Newbie Mistake

[Ed Thayer]

It was a great day here in New Hampshire on Sunday and I hitched the horses for some garden cultivation. I decided to let them work off some energy by hooking to the fore cart and trotting up to the fallow potato patch to lightly disc it. We are trying to kill the crab grass.

But before heading out I was hitching to the cart and was between the evener and cart when all of a sudden Tucker jerked violently and side stepped a couple feet to his left. I got pinched between the cart and evener and was lucky to not have been seriously hurt. I immediately said whoa and they both stood still. I had no idea what had happened at first and thought maybe he had been stung by a hornet. After further investigation, I realized Tuckers bridle was completely off and hanging on a carabiner hook that was attached to Ozzies lower inside hame ring. I used this carabiner to hang the neck yolk off of while heading to the implement of choice.

I think he was itching his head on his teammate and the bridal hooked on the carabiner and when Tucker tried to pull his head away, he ripped the bridal off. Pretty dumb place for me to hang a hook in retrospect and it is no longer there. But this could have ended much worse had the horses not been easy going. There was no lines attached to tucker and that could have been bad.

So no damage was done and we cultivated two gardens and enjoyed the rest of the morning.

Ed

[Stephen Leslie]

So glad to hear no one got hurt, Ed. What a great tribute to you and the quality time you’ve spent that your horses listened and responded to your voice in that situation—makes all the difference. Always something new to learn. My own progression has been towards stripping down the harness to keep it as simple as possible. Horses I have now will stop and wait for me to “fix things” when they get hung up (they discover a thousand different ways to get hung up)—but a situation like that can go all wrong real fast with younger/less experienced animals so fool-proofing your harness and hitch is smart preventive medicine.
Stephen

[Carl Russell]

After 27 years of working horses and following strict routines around hitching and command structure, I found myself one day reaching for lines as my horses were fidgeting on a heavy load, raring to go, not wanting to take advantage of a rest…..

The strange thing was my right leg had a sudden and excruciating pain…. I had broken one of the basic rules that I have had firmly in the front of my mind from day one, to not step between evener and the sled. Luckily that is all I broke.

I can list all of things I could have done differently. I can find reasons why it happened. I can also think of all the things that were as they normally are.

I’m glad you were not hurt, and that you had a great day, but safety is a function of the degree of risk we are willing to take. Working horses is highly risky business, and 90% of the time a carabiner hook is not a problem, but when it is all you have left is your whits.

Thanks for sharing this, because I don’t think enough people realize that experience and attention to detail do not prevent accidents 100% of the time.

It will always come down to how we come out the other side.

Glad you made it, Carl

[j.l.holt]

had a few time that bridles were rubbed off..changed to a bridle that had two crown pieces and two throat straps…that took care of the rubbing off. now still had to watch for ‘hang ups”

[dominiquer60]

It is amazing what they will find to “hang up” on. As much as we try to prevent mishaps, a good “whoa” is the best tool for dealing with these mishaps. It is so much easier fixing a problem when the animal(s) are looking to you for leadership and problem solving. A good whoa has certainly gotten me out of a few situations I hope to never be in again. With bridle rubbing, I hate cutting their wind with the throat latch and try to prevent them from rubbing in the first place, but it does happen once in a while. If a bridle does come off it is never a problem as long as we have whoa.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by dominiquer60.

[j.l.holt]

I must of been lucky..i never had one’s wind cut back from a tight strap…I should of said that I know of. can’t see that happening.

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