Kids around horses

[April Lee <adlee@bigfoot.com>]

At 10:48 PM 2/25/99, Sylvia wrote:
>is.  When I was 17 I saw a 2 year old child kicked in the head by a yearling
>colt.  The child died and the colt was shot by an irate father.  I will never
>forget the experience.  Keep your kids AND DOGS under control.

That brings to mind a friend of mine.  She has a 1 year old that she takes
riding with her (short rides, walking only, kid wearing helmet).  She also
brings him out to the pasture with her everyday to feed her 10 year old
Arabian gelding.  She raised the gelding from a yearling, so she knows him
very well and loves him almost as much as she loves the kid.  I say almost
because if the Arab ever hurt the child, she'd probably shoot the horse.  

However, she does seem a bit reckless...letting the kid run under the horse
and all around his back legs while the horse is trying to eat.  She's
usually pretty good about keeping the kid away from my horse (she hates my
horse...source of problem between friends...different story), but she's not
so good about the other horses (owned by people other than myself and her).
 She lets her son walk right up to them and pet them...which is fine, but
she often says that if any of them hurt him, she'd shoot them.  Most of
these horses are not violent and would not hurt a kid on purpose.  I see
the most danger in allowing the kid to not respect the horses.  It might be
hard to teach a 1 year old respect for horses, but if you can't, I say keep
the kids under the closest supervision around the horses.  And, for pete's
sake, keep them out from under the horses' feet.  A horse has big feet and
can easily knock over a child on accident.  And if you startle pretty much
any horse (never mind the "spooky" Arabians--not all are spooky, just a
large number that I have been around...there, did I cover myself?  :) ),
they will generally act unexpectedly.  I can think of no more spooky thing
than realizing all the sudden that something is moving underneath you when
you thought the child was somewhere else.  

No, I'm not a parent.  I am very fond of this one year old we are talking
about and I have a lot of experience with other children.  Just because I'm
not a parent, doesn't mean I can't see dangers associated with not
respecting the nature of a horse.  I believe that there are some horses
that are VERY GOOD with children, including letting them run underneath
them... All I'm saying is that horses are not all like that and kids should
be taught that or kept away from the horses that aren't so good with
keeping up with where the children are.

Ok, I'm done...
:)  April
   Chattanooga, TN


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=