Thursday, January 19, 2012

How to Look Ignorant

Put your kid on a suckling foal. Yeah. Sure makes you look educated there.

Seriously though, these images are from a Horse Day Camp. It's nearly a game, looking at these pictures. "How many things can we find wrong?"

Not only do these kids have no SHOES or HELMETS, they are sitting on BABIES.

Does that even begin to sound healthy or safe for the foal? Their immature bones are not made to bear weight. Will it harm the foal? No way to know until later in life, when damage done to growing tissue and bone starts to show up.

Some might say, ah well, it's harmless fun, just sitting on the foal's back for a second. Surely it can't hurt.

You know what? Go take your toddler and put a high schooler's backpack on him. Still sound harmless? Didn't think so. Stop it. Stop putting your children on foals.

Every time I see an image like this one, I think, "Wow, that parent must really not like their child." Horses are dangerous. All it takes is a sudden movement, and a little unbalanced child to slip off and smash it's little head on the rocks. Then everyone is up in arms about "Ohhhh what a horrible accident!"

No it wasn't. Put some damned shoes and a helmet on your child. Put your child on a been there done that horse if you must. The last thing you should be doing is putting your child on a foal who doesn't understand what the heck is going on. Just like small children are wriggly, a young foal is going to wriggle and fuss, and all it takes is that one moment.


Stop it. It's not cool. It's not fun. It's dangerous and damaging. Posting a picture of your weanling for sale with a kid hanging onto its back does NOT make me want to buy your weanling. It makes me see "damaged goods" and move on.

Just please. Stop.

1 comment:

  1. Where are the owners of that foal? What the hell is wrong with them? They deserve some of the blame also.

    I once went to Asseteague Island, a National Seashore type park with feral ponies. The rangers told stories of people approaching some of the (slightly) "tamer" ponies and trying to pet them or put kids on them. Those are followed by stories of the ponies biting and kicking people.

    Apparently the problem with the Island and the people in your post is that they are just stupid.

    Robin

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