The horse meant murder

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Tonight, for the first time in my life, I saw a horse try to kill someone.

Tonight, a horse tried to kill me.

I’ve got a nasty bitemark on my thigh but am otherwise unharmed. The other person wasn’t seriously hurt either. But if I hadn’t happened to come by when I did, she might well be trampled red rags now.

There’s a woman (call her “DQ”) at my barn who made the mistake of buying a green off-the-track Thoroughbred, intending to make him into a dressage horse, when she’s not a capable rider. Over the year or so that she’s owned “Bayboy”, her flapping legs, bouncing seat, jabbing hands, and frequent whippings have turned a sweet-natured, willing guy into a sour, shutdown, angry explosion waiting to happen.

Before tonight, things had already spiraled so far down that she’s afraid now to ride him and thinking of trying to sell him. But this was a step into a new realm.

I just happened to pull into the barn around 6:00 p.m. – not my usual evening visit time, but I had a cut lip on my horse Bennie to attend to. Was it Providence that put me there then? As I parked the car I glanced into the lighted indoor ring, and saw DQ with Bayboy, spinning in a tight circle.

Double-take: DQ is trying to pick up the longe line trailing between Bayboy’s front legs with one hand, while the other grips the clip at the halter and struggles to fend off his head as, with teeth bared, he tries to savage her. She’s sobbing and stumbling and my God she might fall under his trampling front hooves at any moment! No one was around to help.

I ran into the ring, shutting the open gate behind me, grabbed the longe line near the halter, and told DQ to run for it. Bayboy stopped when I took hold. As DQ retreated, I bent over cautiously to try to get the longe line away from his front legs.

Bayboy slammed his head down, teeth bared and gaping, and savaged my thigh. I shrieked and punched his head, got him off me – and he struck again, at my shoulder. I warded him off, grabbing his halter’s noseband to keep his head away, and we lurched toward the side of the ring. I managed to fend him off till he stopped long enough for me to unclip the longe line and bolt for the side gate. Thankfully, instead of pursuing me Bayboy veered off to the far end of the ring.

DQ was sobbing but not hurt other than a wrenched shoulder. I was shaking and my thigh hurt like hell, but Bayboy hadn’t managed to break the skin through my thick winter breeches. When I’d pulled myself together, I took charge of getting Bayboy out of the ring: got a couple of lead ropes, and went back in the arena. Bayboy was standing quietly in a corner, sniffing at stuff, as I walked up calmly, speaking soothingly to him. He let me clip my rope to one side of his halter, and stayed calm as DQ timidly approached and clipped hers rope on the other side. Then we led him back to his stall, alert to haul him off if he went for one of us. But, having succeeded in getting out of having to work for the person he’s come to hate, he was well-behaved.

I had a sober, straightforward talk with DQ afterwards: that she’s the wrong owner for this horse; that she can’t sell him to anyone else because he’s going to hurt someone; and that if the dealers she bought him from won’t take him back, she’ll have to put him down. I think she’s finally able to see what’s been apparent to everyone else at the barn for months now. Bayboy has to go, one way or another, or he’s eventually going to kill her.

I hate like hell the thought that he’ll have to be put down for the folly and incompetence of the human who owns him. But he’s just too dangerous now. For months I’d been hoping someone would buy him and save what was once a lovely, good-minded young horse. Now… I think it’s too late.

DAMN.

2

Damn, damn, damn. Did she have ANY dressage experience at all? Any riding experience? Any horse training experience? I get so sick of animals suffering because of human mistakes.

Poor horse. Poor ETF. I have no sympathy for the woman who ruined him, though. I hope she never gets another horse, or at least she doesn’t get one until she has a mentor to guide her.

3

That is one sad story…I’m so happy you’re ok, ETF. Why would a horse be put down for hating humans after being abused? Therein lies the cruelness of all bad animal stories.

4

How awful.
There may be hope for Bayboy if he goes to the right person. Several years ago, I was visiting a friend at the place she boarded her horse. The stable was owned by a wonderful family who charged little, just to be able to have horses around.
The husband approched us to ask if either or both of us might be interested in buying 2 horses he knew about. They had been taken from someone who abused them horribly. Long story short, we bought a 2 year old mare and a 3 year old Morgan stud.
They were both around 100 lbs under weight, and had scars from being whipped. Needless to say, they weren’t user friendly. I had the mare, LadyDay. She bit and kicked whenever the opportunity presented itself. I never rode her. But I paid her lots of attention. In just a few weeks, she was following me like a puppy. She stopped biting and kicking. She still startled very easily, but even that was improving.
Unfortunately, I had to move back to Seattle (from Missouri) to care for a family member. The family that owned the stable bought her. Last I heard she was the beginner horse for the little kids just starting to ride.
I hope your friend can find someone with the patience to rehab Bayboy.

5

Lynn, this young woman has had lessons, with the same wonderful teacher I use. She’s also been through other instructors – never sticks with one for long, though. Until the Bayboy reality check, she seriously overestimated her ability. Her previous horse, a lovely, patient aged mare with excellent training, she gave up because “Baygirl”, she asserted, “couldn’t take her as far as she wanted to go”. Feh! Baygirl was great for her (though DQ would be a pain for any horse), but ego blinded DQ to the truth.

Blonde, it’s a sin and a shame, but this horse will most likely have to be humanely destroyed. If either DQ or I had fallen during the fight, I am convinced he would have stomped us in his rage. We’d be dead or terribly injured. It’s wrong, infuriatingly wrong, that this horse should suffer for being what a human has made him, but when a horse attacks a person, the danger is too great.

If Bayboy had superb potential for a competitive career, say in dressage or as a jumper, it might be worth a professional’s time to turn him out in a field for a year while his mind and body recovered from the pain he’s suffered, then start him back in work correctly. But there’d still be a risk that he’d revert to defensive aggression, even in capable hands. Bayboy’s a nice guy but not top-level material, so the incentive’s not there. And he’s too risky a project for an amateur to take on.

picunurse, your story makes me very glad! I too would love to see that kind of happy ending for Bayboy. My heart says oh, I wish! – in fact, I’ve hoped for months I’d come into the money to buy Bayboy and send him to my friend in New Hampshire, who has the fields and the loving skill he so desperately needs. But after tonight, I wouldn’t do it. There was deadly intent in his eyes. I’ve been bitten before by angry horses. I’ve never seen what I saw tonight.

6

Oh, and picunurse – I don’t consider DQ a friend. We’d barely exchanged a dozen words before tonight, in over two years’ time at this barn. She’s standoffish, and I prefer more down-to-earth, congenial riding companions. Plus whatever respect I might have had for her was long since destroyed by watching her ruin Bayboy.

Funny, isn’t it: How you can watch folks bringing disaster down upon themselves, and say they deserve whatever happens to them; but when crunch-time comes, you don’t even stop to think about stuff like that? :confused:

7

I have no words for when human stupidity not only endangers the idiot in question, but other people, and a poor animal, to boot.

8

The poor horse. :frowning:

9

Given that the horse is ‘proven’ viscious, don’t you know a good trainer who could pick him(?) up at a fire-sale price?

It sounds to me the horse was just panicing.

I don’t know horses, but if a dog did this I would, with anger and sorrow, have the dog put down. But dogs belong in a pack culture, and a bad dog doesn’t acknowledge the primacy of the pack; are horses like this?

10

Someone might gamble on buying him for a song, yes, j66. But they’d have to put a lot of time (equals money for a professional) and effort into rehabbing him, with no guarantee that he’d turn out safe. Horses have excellent memories, especially for things that affect their welfare. It takes a lot of patient, consistent work to alter behavior as deeply founded as Bayboy’s. He might wind up costing a rehabber a good deal of money, and providing no return.

There’s also the risk that Bayboy could behave well for an astute horse trainer, but revert to dangerous behavior when sold on to someone less skilled, who would (all unwittingly) do stuff that pushed Bayboy’s buttons. I talked to my instructor this evening about what had happened. She’s the one who pointed out the reasons given in my second post for why Bayboy is unlikely to find anyone both capable to retrain him and willing to try. My own hope is that the dealers who sold him to DQ will be willing to take him back. They wouldn’t give her her money back (nor should they, since she ruined him), but she might get some credit toward a new horse.

Bayboy wasn’t just panicking, unfortunately. A panicked horse I can deal with, and have often enough to recognize it. Horses are herd animals, and very definitely have hierarchies and dominance/submission relationships, like dogs. They will bite and kick each other to establish position, but normally, once the pecking order is set, mere threats, like pinned ears or swinging the hind end toward an offender, will be enough to keep order. Size is irrelevant; I’ve seen a tiny mare intimidate horses twice her size with just a look.

Part of horse training is to establish the human as the “alpha” in the horse’s hierarchy. The ideal is to teach the horse that, like that tiny mare I spoke of, we humans merit instant respect for our requests, no matter how much smaller we are. This isn’t a matter of inflicting cruelty to instill fear; it’s rather applying knowledge of how horses think to make the right behavior easy, and the wrong behavior hard and unpleasant. Poor Bayboy must have had an excellent foundation laid for him to have taken so long to rebel in rage against his conditioning.

11

Ah, I did not know that about horses; I thought they were more like cats. [That does sound odd …]

Wouldn’t she have to pay to have the horse put down? So couldn’t some-one talk her into just letting the horse go to some re-hab place? Are there such places for horses? [There are for dogs …]

12

That’s so sad. It breaks my heart to see people who ruin perfectly nice horses, out of ignorance.

One of my horses was abused before I got him, another off the track thoroughbred. He has huge scars on his back, and one that goes all the way around one ear. I don’t even want to think about what horrors caused them. He was never vicious, but he managed to injure a few people just in fear. He sent a girl to the hospital once when she tried to clip his ears. In the five years I’ve had him, I’ve never been able to do that, though now I can put the reins over his head without unbuckling them, and I can put his halter on without getting a split lip. I was lucky, he’s a good guy, and eager to please, but there is still alot of people that shouldn’t have a horse like this, and she sounded like one of them.

13

EddyTeddyFreddy, I’m so glad you’re okay! Like most of the others on this thread, I’d love to see a happy ending for this poor horse. But as I’ve become rather fond of you, you know, I’m very, very glad you’re okay. I hope your leg and shoulder aren’t causing you too much pain. You’re a cat lover as well, aren’t you? Please check your email for a post from me. :cool:

14

:eek: Critters as huge and powerful as equines, with the contrary independence of CATS?!? :eek:

:: sigh ::

There are rescue organizations that take horses. Some are run by a state’s SPCA, or a chapter of a national humane group. Some are private charities, usually struggling to stay afloat. Horses are expensive – in labor, feeding, property upkeep, and land to accommodate them. Not all horse rescue operations are legit – I know of one (no longer operating) in my own town that was dubious, to say the least.

Such groups are generally aimed, by necessity, at taking the most egregious cases – the walking skeletons, the – I really don’t want to talk about the horrors they see. Often they will have to foster out some rescue cases when they salvage a whole herd. They try to adopt out rehabs where they can, and keep some unadoptables. I really don’t know if Bayboy would meet the criteria to be taken by such an organization. He’s healthy and well-fed, for example, which right there makes him way better off than most rescues.

As with shelters for unwanted dogs and cats, there are too often more candidates for rescue than facilities to take them in.

Starving Artist, thanks for your concern! I’m currently merely annoyed because I can’t find the gel icepack I thought I had in the freezer, to soothe my bitemark, which is progressing nicely from red teeth-marks toward full Technicolor bruising. On the whole, getting one’s foot stepped on (especially in thin footwear) by a thousand-pound horse is more painful. :wink: Just as long as I don’t bump the tender spot against anything, that is.

15

Intent, your post is a good answer to those who are asking couldn’t Bayboy be rehabbed? Five years since he came into your kind, capable hands, and still he bears the mental as well as physical scars of what was done to him, right? And he’s merely (“merely”!) panicking at remembered pain, not striking back in rage.

I can tell that his mental anguish is much diminished by your gentle patience, but not eradicated. Years from now, you’ll still have to adapt your handling of him to the residue of his fears, right? My easygoing 22-year-old Quarter Horse I believe was beaten before I got him, and even 12 years later he still reacts angrily to certain stimuli.

By the way, for those of you who’ve never seen an angry horse, here’s what one looks like.

16

Isn’t there a way to get her on a list that refuses to sell to her…she’s the dangerous one!

With lots of work, the horse can be taught that not everyone is like this stupid piece of flesh…why shoiuld the horse die because of her! Don’t you have any rescue agencies in your area?

17

Her instructor at the time (a good friend of mine) warned DQ not to buy this horse. The dealer even told my friend that she didn’t think she should put Bayboy in this woman’s hands – then went ahead and took DQ’s ten grand (for a four year old, green horse with middling talent!). If DQ were on a sensible older horse – say, a schoolmaster – and working regularly with an instructor, she could develop into a decent enough rider that she wouldn’t brainfry it. My opinion, she should NEVER be allowed within a country mile of a greenie, ever.

Well, this morning I’m casting about for possibilities, since I agree – and have felt throughout this slow-motion trainwreck – that the poor horse shouldn’t have to suffer for her sins. And yet… this morning I got an email from a friend, an experienced horsewoman who ran a provincewide rescue organization in Canada for a number of years:

Even if someone did turn this guy around, if he ever had to be sold on to someone else, and again perhaps to someone else, and his history didn’t follow him… You see what I fear? And, with a history like that, how many people would be willing to buy him, when there are so many good horses looking for homes?

I am so furious that this poor horse should ever have been brought down to this pitiful state by human stupidity!

18

What a very, very sad story this is. You might try the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation or ReRun, organizations that deal specifically with Off the track Tbreds. CANTER, too, though they are more of a re-homing organization vs. rescue organization.

I think it is TRF that has a program that is run from inside a prison in NY State, supposedly very beneficial to both prisoners and the horses.

19

A terrible story - and the worst part of the whole affair is of course that it was absolutely preventable. If only DQ had pulled the cotton out of her ears before buying Bayboy!

Assuming DQ doesn’t give up riding entirely after this scare, perhaps she’ll now be more realistic about her skill level and actually LISTEN to her trainer when the trainer tells her a particular horse is unsuitable for her.

It’s just too bad she didn’t learn this lesson before it cost a once-nice horse his life.

20

SO the choice is between the death of an innocent animal, twisted at the hands of a stupid and incompetent owner, or the owner?

I know which one I’d pick.