I am the first one to say that I love my horses – they are part of my family.
Unfortunately, interaction with one of my beloved horses has resulted in me currently being in a wheelchair and using a walker. I do not blame the horse – this was one of my competitive driving horses and he and I have done many incident-free kilometers.
Something I was unaware of kicked in his fright reflex and away we went at a high rate of speed out of control in varied terrain. The end result was me being ejected from the vehicle and contacting the very firm ground on my knees. The carriage is broken, the horse is fine and I am looking at a very long recovery time.
I do not relate this incident in an effort to garner sympathy. It is vitally important that all folks interacting with horses keep in mind that these wonderful animals do come with risks. Certainly for me and all other horse lovers, the benefits of associating with horses far outweigh the pitfalls, but we certainly can take steps to minimize the chances of problems.
A key element in all of this is understanding the nature of the horse. The horse is a prey animal and must always be on the lookout for anything that could potentially be a problem (in their little minds). Horses may startle easily if they are in a situation where there are new things going on around them that are not familiar – we have all seen horses spook out on the trail at a large rock. In the horse world, that large rock could be a predator hunched down waiting for lunch.
Another element is understanding you are dealing with a large animal that could unintentionally inflict damage on the human with no intention at all. A friend of mine was working around her horse, the horse put its head down in the feed tub to have a snack, my friend was combing the mane and the horse unexpectedly raised its head quickly right in to my friends face. The end result was a broken jaw in two places, cracked in another spot and is still now causing discomfort.
Even the most experienced and expert horse folks have had an incident or two in their lifetime with horses. It is a curious phenomenon that when you get a group of horse folks sitting around the campfire chatting about their lives with horses, there will usually be a portion of the conversation involving ‘incidents’ with horses that involve some kind of injury. While not a badge of honor, it is a fact of life that when working with horses, the situation (according to my husband Jay’s philosophy of the horse world), “It is not if you are going to have an accident, it is when.”
Now, he may have a slightly jaded viewpoint, as since we have been together I have now had two major ‘incidents’, but my suspicion is he is not too far wrong. In looking at statistics regarding human injuries related to horses, there does seem to be some support to that statement. When I was in emergency recently, the topic came up with the emergency doctor and he did comment on the number of equine related situations he has dealt with over the last couple of years just in our area.
I love my horses, as do all horsey folks – as long as we take reasonable safety precautions for both us and the horses, the relationship between horse and human will always be a most rewarding one.
