Is Bush* really afraid of horses?

[BillZBubb]

I've seen this mentioned several times. Does someone have a definitive link?

I'd love for this to be true.

[Az_lefty]

1. wouldn't surprise me

he's a drugstore cowboy.

[achtung_circus]

2. Don't have a link

but many people are afraid of horses. In my experience, long and weird, wannabe cowboys are the worst. They buy the jeans, the boots, the hat, the belt buckle, look around for "what's next", buy a horse and get the severe shit scared out of themselves.

Many people in cowboy culture country seem to think they absorb horse knowledge through the drinking water or something. I wouldn't be at all surprised.

[disgruntled_goat]

3. make sense to me

if you are too tweaked to deal with a Seguway or a mountain bike, you damn well better stay away from horses. treacherous beasts for the novice.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

4. I have searched for proof of this claim

But I have found nothing except the same statement repeated on many sites with no substantiation. Most refer to it as a rumor, then repeat it gleefully.

However, I have also found no proof that he rides horses or has ever been on a horse. And indications that the Crawford ranch is a stage set purchased for show just before the 2000 elections also point to his lack of horsemanship. Here's a site with a synopsis of the Crawford situation, but you can find many others:

http://www.screwbush.iwarp.com/whoisbush.html

edit: typo

[opihimoimoi]

5. Did he have a fall off the Merry Go Round?

[MikeG]

6. No, the one outside the supermarket.

[opihimoimoi]

18. ROTFLMAO

Excellent mental picture, lol

[MisterP]

14. I recall Vicente Fox making reference to it:

"he seemed afraid of horses"

[Vickers]

20. When he declined to go horseback riding with Vincente Fox...

...the "rumor" got a boost. I mean, they are on a ranch, they are both "cowboy" politicians, there are horses there...it would've been a perfect photo op.

read the last paragraph of this USA Today story

[underpants]

22. but I hear Condi likes it

Okay that was cheap but hell why not?

[Vickers]

25. Maybe THAT'S why he didn't accept the saddle from Vincente Fox:

"Sorry, Vince...I like it bareback, baby."

:P

[Hubert Flottz]

7. He is keeping company with some real Horse's A$$es!

And that is being kind to their kind!

[efhmc]

8. Yes, they are bigger and smarter than he is. The truth is he does not

ride, once again proving what a real Texas rancher he is (not). My foreman's kids have been on horse since they were babes and my gs was on a pony at 18 months. Real Texans ride, Connecticut carpetbaggers do not.

[montanacowboy]

9. Have you EVER seen him on one?

or near or touching one? There isn't a self respecting horse in the world who would let that sniveling coward on it's back - one thing for horses, they can smell FEAR - and they will dump your sorry ass if they get a whiff of it - and Jr. has a whole lot of fear.

[mike1963]

10. Didn't Pickles once call him a pickup truck cowboy or something like

that?...??
:eyes:

[montanacowboy]

13. I think it was "windshield cowboy"

eom

[mike1963]

24. Ah, yes you're right. I forgot the aphorism. TKU!

:D
Edit: I suppose it's technically a metaphor, but only if it isn't literally true. :evilgrin:

[gulliver]

11. He's afraid of turkeys.

[Lisa]

17. Using someone else's hand to touch the turkey -- priceless!

I'd forgotten about that particular photo -- thanks for posting, gulliver! I guess that must have been from either last year or the year before, since he was wearing a different tie in 2001 when the designated turkey decided to investigate Bush more closely ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/graphic/0,7367,602463,00.html



By the way, this is the only pic I've ever unearthed of Bush on a horse. Or rather, a pony. Other DUers have told me that it looks suspiciously like a "setup" shot (they jammed him into the cowboy duds and plonked him on the pony's back -- Georgie's first staged photo-op!).


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/images/campaign2000/bush/bush_photo2.htm

[Nomad559]

12. "Windshield Cowboy"

http://magazines.ivillage.com/goodhousekeeping/myhome/friends/articles/0,,287164_561058,00.html

Laura Bush: He's pretty romantic. We like to go for rides at our ranch, before dinner. He's a windshield cowboy, as he says, which means he drives a pickup. We drive down into the bottoms of the creekbeds and the riverbeds. And we do that nearly every time we're there, nearly every day. And it's really the only time we're alone like that, in a car. That's fun!



http://www.shortnews.com/shownews.cfm?id=37652

Bush designates himself the "Windshield Cowboy"

In a statement George W. Bush has called himself a "windshield cowboy," the kind who patrols his ranch from a pickup truck, not from a horse where he might get dirty.

[efhmc]

15. LBJ used to take his guest, including reporters, for a ride in his Cad

convertible around the ranch (his REAL family, made a living from it, homsteaded it ranch). He loved to take them flying down the low water crossing at a fast pace and see them react. He also did this to his foreign guests. He reminds me of the crazy humor at others' expense men I remember so well from many of those old guys.

[rhino47]

16. Yeah hes afraid

that the horse would walk backwards and they would be mistaken for twins.

[hlthe2b]

19. Horses have a natural "bull shit meter," and would immeditely know

that he was full of it. A horse that does not respect you (that senses your fear and insecurity-- especially when accompanied by arrogance, or anger) can be a very dangerous proposition. Even a very gentle horse has a way of letting you know who is in charge, if they don't sense you know what you are doing ... My guess is that (if he has had any contact), it did not go well.

[Bridget Burke]

21. From BushWatch....

Halfway down the page..... www.bushwatch.com/watercoolerjuly02.htm

While they both wear cowboy boots and call each other "amigo,"... a big difference between Resident Bush and Mexico President Vicente Fox is that Fox can ride a horse and Bush apparently cannot. Their meeting in Mexico last week at Fox's home in San Cristobal, was dubbed the "Ranch-House Summit." Fox gave Bush a silver buckle the size of a hub cap and a couple of pairs of cowboy boots made by his brother, but when Maximiliana, the horse, was trotted up for Bush to take a ride on with Fox, our drug store cowboy said, "No mas!"

Can it be that Bush can't ride a horse? I've been in Texas over twenty years and have never seen a picture of Bush on a horse nor have I read a story reporting same. It would figure. Bush is all photo op and no cattle. Take his land outside of Waco. Folks around there call their spreads "farms," not "ranches." Instead of the Bush spin of the tough cowboy from the West, we should see him for what he is: a privileged, conservative millionaire product of Eastern estblishment schools who lives on a farm, rides golf carts, not horses, and thinks of himself as John Wayne. Pathetic. --Politex, 2/25/01

Is fear the reason he can't ride? Why doesn't somebody ask him?

[underpants]

23. No equestrian classes at the prep school?

Williams academy in Andover Mass, I believe.

Don't tell me they didn't have horse stables and equestrian classes.

Sorry W would call it horseback ridin' like he had any idea what he was talking about.

Have you ever seen the man on a horse?

[Generator]

26. No but armadillos really throw him for a loop