Horrible incident and advice needed!

tessybear said:
You can report this to the polic a similar thing happened to us in which a rottweiler attacked Tessy who luckily booted it in the gob before it could sink its horrible jaws into her back leg ! Police delt with is swiftly and woman has been warned ... dog now walked out in muzzle and with a harness.


If i was you i would try and meet as many dogs as possible ( friends dogs perhaps ?) even if your in the school and have them standing at the side then get friend to walk dog out with your horses for a quiet little hack ?

I know its difficult not to as its sounds terrifying your experience but don't get prepared when you see either a dog or long grass for horses to take off as they will develop issues from you getting panicky.


They will no doubt of moved on by now :) Tess was spooky at dogs for a few days afterwards but has settled happily now.

Hope you and friend are better now !
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You were lucky - the police wouldn't even take my name after my horse was attacked and badly bitten and clawed in a public place (ripped her boots off in pieces).

OP, do you have any friends who could bring dogs down to the yard asap, on leads, and let the horses have a look? I have to say though, my old girl never recovered from her attack, and for years would shake if she saw a dog she didn't know (she was fine with ones that were familiar). Sadly it wasn't our last run-in with dogs either :(
 
OUCH!

if 'they are always doing this' surely she should know better and have them on the lead rather than waiting for them to cause havoc????:confused:

perhaps as dangerous dogs they do need to be shot...i do love dogs and we have our own but if Olly or Simba ever behaved half so badly as this ever we would not give them the oppurtunity to do so again.
 
Why are the dogs being blamed when it was the fault of the stupid owner?

She knew what they could do as she said that they had done it before.

Again its the stupid humans who fail the animals in their care.
 
Yes i know it is not th dogs fault but if it has got to such a dangerous point, and lives are at risk this behaviour may be irreversible due to the owner's hopeless attempts (if she has even bothered to do so) to control them...sadly shooting/pts may be the only option for the saftey of others
 
Sounds like dogs were out of control, which is bad, but weren't the horses too. We have to share the roads, Bridleways etc. all have their risks...when we hack out, we have to analyse the risks, and get on with it. Horrible experience, but dogs are dogs and horses are horses
 
Yes we know it's owners fault. But if you or your horse gets seriously hurt I don't care. Like I hate the dogs here for attacking my dog and lunging at horses when they get a chance. Yup all owners but it's how I feel. And I pay rent to live here. The dogs belong to landlord's ex. They've been broke up for 2 years. She lives on the family farm. So why are they still here. No it's not the dogs fault but lot of good that does me.

And just to clear things up. When I ride with my dogs it's on my land. I don't take them with me hacking off farm for obvious reasons.

Terri
 
Thanks everyone for your responses. I am based in Sussex, if anyone local has any help they could offer.

Friend is okay, she's still incredibly itchy and sore from all the stinging nettle stings and has some short term memory loss, but very lucky to not have had more serious injuries. We went back to look at where it all happened the next day before the field was closed and it's crazy to see how close to the lake's edge my horse was galloping, and how our horses managed to get through some of the narrow points, my friend was lucky she didn't roll further as she would have ended up in a ditch.

We have contacted everyone who lives, works and owns horses in the local area to see if we can track her down, nothing yet but hopefully someone will know who she is.

Today we decided to introduce the horses to a couple of dogs on the yard who are used to horses, my friends horse seemed okay, but mine visibly tensed up and was very aware of the dog, but he's young so maybe he's a bit more impressionable, and I'm sure I was giving him 'worried' vibes, despite trying to encourage him calmly and giving his withers a scratch. I think the biggest hurdle will be us as riders trying to relax whilst riding in long grass or around dogs.

Thanks for everyone's advice and kind comments. I just hope nothing like this ever happens again, when a horse really bolts its horrifying knowing there's really very little you can do to stop or control them.
 
The dogs don't need shooting. The Owner does.

However, I do think some horse riders think they own every bit of land!! Dogs are aloud off lead on common land, well in this area anyway. But I always see horse riders cantering round corners, not saying thankyou etc etc. I also see a lot suddenly appear.. so I call my dog back to put him on the lead, but they just keep coming and don't stop, giving me about 3 seconds to put him on the lead, Then dont even make eye contact or say anything :rolleyes:
 
Megalini_22 said:
Sounds like dogs were out of control, which is bad, but weren't the horses too. We have to share the roads, Bridleways etc. all have their risks...when we hack out, we have to analyse the risks, and get on with it. Horrible experience, but dogs are dogs and horses are horses
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The problem is that the dogs gave chase to the horses. I don't know many horses who would quietly let a dog attack them without it setting off a fight or flight reaction. If these dogs gave chase to sheep, well, dogs are dogs and sheep are sheep, but that doesn't mean that the farmer won't shoot the dogs. Dogs can be trained to not chase livestock or failing that, walked on leads.
 
Caol Ila said:
The problem is that the dogs gave chase to the horses. I don't know many horses who would quietly let a dog attack them without it setting off a fight or flight reaction. If these dogs gave chase to sheep, well, dogs are dogs and sheep are sheep, but that doesn't mean that the farmer won't shoot the dogs. Dogs can be trained to not chase livestock or failing that, walked on leads.
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Sadly, I have to disagree with you. Before the first attack where my horse was bitten (staffordshire cross, near a large and notorious council estate housing a large and notorious gangster) we were just walking along. Up to then my gentle horse who never kicked anything in the entire 17.5 years I had her, was not the slightest bit bothered by dogs running at her and barking and snarling. Even as it climbed up her legs, raking them with its claws and bit her boots off, she tried to step over it and walk away. Even when it climbed up her tail and bit her quarters just behind the saddle, she didn't even buck. The second attack was a boxer, off the lead and totally untrained, deaf to its owner calling its name (after I told her my horse was frightened of dogs and would she hold it while I road past). We were just walking along the banks of the Mersey - where we very nearly ended up in the water as my panicked horse was chased by said dog, down the face of the bank. Owner of the dog said it was my fault as my horse was out of control and badly trained! Third attack was two dobermans, off the lead. They got either side of her in total pack instinct. We were just walking along (are you starting to see a pattern here ???) Owner was another ineffectual woman so I gave her a dose of her own medicine and spun my horse's quarters at her and boy did she have to move sharpish. Asked her how she liked it. Oh yes, and before the first attack above, I was hacking out in walk and realised I had a half grown doberman swinging off my horse's tail. I never actually spotted the owner of that one. I was expected to control my half ton horse with two strips of leather and my voice, why can't dog owners do the same with their poxy 20-pounders?
 
The most frustrating thing was she clearly knew her dogs had a habit of chasing horses as she commented after 'that she could shoot them sometimes as they are always doing that' Plus she'd seen us for ages before hand, we were gently walking along a straight stretch and she'd acknowledged she'd seen us, so there was plenty of time to ask us to stop whilst she put them on leads or asked us to go the other way round the lake, or even gently introduced the dogs to our horses. If we had been cantering around a corner when it had happened I'd understand we were at fault.
 
Dogs in a public place must be under control.

I was riding my horse on the road through a small village when two horses ran out of a farm yard and viciously attacked my horse on it's legs and neck pulling her down on to the road. I beat the dogs off with my schooling whip but my horse was injured.
It took many months for my horse to recover and I am afraid she was never the same laid back horse with dogs.
I reported the incident to both the police and dog warden both of which visited the farmer concerned.
What really annoyed me was that other local horse riders had had problems with these dogs but did nothing about it because they did not wish to create any bad feeling.
 
lamlyn2012 said:
Personally I don't advocate hacking with a loosr dog in tow as I think it sends out the wrong signals, and how can you hack safely plus watching the dog all the time. Conjures up the imageof someone hacking whilst carrying a bag of dog poo.
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Bit off topic, but I don't agree with this. We often have loose dogs "in tow" when out hacking (up to 6 sometimes) and never have any problems. I guess it depends on the dogs and the location. The owners have to get off and lead them sometimes (e.g. when going through a farm that has a dog), and when we have a lot of dogs with us we do usually have someone walking too just in case. Obviously you don't watch the dog all the time, you have a dog that stays with you and does as its told.

I don't take my dog because he's not reliable around chickens and sometimes some escape from the farm up the road, but I don't object to the others doing it. Its a brilliant way to get the odd driver / tractor driver that we meet on the lanes to slow down (for some reason one loose, well-behaved dog is more effective than 3 big horses covered in reflective gear when it comes to this). It also means all our horses are completely safe around dogs, which is a godsend around here where the farm dogs (and some of the others) are all 'latch key' and wander about all over.

Just yesterday my boy and I were out on our own and he was being quite spooky in the wind when we trotted around a corner to find ourselves face-to-face with a giant, hairy thing (airsdale?) that came hurtling around the corner and between his legs. My horse did jump in the air, but recovered immediately. It then turned and followed us down the road, running in and out of the hedge, until it got it home. The old lady who owns it was in the garden and waved to me as I came past. Dread to think how that would have gone if my horse wasn't so used to loose dogs running about.
 
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