Horses and Injury - Part & Parcel?

Illusion100

Illusion100

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A few threads recently have got me thinking......(scary thought, I know ;))

How do you view your relationship between horses and injuries they've caused you? How does it affect your relationship/confidence with horses in general?

Over the years horse related injuries have broken many of my bones (including neck, lumbar and hips), dislocated my joints, incurred major surgery, given me nasty concussions and even a coma resulting in an element of brain damage (affecting memory and co-ordination).

It hasn't put me off, perhaps that coma caused a bit more damage than I thought but I just see general and potentially very serious injury as part of working with horses.

Obviously I aim to be as safe as possible and treat horses with the respect of the damage they could cause me without much effort on their behalf but, yeah, I still throw risk in there with working with them, going in with the knowledge I could end up getting battered.

I don't tend to hold any injury a horse has given me against them, ***** happens. Luckily in the last 5 yrs the worst injury I've had was broken hip but I don't hold it against my horse and it never put me off wanting to continue on with him.

I fully appreciate that there are many, many factors that can influence how much risk any individual is prepared to take and I'm not questioning that nor belittling it, please don't mistake that. For example, I don't have children so I do not have that awful fear of not being able to care for them.

I am genuinely wondering if it is an individuals personality/temperament or something else? Why do some of us keep going back for more? Is it a good or bad (stupid?) thing?

Don't get me wrong, if I got bitten by a Spider I would cry like a baby and freak out even more than I already do when I encountered another one. My OH was bitten by a spider, it really hurt him, he still picks them up and puts them outside without battering an eyelid but he is highly unconfident around horses although they have never caused him harm.

Sometimes I wonder if any of us horsey people are wired up right? Oh look, that beast could squash, flatten, kick, bite, trample or kill me.......let's go ride it! ;)
 
I've gotten off fairly slightly so far (*desperately touching wood*) in terms of the severity of my injuries! But while I worked as an SJ groom I did seem to be on the receiving end of quite a lot of things that could have turned out much worse than they did. I never fell off - all my injuries were on the ground! I got kicked in the head by a devil horse belonging to my first boss - it was the day where she first show-cased her wicked new trick, so as you bent down to pick up her front foot, she would kick forward quick as lightning with her hind leg! Luckily for me she only caught me a glancing blow, but that made me even warier of her than I had been already, understandably. She really was a wicked horse though - the only one I've come across where I've actively felt like she was trying to hurt me (not just me, either, anyone who tried to handle her). I remember I actually refused to handle her for a week because there was a sense of inevitability about entering her stable - you just *knew* she was going to try and hurt you. I've never, ever met another horse like her, before or since! She'd never had any kind of mistreatment either. She was only 4 and had lived out on the farm since she was a yearling. There was no fear to her - she had more confidence and presence than any horse I've ever met (and talent too, probably). If she turns up at the Olympics in 2020 I wouldn't be completely surprised, but god you couldn't pay me enough to handle her again!

Then in my second job I was kicked 3 times. The first time just left me with a dead leg for an hour or so, but the second one was while clipping and sent me flying across the wash box! The sod kicked out sideways while I was clipping his leg and got me slap bang in the crotch :eek:. I had an interesting bruise from that one! Neither of those bothered me too much as they were such one of fluke incidents, with generally well mannered horses, although I wasn't keen to clip that horse's legs again for a while!

The third time was while turning out a horse that hadn't been out for a while - he surged forward as we went through the gate, fly bucked and caught me in the back of the ribs with a hind hoof (because he'd leaped forward, I was in just the wrong position!). According to my friend (I don't really remember all the details!) I somehow kept hold of the rope while lying on the floor as he bucked round me! How he didn't step on me I don't know! I think I was so desperately trying to breathe that I didn't have energy left to notice him going mental right above me! Luckily my friend was there and I did let go of him when she kept yelling at me! This one did put me in hospital, though I tried to insist I was fine and my boss bandaged me up with ice boots and a tail bandage, but eventually it became obvious that the pain wasn't just going to wear off and so to A and E I went. I was quite nervous about turning out (any horse, not just that one!) when I first went back to work, but I think that's because I went back before I was really better - I hadn't broken anything, just badly bruised my ribs, so I was back at work a day and a half later (still in agony!). If the pain had been more of a distant memory, I probably wouldn't have been so nervous haha! But within a week or so I'd more or less forgotten, although I never quite trusted the horse responsible again, but that was only because he decided that the surge-forwards-and-buck move was actually a great way of going through the gate, and became a real devil for doing it after my accident! We always took two people to turn him out if he had been away at a show or hadn't been in the field for a while, just in case.

It's funny though, none of these things made me think for a second about giving up. I know I wasn't badly hurt, in the grand scheme of things, but each incident had the potential to be very nasty and yet I kept going back for more! I know my mum was glad when I stopped working as a groom, as she said each incident was that bit worse than the one before, but I'd do it again in a heart beat! I think it helps that all the horses concerned were generally a pleasure to be around (apart from the first one!), so each incident was very much a one off!
 
HashRouge said:
I've gotten off fairly slightly so far (*desperately touching wood*) in terms of the severity of my injuries! But while I worked as an SJ groom I did seem to be on the receiving end of quite a lot of things that could have turned out much worse than they did. I never fell off - all my injuries were on the ground! I got kicked in the head by a devil horse belonging to my first boss - it was the day where she first show-cased her wicked new trick, so as you bent down to pick up her front foot, she would kick forward quick as lightning with her hind leg! Luckily for me she only caught me a glancing blow, but that made me even warier of her than I had been already, understandably. She really was a wicked horse though - the only one I've come across where I've actively felt like she was trying to hurt me (not just me, either, anyone who tried to handle her). I remember I actually refused to handle her for a week because there was a sense of inevitability about entering her stable - you just *knew* she was going to try and hurt you. I've never, ever met another horse like her, before or since! She'd never had any kind of mistreatment either. She was only 4 and had lived out on the farm since she was a yearling. There was no fear to her - she had more confidence and presence than any horse I've ever met (and talent too, probably). If she turns up at the Olympics in 2020 I wouldn't be completely surprised, but god you couldn't pay me enough to handle her again!

Then in my second job I was kicked 3 times. The first time just left me with a dead leg for an hour or so, but the second one was while clipping and sent me flying across the wash box! The sod kicked out sideways while I was clipping his leg and got me slap bang in the crotch :eek:. I had an interesting bruise from that one! Neither of those bothered me too much as they were such one of fluke incidents, with generally well mannered horses, although I wasn't keen to clip that horse's legs again for a while!

The third time was while turning out a horse that hadn't been out for a while - he surged forward as we went through the gate, fly bucked and caught me in the back of the ribs with a hind hoof (because he'd leaped forward, I was in just the wrong position!). According to my friend (I don't really remember all the details!) I somehow kept hold of the rope while lying on the floor as he bucked round me! How he didn't step on me I don't know! I think I was so desperately trying to breathe that I didn't have energy left to notice him going mental right above me! Luckily my friend was there and I did let go of him when she kept yelling at me! This one did put me in hospital, though I tried to insist I was fine and my boss bandaged me up with ice boots and a tail bandage, but eventually it became obvious that the pain wasn't just going to wear off and so to A and E I went. I was quite nervous about turning out (any horse, not just that one!) when I first went back to work, but I think that's because I went back before I was really better - I hadn't broken anything, just badly bruised my ribs, so I was back at work a day and a half later (still in agony!). If the pain had been more of a distant memory, I probably wouldn't have been so nervous haha! But within a week or so I'd more or less forgotten, although I never quite trusted the horse responsible again, but that was only because he decided that the surge-forwards-and-buck move was actually a great way of going through the gate, and became a real devil for doing it after my accident! We always took two people to turn him out if he had been away at a show or hadn't been in the field for a while, just in case.

It's funny though, none of these things made me think for a second about giving up. I know I wasn't badly hurt, in the grand scheme of things, but each incident had the potential to be very nasty and yet I kept going back for more! I know my mum was glad when I stopped working as a groom, as she said each incident was that bit worse than the one before, but I'd do it again in a heart beat! I think it helps that all the horses concerned were generally a pleasure to be around (apart from the first one!), so each incident was very much a one off!
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Congratulations! You can join my 'WTF is wrong with you Club'! :)
 
I think most of us just unconsciously accept that sooner or later we will be injured and don't overthink it.

Other than a few non-serious kicks (still painful but no real injury) most of my accidents have been ridden. I was at a riding school riding an ex-polo pony and unaware that he usually had a standing martingale for a good reason. He threw his head back and smacked me in the face leaving me with a gash under my eye that needed 5 stitches and two completely broken front teeth... pouring with blood I was told that the school owner didn't have time to take me to A&E and I would have to catch a bus.

Not very long after that I jumped a small hedge with a drop on the far side, horse was totally unprepared for the drop and fell over as he landed, on top of me, with him being too winded to get up and off me. Interestingly that was the day before I took my BHSAI and there were very few parts of me that didn't hurt! I don't understand how I passed and assume I was concussed as I could never remember much about it. Jumping in the woods on my adored OTTB mare she tripped on landing over a ditch, she ended on her knees and I catapulted and hit a tree head first, again concussing myself and breaking my collarbone.

I was dumped by a bolshy horse in the middle of the Aylesbury/London road, hanging on to the reins as he gyrated and bucked round me and praying neither of us was hit by a car. Not one single person stopped to help! Same bolshy horse was literally a killer in the stable and would come at you on his hind legs and boxing with his front feet. Farrier jumped the door on his first visit to this horse! Owner said he was fine and we were exaggerating when I (and farrier) refused to handle him or go in with him. She marched in to prove us wrong and also had a quick lesson in jumping a stable door.

I have had two rear over backwards with me but both times managed to slip off before being squashed again.

Oh and I forgot the Anglo Arab mare who spooked on the road and promptly fell in a ditch with me underneath her. That one hurt!

It never used to really bother me and certainly never put me off horses, but, when you have children your whole attitude changes and you take a lot more care until they grow up... by which time you discover you no longer bounce!
 
Ladyinred said:
I think most of us just unconsciously accept that sooner or later we will be injured and don't overthink it.

Other than a few non-serious kicks (still painful but no real injury) most of my accidents have been ridden. I was at a riding school riding an ex-polo pony and unaware that he usually had a standing martingale for a good reason. He threw his head back and smacked me in the face leaving me with a gash under my eye that needed 5 stitches and two completely broken front teeth... pouring with blood I was told that the school owner didn't have time to take me to A&E and I would have to catch a bus.

Not very long after that I jumped a small hedge with a drop on the far side, horse was totally unprepared for the drop and fell over as he landed, on top of me, with him being too winded to get up and off me. Interestingly that was the day before I took my BHSAI and there were very few parts of me that didn't hurt! I don't understand how I passed and assume I was concussed as I could never remember much about it. Jumping in the woods on my adored OTTB mare she tripped on landing over a ditch, she ended on her knees and I catapulted and hit a tree head first, again concussing myself and breaking my collarbone.

I was dumped by a bolshy horse in the middle of the Aylesbury/London road, hanging on to the reins as he gyrated and bucked round me and praying neither of us was hit by a car. Not one single person stopped to help! Same bolshy horse was literally a killer in the stable and would come at you on his hind legs and boxing with his front feet. Farrier jumped the door on his first visit to this horse! Owner said he was fine and we were exaggerating when I (and farrier) refused to handle him or go in with him. She marched in to prove us wrong and also had a quick lesson in jumping a stable door.

I have had two rear over backwards with me but both times managed to slip off before being squashed again.

Oh and I forgot the Anglo Arab mare who spooked on the road and promptly fell in a ditch with me underneath her. That one hurt!

It never used to really bother me and certainly never put me off horses, but, when you have children your whole attitude changes and you take a lot more care until they grow up... by which time you discover you no longer bounce!
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My 2nd Club Member! :)

But to be honest, I always suspected you were a lunatic.....my judgement of character is usually right! ;)
 
Despite 40 years of riding, I have got off relatively lightly. A couple of concussions, a fractured wrist, cracked ribs twice (I'd rather the wrist again!) and the odd hoof shaped bruise.

I never think about it - I just accept that if I ride sooner or later horse and I are going to part company. And of course it's not the fall that hurts, it's hitting the ground.

If I have to explain it to a non-horse person, I use the analogy of driving. You don't worry about having an accident every time you get behind the wheel, well I don't anyway, so for me, it's the same when I ride. I don't think or worry about coming off, or getting kicked, or bitten, or flattened ....

Unless it's jumping, which scares the cr*p out of me. So I don't.

Edited to add: Now that I've thought about it, the thought of not riding scares me way more than the thought of getting hurt.
 
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I'm naturally accident prone so adding horses to the mix just means hurting myself is inevitable!
Worst injury I've had is a dislocated shoulder, was a friends horse who had recently come from a well known dodgy dealer of cobs. He was much younger than we thought and he was a bargey big baby, but it was just unfortunate timing on my part putting my elbow up to stop him walking over me and he barged into it and popped my shoulder out.
Had some scary ones (trapped between horse and gate etc, attacked in a stable by a previously abused mare) that just left me bruised and battered but giving up is never going to happen so I just get on with it!
 
Interesting thread although am already a bit freaked just reading this catalogue of accidents and injuries! I do think horsey folk have a very strong stubborn or determined streak which gets them coming back again and again despite some fairly serious injuries at times. You def see a lot of that, fall off, get straight back on again, type approach. Which I really admire, although I suspect it may be a bad idea at times and not what the doctor ordered! Riders seem to be plucky creatures.

I'm a total wuss and spend a lot of my riding time mainly trying not to fall off, and fortunately I don't do it that often, but even so I still do xc and hunting, which I know some people find odd given my self proclaimed wimpishness.

This weekend I was at a hunter trial which ended up 90 mins late due to fallers everywhere, 3 calls for a paramedic, one doctor on call coming out and one ambulance. I have to say that's a bit alarming and hopefully no serious injury suffered, but it never even crossed my mind not to do the class. Hmm. Maybe I do need to join your club after all?
 
I think horse people are all lunatics to be honest! If you look round a yard at any given time there's always someone limping, hopping & or walking like Mrs Overall from a horse-related incident!! However, you will note that they are all valiantly carrying on as best they can!!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has perfected wheelbarrow pushing with one hand whilst using one crutch with the other (other crutch propped up by stable), or mucking out one handed, hanging haynets using my teeth & one hand, mounting/dismounting with either leg or arm in pot, turning 2 horses out using them as crutches (whilst mother follows with crutches so I could get back!).......
I could go on but as I have my homebred 3yr old to back in spring I'll shut up & get back to praying..... ;)
 
My horse hasn't injured me, nor have anybody else's horses. The occasional foot squash is no more than I do walking around the house and stubbing my toe. My house has injured me more than horses.
 
I always have a variety of bruises from horse incidents but I suspect if they weren't caused by horses, I would damage myself in another way.
 
Hips, back and head injuries, but now I cannot, just cannot, watch other people doing something risky. For example, I stopped by the side saddle class at Blair and had to walk away after seeing a horse struggling in a double bridle and a rider giving it no options as to where it could go. Horrible.
For myself,it is a learning curve, resilience and other stuff. : )
 
Illusion100 said:
Congratulations! You can join my 'WTF is wrong with you Club'! :)
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I've always known I'm a bit bonkers, but I think even my boss was surprised when he came back from a 3 week show in France to find that I'd taken to riding his rather difficult (that might be a slight understatement!) 4 year old and from then on would always choose him over any other horse! He had quite a rear in him and was generally spooky and given to spinning round and generally being a bit wild, but god did I love riding him. I'd buy him in a heart beat if I had the money (although at £30,000 I can't see that ever happening!) even though I'm sure I'd be much safer on something much better behaved!
 
In 51 years of riding I guess I have got away lightly. 100's of falls but very few injuries, just two from rotational falls. One I ended up with both me and horse walking home, hopping along leaving a trail of blood. The other I woke up in hospital whilst having my ear and forehead stitched back on.
Might seem drastic to some but considering I normally ride the horses other folks have given up on and spent most of my time competing BS/BE then I guess I'm either very lucky or have stickability.
Neither accident put me off riding.
 
My body is pretty horse broken; the worst is the advance arthritis in my neck which gives me constant pain and restricts my head movement - fell on my head a lot as a child. My lower back is not great and ditto my right knee and left ankle. I've ridden for 50 years and am 53 so don't expect anything different really.
 
To be honest, actually getting hurt doesn't particularly bother me, its an incontinence at most! On a daily basis i do think things like "this is how people get broken" - currently have a nice bruise the length of my forarm from being pinned between a sedated horse and a wall. But then I have escaped without major injury so far - broken bones, a night in hospital and a scars, lumps and bumps is the worst of it. What concerns me more is that if I have a very serious injury or particularly nasty fall - I don't want to lose my bottle. I've had confidence crises in the past and though it has never dissuaded me from the saddle, I spent a ling time bot enjoying things I usually love - jumping, hacking, riding daft things.

I think I have always just accepted that as long as I am around horses, I may get hurt. But then I've been bitten by dogs, broke my foot while dog walking, permanently damaged and developed various deformities in my toes and feet from years of ballet en pointe. T
I work with animals on a daily basis, i get more cat scratches on a weekly basis than most people get in a lifetime, have accidently stabbed myself with various needles and instruments and at the height of my "should be in bubble wrap" phase, twisted an ankle when slipping on a cow's placenta. I guess i am just destined to be surrounded by danger, a hazard to myself and with an accident prone disposition. If I'm not hurt by a horse, I'll more than likely be bruised and in various states of broken from my other pursuits, hobbies and daily life!
 
In the almost year I've had a horse I've only broken my ring finger vertically up the middle part of my finger and it's pretty much screwed. He turns 3 next year so will hopefully be backed by my YO, I trust him completely I whole heartedly believe he will look after me even as a 3 year old. My sister and I have already come to the agreement that if I come off and Ted runs if I'm awake and tell her she's to go after him and leave me to pick myself up off the floor. I'm not scared of getting hurt or falling off my main fear is If i fall off he bolts and I never see him again (I know it's a stupid thought) or hurting myself to the point in needing medical treatment I'd rather knock myself out and wake up later to find out what had happened (after over 13 operations as a kid I'm petrified of Drs - they weren't horse related) I'm excited but already looking at body protectors and air jackets for his first few months of riding as a just Incase measure.
 
Yep we're not participating properly if not getting an injury sometimes. Concussion, broken bones, kicked in the face, who cares? Sometimes it's fun.
However we do have a choice: get off, walk away, wear safety gear. We can give up at a moment's notice.
I used to do offshore race sailing, there you had to stick it out or be airlifted off. No wimping allowed. No back protectors or safety helmets for sailors, just maybe a pair of gloves to stop rope burn. When we did go ashore the shower changing rooms were full of bruised people who could easily have successfully sued their OHs for battery. Slipping on a wet deck can cause really nasty injuries too, let alone scrambling across one heeled at 45° in the shortest time possible. But these were part and parcel of racing, so we accepted them joyfully almost.
Better to have been injured and enjoyed life than sat there and literally got bored to death IMO. Just off to see which of our horses is next to injure me and will it be tonight?
 
As a new rider/owner this post doesn't fill me with confidence LOL

Would the majority of you say that most accidents happen on or off the horse as a rule?
 
I always say "It's not if, it's when" when talking about injuries and accidents around horses. After 45+ years riding I'd always got off relatively lightly with horse related injuries until The Big One happened recently and a horse went over backwards with me resulting in a broken femur (not my horse, I may add). So............ I'm back riding 3 months later, not worried and enjoying myself. My doctor tells me I'm mad, but what the hay............
 
I am relatively terrified of hurting myself - on the basis that if I had the falls now, that I had in my youth, they would do me a lot more damage! But I don't really dwell on it.

Recently I went on a pleasure ride without a body protector (shock, horror!) and my sister asked me why… my answer was that I had only been wearing it previously, because we had a couple of days planned at the beach with the horses and I didn't want to miss it if I fell off beforehand! I tend to get more cautious as planned events draw nearer as I don't want to miss them! The next one will probably be… oh, I really don't want to be injured over Christmas hence lots more layers of bubble wrap!
 
Have had three nasty falls, worst injury was my right hip being moved five inches upwards which still gives me grief, they knocked my confidence but didn't stop me riding, made me very wary about further back injuries though so my body protector went from just for jumping to always worn! Also had a broken toe after my mare spooked and jumped on it (was wearing country boots so not silly footwear) now makes me cringe when I see folk leading in trainers/flip flops. Think with any hobby theres a risk of injury, the only difference is horse related ones aren't always entirely the persons fault
 
Had a couple of icky falls, I well remember wondering what the heck was going on as I flew through the air in a field and thumped down onto my wrists as the moody mare meandered off to graze.

I think it is part and parcel of riding. I can't imagine that anyone who's ridden lots has had zero injuries. I consider myself extremely fortunate compared to the girl who was double barrelled in the head and cracked her skull all the way round. Could have been so much worse if I'd had my head stamped in rather than my leg.

I have lost confidence, I haven't ridden bar a little sit/walk round since. I might ride in the future, no idea, but I know people after serious accidents who have merrily got back on and looked like they were fine.
 
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Convenient thread for me! The bank holiday just gone I broke my humerus...horse I was handling reared and came down on my arm (so quick I couldn't get far enough away in time). I carried on leading it, took my own horse to a showjumping competition that afternoon. Went to work the next day and was finally convinced by one of the nurses to go get it checked. Recommended I wear a splint and a sling for 3 weeks as I refused a whole elbow cast. Lost both items last week, oops and had been driving and doing the horses whilst mildly incapacitated.
Going to do a team chase in a few weeks time...have booked the Monday off work just as a precaution.

I think horse riders are a hardy bunch, that or we're just mental. But just look at Mr Jung! He'd broken his ankle and still managed to win Burghley and Blair!
 
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