Horses and Injury - Part & Parcel?

My hubby is currently laid up with severely bruised ribs, shoulder and wrist after some foal wrangling went wrong the other day!

So far (and please don't let this jinx it now!) I haven't broken anything apart from bones in my feet and my ribs. I've had some spectacular dismounts in my time as well as more than my fair share of being dragged, squashed, barged and stamped on so how I've remained as unbroken as I am is a mystery.

My nastiest injuries have been a mild concussion as a result of not falling off properly - foot going through stirrup resulting in me being dragged around the indoor arena.

A gouge taken out of my leg whilst out drag hunting - the horse I was riding got a bit bargy going through a gateway - there was something sticking out (nail or whatever) that took a real gouge out of my leg. I didn't notice at the time, finished the other 2 legs of the hunt, got back to the stables and felt something squishy in my boot - blood. It then started to hurt a bit so I had a bit of bute in my coffee and sorted the horse out. I then ended up in a&e having the boot cut off and my leg stitched. I was more concerned about the cost of replacing the boots!

I also remember being dragged along the road by an opinionated 2yo shire when bringing her back from the field - I was 15 at the time :)

I've lost count of the amount of times I was ditched as a kid and it never even put so much as a scratch on my confidence.

I do find now though that I stick to riding my own horses - I am not so quick to volunteer to ride/handle the nutters any more.

Even so - it was one of my own that broke my ribs a couple of years ago :)
 
I know I have already contributed to the thread but had a conversation along a similar line to this today. I think those of us who accept that we may get injured tend to be perhaps, more confident. However there is also a line between being a confident rider/handler and one with no self preservation. While I accept that if I am around 600kg animals on a daily basis. I may get hurt, I certainly don't put myself in positions where I am definitely 100% going to get very hurt. I work with young horses, big horses and horses in pain so I am very aware of the risks and though some are part of the parcel, some accidents are 100% avoidable. No, I won't nip in behind a very nervous horse or put myself in a position where I could get trampled. I don't jump stupid things like barbed wire or go cantering down hard, slippy tracks. I wear hi-viz on the roads etc. I think that it cones down to mentally doing our own risk assessments and being sensible about what we do and don't do.

What might be standard, everyday riding for me might be too much like danger to somebody else and where I may draw the line in terms of putting myself in an unsafe position, others mightn't bat an eye.
 
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