Online Horse Hoaxes, Urban Legends and Fakes
About.com has a whole site dedicated to debunking online fakes, scams and hoaxes. These silly stories land in our inboxes, show up on Facebook, Pinterest and other online communities. The horse world has its fair share of these fabrications as well. Here's a look at some of the online horse hoaxes and urban legends you might encounter.
If you have a Twitter account, and have looked for horse-related tweets to follow, you may have come across Horse_ebooks. And, you'll quickly realize that Horse_ebooks has nothing to do with horses. The account was originally created to promote an online horse e-book store. However, the account is now tweeted to by a spam bot, according to Gawker.com's Adrian Chen, who tracked down the account's owner. It’s become what famous, with thousands of people following it to see the random, and sometimes poetic tweets it spits out.
Is that big furniture or tiny horses? The message circulating with this photo is that the local by-laws would not let a horse owner build his horses a proper shelter, so he built large decorative furniture for them to stand under instead. The location of the giant furniture changes in the message, and you might be surprised to find this interesting landmark is somewhere near you. However, it probably isn't, unless you live in Germany, where a wood crafter set the furniture up to promote his business, and the quite regular-sized horses were smart enough to take advantage of the shade. The Telegraph in the UK carried just one of several pictures of horses standing beneath the giant table and chairs.
A gorgeous Paint Horse stallion appears to have the word 'horse' in his eye-catching color pattern. This Photoshop creation placed second on Worth1000.com's Spell It Out Contest. “I wanted it to look realistic and subtle,” says the digital artist, batbrat. And, it does, with this photo showing up in inboxes and on social networking sites to the awe of horse lovers who share it.
Akhal-Tekes are not everyone's cup of tea. So, while this photo might be circulating with the caption 'the most beautiful horse in the world' not everyone would agree. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. You probably think your horse is the most beautiful one in the world. And that's the way it should be.
At a time when unwanted horses are filling rescues to overflow, the message that fifty-two Thoroughbreds need homes immediately or are destined to go to slaughter ignites equine related social media websites, forums and blogs. Oddly, the horses seemed to be located anywhere between Ohio and Scotland. The horses did actually need homes. They belonged to an elderly gentleman, and upon his passing, most were adopted by family friends within days. But since the original message hit the internet in 2011, it's reappeared in several incarnations. According to snopes.com, the original message did not say the horses were in danger of going for slaughter.
As part of a big-game hunting adventure, a Texas business purportedly offered the opportunity to hunt horses. Two websites appear to exist to advertise this adventure. No need to worry, this one is a hoax.
Several versions of this story have circulated around the internet. In the various stories, hunters, a couple from Montana or people working cattle were stalked by a mountain lion. When the lion attacked, a vicious battle between one of the mules they were riding and the big cat occurred. Purportedly, the mule one. The truth is, the cat was already dead when the mule attacked it. About.com Urban Legends expert David Emery gets the real story on the mule that actually attacks a dead mountain lion.
1. Horse-ebooks
If you have a Twitter account, and have looked for horse-related tweets to follow, you may have come across Horse_ebooks. And, you'll quickly realize that Horse_ebooks has nothing to do with horses. The account was originally created to promote an online horse e-book store. However, the account is now tweeted to by a spam bot, according to Gawker.com's Adrian Chen, who tracked down the account's owner. It’s become what famous, with thousands of people following it to see the random, and sometimes poetic tweets it spits out.
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2. Horse (S)table
Is that big furniture or tiny horses? The message circulating with this photo is that the local by-laws would not let a horse owner build his horses a proper shelter, so he built large decorative furniture for them to stand under instead. The location of the giant furniture changes in the message, and you might be surprised to find this interesting landmark is somewhere near you. However, it probably isn't, unless you live in Germany, where a wood crafter set the furniture up to promote his business, and the quite regular-sized horses were smart enough to take advantage of the shade. The Telegraph in the UK carried just one of several pictures of horses standing beneath the giant table and chairs.
3. Spell Horse
A gorgeous Paint Horse stallion appears to have the word 'horse' in his eye-catching color pattern. This Photoshop creation placed second on Worth1000.com's Spell It Out Contest. “I wanted it to look realistic and subtle,” says the digital artist, batbrat. And, it does, with this photo showing up in inboxes and on social networking sites to the awe of horse lovers who share it.
4. The Most Beautiful Horse in the World
Akhal-Tekes are not everyone's cup of tea. So, while this photo might be circulating with the caption 'the most beautiful horse in the world' not everyone would agree. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. You probably think your horse is the most beautiful one in the world. And that's the way it should be.
5. The Fifty-two Thoroughbreds Found Homes
At a time when unwanted horses are filling rescues to overflow, the message that fifty-two Thoroughbreds need homes immediately or are destined to go to slaughter ignites equine related social media websites, forums and blogs. Oddly, the horses seemed to be located anywhere between Ohio and Scotland. The horses did actually need homes. They belonged to an elderly gentleman, and upon his passing, most were adopted by family friends within days. But since the original message hit the internet in 2011, it's reappeared in several incarnations. According to snopes.com, the original message did not say the horses were in danger of going for slaughter.
6. Texas Horse Hunt
As part of a big-game hunting adventure, a Texas business purportedly offered the opportunity to hunt horses. Two websites appear to exist to advertise this adventure. No need to worry, this one is a hoax.
7. Mule vs Mountain Lion
Several versions of this story have circulated around the internet. In the various stories, hunters, a couple from Montana or people working cattle were stalked by a mountain lion. When the lion attacked, a vicious battle between one of the mules they were riding and the big cat occurred. Purportedly, the mule one. The truth is, the cat was already dead when the mule attacked it. About.com Urban Legends expert David Emery gets the real story on the mule that actually attacks a dead mountain lion.
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