# Murphy's Law.



## dacer44 (Sep 20, 2009)

OUCH! So glad he was ok though! Poor guy


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## NordicJuniper (Jun 9, 2009)

dacer44 said:


> OUCH! So glad he was ok though! Poor guy


Yeah it was really scary. For me it almost seemed to happen in slow motion yet really fast at the same time. I just felt useless, like I knew his back legs were stuck but I couldn't anything to help him. It was agonizing. I am so glad he was able to catch his balance and that he didn't flip over.


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## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

what a turd!!! im glad he is ok looks like just surface nicks. He decided he was done. I had worse happen to me, a horse i went to look at, was a gorgeous palomino, anyways he was being lunged in the round pen and it was wet adn muddy, well he decided to take off running and he slipped and his back leg went underneath the panel!! I thought he was going to jump back up wiht broken back legs, but he jumped back up and took off running again, just like nothing happened. It seemed like he was under there for a minute but it was really only like 10 seconds lol. Anyways im glad he is ok, but im gonna agree with you and say R.I.P. gate. i dont think it made it


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## Gillian (Aug 2, 2008)

I've free lunged Zeus a few times but the last time happened to be during dinner. He decided he had enough, jumped out, clearing in by almost a foot and trotted off to his stall to eat dinner. The turd, ha ha. 

Glad Junior was okay!
That's scary!


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## nirvana (Sep 14, 2009)

NordicJuniper said:


> Yeah it was really scary. For me it almost seemed to happen in slow motion yet really fast at the same time. I just felt useless, like I knew his back legs were stuck but I couldn't anything to help him. It was agonizing. I am so glad he was able to catch his balance and that he didn't flip over.


I know exactly how you feel. one time i tied my horsey and donkey up with some hay cause we had to have both gates open. trooper always stands well tied up. at the end he smehow pulled his rope out a bit and manged to get it cot arond his hind hoof! He freaked out and there was nothing I could do! He then fell on his side wich somehow got the rope unwraped and leaped back up right away perfectly fine!:lol:


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## RoCru (Jul 19, 2009)

Ouch!!!


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

Wow, I didn't see that coming! I thought he was just going to wipe out or something. Guess he was done for the day!


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## dynamite. (Jun 21, 2008)

Ouch! Poor boy. Our 5 month old mule climbed over a gate like that one. Thank goodness she didn't get hurt, but the gate is dented now!


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## bubblegum (Oct 6, 2009)

ohhhhhhhh thank god he is ok, silly monkey just didnt understand the concept at all, rip gate, the heavy brute will have to make up for that


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## gypsygirl (Oct 15, 2009)

wow im so glad hes okay ! i hope he got some hosing & lots of bute =]

i saw my friends horse do that when they were on xc, almost the exact thing, except he was supposed to jump the jump of course


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## Semperfiwife (Jul 17, 2009)

I am glad he's okay, and I understand we all make mistakes. Can I give you some friendly advice? I dont' think your problem was free lunging him. I could be completely wrong, and I know everyone does things there own way, but if you want me to tell you what I see I will be glad too.


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## gogirl46 (Oct 18, 2009)

... Well on the plus side he can jump...


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## eventerwannabe (Jun 10, 2009)

Semper:
I am curious as to what you mean? I might have an idea of what you are talking about, but I would like to hear your point of view.


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## Semperfiwife (Jul 17, 2009)

First I want to say that I am no expert or trainer. I haven't been in horses for too long, so this opinion is very uneducated.
When I watched the video I saw this horse disrespect you over and over and over again. I understand this was bigger then a round pen, so therefore harder to get him to behave himself. I would start in the roundpen and get him good in there and listening to you, watching you, respecting you. 
Then, you were running him in a small place back and forth. The way it looked to me was you were chasing him, and I think he thought that too. You put so much pressure on him that he went out the only way he knew how; over the gate. That was the easiest way and he didn't understand what you were trying to get him to do. 
Someone once told me that when things go wrong to step back and look at what you were doing, your body language, your posture, your actions. 99% of the time it's the human's and not the horses. This wisdom has helped me a lot with my horses. 
In my uneducated opinion lunging should be work for the horse and not so much for you. If your running, your being lunged by your horse. It should be an easy communication between you and your horse. If it's not, start over. I have started over so many times with my horse and my husband's just to connect with them again. 
I know I might be completely wrong about all of this and I am open for learning. I don't pretend to know enough to be a teacher, trainer, etc. But I hope someone would help me kindly if they thought it would help me. 
Good luck with your horse and I'm so glad he's okay!


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## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

I have to agree with Semper. These things happen, but it definately wasn't a fluke. When you push a horse without realizing what your body language means to them, they'll resort to drastic measures to escape it. He was essentially trapped in that corner by your body language and responded the best he knew how.


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## eventerwannabe (Jun 10, 2009)

Im actually not the person in the video, I was just curious, hehe.


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## JustDressageIt (Oct 4, 2007)

I saw it coming from very early on in the video. You kept trapping him in that corner - lunging is a very fine art, a very fine balance, and you kept getting ahead of his motion. He'd go to get out of that corner, and you'd chase him back in.
I am just trying to point this out for your own benefit to learn. 
Mistakes do happen, I'm glad he wasn't seriously hurt. 
Another consideration is to never free lunge one horse with another tied in the arena.


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## LeahKathleen (Mar 5, 2009)

I think he was confused - though he's a very pretty mover. 

I think it was a combination of having another horse in the arena, having the jumps (I think that's what I saw?) out, and not giving him very clear directions.

In a situation where a horse doesn't have the fence to guide his path (i.e. a round pen) we must guide it for him, either via use of a line, or through our commands and our body language.

It was likely a combination of a lot of things - but mostly I think he was confused. I agree with the statement that he needs some round pen work.

Semper made some good points about not getting ahead of his motion. When you get in front of his shoulder, he feels blocked and trapped. Just a good thing to keep in mind when lunging.

So glad he wasn't hurt! He's gorgeous!


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## NordicJuniper (Jun 9, 2009)

Yeah I wasn't trying to get in front of his shoulder, I was trying to stay with him and would end up getting ahead of him on accident.

So for anyone wondering that wasn't on purpose, I just was having a hard time judging how fast he was going to move and where he would go next. 

Also there was only two jumps in the actually part of the arena that he was working, the ones on the side are used as a wall to keep him from going over there. The two jumps in the arena where he was lunging were supposed to be there because we were trying to get him to go over them.

We don't have a round pen so there is no option for us in that.

Anywho we won't [well at least I won't] be lunging him anymore anyway. Thanks for the tips though, I will remember them for the future with other horses, he is just to hard to handle when he is free.


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