# Overall worst experience involving a horse?



## IheartPheobe

You could've been on the horse, watching another person, on the ground with your horse, lunging your horse, ect.. but what was the worst thing you'ved watched/experience dealing with a horse?

This summer, my lesson was riding in the small ring. A friend of mine, Amelia, was riding Freddie. He was a huge appaloosa gelding, six years old, VERY clutzy, and fast as could be. She was cantering him around a corner and all of a sudden, he slipped to the side.
He came crashing down adn when Amelia stood up from her fall, she walked directly away from him! Freddie was her baby and she would've normally gone to him right away.. it wasn't like he'd gone anywhere, he stood up right next to her. Our instructor told her to lie down and almost immediatly, she collasped. I was freaking out- we were pretty close and she loved horses.. all I could think about was 1) she was hurt badly and 2) she might never want to ride again. 
Amazingly, another instructor came to check out the situation and asked her if she could walk. She did, and a few minutes later mounted up on Freddie again. She even cantered and jumped the same day!


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## wild_spot

My worst experience was at a Mounted games squad training day. In mounted Games you do whats called 'changeovers', where you pass an item (ball, sock, flag, stick etc) from the incoming rider to the outgoing rider at a gallop. 

I was the incoming rider and was changing over with a good friend of mine, Matt. We all swap horses at squad, and he was riding another friends little buckskin mare. Very experienced games pony but gets a bit antsy on the start line.

Well as I was riding in Bailey (the mare matt was on) started freaking out, she reared up and fell over backwars/sideways on top of Matt while I was about 1.30m away. You know how the shoulder is a ball and socket joint? Well he snapped the ball part off the bone. He had to go to hospital in the ambo and get it wired together. He had two bits of wire sticking out of his skin for about a month... Ew!

He healed ok though, and is back to riding games.

Another one; At our zone SJ comp a horse threw it's rider in the warm up area and bolted, and ran over a lady sitting on the sidelines. It stood on her face and broke a bunch of bones... Ugh.


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## Lonestar22

i have had quite a few.......
I found my sister laying in our neighbors pasture with her horse standing over her. Both were covered in blood. Vanessa(sister) had a concussion and a broken leg. Chic (gelding) had a huge flap of skin hanging from his chest. No one know exactly what happened. They both recovered and kept riding.

I was riding my gelding Dandy, who was abused before we got him and is quite spooky. Normally he does ok when your on him and only acts up when you mount. Well i was riding bareback and he got spooked by a rope. i remember him bucking and me landing on my butt. i then stood up and passed out. sometime later I walked into the house covered in blood and told my mom to get the horse. i cleaned up and layed on the floor. I messed my back up really bad and couldnt sit up or down with out help for aout 3 weeks. It still bothers me sometimes

Riding Dandy once again. well I was probably about 15 mins into the ride and things were going great. We were going through a trail in the woods at my house. Suddenly he just blew up. No warning or anything. Just started bucking. I held on for about 6 bucks and tried to gain control over him but I lost my sturrip and flew off. My head was about 4 inches from slaming into a tree. Dandy had taken off and was now at the barn. i haven't ridden him since that day. I have ridden other horses but not him.


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## RiddlesDarkAngel5

i had a horrible experience with the first horse i owned (not my gorgeous rocky i have now). he was an appendix qh and we'd been having a few issues at the canter. he wanted to just canter as fast as he possibly could and i was trying to teach him to collect. well one day, he got really really mad at my pressure and took off bucking. well i rode the bucks and was trying to calm him down so he looked back at me, put his nose in the dirt and did one of those cow kicks straight into the air sending me straight into a metal fence. the impact ruptured my liver and i have a scar on my thigh. after i fell to the ground, he then proceeded to try and run me over.....needless to say i never rode him again and sold him as soon as possible. of course, i found him a good home. he's now being ridden by a guy who does eventing. we found out he got along much better with guys. go figure. 
newhoo, i dont hate him for it, but that incident scarred me. i'm still nervous at the canter because of it but my lovely arab rocky takes such good care of me. he's always conscious of whether i'm okay up there and will slow down if i start to get nervous.


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## wintec

Ok well my worst experience doesn't deal with falling off or getting injured. I hope it still counts though. Ok well I used to ride at this barn (we left after this happened) and I went for my afternoon lesson as I always do one day. There was this one little girl I knew there who was leasing this pony named Dotty (an appaloosa of course!). When I arrived neither me or my sister saw any sign of the cute little appy. We assumed she had to be in one of the back pastures. Well a little later the little girl walked into the barn with her grandma. She brought her grandma so she could show her her pony. Obviously they couldn't find her either. I was in the cross ties trying to tack up for my lesson but I couldn't help over hear them talking too the barn owner/instructor. They had sold the pony without saying anything to the girl's family! The girl started crying and it was all really ridiculous. I told my mom what happened and she and I agreed it was time to leave. It was hard to say goodbye to my favorite horses (especially the one I was gonna lease myself, Jazzy) but it was worth it. To make the matter worse, several weeks later i got word that another one of my favorite horses, Cherokee, got colic twice and had to be put down. It was horrible!


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## Miss Katie

Mine is the current agistment arrangement Im in. 

The people have no idea how to run a horse business. So far, baby has has cuts on his pastern from wire, Moe has been mauled by one of their horses, and it would have put his neck out if I hadnt been there to chase it off, poor baby was trembling like Ive never seen a horse tremble before. 
And this really ****ed me off. They went away and left their herd, including a stallion, running in the paddock beside my horses, one of which is a mare. I show up one day to find them in my horses pasture, their stallion running with my mare!!!!! I was so angry!! And then as I was trying to put them back into their paddock, I discovered the gate had been only held closed by BAILING TWINE, which they had broken to push the gate open. And they have the nerve to say its not a big deal!!! Havent even apologized.
And then there is the cattle that pushed over other fences, and left barbed wire trailing everywhere. They STILL havent been fixed, and its over 2 weeks now. Ive had to pull bits of wire back into place, cos there were only the two bottom strands left and my babies could just step over and escape (or be tangled in the crap on the other side). But its a shabby fix, and I dont see why I am fixing their fences for them when I am paying to have my horses there and the contract says they will be responsible for maintaining fences.

They are the worst horse people I have ever known, and my babies are being rescued very soon, and hopefully its not to late by then  And once my babies are safely away, these people are going to get a reputation that will ensure they never have the opportunity to put another horses welfare at risk again :'(


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## SpringWolf

i had to think a minutes...i had bad experiences...my riding accident....and another thing from the ground. Since i was all drugged up and ...i think the other is way worse.

I wanted to get my son a horse and stay competitive so he can show one day and not be laughed out with his arabian. I sold his arabian to buy this 2 yr old Trakehner. Most money i ever spent on a horse. I bought him over the internet only seeing videos and pictures...i got a lot of trouble for that from EVERYONE! I just had a good feeling tho. Turned out it was a good purchase.

He arrived about the beginning of May last year, and like all new horses was a little leary of us, but was slowly coming around. He really took to my son.

We needed the paddock to do some riding...as the paddock he uses doubles as our outdoor arena. So I went to get him and was just openeing the gate when he spooked on me. Pulled the rope outta my hands giving me rope burn. I managed to close the gate as he went BERSERK. The lead line was dragging and hitting him totally freaking him out. He made a trip around the paddock and headed straight for me and at a very obtuse angle he jumped a 4 foot gate.

He kept running...I tried to run after him...but its only so fast due to my riding accident. We have a U shapped driveway...so he ran the back of that and headed for another field which he jumped a creek to get to. He did a circle in that field. I called to him...and he made a whinny noise so pathetic.

Then he headed for the road. and the direction he was going was to HWY 11....not a major HWY but busy enough for people who dont want to use the 400. My heart dropped. I ran back in the house and called everyone. I also called 911...i can just imagine the poor people i called..i know i was very incoherent then. I had called my son's coach...and she laughs at me to this day about it.

I waited for a cruiser to pick me, and when he did show up, they had good news for me. Miracously, the horse did not go to the HWY, but turned into an open field beside it. A woman cop with horse experience who happened to be nearby, was the one who caught him. My son's coach walked the horse home for me and we got shielding from a police cruiser (so cars didnt drive too close as he was worked up) till they got off HWY 11. And then another friend took over.

He got home safely with only a few scratches and worn shoes...This was his birthday too that he did it...just turned 3.

worst day of my life with a horse.

On the bright side, the horse has changed, he is a total sweetheart and is now mindful of being handled and does not panick when a lead is dropped anymore.


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## Endless Journey Girl

Ok my worst experience involving a horse wasn't actually me riding.. thank god! So some friends of my mom have a small barn and a couple of horses and I go to there house quite often to ride their horses. A girl from up the road and her friend who had some riding experience had come down to ride as well. The people had just bought a new horse a couple weeks prior and she was still getting used to everything. We were riding this horse and a couple others in one of the paddocks. Several people got on and off the new horse, rode her all around, trotting and cantering her. Anyways, not sure what it was but something set her off, don't know if she spooked, was just extremely excited due to the new surrounding, or possibly the fact that another horse that she did not get along with had just passed her but something set her off. The girls friend was riding her at a quiet trot and suddenly she broke into a canter and took off, then she started bucking, and I don't mean little hops I mean head to the ground HUGE bucks, needless to say the girl went FLYING off, landed on the ground which wasn't exactly soft after a dry dry summer and broke her collar bone. We had to call an ambulance to come and get her and I get really nauseated in situations like that so I took all the horses in and untacked them while the others tried to keep the girl from going in shock. I was in the barn when the ambulance arrived and I have never heard such a horrible painful scream in my life. Worst thing i've seen/heard by far.


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## Kase

Hi 

My worst experience was when i was about 12 yrs old i was riding my mare out the back of a show ground in a warm up area when all of a sudden she took off and was heading for the fence i tried to turn her but she ran straight through a wire fence and the pole split and flung up and took out her eye we both hit the ground and the next thing i remember the vet was there and he put her to sleep and operated in front of me had night mares for months 

she survived and gave me a beautiful foal jet black with a big blaze and 4 white socks 

but unfortunately there was a huge storm 3 weeks later and because she only had the one eye she couldn't see the foal and the faol went through a fence abd broke it's neck 

sorry but you asked for my worst experience


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## smrobs

Wow, I have so many stories from growing up with a horse trainer that are a little bit........scary.

First: My Dad, Brother, and I were trying to pen some cows for a friend. They were wild as bedbugs and started running the instant we walked into the pasture. So we take off to try to get around them. I was about 200 meters behind my Dad when I see him and his horse disappear. I immediately rein to a stop and trot slowly up to see what happened. While they were running, the horse did not see and fell into an old creek bed. It was basically a steep sided ditch about 5 feet wide and 4 feet deep. When the horse fell, he summersaulted and smushed my Dad against the side of the ditch. Cracked a couple of ribs and knocked the wind out of him. Scared the crap out of me though, I think I was only about 7 or 8 at the time.

Now for mine: I was 15 and was working on training my second horse by myself. After doing so well with the first one, I (like most teenagers) got cocky and thought I could handle anything. She was a HUGE red roan mare. I decided that she was ready to go trot some circles in the pasture instead of the round pen. We did fine for the first few circles then she spooked at something and got me off to the side. When she saw me hanging there, she blew completely up and went to bucking....HARD. I stayed with her for a couple of jumps but I was already leaning to the side and she kept jumping away from me so I couldn't get my balance back. She did this big jump with a sunfish and off I went. I landed on the right side of my head and my right shoulder. When everything kinda stopped moving and I tried to get up, I couldn't move. I laid out there in the pasture for about 3 hours thinking I had broken my neck. Finally, I started to get some feeling back (you know that really irritating tingling feeling?) and managed to crawl back to the house. I spent a long time going to the chiro every day and now I still have problems with my whole back staying out of alignment. I don't blame her, I know it was my fault for pushing her to do something that she wasn't ready for.


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## Picture Perfect

Mine's well, simple and short. I got kicked in the face last July 4th, and I needed thirteen stitches below my eye... :?


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## ilovemyPhillip

My "worst" was when we fist got our horses and ponies. I was riding Savannah, and my mom was on Zeph. We were trail riding and i as in the lead. But my step father was on the tractor (in the woods wtf?) and i gingerly walk 'Vannah around it, and then she started trotting, ears pinned. I leaned back, said "whoa" but she took off at a fast canter, then galloped, tuned left then, on a dime spinned right, and my saddle slid left. A tree was coming about to hit my face, so i let go, and hit the tree. Savannah galloped back to her field, stirrups pounding her sides. Mom cantered up and said "Manda did you fall?!" I was sitting on the ground laughing, horseless, so i said "Nope i just turned savannah invisable." lol. I got her back, hopped on and rode her again! it was funny lolz


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## -xx-sally-xx-

My worst fall was last year.. I'd been riding my thouroughbred doing lateral work and trying to teach him passage (he LOVES to do it accidently but just doesn't get the idea normally =P) hes a bit dead in the sides so i wear spurs on him while doing lateral work to keep him awake and listening. I was asked by a good friend (who is an AWESOME dressage rider and won the national championships the previous year i think) to ride her percheron cross jumping, as she's only jumped a grand total of about 10 jumps in her whole life haha. I didnt expect her, but she came to our place that day with Rocky and asked if i could ride that day. I agreed eagarly, as i'd rode him on the flat previously and he was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! As i unsaddled Barney and rugged him and the pony, she saddled up Rocky. Coming out of the stables she was in the arena with Rocky ready to go. I jumped on him and did a bit of flat work, and he was just as i remembered.. Fricking tear worthy!! haha.. He'd do everything perfect!! Rocky's owner asked if I'd like to jump him, and as i replied yes she warned me that he'd jumped less jumps than her, so i should be careful. I was well aware that horses that don't jump/do dressage or are introduced to something new can go flippo, but as i'd trained other successfully before, i didnt think there'd be an issue. It had started to drizzle, and it was so cold i had goosebumps under my jacket. I'd only planned to do maybe 4 jumps, but it turned out to be a lot less than that. The frst jump i pointed him to was a simple cross trail, only a foot high, which he cleared easily. I had to U-Turn for jump 2, and it was a 2 foot spread which Rocky didn't quite agree to. Rocky's owner called out that he was being lazy, and was never worried by spreads before so "give him a big kick!!".. who was i to argue with a champion rider and her own horse, so i did what i was told. Rocky soared high over the jump, and i thought we were going to make it...until his back feet scrambled and i knew it was going to end badly. It was then that i realised that i hadn't taken my spurs off. I remember a loud scream, and i was shocked to find out days later it came from my own mouth. Everything went black for a while, and i woke up with a broken pole still in a cup holding my back up, with two wings on top of my face, and a horse on top of my lower body. I kept hearing high pitched blood-curdling screams; half from me, half from Rocky. I blacked out again, and was woken by someone calling my name. The wings and horse had been removed, but i could smell the rusty stench of blood everywhere and i wasn't entirely sure whos it was. I felt pain in my right knee, and couldn't feel my right toes. I put my hand to my knee and it came back drenched in blood. I looked down, and my lower leg was twisted and at a 45 degree angle to where it should've been normally. It turns out I'd fractured a rib, dislocated and hyperextended my knee and as a result I'd snapped my inner ligament, stretched my centre ligament, and my outer ligament had healed funny (as in fused together shorter) and my cartilage had turned into poridge. I'd also suffered a concussion and a sprained wrist, plus my back was put out of place (again) when I'd landed funny on the broken pole. Rocky had a slash in his right shoulder from the broken pole, and a sliced fetlock from him thrashing on fallen jump cups. He got stitched up and recovered fully (with minimal scarring!!) and we went back to our training program after we were both ready. Now he's jumping 1* with his owners cousin at non-official events..and winning!!

I don't blame Rocky AT ALL for the accident, i blame myslef for not thinking clearly. He is a wonderful boy, and i wish him and his new owners all the best!!


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## -xx-sally-xx-

sorry thats its so long!!!


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## ILoveGeorgieMyPony

My worst riding accident is when i was riding my old idiot standardbred gelding, went absoloutley nuts on me because he knew i was inexperienced and i asked him to do a 20m circle and then he did about 6 pigroots and bucks then he would just bolt forward and then on the last buck i came off then he kicked me in the back really hard. then he ran off and started grazing like he did nothing wrong LOL


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## Nutty Saddler

Mine is a little different

I live my worst experiance every single day

This is Daisy








She is a little welsh pony.

Dasiy has been living on my farm for four years, and I have handled Daisy a minimum of twice a day - now to explian what makes Daisy my worst experiance.

Daisy was so badly mistreated that she has completly lost all trust in people, Even though I have been handling her for 4 years now I still have difficulty in getting anywhere near her when she is loose in the field.
I have to concentrate 100% when I am around her - one worng step, one wrong tone of voice and she panicks blindly, I am totally convinced that she will never change - one other trainer told us to put her down because she was beyond all hope.

Daisy is a really sweet mare and never does anything wrong, so can you imagine how bad it is for us , who love her to bits , to have to live with a pony that is literally scared sh**less of us - even though we do her no harm, have never done her any harm, and never will do her any harm.

And I am going to have to keep living with Daisy for the rest of her days - she is only young so we have a lot of years ahead of us.


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## close2prfct

One of the worst experiences I've had was in December '04 I was waiting at the end of our Christmas Parade in my patrol car. I had my oldest daughter with me at the time she was 10. While we were waiting for the parade to start moving there was a group of people on horses mostly adults and a few older kids but there was this one little girl around 6 maybe and a little boy of about 3 riding doubles on this horse well over 14h tall in the parking lot not far from my patrol car. The horse was dancing around it showed clear signs of panic. I told my daughter disaster is fixing to happen and before I could get out of my car and make my way over to where they were to try to calm the horse it bolted into the crowd along the road, bucked, kicked and slid on the pavement throwing both the kids off. They flew up about 2 feet higher than crashed to the ground ( on the pavement) I took off at a dead run fighting the crowd to get to them another officer called for an ambulance and as the ambulance approached to get through all the people the driver hit it's siren well that freaked another horse out that had a rider of about 12 on it. It went to bucking and tossed the little girl as it came down one of it's back hooves caught her in the arm you could hear the bone crack. 
The first little girl had a gash in the back of her head, bystanders were applying pressure to stop the bleeding & the little boy didn't have any visible signs of injury but you knew he was hurt. They got them loaded in the ambulance and took off for the hospital while another medic came to tend to the little girl with the broken arm. The horses took off for parts unknown. While the ambulance was enroute to the hospital I overheard them on my radio calling for lifeflight the little boy had suffered a major concussion and lost his vision he was going downhill quick, Children do not fair well with massive head trauma( mind you none of these kids were wearing protective helmets) They air flighted the kids to a larger hospital 40 miles away where they both were admitted the little boy was placed in ICU for quite some time. 
All of this happened within a couple minutes, I had just told my daughter that I didn't know who those kids parents were but they obviously didn't know a thing about horses because that horse was totally freaked by all the people, noise etc and someone was going to get hurt. 
After all was said and done I told her "Now THAT is what can go wrong with a horse, that horse had no business being in the parade let a lone with two very young riders" 
The kids they all were eventually ok but that day stuck in our minds and still to this day seems like it was yesterday when it all happened.
Parents need to realize a horse is a powerful force, it is a flight animal and when threatened or scared it will do whatever it feels it needs to, to seperate itself from whatever is causing the fear. The horses did nothing wrong the parents however almost lost their kids because of their ignorance or stupidity whichever was the case.


Sorry it's so long!!


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## Cowgurl060405

I have two. The first one was when my sister was 13. I had been taking lessons for years, but she had never taken any. I was leasing a horse that was usually well behaved, but could get spooky and didn't like nervous riders. I was riding him in front of my family, and my sister got jealous and demanded to ride him too. I tried to warn my parents that it wasn't safe, but they thought I was being selfish and made me get off. We were riding in an outdoor arena. She got on, and halfway through the first time around, the gelding freaked out and broke into a gallop. My sister had never even trotted...much less ran. She fell off and was dragged for two more laps around the arena before she finally came loose. Her hip was broken, and to this day, she still has pain and numbness. 

My other experience involved a appy gelding that had a bad habit of rearing. I was working him in a round pen and I had a halter on him with a lead rope. As usual, as soon as he got tired of working, he reared. The first time it was no big deal and as soon as his feet hit the ground, I made him run. I tried to bring him in again, and as I did, he flew up into the air with so much force that I didn't even have time to drop the rope. My arm instantly dislocated and I felt it tear. I went to the ER and I've had to have three surgeries to help repair it. It will never be the same and it forced me to quit my job as a full time barn manager. I can only have horses as a hobby now.


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## dancehabit7

Well.. I have two stories about bad experiences to share, one involving me, the other me being a witness to a shocking event..

Anyway, the first one is. When I was 9 years old. I had been riding for about 7 and a half years. I was doing cross country at pony club, but a horse had gotten free from the arena near the corse,

The horse that was free, ran out in front of my horse, my horse (Danny) did his best to keep me safe, but I came off, and the horse that had gotten free, started to buck, but as he did, he kicked me in the side of the face, just above my right ear. 

I was air lifted to hospital, had to have a metal plate inserted into my skull, and was in a coma for 9 days,

My parents were told that they should expect the worst, as I might never wake up, but surely, 4 days after they were told, I woke up 

Thank god that I am still alive today, and apart from shattering my skull, that I did not affect my brain in any shape or form.  I am a lucky girl, and I thank the doctors and medical staff that saved my life 

I in no way blame either horse for the accident, I blame the stupid girl who got so angry with her horse she got off and hit him, in result he took off before she could hit him again, and it was just bad timing that this poor horse got in the way. And I am greatful that neither horse was hurt when this happend  

At least this accident had no long term effects and I was riding the next month, if anything I was brought closer to horses after this incident 

....

My second story, (I would not wish to go into much detail with) .. but my uncle was a jockey, and one day, when he was riding and we were at the races, he fell from a horse he was riding, and was trampeled to death  .. 

I miss him greatly! .. And it was not the horses faults because they could not stop in time to avoid him, and if they could have, they would have.

... oh and sorry for such a long post


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## IheartPheobe

woah. these are horrible! 
:O


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## Roxanneify

Either:

I've had a horse go through a barbed-wire fence with me. He didn't even stop. Chest and shoulders all shredded and bloody, it healed fine, but I never did care too much for that horse since then. Luckily, my outer thighs were fine, and the horse is a happy camper now. He was a steer-dogging horse, turns out.

-or- 

My white horse who spooks easy when tied. I was washing my other horse and the white horse spooked and set back. The rope got caught on the gate, ripped the gate open, and knocked me underneath the other horse's legs. He cut his chest and leg open pretty bad when the gate swung open. Thank heavens for that other horse standing still, or my head would've been flat as the dirt I was laying on. That was about a week ago.

Nothing too, too bad.


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## Roxanneify

Or:

We were working cows, and I always was trying to be up to par like all the boys. My horse Turbo (everyone joked and called him "Bones", that's all he was, lol) was little scrawny thing but pretty tall. I'd always rope calves and all kinds of stuff off of him, and he'd do fine. We were trying to gather a few steers that had mixed in with the momma cows, and I went ahead and roped this one that was about 600 lbs, dallied off, and went to pulling him back into the pen. The steer had other ideas, ran back passed us and flipped poor Turbo and me over. Ever since then, though, Turbo always would dig his hooves into the ground and really get down when we pulled other cows. (Though we avoided the bigger ones)


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## Tennessee

Mine have not been all that traumatic so far *knock on wood*, but I will tell anyways.

Whenever my great uncle was still living, he let me ride his QH/Welsh Pony mix. She was old, fiery, and had a mind of her own, but I was 6 and didn't really understand this. We were riding out in his big pasture one day, and she took off running with me. I was young, so I thought this was cool. BUT, then she just stopped and proceded to lay on me. The saddle horn went into my stomach and bruised my diaphram(I think that is what it was called). That is mainly the reason for some of my acute fear today. 

The second one happened a few years ago, didn't really affect me much, but still interesting to tell. Well, I was riding my old horse Lucy around the pasture. We were just having some fun playing around with barrels and cross rails and basically wasting time. She was infamous for bucking at the canter(nothing wrong with her health wise and the saddle fit, she was just one of them horses that always was so ****y about everything). Well, the pasture I was rding was barbedwire and electric fencing. I kicked her up into a canter(I am dumb..I know) and she did as expected, took off into a bucking rampage, and I stayed on until she started crow hopping, and with my luck, when I did go flying over her, my back hit the fence...yes, the electric part, and I must say, I have never been in so much pain in my life. It is nothing like I expected when I hit it. It is a shooting pain. It starts in one part of your body and just spreads.
Lucy was old, and died a year later, so I guess you can say she got what was coming her...


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## xxBarry Godden

This is a touchy question to answer. 
Nearly all of us being involved with horses at sometime or another will have had an accident. Sometimes you bleed, sometimes you don't. But you will learn thereby.
What never goes away is the memory of having to say good bye to a faithful steed and companion. My Father said 25 years ago, If I had not had the pleasure of the horse's company then I would not have had to pay the price of losing him. Over 35 years I have four sad memories of saying good bye and it doesn't get easier with practice. Whenever I think back on such events a tear comes to my eye and for a moment or two I can't speak because my lip is quivering. I firmly believe I am a better horseman for going through these experiences. What I do have however is lots of good memories and those are really precious.

Savour all the good experiences and learn from the bad.

B G


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## midwestgirl89

*Last September*

We were camping with the horses and friends at a lake about an hour from where I live. We try to go every year. They have a nice campground that's separate just for horses and their riders. Nice trails set in a beautiful forest...and it's very inexpensive to camp. 
So anyways-it was our last day and we'd had an amazing ride that morning. We'd gotten back to the campsite and my dad was cooking lunch. The horses were all tied. One of them-the smallest we've got...a Tennessee Walker-was tied with a bungee type lead that his owner had just bought and was trying out for the first time that weekend. I noticed that he had something wrapped around his foot and was starting to back up, stretching out his lead. I walked up to him to unsnap it from the trailer. My dad saw how stretched out it had gotten and told me to move, that it was going to break. I went closer to Chance to unhook it from his halter and to calm him down. I hadn't even gotten to him yet when I saw the lead break. It flew past me and by the time I turned around it had already hit dad and he was on the ground, blood everywhere. 
...skipping those details...he was taken to the local hospital then to another one an hour away where a plastic surgeon had to stitch up his face. My mom, younger sister, and Chance's owner went with. I stayed behind since the others that were there didn't know what to do to get the horses home. Fortunately the other campers whom I'd never met offered any support they could to help get things packed up. 
When I took my mom back to the hospital to get him the next day to come home I could barely look at him. I'd never seen him in that kind of state and I hope to God I never have to again. 
It's been nearly a year now. What scares me the most is what the emt told us. If dad had been a few inches taller, it would have hit him across the throat and killed him. The damage was that severe. 
What also scares me is that if he hadn't have warned me...it would have been me. I would have been the one lying on the ground, holes in my face, scares to live with for the rest of my life, all at 20 with my life ahead of me. 
"You never appreciate what you have til it's gone."
Take my advice-recognize what you have and appreciate it now. Don't wait until you almost lose it to see the value.


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## TabbyNeko

I was on my horse Versailles trying to move our cattle into another part of the pasture when a big bull came out of nowhere and started charging at us! Sai, being a clever Paint, dodged the bull, sending him sliding into the dirt. Well, that did it. He kept coming at us over and over again. We dodged him every time until one of his horns stabbed Sai in the chest. She reared, I slid off, then my dear little Paint galloped away in fear. The bull was pawing the ground and staring at me. When he charged for me, though, I climbed over the fence as quickly as I could. 

Sai was cowering on the other side of the pasture, hoping the bull wouldn't notice her. We found out the bull had some wierd disease (not mad cow disease, not rabies) that wasn't contagious but made him aggressive. We had to shoot him because we were worried about the calves and cows and younger bulls. 

Versailles' wound wasn't deep, so it healed quickly with a few weeks of care.


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## Zorra1307

I have been involved in and seen many horse accidents in my almost tweny years of riding green horses. But the one I think about the most I wasn't actually there for so this was told to me from someone who was:

My best friend was cantering on a new trail on her palamino horse, another friend was riding with her and new that there was a concrete bridge up ahead around a blind turn and attempted to yell at her to slow down. She did not hear (it was starting to storm/thunder) The mares shoes slipped on the concrete and the mare fell throwing my friend off backwards. She hit the lower back part of her head, killing her instantly. She had no other injuries and the mare just cut her shoulder. I think of her and her accident everyday and wish that she was still with us. I have always been pro helmet but have been known to ride without on occasion, I strongly believe a helmet could have saved her life and will not forget mine again. 

Even though I didn't see it, It is the worst accident I can think of.


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## drafteventer

I was in the field because my lesson was next and the instructor wanted us to wait out there. A horse in the other was acting totally crazy, bucking, rearing, bolting, etc. They were doing the cross country course when the horse collapsed. The rider was unharmed but the horse died instantly. The horse had a brain anurism and they had to bury him right out there in the field. The girl doesn't ride at the barn anymore.
Really scary moment.


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## dressagebelle

I have 3 stories. The first didn't happen to me and I hope it never does. I was in kentucky for Pony Club nationals a few years ago, and it was summer, so quite humid and hot, and my group was headed to go watch the stadium jumping during our break, but before we could get there, officials were running around telling everyone that the Nationals was cancelled for the day. We heard that the horse that had been in the middle of his course had just collapsed and died. They all suspected heat stroke, so everything was put on hold. We got all the details later, and found out that the horse actually died in mid air over one of the fences, and ended up falling onto his rider when he hit the ground. He was about 17 years old, and one of the riders from our team was scheduled to ride in that group of riders, and the horse was the same color as our team members horse. Didn't end up being that horse, but they had to actually bring the tractor in, and pull the horse off the girl. Because of what happened, they decided to build a small memorial for her horse, and buried her horse in the grass along the cross country course where the Rolex takes place.


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## dressagebelle

Another one, involves me and an arab gelding I used to ride. He was a small like 13 handish pony, who had a tendency to not pick his feet up very high sometimes, but we had never had any issues. Well I was jumping him, and we were trotting down the middle of the arena to another fence when he caught his foot in a pit in the sand, and I'm not sure how he knew, but he knew that he was going to fall, and so he dropped his left shoulder, which threw me over his head and into the dirt, where I proceeded to slide a few feet, (I am 5'1" and weigh like 100lbs which accounts for the sliding), and he hit the dirt with his forhead, and his left shoulder, and kind of half flipped over himself, and if I hadn't pulled myself forward a matter of inches, he would have landed his rear end, leg, something like that on my legs. I had a pounding headache for the rest of the day, and got yelled at for jumping up to check on the horse. He just got scraped knees, and a bald spot on his forehead until the hair grew back in, and a bloody lip, but was otherwise fine, and always picked up his feet nicely after that.


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## dressagebelle

The last two, are about my TB mare Roxy. She is a big 16.1 hand mare, long spindly legs, race bred, lots of athleticism, and power. When I first got her she was pretty good, but I had a trainer at the time that was not the best, and so my horse started to have issues because the trainer would tell me to do stuff to bring her back in line that never worked, and she couldn't get on my mare to help me out at all, so my mare started getting a temper. She started having moments of bucking and rearing, and getting all ****y if I tried to slow her down going into a fence, as we were only jumping like 3 feet, and she had been jumping grand Prix with the trainer her previous owner had. When she bucks, she honestly could pass off as a bucking bronco. She had the twists, the turns, the locked legs, the head in the dirt, and all that jazz, which repeatedly hurt my back, and one day, in the middle of the bucking, she decided to go up in the air. And I mean seriously vertical to the ground. Everybody had already stopped and dismounted (this was during a lesson), and I can still see the look of horror on their faces as she went up. I honestly don't know how she didn't go over backwards, but I rode her around the arena a couple more times, made sure she knew it was wrong, and that she was good so we could end on a good note, and I was shaking like a leaf when I got off.


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## dressagebelle

This one is the last one I promise. Same TB as above. The vet had just given me the okay to ride her again after a week off for a pulled tendon, and she decided after a bit of being fine, that she wanted to run, and so she managed to take off for a total of 3 strides before she stopped, and I didn't think much of it, continued walking and trotting her around, and then cooled her off and put her away. Nothing was wrong, or out of the ordinary. When I got there the next day, I went to get her out and the horse that had never been sore in almost 3 years, even when she had an infected puncture wound on her hind leg, couldn't walk. I finally got her to my tack shed, where I proceeded to call my dad, and the vet. By the time the vet got there, I had gotten her over to the concrete where the power is and the vets do their stuff, and my vet leaned his head out the window and told me to walk her toward the truck. After 3 steps he yelled at me to not move her, and asked if I had another horse I could ride for 6 months. He got out of his truck, walked over, and said "I can tell you right now, she has torn her tendon, but we are still going to do the whole ultrasound, and stuff to make sure", lo and behold, the ultra sound showed that her superficial flexor tendon was hanging by a thread. She was in so much pain that he didn't even need to sedate her to do the ultra sound like he does every other horse. He put a gel cast on her leg, then a pressure wrap over the gel cast, and told me he didn't want her moved at all for a week, and that there was a distinct possibility that she would never be sound again, and that I might want to look into breeding her, as i had talked about with him before. 6 months, 3 ultra sounds, 2 sedations, and numerous calls to talk with the vet later, she was perfectly fine with the exception of never being allowed to go faster than a good canter, never ridden in deep sand, and never turned out. And no quarantees that she would be okay jumping (which she was fine, jumped her over 5' courses right before I sold her).


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## RubaiyateBandit

When we first got Tanner and Magic, the people told us out right that they hadn't been ridden in five years. I automatically dubbed them "greenbroke until proven otherwise" and allowed no one but myself and my uncle who has broke horses before on them.
Since we bought them from the owners of the equestrian campground we were staying at, I had the chance to take them out for a ride right after we got them and did so, having no major problems (just a bit of reluctance to go, and little things like that.). When my mom (not an avid horse back rider) and my dad (who can ride, but can't be trusted with a sensitive horse) decided they wanted to ride, too, I put mom on the calmer, most responsive of the two (Magic) and dad on Ruby, while I rode Tanner and my uncle and his daughter rode on their sort-of green horses.
We had no problems whatsoever until we came to a small ditch with a creek running through it. Tanner crossed with no problem when I tested her, then I turned back to cross again and lead mom and Magic through the flatter, water-less crossing (in case Magic got upset). However, my uncle told mom to go through anyway, and Magic decided to sort of hop over the water. Mom rode through the jump, then fell off in the hard dirt. Magic spooked and ran for Tanner, kicking my mom in the ribs as she went. My dad jumped off Ruby and ran to my mom, and for whatever reason decided to take Ruby with him. She was all nervous and upset, and ended up hopping over the water, too. My dad yelled at her, scaring her more, and she bolted to where Magic and Tanner were, clipping my mom in the face with a hoof.
My mom broke a rib, dislocated another rib, and twisted her ankle. I still blame myself for listening to my uncle and letting her on Magic, and she hasn't ridden since, though she recently expressed an interest in riding Ruby sometime.

There are other stories I could tell, but that's by far the worst.


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## Pidge

My absolute worst would have to be putting down lady...she wasnt even mine but my best friends...still i had been riding her for years and litterally learned to ride on her...we had spent so much time trying to save her too. She had coliced and even though she was small it took three of us to hold her an keep her from rolling. We walked her for three hours starting at six thirty in the morning until the vet arrived...my friends parents were cheap an would call in an emergancy vet because they didnt want to pay the extra money... She recovered from the colic but foundered a week later...then that coupled with her poor living conditions (wont go into this) did her in...we had her put down about three weeks later...

It was the worst day of my life....


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## xLaurenOscarx

The worst day of my life was when I went down to see Oscar and he was acting oddly in the field, trotting around which he never does! I thought something had just spooked him so I took him in anyway coz I was going 2 ride him. I put him in the stable and went to wash his bit. I came back 10 minutes later and he was looking odd. His ears were slightly back and every few minutes he'd throw his head a bit. I went iin and checked there were no flies and there wasn't. I called the stable hand down to see what she thought. I already knew he had colic but I wanted her to say it was something else. She said he was just messing about but I knew he wasn't. I ran down the yard to the instructor. she came down to see him and my heart sunk as Oscar tried to get down to roll! I ran in to get him up but she stopped me and said not to! He got half way down and suddenly he jumped back up. I took him out of the stable and kept him walking. I walked him around for 2 hours talking to him non stop. I was in autopilot mode. finally the vet came and I put oscar into the stable. The vet asked me the words I was dreading to hear " Has he got medical insurance" I crumpled because he didnt have them. He said he was possibly going 2 need an operation but the next 2 hours would tell his future. It cost at least 4000euro for an operation so he would have to be put down if he needed it. I was told to lunge him just walk with short bursts of trot to try let out all the gas trapped in his gut. I broke down seeing him the way he was.
Eventually he stopped sweating and seemed perkier. We called the vet back and he said he was lucky. That was by far the worst day of my life


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## Cheshire

The worst experience I have had yet and which still brings a pang of anger to my heart:
I used to work for this stupid woman who bred appys. She really liked breeding father to daughter and stuff like that in order to get colour. I don't know if this is acceptable in the breeder community (I know next to nothing about breeding or genetics) but I certainly hope not. Anyway her horses were all...messed up. Man, I can't even tell you. Then she had to euthanise this little week-old foal because it was so heavily inbred it had a multitude of problems, the least of which was the fact that its skin was sloughing off its legs. I listened to the vet berate this woman but did she listen? Hell I remember when he was born she was boasting at how beautiful this baby was, how he was even more colourful than his mom, blahblahblah.
Yeah, I left in disgust. Learned later that this wasn't the first time something like this has happened. Some people should not be allowed to own horses...or any other animals period. Let alone breed them so ******* irresponsibly. So much suffering just for greed.


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