So sad it happened again

Skib

Skib

Well-Known Member
Dec 21, 2003
9,891
2,505
113
London
Those of you here who helped me learn to ride in old age will know that the reason my mother prevented me riding was that my great aunt died in the 1940s from head injuries out in the field alone with her horse. Over and over I have explained this at yards and it always seemed eccentric. Even I was eventually convinced such an accident could never happen today. I thought that times had changed.
So I am profoundly shocked to read on H&H forum of what sounds to be a similar death, of a young woman member, Sam, and so sorry for the family. These women were both it seems excellent riders. I do beg all you young people here on NR to take good care of yourselves when alone or in the field. However well you know your horse.
Such a death had a big impact on my family. The letters written at the time describing what happened are not easy reading. And it is distressing to know that another family are today enduring the same unanswerable questions.
 
It's so sad. I always wear my hat in the field and whilst doing groundwork with my horse. A friend on the yard got kicked in the head by a horse she was trying to catch and if the kick had been 3mm nearer to the left she would have died. She can no longer ride and has had to give up her horses completely. I am still the only one on the yard to wear a hat to catch in though!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jayne
Mary Poppins said:
It's so sad. I always wear my hat in the field and whilst doing groundwork with my horse. A friend on the yard got kicked in the head by a horse she was trying to catch and if the kick had been 3mm nearer to the left she would have died. She can no longer ride and has had to give up her horses completely. I am still the only one on the yard to wear a hat to catch in though!
Click to expand...

That's sad. I usually wear my hat to fetch in from field etc as I am often alone here whilst OH is at the house.
 
Last edited:
It's never even occurred to me to wear a hat catching Roxy, although I would wear gloves and a hat to catch/lead a horse I didn't know.

These accidents are tragic and awful, but they are not common. Far more people are killed on the road than in horse-related incidents - equestrian, incidentally, is the seventh most dangerous sport, lower than I for one expected! Below football in terms of injuries.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KP nut
squidsin said:
It's never even occurred to me to wear a hat catching Roxy, although I would wear gloves and a hat to catch/lead a horse I didn't know.

These accidents are tragic and awful, but they are not common. Far more people are killed on the road than in horse-related incidents - equestrian, incidentally, is the seventh most dangerous sport, lower than I for one expected! Below football in terms of injuries.
Click to expand...

One of the main reasons I wear my hat to fetch in or turnout is because often it is slippy underfoot here and all our paddocks are sloping and if I slipped and lost my footing either of them might clumsily tread on me. I don't always bother on the yard or flatter back field - but up to the steep bit I do. Bringing in from the arena or yard I don't bother because I'm less likely to slip. I know what you mean about strange horses - I trust ours but not my rubbish balance on mud!lol
 
Fair dos! I wore a hat and gloves to bring in when I first got Roxy and didn't know her like I did now. Luckily for me, her field is right by the yard and she never makes me go and get her so I don't have the mud issue. At my last yard, the mud round the gate got ridiculously deep - a mud slick! - and was dangerous - being stuck in 2 foot of mud while trying to remove a horse down a slope from a field, with other horses crowding round, is a recipe for disaster! Luckily none of us got hurt, although we all fell over in the mud at some point. My daughter fell over in it several times, at least twice actually on purpose!
 
I do my risk assessments on an on going basis, I am not wearing a hat and gloves every time I leave the house.
 
  • Like
Reactions: carthorse
I have to wear my hat around horses when riding or doing flatwork with them. If I were to have a seizure it doesn't bear thinking about what might happen to my head. It doesn't work that well as it is and I'd like to preserve what parts of it still. function.
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back