Riding dangers – BBC Report

If yes, how often

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It depends on how many are reported. Do they class any accident that involved ambulance attendance as serious? I mean I came off my horse and only called the ambulance as I was on my own and banged my head. If I had been with someone else I would have just gotten up, but TBH I felt vulnerable. Plus I had broken my ankle but didn't know it then!

But then u also have to think of it as in the past I would guess that it was the more experienced that actually got horses, but now after just one riding lesson some people (with no experience) go and buy ponies/horses. So of course accidents are going to happen as part of the learning process, accidents that might not have happened had they say, followed a curriculum of riding lessons or been on a ploddy predictable horse.

Also, its like some people have had a common sense-ectomy!
 
"and something happens, how are you going to learn how to deal with a horse that moves suddenly"

Good question. But in most spook events, you're not going to deliberatly have one or both hands off the reins.
 
I taught riding for several years, and I had a fair few people fall off during that time - statistically, no more than you would expect. Of those, 2 I personally called ambulances for. One was a head and neck injury, which turned out to be fine, but I wasn't taking any chances seeing how the person fell, the other was a child whose arm was clearly broken in 2 places. When someone comes off, the first instruction I yell is stay where they are and not move. Given a few moments, the person can tell you whether they feel they can roll over, sit up etc - generally people will move themselves after a fall anyway, lying face down in a snad school is not pleasant. The huge majority of falls are bumps, nothing more - if we called an ambulance for every fall, firstly, people would die because we were monopolizing the ambulance and secondly, the priortiy would be downgraded for us from the dispatchers - a case of crying wolf. I have had the ambulance called out once for me - I had a head injury, severely broken arm, broken ribs etc - I knew full well I needed medical attention and communicated that. Unless someone is unconscious (in which case I would call an ambulance regardless) or very young, they can usually determine what it is they need.
 
I agree with MDM - I fell off countless times as a child (hedges with drops caught me out every time!) and in fact still seem to fall off out hunting. But now it takes quite a lot to shift me. If I had stayed in a sterile atmosphere such as an arena I think I would be useless at staying in the plate.
 
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"if they want to get up, have movement and feeling in their limbs and can get themselves up,"

Unless there is a doctor around, surely the principle is that it's safer (I'll say it again, safer) to wait for a medical checkover ?

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and
'" I know of cases (car accidents) where people have died of positional asphyxia because nobody dared to move their head or neck to clear an airway."

First Aid protocols are very clear... control airway and bleeding first. Then the rest. '

I know my first aid protocols very well, but there is a misconception about moving patients and that can be dangerous..many if asked, confronted by an unconscious patient lying on their back would not move them for fear of causing further injury..with no conception of the risk of choking to death on drool or vomit (sorry if anybody is eating now!)

and yes, if there is somebody qualified to hand then it would make perfect sense to get their opinion..my point is that very often you don't need to remain on a bridleway or in a field in adverse weather conditions and wait for a helicopter when it would cause no further damage to move
 
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Wait till you've seen someone bolted because the horse was spooked by flapping clothing.

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[What happened to the old saying.. "you have to fall off X amount of times before you're a proper rider" (i was always told 7, then it became 12, so i think it's different for everyone hehe)

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MisDeMeena - thanks - that was my point, too. I remember doing that in a riding school on a horse which was a bit spooky and I took my coat off too quickly. It spooked, but because I was in a controlled environment with people around everything was fine - it just gave me a shock. If I had never experienced this and I had taken my jumper off or something whilst out hacking on my own - not realising you need to be careful - it could have been a lot different
 
I don't think its on the increase, apart from in accordance with more people owning horses (if the numbers are even increasing, not sure). I've fallen off and whacked my head many times and not called an ambulance. Even when I broke my leg I wasn't planning on calling an ambulance, but I couldn't move an inch, never mind stand up or be carried, the pain was unbearable. I also couldn't get a signal to call my mum from the ground. It was a normal ambulance though, not an air ambulance, they just carried me across the field lol. I'd be very suprised if horse riding lead to more serious and often injuries than motorbikes though!!
 
I don't think there are any more accidents nowadays than there were years ago if you take it on a proportion basis. As others have said, there are more leisure horses these days with a corresponding proportion of inexperienced people (or people who don't actually ride as well as they think they do!). I also believe that more accidents are reported. Again, like someone else has said, in the "old days" when you fell off, you just got up, dusted yourself off and got back on again. Nowadays it's more likely to result in a trip to A&E for x-rays to absolve the riding school from any blame/threat to sue etc. Let's face it, riding schools never had insurance years ago like they are forced to now. The incidence of calling out the Air Ambulance I would put down to the fact that a lot of riding accidents happen out in the countryside in places where it would be extremely difficult to get a road vehicle into so the only option is a helicopter.
 
hang on guys .no horse and rider can be one hundred percent bombproof,and the bigger/faster cars are harring down country lanes at god knows what speed. then are shocked when they come face to face with a horse on a country road .you say it yourselves these idiots that drive to close/fast/rev their engine impatient to be on their way.buses with air brakes awful.ive yet to meet a tractor that did not show me the upmost respect and help my horse to over come his fear farmers i salute you. i think it should be a set part to your driving test horse safety not just if you get unlucky on you questions .
 
I think that with the poorer quality rider that we now have, inturn increases the number of poorly trained horses - put them together you have a huge problem
 
Maybe it's because they send them out if they've got nothing else to do, to use the air ambulance for something rather than have it sat idle for days at a time and risk losing it altogether?

I had a fall (well I maintain it wasn't a fall, more of a thrown off - horse reversed itself in to the electric fencing napping, then went off on a buckaroo mission across the field) and bashed my back up badly, although thankfully it wasn't broken, but I still couldn't walk. They sent me the air ambulance and a road ambulance, both of which arrived at roughly the same time. A road ambulance would have been more than sufficient for the purpose really.
 
I'm glad that we agree. TBH, I'm only discussing the principles, not trying to make rules for every situation. And the principle that I'm going by is that more safe is better than less safe, more careful is better then less careful. I agree, many people seem woefully ignorant of basic first aid and the principles therof. Or ABC, as we used to say.
 
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150 sounds a lot, but I wonder how many riders are in the area covered?
150 air ambulance trips for say, 200 riders is a huge amount, for 2000 not a big number.

I dont think riding is any mroe dangerous now then it ever has been(if anything much safer due to better protective equipment) thing can and do go wrong.Even the most "bombproff" horse can spook.
I do agree that the change is (the few remaining) RS causes a problem for the future.Ho on earth do we expect riders to be able to cope with any situation when they cant do anything that might be the slightest bit unsafe??
 
In the 3 years i was at an equine college the air ambulance came out at least 6/7 times, one of those turned out to be a broken leg, the rest nothing serious. As soon as we said horse accident the air ambulance was sent as a matter of course
 
TBH, I think air ambulances are a bit of a fad.... conventional ambulances are adequate most of the time. But, one time in 100, the air ambulance will make a difference, either because they can get to the incident faster, or because of accessability.
 
It does not cost the same to keep the crew on the ground, as it does for them to fly - they will need to do a certain number of missions to keep competency up (which is minimal).

Air ambulances are designed to get critically injured people to the hospital FAST - time is everything. If they waited assessed the situation, made decisions, etc it might be cheaper but it would not nearly be as affective. I am sure they have criteria which they follow to determin if they should be sent.

Air Ambulances crews put their life on the line for you on evrey mission - it is incredibly dangerous work. I personally think we should be incredibly thankful!!!
 
I don't think anybody doubts the value of an air ambulance..the question was whther the figures quoted in the OP were a true reflection of injury rates and how relevant it is that the air ambulance is called - this method of attendance is assumed to reflect the severity of injuries, but it is clear that the air ambulance is also called to less serious injuries too.
 
I work for an ambulance service and if the call comes in as a potential for spinal injury they will call the ambucopter (if it is available) as it is far safer to transport spinal injuries by helicopter than by bumpy roads. I speak as someone who has been attending to very seriously injured patients when the ambucopter has not been available (due to weather conditions or poor light) and the outcome for some patients I think that we are so lucky to have helicopters available to us in view of the state of the NHS and it is wonderful that people donate so generously to keep these in the air and undoubtedly saving lives!
 
Getting any real data is difficult.

I’ve just come across this research data, but it is 2002. There’s no such thing as absolute safety – the only thing you can be sure about when riding a horse is that sometime you’re bound to fall off…

Spinal injuries resulting from horse riding accidents

http://www.nature.com/sc/journal/v40/n6/full/3101280a.html

An extract says:

It has been estimated that there may be over 3 million riders in the UK of whom as many as one-third are children. In the USA up to 30 million will ride in a given year.

It is a dangerous recreation as a large number of accidents occur; the British Horse Society is made aware of eight accidents per day involving horses and over one-third may result in head injuries. In 1992 the Office of Population Census listed 12 equestrian related fatalities in 2.87 million participants. In a study of medical examiner reports from 10 states in the USA it was found that as many as 217 deaths per year were attributable to horseback riding.

Horse riding carries a high participant morbidity and mortality. Whereas a motor-cyclist can expect a serious incident at the rate of 1 per 7000 h, the horse-rider can expect a serious accident once in every 350 h, ie 20 times as dangerous as motor cycling. This depends on the type of riding. A Cambridge University study of 1000 riding accident hospital admissions has shown:


• One injury for 100 h of leisure riding
• One injury for 5 h for amateur racing over jumps
• One injury for 1 h of cross-country eventing

Recent surveys have shown that 20% of injured riders attending hospital are admitted and approximately 60% of these have head injuries.
 
It's interesting - they say serious riding accidents - not necessarily falls.

I think it would be interesting if we could find out more about those 150 call-outs of the air ambulance. The criteria that decides if out goes out in the first place, but more importantly the seriousness of the accidents, parts of the body affected and the causation.

The assumption is that the are falls, but it possible that some could be non-mounted accidents.

Be useful if that data could ever be tracked down/accessed.
 
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i think that there are probably as many as there ever were, but because of all this 'suing' culture now, people panic and more horsey accidents are reaching the media etc.

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Exactly what I was going to say
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OK, I'm going to disagree. This has been an interesting topic and I may be repeating others but:

1. People have more disposable income these days and horse ownership has increased. Arguably that in itself could proportionally lead to more accidents.

2. I'd suggest that increased ownership has led to substantially more than just a direct proportional increase in accidents . The reason being that some people coming into riding aren't following the traditional route of learning to ride at a riding school and building up the competence before buying a horse (Competence being a blend of knowledge, experience, training and the ability to be sensible!).
I've heard the financial arguments - why pay a riding school 20 quid for a lesson when mummy can buy a pony for and keep it at grass for the same which means Penelope can ride every day if she likes at a fraction of the cost. Of course mummy might not know much about ponies.... The same argument can be used for horses. But where is the competence? Those who lack competence are more vulnerable to having accidents. I started riding in 1972 so I've been around a bit. Then people took riding club grades or BHS stages. The same still happens but I wonder what proportion of riders have today? But to cater for the newer rider the BHS have the Horse Owner's Certificate http://www.bhs.org.uk/Content/Ods-More.asp?id=1866&pg=Education&spg=Information&area=2, Equistudy run a Safety with Horses course (free until 30 June) http://www.warkscol.ac.uk/root.asp?pid=1711 and the BHS run the Riding and Road Safety Course http://www.bhs.org.uk/Content/Sft-rrstests.asp.
All of these can and do prevent human and equine accidents, injuries and may even save a life. But how many people do them?

Before I get a torrent of people jumping down my throat - Riding is a medium to high risk sport. There is no such thing as absolute safety and accidents will always happen. But some are preventable and sometimes happen through a lack of competence.

3. Some people will be overhorsed or perhaps try to take on things outside of their capability leading to accidents.

4. It's true that some 650 riding schools have closed over the past few years. There are many reasons and not just those of fear of litigation or insurance premiums. After all there's a lucrative livery market out there without all the hassle of running a riding school. A director of the SEIB confirmed at last year's ABRS Conference that riding school insurance premiums have stopped spiralling and have now stabilised.

5. From my experience riding schools are not wrapping clients up in "cotton wool". I'm in a riding club that was established in 1949. It has always been based in riding schools. I joined in 1980 and I don't see much difference in the activities today than all those years ago EXCEPT now riders are formally assessed, matched to horses with suitable instructors and oh yes, wear body protectors for jumping What's wrong with that? The riding club goes to other establishments, goes away on riding weekends, competes etc. which leads to a balanced riding regime. Good job that the BHS has extended Riding Club membership to non-horse owning folk.
Of course some riding schools have become risk adverse. Something the HSE, BHS and ABRS are trying to tackle through sensible risk management. It's not health and safety that stops things happening it's people's misunderstanding of health and safety that does!

6. Suing happens now that didn't happen many years ago. Many accidents reach the media but then the media fail to report the claimants were unsuccessful. One top equine lawyer suceessfully defended 8 out of 9 cases - you can read the details at http://www.ridingsafely.net/legal_cases_pjmdp.html . An Insurer recently mentioned that 17 out of 18 cases had been successfuly defended. So the message must be getting through that cases of dubious merit may not be won!

Whoa boy! Better end there...

I think equestrian related accidents are on the increase, partially due to issues of competence, partially due to complacency and sometimes due to cavalier attitudes.

But who can say until we get some reliable year on year data. Sadly the only place we are likely to get that is from hospitals.
 
My cousin was killed after her horse freaked at someone opening a gate to get into a park. The horse bolted and skidded, as she fell off th ehorse trapled her and kicked her in the head, she died of a heart attack on the way to the hospital.

My brothers hate horses now but the parents still suport me.

At the end of the day she died doing what she loved and we all know the risks, I could never imagine not having my hores in my life just because theres a risk.
 
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