I had a horse bite me at a ride the weekend during a vet check and I would
like to get the opinion of others on ridecamp regarding the incident.
During the vet check I took my horse to eat with 3 others, one was the
horse that he came to the ride with. As I approached, one rider told
me to be careful because her horse (mare) bites. Normally I take this type
of warning to mean that the horse would bite other horses, not people so I put
myself in between my gelding and her mare. We were
not crowded. Next thing I knew her mare lunged and viciously bit me
in my side. I jumped into my horse to get away from the attack which
caused my horse to jump into my friend, which resulted in a back
injury for her. The bite resulted in extensive bruising and swelling and
my friend ended up driving home early from the ride due to her back pain.
The rider showed absolutely no concern for either of us (never asked if either
of us was o.k.), did absolutely nothing to reprimand her horse and finally moved
her horse away from the group.
Since I know the owner of the biting horse I asked her to look at my
side so that she would be aware of how hard her horse was biting. I told
her I was not trying to be ugly about the situation but that I was concerned
that the horse has the potential to cause serious injury in the future,
especially to children. Her response was to say "I told you she
bites" and that she did not "want to argue" and refused to discuss the
matter. She got mad at me that I even wanted to talk about it.
Now 2 days after the ride I am still really shocked that someone would take
a horse that bites to a ride and not keep it separated to prevent
accidents. Looking back on it I would still respond the same way to her
warning. What I can't quit thinking about is the potential for this to
happen again.
Any opinions on what type of action could/should be taken to ensure the
safety of riders at future rides? I don't want to act in a punitive way
but the whole thing still bothers me, especially the fact that the owner does
not appear to understand the seriousness of the situation and apparently
believes that is everyone else's responsibility to avoid her horse.
