Me, I don't like trail riding. It's personal preference. Probably has something to do that when I (6'0+) plus my horse (17 hand creature) go out on trails (only local forest preserve) we eat tree. They maintain the trails as well as they can, but for the most part-I get caught up in the branches. Every. Single. Fucking. Time. Yeah, yeah, you can say "duck" or "go around" but there's only so much I can do about that. Really it's a fun time every once in a blue moon but our trail areas aren't really well maintained to do more than walk/little bit of trotting until you get to the gallop field and just let go.


And:

If a horse is clearly uncared for (not just 'dirty'-dirty horses are happy horses, so long as it's not at a show!) with matted sections of tail/mane, crusty skin, ect. That bugs me. I judge those people.

If I see a person with a smaller-size QH (Not soo bulkymuscle but still very identifiable as a QH) I tend to associate them with a beginner rider. I live in Englishland where the TB reigns supreme. We've got a surplus of track rejects. I like seeing those kids with those QH's because it means that, very likely, the horse is going to be fairly well trained and the kid /beginner isn't overhorsed.

if I see someone under the age of sixteen on a lanky TB, I run like hell. Get the heck out of the arena, leave the track, field-whatever. I'm out. If it's a 'race-type' horse and a younger kid, I am so not there.

I'm kind of the opposite of HP in this following one. If it's just a 'day at the barn' and I know that no one's leaving for shows, has a clinic or a lesson (and it's 90-something degrees out) and they're all strutting around with shinnny boots and their perfectly brushed helmet and TS breeches, I kind of have a laugh (wondering if they're allergic to a little bit of dirt). I'm not against being clean cut and polished, but when it's one of those miserable days and you're not actually doing anything? I don't understand that one, but it's their prerogative.

This one isn't so much based on the horse...but if I see someone with manicured nails at the barn, they are so not serious. Perfect, untainted nailpolish? Even better, the fake nails? On this same track, people who go to the barn with layers of makeup. ????!??!!?!

Annnd bullish, bratty horses. When someone's having trouble leading their horse, or catching their horse-I tend to think that the owner is a bit of a slacker with manners.
But I could just be bitter about that right now, considering a girl at my barn asked me to get her horse for her because she was 'having trouble with him' (Afraid) and I went to get him. His MO was spin&kick. Caught me on the hip. And then when I beat god into him (Yes, smacked the horse's ass with the lead rope for that one, along with a yell.) I got the "You're so meaaaaaannnnn to my wittle ponehfaceehhh! He's so scarreeed nowwwwwww!!!" So. If your horse doesn't have manners that's probably the number one thing in my mind that reflects a poor horseman. Someone who can't be assed to teach their horse how to lead properly (preferably without a chain for day to day endeavors), be taken out of turn out properly, the horses that try to drag you into the stall when you lead them to it, ect.

“There's a lot about discovering who you are and how difficult that is, and it never stops.”
- Libba Bray