Hilarious Encounters With “Non-Horse Show” Folk- Part 2

Everyone loved the first EC blog, Hilarious Encounters With “Non-Horse Show” Folk, so much that we decided to make it a regular series written by different EquineChronicle.com readers! Part 1 of the blog was written by Patrick Lee, who gave an account of his experience at a recent horse show when he unknowingly gave a few young men a crash course on what it means for a horse to be considered a gelding.

Part 2 of the blog comes from Nikki Mummah, who shared an amusing conversation with postal workers as she explained what  Equitainers are used for.

If you’d like to contribute to this blog series by sharing your own hilarious encounter with “non-horse show” folk, e-mail b.bevis@equinechronicle.com to find out how to participate.

EC Blog by: Nikki Mummah

I lived in a very small town in Pennsylvania and bred two mares each year. I have done all of the artificial insemination on my own mares for more than ten years, so I always received the semen at our farm via FedEx. Since we lived in the middle of nowhere, we had no FedEx pickups, and the post office was always closed when I left and returned from work. I worked in Harrisburg and happened to work right beside a big post office, so I would return the Equitainers there.

The Equitainers are definitely unique containers and always seemed to garner curiosity. The conversations with people taking the packages at the counter usually went something like this:

 

Clerk: Would you like to declare any value on the contents of this package?

Me: There is nothing in it.

Clerk: Oh (confused look). Well, what exactly IS this?!

Me: An Equitainer.

Clerk: A what?

Me: It’s a container that’s used to ship cooled horse semen.

Clerk: (….awkward silence, avoid eye contact, fumbling of the paperwork…) Thank you, have a nice day.

Me: (giggle!)

 

Occasionally, someone would ask a few more questions like how much a few CC’s of horse semen costs, what you do with it, etc., but the conversation always ended with awkward silence and uncomfortable vibes from the postal workers. It made me laugh every time!

Remember, if you’d like to contribute to this blog series by sharing your own hilarious encounter with “non-horse show” folk, e-mail b.bevis@equinechronicle.com.

Scroll below to see what a few of our Facebook fans had to say about their own funny experiences.

 

Freda Kraus– “Reminds me of the time people asked if my blue-eyed horse could see out of them…. once while I was mounted for a trail ride no less.”

Jennifer Swisher Bennett– “Like a time I heard someone say, ‘Oh, that horse has on a blanket. It must have allergies.'”

Kathy Elizondo– “The look of horror when they saw me take my horse’s tail off and put it in a bag!”

Kristen Smith Adkins- “I remember the time when my nephews came to their first horse show. They were about five or six at the time, and my horse had ‘dropped’ between classes. Then, my mom tapped its belly to make it go back up. My nephews were watching it happen. They looked at us and said ‘where did it go?!?’ HAHA! That was one of the best days with them.”

Betty Allen- “My all-time favorite was when a car stopped and a frantic woman knocked on my door, screaming there was something wrong with my horse. It was a particularly hot, summer day and it was rolling in the pasture dirt.”

Rachael Doern- “I’ve been asked SO many times about my horse’s fly mask! Why does he have a blindfold on? Can he see with that on?”

Maureen Retting- “We were at a BBQ, and there was this tall 30ish kinda cute guy in a cowboy outfit, pointy boots, pearl snap shirt, and a kinda buckaroo belt buckle. We have all seen the look. After a while, the conversation ended up about horses. I asked him if he had his horse boarded there. He announced that his horse had floundered and was in therapy. I’m still trying to sort through his comment. I’m hoping that I still have things to learn and don’t know everything about horses……”