Help-My horse kicked another horse at a show

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TinselTurkey

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Today I was at a show and in the warm up my horse kicked another horse. My horse had a long red ribbon plaited in his tail and it was clearly visible.

During the warm up a woman much older than me (i'm a teenager) repeatedlly kep squashing my horse against the wall (baisically she would trot/canter extremely close to my horses sides and sqaush him) After about 3 times of her doing this I politely said
''excuse could you please not get too close as my horse kicks'' (Horse when he gets upset he will kick out and he was beginning to show all the signs that he was going to kick out so I told her to not get too close) The woman just gave me a dirty look and trotted past. I thought it was all sorted and carried on warming up but next lap round the school she cantered right into the back/side of my horse and as result he kicked out twice and got himself very upset so I ended up withdrawring from the class I was going to do.

I am not really sure what to do as I had warned the woman that he was a kicker. Am I in the wrong?

(Sorry if it does not make sense i'm not very good at putting things into words)
 
No you were not wrong, you were wearing a warning and also told the moron not to get too close, it is just a pity that her horse had to pay for her stupidity and arrogance. Well lets hope she has learned her lesson :mad:
 
in one word NO - you followed the rules with the red ribbon and asked her politely to stay away if she was so arrogant and chose not to then its her fault and she put all involved at risk not you! I certainly wouldnt lose any sleep over it and neither should you:D
 
In my opinion you did everything right, you had a ribbon AND you warned the woman so not your fault she ignored everything. Just a shame her horse had to suffer for her stupidity.
 
Horses can kick. End of! Anyone who rides a horse should know that and should have common sense at shows - you do NOT ride close to someone else's horse like that, red ribbon in tail or not! It is very easy to tell as well if a horse is not happy about other horses being close so, it's very simple - give them a wide berth! My horse does not kick BUT i am sure if he felt a horse was invading his space he would be perfectly capable of giving them a warning!

Don't worry about it - i assume no harm was done? She may have learnt a lesson.
 
You gave clear warning
Your job is to look after your herd of two and her job is to look after her herd of two,you did your job to your ability she didn't..case closed;)
 
I have a young horse who is very funny about horses behind him he wears a very large red ribbon shows alll the signs he is going to kick and i keep him well away from horses when at events.

I am amazed at the amount of people even after i have told them as well who still get right up his backside, he is getting better but it annoys me because like you i would hate him to injure another horse.
And he kicks because of a lack of confidence and having horses ram him up the bum doesnt help you can only do your best you are taking all precautions and the other riders are beyond your control.
 
You wernt in the wrong at all. It is good of you to put the red ribbon in your horse's tail and to warn the woman. Hopefully she will have learned to be more careful and I hope the other horse wasnt injured. I hate rude riders in warmups. My last mare used to hate being squashed and get herself upset about it although she didnt kick.
 
I always try to stay away from other people and give their horses a wide berth just incase their horse might kick out. The woman did not seem to know what the definition of wide berth was as she was sqaushing other people's horses against the wall but my horse was the one to kick out :/
 
Sounds like you did right to me, was there any injury to the woman or her horse? If there is ANY chance she might try and make a claim against you write down everything that happened tonight while its fresh in your mind and the names of anybody else who saw what was happening.
 
Trinity Fox said:
I have a young horse who is very funny about horses behind him he wears a very large red ribbon shows alll the signs he is going to kick and i keep him well away from horses when at events.

I am amazed at the amount of people even after i have told them as well who still get right up his backside, he is getting better but it annoys me because like you i would hate him to injure another horse.
And he kicks because of a lack of confidence and having horses ram him up the bum doesnt help you can only do your best you are taking all precautions and the other riders are beyond your control.
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I find it annoying when you warn people but they don't listen. The annoying thing is when he gets upset it takes him ages to calm down and when he has calmed down the class is over :/ . I wish he hadn't got upset now as the secretary would not refund my £30 entry fees even after I explained the situation :(
 
Bethie said:
Sounds like you did right to me, was there any injury to the woman or her horse? If there is ANY chance she might try and make a claim against you write down everything that happened tonight while its fresh in your mind and the names of anybody else who saw what was happening.
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The horse seemed ok and looked sound but it could stiffen up over night etc, I don't know where he kicked him though. The woman seemed ok though.

and thanks I will do :)
 
I was at a show recently and someone just came cantering up from behind and barged into my boy's backside!! - luckily he was OK with it but the stupidity of some people amazed me.

Agree with everyone here - you took care to warn people both with red ribbon and verbally. And yes, agree good idea to write down details of incident just in case.
 
Warm up areas are notorious for crap like this, or folks not looking where theyre going, ive had someone come round opposite me on manys an occassion and ive been sreaming left to left as theyre not watching where theyre going, ive even had to dodge someone coming right at me. If youve not got your wits about you in the warm up area it can all go horribly wrong very quickly.
Personally i dont think you did anything wrong, you did your best to let folks know to give you a wide berth, pity youre horse didnt connect with the eejit on board, it might take that for her to learn, sadly it sounds like her horse might be the one suffering for her stupidity
 
ladyt25 said:
Horses can kick. End of! Anyone who rides a horse should know that and should have common sense at shows - you do NOT ride close to someone else's horse like that, red ribbon in tail or not! .
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Exactly!..Stupid woman should know better...just a pity her horse copped for the kick instead of her.

Try not to upset yourself over it (((HUG)))

.
 
I agree - you did everything right. The woman is quite clearly a moron. I dont compete very often nowadays, I did a dressage test a few weks ago and I was appallled at how rude/inconsiderate people were in the warm up area. If it wasnt other riders it was spectaors/family members, toddlers, dogs. GRRRR
 
sightly off main point, where do you put a ribbon if tail is pulled? Do you tie it in below the pulled part? and should you put one on front aswell? if not just a kicker e.g for green horse?
 
dizzydancer said:
sightly off main point, where do you put a ribbon if tail is pulled? Do you tie it in below the pulled part? and should you put one on front aswell? if not just a kicker e.g for green horse?
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I just tie the ribbon around the tail in a bow. Only ever had one on the backend as thats the "business" end!! & put a green/red ribbon in the tail for a green horse :)
 
dizzydancer said:
sightly off main point, where do you put a ribbon if tail is pulled? Do you tie it in below the pulled part? and should you put one on front aswell? if not just a kicker e.g for green horse?
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Buy a long length of ribbon and wrap it round the dock a few times before tieing and it will stay on a pulled tail :)
 
I am really wondering about this.bearing in mind the Suffolk show post which would indicate that if a horse behaves in a natural way ie. bolting when fightened and kills someone then the owner will be held liable. Then surely if you knowlingly took a horse that kicked into a collecting ring would you be liable if it kicked someone? Whatever warning you supplied? Bearing in mind you knew it kicked out? Advertised by the red ribbon? Would that be setting yourself up to be sued?

If I had a horse that I knew kicked out i would not want to be in a small warm up area. I would do my utmost to keep it away.

Just wondering really about "reasonable care". Would a red ribbon be seen as reasonable care or admitting to being a "liability"?

I am not criticising the op or telling her not to enjoy her pony, or saying what she did was wrong, but wondering actually where we would stand if we knowingly took a horse that kicked to a show and it kicked out and caused a serious injury due to someone coming too close. I know it is basic horse sense to keep away but would that stand up in court?
 
dozzie said:
I am really wondering about this.bearing in mind the Suffolk show post which would indicate that if a horse behaves in a natural way ie. bolting when fightened and kills someone then the owner will be held liable. Then surely if you knowlingly took a horse that kicked into a collecting ring would you be liable if it kicked someone? Whatever warning you supplied? Bearing in mind you knew it kicked out? Advertised by the red ribbon? Would that be setting yourself up to be sued?

If I had a horse that I knew kicked out i would not want to be in a small warm up area. I would do my utmost to keep it away.

Just wondering really about "reasonable care". Would a red ribbon be seen as reasonable care or admitting to being a "liability"?

I am not criticising the op or telling her not to enjoy her pony, or saying what she did was wrong, but wondering actually where we would stand if we knowingly took a horse that kicked to a show and it kicked out and caused a serious injury due to someone coming too close. I know it is basic horse sense to keep away but would that stand up in court?
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To be honest I would not really know where I would stand if she took this too court :/(hopefully she wont)


Slightly off topic but I remember a while ago someone had posted about tabards for hacking that say '' caution Young Horse'' and something about insurance companies, and someone raised a similar point to yours.


This is why I hate warm up arenas, some venues I have been to have had 3 schools to warm up in for one ring and it was perfect as I could have the whole school to myself without worrying about horse getting stressed.

Thanks for your replies everyone :)
 
Kicking is such a murky subject, people say things like "horses will be horses" until it happens and then before you know it your horse is the equine equivalent of Hannibal Lecter.

Personally, I don't think you should be held liable, your horse was under control, you had the red ribbon in, you warned the woman your horse was likely to kick.
 
I had a discussion about this with the NFU insurance lady,whose husband is a barrister.
The NFU successfully defend these "admiting liability" cases - red ribbons, tabards, etc.

You are being responsible by giving a warning, so others should take heed and behave accordingly.

Whether or not to take a horse likely to kick into a warm up area is a moot point. I think if you turn up at a County Show with hundreds of horses, ponies milling about then you should be very careful, and generally only take a horse that you know is going to be OK. I feel the same about taking a kicked out hunting. It is almost impossible to avoid a melee at some stages, so a known kicker should be kept well out of the way.
At a smaller scale event, then I think it quite reasonable to take a less reliable horse, with due warning to others, after all ANY horse can kick if they feel threatened.
 
There'll always be a muppet :( Maybe like you said in the last post, don't go to that venue again if the warm facilities are inadequate and you're just going to chuck money down the drain. *hug*

Unfortunately - some people are just muppets in warm up arenas. It's interesting when we takes the stallions off to 'normal' competitions (rather than showing where there may be 15 stallions warming up for a class and everybody knows what it means) the responses you get from other people. If one of our young boys is in a warm arena, say for dressage, I try to put myself in the place I can be a helpful cheery gate opener for other people going into the warm up and at the same time say 'by the way, the *colour* horse is a stallion' (they have bridle discs on anyway). Ranges from people then just being a bit aware of personal space and not flattening him (which they probably wouldn't anyway), to people completely ignoring you and carrying on regardless mowing the poor sod down (which they no doubt would to anybody else, stallion or not) - but with no concept that he might not be so forgiving as a gelding of being flattened and feeling his space is being threatened, or to the third group - aka the 'mines all right-ers' ;) And yet the people who don't listen would be the first to shout their mouths off about the horse being entire if something did happen. They're not firebreathing beasts, they not nasty, but they're young horses with hormones and riders try to keep themselves to themselves in their own space - but the horse has to have the experience some time! We always take ours out of the warm up if they are causing anybody else any problems, and when they were very young and teenagery used to warm them up in a quiet corner well away from the main warm up, so we're hardly poncing about being the big I am and screwing up everybody else's day lol. Just funny what reactions you get - and then if horse does start bouncing up and down snorting because somebody's taken his backside off they all look like it was a surprise.
 
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