----- Original Message -----
I hadn't thought of this
until I read this post, but now I'll throw it in for the FWIW category.
Many years ago when I had my horses in Burbank (CA), there was a father who
let his teenage son ride their stallion. The stallion was fairly
well-behaved, ie could normally go out with other groups of horses and you
wouldn't automatically realize he was a stud.
There was also another family who had just bought
their first horse, a chubby lil pony mare that their five year old daughter
could sit on and wander around the arena on. One particular day, the
teenage boy was riding the stallion and the little girl was in the arena on
the pony mare, who happened to be in standing estrus. The stallion
decided to take a detour, the boy couldn't stop him, the stallion promptly
tried to mount the mare and one of his front feet caught the little girl in
the head and killed her.
*This is one I just had to reply to....becuase it
has deeply affected two things in my horse life.
One, I will never ride with a person on a
stallion again. This doesn't mean I think they should be banned from
rides, it just means I will politely decline to ride with you, if you are on a
stallion!
Second, I learned never to let anyone talk me
into doing something with horses that I think is a bad idea, or that I don't
feel I have the skills to do!
Here is MY story. I was at the ranch with a
friend.....we had finished freshmen year at college. She was majoring in
animal husbandry and had been riding horses all her life. She was the
type of person that was extremely competent and forceful (not in a bad way),
and horses just didn't give her problems!
She took over their stallion breeding program,
and in fact I had been helping her by bringing in the mares.
One day we went riding, with her on the stallion,
and me bareback on their mare (that had been bred that morning). I
thought it was a bad idea but my friend convinced me she could handle the
stallion. We did a nice ride up in the hilly pasture and then went down
to the arena area where we were talking to folks.
Both horses were standing quietly,
but I remember the stallion started talking to the mare.....then out of the
corner of my left eye saw him just, in a flash, charge up and over the
mare. I instantly balied off to the right....getting his right front
hoof on my hip. I had a nasty horseshoe scrape/bruise that lasted for
several years. When that stallion decided to mount the mare, there was
NOTHING my friend could have done.
I was badly bruised, but no broken
bones...
Anyway, that story reminds me to stay careful;
not push myself, children, friends OR green horses into situaitons they aren't
prepared for, and to always remember that no matter how well trained and
gentle horses can be-they are stilll big animals ruled by
instincts.
Karen
they are