Horse attacks child!

Personally, all my sympathy has got to be for the child and the family of the child.

It was harsh putting the horse down but you can replace the horse but not a child.
 
I seem to remeber a child being killed on an eventing yard when a horse kicked its belly for a fly and caught the child who was standing underneath the horse at the time. Certainly not the horses fault, perhapes people forgetting that the horse cannot see what they can??

As much as a death is regretable, more care needs to be taken. Horses are a reactionary species, they act first, unpredictability is how they avoid their predators and is instinctive, years of domesticity will not change that.
 
Perhaps if the family had thought about that they would not have put their child at risk. It is the duty of the parent to protect the child, this means not allowing an 18 month old in with any equine without close supervision.
 
Much as the people who bought their seven year old a quad bike and let he rout on the road on it. This does not require hindsight, merely common sense and the ability to behave as a responsible parent. If the child had been allowed on a busy road at that age and had been hit by a car who would have been responsible then?
 
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If only we could turn back time, im sure the child's parents wish they could.

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I believe so to. Do we know that it was infact the parents who allowed the child in with the horse? Could have been a nanny or someone elses care he was in at the time it happened.

Someone acted very irresponsible anyway.
 
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hhmmmm, Why was the Toddler in a field with the stallion?

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Echo that!!!Horse destroyed is what i cant get my head round??Yes it is a bloody shame that a kiddy had to die but all said and done what the hell were its parents doing???I have had dealings with alot of stallions in the past and if you have an ounce of common sense you have noone within 3mile of them that dont know what they are doing,never mind a kiddy in a field!!Parents want hanging!!
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(yes i know parents may have taken eyes off for a second,i am guilty of that to,but not around our horses!)
 
Also have to say,i have seen first hand how horses react to a SMALL person,with my son,he is with me with the horses and i have seen pure fascination to aggression on some geldings parts,my lad wanted to sniff nd nuzzle his hair,however the dominant gelding would have killed him given half the chance!!
I believe they do not understand them to be people(we are 10x the size afterall)and i dont think they can work them out to be friend or foe!!!Just my opinion after acknowledging behaviours on certain parts???
 
I am afraid horses do sometimes "attack" kids but not how you would expect.
My son was aged around 3 and had been in the field with me stroking some of the horses, a mixture of young and old. I walked back to the gate calling him to keep up but pretty distracted at the time. As he walked a young filly aged two came trotting up from the bottom of the field, saw him and went straight towards him, I started back for him but she got there first, pushing him to the ground with her nose and striking out with her front leg, I shouted and waved my arms and she turned and ran off, he was crying but unhurt. I don't actually think she had any intention of hurting him, more of wanting him to play..
Our old stallion grew up with all my children, they played games with him as his stable overlooked our garden, they would sit on a toy truck, he would push it hard with his nose and they would whizz off down the path screaming with laughter..
On the odd occasion he escaped he was incredibly careful to go round them not over them!
The current stallion has never bitten anyone except my daughter. (adult)
She was late with his food one day and bent down in front of him to fill a haynet, he was furious at being kept in all day due to us fertilising his field, and calmly reached forward and picked her up by the bum in his teeth and shook her hard before dropping her.. yes he drew blood and she will always have a scar..
I wouldn't have allowed our children in the field with the stallion unless I was right next to them, and wonder if the autralian child had wandered into the stallion's paddock unsupervised.
Whatever the reason, what a sad ending..
 
freak accident most probably

it is of course our duty as parents to protect and guide our children
but sometimes we can all be in a position of blindness and stupidity wishing we had never done xyz

and although some people can see dangers others dont, i can see why the horse was put down as if they kept it or it lived it would be a constant reminder

people often think horses think as humans and trust them as in it would never do xyz but horses dont think like humans

for exsample-- a horse that nudges some humans encourage the behaviour offering treats not realizing that the horse is showing his dominance as to when it almost knocks you over

but in a horses mind - in the wild the higher ranking horse pushes another to go 1st before himself in that envrioment anything wild then the lower ranking horse gets it--as they know they are on the dinner list and a pray animal

or another exsample my horse wont load in a trialer etc
in a horses mind its dark like a den so horses dont like going into dark places
hence why we are told to open up the box ie top door grooms door etc to make it more inviting

horses ponies donkeys what ever dont mix with kids even adults at times when in a field and in there own space as then that space becomes there natural environment to the domesticated horse and instinct comes into play of xyz

horses are animals and are unpredictable as much as the next animal as they have a brain its not something you can say your in control off, say like pressing a brake on a car to stop it
and because of that you should be aware at all times when dealing with animals

some have said about dangerous dogs in comparison so will say its how the humans keep the dogs under control
its the same for any animal how you keep it good or bad they learn from us the human

as for the horse in this case he might have been defending his terrirtory as a running child could have been seen in his mind as a small animal - like a cat - cat as in cougar, puma,
so atttacked it before it attacked him
as i said horses dont think like humans--

and if the child was running more likely the parent just didnt get hold of him/her quick enough or didnt realize the dangers she put her and her child in becuase she didnt think horse

its a shame but surely is a freak accident whos to blame most who say the parent but in all seriousness
its becuase some people dont think and dont see the dangers and are unaware of xyz and if people say i wouldnt have done xyz maybe not this type of thing
but we all make mistakes only this mistake of not thinking cost 2 lives a child and a horse
not the horses fault not the childs fault and the parent i think she knows who fault it is -- she has to live with that all her life

rip child
rip horse and hugs to the mother as its not an easy thing to live with
 
Yes it's all very sad for all concerned, but it seems a lot of parents dont seem to have any common sense period.

Look at school times, highway code goes out the window, double parking, cars lorries sqweezing through, so what do some parents do, get the kid out of the car into the ROAD SIDE !!!!!!, not onto the safe path side, twice last week, school time and differnet areas, busy road, toddlers running way off from parent next to road and running up to kerb, drivers face and mine must have been a picture, good job me and the othe driver were aware, not all are, one lorry sqweezing through double parked cars one hand on the wheel and phone stuck to his ear, frightening, would you let your toddler run along in front 20ft near a busy road, I wouldn't.
 
"Sorry - but that's nonsense! We're talking an 18 month toddler - who shouldn't have been IN the field - not someone who was handling the stallion regularly. I suspect the stallion saw this small moving object and didn't even recognise it as a person - therefore he wouldn't have associated what he did to the child (probably in playfulness) with the people who normally handled him! "

I expected to get a lot more disagreement that this, it's interesting that only one person had replied to me.

I dont dispute one part of what you say. But what you say isnt to the point. This horse had to be put down for exactly the same reason that a dog that attacked a child has to be put down... one attack is enough, two cannot be allowed. Indeed if this had been a dog attack instead of a horse attack, no-one here would have raised any objection to putting the dog down.
 
Without being there and knowing all the facts we cant really make a informed decision as to whether it should or shouldn't have been destroyed, however from what I am seeing day in day out of parents lack of responcabiltiy towards their childrens safety it's odds on it was the parents lack of due care and attention that was to blame.
 
No hold on Bonny, I'm not sure how this makes me argumentative, I was merely putting my point across. You said:

I suppose you could make a comparison between SOME stallions and SOME dogs but the main difference is surely that nobody keeps stallions in their homes, gardens etc or takes them out to roam the streets. I'm sure there would be an outcry if they did !!!

All I said was surely hacking out or competing a stallion is just like roaming the streets, your putting that stallion into a public environment, I don't hear any members of the public complaining about that?!?

I'm not saying they should complain or that stallions shouldn't be out and about! I worked with an absolutely lovely stallion, ok he had his problems, if he thought he could get the upper hand he'd try (but what horse doesn't?) but that resulted in us always being a step ahead or taking precautions, never had any problems. I wouldn't think twice about taking him out!

Not once have I said dogs and stallions are kept the same.....
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At the end of the day dog, horse, pig, goat or whatever, everything comes down to common sense. ( which we both seem to agree on
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I cannot read the story as the link doesnt work for me? However, do we actually know the facts behind this? Im certainly not blaming the horse and its disgraceful it was PTS. But can we blame the parents? Do we KNOW where this took place, for example for all we know the stallion could have been in a stable when she walked past and managed to grab her etc. I think as usual, we probably shouldnt make comments of blame when we dont know any of the story.
 
And what about dangerous dogs . they are always put down when they have attacked a human. And quite rightly so - just because the animal will been made dangerous by homans in the first place does not mean that it is ok to keep it alive. W dont know what provocation there was but it is possible that this stallion was dangerous and no matter whose fault it is it cant happen again. End of!
 
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I cannot read the story as the link doesnt work for me? However, do we actually know the facts behind this? Im certainly not blaming the horse and its disgraceful it was PTS. But can we blame the parents? Do we KNOW where this took place, for example for all we know the stallion could have been in a stable when she walked past and managed to grab her etc.

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Several posters including myself who HAVE read the story have already reported on this thread that the Mother and the Toddler were in the field with the stallion! Almost ANY horse may 'pick-up' an unfamiliar object! And an 18 month old toddler WILL be pretty unfamiliar to your average stallion.

I once had a gelding who used to pick up my bulldog puppy - very carefully - and hold him off the ground for several minutes before lowering him again carefully! I had another gelding that use to chase sheep, cats, foxes - you name it - and if he could grab them, he did!

Most of my foals will remove my cap off my head, or grab my jacket and pull at it - there's really NO difference in what the stallion did - except the tragic consequences.

We don't know if the stallion already had a reputation for being aggressive - but if he DID have, why on earth would mother have taken her toddler into his field????
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Again, for all we know - the mother may not have known the horse was a stallion?

janetterose - I think it very much depends on the reason the animal attacked (if it be a dog or whatever). Sometimes for example, a kid could be seriously pi**ing off an animal and it has enough! In those cases, it IS unfair to kill the animal as it has been pushed to it. If however, the dog/horse etc. attacks for no reason at all then of course, that is different.
 
Oh dear!, I couln't resist!! I own a lovely stallion who goes out for walks, I also own a lovely Rottie who also goes for walks, you obviously have not had much to do with Rotties and have only read the bad things, perhaps you should try a form of "join up" with a Rottie.
 
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"Again, for all we know - the mother may not have known the horse was a stallion? "

I wouldn't let my 18 month old in the field with any horse. Stallion or not. They are big animals and no matter how well you know them, at the end of the day they ARE animals.

My Five year old Sec D would be the first to go up and give the kid a shove. He's also pretty handy at investigating things with his front feet. No malice in it, but his lack of hands means that he paws at things with his feet to find out what they are.
 
My sister is in Oz and told me about this incident several weeks ago. I have a feeling it was the child of the actual owners of the stallion too. It's ridiculously irresponsible. Yes you may well know the horse's general nature but how often did it actually come across a (I think) 15mth old child? How was it supposed to know what it was?

I think people forget that horses are still an unpredictable animal and potentially dangerous especially when that animal is entire and instincts and hormones control what it does. I do not have children but even I would be wary with one near my horse who i trust explicity but nevertheless I can't say I'd truly trust where he'd put his feet or who he'd trample and shove out the way! It is a shame the immediate reaction is to destroy the horse though.

I insure horses and recently an insured had a 3 yr old pony destroyed as it 'attacked' a woman who was crossing its field. I just think it's tragic.
 
ya i agree it is the parents fault because if they have a child younger than 6 they shouldnt have a stallion especially seeing as they obviously cant control their children the kid shouldnt even have been outside if they cant even bother to take care of their children. Or they should keep the stallion in a stable or and enclosed area children can not get in
 
sorry i hadnt gone through all of the messages i didnt realize the mother was in the feild aswell. well if the mother was in there aswell then thats a different story the mother should have been paying attention to the child how could anyone let that happen i mean all you have to do is bother to pay attention run get the child put it in the house make sure someone is there to keep the child under control and there you go problem solved
 
bonny you are a prat now its a horse you are defending it had it been a dog you would have slated it noticed you have not comented on the thread where it proves the dog didnt kill the man.!!! and as others have said taking a stallion out is just the same as taking a rottie out as if the stallion wanted to go you would not stop it and it could cause a lot more damage. my son is often out with me with the horses including a stallion but i make sure he is a safe distance away but i have to say my stallion is fully aware what my son is and will not allow any other pony near him and if he cries he tries to get as close as poss and just stands there. (always a fence between them unless stallion is tied up then my son is far enough away that he cant be knocked or kicked.
 
I think I can shed a little light on this one as the incident occured in my local area. This may mean I have more of a grasp of the facts than is possible for those of you in England. The stallion involved was extremely well managed in an excellent environment. The horse was treated respectfully by experienced owners who never forgot he was a stallion. The owners are also excellent parents who do not put children at risk. On the day of the incident it was not anyones fault, but a terrible accident. I'm sure many of us have had "lucky escapes" with our horses. This family did nothing more wrong than many of us but have suffered far greater consequences.
 
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