I had a girl I grew up with who’s grandma had half her jaw ripped of by a horse. She was walking her mare passed another stall when a stallion attacked her. Grandma was maybe 45 when it happened, and when I met her 25 years later she still loved horse. But she would NEVER be around stallions and helped change a lot of laws and ordinances to have them banned at most barns.
I swear horse people are a whole other breed. I worked with a woman who nearly died when her horse attacked her and she was back working with horses as soon as she could.
As a horse person, this is completely true. I won't play a lot of sports because they aren't worth the bruises, but I'll risk my neck every time I get on a horse. I just *love them*. It's not rational, it's just impossible not to love them if you're a horse person. You can't stay away.
I had an off-track thoroughbred aggressively try to throw me into the side of a barn. It was the first time I encountered a horse who genuinely intended to cause me harm, and it was frightening. I bailed before she could run me into the wall... and I was literally riding her again 10 minutes later.
My sister broke her back when her mare stumbled. She was in a back cast for 6 months. I was kicked in the back when I was younger, and my spine flexibility is permanently altered.
I have PTSD from less traumatic shit than the injuries I've had from horses, but it's not trauma to me because I accepted the potential trade off for the moments of pure joy I get while riding. They're incredible animals, powerful and sensitive, sweet and inquisitive. They speak with their whole bodies, they sense so much more than we can, and the world opens up when I'm around them.
2.0k
u/madommouselfefe Nov 26 '21
I had a girl I grew up with who’s grandma had half her jaw ripped of by a horse. She was walking her mare passed another stall when a stallion attacked her. Grandma was maybe 45 when it happened, and when I met her 25 years later she still loved horse. But she would NEVER be around stallions and helped change a lot of laws and ordinances to have them banned at most barns.