preventing horseback riding injuries

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injury prevention

HOW TO AVOID INJURIES FROM HORSES AND AROUND THE BARN

Horseback riding and caring for horses can be safely enjoyed throughout life as long as someone is fit enough to get up on a horse and generally get around a barn. Riding and working with horses safely, though, requires the use of common sense and a keen awareness of your riding and physical abilities.

Following are tips that can help keep you safe and prevent acute and chronic injuries. They apply to those of all ages, but especially to older riders and barn helpers.

Opt for horses that are well-behaved on the ground

OPT FOR A HORSE WITH GOOD MANNERS.

DON'T OVER-HORSE YOURSELF. Be careful to ride (and especially buy) horses that are not prone to misbehaving on the ground or under saddle. Avoid horses with a history of kicking, shying, bucking, bolting or rearing. Unless you're an advanced rider with vast experience handling horses, it's better to have a horse that's quiet and even a bit on the slow side than it is to have a spirited or ill-behaved horse that might leave you eating dirt. See the page on tips for buying a horse.

Click here to go to the page on tips for buying a horse.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS wear an ASTM/SEI-approved helmet when riding! Even if you have an exceptionally well-behaved horse, accidents happen and head injuries are real risk. I cannot tell you how many times over the years I've seen riders come off and hit their head but were spared serious injury and perhaps even death thanks to their helmet. It is absolutely idiotic to ride without a helmet!

As an aside: Years ago, a group of us went to an Arizona dude ranch armed with our helmets. The wranglers thought it was hysterical and called us the "brain-bucket brigade!" We wore our helmets anyway. We were smarter. Stand up to ridicule and wear your helmet! Set an example!

USE A MOUNTING BLOCK TO GET ON YOUR HORSE. Mounting from the ground seriously torques your knee, so it's no wonder that knee problems are common among horseback riders. In fact, we have so many riders in our barn with knee problems that we installed a handicapped-height toilet in our remodeled bathroom! It makes it much easier to get up and down. Mounting from a block is also kinder to the horse's back.

If you need to mount when a mounting block isn't available, which might occur if you've dismounted for some reason on the trail then need to get back on, try to find a log to use for leverage or lower your stirrup unless, of course, your horse is very, very short.

RIDE WITH LIKE-MINDED OTHERS. On the trail particularly, ride with others who are safety-minded. Everyone should ride at the pace of the lowest-level rider. Clarify before the ride whether everyone wants to walk, trot and canter, just walk, or just walk and trot. Ride with people who look out for each other.

IN THE BARN...

BE CAREFUL ABOUT CARRYING HAY. Avoid carrying flakes of hay with one hand, in between your thumb and fingers. I'm convinced that using one hand to pick up flakes to hay 40+ horses for many years has caused the very painful arthritis I have at the base of my right thumb. Carry flakes of hay in between the palms of both hands.

If you can't easily lift a bale of hay, don't! Cut the bale open and carry a few flakes at a time.

If you need to hay several horses, buy a wagon. I have one purchased at our local Tractor Supply that pulls easily, turns on a dime and saves a lot of trips carrying hay up and down barn aisles. I also use it sometimes to haul water in buckets, and...

HANDLING WATER BUCKETS AND FEED BAGS. A typical five-gallon bucket of water weighs over 41 pounds! If you need to empty a full bucket, tip some of the water into another bucket and do it in stages. If you need to fill a bucket and can't bring the hose to the bucket, use another bucket and make two or three trips, depending on what you can comfortably carry.

HAYWAGON

A WAGON MAKES IT EASIER TO HAY HORSES

Lifting 50-pound bags to empty feed into a bin can cause serious back sprain; instead, open the top and remove enough feed with a scoop until the bag is light enough to easily dump. It takes a bit longer but is better than the alternative. We're lucky to have two wonderful, strong farm hands who handle feed bags but if you don't have this luxury and loading and unloading bags of feed is problematic, try to arrange to have someone do it for you.

INVEST IN EQUIPMENT. If it's your own barn and you can possibly afford to do so, invest in a tractor with a bucket that you can drive into the barn. There are also manure carts and spreaders (assuming you can spread manure someplace). This kind of equipment can really ease the job of cleaning and rebedding stalls and is sure easier than using muck buckets or wheel barrows.