Where I come from, it's cold..
When this incident took place it was winter, the kind of winter that us, who live in the Benelux area, normally can only dream about. The outside temperature clocked in on some -10°C.
Where I originally come from the winters are normally quite rough. In the winters, when I was a kid, we were often still riding our ponies when it was -15°C degrees and below. We never hesitated.
The only thing that may had been an indicator of the cold and frosty weather was that we often rode bare back. Plus the ponies that had shoes were also prepared for the task using good old fashioned winter studs.
As a young adult and still having some kind of aspiration of some kind of a show jumping and eventing career I normally used 6 studs in the front shoes and 4 in the back.
An idea that originated from my many hours spent in standard bred horse racing stables when growing up.
Today when sitting inside in a warm house with the snow falling outside I started to think about those fun cold days far up in northern Europe. I also came to think about an "incident" that happened down here in the Benelux a couple of years back.
When this incident took place it was winter, the kind of winter that us, who live in the Benelux area, normally can only dream about. The outside temperature clocked in on some -10°C.
That is when it happened. Cause this was the moment when all the [self acclaimed] experts on horses in winter conditions surfaced. One of them was a girl I randomly would refer to as an acquaintance.
She came with the, according to her expertise, rock solid truth that one cannot train horses when it is -10°C and below. Since this would make the horses lungs to freeze up. With the lungs freezing, the horses would drop dead.
Oh dear!
At this point I made one of my very few exceptions to the rule to 'never ever engage in discussions on social media' and tried to explain to her, and others, that horse racing in North America, Scandinavia and even Russia is an ongoing feature even when the mercury hits -25°C.
Buy Me a Coffee
Stallet is a stand alone and independent publication. As such it cost both time and money to keep it afloat. Please consider a smaller contribution by buying a cup of coffee or two. You can explore your options by clicking the Buy Me a Coffee button below
Come again what?
Another of the self acclaimed experts was an actual equestrian professional who was working as a farrier for one of the world's greatest team of riders. This man was dead sure the legs of the horses would shatter when riding them in basically any temperature below +/-0°C.
At this point I was no longer sure what was worse.
Cause on one side there was this, I presume, educated equestrian professional, claiming the horses legs will shatter if one ride, train, work them or whatever in temperatures below +/-0°C. Who had also been published in an actual equestrian magazine claiming this [to him] absolute [bonkers] truth.
On the other side there were now an army of believers, as in people seriously believing this was true!!!
Needless to say I didn't bother to even make a comment in the comment section on this total nonsense. No good would ever had come out of it.
Even worse, these kind of stories are not at all uncommon in the world of horses and equestrian sport. They come from all kinds of places. The past week I've seen things and posts on Instagram [the only social media I attend] that made my neck hair stand out.
In one case an event organisation put a photo with a safety issue that would scare the pants out of most horse people I know.
In another, a former top rider, bragged about a horse that supposedly just stepped off a plane and won a class with a new rider. No acclimatisation what so ever.
Do you also have any weird experiences? Please feel to share your story in the comment section below 👇🏻
