Stupid (read idiotic and dangerous) things we accidentally do

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EQUIDAE

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I'm always reminding my OH of horsey health and safety

- make sure you shut the kick bolts
- shut the yard gate
- tie hay nets up so they horses can't get themselves stuck
- don't wrap the lead rope round your hand when you're leading
- don't walk behind strange horses - they may not be like our own
- keep the feed room door locked

You get the picture...

Today I slung a lead rope round my neck so I could balance in the mud and then proceeded to clip the lead rope to the horses rope halter - with the clip being on the opposite side of my body. I them immediately got stuck in the mud and garrotted myself with the blooming rope! Thankfully my mare is sensible and was fine with me grabbing the halter to untangle and steady myself. It could have been nasty if my fall cause the horse to spook and run off.

I get idiot of the day award!
 
Yikes, that could've been very nasty!!

My stupid thing today was walking my mare out (16.3 TB, currently on no turnout due to mud fever) in a howling gale, with no hat on. She can be a nappy little so-and-so at the best of times but she was properly on one today, rearing, plunging, spinning, generally boiling over. Thankfully we made it back in one piece but I was cursing my stupidity at not wearing a hat. Should definitely have known better....
 
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I stupidly allowed my gelding to itch his head on a gate on a new hacking route because I was busy trying to work out how to do the catch. Half a second later and he'd tied himself to the gate so firmly I had to undo the buckle in the reins to undo us. Thank god he didn't panic at finding himself stuck!

I've also set off for a ride in full hi-viz, leaving my hat in the stable and proceeded to canter under some low-hanging branches. It was only after I pulled up that I realised my head felt a bit breezy.
 
Keep them coming - I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Equine_Dream said:
The amount of times I have to tell myself off for not putting the bolt across the stable doors when Im nipping in and out!
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I don't have that problem - mine stay put ;)

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Fiona said:
I have occasionally put my mares headcollar on, but forgot to clip on the lead rope (tied to the fence).... Duh.
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I made a habit of doing this, and other similar stupid things, when I was pregnant. At one point I led mine all the way to the school before realising the rope in my hand wasn't actually attached to the horses headcollar but just caught loosely in his mane.
 
One thing i have been doing lately, knowing it is really really bad, is forgetting the head collar when i go to bring in and using the rope on the end of the haynet instead. My hand is usually tangled in the haynet to keep it from flapping about so if anything actually happened and the rope didn't come away i would be fooked.
 
Yep, mentioned on another thread that I put my boy in the box and then proceeded to tie up his hay net, even tho I know if he has just come in he will scratch his neck and body against the net .......that was me squashed against the wall of the box by half a ton of chunky itchy cob not in the least concerned with the wellbeing of my rib cage ......
 
Bending down behind a known kicker and ending up being double-barrelled into a fresh muckheap. The ambulance men wouldn't let me into the ambulance until I had been hosed down
 
stuck in the mud at the gate bringing my horse in, needed both hands to shut it and redo electric so figured it would be okay to hold the leadrope in my teeth for a few moments. I can officialy report that when your horse spots something in the distance and sticks their head in the air the instintive bracing of your neck muscles you do to stop your teeth riping out your face is not at all comfortable. Luckily good sense took over very quickly and I spat the lead rope out before I did myself a proper injury. I felt rather silly that I had been so careless.
 
Oh another thing i do, which is idiotic, walk behind my horse when hims bums on the wall. He wont move forward, but i can't get past any other way so i just squeeze.

I put it down to horses making people stupid.
 
EQUIDAE said:
I'm always reminding my OH of horsey health and safety

- make sure you shut the kick bolts
- shut the yard gate
- tie hay nets up so they horses can't get themselves stuck
- don't wrap the lead rope round your hand when you're leading
- don't walk behind strange horses - they may not be like our own
- keep the feed room door locked

You get the picture...

Today I slung a lead rope round my neck so I could balance in the mud and then proceeded to clip the lead rope to the horses rope halter - with the clip being on the opposite side of my body. I them immediately got stuck in the mud and garrotted myself with the blooming rope! Thankfully my mare is sensible and was fine with me grabbing the halter to untangle and steady myself. It could have been nasty if my fall cause the horse to spook and run off.

I get idiot of the day award!
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Lucky it wasn't a posthumous Darwin Award!!!
 
Put a horse in a field and about 5 mins later she strolled into the yard. I don't know what I was thinking but I immediately put her back in the field and the same thing happened. Field had two gates and the other one was wide open. Don't know why I was expecting her to magically stay in the second time!
 
Clannad48 said:
Bending down behind a known kicker and ending up being double-barrelled into a fresh muckheap. The ambulance men wouldn't let me into the ambulance until I had been hosed down
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had to laugh at this one, my failing is forgetting my large wb mare is joined at the hip with my tb gelding, oh and forgetting gloves, go out of sight of the gelding and you get fingers ripped to bits as she heads back to him, or cauterised blisters trying to stop a love stuck tank, have now learned to put gelding out first as bait for a well behaved mare
 
equi said:
One thing i have been doing lately, knowing it is really really bad, is forgetting the head collar when i go to bring in and using the rope on the end of the haynet instead. My hand is usually tangled in the haynet to keep it from flapping about so if anything actually happened and the rope didn't come away i would be fooked.
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I do this too... 'Safest' way is to just wrap the while haynet around the neck and then tangle your fingers up in it all!
 
I had a mare once who had previously had girth galls, bless her. Because she was worried about pain, on girthing up and straightening the breastplate strap between her legs, she would whack her head up and down ferociously, snapping at the air. As soon as she realised it wouldn't hurt, she would stop panicking but any adjustments to either had to be made from the side.

One day, for some unknown reason I straightened her breastplate strap from the front, between her legs - and her teeth met my skull on a down blow. I have honestly, in my life so far never seen so much blood! I still have a dent in my skull and nerve damage across parts of my scalp. And a scar that looks like a bald spot from the wrong angle :D

Twit.
 
I once made the criminally stupid error of tying a large driving pony to his exercise cart for a moment. I don't know what I was thinking, but I needed to nip off to get something before I put him to.

Something spooked him, he panicked and pulled back violently, throwing the cart 10ft into the air and 30ft across the yard. Luckily the rope clip broke, and the cart didn't hit anything, but that one could easily have been a fatality.
 
I was once washing my horses legs to get the mud off after being in the field, and while doing his back legs, just walked around behind him and stayed crouched down, washing around and between his legs. I then noticed how stupid I was and stopped doing that, but I seriously put too much faith in that horse. Especially since he can be dodgy about getting washed.

Slightly less stupid, but while he was on a strict no more than walking policy by the vet after he cut one of his fetlocks, I left him with my parents to let him walk around on some grass around the arena and graze while I took a horse to the field with someone else. As soon as we got to the top of the hill however, I heard my dad shouting 'He's coming!' and watched as my idiot horse came cantering up the hill, looking so pleased for himself that he was trying to follow us. To be fair on him, I think he was stung by a bee perhaps down by the arena, but I still shouldnt have left him alone with my parents just incase something like that happened. Best thing was though was my friends response to a loose horse coming running up the hill when he was meant to be on box rest: 'Oh he's got a lovely canter doesnt he?' Really?! Thats all you can say?! :p
 
I'm glad I'm not the only occasional idiot! I have to open a gate to get out onto the road that my boys paddock is on, and quite often i open it, walk him through, drop the lead rope and take a step to latch the gate behind me... Good thing he's so chilled and more interested in the grass than running away up the road!
 
We used to have an old-fashioned electric grooming brush to use before showing the stallions. It was around 9" long and revolved at speed around its own axis with a guard on one side. I had nearly finished the Anglo-Arab before the Stoneleigh Stallion show when something made me jump. Before I knew what was happening the brush caught his flowing tail and wound it round and round in a massive tangle. When I had picked my jaw up from the floor I had to dismantle the brush in situ, and then it took 2 long hours to untangle his tail, virtually hair by hair. To my relief we only lost a very few hairs and no one ever knew what had happened! Thank goodness it was the kindest and most patient stallion!
 
Deciding (yes I actually made this choice) that instead of trying to get 3 horses through a very awkward gate or leaving one out I'd lead two and obviously the third would follow..... Yep straight out the gate, out the next gate (opposite direction to me and the others heading to the yard!) and to out hand grazing spot on the side of the road in the dark 😁 Such a complete idiot (me not him!)
 
I feel like I do stupid stuff all the time and if I started to list them I'd crash the Horse and Hound website :) :D . I am saved by the fact that my horses are kind hearted fellas who realise that I am the one with the feed and the mints :)
 
Yesterday after feeding my mare I simply left her stable door wide open and popped off home. Received a text from a fellow livery saying they'd rescued her as she just started exiting said stable...
 
Just recently I walked smack bang into the back end of a pony, it was really dark, and the pony was little, I was in a massive hurry paying no attention to what was immediately in front of me. Safe to say both the pony and I keiched our pants, I'm very lucky/grateful he isn't a kicker!

At my old yard I went for a wee walk, left my horse at his usual tie up spot, only realised 10mins in I'd forgotten to put his headcoller on after untacking, he was still there when I got back, chomping away on his haynet :)
 
How about lungeing a horse after 10-12 weeks on box rest in trot on a small circle on the hard ground in an open area (ie.not fenced in anyway) for the vet. Without wearing a hat...
I was v lucky as horse exploded (naturally) and his foot missed my face by an inch!!
I was sensible enough to wear gloves & have a bridle on the horse though lol. Luckily after that one explosion he was completely sane!

Although pulling a cast horse over by myself without a hat probably comes close too!

Otherwise probably more unwise is the way I load my horse - I stand at the back of trailer, sling rope over his neck and he walks up and I stay at back & put the bar & ramp up.
 
Once tried to long rein a horse while someone had turned their horse loose in the school. It didn't occur to me to look if there was a loose horse before going in. Fortunately realised pretty quick and the owner of the other horse was here. I apologised profusely of course, but they thought I was barmy.

Another really dumb one which finished badly happened when I found the tack room closed and still decided to free lunge a 17hh lazy warmblood in the round pen. He didn't want to canter so I swung the lead rope to encourage him forward, wrong move as he decided to double barrel me and the end of one hoof caught my lower jaw. Resulted in a 8 hour reconstrutive surgery and no solid food for 4 weeks.
 
Gosh too many really! But this weeks, began walking mare in arena on a lunge line, lunge line was in a taffle, walking large, trying to untangle while walking, foot ends up in a loop while it's dragging on floor ! I thought then this is a lunge Fail 😕 Mare thankfully behaved but she's partial to a explosion or 3 too loosen the muscles !
 
I got my horse in from the field and just looped the lead rope round his neck, he spooked at something and the clip ripped into my hand, loads of blood to mop up and I was in my lunch hour from work so had to go back into the office with spatters of blood over my clothes.

again, in my lunch hour, opened gates for horses to come in , they normally went into their own stables, but this day mine went into the wrong one so instead of getting a headcollar, I put one hand on her nose and the other grabbed the mane, she raced off taking me backwards, I fell flat on my back and dislocated my elbow!!!!! had to go to hospital and work were not impressed!!!! hopefully I am now older and wiser..
 
My horse has had a initially fairly painful mud fever issue on his back legs this month, and whilst he never kicked out, if it hurt he lifted his leg up higher and higher until he nearly fell over... With this in mind I have spent an awful lot of time crouched near his back legs washing and picking scabs etc!

I also never really close the door, nor do I really tie him up, I just leave the lead rope draped through a loop of bailing twine. He's not going anywhere and if he does spook, I think I would rather he can run off without issue.

I was taking his bib off (he has baldy shoulders) and he lifted his head up at the same time, and it got stuck so ended up flapping all about his face in the wind, and he was trying to lick it too. I was laughing to hard to remove it for about 5 minutes, which considering it was in a tight space was fairly stupid. :D
 
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