Freak accident (warning: sad story)

I don't want to even tell this story. I think that we as a civilization are so inundated with sad stories that it isn't good for us. Some days you should just turn off the news and go riding! So why am I telling this story? I have no idea.

If you don't like sad stories, skip to something else. I have lots of cheerful entries for your entertainment. The only redeeming thing about this story is that it is such a freak event that you don't have to worry about it happening to you or the people or horses you love. The only thing I can think of that would have prevented it would have been a flash noseband, and unless there are other reasons your horse needs a flash, the likelihood of this event is so small that it's not a reason to get a flash. The only other remedy might be fly spray, and that was probably being used so I guess wouldn't help.

So enough with the warnings. Here's what happened at a local barn last week. A teenage girl had just finished riding her very nice hunter/jumper mare. They'd had a nice ride, nothing odd had happened. Just a ride like many of you will have today.

The girl rode the horse back to the barn and slipped her feet out of the stirrups in order to dismount. In that instant, the mare reached around to bite at an insect on her side and accidentally bit the stirrup. You know how horses' teeth have a gap behind the front teeth and the molars, leaving a nice space where the bit can go? Well, that's where the stirrup went -- and got hung up! The horse, who tends to be over-reactive, freaked out. The girl's mother was nearby and helped snatch the girl off of the horse. The girl was safely on the ground when the horse flipped out and fell to the ground, slamming her head into a solid post that helped support the barn before the horse mom could run back with scissors to cut the stirrup free.

The vet came immediately, but the horse was not all right. The mare could not stand, and had blood running from her nose and ears. There was nothing anyone could do. The horse had split her skull. This mare, in the prime of her life, died.

Right there in front of her distraught human best friend. And there were other horse-loving girls, children and teenagers, who were there. The atmosphere at that barn right now is one of deep mourning, and it is spreading with the story to other horse lovers in the area. There is such a thin line between normal and catastrophe.

One minute a horse is biting at a fly. The next, she is dead.

There's a lesson here. But I don't know what it is. I could say something about enjoy every day and how you can never horse-proof the world (the more valuable a horse is, the more likely it is to have something catastrophic happen to it -- don't know why). Instead, I'll say I'm really sorry. Now I think I'll go check my fences. There's always something a horse can do that no one expects.

The tissues are on me. A better, more cheerful entry tomorrow. I promise.

Comments

[Jen]

That is so sad. :( My condolences to all of you.

[Anne]

Thanks, Jen. It's pretty shocking, and makes you look at your horses a little more carefully.

[risingrainbow]

Yes, in a instance life as we know it can change so dramatically we don't even recognize it's our life. So you're right live every day as if it's yours and your horse's last so you'll have no regrets if the fluke should happen to you.

[Beckz]

Thats so tragic. We lost a horse suddenly but she was much older, and the whole family was devastated, I can only imagine how painful it would be to lose a younger horse. Freak accidents eh, how would anyone have predicted that?

[Kathy C]

So sad for everyone involved.

[Anne]

Thanks for your comments and sympathy. I don't know the teenage girl well although I grew up with her mother. I know last week will be with them for a long, long time. Every life has tragedies, but most of us are spared gruesome ones that can linger and play over and over again in our minds. I worry about the girl. She's had that horse for a few years.