Step-Granddaughter lucky to be alive....

DragonSlayer

DragonSlayer

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...as her pony bolted home last evening after the pony was chased by a loose dog snapping at her heels....straight across the road just down here, with brakes squealing as cars had to grind to a halt.....

Luckily the neighbour next to their yard ran out when he heard her screams and opened the gate so the pony shot in..

How the hell she hung on we don't know, and amazingly the dog disappeared....I'm off on a hunt up and down the road later to see if I can find out where it came from....

She's only 10, and as you can imagine....pretty shook up. She was riding with a friend (adult friend) who gave chase after trying to grab the pony when the dog was snapping....

She has had this pony for about 3 years, smashing little thing, but I guess a dog biting was a bit too much for her.....
 
Poor little girl - damn stupid dog owners.

Do be careful when she next goes out. Similar incident happened to my daughter and 3 friends some years ago (I put it on here of course). Two out of the 4 horses were actually bitten by the dog, and sadly since the incident neither horse has been sound to ride. One was from that day a nervous wreck and couldn't hack out at all, broke out into a sweat and shook, so is now just ridden a bit at home. The other seemed ok for a while, but took to randomly shooting forward and having panic attacks, which we think are related to the incident.

So maybe put in some remedial work when both have recovered - get a sensible dog round and see how the pony reacts. Hopefully all will be well but it's worth checking first.
 
Yes indeed. I said last night, I'll take my dog, as she is perfect with horses been brought up to be, to see how she gets on....

I haven't seen the bites, but by all accounts luckliy they were superficial, she was going to stable the pony last night after dressing the injuries, and see what she is like this morning...
 
oh poor girl and pony. I agree with Mrs D123 about turning it into a positive something like 'well at least you know no matter what happens you won't fall off'

Of course this isn't strictly true but from a physiologists point of view it may well be what is needed

Tell her how great we all think she is too :D
 
Poor girl , I know from first hand experience , as I'm sure many do , how frightening it is to be on a bolting pony ( fell x TB = very strong ) , it took me ages to get up enough confidence to hack again , and I still haven't mastered hacking alone again...Well done for staying on though , the urge to part yourself from said fleeing animal is really strong , but I guess our brains know that the impact of falling at speed isn't worth contemplating either..all the best to your step grandaughter , getting her back in the saddle and out again asap is what i would do , but maybe not for everyone.
 
I had a similar thing happen to me when I was a similar age I got chased on my 12.2 by 2 giant poodles, it was a truely terrifying experience. Glad their both ok!!!
 
Don't pressure her to hack out again if she really doesn't want to... There's a misconception that you'll lose your nerve if you don't go back out and do it straight away but if shes really afraid she needs to do it in her own time!!
 
bl**dy irresponsible dog owners!
Thank god she was able to stay on, doesn't even bare thinking about tbh.
Its my absolute worst nightmare, having a pony bolt with a kiddie onboard, made all the worst by some idiots inability to control their sodding pooch!
 
Ooh, nasty :(.

Hope both her and the pony can put it behind them.

Good luck in finding the dog owner and imparting some facts to them!
 
Bloody lousy mutt owners. I had a similiar incident about 2 months ago. Big well done to her from me for both staying on board.
 
Thanks for the good wishes and advice, yeah...we are all shaken a bit I think! She got taken to Macdonalds today for lunch as a treat! No riding today...just grooming, so that's fine by us!
 
Do you know who owned the dog? We have one round here that terrorises horses, cyclists, everyone, and despite being told the owners never took it seriously. Yesterday it was running around loose again when I hacked past and I lost the plot and stood outside the house yelling till the owner came out.

When she did, I told her I was calling the dog warden on her, which she didn't seem to think necessary until my horse decided he'd had enough of waiting around crazy dogs and their crazy owners, and went bolt upright at the side of the road. I knew it was because he's incredibly impatient but I think she thought it was due to her dog (he actually doesn't care, but that wasn't the point ;)) She looked incredibly shaken up, and actually came round later on almost in tears with a letter of apology promising to try and keep this dog under control and away from horses.

Makes me furious that people just don't seem to care/understand about how dangerous a frightened horse is!! So glad to hear your step-granddaughter is okay, and hopefully some good will come out of it if the idiot owner knew what their dog had done :mad:
 
Gosh she must be frightened. I had almost exactly the same thing happen to me but I was 23 at the time! Pony and I were out hacking and a lady warned us her dog was in the bushes, Indie hunts and isn't bothered by dogs but I thanked her and slowed Indie to a walk keeping an eye out for it. It shot out of nowhere, mouthed at her leg and she bolted, she woman left her child in the buggy which god only knows how Indie and I missed and made a vain attempt to call the dog. I thankfully did manage to regain control and fuming at the owner who said "I let him do that at home, he likes to round up my horses"!!!!!!!!! No mention of an appology and got a huf when I pointed out that was not a sensible thing to let him do. Sadly two years on Indie is not good with Collies, I am lucky that she is fab with all other breeds of dogs and hounds but not collies.

Tell your grandaughter she was very brave and have someone walk out with her the first few times until she is happy, nothing wrong with going back on the leadrein if needed and taking their time.
 
Bless her, glad she and pony are still in one piece.

My bomb proof gelding and I were chased by an Irish Wolf hound who tried to attatch itself to his hind legs. Luckily he was wearing brushing boots but they had lovely bite marks in them and we bolted across a main road on a blind bend and luckily at that split second the normally very busy and fast road was clear and we survived - I managed to pull him up half a mile later - pure panic poor chap.

BUT we did get back out hacking on our own again in time but we took a while to go back past that particular farm as they refused to keep their dog in despite being spoken to by the police :(

I am sure she will get there but as you said it will take time for both of them.
 
If the pony was bitten and esp if it was bitten on the leg, you NEED to get antibiotics into it NOW. A forum member lost a horse to secondary infection which could not be overcome, due to a dog bite :(
 
Reading that sent a chill through my blood :mad: I hope pony and grandaughter heal well in every way possible. And I hope you find out who that dog belongs to!
 
So glad no one got hurt, my pony galloped flat out once at being chased by 2 dogs which appeared behind us from behind a bush, not a pleasant experience, after I pulled him up the 2 women owners then had a go at me, duh, needless to say I had a right go at them about their dogs out of control in a public place, to which one of the women took a noisy air horn out of her bag and proceeded to honk it at me and my pony :eek:
 
Glad she is ok DS, but how horrible for her and pony!
Tell her she is a very brave little girl, and a very good rider to have stayed on.
And Pedantic..... bl00dy ell!!!
There is a woman in our village who often walks three or four dogs together, and they are always chasing horses, they chased me on one of mine a few years ago, he spun round and bolted, i came right off!
Our horses in the field see a lot of dogs walk through on the footpath, but they onley spook and mill about when they see hers, speaks vollums to me!
 
Glad she is ok DS, but how horrible for her and pony!
Tell her she is a very brave little girl, and a very good rider to have stayed on.
And Pedantic..... bl00dy ell!!!
There is a woman in our village who often walks three or four dogs together, and they are always chasing horses, they chased me on one of mine a few years ago, he spun round and bolted, i came right off!
Our horses in the field see a lot of dogs walk through on the footpath, but they onley spook and mill about when they see hers, speaks vollums to me!
 
Having had a few similar experiences as a child, I remain wary of the cause of the bolt, but was never scared of the pony afterwards. Hopefully your step-granddaughter will be the same. We were chased by a herd of heifers, a dog and something unknown that spooked the pony in front and I had no brakes!

Hope they're both ok - well done to her for staying on :).
 
Pedantic said:
So glad no one got hurt, my pony galloped flat out once at being chased by 2 dogs which appeared behind us from behind a bush, not a pleasant experience, after I pulled him up the 2 women owners then had a go at me, duh, needless to say I had a right go at them about their dogs out of control in a public place, to which one of the women took a noisy air horn out of her bag and proceeded to honk it at me and my pony :eek:
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What an absolute moron that woman was! Dont know how you kept your cool at that though, I would have got off my horse and wrapped that horn round her thick head! Am angry for you lol :mad:

Hope your step-granddaughter is ok and this doesn't put her off hacking, very lucky they weren't hurt in the road!
 
I believe my step-daughter is doing all that and going to fill in that BHS statistics thing...

Thanks for all your good wishes and things, she is wanting to go out on the lead-rein tomorrow, don't blame her!
 
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