Since I am to assume that most everybody reading this is a horse owner either in the past, present, or future tense, I am asking this question. Yesterday I was trimming horses for an outfit before they sent the mares and foals to their summer pasture. They had about a dozen mares tied to the interior of a corral pen, the mares that had foals for the most part had their foals either standing next to them or laying next to them. There was one open mare at the one end and when I went to work on it, the owner told me to be careful, they said she was usually full of surprises. She started pulling back when I walked up to her so I untied her and was working with her to stand without moving. She then pulled away from me and ran backwards about 50 feet, reared up and went over backwards. There happened to be a foal sound asleep behind her. When she flipped over backwards she landed on the foal. The foal wasn't dead but I suspect a broken neck. The foal had no control of its front legs and neck. It was trying to get up but couldn't. I was in the corral by myself, the owner had gone to the pasture to bring up more mares. I told them what happened when they got back to the corral, I felt like sh*t. They kept telling me to not worry about it. They said sh*t happens and it would either get up and live or it would lay down and die. I still feel like I am to blame for this, the owners kept telling me to stop worrying about it.

My question to you all is; as a horse owner, how would you take it if an accident like this happened at your place?

I certainly would NOT blame the farrier. I can see a number of things as a horse owner that I would have done different to help out the farrier had the horses been mine, but there's nothing there that I would have expected you to do different. It's not the farrier's job to train the horses to stand for trimming. I know you hate what happened, but go easy on yourself. It's not your fault.

While I don't know you personally, I have come to know that you certainly seem like a professional. You are experienced in what you do and you in know way should carry guilt from what happened. THe owner simply told you that the mare was full of surprises. This person knew that the mare was difficult to handle and could errupt. It was their responsibility to manage the mare while you worked on her. If someone told me to be careful I might assume that I'd have to watch for a kick or a bite etc. but my guess is this person had knowledge of what this mare was capable of and should have taken the neccessary precautions to handle her. It could have been you, and not the foal that the horse landed on. It was a horrible incident and anyone experiencing it would feel the way you do. I cannot imagine having to witness that scene. However it was not fair to put you in a dangerous situation. Their response that sh#t happens is ignorant. As bad is it was....this was not your fault

If it was my ranch?: my horses, my corral, my idea to have them all there, my call to get you there, my responsibility to have horses that are easy to work on. If I don't have a horse easy to work on? My responsibility to BE THERE to assist you and make your job easier. We have a skittish horse (not to this extent) but he would be easy to blow up if anybody made half an attempt at it. I ALWAYS hold this horse for the farrier because if anything is going to happen, I want it to be my situation not his. That's just part of sound responsible horsemanship to me. I feel sorry for the folks this happened to, but you were just there trying to do your job and did what you thought best for the situation.

Don't beat yourself up over this one. I would not have done anything different than what you say you did. Sad day, but the fact is, they are correct when they say s*** happens, and it happens more so with horses it seems.

Question: you drive into a place tomorrow and find the same setup: what will you do different? None of us have a crystal ball.
Cut yourself some slack. Hope this helps.

ps...I put in all new fence last year. Brand new wire, new posts, new corner braces, everything tight and first class. Our place is very tidy, no junk around for horses to hurt themselves on. No old cars, washing machines in the pasture, etc. I walk the pastures and paddocks weekly and pick up pop cans that blow in, etc. I pick up stray pieces of bale twine so that horses won't get it wrapped around a foot or suck it down with a mouthful of hay. I am diligent in keeping fence tight and no sloppy wires, yet I have a mare right now who somehow got tangled up in it and sliced up her leg. Not my fault, it just happened.

Don't you dare blame yourself!

I certainly understand your feelings, and would feel the same myself, no doubt, but it is the responsibility of the owner to manage their own horses - especially difficult ones.

All you can do is learn from it, as RanchRoper said. If you found yourself in the same situation tomorrow, how would you handle it differently? Or would you? A responsible owner would have been there to help with the one that's "full of surprises" at the very least.

It's a sad day when your farrier cares more about the welfare of your horses than you do.

Let us know if you ever find out the fate of that poor baby. Like you, I suspect that the outcome wasn't good, I just hope they didn't let it suffer.

Same situation in the future? If I had to do it all over again I would turn the mare around so if it went backwards it would go away from the other horses. Since hind sight is always 20-20, I should have done that yesterday. I really am not beating myself up over this, I just don't like what happened.

Sounds good but whose to say it wouldn't have reared up and gone over backwards onto the fence or taken you out with a front foot? You just never know and we all do the best we can.
Bottom line for me is that the owner should have been there to reduce the chance of a problem. They are 100% responsible. But that still doesn't make you feel any better about it.

"Same situation in the future? If I had to do it all over again I would turn the mare around so if it went backwards it would go away from the other horses. "


You could never have guessed what the mare would do. She could just have easily gone over the top of you instead of backwards. Bottom line, the owners were irresponsible.

Not your fault, NW, just like everybody said. I know that if I had a horse that was "usually full of surprises" I DEFINITELY would not have left the farrier alone to deal with it. I think the farrier's job is to put the shoes on the horses, not be my horse trainer in charge of ground manners for the price of a set of shoes.

To answer your question:
My question to you all is; as a horse owner, how would you take it if an accident like this happened at your place?

As a horse owner I would be sick that my lack of responsibility lead to such a disaster and put my farrier in a bad situation. I would be sick that I had a colt that was injured and I should have taken the precautions necessary to avoid the situation.

Now, as a reader, I am SICK that the owner was no more concerned for the foal other than to say

"sh*t happens and it would either get up and live or it would lay down and die"

Personally, that is the type of person I would avoid with a ten foot pole. I judge people by the way they treat their family, friends and animals. They put you and their animals in a bad situation and left.

I would distance myself from this person, as I don’t like to associate with trash.

Well said, very well said! Ditto me this responce.

I'd bet that the foal owner was making a feeble attempt to act like it was no big deal. He likely just didn't know what to say and spoke without thinking.
You get in the same stuation and see how fast you come up with a snappy response.

To answer the orginal question, next time ask that someone stay with you if a horse has bad habits. The idea is for everyone to learn from a mistake so that it doesn't happen again. Because it wasn't you're fault, I feel that it wasn't, doesn't prevent you from doing things differently in the future.