Alright come on, fess up, what are the things that are driving you extra crazy lately? Let’s call this Twitchy Tuesday and we can all commiserate with each other over the things that are threatening to slowly drive us insane.
Leaving halters attached to cross ties
If you’re the only person in the barn, then sure… I guess. I mean I still hate it but if you’re alone at least it’s not affecting anyone. But if you’re one of many at a barn, and one of many that uses a set of crossties, please for the love of god, when you bridle your horse, unclip the halter from the crossties and hang it up. If you hang the halter up with a crosstie still attached, I have to resist the urge to chuck your halter in the poop pile every time I unhook it. One of these days I’m going to give in to the urge. And if you leave the halter on the GROUND with the crosstie attached, you’re getting a throatpunch from the safety police before I chuck the halter in the poop pile.
Bit keepers put on incorrectly
I don’t know why this one is so common but it seems like at least 50% of the time that a horse is wearing a full cheek, the bit keepers are on too low. When they’re too low, they aren’t doing anything, so you may as well take them off and live the daredevil lifestyle. Keeper, at the top, sitting just under the “knob” = things can’t get caught on the cheek of the bit. If you don’t like the angle of the mouthpiece when the keeper is at the top, perhaps a d-ring would be a better choice. I’ve seen what happens when a horse gets a full cheek caught on something, so maybe I’m overly sensitive about it, but trust me when I tell you that it’s not a thing you want to witness. Ever. That incident happened when I was a kid and I still remember every vivid detail (and the lecture that every single person in the entire barn got from my trainer afterward). Thank goodness it wasn’t my horse or I’d have been even more scarred. Know and understand your equipment.
“Friends” constantly trying to sell me shit on my personal social media
Dude. If one more person tries to sell me Rodan & Fields or Lipsense, I’m going to lose it. You want to sell that stuff, great (I’m all about that side hustle), but please post about it once, maaaaaybe twice, and then take it to another account or a group with all the people that were interested. Constantly bombarding your “friends” to try to sell them something is really freaking irritating. To the point where pretty much everyone on my friends list who sells that sort of stuff has been unfollowed. It’s like Avon on crack.
People who can’t measure jumps
If you post a picture of your horse jumping X height and then claim that it’s Y height, you look dumb. Like… I have eyeballs. I know your standards are not 7′ tall. That middle hole is not 3’6″. If you have 4′ standards and you’re 3 holes from the top, it’s not 4′. Measuring isn’t hard. You can even make your own measuring stick! Everyone should have one of those anyway.
Black backgrounds with white text
Speaking of eyeballs, maybe I’m showing my age here but am I the only one whose eyeballs physically hurt from trying to read white text on a black background? There are a few blogs I’d like to read but can’t, because my old lady eyes are dying after the first paragraph. White backgrounds are your friend. Be kind to old ladies.
breedrideevent.com 
People that refuse to clean up hair/hoof pickings/manure before leaving the cross ties.. seriously, if you’re in a full boarding barn.. clean up!!
also, people that insist on tacking up in the washstalls when horses need to be hosed and you’re standing their with your drenched horse just wanting to use the hose when the other person could easily use the crossties in the aisles!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not cleaning up crossties drives me nuts, too. Luckily the people at my barn seem to be good about that!
LikeLike
omg this this this. I board in a small barn now and do not have this issue now really since I am usually the only one out there tacking up but exactly: CLEAN UP YOUR SHIT (And get out of the wash stall) I have boarded at big boarding barns and it would astound me how much crap (literal and not) people would leave to go ride. They would say I will get it when I am done. NO you won’t because someone else will clean it up for you cause they need the crossties. I had no idea how bad I felt about this so thanks for sharing 🙂 HA HA HA The halter attached to crossties bothers me too. Luckily again at my current barn it never happens but it has at other barns. EVEN FANCY NICE BARNS> SIGH
and my eyes are so effed up i wont read anything that is white text on black. Way to get me off that site fast.
LikeLike
Hahaha I leave my halter on the crossties. But it gets put on the chair. And it’s our own barn. And generally I’m the only one riding. If I’m not, I tack up in my stall so it’s a bit moot lol. But I agree that if you are a boarding barn, take your halter off the crossties. And I thought it was just me whose eyes couldn’t read white on a black background! I close my eyes and even just blinking I still see words flashing in front of me. That is definitely hard. Nothing’s been a crazy pet peeve recently, but my biggest is people who try to tell me how to care for my horse not because I don’t take care of my horse but because I don’t do it THEIR way and they think their way/products are so much better. Drives me batty.
LikeLike
It’s not just you, my eyes start going haywire too. I can maaaaaybe skim it, but read the whole thing? No way.
LikeLike
Ditto on the sales stuff. I now have so many friends and family selling stuff that I can’t buy because I could never choose whom to buy from! My other ginormous pet peeve is the social media humble brag. Full-on bragging is FAR less annoying to me that the f’ing humble brag.
LikeLike
I’ve unfollowed so many people trying to sell stuff that I can’t even remember who they all are anymore.
LikeLike
MLM sellers can GTFO my social media lists. You add me to one of your bullshit groups or events to pimp your products, you’re getting unfriended. HAAAAAATE that. So much.
Even though I’m the only one riding at home, I always unhook my halter and hang it up, haha.
LikeLike
Oh god, I can’t even talk about being added to groups against my will. You may invite me. You may share the page with me. You may not add me to a group without my approval.
LikeLike
I had NO idea that’s how bit keepers were attached. I just made sure to avoid full cheeks. That was apparently glossed over in pony club…
TIL!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you only have to see a horse get it’s bit caught on something one time before the full cheek thing is really driven home.
LikeLike
The MLM things really get me. What ever happened to “inviting” someone to a group, vs. physically dragging them into one where they will get 15 updates a day on stuff they don’t want or need until they finally stop whatever it is their life actually consists of to LEAVE THE GROUP. No one shoves a blindfold over your face, throwing you in a van, and drops you off at a party… Invite me. I will say no, but I won’t be (as) annoyed.
As for my barn pet peeves, There is one girl at my barn that lets her horse pee in the grooming area after EVERY. SINGLE. RIDE. and she doesn’t even try to throw some dirt or shavings over it (dirt floor area). It’s so gross and stinks and then her horse stands in it and spreads it around while he eats his grain (he’s a field boarded horse). As a result, I can almost never use this area (even though it is closest to my tack) because otherwise me and my horse would have to stand in pee.
LikeLike
Yeah for real, totally agree, DO NOT ADD ME TO GROUPS. Invite. Share. But don’t just add me. I’ll leave the stupid group just out of sheer principle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Line at the wash rack and you are still there using the sweat scraper to get every bit of water residue off your horse. Really people. You can lead it out of the wash rack THEN use the scraper. Also, people who park their horse right next to mind at the barn, arena, on trail or wherever. Not that my horse is unsociable, all of mine are great in fact, but I don’t know where your horse has been and I would rather just not. Ohh, and people galloping their horse through camp or riding up my ass or using my horses ass as a braking system, or asking me to change my gait because I am going too fast/slow for their liking. Ride your own horse people! Also, not a people peeve but, horses that are hard to catch are the worst! Phew. I think I’m done now.
LikeLike
Luckily I don’t have any of these problems but they do sound extremely annoying.
LikeLike
LOL to the white backgrounds bit – I wholeheartedly agree. It was also one of the very first rules I ever learned about webpage design when I was 14. Light backgrounds, dark writing. My old woman ginger eyes are sensitive AF to the point where sometimes I wear my [lighter lens] sunglasses at night because the absurd headlights so many people have kill me. I’m 29 goin’ on 89….
LikeLike
I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want a nice white background with black letters. Anything colored or black looks really 1990’s birth-of-the-internet/this-is-a-free-geocities-page to me.
LikeLike
My roommate is my pet peeve. 🙃
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lol the dark background thing. I’ve helped people with websites and branding as my side hustle and for some reason a lot of people thing that either a red background with black writing or vice versa is a great design idea. Just thinking about it makes my eyeballs hurt.
As far as jump height…that’s one thing I have a mental block about. I just can’t seem to figure out how to judge fence height so I should really make a measuring stick. (Instead I just don’t try to say how high jumps are in photos lol)
LikeLike
Yeah color can be just as bad. Light with dark type should be the absolute rule, otherwise you get kicked out of the internet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Okay, okay *sobbing in shame* I can’t measure jumps. I have no idea. they’re all too high. cross rails for life.
LikeLiked by 1 person
YES TO ALL + farriers who fail to pick up their nails/nibs.
LikeLike
UGH GOD YES
LikeLike
There is nothing weird about those pet peeves. Of course, mine are the same, and I’m not weird. Except for the horse bone thing.
LikeLike
I’m the only person at my barn (outside of my rarely seen boarders) and I still don’t leave halters hanging and I would totally hide a halter if I found it still attached to a cross tie. There are many reasons I don’t board…
And yes, a website with white text on a black background is abominable.
LikeLike
Current pet peeves:
If there is someone riding in the arena and you go to lunge and someone is waiting to lunge their horse after you… don’t spend an hour+ “lunging” your horse.
Related – if someone is lunging their horse and the width of their circle is the width of the arena – DO NOT walk around them on the wall. Use the other 2/3 of the dang arena so maybe you won’t get kicked. Plus it’s rude.
LikeLike
YIKES!
LikeLike
YES ON THE BIT KEEPERS! I see all too often western riders who have a full cheek and no bit keepers, it scares me. My friend had a mishap with a full cheek snaffle without keepers, so I’ve seen the damage that can occur. Add a full cheek to a headstall that doesn’t have a throat latch and you are just asking for trouble.
Aaaand as for the website, it’s more energy efficient to have a dark background on your monitor, though I personally would never do black. Light grey, sure, but font type and color are very important to ensure readability. And when you’re unable to sleep at 2am and reading blogs, a dark background is easier on the eyeballs than the bright ass white. Not that I have any experience with that.
LikeLike
light gray is fine. Anything darker than that is too much for my eyeballs. But I definitely don’t read blogs at 2am lol.
LikeLike
Dying
The halter thing is sooo one of mine.
The biggest for me lately? “My horse is getting so big, he’s 16.3 now”. Yet you are 5’2 and your head is over his back. Sooo he’s 15.2. See it all the time in ads and everywhere, why does everyone want to pretend they have a giant horse?
LikeLike
I DON’T KNOW! Who wants a giant anyway???
LikeLiked by 1 person
um want it or not you have a giant Presto 🙂
LikeLike
Oh amen to the hater one. I am the only one at my barn who DOESNT do this. I keep hoping that leading by example will rub off on the other boarders but eventually I might just crack and go on a manure-throwing spree…
LikeLike
Just no to things that hurt my eyeballs. I deal with migraines enough, thanks, I don’t need to encourage them.
My big pet peeve is people not passing left shoulder to left shoulder. I even get mad when people do it to me on foot.
LikeLike
There is a gaggle of new pre-teens that just joined my barn and almost every single thing they do is my new pet peeve. I realize I am being a curmudgeonly old lady about at least half of the stuff, but it’s the mere fact that when they arrived at the barn they continued to do every single thing they did at their old barn with ZERO regard to the rules or culture at their new barn. Ugh. Get off my lawn.
LikeLike
I made the mistake of joining an equine genetics group on Facebook. Sometimes it really has neat info. The rest of the time, I just scroll on past, because one of these days I’m going to snap and actually start responding to all of the people posting a clearly bay or chestnut horse and asking, “What color is my horse?!” Probably in all caps. Definitely with links to the various color testing companies and a flat, “Go test and find out if you’re so convinced that your clearly normal-colored bay/chestnut is a mystical magickal super-sekrit color.”
LikeLike
I didn’t know that about the bit keepers! Learn something new every day.
LikeLike
Halters that don’t fit are a pet peeve for me! It drives me crazy to see the noseband so low that it could either slip off the end of the nose if the horse pulls back or break their nose bones. Buy a cob size halter if your horse is small!!!!!!!! I’d much rather see a to tight halter than one that’s so big it’s basically hanging off their face… garrr!!!!
And yes to the bit keepers…growing up there was a lady at a nearby barn who broke her back when her horse got his full cheek caught in her stirrup and flipped over. That was enough to scare me for life!!!! Thankfully she did eventually heal and could ride again but it could also have been a lot worse
LikeLike
Bel Joeor also posted about leaving halters on cross ties yesterday. Two posts in one week. Maybe I should stop doing this? To be fair, no one else uses our tie up area so it has never been an issue. I never left halters attached at larger barns when we took lessons, but I didn’t realize it was such an annoyance.
LikeLike
Hahaha I am with you on all the things you mentioned. I have to admit though, owning my barn and being the only rider, I often chuck the halter (with the right side crosstie attached) on top of my wooden trunk once I bridle and EVERY SINGLE TIME I do it, I think to myself, that is so unsafe and lazy of me and I know better….LOL…but I do it anyway.
LikeLike
YES to pretty much everything. I immediately unfollow any blog that is white text on a black background. Can’t handle it. My facebook is now people selling me shit I don’t want, cat videos and horse stuff. Its ridiculous and I unfollow them too. Well, I pretty much unfollow everyone these days. I unhook my halter and fold up and hook my cross ties every single time and I’m the only one who rides at my house. I hate messing with the cross ties if they have been drug in the dirt aisle. My biggest pet peeve is about to start in a few weeks. It drives me nuts every single year when I see the same people who bitched non stop online about the weather being cold (cuz you know it doesn’t happen every year and is such a surprise when it is cold n Feb) and then complain about the heat on the very first real day of heat we get. I call them out all the time because seriously quit bitching about the weather at all times.
LikeLike
I just hate when people don’t leave things the way they found them. Be that how the halter is hung, or the aisle swept or whatever. The only exception is my farrier. He has the right to do whatever at all he wants. ONLY HIM THOUGH!
Agree 1000000% on the selling crap on social. I will never buy that crap out of principal at this point. I’ll take my wrinkles and natural eye lashes thank you very much.
Also with you on the fence height. If one more person tries to tell me they are jumping a 3′ jump (which isn’t high, why so braggy) and their trainer who is clearly not a giant is standing next to said 2’3″ jump I’m gonna actually call them out.
I get physically annoyed by the phrase, “words cannot explain” or any variation there of. I get it. You’re super emotional about whatever. Pretty sure you can find a word.
LikeLike
All of the above.. thanks for the share too 🙂
Gotta love #alternativeheights
LikeLike
I’ve seen a lot of grooms and vet assistants lately that don’t know how to put a halter on correctly. It definitely creates a twitch. Especially, when I catch their loose horse and they put me at risk because they are either too lazy or not smart enough to do it correctly.
LikeLike
The halter thing is huge for me. I have to fight the urge to not throw them across the barn aisle.
Someone else mentioned not trying to go around the rail when someone is longeing? That’s another of mine. I promise I will be done ASAP, so please, keep yourself safe by not trying to canter by my twirling horse. I mean, it’s your leg/horse/whathaveyou that is going to bear the brunt of your decision, but I really don’t want to be a part of it.
I haven’t seen speeding in and out of the barn. We have a 1/2 mile road that many of us cool out on. Those blind turns are super fun when you come face to face with a car or truck going 25 MPH down the dirt road. And no, when you skid to a stop, you don’t scare my horse at all, especially when you are coming up on us from behind. Sigh. My favorite is the FedEx truck, going like a bat out of hell and sounding like a legion of demons are along for the ride. Good times.
LikeLike
People who don’t groom before they ride. The trainer at a barn I used to work at would just pull the horse she needed to ride out of its stall and then put her tack on, didn’t even pick feet.
I also hate people who leave their dirty bridles hanging everywhere, and I ESPECIALLY hate people who don’t clean their bits.
LikeLike
There’s a group on Facebook called “sounds like mlm but okay” and it’s pretty much the best thing ever. I have random people sending me their sales pitches all the time – gets real old.
We now have a rule at the barn that if you leave your halter attached to the crosstie you have to find management and do 50 sit ups to get it back. It makes me happy!
LikeLike