded by white fences.

And actually, your analogy at least takes into account that working animals exist. The original argument does not. Some of us still live in places that, thanks to difficult terrain, retain quite a bit of the Old West's practical nature.

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