In fifty some odd years of being involved in horses, the one thing I’ve learned is that the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.

Everything to do with horses is a different category to be learned.  From feeding, to breeding, to handling, to different disciplines, to various tack and training items, they are all like a diamond with different fascists.

So I’m on Facebook the other day and a friend, who is a knowledgeable horsewoman and horse business woman, is ranting about some group that is critiquing pictures of people and their horses.  From what they were saying, they didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.  Some of the pictures were taken out of context.  What really put her over the edge was that these people had gone to other people’s Facebook pages and taken pictures from them without their permission and criticizing their abilities.  A beautiful picture of a professional barrel racer was criticized for how low to the ground the horse was turning a barrel.  A picture of a horse with his ears turned back to listen to his rider was criticized that the horse must be in pain.  No wonder my friend was so irate.

What is wrong with people?  Who do they think they are just taking people’s private pictures and making an issue on social media without asking?  What makes these people think they have even a clue as to what they are talking about?  Don’t they realize they are opening themselves up for legal actions?  This site is not monitored by any knowledgeable, responsible horse person.  However, people are going to buy into this nonsense.  It is ruining some of the accused people’s reputations.  I think they call that slander.

I know that Equus used to have a section where people sent in their pictures and George Morris used to make professional comments about their form, tack, turn out, horses ability, and suitability of horse to rider.  But the people did this knowingly, to a person who was the best in the business.  Even then, Mr. Morris would always say something like “from what I can see in this picture.”  He knew that without actually being there, knowing the full story of the horse or the person, sometimes what you see is not what it really is.

Professionals know not to volunteer information unless you are asked and usually paid to do so.

What I can say to these people is “Your ignorance is showing, and you are opening yourself up for a lawsuit.”

Oh my, stupidity runs rampant these days.