At age 14 I got kicked in the shoulder while feeding the outside horses. Buckets kicked at Opie and I was in the middle. I still have a horseshoe nail-head scar about 6-8 inches from my chin to show for it.
I am pretty darn good with handling horses after all these years but if you’re not wary of loose horses you’re an idiot. There’s no easier place to get hurt than between two of them.
Oh that reminds me. In my town down south, we had trails, and horse-high buttons for the crosswalk lights across the main road. One of the trails we used went right in front of two schools, an elementary and a middle school, and one day we timed our passage completely wrong. School was letting out, that’s a damned fool time to be on horseback in front of the school.
Anyway, the trail crosses not only the road, but also the sidewalk. So, you ride along the trail, then cross the sidewalk at the corner, cross the street, cross the sidewalk on the other side, and you’re back on the trail. With me? The trails and the sidewalks are separated by a trail fence: keep the people and the horses apart. But at intersections, things cross.
Anyway, we’re there at the wrong time, and we have to cross this intersection which is now crazy busy with parents picking up kids (lots of cars), kids walking home (lots of kids) and us two dummies on the horses. We wait to cross, the light goes green, and we cross, along with a flood of foottraffic/skateboarders/scooterriders. Well, we can sweep to the right and stay clear of the mob, but not when we get to the other side, where we have to wait for a gap in the humanity to cross the sidewalk onto the safety of the trail.
Just as we see the gap and go, the light changes, and all the kids still in the crosswalk accelerate. Some kid slips in (on his skateboard) DIRECTLY behind my daughter’s horse. So close he has to put a hand on the horse’s rump to be sure not to bump him. My eyes are as big as fried eggs as I thoroughly expect daughter’s horse to sail him back to the other side of the road, but no. Horse just tucks his rump in that melee and lets the kid pass. Kid didn’t learn a thing from the exchange, but the horse was a ____ prince.
This reminds me of a time I turned around to fish another brush out of the grooming bucket and my horse gently tapped my butt in the most slow motion cow kick imaginable. Literally a “tap,” pause, “tap.” I hadn’t even realized I was in hind foot range!
No stories about farriers being kicked? Either they know things the rest of us don’t about kick avoidance and prevention, or don’t use COTH forums. Probably a combination of both.
I had my 6 y/o OTTB for about 3 months when a big rain system came through causing my barn to close areas and paddocks. The only way to let him stretch his legs was hand walking on the gravel road. After a few days of going up and down the flat road, I decided to hand walk him up the hill that we use for conditioning and the footing had improved on that trail.
He was understandably sick of hand walking, so I put a chain on just in case. He thought the hill was great fun - so much so that he wanted to charge up it rather than walking politely. I corrected him and then he flipped me the bird - leaping all 17h in the air and kicking me hard with his shod hind hoof a couple inches above my hip.
Fortunately I carry a few extra lbs in that area so no damage was done aside from a truly nasty bruise.
Horse and I had a CTJ moment and he never pulled shenanigans like that again.
Holy He__! As kids we used to do that nonsense, but always with a pony or horse we knew would peacefully let us.
Must not have realized the horse could see him coming….
I did mention that my “perfect” mare once kicked the farrier when her hocks were really sore, and he was holding up a hind limb for a long time. It wasn’t enough of a kick to hurt him.
She is generally perfect for the farrier, but now that she is older and quite arthritic, she appreciates having a break to put her hoof down.
Only been kicked for real in all my years in horses, once-- stupid thing, but I was grooming a stallion tied in his stall when a boarder walked by and thought it would be a great idea to let her gelding and the stallion touch noses through the bars. I didn’t even have time to tell her not to do that before the stallion nailed me in the thigh, swung around, and threw me into the water buckets on the wall. Hoof shaped bruise on my thigh, lines of bruises on my ribs from the buckets. It was painful to breathe for about a week.
I know the lady didn’t really “know better” but I never really forgave her for it. Preventable accidents always irritate me.
I’ve only been kicked three times that I can remember, two being “bruisers-but-not-bad”. One of those was from a snotty blue roan that took exception to being brushed with a metal curry comb, and my mare that just out of the blue got me for no discernable reason. I guess I snuck up on her without realizing it, and it seemed like more of a reaction than response. I think she kicked me without even realizing she had done so. I don’t know who was more surprised when she connected with my thigh, me or her.
The third, however, was something incredibly stupid that I did and landed me in the hospital with a concussion and stitches in my face. It was the same snotty blue roan and I was trying to hold a hind hoof up to spray some Furazone on a pastern cut (remember when it came in an aerosol can?). He kept jerking the hoof out of my hand and so when it landed on the ground, at rest with the cut facing up, I bent down to spray it. Um…yeah. Really bad idea.
Fortunately, other than the concussion and needing stiches where the corner of my mouth was torn, I escaped what could have been a really, really bad injury.
Same here.
I have been kicked twice in over 60 years of horsey activities, both by the same horse. Neither was her fault, but still! The first time I was walking into her stall while she was eating with her back to me, tripped and fell headlong into her butt. She let fly, hitting my arm. I was sure she had broken it, but she only bruised the nerve (like a REALLY bad bang to the funny bone) It could have been my head, I’m very lucky.
The second time she fell in the trailer and broke the (wooden) partition. I tried to disentangle her from the pieces and caught a back hoof in my thigh. The whole leg turned interesting colours, and I still have the dent 30 years later.
Double barrel to the chest by a two year old
One shod hoof* to the forehead that left a dent.
*wasn’t really a kick, he thought he was getting a fly from his belly with a front hoof flick, but it was my hair tickling him rather than a fly.
crunch .Ouch! . Stars
I’ve only been deliberately kicked twice in ~30 years of horse experience.
Once, I absolutely deserved it. I was just a kid (maybe 10 or so), and I was “helping” a friend teach her Mustang pony to trot in hand in preparation for a local 4-H show…by popping him on the hip with a longe whip at close range. 
He caught me square across my abdomen with the entire side of his hind leg. We never told any of our parents about that one. Thank goodness that (a) he pulled his punch a bit and (b) he was only about 13 hands.
The other time was downright vicious and is just one of the many reasons that I am not and have never been a Thoroughbred person. 
In grad school, I had 12 Thoroughbred mares and fillies in my thesis project. Only a couple of them were what I’d call “civilized”, but one was particularly nasty. One day, after FIFTEEN weeks of doing the exact same thing every single day, she bolted out of nowhere when I was leading her from her turnout paddock back to her stall/run. I couldn’t hold her, but she was continuing towards the stall, so I just let her go. She went inside, I went inside, and we both took a deep breath. I talked to her quietly and made sure she could see me as I approached her to grab the lead rope. That witch WATCHED me bend over, pick up the rope, and straighten up, THEN fired a hind leg directly at my thigh. I thought for sure she’d broken my femur, but it was luckily just incredibly badly bruised. That was almost 15 years ago, and I still have a knot in my quad to remember her by…
I’ve also been the victim of “collateral damage” from each of my last two newborn fillies, but those were just wrong place/wrong time brushes. I still put the fear of God into both of them in the moment, and it never happened again with either one. 
I’ve only been “kicked” twice in 25ish years.
First was when I had my mare in crossties in a narrow aisle with stalls on both sides. I was cleaning a back hoof and the lighting wasn’t great so I was leaning in really close. She got pissy with a horse in one of the stalls for some reason and simultaneously squealed and kicked out with the hoof I was holding. It swiped the side of my face/head and knocked my knit winter hat off and across the aisle. No pain, but I was left standing there like wtf just happened . Ended up with a slightly black eye.
Second time I was, once again, cleaning a hoof (front this time) on a different mare. She can be a real sensitive baby about flies and apparently decided that there was a fly that had to go right that second. She kicked up towards her belly with a back foot (very talented to stand on two legs lol) and managed to juuuuust nick me right in between the joints on the thumb of the hand holding the hoof. Since she basically made straight contact with bone; that one hurt. It actually sat me down on the ground almost instantly. I had a lump in that spot on my thumb for months, if not years, after and it hurt for a good while.
Now I’m going to go knock on some wood and continue being grateful I haven’t gotten a full on kick up to this point lol.
I was outside scratching my mare’s forehead a minute ago, when she suddenly wheeled around and took off. Thankfully, she didn’t kick out as she went, but it reminded me of the countless times that I have been in a vulnerable position and yet for whatever reason did not suffer for it. She moved so fast there’s no way I could have reacted in time, had she decided to kick up her heels. Or nail me on purpose - although this particular mare has not ever even lifted a hoof at me, regardless of the numerous opportunities (and sometimes reasons) I have given her to do so.
I guess we’re all pretty much a split-second away from catastrophe any time we choose to interact with them.
I’ve been kicked a handful of times. A couple of times in a mare herd where I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once girthing up a baby for the first time (went on to find out that he had a significant issue that meant a life as a pasture horse). And once grabbing a fully sedated gelding’s sheath to clean it, only to have my vet (after the fact), go, “yeah, sometimes they do that because they’re surprised, even though they’re sedated.” Nice dents in my thighs from a couple of them.
But my worst story was a couple of years ago. My 12yo daughter and I were at a show that we were loading up to go home from. Grabbed two mares to lead them to the trailer and went walking down the aisle (as we have done a hundred times) - me leading the first to go in the trailer, and my daughter right behind me. There were a bunch of horses hanging out over those stall guards on either side of the aisle and the mare I was leading got territorial (presumably from the horses in the stalls - since she lives in a pasture with the other mare) and kicked at the horse behind her, which caught my daughter right above her hip. She started yelling right away, and within 10 seconds turned sheet white and started vomiting. The whole show grounds mobilized immediately to get paramedics there and off to the hospital we went. She peed blood for weeks, and could barely move for at least a week. But ultimately was ok. It was hands down the most terrifying thing I’ve had happen with horses. Give me whatever you’ve got, but not my kid!!
A filly kicked out with both hind feet and they landed firmly on my left boob - both hind feet. Collapsed my lung. Totally my fault as I reached a hand out and thought the filly knew I was there. Lesson learned.
I have recently got kicked twice.
this morning I put out my four year old and when I was leading her she spun almost ripped the lead out of my hand and kicked me in the thigh now I have a giant hoof print bruise, and it hurts to walk
The second time a month ago, I was leading a another four year old and we were working on not getting in my space, so when I was in the field she spooked and smoked me in the eye I think it was by her halter or knee, I had a swollen and scratched eye lid for a day or two.
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