When I was a teen, went out to catch my horse out of the field, another horse came galloping by me and did a fantastic buck/double barrel me thing. Knocked me clear off my feet- I was bruised for weeks and I’m very lucky it wasn’t my face
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We were galloping two event horses, trying to use my friend’s horse to make mine more competitive and “into” the fitness work. Her horse was saintly and had never offered anything naughty. Until I switched sides my horse was following on. Immediate double barrel kick, my horse dodged, and my kneecap took the full kick.
We pulled up immediately and my leg was gushing blood. It didn’t really hurt, but I threw my leg over the knee rolls so it was somewhat elevated and we hacked the three miles home. Got helped off the horse, driven to the hospital and found my kneecap was shattered. The hospital only thought I was cut and didn’t want to X-ray since I walked in 
. Luckily I insisted, and left with a brace that Iocked my leg straight and 9 or 10 staples.
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Holy crap you guys…! 
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Not me, but in September my sister managed to get between two mares who were having a “discussion” about who was higher in the pecking order. She was kicked in the face, broke her jaw, and lost several teeth, as well an having an amnesia-inducing concussion. Her jaw was wired closed for about 4 weeks, and she will need extensive dentistry once the jaw is completely healed. Luckily the surface of her face itself was undamaged.
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These stories are so scary. I got nailed about 6 weeks ago. I was giving meds to one mare, my other mare was being nosy so I turned and shoo’d her. She wheeled and got me right below the ribs, dropping me cold. Thankfully I was wearing multiple winter layers and it barely left a mark. But it still took me a few minutes to catch my breath and stand up. I didn’t want to miss my CTJ moment so I hurled frozen turd balls while screaming obscenities at her from my knees. Not my finest moment of horsemanship. lol
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I remember our big Appendix. He was such a lovely boy, and he adored my daughter.
She’d taken a hard lesson on him once, and went back to the barn to untack. I walked up behind them and started ripping off the hind leg boots (velcro) without enough warning. That was one of those “wind whistling by me” moments, and frankly, I would have deserved a real hit, but I think he missed on purpose.
I also remember my daughter giving him a shot in the low slope of his hindquarters. He’d had sarcoids, and the shots to remove the sarcoids had made him really needle shy, but my daughter figured she could give a routine vaccine in the hiney. He slo-mo/carefully lifted that hind leg and shoved her away with his foot. Not a kick, but a shove. A polite but pointed message.
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This is less of a kick, than a kicking story.
Years ago I had a Welsh Pony mare who was the sweetest, easiest, equine ever. Anything I wanted to do, she was always ready to cooperate. So the first time I went to clean her udder, I didn’t think to go slowly and introduce her to what I was doing. I just reached under and went to work. And she cow kicked. I was close enough that that I didn’t get hurt but I did go flying. She was absolutely horrified. “OMG, did I do that? I’m so sorry!!!”
A year later, I had a young TB mare who was reactive to everything. Having learned my lesson, the first time I went to clean her udder, I went really slowly. I faced her tail and snugged up against her hip so that when she kicked, I’d hopefully just get a good shove. After a minute, I realize there’s no reaction at all so I turn and have a look. The mare’s eyes are closed, her lower lip is drooping and she has this blissful expression on her face. She thought this was the best idea ever. After that, if she ever thought I was slacking in my duties, she’d lift her hind leg out to the side like a dog when I was grooming her, and nudge me with her nose to make her point. 
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Been pretty lucky. Just once got kicked with hind legs. It was a windy day and after I took her halter off out she did the squeal-spin-kick thing. She totally pulled her punch – really don’t think she even meant to connect at all. So I just had a sore glute for a couple days.
Second one though a horse connected with a strike, and he meant business. 16.2h warmblood with dinner plate size hooves. Got me on my femur just above my knee. It happened so fast, I couldn’t really process what happened, but it’s definitely the most pain I think I’ve ever felt (ok, maybe the IUD was worse). Probably should’ve gone to the doctor for that one–leg had a pretty good dent in it at first-- but after the first day I was confident it was just really bruised and not broken or anything.
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I can’t remember getting kicked over my horse ownership years…I am pretty sure I have (50-ish years with horses) but nothing lasting.
The worst things…a pony bit me and dragged me off my horse way back in my teens. Damned, did that hurt. I had a huge hematoma on my thigh that took years to totally resolve.
A couple years ago I was teaching my horse Spanish walk. Yeah…I was busy talking and not watching the horse’s position and she nailed me. Ooh, that left a mark. Not her fault at all and she still got her atta girl. I have paid much more attention to detail since then.
Susan
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Never been bitten badly, but those of you who, like me, got nailed just above the knee, don’t you get almost ill thinking about how crippled we could have been???
And @exvet’s story is just horrible.
I’ll be happy when I can sleep peacefully on my left side again.
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The most recent and memorable was last year - I had been leasing a paint gelding for years and he was the most unflappable steady-eddy guy, too energy-efficient to ever lift a hoof if it wasn’t required. It was a nasty day in January and I was checking blankets before I left the barn, and as I walked behind him in his paddock he squealed and nailed me without warning. Got me in the thigh maybe 2 inches above the knee. My husband jokes that it’s a good thing I’m only 5’1, because a normal-sized person would have lost their kneecap.
Turned out that this gelding was brewing up a tumor which had traveled up his optic nerve into his brain (in spite of an enucleation several months before to try and stop its progression). He deteriorated over the next couple months until being PTS in the spring. This might have been one of the first symptoms as it was completely uncharacteristic of him. He’d been bred, trained, and owned by the same family his whole life and never kicked for anything.
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I was 5 years old, visiting my grandpa (and his horses) in Georgia. I was horse crazy but had no handling experience. Walked up behind one of his horses who nailed me square in the hips. I flew about 20 feet and hit the ground. Rushed to the ER and amazingly enough, nothing was broken. At 57, I still have a very healthy respect for a horses hind end and my hips are my weak spot.
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I was about 14 and had finished an indoor leason. Went outside to cool down at a walk. For the first and only time in my life I considered removing my hunt cap — I was sweating — and then thought better of it. A moment later, the horse bucked me off for no apparent reason. A witness said he aimed a rear foot at the back of my head.
I felt my brain hit the front of my skull. Everything went black briefly. A stablehand carried me to the tack room. I showed no immediate effects — and as testament to 1970s parenting practices, NEVER WENT TO THE HOSPITAL. Years later a surgeon told me that a blow like that can cause internal decapitation. For certain my uncovered skull would have been fractured.
The hunt cap sustained a crack and a tear to the velvet. I hung on to it for many years as a reminder never, ever to ride without.
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Somehow (knock wood) I have never been kicked, at least since I started as a re-rider in 2006. There have been a couple of close calls, but it helps that I have a very well-mannered mare.
Well, she is that way towards people anyway. AFAIK she has only deliberately kicked a human once (a farrier, when her hocks were really sore). Other horses? She kicks first and asks questions later, which is one of the many reasons that even though she wants to be an alpha mare, she never has been.
So, 2 other people have been kicked by her but it was because they were in the way when she kicked at another horse. Nothing terrible happened.
And yes, she will lift a hind leg in warning if she is thinking about kicking. During the years where she was so sensitive to static that it was hard to change her blanket, she started lifting a hind leg, once, when I first went to undo the belly straps. After hundreds of blanket changes, she still does it sometimes; I think it’s habit. Just like I now have the habit of growling at her and saying “quit it!” when she does it. But she has never progressed to a kick. She has occasionally lifted a hind leg when I’m cleaning her udder, which is usually a “back off” warning, and since I really don’t want to get kicked, I won’t push it. And there was one very bad period when she had what was probably a tick-borne illness, that caused the insides of her gaskins and the area near her udder to swell up and become very hot, and I respected her polite requests to please stop poking her there. She did recover, after 2 courses of antibiotics.
I am very happy to have a horse that understands that people are not horses, and there are certain behaviors that can be used with other horses, but not with people.
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My youngster stopped short of actually kicking me just today. He has always had this slightly comical reflex to kick out with his left hind leg when he’s scared, feels threatened, etc. Even if the ‘thing’ is in front of him. Sort of a ‘look, I’m scary, I could kick you!’ gesture. He has never tried to kick me, and trust me - he’s had about a million opportunities over the course of his learning to be handled all over and pick up his feet.
So he managed to turn his tail into a big mud paddle today, and I decided to do a wash 'n trim. No problems there, like an old pro. The post-wash conditioning spray apparently became threatening after a couple minutes though, and that little foot snapped back but stopped just a couple inches from my leg. I growled and went back to spraying. He gave a half-hearted second try and I bopped him in the leg with my foot, scared the demons right out of him.
He’s 2.5, so… demons visit us on a semi-regular basis. He sure is pretty though.
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It was a lovely summer day, warm sun, gentle breeze, and the horse and I were chilling out, him grazing, me staring at the clouds and listening to him pulling at the grass. We were away on our own, far removed from all the other horses busy with the competition, both of us quiet and happy in our sunny space … then WHAM!! I get kicked in the leg by another horse that was actually aiming at my fellow. “Oh sorry” says the stupid women on the end of the reins holding the kicker “he just wanted to come over here and I didn’t like to stop him”. Lesson learned. It’s not always the horse: one needs eyes in the back of the head at all times anywhere near other riders.
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I’ve been kicked in the chest and it was my own fault. But that’s not my favorite story. When my boy was 4, we went to a show at the horse center in Va. my stepmom, who was in a wheelchair wanted to see us compete so they came to the show. Before I could say a word, she wheeled right over to his hind leg and started petting him. He never moved a muscle, not one.single.twitch.
He’s 19 this year and I have never forgotten that day. If he had kicked he might have killed her. And, in the paddock with other horses (he went out alone for most of his life) he’s known as the enforcer, so it’s not that he can’t or won’t kick…
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I was asked to ride the horse of a fellow boarder who actually encouraged his horse to get in his space and be generally disrespectful with ground manners (for reasons I don’t understand - I suspect he thought it was more manly to have a pushy horse, and this horse did not start off with bad manners, which I know since I used to groom the horse in prior years). Before I got on, I decided to lead the horse around one lap of the arena, asking him to halt softly beside me every once in a while to remind him that I was not his owner.
Things were going well until I got to the far end of the arena and I asked him to halt in the middle of the short side. Rather than halt, he kept walking around me, and when I asked him again to halt, he said F you, took off towards the barn at a canter (ripping the reins out of my hands), and double-barrel kicked me as he went.
One hoof got me in the stomach, and the other hit my ribs. I got a fractured rib, lots of bruising, and learned not to put myself at risk trying to help people who encourage bad behaviour from their horses.
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A few close calls, but I have managed to miss out on being the victim so far. As a trauma center facial surgeon I treated maybe two dozen or so horse kick injuries, including a couple of equine vets. But the kicks took second place in difficulty to bites, since they frequently left chunks of face missing and often required multiple surgeries. At least you don’t die from a horse bite.
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I’ve been the recipient of two kicks that each sent me to the hospital. The first when I was 18 and working at the barn I happened to be passing behind a two year old when an older horse threatened her. She backed away, bumped me, and kicked with both hind legs. I was so close that the point of one hock smashed my nose as she lifted her legs, and she just knocked me over with the actual kick. I was lucky the plastic surgeon was in the hospital that morning and he put my jigsaw nose back together that afternoon.
The other time I was going to get my horse and shooed the slightly ill-mannered horse away (because he always chased my horse away from me) and the beast took a shot at me as he left. I threw myself backwards, but he still connected with enough force that I couldn’t walk due to the pain. I still have the scar on my thigh a few inches below the hip joint. I later learned that horse had deliberately kicked other humans.
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