An Open Letter to My Non-horsey Facebook Friends

Please, for the sake of horse people everywhere, let this post go viral. Because I know I’m not alone in saying I JUST CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE.

Dear Non-Horsey Facebook Friends,

First of all, please know that I deeply value our special Facebook friendship. What I am about to say to you is no reflection on you or our relationship. It’s just something I need to get off my chest.

YOU HAVE TO STOP TAGGING ME IN EVERY SINGLE HORSE PHOTO/VIDEO/MEME THAT YOU SEE ON THE INTERNET.

Like, seriously. Stop.

Even if we haven’t talked to each other since middle school, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’m still doing the equestrian thing. There’s a horse in my profile picture and approximately 99% of the things I post involve riding. Leslie loves horses! Good job, Sherlock.

That doesn’t mean I want my Timeline cluttered up with every single scrap of horsey detritus you run across in cyberspace. I know you mean well and are just trying to bring a smile to my face, but believe me when I tell you that it’s just not working.

Here some basic guidelines for determining what to share, with examples from my own personal Facebook timeline and inbox:

Please don’t tag me in photos of random pretty horses.

If I am really, really jonesing to see a photo of a pretty horse, I can Google “pretty horse”…

…or, better still, I can go out to the barn and see my own pretty horse. In real life!

Please don’t tag me in false posts from unreliable sources.

I can’t even count how many times this one has shown up on my Timeline:

Guess what? All 52 of those horses found homes within days back when the message was first posted… FOUR YEARS AGO. (For examples of other perennially viral horse posts that just won’t die, see Kristen Kovatch’s post from last week, “4 Horse Myths Still Circulating on the Internet.”)

If you’re going to post something on my page, or your page, and implore other people do the same, maybe take 30 seconds to first find out if it’s true.

Please don’t tag me in viral horse videos.

If you, a non-horsey citizen of the Facebook general populace, are just spotting a horse video on your feed, chances are I’ve already seen it — several times, several months ago.

Like this post, which showed up on my Facebook page in January:

Yes, I actually HAVE seen that clip! We posted it on Horse Nation at the beginning of November. Nice try, though.

Please don’t tag me in horse mask photos.

Just because I love horses does not mean I love photos of people (or any other creatures) wearing horse masks.

It’s not funny. It’s creepy. I don’t want to open my inbox to a pair of demonic looking horse eyes staring out at me. So please, just don’t.

Please don’t tag me in dumb horse memes.

I know you think it’s hilarious — what’s a fly mask, anyway? But to me it’s just a photo I’ve seen one thousand times before of a good-sport horse whose owner thought it would be funny to blindfold him with a bra and take his picture.

Delete.

I could go on and on but I’m hoping you get the picture. And it’s not just me having this experience…

I wish my extended family would stop tagging me in majestical horse pictures on Facebook.

— вrιттany (@brittanica_12) March 26, 2014

Non-horse people: please stop tagging me in pictures and videos of random horses. I don’t care. I see horses every day.

— Audrey Rey (@PromettezRey) February 26, 2014

For gods sake STOP tagging me in horse photos on Facebook. I’m a computer nerd, odds are I saw that picture months before you did.

— lol (@OmgAbstinence) July 8, 2013

@Kim_Imbriglio STOP TAGGING ME IN HORSE VINES!!!!!

— 〽️eaghan (@meaghan_machado) August 12, 2014

My mom needs to stop tagging me in every horse video she sees. #forrealtho

— Daytona (@daytona2017) January 29, 2014

Thank you for understanding. Together, we can help make the Internet a better, or at least less annoying, place for horse people everywhere.

Sincerely,

Your Horsey Facebook Friends