And another one....Kids and Whips!!!

[Teej]

My daughter was quite upset the other day as she saw a child whipping a pony. Her Mum wasn't there when it happened but she appreciated us telling her. What upset her is that she has no idea where her daughter could have seen this sort of behaviour towards horses. Kids are often aggressive towards horses.

[Loony]

:( Poor pony. Thats absolutely horrible. Hopefully her mum will nip it in the bud! At that age though I don't think they really understand what they're doing.

[XenaWarriorPrincess]

:( Thats awful!

[black crow]

Poor thing!!

I've seen SO many kids leather their ponies at yards and shows, and most of the time no one stops them. It's just.. appauling!

[fougere]

Horrid, horrid child. I'd feel like telling the rescuers of the pony and get it taken away from the little brat.

[Pirouette]

Poor pony :( I don't understand why child that age is even carrying a whip.

[fairyfeet]

Kids should not even have a whip in their hands, and especially when the responsible adult is not there! I'd have sent the pony back if my child had done that!
Poor pony

[torgrosset]

OMG this is appauling!

I'm lucky in that I keep my ponies at my parents, so never have to deal with other people, however, even though I'm at my parents where the ponies are concerned my children are NEVER allowed on there own near a pony. Even the most placid of ponies (aka Bertie) can all of a sudden decide to do something out of character. It's just too dangerous. Children are also unpredicatable and have the concentraction span of one minute per year of their age, so even if you tell a child not to do something chances are they've forgotten within a short space of time (or is that just my kids??? lol) Anyway, it's very irresponsible of the mother to leave her child unattended with a pony, whether it be mounted or on the ground. This doesn't excuse the behaviour of the child, however to be fair at the child's age they probably don't know any better (again not an excuse, but probably true). The yard should have some policies and rules in place where children under a certain age must never be left alone. It is simply an accident just waiting to happen.

ETA: I've just re-read that - OMG you can tell I'm a pre-school teacher lol!!!

[julied]

How awful in a child so young. Some children don't appreciate how lucky they are to have a pony when there are so many that would love and treat a pony well if they were lucky enough to have one. I was at a show recently and one of the children (7) who is in my daughters mounted games team screamed at his pony in a gymkhana game for not standing still to put a flag in a cone and was going to beat him with the flag! the games official told him off and the Mum did nothing because I was told if she does he gets worse! I would never forgive my daugher if she behaved like that, never mind the embarrassment in front of all the other people.

[Lucy B]

It is just so awful when you see anyone let alone a young child hitting a pony/horse with a whip over and over again. I recent years i have become more involved with natural horsemanship and it has opened my eyes to how awful some people are to their ponies especcially at shows!
I find it pretty upsetting.

[My Crazy Clan]

****** kids, if my sisters do anything like that, they get taken away and are banned! they have only done it twice when they were really young, not whipping though!

There is a girl here, fab riding, I was going to ask her to ride jester but she is whip happy and I do not use whips on any of them, shes doesn't listen either, its a shame she could have gone far.

[beks the artist]

The child should be banded from seeing the horses for a good month or so until she realises that is not acceptable behavour! Poor horse! xx

[beenie]

thats disgusting! If Shannon did that id ban her from Jake and id find him a new home!! Shannon isnt allowed to go do anything with Jake on her own i am always there and she would never whip him like that anyways!!

[piccolo]

Thats terrible. Today i was watching my freind ride and a girl was trying to do some fancy dressage moves in the arena. She was telling it off with the schooling whip when they were trying to rein back. You don't hit a horse if it's confused and not with a schooling whip! Tbh though she wasn't hitting him hard or even "mediumly" but i think its the attitude towards whipping that gets on my nerves.

I'm 13 and i carry a whip most times i ride but i have been riding for a fair amount of time and have been taught how to use one. I mean i wouldn't give a whip to a begginer adult JUST because the were adults.

[naurarwen]

I've seen this a few times now at the yard I'm on but more when the kids are actually riding the loan ponies. One got it into her head that she was meant to kick the pony on three times with her legs then whack him with the whip, then repeat the process till she got him to the desired speed. I tried to explain to her that, that definately wasn't what you did and promptly took the whip of her whilst trying my hardest not to want to whack her round the head with it and see how she likes it.

I sadly (for them) have no tolerance for kids, or even adults who use whips excessively.