by Laura Crum
Freak
accidents are scary. By freak accident, I guess I mean the truly unexpected
happening, not a result of obvious problems or carelessness. In my opinion,
there are no freak accidents when you are training/riding/handling young/green
horses. Such horses can be expected to do problematic things and if you do not
expect this sort of behavior, you’re not thinking straight and will inevitably
have a quite predictable accident. This is even more true if you’re re-training
problem horses. Even if you do everything right, you will have some accidents
when riding young horses or problem horses…it goes with the territory. But when
a person with lots of horse experience is riding/handling older, solid, gentle
horses and uses safe practices, and still an accident happens…well, I’d call
that a freak accident.
Since
I very sincerely do NOT want to get hurt at this point in my life, I’ve given a
lot of thought to freak accidents and how to avoid them. I am that person with
lots of experience who chooses to ride/handle only older solid, gentle horses.
So I’ve hugely reduced my risk right there. But those pesky freak accidents are
still a potential problem. I’m knocking on wood right now as I type, but I have
to admit, my horse life has been remarkably free of freak accidents. And I hope
to keep it that way. So the other day I sat down and tried to consciously think
about what I do to prevent such accidents.
The
first thing that came up for me is that I’ve learned to recognize potential
problems BEFORE they happen. This is huge. Its partly a matter of experience
(I’ve seen a lot of stuff), partly a matter of intuition (and paying attention
to your intuition), and partly a matter of listening carefully when I hear
about a wreck and making sure I don’t make that particular mistake. So when
Olympic rider Courtney King-Dye suffered a traumatic brain injury when a gentle
horse fell with her, I bought a helmet. I’ve ridden all my life without one,
but I KNEW, when I read her story on her blog, that wearing a helmet made sense
and that I should do it. If it could happen to her, it could happen to me. And
the results can be devastating.
The
reality is that a horse falling with me (or my son) is my biggest fear. Any
horse can fall. Period. Some are more likely to fall than others, but they can
all fall. Wearing a helmet reduces your risk of brain injury; it won’t help
with the rest of your body. I know of several ways to reduce the risk of a
horse falling at all. If a person heeds these guidelines, the risk of a horse
falling is much less.
1) Ride a horse who has never
fallen under saddle. Mostly, if they haven’t fallen, they won’t. But it’s no
guarantee.
2) Don’t ride when the footing is
bad. Too deep, too slick…etc. Just don’t ride.
3) Don’t overtire a horse. They
make mistakes of all sorts, including falling, when they are tired.
4) Don’t ride a lame horse. It’s
the same basic problem as number 3.
5) Learn to “catch” a horse with
the reins when he stumbles. Some will argue with this, but I have found it to
be effective. Ever since a good horse once fell with me loping on a “thrown
away” rein, I never ride on a completely loose rein. I always have very light
contact, and I “catch” my horse when he stumbles. So far, it’s worked.
6) If you have any misgivings
(about the footing, or the horse) trot or walk rather than lope. Horses don’t
fall easily from the trot or walk…they usually fall from the lope.
7) This one is obvious, but many
people just don’t seem to get it. Your risk of falling and being hurt is much
greater when you are doing something at speed, be it jumping or roping or
whatever. If you seriously wish to avoid being hurt, don’t choose eventing, ya
know?
8) Experienced older horses with no
history of falling are the safest, but a horse that is truly old and arthritic
has a higher risk of falling than a strong horse in the prime of life.
So there’s a list for you. How to
deal with the problem of a horse falling BEFORE it happens. But, though a horse
falling with me is my greatest fear, there are other risks. People get injured
all the time handling horses from the ground—they even get killed. I have to
admit, in some ways I feel safer ON a horse than leading it. So here’s some
things I do to reduce my risk handling horses on the ground.
1) Don’t feed by walking in the
corral or stall. Food aggression is a huge problem and some otherwise gentle
horses will never be reliable in this area (I had one of these). My pens are
set up such that I feed from outside the fence.
2) Always pull a horse’s head to
you before you turn him loose. Ever since I heard of an old horseman who was
killed by being kicked in the head while turning a horse loose, I’ve been
careful about this one. Because I, too, have turned a gentle horse loose, only
to have him kick up his heels and run off.
3) Don’t ever assume a horse WON’T
kick you or run over you. I do believe that some of my horses would never do
this, but I treat them as though they might. I don’t stand behind them when
they are loose, I lead them from the correct position at all times, I don’t sit
down or lie down when hand grazing them, I don’t play games with them at
liberty, or mess around with them in their corrals without catching them. My
horses are truly gentle and what I am doing is really overkill, but it is the
way to prevent that accident before it happens.
4) My horses are all broke to be
tied solid. Even so, I never assume that they won’t pull back and I use caution
when I work around them tied up.
5) Don’t ever allow a leadrope or
lungeline or rope of any kind to wrap around your arm or leg, or any part of
your body—not even for a moment. It does happen, but when it does, unwrap it
immediately. So many bad wrecks that I’ve known came from being tangled up and
drug.
6) Insist on good manners from the
horse at all times. Its very easy to let a gentle horse get spoiled such that
he crowds you or pulls on you—you know he doesn’t mean to hurt you, you trust
him, you don’t want to get after him. But…this is the path by which that gentle
horse one day ends up knocking you down. Make sure all the horses you handle
respect your space and follow your direction. Be clear and firm at all times.
Remain the boss. This is actually a hard one for many people to follow, and I
am guilty of being lax here, too. But when one of my horses virtually drags me
toward a patch of grass, I realize my mistake, and we have a brief reminder of
manners.
The other category of freak
accident that I’ve both seen and heard of, comes from the truly gentle horse
doing something unexpected. Either because he was stung, or startled by
something that really frightened him, or feeling way too good, or, well, who
knows. But this does happen. My son’s horse, Henry, is an equine saint, and yet
he had a little meltdown over feeling good one morning, and he was dramatically
afraid of my son in plastic knight armor, complete with sword and shield. And
the number of people I’ve known who were badly hurt due to a gentle horse
unexpectedly spooking—whether they came off his back or were mowed down on the
ground, is well, legion. I’ve already addressed the ground handling issues, so
here are a few tips for when you’re aboard.
1) Ride with your hand on the horn.
This sounds dumb, I know, and is counter to how we were all taught to ride. But
it can save your life. I learned this when I was showing cutting horses. They
duck and dive in amazing ways, and all cutters ride with a hand gripping the
horn. I got in the habit of doing this and after that, whenever I rode my very
spooky, reactive Gunner “outside,” I rode with one hand on the saddle horn.
Saved me coming off numerous times. (I realize this is no help to English
riders.)
2) Listen to your gut. Make a LOT
of space for this. If you have a plan to do a particular ride and it just
doesn’t feel right, if you feel a lot of resistance to it, don’t go. Maybe
you’re responding to subtle signals that your horse is feeling very “up”, maybe
you can feel an odd energy in the wind that is tossing the trees, maybe you can
faintly hear dirt bikes out in the hills where you meant to ride…whatever it
is, your gut just doesn’t want to go. Don’t go. Wait until you feel that you do
want to go. This has helped me a great deal.
3) Expect the unexpected. Take the
obvious precautions. Wear a helmet, tell someone where you’re going, carry a
cell phone, ride with friends when exploring a new place. If you can see
trouble coming, prepare as best you can. One time while riding on the beach, I
saw two very low flying helicopters approaching, and realized the horses might
not like them. We bunched the three horses shoulder to shoulder, with my son’s
horse in the middle, and I clipped the leadrope that I carry with me to the
halter that Henry wears under his bridle and got a hold of him. Of the three
horses, Henry was the one who got scared, but I was able to keep him from
spooking or running. Sometimes being prepared amounts to feeling that your
horse might spook, and getting a good grip on the horn while you keep your body
relaxed. There are those who like to get off and lead when their horse feels
too “up.” I’m not in this camp, I feel safer and more in control ON the horse.
4) Sometimes truly gentle horses
freak out unpredictably due to being stung or who knows? This has happened to
good horses that I have known. Fortunately I was never on one or in the path of
one at the time. I do the best I can to be wary—we don’t trail ride much during
the season when wasps are most active here (August/September), and I remain
alert and watchful. I once disturbed a wasp nest while riding a 4 year old in
the mountains. He was stung and started to bolt. I saw what was happening and
turned the bolt into a controlled but speedy long trot and we got the hell out
of there, escaping any more stings. No harm done. Being alert and paying attention
goes a long way toward staying safe.
5) Never assume. This is similar to
the above—remain watchful and alert. Sad to say, it really helps if you are on
the lookout for problems. This doesn’t mean you have to stay tense and worried,
but it’s my belief that you have to stay alert. I liken it to a gazelle walking
down to the water hole. The gazelle can enjoy the evening; but it better not
forget there are predators out there. Your trail ride may be idyllic in the
moment, but trouble can be just around the corner. Very often you can ensure
that trouble remains minor, rather than life threatening, if you are alert and
catch the problem before it escalates.
Never assume. So often I hear
things like, “The horse freaked when someone opened a soda can from his back
and bolted.” I have known people to be bucked off when taking off a jacket, or
when a ball rolled under their horse. Don’t assume that a horse will tolerate
something—even if it seems no big deal to you. As I mentioned before, the
otherwise very reliable Henry freaked out at the sight of my son in plastic
knight’s armor—fortunately my kid was only running around the barnyard. He did
have plans to ride Henry and be, you know, the knight on horseback, but those
plans were quickly abandoned. And again, the first time my son wanted to eat
lunch on Henry’s back, I made sure I had Henry on the leadrope and was
prepared, in case the sounds of packages being unwrapped bothered the horse. It
didn’t bother him at all, as it turned out, but I didn’t assume this would be
the case.
OK—there are a few things that I do
to prevent accidents before they happen. Some of this stuff will be of no use
to those of you who are younger and braver and want to compete in strenuous
events, and I understand this. I trained young horses and competed at cutting
and team roping when I was young. I was taking risks and I knew it. I felt OK
with that level of risk at that time. Now I don’t.
So how about you guys? I would love
it if you would let me know what you do to reduce your risk of being hurt in a
freak accident with your horse. And I hope you all are having much fun with
your own horses—spring is here.
