Life can be dangerous. Doubt there are many
stats these days about horse related injuries. Last century
most deaths were from accidents or pneumonia and only a few people lived
past the age of 50.
BUT there are LOTS of injuries with ALL the popular
'ball' games. Many have those home trampolines. Cars also kill
and maim MANY people. We still drive and ride in cars. Most
learn and play lots of ball games. Life can be risky. A good plan is
to REDUCE the risk as much as possible. Whether it be horses, dogs, balls
and bats or rolling wheels, there will be some risk. We all take a chance
just walking around our neighborhoods.
Some horses are just not trustworthy. They
should be sent to a place that does NOT include reproducing or being a riding
horse, ie maybe the bucking horse group. With the cost of horses
going down, there is little need to keep unsafe, unreliable horses.
IMHO.
I thought that working in emergency in TX
there would be more snake bites than other places I had worked but
that did not turn out to be the case. The military has a
risk assessment formal evaluation of the training, mission, etc. I think
we all do that every time we ride or plan our training and riding.
I'm very happy most people didn't get hurt when they were young
riding a large strong animal. I can't say the same. My grandmother asked
to me to ride my pony over to tell my grandfather in one of the "far
fields" he needed to come home for some reason. It was about five
miles from the house. I was six. I had been riding my pony - a large
Shetland - everywhere since I was four and people though I was invincible
on that pony.
We start across a fresh disk field when an old John Deere
tractor came along the dirt road beside the field and when he slowed down
to cross the old bridge, the tractor let out a very loud backfire as those
old Deeres would do.
My horse was startled, spun and took off.
There was no way a 6 year old had the strength to manage an animal that
size that must have thought he was running for his life. He runs straight
toward the woods and into the woods. A limb caught me, ripped me off my
pony and I was out for the count.
It took my grandparents, uncle, aunt
and all the neighbors until about midnight to find me. The good news was I
was not bleeding bad or I could have been dead. I hung on as long as I
could - probably a mistake. The local MD was going to send me to
Vanderbilt if the concussion I suffered had not started showing some
improvement.
It happens. A small child does not have the strength to
manage a 700 to 1000 pound animal that evolved as prey. In retrospect the
fresh disk field is probably the only thing that saved me. The horse could
not get up full speed on the soft ground. Other wise my head might still
be laying in those woods.
Truman - who has a very healthy respect
of the power and unpredictably of the noble animal called a
horse.
Barbara McCrary wrote:
> I was riding all over the
countryside from age 12 on. The only > serious accidents I have
had all occurred in my adult years. > >
Barbara >
--
"Only two things are infinite, the
universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -
Albert
Einstein
