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I’m not going to put my horses through it anymore


Bewildered

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It is a sad reflection of British people’s behaviour, which I perceive as generally getting worse and more selfish in the past couple of years. But equally, we are only hearing one side of the story. There was a horse boating woman on film somewhere being quite obnoxious to moored boaters and passers-by, and another or same who left their horse boat on the waterpoint at Wheelock for weeks. There was a business email visible on the boat and when we contacted her to complain, she was rude and entitled. There can be a danger that people doing that sort of thing consider themselves to be a special case, more important than everyone else. I’m not saying this is necessarily the case here, but we only have one side of the story.

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7 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

It is a sad reflection of British people’s behaviour, which I perceive as generally getting worse and more selfish in the past couple of years. But equally, we are only hearing one side of the story. There was a horse boating woman on film somewhere being quite obnoxious to moored boaters and passers-by, and another or same who left their horse boat on the waterpoint at Wheelock for weeks. There was a business email visible on the boat and when we contacted her to complain, she was rude and entitled. There can be a danger that people doing that sort of thing consider themselves to be a special case, more important than everyone else. I’m not saying this is necessarily the case here, but we only have one side of the story.

Obviously I cannot vouch for every trip made by Iona on the Wey, but on the many occasions I have crossed with her the crew have been very friendly and totally professional. Back at the mooring they would always stop to chat, and they really cared for the boat and the horses. I agree regarding towpaths - I would advocate sharing the space, but everybody on the water needs to be licenced and know the most basic navigation rules. In fact, just keeping to the right would do. And runners/cyclists need to accept that a towpath is not a suitable location to try and achieve a personal best.  

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11 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

It is a sad reflection of British people’s behaviour, which I perceive as generally getting worse and more selfish in the past couple of years. But equally, we are only hearing one side of the story. There was a horse boating woman on film somewhere being quite obnoxious to moored boaters and passers-by, and another or same who left their horse boat on the waterpoint at Wheelock for weeks. There was a business email visible on the boat and when we contacted her to complain, she was rude and entitled. There can be a danger that people doing that sort of thing consider themselves to be a special case, more important than everyone else. I’m not saying this is necessarily the case here, but we only have one side of the story.

Nick, is this another rant? The woman obviously loves her horses , all the incdents ring true.

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Iona has moved to Tiverton where it will continue to be a horse boat. Personally I will be going there when its open as it is my nearest canal. The launch was on ITV south west last night and everyone  concerned seemed really happy about it.

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13 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Nick, is this another rant? The woman obviously loves her horses , all the incdents ring true.

I’m unclear what the question of whether she loves her horses or not, has to do with her demeanour towards other users of the waterway. In general, behaviour breeds behaviour. I am always very reluctant to take the word of someone I've never met as gospel when complaining about the behaviour of others, without considering that they may (or may not) in some way contribute to the creation of the conflict.
 

I rather take it from your post that since she loves horses, you think everything she says must be accurate, dispassionate and unbiased. Or is it because she is a woman? Not sure.

Edited by nicknorman
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49 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

I’m unclear what the question of whether she loves her horses or not, has to do with her demeanour towards other users of the waterway. In general, behaviour breeds behaviour. I am always very reluctant to take the word of someone I've never met as gospel when complaining about the behaviour of others, without considering that they may (or may not) in some way contribute to the creation of the conflict.
 

I rather take it from your post that since she loves horses, you think everything she says must be accurate, dispassionate and unbiased. Or is it because she is a woman? Not sure.

If it's the woman I'm thinking of,she's well known for being somewhat rude !

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Horsey people are different...

When you've got a ton of muscle and other stuff on the end of a piece of string, it's not unreasonable for you to be very protective. When there's a boat load of people attached to the horse via a slightly thicker piece of string, you're entitled to be a bit newvous - especially if the tow line is anywhere moored boats on the same side.

 

The towpath up towards Godalming is narrow and muddy further adding challenges - thus I'm not surprised if the nice lady got stressed from time to time.

 

The net result is that there are no more quiet trips in 'sunny Godalming'. I suspect there aren't any / many longline towed boat trips anywhere else (llangollen excepted) because of practical / safety issues.

 

Everyone is the poorer for the disappearance of these sorts of 'features'.

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4 hours ago, Bewildered said:

https://godalming.nub.news/n/34i39m-not-going-to-put-my-horses-through-it-any-more34
 

Horse drawn trip boat gives up after 35 years due to abusive towpath users.

 

Apologies if this has already been posted 

 

Abusive towpath users may be part of the problem, but I imagine that after 35 years the lady is looking to hang up her boots and retire.

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3 hours ago, nicknorman said:

 There was a horse boating woman on film somewhere being quite obnoxious to moored boaters and passers-by, and another or same who left their horse boat on the waterpoint at Wheelock for weeks

Not the same boat, horse or lady.

3 hours ago, nicknorman said:


 

I rather take it from your post that since she loves horses, you think everything she says must be accurate, dispassionate and unbiased. Or is it because she is a woman? Not sure.

Might have known you'd bring gender anguish into it.

2 hours ago, The Bearwood Boster said:

If it's the woman I'm thinking of,she's well known for being somewhat rude !

Again, not the same horse boat.

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5 hours ago, Bewildered said:

https://godalming.nub.news/n/34i39m-not-going-to-put-my-horses-through-it-any-more34
 

Horse drawn trip boat gives up after 35 years due to abusive towpath users.

 

Apologies if this has already been posted 

I read your sig as Whippet in a cat flap

1 hour ago, OldGoat said:

 

 

The net result is that there are no more quiet trips in 'sunny Godalming'. I suspect there aren't any / many longline towed boat trips anywhere else (llangollen excepted) because of practical / safety issues.

 

Everyone is the poorer for the disappearance of these sorts of 'features'.

Is there still one on the K&A

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4 hours ago, nicknorman said:

I am always very reluctant to take the word of someone I've never met as gospel when complaining about the behaviour of others, without considering that they may (or may not) in some way contribute to the creation of the conflict.

 

Fascinating comment Nick.

 

I count many of the Wigan vollies as personal friends, and their recollection of your dummy spitting incident there is very different to your version of it ...

 

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4 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Fascinating comment Nick.

 

I count many of the Wigan vollies as personal friends, and their recollection of your dummy spitting incident there is very different to your version of it ...

 

Some of the best on the system IMO

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49 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Fascinating comment Nick.

 

I count many of the Wigan vollies as personal friends, and their recollection of your dummy spitting incident there is very different to your version of it ...

 

What did they say happened?

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

 

Is there still one on the K&A

There was last time we were down there and he also gets a lot of trouble, especially from boaters. There are a lot of miserable old liveaboard men who feel that their boat is their castle and their right to erect a TV aerial on a long pole is much more important than some "historical quirk" like horseboating... and they go out of their way to make it extra difficult to pass the horse rope over their roof.  I have personally observed this.

I really did hearone boater say "it shouldn't be allowed, they shoyld get an engine like everybody else" ?

 

When we are moored at Kintbury on horseboating days we take the big chimneys down and tell the horseman he is welcome to go up onto our roof if he needs to.

 

..................Dave

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45 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

What did they say happened?

 

Short form from my memory ... bearing in mind I wasn't present for the "incident".

 

Telemachus was approaching lock 75 on the nearside. 

 

The nearside tailgate on 75 suffers badly from subsidence on the lock, so if it's fully opened it usually takes three strong blokes to close it again.  It's much easier for lockies and much faster for boats if this is avoided.

 

As usual the volly helping the boat up the flight yelled "STOP", fully intending to explain why they should use the offside  afterwards, as they do to every boat coming up.

 

Instead of the usual "Sure, why?" they got a whole tirade about "You're only vollies, it's my boat, my lock, my rules.  You don't have the right to tell me to stop."

 

Having read your various rants online at the time, knowing the vollies well and being a regular on Wigan, I have formed my own opinion on the topic.

 

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Some of the best on the system IMO

Fully agree.  The ones that aren't active keen boaters listen to the ones that are.  One of the vollies has steered a pair including my boat both up and down the whole flight while I worked the locks.

 

I regularly take vollies on my boat through the flight so they can see the other side of what they are doing and learn our perspective. 

 

Less so this year, admittedly.  A couple of years ago we did Wigan Flight 18 times though, so it gets shared out!

 

 

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