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My saint of a filly tried to kill me today.

3K views 27 replies 15 participants last post by  travlingypsy 
#1 ·
Of course, it was completely my fault, I was a big, stupid idiot.

I was going to lunge her in her surcingle again today [the second time having it on] and if all went well, I was going to add the bridle. So I groom my amazing little Gracie who has always taken everything I've thrown at her like she's been doing it for years, and throw the surcingle on. I go to tighten up the girth and she starts backing up. I asked her to stand still and then she started getting panicky, and then she started thrashing violently. I unhooked one of the crossties, assuming she felt stuck, but the violent thrashing continued. She spun around, facing the other way, conveniently placing me in between her and the wall as I'm frantically trying to figure out what has her going. I try to undo the girth but the holes are recently punched and it just doesn't come off that easily.

And then I see.

Stupid human that I am had put the surcingle over her back AND the crosstie on the other side, and when I tightened it, her face was pinned to her side and then to the wall. No wonder she panicked! So I managed to release the other crosstie, and she instantly relaxed and stood there like nothing every happened.

During the battle, she fell down [on the concrete floor, eek] a few times, and slammed me into a wall at least three times, probably more. She hit my face, my head hit the wall. Or maybe she hit me and both of us hit the wall. It was terrible. Broke my glasses [and I'm blind without my glasses], my head was throbbing, I had blood pouring down my face from a scratch on my cheek [from my glasses] and of course, I'm sobbing from all the adrenaline.

I ran my hands over Gracie to "see" if she was hurt. Like I said, I'm pretty much blind without my glasses. I couldn't find anything glaringly wrong, she walked fine, trotted fine. Somehow, Gracie came out completely unscathed. I loved on her a bit, it wasn't her fault, and put her back in the crossties and she was perfectly content in them. I put the surcingle back on and she was perfectly content so thank god the several seconds of panic didn't make the barn, the crossties, the surcingle, or me scary. So oddly enough, I'm very, very proud of my little girl.

I simply can't WAIT to go in to work tomorrow with my fat, swollen, scratched cheek and black eye! Haha. And because I always take pictures of my battle wounds, here's a few!



 
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#11 ·
i think you need to read the whole post before you comment!
 
#6 · (Edited)
Thanks everyone! I did go to the doctor and no concussion, just a beautifully swollen black eye to take to work this morning!



And to the above.

The cause:

Stupid human that I am had put the surcingle over her back AND the crosstie on the other side, and when I tightened it, her face was pinned to her side and then to the wall. No wonder she panicked! So I managed to release the other crosstie, and she instantly relaxed and stood there like nothing every happened.
My filly is very tame, and very accepting, and she loves me to pieces. It was a "freak accident" and just happened.
 
#9 ·
My crossties are at a decent length, any shorter and my horses wouldn't be able to hold their head at a natural level. Gracie just swings her butt to the side, which brings her side up next to the crosstie, hence the surcingle being able to go over both her and the crosstie. You also have to realize that my barn aisle is pretty wide, so she can fit in sideways.

We're trying to work on her swinging over, but I don't always have time to stand there for twenty minutes and correct her every time her butt moves. She just likes to wiggle, and hasn't learned a lot of patience yet.

Think what you will, though. My crossties are equipped with quick-release snaps and bailing twine, there really isn't anything else I can do. I already admitted it was my fault, it's not like I'm denying responsibility.
 
#20 ·
First, thank you everyone!



Oh, I love having crossties, lol. Ground tying is preferable most days, but I don't quite trust Gracie yet to not get distracted and wander off, lol. And she is very forgiving. She got un-stuck and then just looked around, bumped me with her nose and then stuck her nose in the cat's water bowl, splashing all the water out, lol.

Oh, my gosh!! I'm glad you're okay! Both of you. Another reminder of how dangerous the can be, even when neither horse or owner intends it. One good thing to come of these situations is a good lesson for us owners. Kudos to Gracie for staying level-headed after the scare.
It definitely brings into focus that Gracie may be a slight little baby, but she still has enough power in that little body to break every bone in my body, haha. I'll definitely pass on the kudos. =]

I don't think there needs to be alot of monday morning quarterbacking on this thread. The OP learned an important lesson that she will be thinking about for a few weeks every time she looks in the mirror. I'm sure the position of her crossties will be looked at as well as making sure she has a better escape route if things go wrong but stuff happens and I'm glad nobody was hurt any worse than a black eye and some scratches.
A very important lesson indeed. And I did play with my crossties a little bit, as well as decide to do more "get stuck" training with Gracie, starting with hobbles.

I bet that hurt!
Yes it did. Very, very much, lol.

In that case i agree with Kevin, it was an accident, she learned from it and noone was seriously injured. Poor little Gracie was probably like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME MOM????" lol, I am glad she calmed down and got her head back on her shoulders. That eye looks lovely hehehe.
What gets me is I saw her getting confused and didn't take a second to let it register. She thought the opposite crosstie was asking her to back up, but then she hit the end of the other crosstie and couldn't figure out where to go. So she thrashed. And the calming down was instantaneous. I was so terribly proud. =]

To OP: So sorry you had such a rough time. Your girl sounds wonderful, though, with how calm she became once you got her loose.
Again, thank you. She really is a total saint for only being a year and a half. She has more common sense in her head than most any other creature I've come across, humans included. To her, it was a very simple, "I'm stuck and must get un-stuck," and then a, "I'm not stuck anymore, so what are we going to do now?" I got super lucky with her, she's the first horse I'm going to train from the ground up, and I couldn't have gotten a more willing partner.

To the OP: I'm glad you just ended up with a black eye. Working with babies and even old pros, you sometimes find yourself in some pretty scary situations. It sounds like you handled it well!
Thankfully, that's about as scary as it's gotten for me so far. =D
 
#12 ·
Oh, my gosh!! I'm glad you're okay! Both of you. Another reminder of how dangerous the can be, even when neither horse or owner intends it. One good thing to come of these situations is a good lesson for us owners. Kudos to Gracie for staying level-headed after the scare.
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#13 ·
I don't think there needs to be alot of monday morning quarterbacking on this thread. The OP learned an important lesson that she will be thinking about for a few weeks every time she looks in the mirror. I'm sure the position of her crossties will be looked at as well as making sure she has a better escape route if things go wrong but stuff happens and I'm glad nobody was hurt any worse than a black eye and some scratches.
 
#19 ·
Great Post Kevin.

To the OP: I'm glad you just ended up with a black eye. Working with babies and even old pros, you sometimes find yourself in some pretty scary situations. It sounds like you handled it well!
 
#18 ·
It's a reference to American Football. It's watching a game and then complaining about how it could have gone better if only they had done this or that differently. Kind of like hind sight's 20/20, but also using your knowledge of how something went and thinking that you could have done better in the moment.

Yeah, as PaintPwn interpreted, it means the OP doesn't need to be preached at, and she also doesn't need us to break down what happened and how it could have gone differently. The OP saw what she did wrong and has the knowledge and self awareness to fix her mistakes without the rest of us pointing out how to do it.

To OP: So sorry you had such a rough time. Your girl sounds wonderful, though, with how calm she became once you got her loose.
 
#17 ·
In that case i agree with Kevin, it was an accident, she learned from it and noone was seriously injured. Poor little Gracie was probably like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME MOM????" lol, I am glad she calmed down and got her head back on her shoulders. That eye looks lovely hehehe.
 
#27 ·
It's mostly just easier to swing thing back where I want them. It's easier to do in the crossties when they're head is more or less unable to travel very far, vs tying to a pole or something, my horses like to get all up close and personal, so I have to squeeze by to get them to move over, lol.
 
#28 ·
I like crossties. Most of the barns Ive been to use them. Its good for the horses around here to be use to them. Most of the time you have to use cross ties. Not many places to groom/tack up at the barn I had to board at. You could use the arena wall but again if you have a kicker like me. Its annoying for the other riders and mainly me.

At least the OP put the cross ties back on once Gracie calmed down vrs avoiding them. And having them as a "scary" thing. We once had a draft horse get shocked while the owner was taking off his blanket. He broke both rubber ties and now since she didnt cross tie him again after that. Hes always afraid to be in them. He either backs up and then freaks himself by the pressure. Or has his head way up in the clouds as if hes a time bomb.
 
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