Just had a near disaster - a warning to all, please...

kerilli

kerilli

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ALWAYS slip a headcollar on your horse if you're changing rug in the field, no matter how good the horse usually is etc.
went up to put lightweight rugs on my mares this evening. did the first one, moved on to the second, Ellie - she's usually as good as gold. as i put it on the first mare started playing up (jealousy, at E getting attention), E panicked and ran off, rug fell off. got her back, all calmed down or so i thought, fed her a polo, put rug on again, did up front, other horse had a tantrum and set her off again... and she ran. it slipped round the front and she tripped over it and fell over, got up, galloped off again and fell over again. i managed to calm her down and corner her at this point and take it off before she went through the fence...
she's got a big knee, and grazes all down her face and up her nostril. very very lucky she didn't go through the fence, break her neck or her legs. she's rather shocky and i've brought them both in and treated her, will check her later. utter nightmare, she's the sweetest mare and totally didn't deserve this because of my stupidity at thinking she'd stay still the way she usually does...
lesson learnt. my poor girl. :( :( :(
 
oh god, poor ellie. hope she's okay. god, i think of all the times i change rugs without any headcollar on. i pick feet out in the field too with no headcollar. mind you, today i learnt my horse isn't as predictable as i thought :(

we learn by mistakes i guess... hmmm.

i hope she's okay and is hunky dory in the morning.

oh, and go buy yourself a lottery ticket... quickly! xxx
 
Mmmmn yep a good warning I think that sometimes we forget they are animals and have there own minds...we do become complacent especialy with the good as gold ones :) hope she heals quick and glass of wine for you purely medicinal for the shock ;)
 
Bloody hell, yes, no matter how good they are, it takes nothing for an everyday occurence to turn into an accident.

Can I ask why you were putting rugs on them? Is it not a bit warm, or have I missed something?
 
it's pretty cool here tonight, no cloud cover at all and we're on the fens so it's usually windy, so i was just putting lightweight (unlined) turnout rugs on.
thanks all, hope she'll be fine in a few days, will get a McTimoney Chiro to her asap as hitting the deck headfirst twice won't have done her much good. :( :( :(
 
kerilli said:
it's pretty cool here tonight, no cloud cover at all and we're on the fens so it's usually windy, so i was just putting lightweight (unlined) turnout rugs on.
thanks all, hope she'll be fine in a few days, will get a McTimoney Chiro to her asap as hitting the deck headfirst twice won't have done her much good. :( :( :(
Click to expand...

I wish it would cool down here not much different than day temps...I too was wondering about rugs...just presumed it was a fly sheet...I'm sure she will be fine :)
 
Poor her, and you. Hope she mends quickly. Many years ago (showing my age here!) when I used to work at the local riding school we were always taught to do the body/belly straps up first and then the front. Luckily I've never been in the situation you were in tonight, and never really thought much about it, except that it's a habit I have always continued with, but I guess that's why we were taught that. It must have been hard for you to see her fall and you not do anything about it. Hope she mends quickly, and you get some of this warmth!
 
There was/is someone on HHO who had a horse break a leg when it was spooked while changing a rug in the field, am so glad you just have a few scrapes/bruises to contend with.

We all do these things occasionally without thinking.

My OH was getting ours ready to turn out a few weeks ago and she had her headcollar on in the stable (one of the headcollars with a big loose ring on the back of the noseband). She managed to get the ring caught over the bolt on the stable door and lifted the whole door off its hinges - thankfully the headcollar snapped and she only had one small cut. Didn't we beat ourselves up about it though.

Hope you (and mare) are feeling better tomorrow.

FIona
 
It can happen to anyone, every winter without fair I turn up to find at least one of my lads with his rug around his chest, last time they decided to gallop off as it was windy, never had such a fright, I manged to get him to calm down and got it off asap.

Hope your mares are ok x
 
Totally agree with you - my horse is on livery, and last year one of the girls tried to change her rug in the field without a head collar. Apparently the boss horse mooched over and and made face at my girl, who swung round and took off. At that point they'd only managed to do the front buckles up so the rug slipped round like a big bib, Flops tripped over the front of it and did a somersault. Result - thankfully a completely unharmed (and luckily non traumatised) horse, a physio bill to check said horse and an utterly trashed Weatherbeeta Taka. Seriously unimpressed on my part, as you can imagine.
I hope your girl is ok this am Kerilli.
 
Thanks for this story, as we are newish to horse ownership, little things like this help us to improve how we look after our horse. We'll be doing this from now on. :)
 
I always do rugs up from the back first:
leg straps, belly straps & lastly the chest straps , just in case the horse get loose & runs off or starts jumping around, so hopefully it'll slip off instead of becoming a bib to trip up on.
But this winter I did exactly the same thing as you & for some reason did the chest up first, which resulted in my horse galluping off into the darkness with the rug round her front legs. Fortunatley no harm came to her or the rug, nobody is perfect & we all do stupid things sometimes!
 
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