Falling off in company on a hack - what would you do?

Natch

Natch

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Two of you are hacking together. Your friend's horse suddenly spooks and bolts - leaving your friend on the floor, and the horse rapidly disappearing towards the horizon.

Which do you go to first? I always thought that in the majority of cases you should go for the horse first - the person isn't going anywhere, whereas the horse can cause more accidents or get lost. However, others on this forum in the past have said they'd always stay with the person, in case they lost consciousness or were badly hurt, and some magazine article I read a while ago said you shoudl always stay with the person, so I wondered what others views were.

Now in my opinion its all relative to the situation and not black and white. In my example I assume the person is conscious and talking to me (or at least hurling abuse/wails/screams in the direction of the horse
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). An army paramedic once told me "if they're screaming in agony, you go to them last - that proves they are conscious and breathing, whereas the silent ones may be unconscious and have stopped breathing". I think thats a pretty good very basic rule to abide by in judging in that split second if you should stop because they are in danger of death, or if they can wait a minute or two because you are catching their horse to prevent further accidents, even if they are in pain while they wait. I guess most riders would also rather you went after their horse first.

I also assume the rider is in no further danger - not on a road for example, and/or able to move themselves out of the way of danger fairly easily.

Lastly, I assume there is no immediate help nearby, or if there is then it is likely to be human but not horse-friendly; I can ask any passer by to ring for an ambulance and stay with the person, but not just anyone will be able to go after the horse (speed, confidence, ability to use body language etc).

If the rider were unconscious, in further danger or if I thought the horse couldn't get itself into further accidents, I would stop with the rider.

Also, what do you do with your horse while you wait with the rider? Say they are being a pain in the bum, callign after, fretting for their friend? Now ideally that would cause friend to come back, but would you tie your horse up to the nearest most suitable object in order to be able to administer first aid, or not? Would you even let them go, in order to treat the person?

If I needed to give first aid and couldn't trust my horse not to trample the person if I held onto them by the reins, I think I would tie to a tree/fence etc by the reins. naughty, very non-PC, but what else do you do? Its not practical to carry a headcollar & rope with you all the time. If you had some bailing string in your pocket, what if anything could you do to make things safer? I suppose you could tie a knot in the reins to the noseband, and tie by that to try to make it a bit safer for the horse, or concoct something using one of your stirrup leathers...?

Lots to think about for the just in case you hope you never have to deal with I guess. Would be good if everyone were prepared for emergencies by thinking these things through before they have to, though.
 
I *think* there is BHS guidance on this kind of thing...

Am going out so no time to search the site but might read up on it later. Most of the time I hack alone so not really an issue... both horsey and I are basically stuffed if I get hurt so I just try to stay on! (Although both of us wear hi-viz, I carry a mobile with yard number stored etc, etc)

You could always carry bailing twine and have a lead rope permanently clipped to your hacking saddle which would solve some of your issues.
 
It happened to me... I had no choice, my mare followed the rapidly departing loose horse. I had zero brakes, she was just following her "herd" mate... Thankfully on a track off road, and a mile and a half or so from home. It was hairy scary and NOT a position I would want to be in again
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My friend was bruised but ok, and was surprised I'd managed to stay on board... especially as her horse had tried to kick mine when he went past so my mare had leapt sideways (from a standstill) to avoid him, then gone off at a rate of knots...

So, if I had HAD a choice I'd have stayed with my friend, there's no way you are going to catch a bolting horse, and it may even think you thundering behind it is a race...
 
I would personnly stay with the person, ring for ambulance for person and back up for horse. Horses no matter how special can be replaced people cannot. Human life and well being has to be no 1 priority.
 
Stay with the person - 9 times out of 10 the loose horse will suddenly realise it is on its own and high-tail it back to you, if you follow it then it may continue to race and run blindly on. Usually once they are out of eye-shot they tend to either come back or at the very least stop! If they don't, you won't catch up anyway, or be able to do anything if you do (at full pelt gallop, what exactly are you planning to do? Lasso it cowboy style using your stirrup leathers?!).
 
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I would personnly stay with the person, ring for ambulance for person and back up for horse. Horses no matter how special can be replaced people cannot. Human life and well being has to be no 1 priority.

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Ditto This,
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I would personnly stay with the person, ring for ambulance for person and back up for horse. Horses no matter how special can be replaced people cannot. Human life and well being has to be no 1 priority.

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Well yes, but if the horse is about to cause a major accident on the road, for example, then surely that human life has priority over a potentially unhurt fallen rider?

BHS would tell you that your first duty is to "secure the scene", ie prevent further injuries from happening. So it rather depends on the circumstances as to what you would actually do
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This happened to me, I was fine, sent the young ones after the mare, not least because of the busy roads and if she had gone into the nearby campsite, they would have taken all her gear off and maintained she was theirs
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Walking along in my gear, stopping cars to ask if they had seen a horse, was not the proudest moment of my life
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A man actually got out of his car and caught her, thank goodness......

I would stay with the person if they were badly hurt, depends how many people are out, I suppose.
 
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Stay with the person - 9 times out of 10 the loose horse will suddenly realise it is on its own and high-tail it back to you, if you follow it then it may continue to race and run blindly on.

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This! I've thankfully not fallen often while out hacking but on every occasion my horse has stopped some distance off, had a good old snort then come trotting straight back (having the decency to look a bit sheepish, too).

If she bolted any more distance than that and couldn't find her way back to me I expect she'd head for home, they're not daft.
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As much as I dislike people they should always be prioritised in that situation.
 
Stay with the rider......I'll be buggered if I'm going to chase somebody elses horse around the countryside! Sod that one for a game of soldiers
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Last yr I had a bad fall from a horse whilst hacking with a friend. He bolted with me on top, had to navigate through a narrow gateway which caught my right leg and sent me flying onto a fence. We were on a track at the time, but about 200yds from where I fell, it joined a busyish road into a village.

I was able to get up and try to go after him, but he had bolted the whole way through the village and back to the stable about 1.5miles away.
How he didn't cause an accident I will never know. The girl I was with stopped to make sure I was ok (read: breathing!) and went on after the horse, which had already made it back to the stable.

Both of us carry mobile phones, luckily, and we were able to find out the horse was back in one piece.
Horrendous experience which has completely shattered my confidence, but made me mcuh more aware of how to deal with a situation like that.
 
Say whatever you like about D but the one thing you can say is that she always stops if you fall off. Whatever had originally caused the silly behaviour she always stops and looks surprised if you fall off. The one time she didn't stop dead she only went another three or four strides before she realised she could eat. Who wants to gallop for home when you're in a lush field of grass!
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Gotta love cobs
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Years ago I got bolted with and hit a tree with my thigh and got catapulted off the horse - the horse kept on going and my friend rode up to me to see if I was okay - I could hardly breathe and couldn't see out of one eye, but she still buggered off after the horse!

I ended up crawling on my hands and knees through the woods until I came across a house, managed to knock on the door and they helped me out - I couldn't remember my home phone number for a while though.

I would stay with the person in that situation - unless the person was okay and told me to go after the horse.
 

This happened to me the girls I was with went to look for the horse and I dragged my sore arse after them, they couldn't find her and I had to call the police as it was windy country roads one way and a busy A road the other.

A few cars had seen her and were driving round looking for her, she was eventually found 3/4 hour later by a women and put her in her sand school and called the police.

Bloody awful exp
 
Oh, this happened to me when I was 15 and had just got my horse. Someone had lost control of their horse, who came galloping up from behind us, my horse spooked; broke his lent-to-me bit; I fell off and he disappeared

The girl I was riding with checked to see if I was okay, then went off to find my horse (who had managed to find his way onto a golf course
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I fractured my shoulder from the fall, but tbh Im glad she went after my horse because I would have hated to have lost him and at the time that was all I cared about

I think as long as the rider is ok, I too would follow the horse (assuming the rider was happy for me to do taht aswell!)
 
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A few cars had seen her and were driving round looking for her, she was eventually found 3/4 hour later by a women and put her in her sand school and called the police.



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Makes you think that perhaps we should consider having some sort of tag on our tack with owner name/no, yard contact no. etc
 
I was always told that you call emergency services, and ask them to come to the person and also advise tham that there is a loose horse and that it may run into the road and cause traffic problems.

When I fell off in these circumstances, the pony I was riding followed the horse in front and the rider was also able to call the stables and get someone to come up and ride her home.
 
I'm suprised
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I know we all probably have different scenarios in our heads, and definately different experiences.

Would you stay with the rider if they weren't in any further danger and it became apparent they weren't seriously hurt, or had non-life threatening injuries, e.g. broken fingers?

I have been out with someone riding a youngster, in a forest, when during a canter youngster bucked, they flew off, and were picking themselves back up again within 5 seconds of it happening - so I went after the youngster - he was trotting, so okay not bolting, and I followed at a walk - he soon realised being away from his friend was more scary than with, I caught him and led him back to the fallen rider. Had I not followed him he could have been lost or got onto a railway line or road - its not just his life which was potentially in danger, but other humans' too.

I do agree if horse has truly bolted (and yours hasn't) you aint going to catch up with them, (laughing at the stirrup leather lasoo idea!) and attempting to do so would ensure the herd flight response was well and truly activated. However, if person was okay, I would still go after the horse, but not at a fast pace. This would be with the aim of keeping track of where he was going, and if catching was still not possible you could at least try to head them away from danger.

I WOULD stop if I thought the person was in any further danger, or were at risk of losing consciousness/ death if I didn't. Although my certificate has expired, I used to be a certified first aider, and was always taught to check for and deal with danger first - a loose horse in an area where there is likely to be cars, people etc IS a very real danger.
 
it happened to me and my friend whilst riding along a seafront. horse spooked, she went out the side door, horse high tailed it down the seafront. friend was ok and asked me to go after her horse which in itself was a major feat as my horse was trying to bolt to catch up with friends horse. eventually after trying to calm my horse down and just trot up the sea front we caught up with the horse , which somebody had caught and held onto, further up the sea front. friend got picked up by a police car who drove her down the promenade to us to retrieve her horse.
Thankfully nobody was hurt, but i suppose what order you do everything in depends on the situation. i think it would be a good idea to have some sort of info, tel number etc on the horses tack somewhere too.
 
I've had a couple of accidents whilst riding out in company, one serious:

The horse I was riding was having a tantrum and kicked out at the horse my mum was on and broke my mum's leg.

I jumped off straight away but the horse I had was plunging and rearing and being a pain in the ass. Nothing to tie her to so I just let her go! I needed to get my mum off her horse asap and call an abulance and no bloody stupid spoilt brat of a horse (which was why I was riding her for her owner!) was going to stop that. She galloped off for a couple of hundred yards until she realised my mum's horse wasn't following (thank god for saintly horses) and just stopped to graze. After calling the ambulance I called friends to come and get her (and mum's horse).

I fell off a while ago when Toby spooked. Broke my finger and my nose plus lots of bruising. Toby smashed into friends pony, knocking her off and they both bolted off togther. Friend was unhurt but stayed with me to call an ambulance then called friends to find the horses (who had gone home).

Finally, I managed to fall off toby when someone else fell off (others falling off totally freaked him out and dump me too!). I was with two others. Fallen friend was fine and her sensible horse (same one my mum was riding!) just trotted off to be with still-onboard friends horse. My idiotic animal took off in the other direction and headed home, along the road. Since fallen friend was fine, and other friend was there to make sure, I took Sensible horse and set off after my Idiotic animal, to find him 10mins later on the route home, stopping for a snack.

I would always stay with the rider unless I was 100% sure they were fine (up on their feet, walking talking etc). The horse can just look after itself and is most likely to either go home, or to the nearest patch of yummy looking grass.
 
If rider was OK I would tell them to jog on after their ned!!!

If rider not OK, no question, I would stay with rider, things can deteriorate very quickly - I have seen someone fracture their skull after coming off a horse and go from being stood up and normal to fitting in 10 mins...

Horses are very good at self preservation, and 99% of the time either stop, or go home.

And at the end of the day, I put humans before horses.
 
I was in this situation...

Had to ring an ambulance for my friend, her horse had to wait, it galloped off home. It was fine, got its bridle off but went back to the stables. I'd always put the person first, as others have said horses can normally look after themselves, people can't. And they can get worse very quickly.

Luckily we were on a bridleway on the ground's of a school, so tied my pony to the fence which split the field and bridleway with his reins! Unfortunately only thing i could do. He was a star that day and just stood there eating watching my friends horse gallop off! Even when ambulance parked next to him he carried on munching on his grass until my friends arrived lol!
 
Depends who it was
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When I worked at a ptp yard I was told by the trainer's wife if the trainer fell off an owner's horse, go after the horse first. If he fell off one of his own, stay with him!!

I think it totally depends on the situation. If possible I would ring someone back at the yard to come out and try and catch the loose horse and stay with injured person.

My dear old dad found a loose horse cantering towards him on the road one day and he managed to catch it and tie it to a gate with its reins and went off looking for the rider. He found the rider, totally uninjured and walking up the road after her horse and gave her a lift back to her horse. When they got back there the horse had taken the gate off its hinges and was lying upside down in a ditch with the gate on top of it. So I would pray there aren't any "helpful" people like him around!!
 
Interesting post!

I witnessed a friend have a horrific fall out hunting. I was foot following and saw the accident happen on the road in front of me. I leapt out of my car to see my friend's horse get to his feet and start galloping down the road towards me. I was asked afterwards why I didn't try to catch him but I know that little me would not be able to grab at 550KG of horse thundering past me and stop him - he would have pulled my arns out of their sockets. I also knew he was headed towards the field and hoped he'd go to them. I just yelled loose horse and ran to help my friend who I thought had just been killed in front of me.

Fortunately she has fully recovered after a hospital stay and the horse was caught by someone mounted.

If I had the same thing happen again, I'd go to help the human first.
 
Unfortunately it has happened to me twice!!

First time friend fell off while we were cantering, her horse bolted, mine followed. I eventually I managed to circle, stop mine and persuade him to turn back. I found my friend who was on her feet, walking towards me and had her mobile out already calling at the yard. She insisted I leave her and chase down her horse, as she seemed OK and had not hurt her head I did so. I followed the crazy hoofprints on the road, stopping cars to let them know. Luckily someone down the road had stopped the horse so I took both of them ride and lead to the yard while friend's OH was driving back to get her.

Second time my friend fell, both horses pissed off, eventually managed to stop but bombed off again as I was getting off to catch the loose one. I called OH asked him to come in the car and started hobbling back the road to my friend. Luckily she was fine, OH picked us both up in the car and we went after the horses. Even more luckily they had been stopped by a walker a few miles down the road (after they had set off another poor rider on her horse!).

Total nightmare both times! I think you do what seems best at the time!
 
it happened to me on a fun ride - it was the first fun ride my freind had done since her horse recovered from kissing spine surgery, we were halfway round and her horse was ok, someone decided they were going to gallop flat out past us, her horse started to buck, she shouted at me asking for help?! there was nothing i could do she was coming off, off she came, horse galloped off and as i know the area i knew she was heading towards the road, i went to my friend lying on the floor - thinking that as there were riders behind us they would catch the horse ! no. even though i shouted loose horse everyone carried on past us didnt stop to even help my friend on the floor, then one woman did stop and i sent her after the horse who luckily had stopped before reaching the road. my friend was ok just bruised knocked breath out of her and confidence on the floor - she did get back on and have since done a fun ride without falling off - i think depends on situation if was on a road and rider looked 'ok'and gets straight up would try stop horse causing any more accidents - if rider on floor then stop with rider.
was shocked no-one stopped to help rider on floor - it was a hunt fun ride they were more interested in getting a gallop in!
 
QR- when i was about 13 I fell off in bushy park... pony made a B line for the exit, and promptly trotted off down the middle of the road!!!!! The girl I was with went after him, which was fine by me as all I had were visions of pony lay accross some cars bonnet with broken everything!! Lots of people stopped to help me/see if I was ok, so i think it was best to go after the pony......

Luckily another horsey person in a landie managed to "steer" said pony into a petrol station and eventually we caught the little git.......
 
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Last yr I had a bad fall from a horse whilst hacking with a friend. He bolted with me on top, had to navigate through a narrow gateway which caught my right leg and sent me flying onto a fence. We were on a track at the time, but about 200yds from where I fell, it joined a busyish road into a village.

I was able to get up and try to go after him, but he had bolted the whole way through the village and back to the stable about 1.5miles away.
How he didn't cause an accident I will never know.



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Exact same thing happened to meand Toto, except I managed to stay on all the way down the sandy track, then promptly fell off on the road
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I wasn't in company, but my mum had been walking with me on foot, when Toto had spooked and bolted down the track. When I hit the deck and he disapeared off down the road, I had to run to the side of the road so I didn't get squished, then I rang my mum, and then while my mum was coming to find me, she rang the stables to see if he'd turned up there, and luckily they'd found him standing by the front gate waiting to be let in!
He was very lucky to get away with only slight lameness, and me with a few scrapes and cuts from landing on the road
 
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A few cars had seen her and were driving round looking for her, she was eventually found 3/4 hour later by a women and put her in her sand school and called the police.



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Makes you think that perhaps we should consider having some sort of tag on our tack with owner name/no, yard contact no. etc

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Oh yes it was a huge learning curve
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it also bugs the hell out of me when people ride with their phones clipped to the saddles, its no use on the horse when the horse has buggered off or strapped to their legs or arms as I've seen them come off
 
It is a good idea to have a tag on the saddle with your name, telephone number, etc. especially if you hack alone. I think this is a requirement if you do Trec competitions.
 
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