Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Horse kick

"THAT", goes right to the heart.

Horses, along with trampolines and now skateboards, are what keep orthopedic surgeons in fine fettle. Just a couple of days ago a woman acquaintance mentioned her experience with horse ownership, which resulted in bone screws and a morphine drip. My sister got rubbed against a steel stock fence, wiped out her knee.

P_Weed, did you get the half that eats like a, well, horse; or the other half?

Want to play with my dogs- rough-house? Sure hurts! I'd talk about teeth, but I still have a scar from Old Brownie, my BIL cutting horse....

Now mules... thems a different story. I learned a lot from the one mule I ever packed with. He was smarter than all three of us on the USFS trail crew, put together.

When my grandfather was young 12-13 yrs old he got kicked in the forehead by a horse and had a pretty good sized divot on his head because of it. ( I tell my father the horse kicked his father so hard he was born dizzy My wife's little cousin (8 yrs old) was thrown and dragged by her horse and died. I will admit to having a fear of horses and having no use for them. I was just reading a paper of old logging story's and read of several people being hurt by horses, shattered knee's and hip's etc. Horse's certainly command respect and pay attention when around them. My father alway's say's a Horse has 2 a--h---s, it's own and the person who feed's it!
Karl

I like women and horses



but it pays to keep a sharp eye on both

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to care for the animals in ADF&G's Moose Research Center out of town here, for a couple weeks over Christmas while the resident biologists were on break.

We were carefully instructed not to enter the bulls' pen, but to load the feed bunker from outside the pen. The cows, on the other hand, we could load from inside, as they were much less unpredictable.

When I entered the pen with a bag of pellets on my shoulder, I was mobbed. My teenaged boys were impressed when I (muy macho) merely shoved the cows' head's aside and proceeded to the bunker to dump the feed sack, then successively muscled in between them as they were feeding to dump several subsequent sacks of pellets. Without my own teenage farm experience with large farm animals, I'd have probably chit my pants and embarrassed myself in front of wife and sons. Well, not the wife- she's a farm girl herself.

As it was, I put up a real good front. I even played mind games with Melody, the second largest cow in the pen. She was a freak for bananas. So I peeled a banana while standing 10 or so feet behind her where she was wedged between two other cows feeding in the bunker. Her head came up, she inhaled noisily a couple of times, then backed out, (Yes, Virginia, moose can back up!), and came for her treat. It's an acquired taste - her calf also loved bananas, but other moose were indifferent to it - F&G has several pictures of Melody ransacking worker's backpacks for the bananas they hid in them.

At least, no one tried to kick or bite me....

On the other hand, when that pen-raised but not bottle fed cow with twin calves raised her hackles at me, I backed off......

I may be a mite tetched, but I ain't stoopid.... much.

the_shootist - Your grandfather sounds a lot like my dad! He used to have a team of draft horses that he used when he was logging in Maine. One day he was untangling a chain and the horse kicked him in the azz, sending him flying. He picked himself up, grabbed an axe handle and whacked that horse between the eyes! Never had a problem with either of them kicking again..

Horse kicks are bad. There is an old guy that walks around town here in a daze from one. most people think he's retarded. My mom went to school with him in Lusk, and says he was probably the most popular guy in high school. He was a rodeo champ in his day--well at least until he got kicked in the head. Terrible, terrible, thing to happen. Personally, I think I'd rather die than have that happen to me.

In 1999, I caught the front hoof of a bull stomp in the pelvis and hip at a rodeo. I got a new hip, some plates in my pelvis, and spent several weeks in traction. I retired from rodeo then and there. I've been dumped a few times by horses since, but not on purpose.

I was brought up taught that the rear end of those horses has a lot in common with the front end of guns--it's best not to be where they can get you. This includes empty guns and dog gentle horses BTW.

i didn't get kicked but did get trampeled. had my right heel and anckle crushed and almost ampuitated spent 6 weeks in the hospital 4 surgerys to save my foot that was 20 yr ago now i have arthrituses to remind me about it every day. my daughter wants a horse i told her unless she plans on making a living with it no way. i would'nt have a horse unless it earned its keep

I used to pack for a civilian contract packer. Don't set me up with straight lines like that. I can barely resist.

Hubert's horse kicks when eating probably because she either had to fight for her food when younger or is the dominant mare. In any case, horses ( although I have mule,the same thing applies) don't stay on my place if they kick,bite or buck. It isn't any more expensive to keep a good animal than a bad one.

Most folks get hurt from not paying attention or figuring the horse is like a dog and want to love them and they in turn love you back. Women and young girls are probbaly more of the latter.


Horse are about the stupidest barn yard animal there is. Cows out shine them and a pig is a genious compared to a horse. Keep that inmind and you will casue yourself a lot less grief.

I switched to mules about 30 yrs ago. They are a lot smarter than a horse,but still pretty stupid. Indeed, most folks can't get along with a mule because the mule ss smarter than them and they don't take the time to figure out the differnce between a horse and a mule and end up treatig the mule like a horse. BIG MISTAKE. A hors ewill just alsh out with akick and may or may not conect. If a mule goes to kick you, it will not miss and more than likely have a spot picked out on your person to hit.

A mule will not seek revenge as many relate, but it will not forget bad treatment. Hores may or may not forget.
Onething fro sure. A horse will kill you by accident, a mule will kill you on purpose

I really appreciate all the responses on this thread- and I (for one) had best take these warnings to heart. I have been told by a lot of folks that horses are large and dangerous animals, and I have given little thought ('till now) to what those words really mean. So, I'm going to ask my wife to read what has been discussed here ALSO. And I want to thank Y'all.

I know that I know 'nothing' about horses and am just running on my luck (so far), as to all the time I've been spending and fooling around them.

I was bragging about all my new horse experiences to my friends father tonight- and when I finished my stories I added, ... "Of course, I haven't been bitten or kicked yet."

The 'old' gentleman replied, ... "David, you know it isn't a matter of "haven't" - It's only a matter of "when".

Hey
I had horses for years. There are 2 types of horse owners, the ones that were kicked and the ones that will be. the same goes for bitting, falling off, ect.... I had a horse that would follow me around like a dog. When I cut grass she would follow behind. Fix the car and her head was right there looking in. people just did not believe it. One day my wife turned her back on her and she kicked my wife right in the A$$ left a hoof print there as proof.
Bearbeater

Horses hurt and kill people every year. They're dangerous.

Cars, ATVs, motorcycles, and lots of other things we involve ourselves with do the very same thing. Animals have a brain and personality so they're easier to blame for your misfortune than an object. In either instance the person had more brainpower than the horse, the ATV, or the car and failed to use it.

I've had broken bones and reconconstructive surgery from my involvement with horses and mules. The mistakes were mine to make. I'm still healing up from my last mishap which was pretty much my fault for taking a short cut. It's hard to remember that horses don't wear a watch and if you start something you best have the time to do it right. I got reminded of that.

In my case neither the mule nor the horses were mean, they were reacting like the animals they were and I failed to think about it that way in advance. If the mule was mean that kick to the face would have been fatal. Saddlesore is right about not only how accurately they can kick but they know how hard they're going to blast you too.

I don't have any experiance at all with Mules and probably never will. Heard they were stubborn and don't want to deal with that.

To dispell the myth that mules are stubborn. They are not. Mules just naturally have a higher sense of self preservation than a horse. It comes from the donkey part of the equation. Donkeys evolved from living in harsher and rougher terrain than horses did, which evolved on the plains. Therefore instead of a higher flight instinct,they became more wary and learned to avoid the problems.If a mule thinks something is unsafe, they will avoid it. If they see no sense in it, they will bulk at doing it. Humans,generally being a little more stupid than the mule, take this a being stubborn and then commense to beat on the mule as they would as horse,thinking they can beat it into submission. The mule, remembering that it thought whatever it was at the moment was dangerous or made no sense gets reinforced that it was right because something is sure hurting it now.

Trained right, mules are very workable animals. In fact, during the heyday of horses, there were more mules being worked in the U.S. than horses, and they fetched a higher price than horses.

This thread ought to be mandatory reading for every potential horse owner, particularly for those considering buying them for their kids.

I was raised around horses - well trained horses, too - and learned all I need to know about them......... there is not a single good reason for me to ever own one. If I were to do a pack hunt, I'd take a mule.

Saddlesore has got the horse vs mule thing right and it's obvious he has good experience.
A mule will never deliberately and knowingly do anything that will hurt himself. Not true of a horse.
A horse is hands down the dumbest animal on the farm. Period.

A mule doesn't want to cross that ditch at that spot???? Guess what, you don't either. A horse might.

I don't have the time right now that this thread deserves. I'll just close with this thought:

Get a mule, they're safer. A Kawasaki Mule is even better.

Yea and amen, brother! I did a fair bit of wrangling in my late teens and early 20's, at a kids' summer camp and then for a trail-riding outfitter in the Rockies. Working with a remuda of 25 or 30 horses, you get to learn individual animals. I always made a point of finding one or two that I could sorta kinda trust some of the time. You learn to grow eyes in the back of your head.

Nonetheless, I got bit, stomped, kicked, or throwed several times when I let my guard down. Most were trivial incidents, but I was young, strong, quick, and flexible. Ten years later I was on a friend's farm one day in total Condition White and got blind-sided by his old nag of a saddle-horse; the gelding caught me square in the chest with both hoofs and busted five of my ribs. That hurt. Both my body and my pride.




It ain't just the young ones. In the past two years I've treated a half dozen serious injuries sustained by middle-aged women who got injured while riding or caring for their horses. They don't heal so fast as men, and most American women's bones are at significant risk by their 50's. Horses and middle-aged women aren't a good combination, in my admittedly narrow point of view.



Same here. I've been up on horseback a few times since then and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Next fall I'm going to Wyoming to hunt elk, and will be hunting from horseback. I'm looking forward to that. But not so much that I'm gonna go out and buy a horse.

I had very little to do with mules until I was in my 40's. Then for two summers I had the opportunity to put a few hunderd miles on some well bred and well taught mules--to say I was impressed is an understatement. Those mules lived at sea level and were trailered up to Colorado just a few days before. And they walked the high country horses into the ground. Plus, they were like ATVs--they bushwacked through the steep and rough stuff with aplomb.

If I ever invest in riding/hunting stock again I would seriously consider paying the extra money for some good mules.

Of course, one of them did kick the [bleep] out of my Aussie pup

But there was also a heeler that had a bad habit of nipping the horses heels when we least expected it. But mules have a much faster and sneakier kick than horses do--and boy did one mule teach that heeler--for a while we thought the heeler may be permanently injured

Casey

Great thread.

I have a standing RX for Soma and Hydocodone largely from the fun time spent with a good friends 'bullet proof' mare when Elk hunting in the Gifford Pinchot Wilderness area. I am no expert but I have owned about a dozen or so horses over the years. I like my Rokon a lot better.