Alright, I’ll admit it. There’s one really random thing about horses that grosses me out.
First, to appropriately understand my level of tolerance, I have experienced all of the following and rarely so much as batted an eye:
– Been elbows deep in horse placenta.
– Stepped on a horse turd barefoot (never do night checks barefoot, people, even if it’s just a matter of down the stairs and into the aisle. An errant turd will find you.)
– Had mare pee splashed all over me.
– Wiped off foal scours with my bare hand.
– Cleaned a sheath without gloves.
– Been nailed all over the back of the head by dirty stall pickings when I got a little overenthusiastic with my speed while pulling a manure spreader (several times, because I just don’t learn).
– Had puss shoot ALL OVER MY FACE when cleaning a really gross shoulder/neck wound on a lesson horse.
– Been bled all over. A couple times. By both people and horses.
– Had horse hair in literally every single crevice and orifice of my person after days of body clipping several horses.
– Been sneezed on. With my mouth open.
– Had a staple from a bag of shavings go right through my finger
So really, I’d like to think I’m pretty hard to phase. What’s my kryptonite?
ERGOTS AND CHESTNUTS
Blech. Nasty. I cannot pick/trim these things to save my life without wanting to gag. Usually I ask someone else to do it, because in addition to not being able to trim them myself, I definitely can’t stand to even look at overgrown ones. Shudder.
Now that I’ve fessed up – anyone else out there with weird “gross out” things when it comes to the ponies?
breedrideevent.com 
Hahaha I hate them too, but they definitely don’t gross me out! I can’t think of a single thing that seriously makes me ill when it comes to horses…. However pudding cups – Those make me ill. I can’t even look at them without thinking about how gross the texture/taste is. Warm ones especially. I have to move away from anyone who eats them :(. /randomweirdfact
LikeLike
HAHAHAHA pudding cups? I guess I can understand that, I have major texture issues when it comes to food. My problem is more with slimy things like tomatoes… vomit.
LikeLike
Me too! Old farrier had best laugh at that. But is so gross and some people actually enjoy doing it!
LikeLike
I’ve asked a farrier to clip them off before, while he was down there…
LikeLike
Chesnuts/ergots are pretty weird! I’m not sure what my gross out thing is….I really hate the smell of both hot shoes being put on and teeth filing (with the power sander, that I don’t personally use on my horses). Both of those smells really turn my stomach!
LikeLike
The hot shoeing smell is unbearable!
LikeLike
I really don’t mind the hot shoeing smell at all…
LikeLike
Lmao this cracks me up. I seriously LOVE getting those suckers off, it is so fricken satisfying to finally get an overgrown chestnut off of a horse. One of the lesson horses I use came in with HUGE chestnuts, they were at least two inches wide. It became my personal mission to rid her of them, and when I finally did….. oh sweet success.
LikeLike
You’re welcome to come to Texas and remove them from Henry whenever you’d like.
LikeLike
I honestly probably peel Mollie’s once a week. There’s always a little layer that can come off. Dear lord I sound like a freak.
LikeLike
Hahaha! Everyone has something! I actually enjoy picking at chestnuts. But, I never claimed I wasn’t weird. 😉
What grosses me out? Getting whacked in the face with a wet/muddy/poopy tail. Just … ew.
LikeLike
I’d rather get whacked in the face than peel off ergots/chestnuts. No idea why I’m so weird about them.
LikeLike
I actually like pulling chestnuts. . .weird, right? I don’t let Shy’s get overgrown. I can’t stand long chestnuts. Ewww. The thing that grosses me out the most, smacking horse flies. Shudder.
LikeLike
Bleh! Yeah, chestnuts and ergots are gross, especially the long overgrown ones. The only other thing I can think of that super grosses me out is having to clean and take care of exploded melanomas. x_x
Oh, and pickles. Can’t stand pickles…makes me want to hurl.
LikeLike
lol pickles and exploded melanomas, that’s a great combination.
LikeLike
Funny! They don’t bother me at all, but I also don’t really pick them ever since my DraftX’s fell off to bloody skin due to his mystery disease. After that, I figured they could just be left alone.
LikeLike
I’m in the loves-to-yank-off-chestnuts club. I’ve injected intravenously (and been bled over for my pains), pulled calves, bandaged a miscellany of wounds, dealt with thrush and footrot (its grosser, bovine cousin) and so on, but I totally cannot handle pus. One of my daily chores is to AI cattle, for goodness’ sake. But pus? Nope. No ways. Can’t do it, man.
LikeLike
Overgrown ergots and chestnuts are pretty nasty, like warts. I’ve never let them happen on my boys. I doesn’t take a lot to gross me out, though. My list of gross-out triggers is long. The one thing that absolutely had me about to pass out, throw up, and die of fright was when I brought in a mare from turnout and she had a big chunky flap of skin hanging off her chest, and I washed it and held it in place until the vet got there to stitch it.
LikeLike
Haha gross. I don’t know what my “too gross to handle myself” issue is yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I find out. 🙂
LikeLike
Picking those things are my guilty pleasure! I find it so satisfying!
LikeLike
Puke.
LikeLike
good lord. i’ve NEVER seen such a protruding chestnut. ew! normal ones don’t give me the heebies, but that pic you posted might haunt me all day. seeing an unclean gelding/stallion dropped and covered in smegma really turns my stomach. i just want to get out the sheath cleaning supplies and give the poor guy a spa day!
LikeLike
I’ve never seen one that bad in real life either but euuuggghhh!
LikeLike
Hahahaha! Had to laugh at that one, sorry! But what gets me is a horse bleeding from the bottom of his foot, like from an abscess. Mind you, I’ve dealt with huge nasty gaping wounds plenty of times, but even a tiny bit of blood from the bottom of a hoof? My stomach starts doing flips. There is NOT supposed to be blood there, NO WAY!
LikeLike
hehehe awesome. doesn’t have to make sense, it just is what it is
LikeLike
Skin funk, like scratches and rain rot. The scabby sort that requires scab removal so that the meds can go where they will be effective. They gross me out so much they make my skin crawl…in fact, my skin will crawl so bad, my nose will start to itch. I literally get an allergy (the sneezing, watery eyes type) anytime I have to deal with this kind of skin funk because of the grossness factor. And nope, it’s not a reaction to the meds and shampoo I’m using to treat: I react exactly the same way when dealing with dogs at work that are infested with ticks, fleas or maggots. Especially with ticks and maggots. Ewwwwww!
I think I’d rather be grossed out by chestnuts and ergots!
LikeLike
Too funny! Can’t think of anything horse-related like that which bothers me… (universe, that was not a challenge.)
LikeLike
sounds like you need a male groom (me) to do those horrid jobs you hate…
LikeLike
Add me to the chestnut picker faction ;D.
I was pretty repulsed at my guy’s gums the time he had consumed hay with foxtails in it. Big, swollen, stinky ulcers all along his gumline – which we treated with listerine – which oddly he was super cooperative about.
Anyone else used a chestnut to encourage a reluctant trailer loader before? I keep one in my trailer just in case.
LikeLike
Ugh, nothing grosses me out more than the smell of a dirty sheath. I can clean it without gloves, but good god, if I get a whiff I’m gagging like crazy.
LikeLike
I really don’t like to clean bad wounds or sheaths.
LikeLike
Haha, I’m in the love to pick them off camp. I HATE when they get grown out and nasty. I’ve got a stomach of iron and coming from my profession the list of gross things I’ve done is probably more than the blogging community needs to know about. 😉
LikeLike
That’s quite the collection you have there!! I can handle pretty much anything, from poop to pee to mare juice to cleaning sheaths and udders bare handed, but the ONE thing that gets me: ticks. Can’t touch them with a 45 foot pole, but anything else is fair game.
LikeLike
I have a rather strong stomach – chestnuts, blood, pus, wounds, eyeball stuff, sheaths, meh. No big deal. But I can’t handle the smell of rotting things. Like the one time my friend sticks a fly trap full of water & rotting flies in my face and says, “Ew! This smells terrible!” so I decide to take a whiff. BAD IDEA. Nearly vomited all over the place. Speaking of vomit, cleaning up vomit (dog, human, whatevs) makes me start gagging. Blech. But most normal horse stuff and injury care doesn’t gross me out at all! I will also remove dead mice, snakes, etc. when they inevitably turn up on the farm.
LikeLike
I like to avoid all nasty things 🙂
Sheeth cleaning with gloves? What’s that?! 🙂
LikeLike
I’m a picker by nature so chestnuts don’t bug me. I hate wiping off those slimy eye boogers. I still do it but it’s gross.
And I’ve never eaten cottage cheese.
LikeLike