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 There is a situation at the stable where I board that
I'd like your opinions on.  There are two teenaged girls
whose idea of 'riding' is bombing around at a dead gallop,
and jumping.  They usually do their galloping in whichever of
the two pastures is not being used in the grazing rotation. 
They go to the far end of the field and gallop back to the gate.
Frequently by the time they reach the gate, the horses are
compeletely out of control and only the fence stops them.  I've
suggested to them on more than one occasion that by ALWAYS
galloping BACK to the gate they are teaching their horses to be
run-aways, but they continue to do this... again and again and
again.  One of the horses, a lovely saddlebred, gets sick of
this game after awhile and starts rearing to refuse (I once saw
him try to crawl UNDER the gate to avoid this game).  One of the
two girls is my next-door neighbor.  I have seen her get dumped
more than once - she is riding WAY beyond her ability.  Her
parents just bought her an OTTB that was about 200 hundred
pounds under weight - spine sticks up, every rib shows.  She
cowboyed and jumped that poor mare so much she wore a nice huge
fistula in her withers (instead of backing off when she saw the
saddle sore forming she just put on another saddle pad).  Vet
said 'no riding for a month', so now she's running the pants off
the other girl's 20-year-old-pony, who is probably not being
done any favors by being ridden this hard (these girls will do
this literally for hours).  When they aren't galloping the
fields, they are in the ring jumping... and jumping, and
jumping....   Last weekend, after blasting around the fields for
a few hours, they went into the ring and started jumping  while
another girl was trying to teach a private lesson.  After
watching them goof around and get in the way of the lesson for
awhile I finally suggested to them that since they have all day
and 20 acres to ride in, it would only be polite to leave the
ring until the lesson is over.  They said 'they can't control
their horses outside the ring'.  I said that is not surprising
since all they do is gallop and maybe they should work on
keeping their horses under control instead of racing, to which
they gave a smart-ass reply.

Many people have complained to the owner of the farm but I don't
think he's said or done anything.  Should I say something to the
parents (my neighbors)?  I'm sure my neighbors don't know their
daughter has fallen off (twice that I've seen), or that she is
riding unsafely... or do I just mind my own business?  I don't
know her parents especially well though they live right next
door.  There is no talking to the girls - they think they
invented horses.  I hate to see anyone get hurt, and they are
putting others at risk.  I remember being a kid and goofing
around with horses and doing things that in hind-sight are
pretty stupid, so I'd be willing to cut them a little slack, but
they have so little regard for their horses that it is
sickening, as well as dangerous.  If I were a parent, I'd want
to hear about it if my kids were risking themselves and
others...

thoughts?

(PS one thought I had is to post this email, and your responses,
where they can read it!)

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One would think that logic would prevail. But then, if logic did prevail,
men would ride sidesaddle. 
~  Bob Morris

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