Vid of horses falling through ice.

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A round of applause for the rescuers

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yes, i hope they are all local heroes now. it must have taken some real guts to get into freezing water with struggling horses, the chances of being kicked and going under the ice... doesn't bear thinking about.
i think the last one they got out had just about given up, bless it. very very brave guys to do what they did. if only there were always people around like that when a horse gets in trouble.
 
I am glad I wasn't the only one who shed a tear
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Which is odd as the news stated they were all ok, I guess it's was the calmness of the ponies and the courage of the people trying to help them out! (or I am a big softy!)
 
It was only thanks to the courage of one man that they got rescued. Everyone was just standing around looking at the horses but not doing anything untill you see a man run up, waves his arms and yells at the people (presumably 'what the hell are you doing just standing there! in Icelandic) and then he jumps right in and starts pushing them out. Only then do the other people wake up and jump in and start rescuing as well.

I have a horrible feeling that if he hadn't turned up those animals would all have died while everyone just watched.
 
One man? So the riders that almost as soon as they had gotten out of the water themselves, bent down to remove their sadles to get the extra weight of their horse back where just standing looking?

Must say I've watched that video several times now and your recollection Nona1 didn't sound like the video I'd watched. So I've watched the beginning of the video a few extra times this morning and can't see the man you describe come running and jump straight in, before the riders have "woken up".






By the way Gucci B, the reason why crazy people choose to ride, walk, drive, fish, long-distance skating etc. on ice, is because done right it is as safe as doing most other normal things in life, probably more safe than driving on asphalt. But I presume that since you're probably used to driving on asphalt but not on ice, you think it sounds more unsafe = crazy?

Wild animals have always regularly and freely chosen to walk over icy lakes and rivers rather than in the snow on so called "safe land". It is so usual that there's an old Swedish folksong which begins with "Foxes runs over the ice, foxes runs over the ice", it is sung both around Christmas and at our Midsummer celebration. So even at midsummer we are reminded about how natural it is to choose the ice to walk on.


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I expect the person filming didnt have right gear on, and there was enough people sorting the job out. They did get them all out, it could have been a kid or pregnant mother filming for all you know!
 
Lucretia....Are you really saying that its ok...i realize accidents happen and ok so they may have done this a thousand times for all i know , but does that mean it ok or its safe....I try not to put my animals or family members in harms way and consider riding on ice a pretty silly past time no matter how many times its been done....Looks like global warmings gonna put paid to this anyway....will be intresting to see if they do it again next year wont it....health and safety would have a field day here...
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safer than riding on the roads here in fact. and as both myself and finish laphund have said this was a complete freak accident. the ice allround the fracture was solid enough to stand the horses struggling out and and people standing on it. it isnt a risk in cold places. on the front cover of the swiss equestrian federation's magazine this month there are horses playing polo on the ice.
and as i have also said before on this thread, horses WILL NOT step onto an unsafe surface and they usually know well before us (think bog ponies) but those horses were calm and relaxed. it is an everyday occurence in cold places.
Global warming has nothing to do with it really. That was just a freak happening like an avalance or the track subsidence at ascot race course a couple years back.
and health and safety would be entitled to have a field day here, we dont get that sort of freezing conditions of long term freezing. ther is no need in iceland and finland and the sweden for man made rinks, those places are frozen for MONTHS. the ice is feet thick not inches.
drives me mad all this hysteria about a doing something that has a better safety record than riding on country lanes here. I happily schooled on the ice in a cold place i lived once. it was flat and level and the horses get special shoes and it doesnt even sound hollow it is so thick. the horses were more leery of going thru the snow tbh.
 
I watched it twice and you can see that it was a freak accident. The Horses at the far end go through, then the closest end, then the middle so it must have been some kind of fissure in the ice. One Horse doesn't even go through. Horse events on ice have been going on for hundreds of years and I wouldn't have a problem riding on ice in places like that. I would imagine if Horses were going through it all the time then they wouldn't do it. We are off to Alaska in 2 weeks for the Iditarod sled dog race and some of it is on ice.
Just after Christmas we were out walking on (yes, on) Loch Morlich in Aviemore. There were hundreds of people on it - hadn't been above -10 in 2 weeks. No-one fell through it. I'm not suggesting that ice is safe over here that often but it can happen. Years ago someone drove a landy down the river spey on the ice.
All life carries risk. Even getting out of bed is risky. If people are that worried about surfaces then don't ride a Horse on the beach! Two near my yard got caught in quicksand last year. Not an area that's known to have it. Hasn't stopped anyone I know riding on the beach.
I'd rather ride on ice that was deemed safe than on the roads these days that's for sure!
 
This is the Rideau in Ottawa that these people are skating on ... they skate on it every winter.
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And here it is in the summer time.

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I'm not sure that some of you who haven't lived in countries with seriously sub-zero temperatures are really getting it? Going on ice is part of life over here.
 
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OH MY GOD!
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Look at all those people, teenagers, parents with young innocent children and - and - call some authority! But wait,
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who put up those stairs leading down to the ice? You mean there's Canadian authorities that encourages such silly, crazy behaviour Tia? Deliberately putting it's citizens in such danger...
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As for those that maybe believes the following : I try to not put my animals or family members in harms way, therefore I would never ride on ice.
Besides the fact that ice in other countries might not be the same as the ice you're used to, somehow I presume you're probably transporting animals or family members on roads, right?

Overall statistic from year 2000 said that "The number of traffic fatalities in Europe is annually over 42 000 and this with more than 1.7 million injured, of which thousands suffer serious lasting harm." Year 2001 the statistic from the member-states of EU showed that 50 000 people had been killed in traffic, year 2005 it had decreased to about 41 600 people killed.


Year 2006, 430 people died in Swedish traffic. About 117 people died in water-accidents and about 18 people died in ice-accidents. In the water- and ice-accidents, 9 of 10 was male and it was often alcohol involved.
So I'm not saying that there's no swedes dying in ice-accidents every year, but ice can be a lot safer than some HHO users seems to think.







Thank you Tia for the great photos.
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If i could really be bothered im sure i could go off and find all sorts of facts and figures telling us all the amount or lack of risk involved with riding a pony on ice....But hey ho...im not that sad....And am still not going to encourage my kids and their beautiful,trusting ponies to ride on ice....But like you say im just not gettin it am i ....DOH....
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you said it jiggy. comparing ice here and ice in really cold places is like trying to compare sand and strawberries. there is no comparrison.
 
I've seen the polo on ice thing, it's a massssssive popular and elite event, been going on for years and i've not heard of any incidents such as this from it, although granted i've not gone out and looked.

It was a freak accident, the ice is clearly very very thick, just a weak spot unfortunately.

Am amazed at how calm the ponies were within a few seconds- wonder if it was shock? Glad they got them all out, don't think they were ever going to let anything else happen to be honest, those men diving in amongst the flailing hooves are the sort of people we want more of in the world. Hope they all recovered ok, both men and ponies.
 
i too was talking to the ponies (not that it was gonna help them !!)
i didnt think the grey was going to get out. it looked like it had given up.
well done to the rescuers they obviously think a lot of their horses i imagine there was a lot of bruises as well as a lot of very cold ponies.

OK i understand they ride on ice like we ride on tarmac but lets hope they make more safety checks in future.
and they have all learned a valuable lesson.
 
I read a report on this. Apparently this event had been setup for tolt races and the ice measured and checked accordingly.
Then at the end of the event the organisers wanted all the horses on the ice. This is apparently where it went wrong as the ice was not measured for this and was not thick enough to take the weight of all the horses at once.
An accident and people have learned. Every one got out all OK so that's the most important thing.
 
As far as I know, they're all okay Tiffany. They where taken to a horse-spa and under veterinarian care they where put in the sort of solarium that is made for horses. Only one of the horses needed to be monitored for a longer time.





Besides Jiggy, I googled the statistics in Swedish, took less than a minute and then translating it took a few minutes, so since I quite like statistics I thought it was a quite interesting way to spend a very small amount of my time.

Though I sure hope I haven't in any of my replies seemed to encourage people in UK to go out and start playing, riding on your ices, if I have done it unintentionally I apologize. I never intended that f. ex. Jiggy should tell her children (that I presume might live in UK, Ireland) to go out and ride their ponies on your ice, because I don't know anything about your ice conditions.

All I've wanted to point out was that ice means different things in different countries.




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