Country Pleasure Driving Class Gone Wrong!

Goldenstar

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that clip was shown to me when I started driving still learnt though but as you say when it goes wrong it really does.
 

kerilli

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there was a thread on Fb about it, and someone who said they were there attested that the horse at the end was fine. amazingly.
there's a fantastic voice-over of it by an experienced horseman who goes NUTS watching the video (with good reason, what a bunch of idiots, talk about making a bad situation 100x worse), and who says, I think probably correctly, that if the guy at the beginning who loses control had pulled on just ONE rein instead of both, none of it would have happened... learn the One Rein Stop for emergencies...
it took me a while to find it, it's here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKWTDUkzW-M&feature=channel_video_title
 

Goldenstar

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Pulling on one rien might have stopped it but bucking in the carriage is one of those things that's a bit of a career stopper . You can't stop a horse by pulling on one or two reins if decides to bolt.
The problem here started way before this show the horse was unsettled from the start and when it went wrong there's very Little you can do in those frankly silly little buggy things.
They look very dangerous the drivers is very low and right in the firing line and they are not stable. This was shown to me to help me learn what you should do if it all goes wrong.
In the uk in most situations the horse wears a head collar under the bridle so I was taught in a disaster like this they should have.
1 got all the other horses together
2 got them out of the carriages we where taught and practised over and over again how to go this quickly and in the right order.
3 you must stand right in front of a blinkered horse for it to see you and they are training to stand when you are in front of them
4 if you aren't in front of them then you be fully to the side of them and aware that if they rush forwards the carriage will be wider than the horse and it will hit you.
5 take the bridle off perhaps hard call but with out the bridle the horse can see and is less likely to go into a blind panic that's why we use a head collar under the bridle and your groom always has a rope clipped to their belt
6 as this situation developed they should got the horses who where out of the buggys out of the school
7 don't shout flap or wave your arms at a blinkered horse they should have let it to run round
8 I think the cowboy with a axe to grind in a rant was wrong about one thing it was the other horses that brought the bolting horse into the middle he was trying to get to them that's why they should have been way faster to get them out of the traps and if it had not been a show class if under head collars had been used then the worst that could have happened was you had some horses running round a school in head collars dragging ropes not perfect but hardly the end of the world.
The carriages I drive are much higher so you are a bit safer if the horse bucks but it's not nice.
It scared the c**p out of me when was first shown it but it drummed it into us pracise pracise unharnessing for an emergency.
 

MissSBird

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There was one, sensible horse owner in there that immediatly got their horse unhitched. Why everyone else didn't is beyond me, and the ones who stayed in the trap...words fail me entirely.
 

kirstyl

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I watched that on the edge of my seat, just awful situation which escalated to terrifying proportions. No person or animal hurt as a result? Did see a man get run over by the first horse
 

Goldenstar

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This was on Fugly a while back. Luckily horses and handlers all OK. One man was slightly injured, but no permanent damage.

Probally good day for the harness sellers and the people who repair the silly little buggy things.
And as for the horses being ok they would say that won't they.
 

TarrSteps

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It's easy to say what you would do in such a situation but groups of people aren't known for great organisation under stress. I'm sure everyone kept thinking it would be over any minute. I'm a bit surprised more people didn't unhitch just as a matter of course but then again, I've seen train wrecks in ridden classes where people don't behave any more sensibly. My inclination is to get off my horse in those sorts of situations but other people say always stay on so you can see how people's innate reactions may differ. I saw a show jumper bolt in the ring and people didn't react much better. The person who stopped that one did it by stepping through the ingate and throwing his jacket in front of the horse so it spooked and turned towards the gate and he caught it. He looked like a hero but if the horse had jumped out or run him over or turned the other way, he would have been an idiot. It's hard to know what to do when horses panic. Personally, I think the announcer tried her best to give reasonable directions.

Driving classes give me the willies. I saw a horse in an Arab Park Driving class jump out over the gate when I was a kid and it made a BIG impression on me. And even recently I saw a wreck in a Welsh Driving class where a pony sped up, the carriage flipped over INTO the wall, trapping and dragging the driver, then the pony bolted through the rest of the class - it was so quick the other competitors were barely aware until they heard the crash. *shudder* I've seen a horse in an 8 horse hitch freak out in the ring and another where the driver of a four in hand has a heart attack and fell off the box!! Things happen.

But then I've seen situations in ridden group classes that make me cringe and have myself been ridden into a rope and stake fence by someone with steering issues. C'est la vie.
 

Goldenstar

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Driving classes give me the willies and I drive.
I was not trying to be holier than though in my post I was just tring to point out that when I learnt what to do in various complete c** k up senarios was the first thing we where taught.
I do horse driving trials which is different to showing so perhaps I should not have commented but stuff does go wrong driving and when it does it can go very wrong . I was just saying that how I was taught You should cope in that sort of scenario was the first part of training.

A good driving horse is almost a Pearl beyond price and they rarely get sold ,the bond you get when you click with them is fantastic I respect them so much the work is hard for a single it's lonely out in front in blinkers they need to be bold but respectful and calm my school master an ex team horse from a pair was a complete gent if his groom had been standing in front of him he would not have moved even if his carriage was hit because he had been trained with accidents in mind.
 

TarrSteps

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Sorry, Goldenstar, my comment was nothing to do with your very thoughtfull and useful post. It was just to the idea that the situation on the video was somehow extraordinary or an example of people being particularly stupid. Similar scenarios happen all the time and, as you say, the key is to be personally prepared for them. As someone once told me and I took to heart, you are not training for the 90% of the time everything goes relatively well, you are training for the 10% when it all goes wrong! And even then, you can't rely on other people to have done likewise.

I have to say, being in a ring like that - standard issue in agricultural buildings - is quite scary in any group of horses. I've shown quite a few horses in young stock classes, done group classes and warmed up in a similar ring and it's no fun! Outside the gates is concrete and people milling around, there is no designsted, footed ramp like there is for something like Olympia, the rings themselves are very spooky, not just with the stands but with the activity behind them. I was in one once in a warm up when a horse's cooler slipped and it panicked and same problem - do you open the gate, shooting panicked horses on to concrete and possibly having the bolting one go for the door too? Do you go to the middle where that fenced area is and risk getting tangled up in there? Everything seems like a bad choice!
 

Goldenstar

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Tarrsteps your point about the training is spot on It looked like not enough training had gone on and too much belting round in circles in a tense flashy trot like I said that problem had its root back at the yard .
 

PucciNPoni

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There was one, sensible horse owner in there that immediatly got their horse unhitched. Why everyone else didn't is beyond me, and the ones who stayed in the trap...words fail me entirely.

When something like this happens, it happens "so fast" that you just are in shock and probably trying to stay out of the line of fire first and foremost. Sometimes unhitching a horse quickly isn't fast enough and you need a second person at the horse's head to keep in control.

I have done show driving, and thankfully never been in a situation like this. Even ground driving accidents are absolutely terrifying. Please don't judge these drivers for what they did or didn't do. Unless you've been there, and done that - you just don't know how you'd react.
 

millikins

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I was surprised at how quick the harness fell apart and wrapped around legs, also the buggies appeared to be made of matchwood, don't know if something more robust would have encouraged bolter to stop or caused more injury. At the end, I got the impression that they brought the horse down using something like the Gauchos use, can't remember what they call it.
 

ester

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maybe it is an indication of why having 2 people on board is a really good idea though, so that one who knows what they are doing can jump off and unhitch quickly. Many of the stewards involved who ended up holding horses would a) not be sure if they should each go to a carriage, b) not know what/how to do that anyway.
 

TarrSteps

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To be fair, in most of the single driving I've seen every entry has had a groom either in the ring or at the gate and they run to hold the horses in the line up or if there is a problem. I always assumed it's a rule.
 

Goldenstar

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Yes a groom is vital I dont know if each turnout in the class had a groom in the middle IMO they ought to have done.
At home I do drive the horses I know well and am happy within the schooling area alone but I always have the groom on the back for the first five minutes and if there fresh for longer and once I am happy with where I am at we do a quick harness check and she goes, she can see where I am working on the yard and keeps an eye.
I don't practise the cones or canter with out her and never drive out alone.
 

TarrSteps

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I was surprised at how quick the harness fell apart and wrapped around legs, also the buggies appeared to be made of matchwood, don't know if something more robust would have encouraged bolter to stop or caused more injury. At the end, I got the impression that they brought the horse down using something like the Gauchos use, can't remember what they call it.

I'd be really surprised if that was the case, simply because horse tripping is such a massive hot button issue in the US, I can't see any organisation actively encouraging people to do it.

Are they called "bolos"? That seems to stick in my ancient memory? Mexican horse tripping is done with lariates.
 

ester

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I think he tried to lasso it, round neck, failed and at the same time the carriage hit the wall and came off.. causing the horse to stumble and fall. Interesting re the grooms in the ring, thanks for that.
 

Goldenstar

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Just off to work the driving horse thought I might go out for a drive as its the first days for weeks the weather and road conditions are good but I seem to have gone off the idea !
Think I'll ride him instead.
 

Aoibhin

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we never go out alone just in case, but saying that both of us can unhitch in seconds as we only ever drive them out in safety hitches.

having only had one incident where it was required (car hit back of carriage) we were out & unhitched before the car had stopped sliding down the road & had big man walking around calming down, not a bad move for 2 disabled drivers. car driver was shoked he had hit us & thankfully all were ok (stearing colloum broke) put us of road work for a while though.
 

PucciNPoni

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I was surprised at how quick the harness fell apart and wrapped around legs, also the buggies appeared to be made of matchwood, don't know if something more robust would have encouraged bolter to stop or caused more injury. At the end, I got the impression that they brought the horse down using something like the Gauchos use, can't remember what they call it.

Yes, those jog carts are very lightweight and aren 't made to do anything other than be used in teh show ring. The harnesses are the same - lightweight, for show.
 
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