Avoiding Horse Wrecks

I was in the horse industry for twenty years. I worked everything from liquidation sales at bankrupt barns to high end hunter-jumper barns. I have seen some massive wrecks in my time, some the horse survived, some they did not. What follows is a list (not exhaustive by any means) of simple ways to keep your horse from experiencing a catastrophic accident.

1. No loose horses wearing nylon halters. Nylon halters do not break. At a sale barn, a horse in a stall wearing a halter somehow got it caught on the top latch hook of the dutch door. The horse panicked, got its front feet into its feeder, then using it as a launch pad, leapt sideways, lost its footing and broke its neck. Just like that it was dead. Everyone in the barn heard the commotion, but by the time we had run to the horse it was too late. You only need to see this sort of thing once.

Due to this I also never leave a horse tied with the halter around its neck (such as you would when bridling) I either drop the halter altogether, or I untie it.

2. No barbed wire. No barbed wire fencing for the horse, no barbed wire around the property. Most people know that barbed wire and horses do not mix, but the same cannot always be said for the perimeter fencing. I had a horse set back at a hitching rail, snap the halter and run full on into a neighbor's fence. She opened her chest and foreleg nearly to the bone. We were concerned about her survival. She was lucky, and was only laid off for months and still sports a nasty scar.

Another horse, getting out at night, and pawing at a nearby fence got her foreleg caught and set back, driving the wire all the way through her coronary band to the hoof. She had to be cut off the fence. She had to undergo a full anesthetic reconstruction costing $3000, and was never sound again.

3. Ensure that whatever you are tying to will keep your horse safe. It is best to tie above the horse's withers to lessen its power to pull. Cross ties tend to be safer than hitching rails and the like. The horse has two points to fight as opposed to one, they are also usually equipped with panic snaps that will give way if the horse freaks out. Another safe alternative if rail tying is the only thing available is a rope with some stretch in it, which makes the horse less likely to feel trapped.

A high quality hunter mare was tied at a wash rack when she spooked at the hose, she set back, the rope was long enough to allow her to rear before the snap broke and she fell onto her withers. She shattered the spinous processes (the boney part that sticks up) in her withers. She recovered, but could never be tied again.

There are myriad disasters that can befall a horse, they seem to seek them out, but these three simple steps will prevent many injuries.