EEEK!! Cautionary Tale....

J

JenHunt

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Have just heard that a friend is in hospital this evening.... She has fractured collar bone, shoulder, sternum and ribs.

She recently bought a pony for £500 having tried him twice, her little daughter rode him as well. Seemed very sweet so paid cash for him, collected him and he had a week in the field to settle, and because of her shift pattern she couldn't get to ride in the daylight (they don't have a lit arena or indoor).

So over the weekend the lunged him, and schooled him in the outdoor, both friend and her daughter had a little walk trot canter and called it a day. Then today, she'd gone up on her own to see to the horses, and to have a little ride on the new one. She'd forgotten her BP, but figured that as he'd been so quiet she'd be fine.

Next thing she knows, she's laid out on the ground, with pony trampling on her, YO calling an ambulance, and being in absolute agony (this is a lady who's fairly recently been in hospital for blood clots forming in her kidney... so she knows what pain is!). She was rushed to hospital and her OH called me to let me know. He thinks the pony had been doped, but they are going to get the vet to check him over and take bloods to be sure that it's nothing else.

Moral of the incident...
1) get a horse vetted
2) always wear a BP (and especially on an unfamiliar horse)
3) always make sure there's someone around when you're riding an unfamiliar horse!

vibes please for my friend! :)
 
:O wow! lots of vibes coming!! hindsight is wonderful but im sure we've all been here.. not the broken collar bone! but not doing the thing we know we 'should' in fact, there was a thread the other day!

but yes, LOTS OF VIBES!!!
 
goodness, sounds awful.
If pony was doped though, would it not have been out of his system before he was ridden if he had over a week off.
Hope they get to the bottom of it and that she makes a good recovery.
 
Hope she makes a speedy recover. I would have thought if the pony was doped it would've been out of his system by then?!
 
so so so many vibes to your friend her daughter husband and you xxxx they must be frantic :( and poor pony - sounds like its had a tough time in life - keep us all posted on how your friend is please xxxx
 
When your friend recovers,do let us know what actually happened (if she can remember, poor thing). One wonders if the pony just got a big fright from something. I think like others that dope might have gone out of its system after a week, and you say it showed no sign of being difficult when they lunged it etc. the day before.

All very odd. But meanwhile all best wishes to your friend. My father broke his sternum out hunting when I was a child, and still insisted on riding home after the fall. I could hear the two ends of bone grating all the way!!
 
Next thing she knows, she's laid out on the ground, with pony trampling on her,
Click to expand...

Any horse can spook, take freight but a horse / pony that makes a point of trampling a rider is a bad un....
 
Wow, I hope she's ok! Doesn't anyone know what happened to cause the accident?

I think I agree with everyone else that if the pony had been doped when they tried it at the sellers, then this would only be effective for a couple of hours at the most and they did school him after a week in the field and he was fine so maybe he took fright at something?
 
Hi Folks...

firstly - friend is now home and mending very slowly. She is black and blue from her shoulders down to her belly button, front and back, but needed no surgery. Estimates from doctors is minimum 3 months before she rides again.

secondly - I agree that having been doped is unlikely - it was just something that was mentioned at the time.

She still has no idea what happened, or if she blacked out, or anything. YO didn't see her fall. As far as we can work out the pony may have spooked at her coming off, and gone up, then friend 'came round' to see pony coming back down.

There is nothing obvious for him to have spooked at, but that doesn't stop any of them being silly does it?!

I have offered to go up and see to keeping the ponies ticking over for her once vet has been to check there is no physical reason for the event - her husband and daughter are capable of feeding etc, but husband isn't a horsey person, and daughter is a bit young to be riding out on her own really.

I'll get her daughter on to her old pony to give her a bit of confidence back, and maybe work with the new one from the ground, and see how it goes from there. A (smaller, lighter) mutual friend has offered to re-back him for her too. He's only 5, and is quite green, so it may be worth going back to basics with him for a while.

In any case, the idea is to make sure that he's ok, and that friend is mending, then make sure that by the time she's fit enough to ride we've got the problem out of the system and well behind them all. Psychology is different matter though!
 
thanks Pastie2 - I didn't know that! worth knowing, for sure.

tbh - he's quite a sweet little chap, a little nervy out of the familiar surroundings of his stable and field, and obviously 'green' in so many respects.... we'll see, I guess!
 
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