Horse or Rider?? Which one?!?

RuthnMeg

RuthnMeg

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(Seems I've had quite a bit of 'interesting things' happen to me lately)

Driving home from work this morning, just about to turn in to my drive and a loose coloured pony come briskly trotting towards me, then turns right towards his home. (I know the pony and rider). Just noted that his reins were not over his head and quickly thought he is unlikely to stand on them.
Got onto my drive to turn the car around and my mobile rings - Vicky - the rider, asking me if I'd seen Jester - the pony. I said yes, hes heading for home, but asked her where she was. She told me she was down the lane. So, off I go to rescue her. At the same time her mum comes too and picks her up, saying she hasn't seen the pony en route. They then turn left to go to the main road, I turn left following the direction of the pony. We hoped that we would then circle the pony and catch him somewhere between us. I eventually found him, galloping around someones garden and phoned Vicky to tell her where he was. We eventually catch him and lead him back to his home (avoiding the very impatient driver who didn't want to wait for us!!)
Only then it turns out that poor Vicky has a cut cheek, and a more than likely broken hand and wrist as it looked nasty! She told me he spooked and she just slipped off but tried to keep hold of him while he dragged her. He then kicked her free - hence her cut on her cheek. I don't know how she coped with the pain, I think I would have been screaming blue murder!!

The point of this post is, would you have gone after the pony first or tried to find the rider? I was lucky in that Vicky phoned me, so I knew roughly where she was, but wasted time in not going after Jester as her mum was rescuing her. I also did note that the ponies tack was not going to cause too much harm to him and that he was, after all a pony (14hh) no shoes and not a crazed TB!
Jester seems ok, a little nervy but no signs of obvious injury. Iam still currently waiting a verdict on Vicky, but as far as I know she is still in Hospital.

Sorry, another novel from me - glass of wine??
 
I would have gone after the rider unless I could have quickly grabbed the pony too or knew someone else was geting the rider. I think it would be far worse to leave the rider and then find they were in desparate need of help :-(
 
I have to admit I would get the Pony. Mainly because of the carnage a loose horse / pony can cause. So my gut instinct would be to catch it then look for the rider.

Years ago my horse threw me and galloped off. Luckily the vicars wife saw me running in long boots and gave me a lift in her car. I found my horse walking briskly along the road in full tack. 200 yards from the dual carriageway with motorists overtaking her.

No one tried to stop her. If it hadn't been for the vicars wife my horse would have gotten run over.
 
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I have to admit I would get the Pony. Mainly because of the carnage a loose horse / pony can cause. So my gut instinct would be to catch it then look for the rider.


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Obviously it depends on the circumstances but probably this in the first instance. Even if it is just a case of catching the horse and sticking it in a field or tying it up somewhere - at least then it isn't going to cause an accident somewhere else.

I fell off my old horse once and he galloped for miles - literally - luckily it was all on (ungated) farmland but if he had got onto the road it would have been a disaster. Fortunately after about an hour of running after him following the hoof prints, I found him tied to a gate by his reins. There was no one to be seen but I was jolly glad someone had grabbed him.
 
If I "found" the pony as you have done then id try to catch it and then secure that while trying to contact the rider. If there was no hope of catching pony or hunting it in somewhere, then id have looked for rider and phoned for help before going after pony.
 
I think that's a really interesting post to put up and something we should all consider. Depends on the circumstances but for me it would be rider if they were in need of urgent help/first aid then horse. I was with someone in a jumping paddock who came off and was knocked out briefly and I was left with 2 horses and unconscious person. Thankfully someone was right there on other side of the hedge about to hack out and they came back and collected one horse (but had hers too) but as she led them off back to yard, mine went ballistic being left behind and I had horrible choice to make as by trying to hold onto my horse he was running the risk of injuring the person on the ground. Also I knew if I let him go he was going to take off at speed after the girl leading the other 2 horses back. I was so lucky that day as thankfully as the other person got the horses to the yard she met someone else who came running over so I could take my horse back and she took over with the woman on the ground who by that point was thankfully coming round.

It was a close one though as if neither of those other people had been around I would just have had to leave the horses to their own devices, the worse they would have done is legged it back across 2 fields and onto the yard but they could have caused mayhem there, especially if the yard gate out onto the road was open. But it was all fine but made me think a lot about how to deal with such situations. One thing I thought of was having something like an equitie or baler twine with me when out riding so can hopefully tie horses to something whilst attending to fallen rider.
 
It is a really difficult question and the answer would depend on the circumstances. But I think in general the correct principle is to make the scene safe first - which might mean tying up loose horses - and then treat the casualty.
 
I have to say as I read your post I wondered why you didn't catch the pony first. Normally I would say rider first, but you were on the scene with the pony and the rider was a way off. at first you didn't know exactly where, but then she called you and you knew that she was reasonably ok.

I think I would have caught the pony and put it somewhere safe then found the rider in this case. He could have gone further than he did and been hit by a car. The rider was concsious and able to walk, and had her phone so I'd have left her until second.
 
There was a similar post a couple of weeks ago asking if you were out hacking would you go to catch horse or stay with rider.

Personally, I would go for rider. If they are seriously injured I couldnt live with myself. If you pass a loose horse, call the police and advise them.
 
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