Ouch! Am I glad my pony is barefoot!

Star the Fell

Well-Known Member
Jun 14, 2015
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On Wednesday, my pony was too wet to ride so I decided to take her for a little walk in hand. We have a short stretch of 'main' road to walk along then I turn off down a very quiet lane...this is a small village so not a lot of cars on main road.
As I left the yard on the main road, I could see a large group of runners meeting up at the pub, which is just passed the lane I turn down, so no problem, I thought.
But just as I got to the top of the lane the first of the runners walk towards me and said " we're going that way" so I turned round to face them, meaning to let them get ahead of me and follow them
Well the first few people walked passed me, no problem, but once passed, they started running. The others also started running so that all of a sudden there were 20/30 people all in hi- viz running towards us.
Star was terrified and tried to get a away from them, unfortunately the only escape route was where I was standing, so she jumped left and knocked me over. I fell and was then trapped under her legs.
Luckily for me, she did her very best not to stand on me but I am left with an enormous bruise on my right arm....mid lower arm to mid upper arm and one on the back of my calf from knee almost to ankle. It would have been so much worse had she been shod.

All runners asked if I was ok, but only one apologised for what had happened. George from the pub came I've r to check we were both ok.

We did carry on with the walk, but cut it shot. Star settled down almost immediately once the runners had gone. I just hope they learn from this and never again run on masse towards a horse!
 
Oh goodness how bloody inconsiderate of them, glad you are only bruised :( perhaps ask friendly George to mention to them (if they meet at the pub regularly) that a pack of predators running at a prey animal isn't the best idea!
 
I wonder if the one that apologised was a horsey person and the rest were oblivious to the fact that they caused the problem. I often find that with people around our village, the horsey folk totally get it, the non-horsey folk just seem oblivious! The main problem I have is people with umbrellas - another reason I have become a fair weather rider!

Glad you are ok, could have been much worse.
 
Poor you that's sounds awful I hope you recover quickly! All mine would of panicked in that situation, it can't of been nice from a ponies point of view, having a stampede of hi viz coming towards you must be scary. Tbh you'd think the runners would of had more sense. x
 
Och how horrid. I have been underneath a scared pony myself and I agree that it is sore enough without them having shoes on!

I hope you recover quickly. Well done for keeping your head.
 
As both a rider and a runner that ALWAYS move well away and stops for horses, dogs etc. I'm really sorry to hear this happened to you :( I hope you heal up quickly and that your pony doesn't remember all of us runners as scary people! Some of my favourite runs include a friendly few minutes speaking to riders and their horses :(
 
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