I saw where horses kill about 20 people each year in the USA.

I have been fortunate in that I have never had an acquaintance or friend killed by a horse, but a good friend of mine stated that over his lifetime, he has known 4 different people that have died through horse-related injuries.

He maintains that in each case, the human was doing something wrong, or at the very least was negligent.

Growing up in Kentucky, I spent a lot of time around ex-race horses. Some of these horses were dangerous and as a teenager, you quickly learned which horses to stay clear of, and which ones that were safe.

Today it seems that much of the younger generation (and their parents) have absolutely no "common sense" when it comes to being around strange horses.

I guess they grew up watching too much Disney channel or something.

BH63

As a young man I dabbled in thoroughbred breeding. One trainer/breeder I used had a big sign in his barn for his employees; it stated "never trust a horse". He felt more of his workers were hurt by gentle horses than the rough ones because the employees would get lax around the gentle ones.

I've been involved with horses most of my 60 plus years. Never been seriously hurt, but I've been kicked, stomped, bitten, thrown and mashed between animal and corrals. In every instance it was my own fault for getting complacent and not paying attention.

I confess that sometimes I look back at something I did with my horses & thank GOD that he was watching over me.

Today I work with people learning to interact with horses for the first time. Although the 4 horses we use are fairly compliant, there is one mustang and a big gelding that occasionally act up.

Time and time again, I have to warn some of the new people that horses aren't big dogs, and you just can't take them for granted.

One lady has really gotten attached to the big gelding to the point where she cradles him and sings love songs to him. Last week she was holding his lead and something spooked him. He let out a squeal and reared, ripping the lead right out of her hands. She froze, and fortunately the horse did not kick or buck or she would have been toast, as she was standing right at his backside.

Now she is afraid to even go near him. From one extreme to the other.

I'm just glad the owner of the horses has good insurance. LOL

BH63

an old man told me when I first started fooling around with horses that a horse spends all day trying to think of a way to kill you or kill itself.

I'm in neck pain every day from a couple of horse wrecks on a crazy speed horse. I was young and crazy then and paying for it now.

That's all ? sounds vastly under reported. Horses are reputed to be the most dangerous of agricultural animals. Acquaintance of ours died some years ago. She was feeding her horses when one kicked out at another. Horse missed her intended target, but hit the lady instead, rupturing her spleen.

Wife tried getting killed by horses a number of times. Couple of concussions and once,SIX broken ribs, my fault of course. Horse spooked when I threw the cat out and slammed the back door.



Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by BuffHunter63:
I saw where horses kill about 20 people each year in the USA.

I have been fortunate in that I have never had an acquaintance or friend killed by a horse, but a good friend of mine stated that over his lifetime, he has known 4 different people that have died through horse-related injuries.

He maintains that in each case, the human was doing something wrong, or at the very least was negligent.

Growing up in Kentucky, I spent a lot of time around ex-race horses. Some of these horses were dangerous and as a teenager, you quickly learned which horses to stay clear of, and which ones that were safe.

Today it seems that much of the younger generation (and their parents) have absolutely no "common sense" when it comes to being around strange horses.

I guess they grew up watching too much Disney channel or something.

BH63

Not surprising. I walk within 1/2 mile of a horse and they come running with teeth barred ready to bite me, stomp me and throw me. They hate the mere smell of me.
I avoid them like Trump avoids Stormy...

quote:

Originally posted by dogcat:


Not surprising. I walk within 1/2 mile of a horse and they come running with teeth barred ready to bite me, stomp me and throw me. They hate the mere smell of me.
I avoid them like Trump avoids Stormy...

I hope you have a different reason for avoiding horses, than Trump has for avoiding Stormy. Horses don't like it if you fool around with their women. LOL

BH63

this thread is a bunch of BS, more than 20 people a year die of falling down stairs...A mosquito kills millions..Rattle snakes kill more than horses...We live in a world of danger, and we die, all of us..I am not going to live my life in fear...

The horse is Gods gift to me and my whole family and always will be..He is the most beautiful animal on earth, he is kind and works his ass off every day around here and all he gets for his effort is a big portion of grain and all the hay he can eat..Mine are trained and they have a job, no time for all this foolishness...They want your praise and they earn it..

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
this thread is a bunch of BS, more than 20 people a year die of falling down stairs...A mosquito kills millions..Rattle snakes kill more than horses...We live in a world of danger, and we die, all of us..I am not going to live my life in fear...

The horse is Gods gift to me and my whole family and always will be..He is the most beautiful animal on earth, he is kind and works his ass off every day around here and all he gets for his effort is a big portion of grain and all the hay he can eat..Mine are trained and they have a job, no time for all this foolishness...They want your praise and they earn it..

Exactly.

Interestingly enough, last night I was reading one of my old Jack O'Connor books (Hunting Big Game) and in the chapter on The Hunting Horse, he relates how a good friend of his, a rancher, was killed by a horse two weeks after he hunted with him.

Apparently the guy was out checking cattle and towards the end of a long day was headed back to the barn when he decided to go back and check one more place. The horse had its mind on going back to the barn by then, and started acting up, in the ensuing ruckus the horse fell on the rancher, who died of his injuries.

It does happen.

I think horses are one of God's greatest gifts to mankind, but to quote an unknown cowboy, "You never know what a horse is gonna do, because the horse itself doesn't know what it's gonna do."

BH63

quote:

Originally posted by BuffHunter63:
Interestingly enough, last night I was reading one of my old Jack O'Connor books (Hunting Big Game) and in the chapter on The Hunting Horse, he relates how a good friend of his, a rancher, was killed by a horse two weeks after he hunted with him.

Apparently the guy was out checking cattle and towards the end of a long day was headed back to the barn when he decided to go back and check one more place. The horse had its mind on going back to the barn by then, and started acting up, in the ensuing ruckus the horse fell on the rancher, who died of his injuries.

It does happen.

I think horses are one of God's greatest gifts to mankind, but to quote an unknown cowboy, "You never know what a horse is gonna do, because the horse itself doesn't know what it's gonna do."

BH63

Maybe we should outlaw falls.

“Death Rate Extrapolation

Death rate extrapolations for USA for Falls: 15,019 per year, 1,251 per month, 288 per week, 41 per day, 1 per hour, 0 per minute, 0 per second. Note: this automatic extrapolation calculation uses the deaths statistic: 15,019 deaths in USA 2001 (CDC); 13,162 deaths reported in USA 1999 (NVSR Sep 2001); 5.0 per 100,000 in Canada 1997“

Maybe we should outlaw folks that can't train a horse, the man was riding crap..Good horses don't take things into their own hands...Like I said the only problem horses have is people that should never own a horse like the poor soul that was killed.

The guy JOC referred to was a full time rancher and outfitter. I expect he knew a little bit about horses.

Even the best trained horse in the world will spook occasionally and if you lose your seat, or happen to be in the way you might get hurt or killed. That is just a fact of working with large animals that evolved as prey animals.

I like everything there is about horses, but you do have to stay on your toes around them.

A friend of mines daughter, who grew up around Western Pleasure show horses had to have her spleen removed at age 34 when someone lead a horse to close to her horse and she got kicked.

Given all that I still ride once a week, weather permitting, and work with horses 3 times a week.

BH63

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
Maybe we should outlaw folks that can't train a horse, the man was riding crap..Good horses don't take things into their own hands...Like I said the only problem horses have is people that should never own a horse like the poor soul that was killed.

They say only miles make a good horse, most today get ridden hardly enough and in very controlled circumstances, so anything out of the ordinary can unsettle them. Seen a lot of that. Throw in a rider, not being mentally able to demand control and bad things can happen.

Grizz

I get the love of horses and motorcycles as they are both dangerous.

Every person I have ever known that has a motorcycle has fallen off, been hurt, sometimes killed. Not a single exception.

For horses, the best horse people I know - they ride every day or nearly every day - both have been injured/mangled by "their" horse. One - a broken pelvis, two broken arms and broken ribs. The other - tossed into a telephone pole, concussion and surgery, broken ribs.

These were trained horses that both riders owned for several years.

So, I get it - horses are good workers and a gift, but in reality, they are 1200 pounds of muscle that can hurt you very bad....

I avoid them and would rather walk leading one.

Spot on Griz, wet saddle blankets is the best thing for any horse, and lots of them..

I get it Dogcat, if one doesn't understand the horse, its best to stay away from them..Im old and only been injured in riding rough stock in rodeos with an ocassional minor incident. but I learned to bounce a long tme ago!

When a young boy, about 10, saw a man killed by a horse. At a small country town rodeo. Horse threw him off over the back and as he went through the air kicked up and broke his neck. My dad, a minister, was an honorary ambulancemen, and they worked quite a bit on that poor fellow.

When we moved to the city he buried the father , a horse trainer, of one of the girls I had gone to school with. Horse threw him and foot caught in the stirrup and dragged him.

I have a healthy respect for the creatures.

I also have a healthy respect for the other idiots on the road, I ride a motorcycle.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
Maybe we should outlaw folks that can't train a horse, the man was riding crap..Good horses don't take things into their own hands...Like I said the only problem horses have is people that should never own a horse like the poor soul that was killed.

There are problem horses. Many (most) problems come from the people/methods but some horses just aren't right. They aren't all the same, there are Mother Teresa's and Charlie Manson's. Any horse can be spooked in the right condition even if it's a Mother Teresa.

Gramps always carried his 45 L.C revolver when working around the barn and the corral.

I think it was some old S&W gun. He wasn't afraid to "put a pony down," as he used to say. Over the many decades he ran the family farm he shot at least 5 of them, not including a crippled mule they called 'Barney.'

Hated that frickin' mule. All he did was bite and kick. I'd have shot him myself but wasn't old enough back then.

Yep, the .45L.C. is an excellent horse-stopper. Puts 'em down, takes 'em off your aggravation list.

^
All the old books about hunting bears always mentioned taking a worthless old nag out in the woods and shooting it for bait, but I don't think I could shoot a horse that gave me years of service.

Just not my nature.

BH63

As I drove around with my Dad in the later years of his life and we talked about the old homesteaders that had lived in the area.

We would pass by where one of their places use to be more then once he would have a tale how one of the family was killed by a horse or a team of them.

We had a team and 3 or 4 saddle horses on the farm.

I quickly learned the best horse is owned by someone else.

There are very good reasons that after mechanical means came about that horses are manly play things now.

That's because their are no cowboys in Wesconsin,Yankees are not horsemen! they only own pasture pets!

^
I think how horses are used today probably has some bearing on fatal horse accidents.

Back in my dad's day, horses were used as the primary means of transportation and for working the fields.

They got worked hard almost everyday and were what I would consider "professionals". They knew their jobs and did them well, or they would be sold.

Today many horses are overfed and underutilized IMO.

Take a good riding horse and keep him in a small area and supercharge him with grain and supplements, and then only ride him a couple of hours on the weekend. That is asking for trouble IMO.

I know one reigning horse trainer, who rides his horse 10 miles in the morning to take the "fresh" off of him before he starts training.

His horses are a joy to ride.

BH63

Love em all you want. Deny their nature all you want. Blame it on an "uneducated horseman" all you want. I call BS.

My sister, who is 68 years old, has spent her entire life around horses. Competed in Barrel Racing for decades. By ANY stretch of the imagination, a true horse expert. One who loves them without condition.

Well, that all ended 2 weeks ago. She was volunteering at a camp for underprivileged kids, introducing the kids to the experience of riding. One of the horses that she's worked with for some time, began acting up a bit. She started working with the horse to try and get it settled down. Worked with it for a few weeks. All of a sudden, as I mentioned, a couple of weeks ago, the horse threw her onto a fence. She broke her neck in 3 places. Docs operated on her for the better part of the day.

Long story short, she's basically a quadriplegic. She can move her legs a bit, but can't stand. She can move her arms a little but cannot hold anything in her hands. Docs say she may recover some use of her arms and legs over time but it will be a long hard road to recovery and it's likely never going to be to where she can function on her own again.

So defend the horse all you want. I call BS! Yep, they have a use for some folks, I get that. For me, my use of them is making a substance to stick two pieces of wood together. That's about it.

I grew up with horses on our cattle farm in Louisiana and quite a few horseback hunts for sheep, elk, mountain lion, mtn.goat, coues deer, etc. Been bucked off, run away, in the fences , etc. I don’t trust them at all but a necessary evil sometimes. I’ve been lucky and never been badly injured. A mule is a much better critter to hunt on.

Todd,

I am so sorry to hear about your sister.

To my mind, horses are like motorcycles with a personality. They can be fun, useful, and you can get quite attached to them, but there is inherent risk, and no matter how skillful you are, sometimes things just happen.

The lady whom owns a mustang mare that I work with almost every week, got kicked last Friday.

Fortunately, it wasn't serious, but if it had been just a little higher it would have smacked her in the face.

BH63

Todd
Very sorry to here about your sister.

People get killed by dogs also, I wouldn't be surprised if rabid cats have killed folks..The fact of the matter, elk, deer, and bear not to mention vehicles, guns etc...People die and that's the way it is..This horse blaming is ridiculas IMO..It makes no since..Its a childish thread..

This is simply for comparison and I know that there are a great many more dogs than horses in the U.S.
Deaths due to dog attacks per year:
2014 43
2015 31
2016 31
2017 39
I just Goggled this info so take it for what it's worth.

quote:

Originally posted by bwana cecil:
This is simply for comparison and I know that there are a great many more dogs than horses in the U.S.
Deaths due to dog attacks per year:
2014 43
2015 31
2016 31
2017 39

Obviously we need to allow more packs of feral dogs to run loose.

The 'kill stats' which accrue from a summer weekend in Chicago absolutely dwarf those numbers.

I say, let's dump more dogs into the wild places. Let 'em go feral.

There's just not enough folks dying off from 'natural events' each year to save the rest of us when the Annunaki finally return to this planet.

Lets not forget the mighty skeeter!! Kills more folks than cancer or heart attacks and all the animals combined and world wide..bad little dudes the mosky..

The thing to remember when looking at the total number of deaths by any cause is the rate of incidents per exposures and frequency of exposures.

The number and frequency of people coming into contact with dogs (or skeeters) is exponentially much higher than the number and frequency of people who come into contact with horses.

Once you adjust for these differences than you get a much clearer and more realistic idea of the inherent risk of a certain activity.

Car crashes kill more people every year than airplane crashes, but only a fool would think a car crash is more dangerous than a airplane crash.

BH63

This is getting too deep for me and the subject itself is beyond comprehension!