where the word "stable "came from
When someone is in hospital in a stable condition, does that mean laying on a bed of straw and stinking of ****
Probably … 
the dictionary ses “firmly fixed or established” & “not likely to move”
That does it for me anyways … 
8wheels:
What irritates me is when you get one on a single carriageway A road with National Speed limit and it is being driven at about 25mph by someone who has no awareness of anything else but there cargo. Now you can’t tell me that it would startle the horses to go at 40mph if it is safe, because the big Scania types would do it. It is more a case of them being driven occasionally, by someone who is out of their depth in a vehicle of that size.
One or two nags in a long wheelbase 18 tonne chassis feels like nothing, the same load in a short 7.5 tonner is a different kettle of fish, one horse only has to ■■■■ and it blows the box of course 
coupled with the narrower track of a 7.5 tonner with the tendency to hop from tramline to tramline. Its an interesting drive with self presevation and the importance of not soiling ones underwear soon being brought to the fore.
Big Joe
Bin there then?
Not good ?
jj72:
all i know is i ALWAYS have a gander when i see a horsebox because 80% of the time it’s a posh horsey bird driving and most of them are rrrrrrrather nice - some even wear riding boots and jodphurs
ditto
It’s quite an entertaining gamble as you drive past - ‘pretty or pig’? If I had’ve been betting on pretty ones . . . i’d have soon been skint!!
I`d have lost my money too 
If you can afford it, then you have gots pots of cash, big house, land etc.
Well i dont own a horse or ride one or anything, but that’s a pretty inacurate statement.
Plenty of you smoke, which costs a lot more than keeping a horse, yet i doubt many of you smokers have pots of cash, land etc…
My opinion is there are good and bad horse box drivers the same as there are good and bad drivers of every other kind of vehicle. Some (a lot of) lorry drivers are ignorant, rude and downright dangerous too, you only have to read many of the posts of here to see that.
Plenty of you smoke, which costs a lot more than keeping a horse
Wow. Tell me were I can find this cheap livery/feed/farrier/vet/tack etc etc etc, 'cos that’s a new one on me.
ever worked out how much it costs to smoke for a year…? At a rough guess based on 20 a day at £5 per pack you’re looking at £2000pa!
I mean my ‘thing’ is my mini, it cost me £8000 to buy in 2001, i spent £2000 on a JC tuning kit, £500 on brakes, i must have spent another £3000 on various other bits and peices, then there’s MOT’s, insurance, fuel, tax, servicing etc etc
I dont have pots of money or land, yet i can afford that. We all have our own hobbies and interests that we spend our money on, those with an interest in horses are no different. If my thing was horses instead of minis then i could easily afford it. A lot of people even ‘co-own’ a horse or pony, neither of which are all that expensive buy or keep, certainly no more expensive than many other hobbies, interests and past times.
dennisw1:
I mean my ‘thing’ is my mini, it cost me £8000 to buy in 2001, i spent £2000 on a JC tuning kit, £500 on brakes, i must have spent another £3000 on various other bits and peices, then there’s MOT’s, insurance, fuel, tax, servicing etc etc
So first off you spent £8000 …on a Mini 
, then you went and spent a further £5500+ on bits to soup it up … on a MINI
Dennis, trust me…there is no way you can own and keep a horse for £2000 a year (which is what you’re suggesting with your smoking analagy). I speak here as someone who has owned them, and in the cheapest way possible.
Where’s Nessa when you need her… 
jj72:
all i know is i ALWAYS have a gander when i see a horsebox because 80% of the time it’s a posh horsey bird driving and most of them are rrrrrrrather nice - some even wear riding boots and jodphurs
I thought I was the only one who like horseboxes for this reason,there is usually 2 or 3 rather nice ladyeeeez in the cab
Get a bit disappointed when theres a bloke driving
The young chicks I’ve seen driving them have been nearly as big as the horse and with faces like slapped arses .
Rob K:
The young chicks I’ve seen driving them have been nearly as big as the horse and with faces like slapped arses
Yeh but thats Yorkshire mate, where men are men & so are most of the women! Try a bit further south.
Melchett:
Rob K:
The young chicks I’ve seen driving them have been nearly as big as the horse and with faces like slapped arsesYeh but thats Yorkshire mate, where men are men & so are most of the women! Try a bit further south.
Don’t talk [zb] [zb] man 
. Yorkshire’s blessed with some of the finest women in the country and you can find most of them in the various bars, pubs and clubs in the town centres at weekends.
was coming back from london the other day and was on the M25 when i seen two very well made out daf 7.5ton horse lorrys on the other side of the road. They were very pleasing to look at but i couldnt see what was inside these two trucks as they were heading the wrong direction.
Rob K:
Don’t talk [zb] [zb] man
Yep thats where they are, winning arm wrestling comps after drinking 10 pints of theakstones
Lucy:
Dennis, trust me…there is no way you can own and keep a horse for £2000 a year (which is what you’re suggesting with your smoking analagy). I speak here as someone who has owned them, and in the cheapest way possible.Where’s Nessa when you need her…
My point is you dont have to own land and have pots of money either! Which you’ve more or less pointed out your self
True…But I took it to the other extreme, as a Horsedrawn Traveller. Even then we couldn’t keep them for under 2 grand a year, and our grazing was provided free by the farms for whom we worked. Winter feed alone - hay, beet and choff, pony nuts for the Clydesdale - cost more than that per horse, and this was 10 years ago.
And just before Rob starts, no, we weren’t ■■■■■, we were New Age Crusty Scum. Even the ■■■■■ hated us…and we were far too incompetant and hippy-dippy/ left wing to pinch diesel out of lorries. That just…wouldn’t be right, man. 
Lucy:
And just before Rob starts, no, we weren’t ■■■■■, we were New Age Crusty Scum. Even the ■■■■■ hated us…and we were far too incompetant and hippy-dippy/ left wing to pinch diesel out of lorries. That just…wouldn’t be right, man.
I don’t care what title they come under, travellers, fairground, new age crusty scum etc, they’re all still gypo’s and will nick your diesel.
Much as I hate to agree have to agree with you Rob, these days you’re probably right.
When I was “on site” there were two factions. There were people like us who travelled for work, following the same itinerant circuit year in, year out, and parking on the farms that employed us and long-used common land. The locals knew us, knew we were self-supporting and always left the place as we found it, and that we were vital to their rural economies. We used to do the apples, hops, soft fruit, elderflowers, spuds, daffs, lambing and seasonal holiday relief for cattle farmers - we were working all year 'round.
Then there were those who were basically only on site to avoid paying rent and avoid getting a job (by staying of No Fixed Abode when signing on). The two factions hated each other and very much “policed their own” - any of the lazy faction who were found to be doing hard drugs or theiving etc. were given a good swift kicking and thrown off site in short order. Bear in mind that we were the ones who had witnessed the end of the Free Festival Economy and suffered at the hands of the riot police thanks to these scum, so we weren’t about to let it happen again.
Unfortunately heroin and crack cocaine crept in, and it all started to fall apart. The working travellers no longer wanted to live and bring up families in that atmosphere, and the velvet claw of addiction pulled more and more of the weaker members in. I remember one 2nd generation New Ager sobbing her heart out in my trailer one night because all three of her kids (in their late teens, so adults by this time) had been sucked in and started dealing in hard drugs to fund their habits.
Eventually most of us with a bit more backbone did one of three things. Either a) give up and go “into bricks”, which is what I did, hence wagon driving in my case, although I did factory work first; b) head for the Continent and work over there where the old scene still survives to this day; or c) become far less visible and hide even deeper within the farming community who were relying on them.
The results of this speak for themselves. The New Age travellers who you see around the place now are to a great extent the drug-addled scum who killed the good side off, and consequently crime is, indeed, rife within these communities. The farmers are now having to use Eastern European labour, as the itinerant British workforce on which they depended have gone to pastures new. The reputation of the travelling community is shot to hell for ever more.
As someone who remembers how it was and how it should have stayed, I find the whole thing incredibly sad. Never again will there be such an opportunity for working class people like me to live, work, and raise families in a countryside which is beyond their financial reach under any other circumstances. Never again will I be lucky enough to live in a true community, where doors were never locked, and it was rare to be lonely. We fought long and hard to be able to continue living an alternative but constructive lifestyle. All that was lost for the sake of a weekend “high” that got out of control.
I know I rant on about this one whenever it comes up, but I’m afraid that given what is left, I can’t in all honesty argue with Rob’s point. What a waste, eh?