Barn Witch Defined:
I get many questions on What is a Barn Witch? I will explain it here.
A Barn
Witch is someone that cannot mind his or her own business. It is your local
barn know-it-all, that has to help every one with their horse when they
can’t even handle their own horse. Since most barns are mostly women, most Barn
Witches are women, but there are men Barn Witches, mostly younger men that have
been raised in or around barns so they have learned from the best Barn Witches
around.
Barn
Witches tell everyone what
they are doing wrong, tell people what they should do, stick their nose in
everyone’s business, they say things that they think are true but have no first
hand knowledge of what they tell others to do. A Barn Witch will never get on your horse and show you, they will
also tell you to do stupid things since they do not suffer the consequences of being wrong.
Barn
Witches are great at telling
you what is right and what is wrong, they know all the rules and love to tell
people when they are not following the rules. They normally have more than one
horse or have owned many horses in the past. All their horses are difficult,
high-spirited or smart and the horses they got rid of were all bad.
Barn
Witches will tell many
stories of how they rode as a kid, won many medals and ribbons and how they
owned horses their entire lives. They will have the latest newest horse
training tools, like pretty sticks, pretty halters, fancy buckles; new saddles
that still look new and many will be wearing the tight tan pants that used to
fit them 5 years ago.
They will know the best trainers, will be
taking upper level lessons, and will have their kids taking lessons so they can
watch and give advice. They will spend lots of time at the barn and not much
time with their horse. When at the barn, the Witches will be sweeping, cleaning, planting flowers, painting
things pink, hanging plants and just about anything EXCEPT spending time
with their horse.
Barn
Witches will come to the
barn and spend 10 minutes locking their horse up, put a rug or blanket on the
horse, throwing the horse a flake of hay, some grain and then spend the next
hour or two socializing, giving advice, gossiping, leaving notes on the white
board or running around being nosy. If you check their horse’s water, it will
not be clean, all of this is good indicator of a busybody Barn Witch.
Barn
Witches will demand respect.
If you do not listen to them and do not do what they tell you to do, they will
get offended, mad and try to bully or scare you. They will then run around and
tell others that are going to hurt, you will not listen, you are dangerous and
you are going to get someone else hurt. This is how they cause trouble and
drama so they feel important.
Some keys phrases to listen for from Barn Witches are; “My trainer said”, “The rules
say”, “I have been training horses”,
“I have owned horses my whole life”,
“I am a forth level Parelli Graduate”
or “I have been at this barn for 15 years”.
They will normally tell you their title like Manager, trainer, Senior
Assistance or they give lessons or run the pony or 4H club. Anything to impress
you into thinking they know what they are doing. Since they cannot show you
what they know with their own horse, they will try to impress you with lots of other
things.
Many Witches
will follow one person, will worship that person alone, and will degrade all
others. If they like Pat Parelli, they will hate Clinton Anderson, if they like
Clinton Anderson they will hate Pat Parelli. Some will try to be tough old
cowboy crap and act like a horse’s ass and others will call Natural Horsemanship a big joke. Still
others will claim to use Natural
Horsemanship and they cannot even lead a horse without a stud chain or
pulling or using pain.
Key words to listen for from Barn Witches are the following:
dangerous, that horse is disrespecting you, you are going to get hurt, that is
too much horse for you, you need an older horse, you should not own a horse,
you are going to get someone else hurt, you don’t know the barn rules, you
don’t listen, your horse needs manners, and the list goes on.
The thing to remember about Barn Witches is they are about power,
control and bullying. They think they are the one-eyed King in the land of the
blind. By using fear and intimidation, they get their way and over time they
get very good at it. You can try to avoid them, but they will whisper, start
rumors, make things up and try to convince others that you are dangerous and
some stay away from you or ostracize you. As time goes on, this treatment will
interfere with your relationship with your horse.
Many Barn
Witches will have a nice new trailer but you will rarely see them use it.
They will always tell you how long they have owned horses or how many horses
they have owned. The higher the number horses they have owned, the bigger the
clue they do not know what they are doing. Many Witches will have a limp or other old horse injury from a “bad
horse.” The will be clean, no horse dirt, and will spend most time talking to
others and very little time working with their horse. They always tell others
what to do and you will never see them do those same things.
Since barns have high turn over rates and
many people get out of horses within the first year of owning them, there are
always new people that know very little about horses. The Barn Witches that have hung around for years tend to be the most
experienced in a barn full of first-time horse owners. Therefore, if you come
in with some knowledge or experience the Witches
will be jealous and fearful to lose their control. They know that others will
soon see how little they know and their power will fade away. This threat
causes these Witches to go to extreme
measures to attack you, discredit you, label you and get others to judge you.
It is a pathetic display of bully and mean behavior and it creates stressful
situations at most all barns.
The bigger problem is this stressful
environment causes horses to suffer. The more people get conflicting
and wrong advice the more frustrated they become. This constant trying and
attempting dumb and wrong advice teaches the horse to fail and teaches the
horse how to mistrust people. Each time a horse learns a human is dumb, weaker
or puts the horse in situations where it gets hurt, fails or learns to flee, it
makes it harder to undo those bad lessons. Then the Barn Witches become a “Self
fulfilling Prophecy” and the horse becomes what people tell you the horse
was. The horse becomes dangerous and all the idiot advice that made the horse
dangerous suddenly becomes true. Then these idiots think they are right and run
around tell others, “See, I told you, she did not listen”, then more people
listen and more horses get set up to fail.
When people are stressed and uncomfortable at
a barn, because of all the Barn Witches
and unwanted advice, little clicks and all the safety rule enforcers, they
reflect that stress back to the horse. Horses know and can read that you are
stressed, mad, angry, upset, or trying to avoid idiots, and then the horse
reacts to that negative energy and horses become more sensitive, spooky, and
flighty and do not learn as well. It is all a big spiral effect and the horse
suffers.
A horse needs your full attention, he needs
to know he can depend on you and know that you are not distracted, he feels
when you are slow, preoccupied or not paying attention, so he gets more
nervous. A horse is reflection of you and you are reflection of your
environment. If you are scared, nervous, uneasy, looking over your shoulder,
trying to avoid and expecting conflict from the Barn Witches, then you horse will feel and react to this.
Here are some ways to Piss
Off Barn Witches:
1)
Ask them to
show you and demonstrate what they tell you
2)
Tell them to
ride your horse and show you
3)
Tell them when
you want their help, you will ask for it
4)
Recommend they
watch my videos and tell them you like me
5)
Find out who
they idolize and then say you heard he was no good
6)
Tell them other
people told you not to listen to them
7)
Tell them your
trainer told you to do it this way
8)
Pick up some
horse poop checking for worms and then offer to shake their hand
9)
Ask them to
explain Opposition Reflex to you
How to avoid becoming a Barn Witch?
Avoid know Barn Witches or Barn Witches in Training.
Do not get involved in gossip. When at your barn, spend time with your horse.
Do not give advice and do not try and help others. Mind Your Own Business is a
critical step to avoid falling into Barn
Witch behaviors.
The best way to help others is to do right by
your horse. Take good care, put your horse first, keep his water clean, break
apart his hay, good hoof care and spend time with your horse. People will see
that your horse is good and that means you are good.
Things Barn Witches will Say:
If
you got here before watching the video, you can view my video on this topic
here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVtRy9Jr35k
Note: It did not talk long for a Barn Witch to
comment on this video. This woman tried to say I am a Barn Witch for the way I
talk to people that disagree with me. Therefore, as I suspected, Barn Witches
watch my videos and read my site, if only to find things to talk smack about.
For other Barn Witches or simple-minded non-thinking people, Barn Witches
attack, bully and harass people where other people keep their horses. These
people do not have a option keep their horses at other places so they are
forced to deal with and the cruel conduct of the Barn Witches in order to see
their horses. That is what bullies do,
they isolate and corner people where they know the people have to be. These
bullies know that people love their horses so they have to come back and they
have to take what is being dished out in order to see their horses. This
empowers these bullies since they do not care about their horses and they do
not go to barns for their horses, Barn Witches go to Barns for a sense of power
and control. Many Barn Witches have failed marriages, poor relationships with their
spouse, kids that resent them or don’t want to be with them, they are pathetic
people that take advantage of the force gathering of inexperienced people at
barns.
I
do not corner, solicit, force or give advice to anyone that does not seek me out
or voluntarily comes to my channel or website. Many other choices out there,
people choose to come to my channel or site. They choose to stay or leave. They
choose to be a Barn Witch or to learn. It is all about choices. I assure you,
if Barn Witches were controlled and forced out of barns for interfere and not
minding their own business, it would stop. The problems is most horse people,
especially new horse people, love their horses and are naive to Barn Witches.
Many people will not warn or help people being harassed by Barn bullies since
they do not want trouble for themselves. It is a typical schoolyard bully
environment. It is wrong and
I speak out against it.
Over
the years, I have seen many good people leave, sell horses, stop coming out to
barns or they sneak out to barns late at night or early in the morning to avoid
these barn bullies. I guarantee that at every barn that anyone is at, 90
percent of the boarder are women. Also, 90 percent of all Husbands do NOT come
out to barns due to the drama and stressful environment at the barn. You
connect the dots. You can call me sexist, but there is nothing like the facts
to mess up a good label.
I
make it clear, I do what I do for to help horses, come or leave, but keep your
advice and Barn Witch comments to yourself. Seventy five percent of my viewers
are women, according to Youtube statistics. If you want to complain or be mean,
then that is your choice, but you will only do it once. I will block you and
then you can run off and cry and start your little hate group site or blog, but
I am not allowing this site to become a virtual barn where more people can be
bullies and pass on their ignorant information that hurts horses, from the
safety of hiding behind their computers.
No
one is forced to come here, if you seek out this terrible place and choose to
come here, only to complain, cause trouble, troll and make negative comments, then you are a Barn Witch. For
only a true Barn Witch seeks out conflict, drama, negativity and misery; just
so they can show their lack of wisdom, create trouble and fly around on their
broom.
Here is how
other people describe Barn Witches:
Barn Witch in my opinion is any person male or female who follows a herd
mentality. One who parrots faulty horse husbandry methods due to self-serving
motives, peer pressure or simple ignorance. Barn
Witches are easily spotted, usually waving colored carrot sticks, clicking
and clucking while their horses run them over. You will never meet one on the
trail though as they do not have the confidence to ride outside of arenas,
corrals and/or fenced in paddocks
a
Barn Witch to me is a girl with fancy
English chaps a pink bridle and fancy, expensive stuff that they keep pretty
and shiny. They’re usually sitting around with their horses tied up talking to
each other about gossip and who jumps the best.. and then their moms come...
who are also Barn Witches that look old and tell you how to do everything
properly
Barn Witch: A person of the female persuasion who: 1) without permission,
grabs your horse from you and proceeds to show you "how it's done".
2) If you enter "their arena" with your horse, they ask you "May
I help you?". 3) has a face that would crack if they smiled while on or
around their horse
Some
Man who said that because my horse was so calf-kneed that I should just sell
her at an auction, get what I can, go home and cry about it and just get over
it. I understand this horse is calf-kneed and not perfectly conformed, but I
bought her knowing that and I am taking responsibility. I'm not going to sell
her because of an imperfection.
Some
lady wrote that she is sending her horse to Clinton Anderson for training
because she was scared of it, it only costs around $4300 for 6 weeks, doesn't
mention that she will still be scared when she gets it back.
Barn Witches tell people riding in a rope halter is
dangerous
Barn Witches are always making dramatic white board
notices
Barn Witches interfere with your horse without asking and
try to demonstrate how untrained your horse is while they scare the shit out of
it in front of an audience.
Barn Witches are the girls you see at barrel races on a
60k horses screaming and spurring them and whipping them and screaming on there
cell phone at there trainers cause there horse isn’t fast enough or good
enough, but they have the nerve to come up to you and your horse who is
just fine by the way! to tell you that you need to put a bit in that horses
mouth and get that horse to listen to you, Barn Witches are never wrong have
done it all, hate men and I don’t think any of them even like horses!
When
I boarded my horse at a new place, the Barn
Witches came to me and identified themselves in such a way that couldn't be
missed. I got lectured while I was taking my mare out of the trailer for not
having booties on her.
BARN WITCH: Knows everything but cannot demonstrate it. Hypochondriac for
their (and every one else’s) horse. Two faced back stabbing gossip. Tattle
tale. Fearful, their way is only/right way. Their horse is finest of all.
Thinks tack/gear makes up for training and bond. Spreads mal-information and/or
lies. Self righteous Entitled to "VIP" @ all times. Stirs the drama pot to agitate others. Will TRY to destroy you by any means if you
cross them in any way. Gee wish I had
more room to write here! LOL
Barn Witch is someone who is critical, cares only about bloodlines, thinks
they know better than you do because they have had more "experience"
Barn Witches are easy to point out because they have the
horses that do not listen to them because they don't understand the way horses
think.
Barn Witch (this was a man though) I was just outside training my mare (I
decided to train her myself), today I got on her, of course first I did a lot
of sacking out and ground work with her before I tried actually getting on her
back, and as I was working with her to get her to know the hit with my foot
means "move forward" this guy comes telling me to get a whip
or spurs.
To
me a Barn Witch is a woman (or man
usually woman) who is from their late twenties to about middle age who's owned
horses all their life and has to show of their 'knowledge' to everyone when
they aren't the ones working with horses, and when they work with their horse
they can't get the horse to do what they want
A
Barn Witch is the man that keeps his
horse locked in a stall 24/7 only to come out for training to win ribbons at a
horse show. And he tries to give me advice?! No thanks
There
are different types of Barn Witches:
the type that has a bunch of horsy accessories that they never use (fancy
leather halters, tendon boots, 10 lead ropes, etc) and they think they are
better and smarter than everyone because they purchased nearly all the inventory
from the local tack store. Or the type that thinks they're better and smarter
than everyone because they own more horses (or more expensive horses), or
because they have competed in more shows
They
have seen it all, know it all, and have no problem telling it all. Btw, now I
know why my mares are so 'disrespectful' and turn their butts to me. I thought
it was for scratching; now I know it is to check for Barn Witches!
If
you're new to a barn and want to identify the Barn Witches, it's the people who apparently can tell you
everything wrong with your horse, and how to improve it within five minutes of
laying eyes on you and your horse.
Barn Witch - a person who believes to be always right and everyone else
wrong, that thinks it is impossible that a backyard horse owner could know more
about horse behavior than they do because they got a bunch of pretty ribbons.
A
Barn Witch is someone who would call
a horse stupid, insist that the rope wouldn't have broken if it had been pink,
told everyone the horse was mean and dangerous, and advertised her as a horse
for "experienced riders only"
Barn Witch is one who is always saying, "so and so's training program
is all wrong'. and yet they are brutal to their own horse. Ones who say, “you
need to use a stronger bit on that horse". Because that is what they would
do! Ones who think their "poo" does not stink! One who wants the
horse always to be squeaky clean, covered in poison to keep off flies. One who does not notice when the horse is
feeling bad. Who complains all the time about every little thing the
"hired help" does.
Barn Witch is someone who controls their horse in a manner that is over
the top or someone who feels like they have to shove their nose in everyone
else's business but never minding their own. These are also the same women who
will watch you do everything wrong and then talk trash about you AFTER you've
been hurt or your horse is hurt.
One
aspect of being a Barn Witch/warlock
is forbidding "fun" in horsemanship. If you're too stuck up to say
horsy once in a while
A
Barn Witch is someone who wants to
control anything and everything a horse does and doesn't let a horse be a horse
Someone
I know got their leg broke at a clinic because a Barn Witch grabbed her horse away
from her to make it do what she wanted it to right now. Not giving the horse a
chance. Started beating the horse up. Horse ran into the owner on a lunge line
knocked her down and she broke her leg. Not even a I'm sorry. Awful!
RETURN
TO THINK LIKE A HORSE WEBSITE
Cheyenne Brown Blake
(click her name to see her facebook)
This young lady, I use the term loosely, is a
prefect example of the petty, princess type kid that thinks they are entitled
and somehow smart at 24 years of age. This person made a little hate page about
me because I blocked her for giving stupid advice. She is obviously upset that
daddy did not hug her enough and angry about something and wants to blame me
and her boyfriend for her failures. So she comes to my site, my videos and
since she is so smart, after I block her, she goes on this little temper
tantrum and post things about how mean I am, getting people to email me and
harass me. Normally I ignore the weirdo’s but since I had to file action on her
and still need her address and phone number so I can get her served with legal
papers, I decided to respond to her attacks and harassment. So, I know I have
some good viewers that can find people, so anyone that can get me more information
to identify her, I would appreciate it. Maybe if I can get her into court, she
may realize there are consequences to her harassment and libel statements.
One of my viewers sent me information that
Little Miss Brown, who hides behind user name, Equilove - http://www.horseforum.com/members/21547/
, who has no life other than to make negative post about me. Here is Ms Brown’s
email: bcbrown91@gmail.com maybe some can email her and she will give
advice. Here is the High School she graduated from: http://www.jefferson.k12.ky.us/schools/high/Atherton/index.html
.
This girl is the reason why people do not
want to help or assist horse people and why people just sell videos so they can
avoid stalking crazy women. So when people ask me why I do not answer emails or
questions anymore, I will refer them to Ms. Brown. People like this who cannot
be the center of attention feel they have to cause drama in order to get
attention. If you read this girl’s questions, you can tell she knows little
about horses, so she hangs out on a teenage horse forum site where she can
spread her misery. My viewer sent me a couple posts where she blames and bashes
her boyfriend for not wanting to sweat and then blames the horse for having an
attitude. You may need have to login to see these, I had two people with
accounts confirm these comments are there.
Posted by Equilove: I asked my boyfriend to
take photos and videos today, but of course he hates horses and being outside
(especially if there's a chance he might sweat) so he half-assed and I didn't
get any decent footage.
Posted by Equilove;1126345]Savanna has an
attitude. When I'm lunging her and I ask her to pick up a gait, she pins her
ears back and swings her head. Never kicks at me, she always does it, but she
throws a 'tude.
So has you can see, the people that know the
least, talk the most. All the abused animals out there and this person wants to
fight with me because she got her feelings hurt. If I can get this girl served,
I will handle this in court. Unfortunately, there are many other people out
there that this girl will run into and they may not handle something like this
in the courts. As a cop, I went to many calls where women thought a guy could
not hit them or would just allow them to say and do what they want and then
they had to call the cops or an ambulance and they ran into the wrong people.
Believe me, the internet is full of stalkers and crazy people so provoking
people thinking you are safe and hiding behind your computer is not very smart.
I think she lives in
Another Ms. Know it
all that could not take being blocked and had to start harassing me with emails
and complaints about Youtube videos is Ms. Sarah L. Battles. This is another 20 year that thinks she knows
everything and can't take anyone telling her she does not know. Here is the barn she, according to her, she
trains horses and rides at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dixieland-Farm-Mocksville-NC/169963759703227
Ms. Battles was
giving poor and dangerous advice on my channel, I told her to stop and she then
insisted in leaving several other contacts, so I blocked. Well she was not
going to have that so went on an email tangent and harassed me wanting
attention and to prove how much she knows. So now I am giving her the attention
she wants, so anyone wanting advice from a knowitall trainer please contact her
at her email here: sarahlbattles@gmail.com
Here is a Video where I discuss Little Ms Battle's ignorance.
For all the idiots on Horseforum.com this person will give you great advice please friend her on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/sarah.l.battles/media_set?set=a.1148970256755.2020807.1602558461&type=3
Another BW shows her head: Ms.
Meghan MacAlister from Naples, Florida
You can see pictures and read more about her
on my site Ms.
Meghan MacAlister from Naples, Florida