Elghoul N, Jalal Y, Bouya A, Zine A, Jaafar A. Domestic Horse Bite: An Unusual Etiology of Crush Injury of the Fourth Finger-How to Manage? Case Rep Infect Dis. 2019 Jan 30;2019:2156269. doi: 10.1155/2019/2156269. PMID: 30838145; PMCID: PMC6374822. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6374822/
Winkler, E. A., Yue, J. K., Burke, J. F., Chan, A. K., Dhall, S. S., Berger, M. S., Manley, G. T., & Tarapore, P. E. (2016). Adult sports-related traumatic brain injury in United States trauma centers, Neurosurgical Focus FOC, 40(4), E4. Retrieved Mar 10, 2020, from https://thejns.org/focus/view/journals/neurosurg-focus/40/4/article-pE4.xml
In 2017, It may come to some readers’ surprise to be informed that equestrian related hospital admissions are in fact more common than those related to motorcycles, skiing or other sports
In 2014, 1 in 63 Americans is involved … with the horse industry …estimated 30 million people ride horses each year. …rate of injury from 1 …18.7 [people]for 350 to 1000 hours of riding.
In 2007, 78,000 people were seen in the U.S. emergency rooms due to horse-related injuries; 9,000 of those were admitted to hospitals for further treatment (See Article within)
A study from Canada in 2005 reported from hospital statistics that of severe trauma injuries to horseback riders, 54% were to the chest, 22% to the abdomen.
Horseback riding accounted for 11.5% of emergency department (ED) visits where non-fatal Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) was cause of the visit (1) .
Research has shown that 82% of children’s and 62% of all rider’s horse related accidents are the consequence of falls from horses(2).
Head injuries comprise about 18% of all horseback riding injuries, although they are the number one reason for hospital admissions and the leading cause of death(3).
A four year retrospective study showed that of horse-related injuries, 55% percent were inexperienced or beginner riders, and 10% were novice riders(4).
A study in New Zealand cites horseback riding as more dangerous than motorcycle riding or car racing(5).
More than 2,300 riders under the age of 25 years are hospitalized annually because of horseback-riding injuries(6)
New York Appellate Court Affirms Finding of No Liability for Equestrian Accident (2006)The lower court properly dismissed plaintiff’s claims for common-law negligence and negligent supervision, since the record did not raise an issue of fact to support the claim that the horse had dangerous or unpredictable proclivities, and there was no credible evidence that the rider had been unable to control the horse. Both wit-nesses described the horse as very steady and passive and sweet and quiet. The court went on to state that even without evidence of unpredictable propensities, plaintiffs were able to pursue the case on a theory of negligence (citing Restatement of Torts [Second] 518). However, plaintiffs failed to identify a distinct act that defendants should have done or refrained from doing under the circumstances to protect the infant plaintiff, or some distinct, enhanced duty that was violated. All of the alleged flaws in the trainer’s instruction were relevant only if the intention was for the plaintiff to learn to manage a faster, more unruly horse, and in any event, only if they were the substantial or proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury. The trainer was attentive, and the accident occurred in so short a span of time that even the most intense supervision could not have prevented it. Fintzi v. Riverdale Riding Corporation d/b/a Riverdale Equestrian Centre, 2006 WL 2563798 (1st Dept., Sept. 7, 2006).
Nonfatal Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) –Injuries from Sports and Recreation Activities — United States, 2001—2005. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/datastatistics/2008/brainInjuries/
Equestrian Injuries in Children. Cuenca AG, Wiggins A, Chen MK, Kays DW, Islam S, Beierle EA. Journal of Pediatric Surgery. 2009 Jan;44(1):148-50. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19159733
Sports Related Head Injury, http://www.neurosurgerytoday.org/what/patient_e/sports.asp , 2007
A Review of Horse-related Injuries in a Rural Colorado Hospital: Implications for Iutreach Education.Newton AM, Nielsen AM.J Emerg Nurs. 2005 Oct;31(5):442-6
Interpreting human and horse interactions, Equestrian Injuries in NZ, A Review of the Lliterature, A report for the accident compensation Corporation, Glenda Northey, MA, (Hons) MLIS, 2006, p.12l
Equestrian injuries: incidence, injury patterns, and risk factors for 10 years of major traumatic injuries. Ball CG, Ball JE, Kirkpatrick AW, Mulloy RH.Am J Surg. 2007 May;193(5):636-40.
On and off the horse: Mechanisms and patterns of injury in mounted and unmounted equestrians. SP Carmichael, DL Davenport, PA Kearney, – Injury, 2014 Elsevier search
Pediatric Equestrian Injuries: A 14-year Review. Barone, Gary and Rodge.J Trauma. 1989 Feb;29(2):245-7.PMID: 2918566 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2918566
Horseback riding injuries among children and young adults Journal of Family Practice, August, 1994 by Christey, DNelson, Rivara, Smith, Condie
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. 1999-2003 Horsebackriding injury and cost estimates for youth 0-19 years from National Electronic Injury Surveillance System(NEISS) Data (unpublished data from CSN EDARC) March 2005.
Organizations and Law
Horses are large animals, and just because of their size they are potentially dangerous. Add to their size, their inherent nature, a flight animal that survives in nature by escaping quickly, and add in a human prey animal and you have a perfect formula for accidents. This is why safety around and riding horses must be a priority. Most horses don’t try to hurt you, but they often do accidentally hurt you. Since you, the human are the smarter of the two, you must always be thinking ahead to avoid mishaps and mistakes.
The best organization that I am aware of regarding horse safety and horse law is held at the University of Vermont , on behalf of the American Association for Horsemanship Safety, Inc. It is an excellent resource for information. the founder Jan Dawson has excellent books that are required reading for several other certification programs, such as USDF. I hosted and attended a Certification Clinic here in Gilroy. I learned about negligence information as it relates to horses. This was timely because I had been contacted about being an expert witness for a north bay law firm with some equestrian cases. The teaching component was based on the Secure Seat Method with gives the instructor verification tools to check a students readiness for progressively more active riding. I had read Jan’s book a few years before, Secure Seat, and it made perfect sense to me. As a young person I had always had correct position in my training, correct position leads to correct balance. Correct balance leads to the correct muscles being strengthened. It was logical and fit my way of teaching and the foundation I experienced to be true and correct. I got many tools in the clinic that helped my teaching, and even helped refresh some of my own problematic riding areas, like sitting a big-moving, impulsive trotting type horse, like my Pickle boy. The most athletic horses are the most elastic and fluid in their range of motion. One true test of advanced riding is being one with an advanced level horse, no matter what discipline.
EMSA,equestrian medical safety association For many years, the EMSA has provided education, research and resources to protect riders and improve safety within equestrian sports. The SRF was formed to provide a network of assistance to injured riders. In 2003, the two groups merged to form an organization that primarily works to prevent equestrian accidents, but are able to assist riders when an injury has occurred.
Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA). I attended one of their certification clinics in the mid 090’s. It was a 5 day, 40+ hour course. It was very good and comprehensive. This organization has changed its name several times and then turned into a career ladder for Julie Goodnight. Since Julie left, the site has become less commercial, and also less current. When money and profit and marketing get mixed with non profit education organizations, someone always looses. In my opinion, the organization lost by being steered into commercialism and then was dumped. I can only guess that when Julie left, she took her business infrastructure with her. You can find her link on the web yourself if you are interested.
The American Riding Instructors Certification program is a comprehensive certification program. It is not as “hands on” as the CHA, but relies heavily on written testing and video to do assessment. They maintain a list on their site of their certified instructors.
The United States Eventing Instructor Certification Program (ICP) is also a program I attended. It is very discipline specific, dressage principled, vocabulary specific. I was a demonstration rider for a workshop, and audited a dressage workshop, and began the testing at a jumping workshop. I got so bogged down in the vocabulary and realized how often I use certain concepts, like “soften” or “release” that I had trouble teaching on the spot. It was strange for me, as i don’t usually get performance anxiety, but I did. So I decided to not test, and just audit the jumping workshop as well. The instructor’s are all gold medal or olympic level riders, presently or historically. It is a wealth of information. The dressage was more “german” which is stylistically more rigid and connected to the face than “french classical”, as defined by Dr. Deb Bennett or even Don Sachey, and ICP instructor. I prefer the softer dressage.
My client base is not focused on just eventing, so having the certification felt less important than just attending. It was also less expensive for the same information. http://nasdonline.org/document/995/2/d000978/horses-amp-children-safety-packet.html. This link points to the National Agricultural Safety Database NASD, national ag safety database and its document on horses and children
Safety Articles
Craniology, Part II: Ventilation, Helmet Replacement and Future Technology
Lynne Kaye is an adult amateur eventer and groom for her husband at horse trials. Being a glutton for punishment, she is getting a Master’s degree at night and on weekends from Harvard. She researched helmets as part of a class assignment and is kindly sharing the information with EN.
Hannah Sue Burnett and Harbour Pilot at Luhmühlen 2017. Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Part 1 of Craniology covered the basics of what wearing an ASTM-certified helmet will and will not do to protect you. In a nutshell, your helmet will:
Help protect your head from being cut by something sharp or jagged such as your horse’s hoof or a jump cup.
Slide to give you more stopping distance
Reduce the force on your skull on impact, reducing the risk of a skull fracture.
Your helmet will not:
Protect you against more than one fall.
Protect you against concussions or other traumatic brain injuries.
Part 2 discusses ventilation, helmet replacement, and what to expect in helmet technology in the future.
Vent-i-lation
One of the major differences from one helmet to another is the amount of ventilation the helmet provides. How much ventilation you want in your helmet is a personal decision, and there are plusses and minuses to both unventilated and heavily ventilated helmets. Since helmets influence how warm or cold you feel, they influence whether you feel comfortable enough to deliver your optimal performance.
One of the positives for ventilated helmets is that the vents allow airflow through the helmet which helps cool your head, particularly when you and your horse are in motion. Air moves from high pressure areas which are in the front of the helmet to low pressure areas which are in the back of the helmet.
Anything that reduces the amount of air that can flow in and out through the vents in the helmet impacts how well the vents cool your head. For example, if your hair blocks the rear vents, cooling capacity falls by 8-30%. If your hair blocks the front vents (and not the rear vents), cooling capacity is reduced by even more. If you ride in hot weather, a very lightweight, breathable helmet cover or none at all will allow the best air movement through the vents.
One of the negatives for ventilation holes is that they can impact how well your helmet shields your head from sharp objects. Very large, numerous vents leave room for sharp objects to penetrate your scalp. Ironically, they also reduce your helmet’s ability to shield your head from the sun’s radiant heat. Your head is the body part closest to the sun, so it absorbs the most heat from the sun on a sunny day. A standard baseball cap has tiny vent holes and shields 80% of radiant heat. Bicycle helmets have larger vent holes, so they shield 50-70% of the radiant heat. By extension, riding helmets probably shield somewhere between 50% and 80% of radiant heat, depending on the helmet style.
Researchers have found that humans make measurably better decisions and are more productive when they feel thermally comfortable – in other words, when they are the “right” temperature. For most people, the “right” temperature is somewhere between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. In a business setting, researchers found that when they made office workers in a Florida insurance company a more comfortable temperature typing errors went down by 40% and the volume of typing went up by 150%. And, these workers were in the safety of their own desks. When you are on a 1,000-plus pound animal with a mind of its own, you clearly want to be as close to the right temperature as you can be.
One of the key determinants in whether you feel the “right” temperature is whether your head is comfortable. Consequently, you want your helmet to have the “right” amount of ventilation – whatever that is based on the range of temperatures you find most comfortable, the weather conditions you ride in and how long and hard you ride.
What to Do With an Old Helmet
As Part 1 of Craniology illustrated, equestrian helmets need to be replaced after an impact even if the helmet shell looks good as new. Consequently, if you fall and your helmet just might, maybe, could have hit the ground, a jump, the wall of the indoor, your horse or anything else, it needs to be replaced.
If you purchased your helmet within the past four years, check to see whether the helmet brand offers an “accident replacement” program for used helmets. If so, the brand may offer a reduced price on a new helmet, and may use the helmet you fell in to study how well their helmets perform in real life falls and how to make future helmets better.
Some brands rely on retailers to facilitate helmet returns while other brands want you to work directly with them on the replacement. Note that in many instances, helmet brands either want you to have registered the helmet with them or the helmet needs to be accompanied by a sales receipt. (I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any sales receipts that are three months old, much less three years old. If you are like me, be sure to register your helmet when you buy it.)
If you are not returning your helmet under an accident replacement program, you need to dispose of the old helmet. The outer shell is probably made of plastic which may be mixed with other materials. The inner foam liner is probably made of expanded polystyrene (EPS), another type of plastic related to Styrofoam. The padding, harness and fastening clip may all be other types of plastic, or they may include leather or other materials. In some helmets, the cushioned liner that is closest to your head comes out for washing, and that is the only part of the helmet that is likely to be easy to disassemble.
Therefore, unless you live in a “zero-waste” city like Boulder, CO that offers special recycling options, it is hard to find a better place to put an old helmet than your trash can. Plastic does not decompose, so the problem with putting an old helmet in the trash is that it will end up sitting in a landfill for at least decades, and probably for centuries.
Hopefully, helmet brands will start offering helmets that have a second life or an entrepreneur will come up a wonderful, new use for old helmets. Giro currently offers the first bike helmet that is made of plant-based foam called expanded polylactic acid or E-PLA and a (at least theoretically) recyclable plastic outer shell. The market for bio-plastics is growing at 20% per year; so hopefully, the Giro bike helmet represents the very beginning of what will become a trend toward “circular economy” helmets that can be disassembled and composted, repaired or serve as sources of material for other products.
Helmet Trends for the Future
While the helmet you are wearing today does not safeguard against concussions or other traumatic brain injuries, it is likely that a future generation of helmets will offer that protection. A significant amount of investment is being made in R&D for traumatic brain injury prevention, and new, improved helmet technology is likely to follow.
A helmet that contains the Multi-directional Impact Protection System (MIPS) is likely to be the first equestrian helmet that claims to reduce the risk of TBI. The theory behind the system is that angled impacts cause the brain to rotate and the rotation causes concussions and other traumatic brain injuries. The technology aims to redirect and spread out brain rotation by inserting a very thin layer of low friction material between the outer shell and the inner lining of the helmet. This thin, low friction layer provides a small amount of additional movement when the helmet experiences an angled impact. MIPS AB, an affiliate of Bell Helmets, owns the technology and licenses it to helmet brands in the same way Intel provides its technologies to PC makers as “Intel Inside.”
MIPS is the hot, new technology in U.S. snow sports and bicycle helmets, and it must be stimulating sales because the number of snow sports and bicycle helmets containing MIPS is mushrooming rapidly. In Europe, the Back on Track EQ3 equestrian helmet contains MIPS. (The Back on Track EQ3 is not ASTM certified and does not appear to be available in the U.S.) Consequently, MIPS equestrian helmets will probably be on the market in the U.S. within the next few years.
Although, MIPS is the hot, new thing in helmet technology, not everyone is buying its benefits. In particular, the non-profit, consumer-funded Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute is not a big fan of the MIPS helmets it has seen. When MIPS equestrian helmets become available in the U.S., if you are considering one, you may want to read the most recent Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute review of MIPS bike helmets and examine how the MIPS layer is added to the riding helmet you are considering. (A number of helmet brands such as GPA, KASK and Uvex make bicycle and snow sports helmets as well as riding helmets, and the materials and manufacturing processes for bike, snow sports and riding helmets are relatively similar.)
The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute reviews all the new bike helmets that come out each year, so it should have up-to-date information on the state of the technology when equestrian MIPS helmets arrive in the U.S. Today, the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute’s issues with MIPS helmets are that the effectiveness of the technology has not been proven, the MIPS layer in many helmets only covers a small area and may not actually slide as it is supposed to, and the back of some helmets have a large area without a foam liner, leaving part of the bicyclist’s head less well protected than by non-MIPS helmets.
Other technologies that help prevent TBI are likely to be available in equestrian helmets in the future. At least some of these helmets may use R&D created as part of the Head Health Challenge. The Head Health Challenge is the National Football League’s competition aimed at developing new materials and techniques for preventing concussions and other head injuries. Charles Owen (a leading British equestrian helmet brand) is participating in one of the partnerships funded through the Head Health Challenge.
Helmets are a very important piece of equestrian safety equipment. Since helmets influence how warm or cold your head feels, they influence whether you are feel comfortable enough to deliver your optimal performance.
The benefit of vents is that they increase air flow which can help keep your head comfortable on a hot day. The negative aspects of vents are that they reduce your protection from sharp objects and they may reduce the amount of radiant heat the helmet shields. Helmets come with a variety of ventilation designs. The best ventilation design is one that fits your personal thermal comfort zone and riding situation. If you have a vented helmet and want it to work effectively, keep the vents unobstructed by hair or a heavy helmet cover.
If you fall in your helmet, it needs to be replaced. Some of the helmet brands offer accident replacement programs, so if you purchased your helmet within the past four years, it is worthwhile to check. Only registered helmets or those accompanied by a sales receipt are eligible for some accident replacement programs. Be sure to register your helmet when you buy it.
Wearing a helmet can protect your head against sharp objects and skull fractures, but as of today, it will not protect you against a concussion or other traumatic brain injury. New helmet designs that can provide protection against concussions and other TBIs are likely to be coming. The first design that is likely to be marketed to provide protection against TBIs is a MIPS helmet.
A growing number of MIPS helmets are available for snow sports and skiing, and the first riding helmet with MIPS is available in Europe. Not everyone is a fan of MIPS, so if you are interested in a MIPS helmet once they are available, do some research to ensure a MIPS helmet will provide better protection than the one you are wearing. Other technologies to protect against TBIs are likely to be developed. Some of them may come out of the Head Health Challenge.
Helmets do not protect your head against the full range of head injuries, so even when wearing a helmet, it is important to ride following the same practices you learned in drivers’ education class (adapted for horses, of course):
Plan ahead for the unexpected
Ride a horse whose speed and direction you can control (OK, at least most of the time)
Be prepared to respond to other riders, horses and other animals you may encounter
Do not expect other horses and riders to do what you think they should do
Respect other horses and riders that are sharing your space
Be aware of footing and weather conditions, especially when they are changing, and respond accordingly
Be alert and avoid distractions such as texting, eating, and watching videos while mounted.
Wear your helmet, replace it if you fall, practice safe riding, and Go Eventing!
Submitted by LizGoldsmith on Thu, 11/05/2009 – 03:01.
Yesterday I talked about the importance of regularly replacing your helmet since the protective materials degrade over time. Today, I’m going to address the issue of safety testing.
Once you’ve made the decision to buy a new helmet, you probably want to know which helmets offer the most protection. An absolute answer is harder to come by than you might think because in the U.S. helmets are rated using a pass/fail system. Approved helmets meet the minimum requirements of the standard established by the American Society of Testing & Materials, ASTM F1163. This standard defines performance criteria and test methods.
Conformity assessment of riding helmets to defined standards is performed primarily by the Safety Equipment Institute (SEI). Helmet manufacturers provide samples of each model and size to the SEI for simulated crash testing using the methods defined in the ASTM Standard. SEI then publishes the models and sizes that pass the tests.
The video below demonstrates some of the testing that is performed on helmets and demonstrates very clearly how much better today’s ASTM approved helmets protect your head than helmets of the past. They use a Caliente for comparison. I can vividly remember when I — and many eventers — wore a Caliente helmet because we thought that they were safer because they were favored by jockeys!
No comparative data is available.
So the question becomes, given that the cost of an ASTM helmet ranges from about $40 to more than $500, what do you get for the additional $450?
According to the Equestrian Medical Association:
“There is no evidence that higher priced helmets or those which use exotic materials test better than the other certified models. We don’t do comparison testing in the U.S. because one model will absorb more impact better than another on one impact site and then it may absorb less at another site. Without knowing where an individual head is going to be impacted, there is no fair way to say that any one model is superior.
The Safety Equipment Institute and the manufacturer receive test result numbers, and unless the manufacturer releases them to someone, they are considered to be proprietary information. Over the years some manufacturers have shared their information and from that limited data it appears that the least expensive sports helmets test the best; but all of the helmets on the certified product list exceed the minimum standards. . . . A larger liner means a larger helmet, which not only absorbs energy but which also works to deflect blows to the face, an uncovered area which is a frequent recipient of an impact.”
In other words, fashion and trendiness seems to influence price more than actual performance. In fact, fashion may work against performance because according to the statement above, the helmets that will provide the best protection are probably the ones that are the least fashionable because they will not be the low profile, sleeker models, but rather the ones that make you look like a mushroom head.
In the U.K. there was an effort to publish independent helmet testing under the Equestrian New Helmet Assessment Program (ENHAP). The initiative was spearheaded by the Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund (named after a rider who died at the Burghley Horse Trials) and managed by the Transport Research Laboratory which is experienced in the testing of hats and which developed a new helmet system for Formula 1 racing. The group spent two years developing its test protocols and then published its assessment of 55 helmets that were already approved by EN, BS, ASTM or SNELL. The ENHAP tests included impacts on flat, curved and sharp surfaces as well as crush and stability tests.
Forty of the 55 helmets were rejected as being not safe enough.
The results published in 2003 were widely disputed by the major helmet manufactures and the British Horse Association. They were never updated and the report was pulled from the MDIRF web site. Incidentally, the US helmet manufacturer with the best scores was also the least expensive: Troxel.
The other interesting piece of information that came out of that study (and which I’ve seen confirmed elsewhere) is that smaller sized helmets performed better than larger ones. So, if you have a larger head, you are already at a disadvantage!
The bottom line? Find an ASTM/SEI approved helmet that fits you well (there are now helmets for almost every shape of head) and most importantly, wear it!
Air vests for Riding; I’ve seen it work!
I have seen the Hit Air bag work two different times to save riders from being injured in a fall.
I have clients who want to ride cross country, jumping obstacles. I was watching from my own horse as my student cantered toward a jump in a large 100 acre field. He cantered about 50 yards across the field and turned back toward me to jump a practice fence. My horse turned his head as if to walk; I looked down at him and as i turned his head back–I heard an unfamiliar sound. When I looked up, my client was standing on the ground holding his horses empty bridle and;his horse was running across the field bridleless.
Approaching the jump, his horse propped his front legs causing my client to fly off over the top of his horses head. In that instant I had looked down, the fall had happened; the air bag had deployed, and my client was standing and unharmed before I realized what happened. I rode to him, he was laughing and saying “It worked, it worked”, talking about his vest. The next day we rode together in this hunter pace. He is wearing his vest in the picture.
The second time I saw the vest work, a client was practicing one-rein stops while riding a hot arab horse. As well as riding english, we integrate other methods. I had other riders in the arena. As I worked with another rider, I heard an unfamiliar noise behind me. Another rider said, “ut,oh”. I turned my head and saw the arab’s rider on the ground. The horse had stumbled, she tipped forward, lost her balance and fell to the ground over the horses shoulder.
In his attempt to not fall with her, the horse stepped on her as well. She had no injuries or bruising where the vest was, but later had bad bruising on her inner thigh and imprints of the horses foot. The vest protected her body when she fell, and if she had been stepped on where the vest was, there was no bruising or traces of impact. I am recommending these vest to all my clients.
Hit Air – Airbag Vests and Jackets Not just for the Professional!!
I finially had an incident that set off my own safety vest. An older unbroke mustang bolted out of the arena. He hesitated at a fence like he might jump over it or spin and continue running. I took this opportunity to jump off as quickly as i could. When my feet hit the ground I was still standing. My vest is set so that I can dismount without deploying it. In this instance, my feet slipped on the gravel and went out from under me. Before my seat hit the ground the air bag was snug around my neck, torso, and tail bone. I only got a tiny bruise where I rolled sideways onto my hip. As for the horse, he spun and continued running, but i was safe!
I’ve felt it work!
Check this out, Prelim rider with helmet cam and hit air vest! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TymB8EbEZqc
Ooops, what if….. the horse spooks forward? What if the horse accidentally steps on this child’s belly, or face, or pelvis? This was taken from an ad for a therapeutic riding program. Some of this horror is bad photography, the angle makes it appear as if the little human is in front of both of the horse’s front legs, but Gee, it is only in front of one side of the horse. That really increases the safety odds…..
With ads like this, is it any wonder children don’t understand that wearing a helmet is necessary. I am appalled that a magazine trying to sell horse products would be so careless about lack of horse safety. No reins, no helmet. What if the horse got stung by a bee?
What were they thinking??????
This was an email solicitation for donations or a marketing ad sent from a California NRHA certified riding program. This tells us something about the education involved in some certification programs. Even marketing people should understand safety. Then again, if the child is already disabled….is that the point? This is just PURE IGNORANCE.
This picture should scare everyone to death. Riding double, walking beside a horse whose head is not controlled ups the odds of getting kicked, stepped on. Just stupid, and careless. Why is this dangerous? This situation is “indefensible” because there is so much negligence. This was as email solicitation for a therapeutic riding program.
It is indefensible because the risk is apparent and clear that a child could fall, could be kicked, could be stepped on resulting in an accident. If there were insurance, a settlement would be offered. This is why insurance rates are so high for riding activities, whether recreational or professional.
A letter to the editor……..Every experienced horse person who sees the picture on the front of this edition AND who values human safety and children’s fingers should be and probably is horrified or just laughing at the ignorance displayed here.
Cover photo from the free mag, Gilroy Life
I have been an expert witness for horse accident litigation over the years. I am currently retired from teaching horsemanship and training horses. I have been a horse owner for over 50 years have, have academic and experiential training in animal behavior generally, from the University of Washington and United States Eventing Association and the American Riding Instructors Association to list a few of my credentials. I will attach my CV which is used for legal purposes when I am a witness.
The most kind and gentle horse is still a horse and it’s perception and brain and behavior can be inferred but is always an “unknown” Their etiological nature is that of a prey animal. Our etiological nature is that of a predator. A horse does not have the concept of its strength or power,nor a human’s size and fragility in comparison to it’s own size and weight.
A horse’s physical shape and the function of it’s eye does not allow it to see directly in front of it’s face, nor at the tip of the muzzle by it’s teeth. Hand feeding is not safe, especially for children. Using a scoop or a pan is a more safe method to feed a horse.
In this picture, the horse does not appear to show any signs of aggression, but it can’t see where the food begins and where the hand stops. I have been bitten accidentally and intentionally over the years.
“This sort of ethic is why horse professionals pay such expensive liability, for ignorance of others that cause risk or injury, or also simply based on emergency room statistics which the insurance industry uses to rank equestrian activities as rugged, adventure sport.
Many horses are kind, yet no horse can physically see a hand at its muzzle, and given a very high value treat, it would be a natural horse behavior to grab that treat sometimes quickly, snapping their front teeth and pulling as if tearing grass. Some horses, especially older horses, have overbites, causing them to grab and pinch when fed by hand and still this is not aggression.
I don’t know about this rescue, I do, however; by looking at this picture, know things about their knowledge of horse handling and safety as well as horse behavior.
You owe it to your readers, especially those who are tempted to stop at fence lines and feed or touch horses, of the risk and liability involved, before a finger is lost or body part stitched together.
