Do You Ever Think, Wow, I Just Got Lucky Being Incredibly Stupid?

Equilibrium Ireland

Equilibrium Ireland

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Well I do. Reminds me I'm not too far away from a Darwin Award some days.

So today I was moving the girls from one field to another. Normally they follow. But they wanted in the back field, not the dry side field. I keep them in the crap paddock til done riding. Anyway, they were being obsinante and just looked at me across the way. So I'm like ok I'll just lead Heidi by the mane. More pig headed but she follows and I now am just leading by the rug.

First rule, don't be lazy not to just have a rope in case of mare defiance. Walking back to the barn really isn't going to kill me.

I can see as I'm walking Heidi that my 2 YO Cupcake wants to cause a rukus. I keep her in my eye. I'm along the fence but not close enough. Heidi quickens, they're heading for the gate. I'm like ok let go. I do, forget about Heidi's giant butt. I get knocked to the left. And in a fleeting second I see Abba now in full flight slipping through on the rail. So in that second I'm like ok, this is how it all ends, stupidity. I've already lost my balance with Heidi, I'm going down to be trampled. But for whatever reason, instead of milling me flat, Abba props me back upright. Obviously she didn't purposely try and help me. She was in full flight and really didn't give a crap! It was luck and some sort of physics and probably some divine intervention that saved me.

And thus, amazingly, I live to fight another day. Anyone want to share?

Terri
 
Yes, cantering on my own through flooded riverside meadow bridleway about 6 years ago, river alongside moving swiftly in flood...

I forgot about the dip halfway along the bridleway but poor horse suddenly went from cantering through 6" of water to cantering through 3' of water and then back to 6".

He leapt forward, I fell off, landing in 6" of water on my side and being completely drenched all over excpt the 6" diameter of head underneath my hat.

As I stood up, dripping water all over, boots and pockets gushing water, I thought how stupid I was for if I'd been knocked unconscious, the river would have taken my body downstream and I'd have drowned.

Been a lot more respectful of flood water since then ... ride through it in pairs. ;-)
 
yeah i have :o

we were messing about with Taz with 1ft jumps... being 17.2hh he was stepping over them but we were pretending to take them like we were jumping 6ft not 1ft... anyway as a joke they put the jump right up to the top of the wings.. it was a half pole so you could barely see it there was no ground line it was literally a pole in mid air... at 5ft... now i have never jumped taz over 4'6ft and i wasnt planning on changing it as im not the most confidant at jumping but we were cantering around and everytime we were in line with the jump he pulled to jump it so one time i didnt stop it... and we did jump it and we cleared it i hadnt pushed him into the jump i just sat there crapping myself but we made it over it and taz then went into a full out rodeo but i was like... that was a really stupid thing to do... if he had stopped i would have easily fallen off and we would have totally lost our confidance... also he could have just run under it and i would have been taken out by a pole... he could have also got tangled in the pole or taken the wrong stride... safe to say i havent jumped over 4'ft since :o i cant believe i was such an idiot although im glad taz loves jumping :) (btw i was only 14 at the time ahaha this isnt recent) :o
 
I was a total idiot the other night. Mare loose in her stable eating her tea, me stood behind her plaiting her tail. She detected movement in the next stable (gelding OBVIOUSLY coming to steal her tea) she kicked out very hard and very fast, just skimmed my thigh but hit the partition wall very hard. I have no doubt at all she would have shattered my leg in pieces. I am a total moron. Her behaviour has changed now she can see through barred wall of stables, I am just getting used to new quirks.... Protecting her tea is one of them!
 
Yay, not just me! LOL! I like sharing that we are all human and make silly mistakes we know better than to do. I have given myself a huge tongue lashing for being so stupid. My husband was off getting hay so upon searching for me he just would have seen the bright pink jacket sticking out of the mud!

Terri
 
Hacked out in darkness minus hi-viz on a bay horse - ok so didn't really think it would be a huge problem as the private estate is very quiet - until I was on the back lane to home & they started shooting in the field the lane runs behind! I could very easily have been shot as they had no idea I was there - horse was rock steady as ever though which I'm massively proud of ;):)
 
I couldn't possibly list all the times I have done something incredibly daft and only realised it in hindsight. We'd be here all night...
 
Lots of times! However on Tuesday I did something very normal and was very unlucky!

Leading the old faithful to his field, horse is next field goes for a canter. He wants to join in and rears, I don't let go and then - POP!

I've open spiral fractured the middle of my ring finger and rotationally dislocated the top bit. I'm in a splint for 4 weeks and they want to pin it but currently the bone is too shattered. 6 weeks rest at least and a permanently deformed finger.....FML!
 
When I was a kid we used to swim the ponies through a flooded bit of old railway track (but it was a path then). Up to our thighs. It wasn't a river or anything but Ffs what were we thinking of. We would be soaked for the rest of the day as well.

I am pretty risk averse with horses these days but I have had a couple of near misses with the cattle including the bull:o. I am risk averse with them as well but had things like trying to load one into the trailer out a pen and not the other and it's just stupid. Got a better set up now tho :)
 
SillySausage said:
I've open spiral fractured the middle of my ring finger and rotationally dislocated the top bit. I'm in a splint for 4 weeks and they want to pin it but currently the bone is too shattered. 6 weeks rest at least and a permanently deformed finger.....FML!
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I did this a few weeks ago. Horse went up, little finger popped. Hospital loved me as was a rare fracture, so I was shown off a lot. So one metal plate later and I still look like my hands been through a mangle! Worst bit was the evening after the op, falling over and rupturing tendon :rolleyes:

The stupid one (only looking back after and wasn't worried at the time) was with littlun. She was haring around the field in the pitch black in a storm in blind panic, which is very unusual (normally lets everything else wind up and doesn't bother and no-one else was fussed) and after her past I didn't want more damage done.
So stood in the middle of the field and called her in. Heard the hooves and saw her about 2ft away, slamming brakes on and landed with head in my arms. Settled herself down and was fine after.
I walked out and realised that I would never have been so stupid with any other horse and shouldn't put that much trust in her brakes and eyesight, especially in panic mode! Or that much trust in nutty pony out with her!
 
The difficult bit is trying to figure out which one to actually own up to, there are quite a few recently !

Here goes , leading a young horse, who was very jumpy through the field in the dark. She didnt need to come in, as all the others where still out and quite happy.

was holding the leadrope at the end (even more stupid). Nearly get to the gate, when something spooks her, she rears, turns and kicks out.

Its very dark, but i can still see her hooves inches from my eyes. Horse gallops back to friends. Im just stood there, cant quite believe how close i was to getting kicked in the face.

Funnily enough, never done it again.
 
I did it today! I was in a rush as the vet was in and was just changing about her drugs for the next victim so I went to get the last 3 horses off of the horse walker. They all lived near each other so I just took all 3 in a oner.

Pulled the first one off, shunted it to the end of the lead rope. Pulled the next one off by the headcollar and swung him round
grabbed the 3rd one, again headcollar only. Turned around to find the first one talking to the second one. First one squealed and lashed out with his front hoof and got me in the ribs.

They all made it to their stables fine and dandy but next time I am definitely finding more lead ropes lol!
 
yep lol, complacency is our worst enemy:) my idiot moments usually involve leading/moving horses with not enough lead ropes/headcollars, one will decide they are not playing the game and i either end up squished or stretched:o
 
Taking water containers in through my old gate on a main road, with my OH. Somehow we both thought the other was supervising the gate and horse walked through onto main road! Me sprinting after as he runs into a pub car park, he was too excited to excited to contain him and starts galloping towards the motorway! Thankfully the traffic coming the other way and possibly the fact he was so unfit made him stop dead panting away, and I managed to drag him back but oh my, the horror of it all! Horse was on loan too which made it even worse! The drivers were very good, thankfully it is busy but not super fast!
 
mandwhy said:
Taking water containers in through my old gate on a main road, with my OH. Somehow we both thought the other was supervising the gate and horse walked through onto main road! Me sprinting after as he runs into a pub car park, he was too excited to excited to contain him and starts galloping towards the motorway! Thankfully the traffic coming the other way and possibly the fact he was so unfit made him stop dead panting away, and I managed to drag him back but oh my, the horror of it all! Horse was on loan too which made it even worse! The drivers were very good, thankfully it is busy but not super fast!
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Brilliant !

Just reminded me of the time our pony escaped into next doors field. I was in my suit and driving shoes (flipflop type shoes) as was on my way to a meeting. Got the pony but had to walk down the road. started running as i was late, all traffic stopped for me. then the pony stepped on the back of my shoe and i fell flat out in the middle of the road. Ripped my suit, covered in mud. Everyone watching found it highly amusing.
 
Erm...running into the middle of a horse fight in the dark!

We just have a field and field shelter so head torch is my only light source. We have a mare and at the time also had a gelding on loan. Not really sure why but this night as I was taking haynets down from inside the field shelter, the mare decided to seize the moment and kick the gelding while he had his back to her, standing by the electric fence. They were bum to bum and she was just bucking into him making this weird squeely noise! All I could think was "I have to stop this" and just ran into the dark, shouting and swinging the empty haynet. It was only until I was outside and standing in front of 2 horse bums that I thought "damn...this is a really stupid idea!". Luckily she ran off and gelding wasn't hurt...apart from his pride!

Also forgot this summer how far a horse can stretch with a hind leg. Was putting reflective bands on her legs when she struck forwards with her hind leg to get a fly on her elbow. Just saw her toe skim past right in front of my eye!
 
this morning, i did the stupid thing where u take off the headcollar JUST before the field so u don't have to walk through the ankle deep mud. MM just trundles into the field no problem. I did it with another horse who promptly swerved and buggered off into another field :rolleyes:

no problem i thought, i'll just grab him and put him in properly. nah...he was going round the field happily bucking and leaping around, managed to herd him back into the holding pen by the gate, my friend went to open the gate into the field he was MEANT to go in originally, and he decided to save her the hassle and jump the entire gate from almost a standstill (it is electric fencing but still well over 1m high) - he was literally about 1 foot from her as he jumped it, and purposely twisted in midair to avoid her - very very lucky friend :o

moral of the story is, get muddy feet - they can be hosed!!
 
Ermm yes!
Lading 2 mares that don't get on and a geldig in and out ofthe field all at one and no hat!!
Riding down the road with only one hand on the reins.
 
A couple of winters ago i was taking a bucket of feed to a couple of youngsters who were turned out in a field with a steep hill of muddy clay.

They were out of sight. So i shut the gate behind me and shook the bucket.

A 2 year old TB came cantering over the brow of the hill and straight down towards me.

All 4 legs locked a good stride before he got to me but he didn't stop moving until i had leap out of the way and his nose was on the fence.

So lucky not to get squished. And so very lucky i didn't have to go and explain to the owner why i had bribed their favourite horse into throwing himself through a fence.

And the moral of a lot of these stories - just walk through the mud yourself.
 
I had a close inspection of 2 rear hooves on Monday despite me knowing she kicks out when anyone's near her butt. No hat on so would have been serious at best or fatal at worse if I was a few inches closer. Idiot.
 
I must admit, this is not my only foray into stupidity. This one just bugged ms on all levels of having a brain cramp. I mean I did once run myself over on the quad by trying not to get off the bike to open the gate! It was again muddy and only some minor bruising. One wonders why I couldn't let go of the go handle!!!!

Thank you guys for sharing! I've been laughing and glad you're all ok.

Terri
 
PandorasJar said:
I did this a few weeks ago. Horse went up, little finger popped. Hospital loved me as was a rare fracture, so I was shown off a lot. So one metal plate later and I still look like my hands been through a mangle! Worst bit was the evening after the op, falling over and rupturing tendon :rolleyes:
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Ouch!

Out of interest how has yours healed? I've just had a phone call from the nurse saying I need to have more traction done with my splint as its still a bit rotated. She also said I will need to have weekly x rays and wont get this damn thing off for a good 4/5 weeks....!

I work on an event yard so the uncertainty of how long I will be 'out' is putting my job in to jeopardy :(
 
My lad is the first youngster I've owned. So yes, all the time!

I forget he is young. Our first hack out I did my first canter on him, I also did it a second time, on a field running alongside a motorway :o he was great, but in hindsight should have probably just walked it seeing as he hasn't met a lot of traffic!

I also hop on him bareback whilst he's tied on the yard, again forgetting that he's only been backed a few months (and is now technically turned away). He's a star, but I'm lucky in that he's relatively chilled!
 
I did it just yesterday, went to see a friend with my sister before heading to the yard, was running a bit late and had been planning on just going in the school but it's on grass so I didn't want to churn it up. Decided to go 'round the block' which is fine earlier on in the day but didn't leave the yard until about 5 and the ride takes longer with someone on foot with you so ended up getting back to the yard in the dark. Thankfully we don't have to do any road work going that way but we did have to go through a wooded area which was pretty scary as it was muddy and is known for having lots of pheasants along it which enjoy flying out in front of us! But they didn't and Larry was rock solid and marched home whilst my sister worried beside me!

Another stupid thing I did was riding out with the owner of the horse I ride, it was a hot day and we went down to the river. We didn't have our phones on us because the horses like to splash in the water and they would have got soaked. We hadn't thought about how much rain we'd had recently and the river was quite high, it was up to our ankles and my horse is 16.2hh! We went to get out and I went out first and the bank gave way beneath us, luckily we scrambled out. My friend went to find a better place to get out and her horse got his front feet out, went to put his back foot up and the bank collapsed under him, he fell backwards landing on top of my friend in the water but as the water was deeper than usual she sort of floated out from underneath him. There was an incredibly scary moment when she was under water and the horse was kicking trying to get up and I could do nothing about it. Amazingly we all came out unscathed apart from the horses had a few cuts and my friend was a bit sore but we've learnt a lesson from that, much more cautious about river levels and muddy banks...

The other way round, I was leading the most sane, sensible horse on the yard, we were practising trotting up and he spooked sideways, I had hold of the reins and as he spooked I got my ring finger caught in the end of the reins and it broke on the end joint! Totally silly but will be more careful now! My finger still gives me jip.
 
Loading 3 unknown horses without hats! Looking back was very stupid, one started stressing because he was first on and for some reason partition swung and smacked one of the girls square in the head. Had a concussion after but we were so stupid not wearing them as such worse things could have happened.
 
Riding bareback and bridle less in field with no hat of body protector. Horse spooks,I falloff. Spend several says in intensive care, severe concussion, 2slipped discs and ripped muscles as well as a lovely lump in my head. Had some lovely grazes too. This happened at the end of September and I'm still recovering.. :(
 
I am guilty of 'saving' 2 minutes hich always costs me an hour sorting out the mess made by not going the job properly. Normally it involves leaving gates open and forgetting then not catching the boys propely and assuming they will wonder into the barn (as they almost always do)because it's raining and dark only to find out they'd rather play in the fields I've accidently the gates open to!!
 
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