Okay so I'm not going to say any names, but if you've been leaving negative comments on my posts in r/horses, you know exactly who you are.
I'd like to clarify that I love horses. They're the only reason I'm sane. Horses have repeatedly saved my life. I care about horses a lot and I would never put one in danger. I'm sorry if I somehow came off that way. I would never hurt a horse. For fuck's sake, I owned horses that came from slaughterhouses and abusive homes for almost nine years, half of which were retrained by my family and given to loving homes, do you REALLY think I would hurt a horse?
I'd also like to say that I'm close friends with the people who own Oberon. My family is close friends with them as well. I've been riding there and taking care of their horses for them as much as I possibly can for two years, even though when I had given them my horse, I had no intention of ever getting back in the saddle. Not once have they ever said anything bad about me. I've never been yelled at by them for anything. The whole bitless thing wasn't a big deal at all. The owners don't mind if I ride bitless while I'm working with the horses in the pasture as long as I'm using a bit on the trail. They were not upset with me or my friend, who was also riding bitless on the trail with me. I even asked them if they were upset with us and they said no.
Another thing I would like to point out is the saddle in the trailer in the picture I posted of Obi earlier. That is not my saddle. I didn't even put that saddle there. That saddle has been there for months. Neither I nor my friend have touched it. I'd also like to say that that trailer is full of stuff that barely fits in there. There's two saddles per rack, and two or three bridles per hook. There are so many girths and saddle pads on the floor that you can barely see it. Where are we supposed to put a saddle when the floor is covered in tack, and all of the saddle racks are full? Please tell me, I'd love to hear some suggestions so I can go tell the owners that reddit said to do this or that. While we'd love to clean out the trailer for them, we don't really have anywhere to put the tack we don't use because there's no tack room and their garage is full of other various unused tack and harnesses and a carriage and all sorts of other horse stuff. So what can you do?
But keep in mind, me and my friend aren't the only ones who ride. The owners ride when they can, and their horses are ridden by kids with mental disabilities on weekends (my friend and I have nothing to do with the therapy lessons) So sometimes tack gets mixed up, thrown around, or misplaced by the people at the therapy barn. I have absolutely no control over that because I'm not involved.
And speaking of therapy, someone brought this to my attention:
I mentioned Obi being green, and that's true. Yet they use him for therapy despite being green. A green horse does not necessarily equate to being a batshit crazy bucking bronco. Obi is a calm, laid back, and friendly horse. He doesn't spook easily and nothing really seems to bother him, which is why they use him for therapy. Had he been the kind of green that involved acting like a batshit crazy bucking bronco, they would not have used him.
Honestly this has gotten to the point where I wanted to just quit. If I'm going to ride and get this much negativity and hate for it, why should I even bother anymore?
