what on earth would you do in this situation

charleysummer

charleysummer

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 February 2010
Messages
1,084
Location
UK Midlands
Visit site
your out hacking on your own. something happens- horse jumps, you fall off or something similar- horse goes galloping off...

what would you do?! i have come off hacking and luckily someone caught my pony but what if not? surely you are pretty stuffed.
 
its happened to me before, my horse just galloped for home... i broke my arm but thankfully a farmer saw me come off and gave me a lift back to the yard where the little blighter was stood at the gate waiting to be let in!
my advice is make sure you have a mobile phone, i didnt when i fell off and i broke my arm so always be prepared :)
 
happened to me a few times when horse bolted & I bailed in terror - luckily my horse lived in a VERY rural area - most locals knew her - she would gallop home - usually leaving a trail of mayhem behind her & I would do the walk of shame back to the yard - as she now lives next to a busy by-pass anm very glad that she has gven the bolting malarky up:rolleyes:
 
charleysummer said:
your out hacking on your own. something happens- horse jumps, you fall off or something similar- horse goes galloping off...

what would you do?! i have come off hacking and luckily someone caught my pony but what if not? surely you are pretty stuffed.
Click to expand...

Dunno! We have (mostly) all survived over the centuries!
 
flying solo said:
I'm sure you get things which you can attach to your saddle with you name and yard address too which is a fantastic idea.
Click to expand...


LOL - When I started reading this reply I thought you were going to suggest tying a lanyard from yourself to the saddle like surfers do :eek:
 
It happened to me. I ran after him but lack of fitness and long grass slowed me down. I was calling everyone I had numbers for but no answers. Luckily no roads between fall and our farm, he headed back and someone who was arriving to use the school caught him then one of the girls drove up the track in the direction he had came from and picked me up. I never ever go out without my phone but there isn't a lot else you can do - if I only ever went out with company it would greatly restrict my riding.
 
A dog tag on your saddle with your name and address and fone number . Have your fone with you and leave details at your yard/stables where you have gone (or plan to go ) and what time you left and how long you expext to be .
Takes abit of time before you go but at least you stand a chance of you and/or horse being found sooner rather than later , most times horse will arrive home and start the alarm .
 
your lack of fitness and the long grass had very little to do with your inability to catch up with him. Horses can run faster than we can!
 
Mine just run home so don't really worry about them. Very very quite lanes, tracks. When I broke my back last summer it was the only time I have left my phone at home. My mare ran home which sent the search partys out and they found me by following the bits off tack she ripped off on the way home. All she had left was the bit in my mouth held there by her flash strap. Seemed like a long time and than had a major *******ing my the hospital cause I went into a and e being held up by several people. Turns out I had broke my back and out come the spinal boards. I was lucky I didn't do more damage after all it was a horse that reared over onto me on the road.
 
It's happened to me twice. First time was hacking in some woods behind a pub, pony heard a squirrel farting which was apparently terrifying so he took off round a corner whereas I didn't! Walked out the woods to find not only half the yard turning out to find me but also the people in the pub who saw said pony buggering off past on his way back home - must have been about 20 people in all...I was so embarrassed!
Second time I was hacking round the farm where I live, the (same) pony had been on box rest for a month so was quite excitable. Anyway we went down a path where we normally have a canter so he stuck his head between his knees and flybucked until I was off then took off. Luckily the old gamekeeper was walking his dogs nearby and pointed me in the direction the pony had gone. I found him in a field near where the stables are with broken cheek piece and reins :rolleyes: but when he saw me he cantered back over and I walked him home.
 
Ravenwood said:
LOL - When I started reading this reply I thought you were going to suggest tying a lanyard from yourself to the saddle like surfers do :eek:
Click to expand...

Thats what I thought too!!!!!!

I have always just done the walk of shame home. Last time I was ditched in this way was in the days before mobile phones.
 
It does worry me to think that my horse could stray anywhere if i fell off. Loose horse and traffic is not a good combination. Sounds like most of them head for home in that situation!
 
My horses have always just run home. The worst was the time that my girth broke when my horse shied and me and the saddle flew off in the opposite direction. The beast ran for home and I was left to carry a 40 pound Western saddle for 2 miles when I was only about 12.
 
Only ever happened to me once and of all the people to catch my horse, eventing bloomin legend Lorna Clarke did!!!!!

Never been so embarressed. She was at our place to give XC lessons and was out with my friend practising on our horse that she was giving a demo on.

My cowbag horse didnt even have the decency to run off, just walked/trotted about 4metres in front of me, adjusting her pace as I did so I could catch her!!!
 
When I exercise I usually have more than one horse with me. I remember taking out three (perfectly normal round here) and I went off the lane onto the moor, my left lead horse bucked, my right lead horse shied away and got pulled off!!

All three horses buggered off and I was left walking up the lane home! (no mobile signal here either!!) So I stopped the next car that came along and asked her to "follow that horse"!! But heart stoppingly, we have a lot of cattle grids round here and I was frightened that they might have tried to get over.

Luckily they were milling around deciding what to do next!!

I popped into the shop and gave that lady a box of chocolates for helping me out :D
 
OK - a really funny story....

One day, in the school holidays, I often exercise for a hunt yard and my daughter decided to come too. She was riding a small horse and I was riding a hideous piebald cob. We went up onto the moor to give them a good blast. I told my daughter to keep behind me and use my horse as a brake.

Well, her horse just galloped off - up the hill and over the other side out of view, she had no control at all. OMG I was kicking and flapping at the hideous cob I was riding to catch up but the useless thing would hardly get beyond a trot!

After my daughter disappeared over the brow of the hill, she suddenly reappeared, galloping back down the other side to the left, still totally out of control. I was kicking this blasted cob but to no avail!!

I watched daughter pretty much bale out as her horse judged a ditch and came off - actually it was quite a relief as I could finally get to her! She was fine but her horse careered off back to the stables..............but a cattle grid was in the way.

I got to daughter, she was fine so I decided to set off after the runaway horse, leaving daughter to walk home - still kicking and flapping trying to get this ghastly cob to put his foot down!!

Luckily, the horse ran home without incident and the yard owners came out to look for us!

But we still laugh about it, seeing her disappear over the horizon only to come into view again back down :D
 
Last edited:
LOL - see, I hate this word "coloured" - they are skewbalds and piebalds in my book even though this apparently is not the "in" word when it comes to selling! :)
 
Actually - I have another funny story involving my son and a runaway pony!!

Just think, small hawthorn tree and a very large and obvious person shaped hole left in the tree!!

I will share only if I haven't bored you stiff :D
 
LOL - very unfortunately and absolutely gutting to us all as a family, we lost our "best in the world ever" pony at Pony Club camp to poisoning. :(

Some weeks later a very kind friend offered their pony to us. We tried the pony out (who had only every been hunted by the gun previously) and I was riding a very large, excitable horse.

We set off on a lovely large track up on the moor, Son's pony takes off, totally out of control - I am screaming at him "pull on one rein" ie turn pony in circle. At this point there is no way I can gallop and catch him up as it would only excite the pony more.....

Still screaming "pull on one rein" I am watching son being tanked off by said pony. You have to remember that we ride on open moorland, not many trees about - but there was one hawthorn tree in his path!!

The pony careered straight under the hawthorn tree - my son ducked but there was a very obvious hole made - which we still laugh about even now - the poor tree has never recovered!!

Anyway, my son eventually managed to turn the pony in a very large circle, I was on a horse champing at the bit to catch up but I didn't want to make the situation worse! Son made a massive circle and eventually I caught up to catch his rein.

At which point he was picking out bits of hawthorn from under his legs, saddle, hat cover ripped etc!!

LOL - what an awful Mum I am!! But it makes a good rider out of the youngsters :0
 
I was riding my "bomb proof" horse on my own about 1 and a half miles from home. He never spooked or reared before. But I think he must have been stung he went mental. I half jumped half fell off and he went and galloped home down the bridlepath and onto the road. Luckily someone caught him and my friend was driving down the road and took him home. I was 5 minutes away from this woman who was a dealer's house who I knew and she said she was too busy to take me home. So I not knowing what had happened to my horse had to run home in shock. My friend bless her came looking for me in the car and found me distraught.

My mobile did not get a signal where I was. So anyway no damage done but hell I would never give that dealer woman who now runs a well known company any help if she fell off. I would help her horse but not her. Shelfish cow.
 
We have a system on our yard where you write where you are going, how long you expect to be and what time you left on the whiteboard and if you are not back within an hour after you have said you would be we go out looking for you
 
The builder (countryman) working on our house came tearing in to say a riderless horse had just galloped by. He and I fell into his twin-cab to try to head it off by a back route before it reached the B road. As we passed the pub the locals, drinking outside, raised their beer mugs to a man in the direction the horse had gone - almost choreographed! Mercifully the rider had alerted the yard, who blocked said lane with 4 x 4s to stop the horse. (horse had been spooked by low flying plane). But she'd already galloped about 2+ miles
 
My TB has dumped me twice, once on a road and once cantering up a field. Both occasions included a spectacular bronc. What does she do once I'm off? She turns, stands and grins from ear to ear.
 
I fell off my pony once when I was about 16 about 4 miles from home and saw him cantering away into the distance. Apparantly he trotted through the main street off my town with no rider and a saddle and bridle and no-one thought to try and catch him, or even particularly took much notice. A man with his kids in a van saw me running along the same road after him and stopped and gave me a lift but by that time he had reached home and in fact had continued on up the road to visit the neighbour's horses. Fortunately he was completely unharmed and the man in the van (who seemed to be the only person to have seen him) said he had trotted along the left hand side of the road, well into the side, just as if he had had a rider. This in itself was odd for him because he was a very right sided horse who always preferred that side.

Unfortunately its a risk you have to take if you live anywhere near roads and want to hack. My friend and I fell off another time when 3 of us were out hacking and while I managed to keep hold of my horse's reins, her horse bolted for home and was sadly killed when running straight across the road to get to the stables at the other side and hitting a car - luckily the driver, though shocked, was uninjured.
 
bj666 said:
A dog tag on your saddle with your name and address and fone number . Have your fone with you and leave details at your yard/stables where you have gone (or plan to go ) and what time you left and how long you expext to be .
Takes abit of time before you go but at least you stand a chance of you and/or horse being found sooner rather than later , most times horse will arrive home and start the alarm .
Click to expand...

This. Its what most of us will have been taught if we've undergone any BHS training, and I would imagine I'm not the only one who has let this, and other bits and bobs go a bit lax in the real world. Worth reminding ourselves occasionally that we are taught these things for good reason! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top