@brainmist@pooflady Me three - at a county fair though. Nothing exciting as far as location. Two of us on it and it walked in a circle a couple of times. I was surprised that they were soft as cat fur. I was expecting something more like horse hair.
@brainmist@Kidsandliz@pooflady that is how I did it, but was at Grants Farm here in STL. If you guys are ever in the Lou it is another great and free destination. This one funded by Anheusher Busch, so there is also free beer!!!
@raccoon81 It’s good to know. They do seem to exploit elephants a lot; this was in Thailand and you’d see people leading them around on Bangkok city streets as a way to beg for money.
@Kyeh I rode an elephant with my brother when I was about 8 or 9. Way before I knew it was somewhat cruel. Fond memory though very odd that they just let kids sit on elephants. I’m in red.
@Kyeh i have not. hence the debate with my girlfriend. she’s claiming at least 50.1% of the US population has ridden a horse (not counting children), and i’m claiming at least 50.1% have not. these are the conversations that ensue when we float on a lake all day drinking.
but, it seems the non-riders are being lazy and not posting and letting her win this debate.
Yes. And at one point during a spirited galloping part of the journey the strap going under the horse’s belly securing the saddle broke. The horse stopped immediately, which was probably well advised, but I wasn’t ready for this. So I flipped over his head and landed on my back directly in front of him, my head under his, where he looked down at me and neighed like “huh.”
Yes I also use to Barrel race my horse in rodeos when i was young — a lot of fun back in the good old days
My horse once threw me on the highway when riding him home ( and I have the scar on my chin to prove it- hit my head too but it’s hard so my head was ok course you all might say that debatable ), been kicked , bitten by other horses I have ridden in my lifetime but still love horseback riding!
Yes on the horse. And camel, elephant, pony and as a 3 year old I was positive that a greyhound was a pony and the adults finally allowed me to ride it too. I remember insisting it was a pony over and over (It was taller than I was) and not believing them when they said no it wasn’t, it was a dog.
The elephant was in Cambodia and the camel at a county fair here. While (obviously) I didn’t ride it I got to hold and feed a baby tiger. I was also part of a group that held up a right whale that was being rescued while we were waiting for the aquarium to arrive (that was 3 hours away). It was pregnant and had been hit by a boat (I was working on a tall ship at the time). I was so surprised how soft their skin was. I was expecting scaly. Unfortunately it died, as did its baby, while at the aquarium being taken care of.
@ruouttaurmind@tinamarie1974 That’s amazing with the llama. We had two at the school camp I co-ran. Those suckers mostly spit at people. I’d have hated to see what would have happened if some 5th grader had tried to ride one of them. As it was they killed the barn radio with spit.
@ruouttaurmind gonna have to add that to my list now. I thought I was down to just elephant. Damn…
Oh, I swam/rode on a dolphins back once too. Grabbed his tail fin as he was swimming by and went for a ride. Does that count? It was in the ocean, but it was an organized thing - before anyone thinks I am crazy. Forgot about that
@ruouttaurmind@tinamarie1974 My parents paid for my youngest sister to that (at an aquarium). The rest of us were beyond jealous as we desperately wanted to do that too.
@ruouttaurmind I did the shark thing on the same outing, but beyond holding it and “petting” it I didn’t really touch it, much more observation from an uncomfortable close position. Glad I did it, don’t need to-do it again.
@tinamarie1974 I was diving in Mexico and this curious shark just happened by. It wasn’t an organized shark dive or anything. I had my new Sea & Sea 35mm camera and was trying to take Jaws’ pic, but he kept ducking and dodging. So I grabbed his tail and tried to pull him back into the frame. I guess he didn’t like to be manhandled.
@tinamarie1974 Wouldn’t that have been nice? My reaction was “A shark is trying to eat me!!!” and my response was “Run away!!!”
@Kyeh Nah. It was a wee little thing. Less than 3 feet I’d say. It wasn’t really trying to hurt me I think, just trying to get away from this annoying human thing that had ahold of it. One snap and it was done. Unfortunately it’s teeth got stuck in the neoprene of my wetsuit and it started thrashing to get loose. That’s when I got cut. Dang those teeth are sharp. The worst part of all that? Thanks to ruouttaurmind’s poor life choice, there was now blood in the water. A tiny shark can quickly become a group of not-so-tiny sharks. So I spoiled the dive for everyone. We all had to get back on the boat and that was that for the day. I got a couple stitches in the local clinic, but my diving was done for that trip. The divemaster wouldn’t even let me get back on the boat for the rest of the week for fear of tainting the other divers with my foul scent of death.
@ruouttaurmind@tinamarie1974
A friend of mine used to spend a lot of time at the beach at Port Aransas. He and his girls loved to fish, but his wife was afraid of fish. They finally convinced her to give it a try, and she caught a baby hammerhead shark!!!
They released it, of course, but his wife never picked up a fishing pole again.
@Kyeh The cruel hand of fate hard at work. Should she catch a nice, fat redfish? How about a speckled trout? Nah! Give her a hammerhead and she’ll never come to the seaside again!
@ruouttaurmind Personally I would love a chance to see an actual live baby hammerhead shark, but of course it happened to someone who’s already piscaphobic (is that a word?)
@Kyeh@ruouttaurmind I saw a baby hammerhead this past April in FL. we were at the beach and someone fishing reeled it again. tried to get a pic but was too far away to get a good one. of course, they released it
@Cerridwyn@tinamarie1974 You reminded me. I fed a baby tiger too! One of the hardware stores had someone bring the mama and baby and was charging for going into the cage with the baby (raising money for some charity, I forget). It was mostly kids in there and the owner asked me if I’d hold it while he went to the rest room. So I did. It fell asleep in my lap for about 45 min. Size of a full grown cat but with a bigger head. When I got home my cats went nuts. I finally took off all my clothes, but them on the floor, and the cats checked them out for about 3 hours. Who knows what corner of their little brains were awakened by that. I had never seen them so interested in something before that or since.
Looking back at it now it was probably a mean thing to do - separating the baby from its mama (mama was in a cage where she could see her baby). I was much younger at the time and was only thinking about how cool it was to have a sleeping baby tiger in my lap.
Yes. Twice. Memorably, the second time involved being on a night ride in intermittent light rain (and therefore without a saddle) in foothill terrain aboard a mount that got spooked and decided it wanted to go home via the most direct route, really fast, right now. This became a downhill gallop bareback in the dark through scrub trees. I stayed on, got the horse stopped, and let it munch on thistle blooms while one of the stable’s riders came and found me.
I have never had the urge to get on a horse again.
@f00l I agree. The stable that was providing the horses and tack for the ride didn’t want to have to spend the time properly drying off and oiling 20+ saddles after the ride, since this was outside their usual operating hours. Worse, that particular mount should not have been out of the paddock in any event; she had an open sore on her lower jaw from a recent bout with distemper, and the reason she bolted was that we ran into a bunch of flies on the trail. It was altogether not a fun evening, cut short after a bit more “excitement” than had been promised.
Well that idiot stable was risking serious injury or death to one more more of the riders and one more of the horses by pulling that kind of a stunt in the rain on a night ride when you have no idea how Experience the riders are and at least one of the horses shouldn’t be in service
Especially you don’t send out inexperienced riders or possibly inexperienced riders at night in the rain without accompaniment anyway let alone without saddles
You don’t have to oil the saddles down every time if you have to dry them off and if you take care of them properly and oil pretty frequently
they don’t all have to be oiled every single time unless they get really really soaked
If a stable didn’t want to provide a safe ride for you they should simply should’ve refused the business
I’d say you’re lucky to be alive and they’re lucky that that wasn’t their last night of business ever
Yup grew up riding horses, roping cows, and doing all that cowboy stuff. It’s been a while since I last rode and I’m really starting to miss it. Good times.
Yes. One of my uncles had a farm, another cousin did a lot of show riding (and therefore had access to several horses at the practice arena). So 2-3 times a summer growing up, until college required a full-time job.
Only a few times as a grown-up, but I was comfortable. I’d love to ride more.
@ExtraMedium I used to work in the Lake District for Outward Bound. Now that you mention it I remember we used to see some people out for rides on horses on the side of some of the road. Never saw horses in the mountains there though or horse poop. I also worked for them on Loch Eil (by Ben Nevis/Fort William). Where in Scotland were you?
@Kidsandliz That trip I spent two days in Edinburgh and then passed through Glasgow on my way out. I lived in the UK for 3 years, but that was a vacation trip back in 2018 so I was just traveling the country in general.
Yes. I used to have a jet black Tennessee Walker. Smoothest ride of any other horse I ever rode. I took English riding lessons for a while but never mastered that style.
I’d swear I posted a reply here late yesterday (early this morning) but apparently not…
Yes… did trail rides with my daughters several times in upstate NY while on vacation. Was cool but not anything I found especially fun. Daughter unit one really loved riding and she got quite a bit more saddle time on future outings.
I’m pretty sure I did long ago in a part of my childhood that’s so distant I doubt my memory of it. We have cousins who are genuine country. Growing up they always lived uber rural (sometimes practically wilderness), with assorted livestock and often without plumbing or reliable utilities. At one point they had horses. No dressage or any fancy shit, but we trotted along. I remember it being scary, thinking I was gonna fall off. And of course my older siblings and cousins were always talking about getting kicked or bit.
Other memories of time with these cousins of which I am quite certain:
pooping in a box
flushing a toilet with a bucket
having to get water (for anything) from a pump in the front yard
plucking chickens for dinner (having watched my aunt swing them around so they got dizzy and then hacking them off at the neck)
regularly using concentrated OJ containers for cups
baling hay
horse flies the size of your thumb
It makes sense that they didn’t have the horses for long. They always got by, but were poor and very country. Those cousins seem to be doing well for themselves these days though, making decent money and whatnot. Thing about them is they got skills, especially when it comes to growing and killing things and blowin’ shit up and fixin’ shit that’s broke.
Yes. Share? I am not buzzed but would like to be
Yes. Also a camel.
@brainmist Me, too.
@brainmist @pooflady Me three - at a county fair though. Nothing exciting as far as location. Two of us on it and it walked in a circle a couple of times. I was surprised that they were soft as cat fur. I was expecting something more like horse hair.
@brainmist @Kidsandliz I was in Israel. It was the camel getting up and down that was scary.
@brainmist @pooflady at the fairgrounds we stood on a platform so the camel didn’t get up or down.
@brainmist @Kidsandliz @pooflady that is how I did it, but was at Grants Farm here in STL. If you guys are ever in the Lou it is another great and free destination. This one funded by Anheusher Busch, so there is also free beer!!!
Yes. Also an elephant.
@Kyeh Learned it isn’t cool to ride elephants so just went to sanctuary with them.
Supposedly something about their structure doesn’t support like a horse does. Has the strength but hurts them quickly.
@raccoon81
Didn’t know that! It was a lovely ride…
@Kyeh sorry, wasn’t trying to upset you. So many have no idea so just giving for others to learn.
@raccoon81 It’s good to know. They do seem to exploit elephants a lot; this was in Thailand and you’d see people leading them around on Bangkok city streets as a way to beg for money.
@Kyeh I rode an elephant with my brother when I was about 8 or 9. Way before I knew it was somewhat cruel. Fond memory though very odd that they just let kids sit on elephants. I’m in red.
@ExtraMedium Maybe since you were little kids it wasn’t that bad for the elephant?
Was that here in the US?
@ExtraMedium @Kyeh I can remember riding an elephant at the Knoxville zoo when I was a kid. It was the 80s though, so at least we weren’t doing coke
@capguncowboy @Kyeh I might have been. Also in the 80s but you can tell from the red Membership Only jacket that I was selling something on the side.
Yes
Yes
Yes. Also a camel. But not an elephant because I’m scared of heights.
Yes, plus camel, elephant and yak.
Yes
And have done so when a bit buzzed.
Yes.
Horse, pony, donkey, sheep, pig, elephant and giraffe!
Oh and, of course, the family dog.
Yes, when I was a young child. Then a horse fly bit me and it really hurt and I never got back on a horse. Ever.
Yes
Horse, elephant, donkey, pony, and mechanical bull (but not a real one).
A horse, a donkey, and a camel. Not all at the same time and by the way what are you drinking?
@tinamarie1974
And @Carl669, have you ridden a horse?
@Kyeh @tinamarie1974 I haven’t and was wondering if there were more that hadn’t than those that had.
@carl669 @tinamarie1974 Looks like the ones who haven’t aren’t bothering to weigh in. Maybe a poll would work better.
@Kyeh i have not. hence the debate with my girlfriend. she’s claiming at least 50.1% of the US population has ridden a horse (not counting children), and i’m claiming at least 50.1% have not. these are the conversations that ensue when we float on a lake all day drinking.
but, it seems the non-riders are being lazy and not posting and letting her win this debate.
@carl669 I see. Instead it’s become a “how many different kinds of animals have you ridden” thread.
@carl669 @Kyeh maybe change the poll to how many people have never ridden a horse?
@carl669 @Kyeh
When I was a child, the “yes” count would have won, easily.
Now, I strongly suspect “no” is accurate for the US population, either just adults, or everyone.
And I live in “horse country”. Even here, I suspect it’s really “no”.
Next:. How many of the adult population have floated in a lake, river, pool, or ocean, while buzzed?
Tell your girlfriend to get more buzzed.
Set a solid example for her. Demonstrate the required skillset and commitment level.
And now, back to the “fuck count”
/giphy fuck!
@carl669 @f00l @Kyeh only buzzed or does fall down drunk count? Gin and juice buckets can do a number on ya!!!
@carl669 @Kyeh @tinamarie1974
That counts, esp since you have to get buzzed along the way there.
/giphy buzzed
Yes. And at one point during a spirited galloping part of the journey the strap going under the horse’s belly securing the saddle broke. The horse stopped immediately, which was probably well advised, but I wasn’t ready for this. So I flipped over his head and landed on my back directly in front of him, my head under his, where he looked down at me and neighed like “huh.”
That was it for me and horses.
@djslack
Glad you weren’t badly hurt. A gallop that includes a breaking girthstrap is way way dangerous.
Yes I also use to Barrel race my horse in rodeos when i was young — a lot of fun back in the good old days
My horse once threw me on the highway when riding him home ( and I have the scar on my chin to prove it- hit my head too but it’s hard so my head was ok course you all might say that debatable ), been kicked , bitten by other horses I have ridden in my lifetime but still love horseback riding!
Yes on the horse. And camel, elephant, pony and as a 3 year old I was positive that a greyhound was a pony and the adults finally allowed me to ride it too. I remember insisting it was a pony over and over (It was taller than I was) and not believing them when they said no it wasn’t, it was a dog.
The elephant was in Cambodia and the camel at a county fair here. While (obviously) I didn’t ride it I got to hold and feed a baby tiger. I was also part of a group that held up a right whale that was being rescued while we were waiting for the aquarium to arrive (that was 3 hours away). It was pregnant and had been hit by a boat (I was working on a tall ship at the time). I was so surprised how soft their skin was. I was expecting scaly. Unfortunately it died, as did its baby, while at the aquarium being taken care of.
Yup. Nothing competitively. My sister rode English then Rodeo style. I just rode on the trails around her farm. Nothing flashy, but still fun!
where my haven’t ridden a horse people at? y’all can play too
@carl669 maybe they aren’t posting because they don’t like to horse around?
No.
And I live in Kentucky, where it seems like everybody has ridden a horse. Or has a horse. Or knows someone who has a horse.
Yes. Used to work at a guest ranch.
Yes. Also a llama.
@ruouttaurmind I didn’t know one could ride a llama!!!
@ruouttaurmind @tinamarie1974 That’s amazing with the llama. We had two at the school camp I co-ran. Those suckers mostly spit at people. I’d have hated to see what would have happened if some 5th grader had tried to ride one of them. As it was they killed the barn radio with spit.
@tinamarie1974
@ruouttaurmind gonna have to add that to my list now. I thought I was down to just elephant. Damn…
Oh, I swam/rode on a dolphins back once too. Grabbed his tail fin as he was swimming by and went for a ride. Does that count? It was in the ocean, but it was an organized thing - before anyone thinks I am crazy. Forgot about that
@ruouttaurmind @tinamarie1974 My parents paid for my youngest sister to that (at an aquarium). The rest of us were beyond jealous as we desperately wanted to do that too.
@tinamarie1974 I swam with a shark once. I grabbed it’s tail fin and it most definitely did not give me a lift. Instead it tried to eat me.
@ruouttaurmind I did the shark thing on the same outing, but beyond holding it and “petting” it I didn’t really touch it, much more observation from an uncomfortable close position. Glad I did it, don’t need to-do it again.
How about you, did you enjoy it?
@tinamarie1974 I was diving in Mexico and this curious shark just happened by. It wasn’t an organized shark dive or anything. I had my new Sea & Sea 35mm camera and was trying to take Jaws’ pic, but he kept ducking and dodging. So I grabbed his tail and tried to pull him back into the frame. I guess he didn’t like to be manhandled.
@ruouttaurmind @tinamarie1974
Yikes! You live dangerously!
@Kyeh @ruouttaurmind OMG that is terrifying and fantastic all at once. Did you get the pic?
@tinamarie1974 Wouldn’t that have been nice? My reaction was “A shark is trying to eat me!!!” and my response was “Run away!!!”
@Kyeh Nah. It was a wee little thing. Less than 3 feet I’d say. It wasn’t really trying to hurt me I think, just trying to get away from this annoying human thing that had ahold of it. One snap and it was done. Unfortunately it’s teeth got stuck in the neoprene of my wetsuit and it started thrashing to get loose. That’s when I got cut. Dang those teeth are sharp. The worst part of all that? Thanks to ruouttaurmind’s poor life choice, there was now blood in the water. A tiny shark can quickly become a group of not-so-tiny sharks. So I spoiled the dive for everyone. We all had to get back on the boat and that was that for the day. I got a couple stitches in the local clinic, but my diving was done for that trip. The divemaster wouldn’t even let me get back on the boat for the rest of the week for fear of tainting the other divers with my foul scent of death.
@Kyeh @ruouttaurmind Uh, yeah…run away was a good choice. Glad you didn’t get too badly hurt!!
@ruouttaurmind @tinamarie1974 Yikes!!!
Yes, very glad you weren’t badly hurt, but too bad you didn’t even get to have a photo to show for it!
@ruouttaurmind @tinamarie1974
A friend of mine used to spend a lot of time at the beach at Port Aransas. He and his girls loved to fish, but his wife was afraid of fish. They finally convinced her to give it a try, and she caught a baby hammerhead shark!!!
They released it, of course, but his wife never picked up a fishing pole again.
@Kyeh The cruel hand of fate hard at work. Should she catch a nice, fat redfish? How about a speckled trout? Nah! Give her a hammerhead and she’ll never come to the seaside again!
@ruouttaurmind Personally I would love a chance to see an actual live baby hammerhead shark, but of course it happened to someone who’s already piscaphobic (is that a word?)
@Kyeh Very close. It’s ichthyophobic. And I have no idea how I know that.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@ruouttaurmind Oh, thanks! Well, being into diving, maybe?
@Kyeh @ruouttaurmind I saw a baby hammerhead this past April in FL. we were at the beach and someone fishing reeled it again. tried to get a pic but was too far away to get a good one. of course, they released it
@carl669 @ruouttaurmind How cool. They’re just so wonderfully weird-looking!
Yes and she was begging for it.
What’s that?
Oh! Horse. That would be no.
Yes, and I have petting a young tiger (Hollyweird tiger)- it knocked me on my arse.
@Cerridwyn I bottle fed a baby tiger once!!!
@Cerridwyn @tinamarie1974 You reminded me. I fed a baby tiger too! One of the hardware stores had someone bring the mama and baby and was charging for going into the cage with the baby (raising money for some charity, I forget). It was mostly kids in there and the owner asked me if I’d hold it while he went to the rest room. So I did. It fell asleep in my lap for about 45 min. Size of a full grown cat but with a bigger head. When I got home my cats went nuts. I finally took off all my clothes, but them on the floor, and the cats checked them out for about 3 hours. Who knows what corner of their little brains were awakened by that. I had never seen them so interested in something before that or since.
Looking back at it now it was probably a mean thing to do - separating the baby from its mama (mama was in a cage where she could see her baby). I was much younger at the time and was only thinking about how cool it was to have a sleeping baby tiger in my lap.
Yes. Twice. Memorably, the second time involved being on a night ride in intermittent light rain (and therefore without a saddle) in foothill terrain aboard a mount that got spooked and decided it wanted to go home via the most direct route, really fast, right now. This became a downhill gallop bareback in the dark through scrub trees. I stayed on, got the horse stopped, and let it munch on thistle blooms while one of the stable’s riders came and found me.
I have never had the urge to get on a horse again.
@werehatrack
What does rain have to do w not using a saddle?
Saddles are tanned leather. They are designed to last for decades whule being used in all weathers. Mine did.
I fear someone let you go out in dangerous circumstances. Whoever decided on “non-saddle” was out of line and incredibly irresponsible.
@f00l I agree. The stable that was providing the horses and tack for the ride didn’t want to have to spend the time properly drying off and oiling 20+ saddles after the ride, since this was outside their usual operating hours. Worse, that particular mount should not have been out of the paddock in any event; she had an open sore on her lower jaw from a recent bout with distemper, and the reason she bolted was that we ran into a bunch of flies on the trail. It was altogether not a fun evening, cut short after a bit more “excitement” than had been promised.
@werehatrack
Well that idiot stable was risking serious injury or death to one more more of the riders and one more of the horses by pulling that kind of a stunt in the rain on a night ride when you have no idea how Experience the riders are and at least one of the horses shouldn’t be in service
Especially you don’t send out inexperienced riders or possibly inexperienced riders at night in the rain without accompaniment anyway let alone without saddles
You don’t have to oil the saddles down every time if you have to dry them off and if you take care of them properly and oil pretty frequently
they don’t all have to be oiled every single time unless they get really really soaked
If a stable didn’t want to provide a safe ride for you they should simply should’ve refused the business
I’d say you’re lucky to be alive and they’re lucky that that wasn’t their last night of business ever
Yup
grew up riding horses, roping cows, and doing all that cowboy stuff. It’s been a while since I last rode and I’m really starting to miss it. Good times.
Yes. One of my uncles had a farm, another cousin did a lot of show riding (and therefore had access to several horses at the practice arena). So 2-3 times a summer growing up, until college required a full-time job.
Only a few times as a grown-up, but I was comfortable. I’d love to ride more.
Yep. A few times. Once in the Lake District, UK while passing through from Scotland headed down to Liverpool. Good memories of the adventuring days.
@ExtraMedium I used to work in the Lake District for Outward Bound. Now that you mention it I remember we used to see some people out for rides on horses on the side of some of the road. Never saw horses in the mountains there though or horse poop. I also worked for them on Loch Eil (by Ben Nevis/Fort William). Where in Scotland were you?
@Kidsandliz That trip I spent two days in Edinburgh and then passed through Glasgow on my way out. I lived in the UK for 3 years, but that was a vacation trip back in 2018 so I was just traveling the country in general.
Only if you count sitting on it’s back while someone leads it up and down the street.
Yes, several times while on vacation in upstate NY with my daughters.
Yes. I used to have a jet black Tennessee Walker. Smoothest ride of any other horse I ever rode. I took English riding lessons for a while but never mastered that style.
Yes. As a kid at camp and when visiting relatives. Don’t remember much about it.
Yes, but only for one week-end at a Scout trail pack camp.
Spent a lot more time on my iron horse.
I’d swear I posted a reply here late yesterday (early this morning) but apparently not…
Yes… did trail rides with my daughters several times in upstate NY while on vacation. Was cool but not anything I found especially fun. Daughter unit one really loved riding and she got quite a bit more saddle time on future outings.
I’m pretty sure I did long ago in a part of my childhood that’s so distant I doubt my memory of it. We have cousins who are genuine country. Growing up they always lived uber rural (sometimes practically wilderness), with assorted livestock and often without plumbing or reliable utilities. At one point they had horses. No dressage or any fancy shit, but we trotted along. I remember it being scary, thinking I was gonna fall off. And of course my older siblings and cousins were always talking about getting kicked or bit.
Other memories of time with these cousins of which I am quite certain:
It makes sense that they didn’t have the horses for long. They always got by, but were poor and very country. Those cousins seem to be doing well for themselves these days though, making decent money and whatnot. Thing about them is they got skills, especially when it comes to growing and killing things and blowin’ shit up and fixin’ shit that’s broke.
Yes! And, I want to again! And, Horse Lovers need to watch Heartland if you haven’t already.