This is a memory that comes randomly in my mind from time to time and I often wonder who was wrong in this situation.
I was at a horse show where the parking situation for trailers was a VERY large open field and cars were to park in a designated grass area with the cement parking spots. Naturally, people being lazy parked their cars with their horse trailers (my mom also being guilty of this due to my tack and things being in her car). On days where there were more people competing, trailer parking would be tight- but never so much so that enough space couldn’t be left between trailers. There was also a dirt road between the arenas and parking where cars were always actively driving through or other riders were riding on.
My riding instructor and I parked our trailer first and a good distance away from the other trailer who was initially there. We had my horse on the left side with seating and his hay bale, plus my mom’s car. Another trailer pulls up next to us on our right and doesn’t leave enough room for two horses to coexist safely (using for a what if I had two horses, one on each side kind of scenario). They then tie two horses, one with a red ribbon (the universal sign for a kicker-I knew this ) and another horse on their left, our right side of their trailer.
Due to a lack of space on our left side to mount and the dirt road way being always busy, I mounted on the right side of our trailer with the mounting block a safe distance away (but still somewhat close) from the other two horses. My horse was not cooperating and kept trying to move forward (towards the two horses), would not reverse no matter how much I gave the command to with my legs, seat and reins (which at this rate was like ripping my horse’s face off- which I didn’t want to do) or circle around the mounting block. He normally does not struggle with this so idk why this particular day was a problem. Either way, it got to the point where we were essentially “stalling” behind/near kicking distance of the kicking horse. My options were: try to reverse but due to my horse’s lack of cooperation be stuck too close to this horse that kicks for a prolonged time OR just move forward, briefly behind the horse that kicks and glued to our trailer’s side and hope nothing happens. I chose to very quickly move forward and glue ourselves to our trailer’s side to create distance and pray nothing happens. Nothing did happen and the horse showed no indication of kicking (not that I wasn’t nervous or trying to take the ribbon likely).
The owner of the horse then comes around the trailer YELLING at me that her horse kicks and that I was being stupid for walking that close. I bit my tongue from saying “well then maybe don’t park so close to another trailer if your horse kicks”.
AITA for walking behind the horse despite the owner’s lack of spacial courtesy?
I mean… you’re only putting yourself/your horse in danger at that point. It sounds like they had a lot of space to park and chose not only to park too close to you but also to put the kicking horse in a too-small space between trailers, which is on them, but also why didn’t you say anything before moving your horse closer to them? I’m not super knowledgeable about horse etiquette but this feels like an unsafe situation that could have been avoided on both sides. So I guess it’s an ESH.
I mean you could have simply asked them “hey I see you have a horse that kicks, so do you mind giving me more space to come out”, before trying to mount your horse.
ESH since neither of you thought ahead.
ESH, because this could have been easily remedied:
>Due to a lack of space on our left side to mount
But you had enough room on your left for your mom to park her car, as well as setting up seating and his hay bale:
>We had my horse on the left side with seating and his hay bale, plus my mom’s car
What you **should** have done, if you didn’t want to compromise/talk to the other horse owner, was pack up the hay bale, the seating, have your mom drop off the tack and ***move her car***, and then mount your horse on the **left**.
You made a decision that could have gone bad. Luckily it didn’t. So it’s up to you to keep your animals safe. Kind of YTA
NTA you did what you could to keep your horse safe given the situation
What would you have done if you or your horse got kicked? I bet you would have complained to the other horse owner and tried to get them to pay for your bills. YTA.
Idc how crowded things are, you CAN lead your horse somewhere safer to mount than under a strange kicking horse’s ass. Or ANY unknown horse’s ass. That wouldn’t have even occurred to me as an option, especially if your horse is Having A Moment. You can’t control your own horse, why are you dragging someone else’s into it?