Makes me never want to hitch again

[Littleum]

You might have seen this floating around other internet boards today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha8E-lOuOYk

Scares the bejesus out of me.

 

[Reble]

Oh my, I was holding my breath, that last horse sure hope it was OK.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

I'm supposed to have my first driving lesson this weekend. I was looking forward to it, but this is really scary. I know it can happen and nobody necessarily did anything wrong, but it's sure going to make me think twice. I've personally not seen anything like this before. Poor horses and poor people.

 

[~Dan]

Im with you on that Parmela, I dont think Ill ever show in a driving class, maybe just drive around at home, now thats scary, I imagine everyones greatest fear driving is to have that happen

 

[Joanne]

Ohhhh my. Sure wish I knew if the horses were O.K.

My heart is pumping now.....

 

[Reble]

 

[eagles ring farm]

Oh man scary

hope to forget that next time I drive (or I hope I remember it) not sure which

You have to expect the unexpected with a horse for sure

Hope everyone is ok

 

[jleonard]

That was handled very poorly.

IMO, if they had delt with the first horse better, and if all of the people in the ring had been paying attention and not running around like chickens with their heads cut off, they could have avoided the issue with the second horse.

I went through the comments, and they said that no one was seriously injured, just a few bumps and bruises. It really looked like they broke the second horse's leg when the yanked him down, I'm glad that was not the case. It is a miracle that everyone made it out of that.

 

[countrycharm]

oh my goodness watching that makes me think how stupid some poeple are, the first thing i would have done is GOT OUT OF MY CART i couldnt believe that lady sitting right in till the end UNHITCHED and quickly and saflety got me and my horse out of that arena, half of that could have been avoidable. Doesnt make me not want to drive just makes me hope there are some people out there who have a clue when im in the ring.

 

[luv2ridesaddleseat]

That was horrifying! I can't imagine that last horse was ok. He didn't look it.

 

[~Dan]

What I dont get is why it took so long to get everybody out of the ring once the first horse got loose, or at least unhitched their horses and set their carts in the ceter of the ring away form the first loose horse

Those poor horses, Im supprised that last one when he fell didint break his neck, or at leats a leg, I dont think they handled it very well over all

 

[maplegum]

I think the video has taken down now...I can't access it.

 

[midnight star stables]

I showed this video to my step-dad after I watched it in shock. I am somewhat new to driving (I have a clue, by I'll admit that I'm no master by any means.) My step-dad grew up with only driving horses and has seen more then his share of *other's* driving accident. Accidents happen but you need to know how to handle them. My step-dad pointed out a number of things/people that only made this particular case worse, which I did not notice on my own, scary stuff.

Did anyone see the runaway at Nationals this year? It was a young girl driving in a youth class. She was very brave and I wonder if anyone here seen it?

 

[MiLo Minis]

That was a perfect example of an incredibly incompetent ring crew and announcer! Calling the horses to a walk right off the start rather than warning about the bolting horse and calling them into the center as briskly as possible was a stupid idea putting that first woman, in front of the bolting horse,in danger. I noticed quite a few major errors on their part myself

that only served to get more horses and persons in trouble. Obviously they were not driving people and some were not even HORSE people!!! With so many people in the ring they should have been able to put a stop to it much faster than they did. Roping and tripping the horse sure did stop him up quick though didn't it!

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

I'm really glad to read some of these responses from experienced driving people. I am as about as new as it gets when it comes to driving (first lesson is coming this saturday) but I watched that and thought it was handled very poorly. So to hear that I was right in that many things could have been handled differently makes me feel somewhat better. And the crowd! It seems to me that every time I've seen something go wrong at a mini show, the audience has been totally silent and not added to the bedlam. The only time I've seen mini crowds yell or anything is when a horse gets loose in halter class and everyone wants to make sure the gate person knows to secure the gate. And that poor woman that came down to a walk only to get crashed into.

Mark Bullington sure would have handled the mic much differently!

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Drat, I was waiting until I got to a YouTube compatible computer to watch this and now it's been taken down. What the heck did it show?? Were these fine harness horses, draft horse hitches, 4-H'ers, what?

oh my goodness watching that makes me think how stupid some poeple are, the first thing i would have done is GOT OUT OF MY CART i couldnt believe that lady sitting right in till the end UNHITCHED and quickly and saflety got me and my horse out of that arena, half of that could have been avoidable. Doesnt make me not want to drive just makes me hope there are some people out there who have a clue when im in the ring.

Okay, keep in mind I couldn't see the video so I have no idea what the situation was in this particular case. But generally speaking, both getting out of the cart and trying to open the arena gate when there's a runaway are VERY bad ideas.

Sure, let's give the panicked horse an opportunity to bolt for the hills and spread his damage to innocent bystanders and maybe onto a roadway or something!

First rule: close any open gates to contain the runaway. Second rule: get all other horses and vehicles into the center of the arena and hopefully out of harm's way. A good announcer will calmly state that there is a runaway horse and ask exhibitors to pull to the middle and for the audience to be quiet. If you're driving a big horse and have a groom, put them down as a header to help your horse stay calm. The driver should absolutely remain in the vehicle at all times because otherwise who is supposed to control the horse if HE panics and bolts? I know with minis you can often man-handle them from the ground but that is not the case with any other driving horse and it is the driver's responsibility to stay where they can do the most good. Consider also that attempting to unhitch your nervous horse in the center of the ring by yourself while trying to hold him AND keep an eye on the situation is probably not wise. Sure with a show harness you can simply undo the traces and wraps and boom- you're free, but most other types of harness are a bit more involved and would take far too long to undo, leaving you exposed to great danger in the meantime. And what if that runaway ran into your horse and vehicle while you were unhitching?

Then you've got a loose, unmanned, partially-hitched horse galloping around with the original runaway.

Oooh, not good. You also could not move the rig out of the way of a sudden direction change if you're partially unhitched when the loose horse comes charging through.

Okay, sorry, I went a little overboard there

but I wanted to give another side of what to do in an accident and why. My "Do and Do Nots" come from big horse carriage driving safety guidelines.

Leia

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

A good announcer will calmly state that there is a runaway horse and ask exhibitors to pull to the middle and for the audience to be quiet.

Leia,

That's what I mean about Mark Bullington. I've always seen him calmly say something like "all drivers come down to a walk and move to the center of the arena as soon as it's safe." Then they all know to look around them, unlike the poor lady who got creamed when she slowed down, before they move one way or another.

 

[stormo41]

Drat, I was waiting until I got to a YouTube compatible computer to watch this and now it's been taken down. What the heck did it show?? Were these fine harness horses, draft horse hitches, 4-H'ers, what?Leia

Leia, the Video was at an Arabian horse show, the horses were in fine harness. One man lost control of his horse (galloping, bucking, bolting). The announcer said when it all started "slow to a walk and come into the center" One lady did get "rear ended" before she knew what the heck was happening. The runaway horse, soon lost it's cart and was running around the ring with it's harness still on,I believe the binders where still on as well. The horse was cutting across the middle often, People in the stands were screaming when ever it did so, there was also people trying to get in the loose horse's way making it cut across the center. At this point the announcer said "Be quit and keep the horse running on the outside, try to keep it on the outside if you can" (or something like that) The loose horse then cut across one end and crashed into a ladies horse, they got a hold of the loose horse but the one that got smacked into fell, the driver got dumped out, when the horse got up it was running (i'm not sure how this happened because she did have a header). After this horse ran around for a while the announcer suggested that they get the other horses out of there. It appeared that a few of them got their horses out, or at least unhitched but the camera was following the loose horse around so it was hard to tell what was going on with the rest of the horses. In the end they roped the second loose horse, I believe they got it by the legs because it went down so fast.

so thats what happened in the video. I don't really have any thoughts on it. I have heard that the lady in the cart who got hit with the runaway was disabled that would make in understandable as to why she did want to get out of her cart, there was only person with her acting as a header maybe she needed help to get out of her cart. She also needed to be dragged by someone away from where she feel into the center ring. From what i saw in the video it fits, but i can't be sure if it's true or not because i don't know her nor was i there.

 

[midnight star stables]

Drat, I was waiting until I got to a YouTube compatible computer to watch this and now it's been taken down. What the heck did it show?? Were these fine harness horses, draft horse hitches, 4-H'ers, what?Leia

Leia, the Video was at an Arabian horse show, the horses were in fine harness. One man lost control of his horse (galloping, bucking, bolting). The announcer said when it all started "slow to a walk and come into the center" One lady did get "rear ended" before she knew what the heck was happening. The runaway horse, soon lost it's cart and was running around the ring with it's harness still on,I believe the binders where still on as well. The horse was cutting across the middle often, People in the stands were screaming when ever it did so, there was also people trying to get in the loose horse's way making it cut across the center. At this point the announcer said "Be quit and keep the horse running on the outside, try to keep it on the outside if you can" (or something like that) The loose horse then cut across one end and crashed into a ladies horse, they got a hold of the loose horse but the one that got smacked into fell, the driver got dumped out, when the horse got up it was running (i'm not sure how this happened because she did have a header). After this horse ran around for a while the announcer suggested that they get the other horses out of there. It appeared that a few of them got their horses out, or at least unhitched but the camera was following the loose horse around so it was hard to tell what was going on with the rest of the horses. In the end they roped the second loose horse, I believe they got it by the legs because it went down so fast.

so thats what happened in the video.

Nice explanation, but you missed that the first horse bumped into another, before it crashed into the other horse that bolted. Both times the first horse hit other horses, it was caused by a man in a blue shirt that grabbed the horse's dragging reins, causing the horse to jolt it head an switch it's direction slightly - enough so that it couldn't avoid contact with the other horses. The first horse also hit a chair near the center ring, knocking the lady onto the ground and ran over a man that stood in his path to stop him.

Also the 2nd run away lost his enter head piece - bridle, blinders, caverson, etc. The cart was attached by the tugs and traces. The first horse, in the end, only had it's head piece on.. the rest seemed to get broken through out this video.

This was a scary video, but I read that no one was seriously injured amazingly. I'm glad to hear it and I hope next time, they can get things under control quicker.

 

[Reble]

The Video was at an Arabian horse show, the horses were in fine harness. One man lost control of his horse (galloping, bucking, bolting). The announcer said when it all started "slow to a walk and come into the center" One lady did get "rear ended" before she knew what the heck was happening. The runaway horse, soon lost it's cart and was running around the ring with it's harness still on,I believe the binders where still on as well. The horse was cutting across the middle often, People in the stands were screaming when ever it did so, there was also people trying to get in the loose horse's way making it cut across the center. At this point the announcer said "Be quit and keep the horse running on the outside, try to keep it on the outside if you can" (or something like that) The loose horse then cut across one end and crashed into a ladies horse, they got a hold of the loose horse but the one that got smacked into fell, the driver got dumped out, when the horse got up it was running (i'm not sure how this happened because she did have a header). After this horse ran around for a while the announcer suggested that they get the other horses out of there. It appeared that a few of them got their horses out, or at least unhitched but the camera was following the loose horse around so it was hard to tell what was going on with the rest of the horses. In the end they roped the second loose horse, I believe they got it by the legs because it went down so fast.
so thats what happened in the video. I don't really have any thoughts on it. I have heard that the lady in the cart who got hit with the runaway was disabled that would make in understandable as to why she did want to get out of her cart, there was only person with her acting as a header maybe she needed help to get out of her cart. She also needed to be dragged by someone away from where she feel into the center ring. From what i saw in the video it fits, but i can't be sure if it's true or not because i don't know her nor was i there.

Everything you have said is correct, things seem so much easier said when you are not involved.

Announcer asked to come to a walk, come to the centre, and try to keep the run away horse on the outside to stop him from running into anything. It was not until the horse kept running into the centre, that the annoucner decided it might be safe to get the others out only when the horse was at the other end.

Everyone sees something differnet, that is why we can watch a movie and someone sees something the other one did not.