What would you have done???

nic85

nic85

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SO I long lined my 4 year old in the school yesterday ( she's had a holiday over Christmas then lost a shoe then cut her leg which got puffy, now she's ok and the saddler is coming today to check everything before I get back on.) she was a little bouncy as its quite open in our school with horses in the fields next to it but she was listening to me.

YO dogs were about, one of them is a nuisance for pestering the horses and it wouldn't go away, well it upset my horse enough that she reared straight up and fell over landing on her side :( I encouraged her to get up which she did and she was obviously a bit shaken/upset so I got her to walk on again checking she wasn't sore or anything and basically ignored what just happened and carried on with what I wanted to do. she soon settled and worked nicely albeit a little tense to start, even having a trot too which was different and good exercise for both of us!

What would you have done? The dog was eventually called off as another livery saw it all happen and managed to get them to take the dog away but even then it got out and came back to the school, my horse was a lot more settled by this time but I did have to holler for someone to retrieve said dog again which they did. I got a verbal apology from the YO who's dog it isn't.
 
nic85 said:
SO I long lined my 4 year old in the school yesterday ( she's had a holiday over Christmas then lost a shoe then cut her leg which got puffy, now she's ok and the saddler is coming today to check everything before I get back on.) she was a little bouncy as its quite open in our school with horses in the fields next to it but she was listening to me.

YO dogs were about, one of them is a nuisance for pestering the horses and it wouldn't go away, well it upset my horse enough that she reared straight up and fell over landing on her side :( I encouraged her to get up which she did and she was obviously a bit shaken/upset so I got her to walk on again checking she wasn't sore or anything and basically ignored what just happened and carried on with what I wanted to do. she soon settled and worked nicely albeit a little tense to start, even having a trot too which was different and good exercise for both of us!

What would you have done? The dog was eventually called off as another livery saw it all happen and managed to get them to take the dog away but even then it got out and came back to the school, my horse was a lot more settled by this time but I did have to holler for someone to retrieve said dog again which they did. I got a verbal apology from the YO who's dog it isn't.
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Poor thing. Sounds like she coped very well all things considering.
I'd keep an eye on her and make sure she's not too stiff next couple of days. I think I would have dealt with it the same as you, and I'm glad YO apologised, but I'd want that to be with an added dollop of "and I'll make sure my dogs stay off the yard in future".
 
If she came down on her side she just lost balance, if the surface is soft she has probably not done any lasting damage and if she seemed OK after tumbling over I would have carried on also.

But why did she rear up? What was the dog doing - chasing? Barking? Nipping? Lurking about? What were you doing? Rearing at the sight of a dog seems a bit extreme.
 
Cortez said:
If she came down on her side she just lost balance, if the surface is soft she has probably not done any lasting damage and if she seemed OK after tumbling over I would have carried on also.

But why did she rear up? What was the dog doing - chasing? Barking? Nipping? Lurking about? What were you doing? Rearing at the sight of a dog seems a bit extreme.
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It wasn't at the sight of the dog, the dog was hounding her, running around her. me, I was behind her holding on to 2 lunge lines. Yes the surface is soft and she came down on her side. She went out this morning quite happily so hopefully no lasting effects!
 
Do you mean what should you do about the dog? Not much you can do, really, since the dogs are resident and the person running the business doesn't have an issue with it. If you can do it without confrontation then you might bring up to possible liability angle but then that would really have to apply to all loose dogs and any liveries that bring their dogs won't be pleased.

I used to ride horses for someone who had a pack of their own dogs and welcomed liveries' loose dogs. I got chased a few times on young horses and wasn't very pleased, and a few liveries got dumped after dogs ran under fences etc, but there wasn't much I could do about it except choose to go elsewhere. Interestingly, I was back there about a year after I finished riding for them and there were "No loose dogs!" signs all over and they had even built a pen for their own or any visiting dogs. Apparently the owner's daughter got badly hurt after a dog bit her young horse and THEN it was a much bigger problem!:D
 
I hate dogs that do this why the owner has not taught it not to is beyond me .
I love having lots of dogs about the yard it's an excellent thing for horses but they need to be well mannered .
 
Can you catch that dog and shut it in a stable or something before you ride? Agree with others that yard dogs are good desensitisers but not behaving like that.
 
I'd have carried on working her with the dog there and used it as an opportunity to get her used to them being around her. You can't always be sure a dog won't chase her when you're on her and better to get her used to them at this point rather than on the road sometime in the future.
 
My 'what would you have done' is regarding the horse, would you keep working as I had done or not.
The dogs are there, that is a given and that isn't what I am getting at. My horse is used to the dogs/dogs being around her but this ONE dog seems to piss her off more than any of the others ( there are 7 dogs in total) as it was there was another dog there who doesn't bother with the horse, just trots about sniffing around, my mare couldn't give 2 hoots about that one, just the one hounding her.

It has now been said that if the dog is out when anyone wants to ride/work/ lunge what ever then it put it in a stable or find YO to take it in.
 
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