Interesting - Riding a horse is 20 times more dangerous re the occurrence of a serious injury per hours ridden than riding a motorcycle. I would have lost that bet -
Really? Well I guess I’ll trade in my horse for one of those two-wheeler things–save some of that money I’ve been spending on all those medical bills.
Told ya’ loud pipes saves lives.
Well, yeah - horses are animals with their own volition. Your motorcycle isn’t going to freak out because a leaf was blown across its path, pop a wheelie, dump you on the ground, then run over you all on its lonesome but a horse certainly can do that.
Well, duh. (Horse owner of over 25 years here). You are sitting on top of a 1100 pound prey animal with a brain the size of a walnut and whose reaction to anything scary is to spin and run without thinking. No fight, only flight. Your only means of control are two strips of leather attached to a piece of metal in the horse’s mouth, and your balance to stay on top of a curved seat of leather that weighs about 20 pounds (dressage saddle). And there are lots of riders who don’t wear helmets.
I’ve fallen from a horse from pretty much every direction. Oddly, the only time I really thought I was hurt by a horse wasn’t while riding; it was when one stepped on my foot. His name was Damien, which is the name of the devil child in The Omen. Coinicidence?
(To be fair, I didn’t need a doctor’s attention.)
feed the horse Beef-a-Reeno and see whose pipes are louder.
rusty!
It’s a fairly meaningless study if they don’t break out death from serious injury. Purely conjecturing numbers - if a serious but non-life-changing injury is 20 times more likely on a horse, a life-changing injury is 3 times more likely on a horse, and death is 4 times more likely on a motorcycle, then which is a “more dangerous” activity?
I wonder if helmet use was taken into consideration? I imagine riding horses is still more dangerous, but a lot of horse riding deaths might have been prevented if the rider was wearing a helmet.
I would bet money the percent of motorcycle riders wearing helmets is much higher than the percent of horse riders.
Yes?
I wouldn’t have guessed the multiplier was that large, but if anyone asked me I would have guessed horses were more dangerous.
I think a lot of people think that horses = big dogs, even so called “horsepeople” and so don’t give them the respect they ought. It’s pretty easy to see that a motorcycle can be dangerous and so a larger portion of riders are cautious. Relatively speaking horses don’t go that fast, and unless you’re really stupid you aren’t riding on the freeway or in heavy traffic. What people don’t get is the forces that come into play from a fall from that height, even if there’s little or no speed involved. Add speed and it all multiplies, fast. Helmets are not mandatory and many see them as only for little kids or “beginners” - though in western riding helmets are a rarity for anyone, kid or adult.
I would like to see a breakdown of the injuries and deaths though. Many years ago I wrote a chapter on equestrian related injuries for a Sports Medicine text designed to give medical folk an overview of common injuries in a variety of sports. I don’t remember all the facts and figures now, but there are a LOT of ways to be injured around on on horses.
I’ve been a horse owner & rider for 40 years. I love them, but they are inherently dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing, and sometimes even if you do.
You know those cute velvet hats you see equestrians wearing? They’re actually helmets. The velvet is just a pretty covering. A lot of places you rent horses now either encourage or require helmet use. So really, head protection isn’t new in horse riding. But, as noted, it’s not mandatory.
Yeah, I actually ride so I do know that. :rolleyes:
I also know how many people ride without, especially on their own property or around rural trails. I see it all the time.
Well, I rode Western for years with no helmet (hey! I was EXTREME, who knew?), but I would always wear one now.
Very timely thread for me! I’m sitting here, recovering from a horse fall, with all my motorbike friends giving me shit (all in good fun). I have crashed my motorbike a few times (over many, many years and including time at the racetrack), but this horse fall has been my worst injury so far.
I knew it was statistically more dangerous, but didn’t realise it was that magnitude more dangerous.
(I’m expecting to be fully recovered within a month from the incident, though a few scars may hang around, so no big deal - could’ve been much worse)
Ouch! Hope you heal quickly.
I think too what is confusing is that falls from a horse are generally no big deal, until The One that is just right. Or wrong, I guess.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come off over the years, and I’ve been lucky (and generally well prepared in terms of helmet and sometimes a crash vest) and have never been more than bruised and sore*. But three serious competitors in Eventing have been killed this year, and I just saw a news bit about a 12 yo girl whose horse collapsed at a barrel race and crushed her 
*And now I’m going to go knock on wood, find salt to throw over my shoulder, and do anything else I can think of to ward off the jinx I just put on myself!
The article suggests that horseback riding injuries are generally due to circumstances beyond the rider’s control (generally this means the horse). In motorcycling, yes, there are often multi-vehicle accidents, but motorcycles are commonly involved in single-vehicle accidents due to bad decisions made by the rider. Interesting to learn that motorcycling is substantially less dangerous than horseback riding, but it would be even less dangerous if every rider (rather than just 50% of them) were properly trained and licensed, and none of them rode while intoxicated.
I don’t believe these numbers; did anyone look at the data? [there is a reference to a book of odds URL–this doesn’t open for me]
Sure, but these numbers are going to change as soon as Google starts implanting brains in motorcycles.