That’s kind of frightening when one considers the number of people who are injured based on the same category of bad decisions, over and over.
They are fully-qualified adults, as it were. It seems nothing can be done to prevent the next one if they just don’t comprehend or care about their risks.
Some claim that the only person they are responsible to is themselves. This is so untrue. It is others close to them who clean up the pieces, again and again.
I think a lot about how thin the line is between a bad wreck and riding/working through a difficult moment. If you get through it you were brave and dedicated. If you get hurt, you missed a bunch of red flags. Does that make sense to anyone else?
Mhmm.
Only one of my falls could be attributed to poor decisions. When I was 15 I was cooling out my horse after a lesson by mindlessly ambling around with a loop in my reins and my feet out of the stirrups. I decided to walk over the trot poles in the same casual manner, my horse stumbled and I rolled right off over his shoulder and landed standing up, still holding the reins.
My trainer called me an idiot or a close equivalent, and he wasn’t wrong! 
I also rode a Fjord bareback a few years ago (such fun!) and got a leg up from the owner. She put a little too much power into the boost and I went straight over the horse’s back and did a face plant on the ground. It was pretty funny.
The rest of my falls were the result of horses reacting like horses: stepping in a nest of ground bees, being surprised by a herd of minis galloping toward the fence line, teleporting when a flock of pheasants took flight right across their nose, doing a spin, shoulder drop and bolt before kissing spine was diagnosed, chipping badly at a fence…. and so on.A few times I got badly hurt and other times I just had bruises and sore muscles. These falls just prove that you can’ protect riders from falls and injuries because horses are always going to behave like prey animals —even with helmets and vests. The odds go up the more you ride. Horses will be horses and you will get hurt, and it probably won’t be anyone’s fault. It’s the cost of participating in horse activities.If someone is unwilling to accept that reality, they need to be doing a sport that doesn’t include two sentient beings with often-conflicting motivations.
I was under the impression that maybe they had driven to see the horse or the seller had trailered in to have them ride. In both those cases I can see where the ride would have been tried despite weather threats?
If this horse belonged to the girls trainer I don’t see why it was pushed through. For heaven’s sake they could have ridden the next day!
I grew up a long time ago…in the dark ages.
This was the norm for barns. We all acknowledged that riding was dangerous and that was ok.
I rode at a huge academy in a different country, and rode every single horse they got right off the truck. I rode spookers and bolters, one horse tried valiantly to buck me off the entirety of my trail ride. Even my own first horse launched me a fair number of times.
Kids, generally speaking, were known to bounce. The number of times I came off and saw hooves pass my head was many. Thankfully my mom insisted I wear a helmet, but that was before true safe headgear was really a thing.
Anyway, it’s possible that this barn is just still operating off of the old model. There was a time when people weren’t quite as apt to sue.
And honestly? It made me a very good rider. Until I gained 80 lb as an adult, lost fitness, and lost my balance, I could literally ride anything.
I’m not saying that this barn is right, nor that you should willy nilly throw kids on sale barn horses and wish them good luck, but I do think we have lost something with this insistence that horses need to be as quiet as robots before we ride them.
Sometimes it’s the quiet horses that get you too - you become complacent and even they can have a moment because these are 1000 lb animals without a prefrontal cortex who spook first and ask questions later. There are some 5 year old horses I wouldn’t hesitate to put a kid on and some 25 year old horses that I wouldn’t dare do the same with.
I used to run a very successful boarding and training barn and also coached at our local pony club. I had strict rules and was very concerned about safety. In spite of that and having appropriate horses we did have two accidents. One was a broken ankle the other was most unfortunate. The rider was my step grand daughter. She was riding a small hunter course on my seasoned schoolmaster. The horse stood off a little more than expected on a jump, she came a bit loose in the tack, the horse had to turn because he was at the end of the ring and she literally just slipped over the side. Ended up breaking both pelvis and wrist.
That ended her riding career as parents would not allow her to ride again. I was OK with that as I would have worried too much about her getting hurt.
They did not hold me responsible as they were familiar with horses and riding.
No - i think thats hard to prove becacuse her parents chose to put her up there. It depends on statelaw, did she sign a waiver? Also depends on tge insuramce company - did they have a ned pay payoit for er visits?
This isnt “im going to sue you”
This is, the parents pick up the phone and call the barn owners insurance policy and make a claim.
And that’s a big part of the point. It happened at the parents’ farm. The trainer trailered the horse over for the trial. There is just so little on which to base any legal action.
Guessing that could be a reason the trainer did not suggest postponing the trial. Would have had to bring the horse back again. Bad call, though.
I’m not sure I agree. For example, there is a big difference between making a conscious decision to introduce a reactive green horse to a new situation and taking precautions and being prepared for the oversize reaction you might get (which might earn you the “brave and dedicated” label) and deciding to introduce a reactive green horse to a new situation without thinking it through, not taking reasonable precautions, and thinking, “Oh, he was really good today so I’m sure it will be OK.”
To me, there is a qualitative difference between a thoughtful and deliberate acceptance of risk and the creation of excess risk by allowing laziness, outside pressure, or unreasonable optimism to lead you into doing things that, if you really thought honestly about them, you should think “this probably isn’t a good idea.”
You can come off when the horse is being good and not shying at anything, as there is nothing.
So far I have ended up in Hospital twice. One with a broken wrist, the other concussion. Both walking on a loose rein. The first I was pretty young and pulled the rein to go left. He went right. I was bareback and I slipped off and put my hand out. That is a pretty common injury for young girls.
The second Pepper stumbled and went down in front. I stayed on. He came up for less than a second and then flipped sideways. My helmeted head hit the ground first and he ploughed me 6 feet along the ground.
The 3rd was a lovely gentleman of a horse. He was being good and doing a collected canter, so we weren’t even going fast. He stepped in an unseen hole covered by leaves on the trail. We came down. He was too big of a horse to come down like that. He split his shoulder open. I split my hand open and still have the scar.
I think the parents and the seller/traders are equally to blame, however the parents elected to brave this storm and plop their child on a horse during a time when there was thunder and lightening, never mind that most people will head for cover when thunder starts. Having known of a couple of horse struck by lightening and recall some riders also getting struck, why take chances.
Since the parents are looking to trade the one horse I have to wonder if the parents made a bad purchase which is why they’re looking to trade now.
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