Little Girl Freaks Out After Being Forbidden From Riding a Pony, Mother Enables Her Bad Behavior

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Nov 17, 2023 4:00 PM EST

I have seen Gone With The Wind enough times to know that little girls riding ponies can have devastating consequences (Spoilers ahead for a movie from 1939). Imagine being Scarlett O'Hara, doing the long con of getting Rhett Butler to marry you after your first two husbands are killed in situations that were beyond your control. Sure, you may cheat on him and want to leave him, but you mother his daughter, and when things don't seem like they can get any worse, she dies while riding a pony because her brilliant mind thought she could jump over a fence while riding side-saddle. 

That might sound like a pretty pointless tangent, and it probably is one, but it's at least mildly connected to this story. A mother recently went viral on Reddit after sharing that she let her daughter ride her pony to school. Jealousy arose outside of the school gates, and parental conflict ensued. 

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  • 01
    r/AmltheAsshole u/Tall_Entertainer835 • 2d AITA for letting my child ride her pony to school
    via u/Tall_Entertainer835
  • 02
    My (36f) child (7f) asked if she could ride her pony to school last week. For context, we have a small paddock attached to our home where we keep 2 horses, one for me and one for my child. Every morning before school my child gets all of her pony chores done before we leave and we normally walk to school which takes around 20 minutes. We live on the outskirts of a fairly populated city where it's not uncommon to see horses occasionally, but we are by no means in a rural village.
    via u/Tall_Entertainer835
  • 03
    I agreed to let my daughter ride her pony to school because I thought it was a harmless fun thing to do, and also it gives the pony some exercise as we had evening plans and wouldn't be riding that evening. We arrived at the school gates and of course gathered a little bit of a crowd which wasn't a problem. The pony is very good and lapped up all the pats and strokes from kids.
    via u/Tall_Entertainer835
  • 04
    One girl came bounding over from the year above my daughter and started shouting at me saying she wanted to ride. I politely told her that she couldn't because she doesn't have a riding hat and she would have to learn on a safer horse. She immediately started hysterically crying and pleading with her mum saying he wanted to ride. Her mum looked at me with disgust and said "see this is what happens when you have no self awareness and bring a f-ing horse to a school" and stormed off dragging her k
    via u/Tall_Entertainer835
  • 05
    I was talking to my friend this weekend and she said I was in fact the problem and I was blatantly showing off and should have known that this would cause upset and problems. My response is I turn up to the school gates in jodhpurs and boots regularly so everyone probably knows I have horses, is that showing off too? All I wanted to do is let my daughter do something a bit silly and fun. Now I am really overthinking it though and almost feel nervous to do school drop off tomorrow.... So am I the
    via u/Tall_Entertainer835
  • 06
    EDIT: I want to clear some things up. Firstly, I'm based in England. Secondly, the pony never went into school grounds. There is a small patch of grass about 30 metres from the main school gate and we stood there so no child with allergies would have been subject to horse germs if they didn't deliberately come over to us. This also means that I don't feel like I should have run it by the school. And lastly, the pony is an ex-riding school pony. It has been surrounded by kids it's whole life and
    via u/Tall_Entertainer835
  • 07
    Listen_2learn • 2d Enthusiast [9] NTA. That woman blames other people for her clear lack of parenting skills. She has to manage her child's expectations. My husband takes our daughter to school on a motorcycle and it draws the same attention without the entitled demanding a ride and response. Edit to add: would you bringing a puppy with you elicit the same responses? I think not- YWNBTA ... Reply 21.3k
    via u/Listen_2learn
  • 08
    Swaki85 2d ● So I guess if anyone who shows up in a fancy car is the AH as well. 45.8k ...
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  • 09
    throwaway1975764 • 2d Pooperintendant [62] My daughter's friend's dad hobby races, and professionally does rebuilds to make cars into race cars. He has more than once picked up the child in his racecar. The other kids love it. Is it a distraction? Yeah a bit, but in a cool exciting way. The guy is an AH but honestly I always thought the racecar at school bit was one of his redeeming actions. 894
    via u/throwaway1975764
  • 10
    pizzasauce85 - 2d My friend's husband would take their daughter to school on his motorcycle on days he went into the office. Her photos of them are adorable. His daughter had a custom pink helmet with unicorns and fairies and she would wear her matching riding outfit over her clothes or play clothes. Then when she would get to school, she would pull her riding gear off and put on a big frilly tea party dress out of her dad's bag and put it on and change her boots to her sparkly flats. Everyone a
    via u/pizzasauce85
  • 11
    wandering_alphabet. 2d NTA, the other parents need to teach their kids that you can't always have what other people have. It is a fact of life... (and this is coming from someone that grew up below the poverty line). Are they gonna be mad at another parent for driving an expensive vehicle? If I was the parent, I would just tell my kid, "Look at the pretty horsey! But don't touch it unless they let you, okay." Reply 47.3k ↓ ...
    via u/wandering_alphabet
  • 12
    Doomhammer24 • 2d Partassipant [2] BUT SHARING IS CARING. Its one of the reasons i actually hated that mentality in kindergarten and preschool. Sharing is caring bleh. Ya maybe but dave over there is known for breaking everyones he gets his hands on, because hes a jealous Yet people keep being forced by the teachers to hand em over when asked because remember SHARING IS CARING ... 628
    via u/Doomhammer24
  • 13
    I_UPVOTEPUGS • 2d i'm personally childfree, but i've seen parents on the internet teaching their kids they don't have to share and I love it. ... 4322
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  • 14
    Thatpocket 2d I dont believe in forcing my kid to share. I believe if we are having a friend over that the stuff we don't wish to share needs to be put away. With that being said I had one kid keep trying to tell my son what he could watch on the DVD player in our car. Other kid wasn't even riding with us. Like I have to wonder what strange form of sharing that child had been taught. ... 200
    via u/Thatpocket
  • 15
    schlicke 2d NTA. Done that as well. In neophobe Switzerland. People lost it as well but we were having fun. Ok l was on a huge 2000-pound cold-blood with hooves like big plates, so as long as I was there nobody dared to say anything :) - only when I was gone, some mothers freaked out about how "dangerous" this all was ... But I didn't take it seriously - people also lost it when I gave my kids Sushi in a Bento box to Kindergarden and claimed it's dangerous to eat raw fish, forbade them to eat th
    via u/schlicke
  • 16
    whycantijustlogin • 2d Lol. This reminded me of the time I got a call from my daughter's afterschool program because I had sent a boiled quail egg as part of her afternoon snack. They were concerned she had picked up a random bird egg from the playground and taken it away from her after she had started peeling it. I said no, it was not a wild bird egg and pointed out that eggs picked up from the outdoors do not boil themselves. People can be so weird about food. (Edited for grammar) 977
    via u/whycantijustlogin
  • 17
    Amar_Akbar_Anthony20 • 2d Aficionado [17] INFO; did you really think other kids would not bat an eye?! Of course they wanted to ride the pony Reply 41.1k ...
    via u/Amar_Akbar_Anthony20
  • 18
    juninbee • 2d Other kids wanting to ride the pony and not understanding no does not make OP an AH tho. G 4.2k
    via u/juninbee
  • 19
    Tall Entertainer835 OP. 2d I obviously knew people would show an interest, but I honestly thought the kids would just be happy to see a pony and it would brighten peoples Friday. The pony is mega safe so I knew everyone could stroke him and give him a fuss and assumed that would be that ... 41.4k
    via u/Tall_Entertainer835
  • 20
    flyraccoon • 2d Don't worry OP those kids (minus one) loved it and the poney got his walk Not everyone has access to horses to pet them or know about them like cats or dogs You did good 843
    via u/flyraccoon
  • 21
    Right_Count. 2d Pooperintendant [68] I think I fall on NAH Bringing the horse to school was guaranteed to cause a fuss among a bunch of little kids. That doesn't mean it's wrong that you did it, I just think that it was a very predictable outcome that at least one kid would get scared, get upset they couldn't ride it, get in a tizzy etc and that this could trigger frustration in a parent. So if you were not anticipating that, I would agree with no-self-awareness thing. And obviously, showing up
    via u/Right_Count

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school elementary school crazy things parents say pony bad parenting moms parenting riding horses parent mom Parenting Fail horse parents Parenting FAILS
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