Narrowly Avoided A Very Nasty Accident On Our Hack!!

UnaB

UnaB

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Well, this morning I had a lovely hack on Una, a couple of hours so quite a long one for her. She is obviously feeling a bit better on the good grass so was a bit more animated than usual and had to neigh at all her horsey neighbours as we rode past their fields! But she was her usual wonderful self :D

Decided to come home through one of the many bridle paths, and this one had a couple of gates to do - good practice as she is good with gates but gets a bit confused. Did first gate no problems, it was one of those lovely rider friendly gate latches (pic from google):

Centrewire_Bridle_gates_3.jpg


Second gate was no problem to open, although having been used to a considerably smaller horse i HATE these gate latches as i feel like im hanging on for dear life hoping she will behave as im unlatching them! It was one of these (pic from google):

gateplumbing.jpg


Anyway, opened it fine and pushed it open... Then it all went wrong :eek: Gate didnt open as much as I expected but i didnt think much of it, most of the gates around here are very old and very stiff to open and sometimes you have to squeeze through a smaller gap than you expect when you push them open. Anyway, we walked through nice and politely, and I felt the gate brush against my leg and didnt think anything of that as i cant count the amount of times i've had legs bashed on gates :rolleyes: But this time somehow the handle bit of the latch managed to get caught in my stirrup :eek: So we were very much attached to the gate with my poor toes getting severely crushed!! Thank God Una didnt panic too much as im sure a lot of horses would in that situation with the gate swinging and only being a stirrup leather length from it and unable to get away!! Thankfully, after a mini panic of about 5 seconds where i was sure my foot was a lost cause :rolleyes: She stood very politely while I spent several minutes trying to unhook my stirrup iron from the gate latch! We managed to enjoy the rest of our ride home with no incident (complete with 2 more gates!!) and Una had a nice canter round the field (despite the protests from my foot!!) and didnt seem in the slightest bit bothered by the nasty accident we very narrowly avoided, but if she had panicked I dread to think what could have happened :eek:

My foot is incredibly sore, bruised and swollen and my toes are looking rather funny shapes...! But considering how bloomin' painful it was at the time I think i got off lightly!!

Just a warning for others, keep feet away from gates!!
 
I've done that once on a very fat cob I used to ride :( Scary and horrible! Never again.

Glad you're both ok!
 
I'd recommend you write or email your Rights of Way Department in your Council to let them know. It's important that they know what can go wrong with gates, and how much easier it is to use the proper gates that are designed for the job. Hopefully it will encourage them to use better gates wherever possible.

Glad you're ok :)
 
I cant imagine the council will do anything will they?? It is a bridlepath through a farmers land and it is the main gate into the field. As far as im aware farmers only have to provide a useable gate and a clear bridlepath, so I cant think they will be overly interested :(
 
at least its a usable gate, agree I wouldnt moan too much, lots of gates up here are ones where you open the end thats sposed to open and then find thats the only bit that was attached :-). hope you are OK, its one of those things you never have happpen to you twice cos you're always ultra ultra conscious of it after that!
 
Eeek! It's too easily done - I have a pair of muckers that have a massive gouge on the side where I got my foot caught on a gate - dread to think the injury I'd have had if it weren't wearing something so bulky!

Hope your poor foot feels a lot better soon
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
hope you are OK, its one of those things you never have happpen to you twice cos you're always ultra ultra conscious of it after that!
Click to expand...

Exactly!! And hopefully by posting this other people wont have the same problem. If it had happened on a more panicky horse I could have been typing this from the hospital!!!


We have some gates on the bridlepaths that dont even clear the ground and you have to drag them open!! But the council are actually really good and are in the process of redoing a lot of the bridlepaths to improve them, i have seen many of the new rider friendly gates appearing which is always a good thing.
 
It is worth letting the highway department know, that way they have a record of the problem. There was an interesting article in an April Horse and Hound about someone claiming compensation for injury on a bridleway which had been notified to the council as dangerous. I am not suggesting that people claim (heaven forbid!) but if the councils are made aware of dangers they have more chance of sorting them out, also if they are aware of claims being made in other areas, it may just make them a little more willing to do something about them :)
 
When there's any doubt whatsoever about the safety of a gate, and that includes squeezing through when the sticky out bit of the latch could stab your horse in the belly, get off and do it on foot. I've heard of some horrendous accidents caused like that. Thank god you and your horse are ok x
 
I didnt expect any problems at all as most of the gates are like this (with the sticking out handle) and i've never had any issues with them, otherwise I would have just got off. But she is just learning about things as she's only recently been broken and practicing all different gates is part of that so I am trying not to have to get off unless there is an obvious problem :) And it wasnt anything wrong with the gate as such, just a very unfortunate and unexpected accident!!

Here is a pic of us back home, and me looking rather scary!!!

2h4gocz.jpg
 
She is a lovely horse!
I had something similar happen to me last week, although it was with the first kind of gate latch in your pic. Instead of the top being a solid ball it has a hook and my mare managed to get the curb ring of her pelham caught in it, it was only a minute gap too. She reversed pretty quickly but luckily stopped panicking when I jumped off and thank goodness managed to somehow pull the bit completely out of her mouth without her bridle breaking. I've ridden that route for at least twelve years without incident, so it just goes to show.

We were both pretty shaken by it, and her mouth was cut and badly bruised, but luckily after a few days rest was fine. I will always dismount for gates from now on though!
 
Thank you! She will be even more lovely when she gains a bit more weight :D

Touchstone - that sounds very scary!!! Thank god you mare didnt panic with her head caught like that. Im glad your mare was fine, that could have been so much worse also.
 
On a similar note, be careful when on ponies and opening the bridlepath gates with 'horse-friendly handles'. I hate those ones which form a 'hook' (as in your first picture), mostly because my reins are at exactly the right height to catch on the hook if I'm not careful. Luckily, Henry is an ultra-good boy in times such as this!! The alternative latch just sticks straight up in the air and presents less of a problem IMO.
 
Gates on a Public Bridleways, RUPP (Road/Route used as a Public Path) BOAT (Byway open to all traffic) or Restricted Byway must be easy to open from horseback. It is the landowners responsibility to ensure that this is the case and they must be maintained so that they are safe to use at all times.

If there is a problem with a specific gate then the easiest way to get it sorted out is to take a copy of the local ordnance survey map and mark the position of the gate on it and write to the Access Department of the County Council who will then be obliged to get the landowner concerned to replace the gate with an equine friendly gate within a reasonable period of time.
 
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