Goodwill consequences, please read..

[kerilli]

[ QUOTE ]
Wooden gates cost upwards of £600, most costing around £800 for a solid, decent farm gate. Assuming it is a standard, machinery sized gate?

[/ QUOTE ]

you are joking.
i just checked on the Jacksons site - so, not the cheapest.
a 3.6m metal gate is £190, a 3.6m wooden 5 barred gate is £123.
i'm assuming the horse did not remove the gate post, slammer post etc etc!

 

[AmyMay]

Pay the farmer - then sort out the reinbursements from both girls.

 

[brighteyes]

Gates aren't that dear to fix or replace. Horses, on the other hand are both expensive and difficult in either case. I'd be far more concerned about the latter!

 

[arwenplusone]

[ QUOTE ]
i'd definitely keep the farmer happy first - pay him for a new gate, get a receipt if pos!
then tell rider A that s/he is responsible for the fact that rider B was on your horse (without your permission) and that either s/he or rider B needs to reimburse you for the cost of the gate, and for any vet attention your horse needs. half each might be fairest, but they can sort it out between themselves.
i feel v sorry for rider B for injuries, nightmare.
hope your horse makes a full recovery. i sincerely hope you've received an apology, but i doubt it if they can't even tell you the trust and get their stories straight!
this is why my horses don't leave my yard with another rider without me, either on foot or on a horse beside them...

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the best answer so far

Keep the farmer happy - if you want to ride on his land again then this is a good idea! Also he has nothing to do with this really apart from the fact that it is his land, so unless the gate was faulty or something on his land caused the accident I don't think it is worth claiming.

Re the horse: I think that Kerilli is spot on here, they were riding & thus responsible for the horse's wellbeing. If they made bad judgments (which we all can do) then they should pay the consequences.

I often hack out with my friend who is between horses at the moment & she rides a borrowed horse from our yard. If, for whatever reason we had to swap and there was an accident I think we would both be helping with the vets bills, (circumstances depending).

I hope it all gets sorted out & everyone has a quick recovery.

 

[KingCharles]

What was the actual damage to the gate? could it be repaired?

i find it hard to imagine a rider alone damaging the gate. By the sounds of the injury to your horse it sounds like your horse may of attempted to jump the gate or crashed trhough the gate and i can then see how this would of damaged the gate. This leads to the question as to where the gate was in relation to where the riders where, and how they managed to crash into a gate if it was off a bridle path/on private land (thats assumeing that is where it was).
I think that intill you get the full story it is hard to know what went on. I woudl go out and have a look at the accident scene, look at the hoof marks, the damage to the gate, in relation to your horses injuries, try and draw up a picture in yoru own mind as to what could of happened. See if there where any witnesses. I would then approach rider A and ask them wht they where doing and why they had swapped horses. Rider B once recovered needs to give there side of the story if they can remember. The gate can be fixed, but the damamge to the horse and the rider may leave permanant damage and becasue of this i would want to know what had happend, and why it had happened. With otu knwoing what happend with yoru horse, how can you move on from this, and get your horse back out hackign safely again minimising worry and the chance of another accident. Your horse may well be trumatised over the accident, it may mean he will need time to enjoy hacking out again. if the horse bolted with rider B then why? Could it be he was in pain, had a developing issue. Is rider B more capable than rider A? Could it be that rider A and B swapped horses as yours was a little too fresh for rider A?

These are thing IMHO that need to be established. Why would the riders lie to you if they where not doing something dangerous/risky?

i think you need to find out where the gate was in relation to where the public path was that they where apparently riding on. then work out if the accident could of happend any other way by looking at these things.

Going back many moons ago i hacked out with a friend who had borrowed a horse off a friend who had the horse on loan. The horse was a very strong cob and friend was not having much luck pulling it up. I suggested we turn back home, but friend decided to carry on with the hack. We lived near an airport and although my horse was used to the low flying aircrafts, friends horse wasnt. As a plane flew over out heads to land, friends horse spooked and bolted into the busy A roade, jumping the black and white metal barrier and hitting a car side on. the car lost control and crashed at the other side of the road. Friend and horse carried on galloping in th emiddel of the rode towards a bust village. In the end friend jumped off the horse and the horse finally stopped on a verge and started to eat the grass. How the horse came away from the accident unharmed is beyond me. However as he hit the side of the car he compleatly dented the door in. the driver stopped me and asked for the details of the friend, they had a baby in the back of the car and the wife was screaming crying. It was a terrible thing to have watched. i gave the address of my friend and friend said that was fine to do. She did nto get a chance to speak to the driver of the car she hit. Back then there where no mobile phones and the police where not called. Friend told her friend what had happend when she handed the horse back, and friend then told the owner of the horse who as you can imagine went nuts!! The problem was that the owner had nto given permisson for my friend to ride the horse, and friend who had thehorse on loan had not had the permisson to let anyone else ride the horse either. I had to fill out a witness staement for the insurance company. The damamge to the car was well over a grand and friend who was riding the horse could not afford to pay it. The horse was never the same again and was eventually PTS as he became more and more unpredictable.

As to who was lible during this situation, you coudl say it was the friend who gave permisson for my friend to ride the horse. However friend didi nto have full control of the horse and proceeded to carry on with the ride dispite the risks. The horse has known issues and it was common knowledge that he did bolt, so again all this together made it all very complicated. It happened all so quickly, and i was lucky that i manage to keep my horse from spooking while it all took place.

 

[depurple1]

One thing springs to mind reading this - there have been several accidents on here recently about horses being injured by poorly designed gates. I would first want to check whether the gate in any way contributed to the accident, if it was installed on a public bridleway.

Otherwise I would say that rider B was responsible - S/he was riding your horse (without permission) at the time of the accident, and presumably having ridden him before, did not consider him to be dangerous. Also the inconsistencies in A and B's stories point to them trying to do something that they shouldn't have been.

 

[brighteyes]

QR I notice the OP has not been on the thread to answer any of the how's and why's - and much assumption has been made that the ride was over farmland/on a bridleway

I got the impression they had been out on a road ride and a farmer's gate had been damaged - was it a roadside gate and a traffic incident which caused the horse to 'bump' into a gate at speed...

I also find it a bit odd the horse's injuries, which sound less than superficial, have barely been mentioned.

A right muddle.

 

[joeanne]

Pay the farmer and claim it back from the girl riding your horse, along with any vet's fee's for your horse!
Insurance would be a tricky thing anyway. MY insurance only covers riders that I have given permission to ride my horses.
A was the one supposed to be riding your horse, so how did B end up injured, along with your poor horse?

 

[Bowen4Horses]

jeeez.
right... i think i would...:
1. appease the farmer first and foremost. he is (i presume) the most innocent party and you may want him 'on side'/ go see him, apologise profusely. take some chocolates and a cheque book. maybe get a receipt from him.

2. send rider B a 'get well soon card'

3. tell rider A you're not happy. and suggest when rider B is recovered you get together to decide about reimbursement for gate/vets bills etc. because you never agreed for rider B to ride, and also you're annoyed that no one is telling you the truth.

then, i'm afraid, i'd put it down to experience. i do let other people ride my horse. but only because i weigh up the pros and cons (without it he wouldn't be ridden vs this sort of thing happening). and, if something like this happened, i'd accept that was part and parcel of letting people ride him. is your horse insured for other people to ride? also, you say in the OP that riders A and B think they're competant enough to hack out... which implies either you don't think that, or you don't know.... in which case you maybe shouldn't have let them hack out.

it is an awful thing to happen. and i really hope your horse and rider B get better soon.

xxxxx

 

[RunToEarth]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Wooden gates cost upwards of £600, most costing around £800 for a solid, decent farm gate. Assuming it is a standard, machinery sized gate?

[/ QUOTE ]

you are joking.
i just checked on the Jacksons site - so, not the cheapest.
a 3.6m metal gate is £190, a 3.6m wooden 5 barred gate is £123.
i'm assuming the horse did not remove the gate post, slammer post etc etc!

[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe a bridleway sized gate, but a solid wooden gate is a lot more than £100.
Asides from that, perhaps this illustrates why, in the claim and blame cluture, you SHOULD be selfish and not lend horses out.

 

[cptrayes]

You also need to be very careful how you phrase your concolences to the injured rider so that what you write or say cannot later be taken as any admission of guilt on your part in her riding a "dangerous horse".

It sounds clear to me that your horse breasted or half jumped the gate. I wonder why they are not telling you the truth?

Worrying. I hope you get it sorted.

 

[Rudey]

Very good point made, and in addition to what cptrayes says, whenever you are in a situation/accident/incident, NEVER say sorry as it is classed as an admission of your 'guilt'.... no telling I work for Defence Solicitors lmaoooo xx

ETA:

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I wonder why they are not telling you the truth?



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..... because they know THEY were in the WRONG and doing something they shouldn't have been - simples!

 

[dieseldog]

QR

Well going on previous cases I would say that the Livery yard owner was responsible - sounds mad, but sadly true.

They have been found liable in court for a livery leading their horse down a road that then escapes and causes damage.

 

[Echo Bravo]

alsxx talks sense wine or whisky, pay for gate and claim back from the other two. hope your horse is on the mend, keep an eye on the leg though. Learnt a lesson myself don't loan out your horse

 

[Chetak]

What a shame its ended up in this mess. I do hope you manage to get it sorted out soon. Depending on the type of insurance - horse insurance or rider only insurance - there should be some clarification in the small print or you could phone the insurance company for advice. The site www.horsecover.co.uk offers some useful advice on insurance cover but then this is a rather complicated issue ...