Horses Who Fall Down

 
Copyright 1991 truth-or-consequences

 

1830 Words Exactly

Non-Fiction

Published by The Western Horse

Horses don't fall down often. Most horses never fall down at all. Even when they do, rider and horse usually get up, dust themselves off, shake hands and get on with the ride. But occasionally a fall can cripple or kill either the horse or the rider, and it helps to be able to eliminate as many causes of falling as possible before leaving the corral.

Once in awhile a horse falls because he simply made a mistake. Horses are only human, after all. But in the vast majority of falls, there is an identifiable cause which left the horse more susceptible to taking a spill.

Probably the most common reason for falling or tripping involves the horse who was raised in a flat paddock or, worse yet, a stall, having enjoyed little opportunity to get out and have a life. The owner usually thinks he's being kind to the horse by keeping him locked in what amounts to a jail cell most of his life, when in reality he is cheating the horse of a full and meaningful existence. Such "well cared for" equines are often the victim of an injury that either lames them up or is cause to put them down. "Pampered" horses from this category may fall during a ride when a joint, tendon or bone simply gives way because it had never been given the opportunity to become strong through work. The solution to this cause of falling down is to take Mr. Ed's sound advice: "A horse is a horse, of course, of course". Let your horse get out and be a horse. Don't try to make him into a recreational vehicle that stands idle in the "garage" until it's time to be used.

Horses that have been raised in flat paddocks or pens, or even large pastures that are flat and devoid of obstructions will have a tough time adjusting to a rocky or irregular trail. The longer the horse was kept in this flat environment the longer it will take him to learn to move on rough ground. Take a horse that is ten and never learned to pick up his feet-- he may be so set in his ways that it is impossible for him to learn to be useful on any but the most perfect ground.

Improper trimming and shoeing accounts for the next largest number of falls, with long toes being a specific culprit. I was in a pasture not an hour ago looking at a horse that was for sale. But he wasn't for sale to just anybody-- this man wanted to be sure the horse went to only the very best of homes. I watched the horse move around the feeding area. He tripped about every fifth step because his toes had not been trimmed in at least a year. I was invited to "pile on" and take him for a gallop down the road and back. I declined. If a horse owner is going to rob the horse of the opportunity to take care of himself in the wild, as nature intended, then that same owner must realize that he has a profound duty and responsibility to take care of those problems that he has prevented nature from handling. In order for a pastured domestic horse to move easily, efficiently and safely, his feet must be cared for competently and regularly.

Navicular disease might be the next most common cause of tripping and falling. While Navicular disease does not appreciably limit the function or action of the feet in a mechanical sense, it does make them extremely painful in certain conditions. Rocky ground, to the Navicular horse, is sheer torture. He will flinch and jerk every time a rock hurts his foot. Sometimes his feet will fall on ill-placed rocks two or three steps in a row. This sets up a kind of domino effect as the horse tries to recover from the first missed step. This step has put him a bit off balance, but he is confronted with pain when he tries to recover with the second step, and by this time he is really off balance. If he cannot find sure and comfortable footing on the third step, he may well go down. A method of helping to establish a diagnosis of Navicular disease is to see if the foot reacts painfully to side loads. If it does, investigate further, and suspect Navicular disease.

There are two solutions to the Navicular horse. One is to retire him and keep him in a soft, comfortable pasture for the rest of his life, making sure he is shod specifically for his condition. The other is to "nerve" the affected feet, but this is a decision which requires much research and soul searching before performing. "Buting" the horse is a stop- gap measure at best, intended only for early and mild cases of disease. The one option that is not available to the owner of a Navicular horse is to continue to ride the horse as though nothing was wrong.

Fatigue is a fairly common cause of falling. Many people, especially weekend riders, push their relatively out of shape horses beyond reasonable limits. If you get tired enough, you will fall down. And so will your horse. Horses are not magical beings who can whisk us here or there like an untiring Pegasus-- they are subject to exhaustion like all other creatures. Pushing a tired horse hard over rough ground is almost guaranteed to result in a bad fall. Similarly, horses that did not sleep well the previous night, usually on a camp-out, are a liability to ride the next day for this same reason.

There are obscure physiological anomalies that can cause a horse to go down, though they are fairly insidious in their onset and durned hard to diagnose. Horses may experience heart conditions that cause them to momentarily black out, though it's exceedingly rare. And old horses may experience the human equivalent of a stroke.

Peculiarities of conformation can leave a horse prone to tripping and falling. Some horses might have a "trick knee" that either fails to lock or comes unlocked at inopportune times.

Horses that forge badly are susceptible, and horses that clip can sometimes get their feet tangled up.

Extremely long legged and gangly horses, especially such horses that are badly out of shape, can be a menace in rough ground or when pushed hard in fast, direction-changing work.

Of course unseen wire or rope on the ground can trip a horse as well. Horses with poor eyesight are especially dangerous in this regard, and that same poor eyesight might lead them to trip over items which you would think they could not possibly miss. I rode a blind albino for many years. I became his eyes, for the most part. But I'm only human too, and occasionally I would fail to alert him to some really obvious obstruction, such as a three foot log or a picnic table. This poor horse fell down regularly. I happened to love him enough to put up with it, reasoning that whatever life he had with me was better than no life at all..

The day-dreaming horse is probably the most maddening offender, because the problem is clearly "his fault", with no physical excuses to fall back on. I rode a mustang for a number of years who also fell down often. After half a dozen falls I ran him through a series of tests at the local vet. In every case he was pronounced sound and fit. This horse was the most agile of creatures, with the footing of a cat, the stamina of King Kong, and the intelligence of Rin Tin Tin. He could lope pell mell down the side of any precipice. He could run flat out through the sage and cacti and never miss a jump. As dainty as a ballerina, he could keep his footing on trails and steep mountain sides that had me dismounted and crawling. He would urge me on, a quizzical look on his face, as if to inquire why we were moving so goll durned slowly. Yet still, when he was on a straight, flat, familiar road or trail, with no obstructions and no distractions, and he was covering ground at a comfortable hand lope-- then and only then, he fell down with absolutely astounding regularity. I finally learned to keep him more collected than other horses, but he still sometimes fell, and his crashes were usually quite spectacular. I recall once when he fell in such a circumstance not a mile from home. I flew clear as his great bulk hit the ground. I remember hearing the thud just behind me, and thinking, in that split second, that was fine. At least the big brute had managed not to fall on me. But I was too quick, for he had one more roll to make, and his rear half landed solidly across my own rear half. I covered my head so he wouldn't kick me as he was getting up. But he didn't get up. He had knocked himself out cold. I wriggled and shoved as best I could, but it was no use- -I was there for the duration. I had unpleasant visions of roving herds of sinister rattly snakes who might happen along. I could imagine them there before me, poised in a semi circle, laughing, taunting me and shooting dice to see who would get to bite me first.

But presently this silly bronco woke up and we went on our way. For years afterward he became agitated as he approached that spot in the road, and would gather himself and leap as high and as far as he could, so as to avoid whatever nasty thing he imagined had caused him to fall before. He finally did outgrow his falling problem, but there was no cure for it whatever, in the time it afflicted him.

There is a growing trend in this country to wear a crash helmet while riding a horse. If that's a rider's choice, so be it. But it must be remembered that horses that fall are very rare, despite my horror stories. When they do fall there is seldom any injury to rider or horse as the speeds are slow and the fall is not far. It's also important to learn (or to know instinctively) how to fall. And if a horseman makes an effort to eliminate or to make allowances for the most common causes of falling in the first place, the risk is not much worse than that of having a meteorite land on your head.

 

 

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