A horse was standing in the middle of the barn aisle and I (stupidly) asked the owner if I could walk behind him to put my horse in the stall he was semi blocking. She said he was fine. That ****er double barrel kicked at me, with only one hoof making impact. Probably a couple inches to the left of my right hip bone. The pain was SO intense. There was so much swelling in the area I felt like it was tearing my skin apart. I STILL have an indent in that spot where I was kicked and it’s been almost 10 years.
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This killed me LOL. My threat is always Alpo Training Centers.
I once was combing a mare’s tail and she was pawing the ground. I was young and stupid and toed her in the belly. She nailed me in the pelvis and sent me back about three feet. My friend was panicked asking if I was OK. All I could say was “Get out of the way, I’m gonna kill her”. Just saw this on FB and it made me giggle.
I got kicked in the leg and now have blood clots for life.
Not me, but one of those “natural horse trainers” was trying to load a horse in a trailer by lifting the horse’s hind leg and placing it on the trailer. Horse cow kicked him in the chest and killed him on the spot.
Oh my word!!!
That’s awful!
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It was a snowy day when I was working at a boarding barn as a 15 year old, the horses couldn’t get turned out, and I had longed like 5 lesson horses extremely dull to the aids. Then I longed a 3 year old OTTB I worked with a lot. I was getting mad at him because he was spooking at snow falling off the roof, breaking out of the canter, and diving in at one end of the circle. I ran at his back end brandishing the whip when he broke to trot… saw the hoof coming at me and immediately realized that I was the stupidest person on earth. He had back shoes on and chipped a piece off my pelvis, and I was on crutches for 6 weeks. He immediately stopped and came over to me, and let me hang onto his neck to hop one step at a time back into the barn while trying not to pass out. I tried to make excuses to the barn owner as to why I couldn’t work without telling her I got kicked, and I was so upset when my mom told her because I thought she would blame the horse, when it was so obvious to me that I had put him in that situation and it was 200% my fault! Anyways I eventually bought the horse and now 14 years later he takes issue with my very stiff right hip - I frequently remind him when schooling “If you wanted my half pass aid to be tactful you shouldn’t have kicked me so hard!” but I don’t think he cares lol. It remains my most educational school of hard knocks moment.
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When I was a teenager, I was at a friend’s house admiring her new trailer that was inside her large barn. I walked out of a man door, and into my Dad’s mare’s kick at a colt that had jumped a fence to get at her (I had ridden her over to my friend’s house to see the new trailer.)
She was tied to an outside hitching post. All I can remember is starting to walk out of the door to find out what the commotion was about. Mare had been shod 2 days earlier with steel shoes all around.
I woke up three days later in the hospital. Still no memory of the actual event or the immediate aftermath, though my friend filled me in later on. It was a very lousy summer, surgery, stitches (inside mouth and outside face) and swelling, during which I resembled Frankenstein and felt like hell.
I’ve always felt rather guilty for being hideously injured at someone else’s home, though it was an accident. They were very nice about it…
Please monitor yourself closely. I now have blood clot issues for life due to a kick. 
Was about ten or eleven. The place I boarded my pony had a quarter horse/morgan cross who was always pinning her ears. Beautiful mare, but nasty. Now, with hindsight, I wonder if she was in some kind of pain. I was in the pasture and patted her shoulder. She whirled around and kicked me in the upper thigh. Nice shoe prints for weeks. I went back to the barn and hid it from her owner, who being a middle-school counselor, got the truth from me. He went to bring her in, tweaked her ear as he led her. She kicked him in the same spot. I’ve been bit and stepped on since. I’ve seen a horse kick and shatter another horse’s hind leg. This is the only one I felt was malicious.
And yes, I did my best to hide this from my parents.
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One of my best friends almost died last year from a kick. The horse is sweet, and wasn’t malicious - she was running late for a call and came in to make a last-minute application of fly spray. It must’ve startled the horse, and it got her just right; torn liver, stomach, intestines… the works. Doctors experience 80%+ mortality with her injuries.
She is only alive today because she had her phone attached to her and was able to call 9-1-1 after she came to on the floor of the stall. She knew she was bleeding internally, and no one was out physically at the barn with her (others were up at the house watching TV).
A kick can easily and immediately kill you. We are ALL guilty of either setting our phones down or leaving them near us - but when you’re around horses and not within physical sight of other people - PLEASE keep your phone physically attached to your person.
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I’ve only been significantly kicked twice in 39 years. Both early on in the first two years or so of horse ownership.
Double-barreled in the gut and thrown into the back wall of the stall by a two-year old colt who was very unhappy that he was in alone. I was going to groom/pat/comfort him and Alitar was not interested in being comforted. I was lucky he didn’t step on me in the time it took me to catch my breath enough to get out.
Three-year old Saddlebred filly, newly purchased and a bit nervous kicked going through a gate I was holding open and caught me above the left ear at full extension. I don’t think anyone saw it. My parents were at the farm that day; I’m sure my mother would have reacted if she’d seen it. I seem to have spent a lot of time trying very hard to never let any of the damage I’ve sustained related to horses show. I was just positive I’d lose my horse if it became a problem.
The two bites actually caused more damage in terms of scarring and the falls and subsequent getting stepped on caused more joint damage, but the kicks were memorable. I’m glad I’ve gotten better at reading them over the years. Mine are in turnout rather than stalled and, while my parade ground voice and game show buzzer corrections come out every so often, the last two very rarely even think it and look appropriately abashed when they tussle between themselves and then realize OH GOD SHE’S IN HERE and stop dead.
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A number of years ago, in a Michigan January, I had to drag myself over 200’ through snow back to my house after dropping my round bale feeder on my leg and getting a tip-fib break. I had two phones. Both in the house. One was actually out of reach on a higher counter. The other, which was essentially a phone for my Square only, was low enough to reach. Keep you phone with you always when outside!
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I’ve been kicked twice. The first time I was on a rental horse (pre ownership days) and walked behind a friend’s (rental) horse and it managed to nail me right around my right kneecap. Seriously painful, and quite a bruise. Limped for a while with that one.
The second time I turned my senior horse out in a round pen and in his joy to be turned out, wheeled and let fly. He connected with my thigh about 4 inches above my knee. That was a pretty resounding thwack that had me seeing stars. That was also a pretty impressive bruise and lump. I was lucky nothing broke. I was limping for about a week after that one. I don’t blame the horse. It was not done in malice. It was my mistake.
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I told the story of my daughter, but had another horrible kick story that these stories reminded me of.
I have neighbors with a whole pile of kids, several of whom came over to exchange hacks on a couple of my ponies/horses for stall cleaning for many years. Their oldest daughter from age 12-18 and her younger twin sisters for a few years too.
I left for the Thermal show circuit with all but 3 of the horses one year and they were told that they were not allowed to come onto the property until I got home a month and a half later.
On my [20-hour] drive home from the show, I got a call from my husband telling me they had just airlifted one of the twins to the hospital. Turns out the twins had snuck into the barn and were trying to get it all cleaned up for me as a nice surprise. They were always expressly forbidden to go into any stalls with any horses (they were “cow people” and didn’t read horses well) when I wasn’t present, but went into the stalls anyway. They must have spooked one of my geldings somehow (something they did periodically with all of the horses) and he nailed one of the girls in the abdomen. They booked it home and did not say a word to anyone. The injured kid crawled into bed and went to sleep. And her guilty twin finally got worried enough to tell her parents when the sister wouldn’t wake up. Turned out her spleen (I think) was lacerated and she almost bled to death before they said a word.
So the call from my husband was, “well, one of the girls got kicked, we don’t know if she’s going to survive, and they’re trying to decide if they’re going to sue us for everything.” Talk about a stressful drive home!!
But end of the story was that she spent a week in the hospital and came home no worse for the wear (well, on strict rehab/rest for 2 months, but no ill effects long term), and the parents decided in the end that we had not caused it to happen and thus they wouldn’t be suing us.
Great reminder of how dangerous horses really can be, though!
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Oh my gosh! How terrible for you!!!
