Before I write this little anecdote from the show last weekend, let me give you some background information so you don’t think I’m a total asshat who doesn’t know how to do anything with my horse.  Simon wears gummy rubber pull on bell boots 24/7.  I flip them up, take them off, etc all the time.  No issue.  I do this in cross ties and not tied and all variations of the sort.

That being said, here is the story.

So we’re at the horse show and I’m fine tuning my grooming after schooling but before I actually show.  Simon thinks he is finished working and is very, very into his hay.

I let him eat his hay, and groom him while he does.  This includes picking up his hoof to pull off his bell boot.  No big deal right?  Well I pick up his hoof and this is what I get.

And he jerks his head up some.  This is where things get interesting.  Simon is a horse that ties fine, wears a properly sized standing martingale, goes in side reins, etc… however sometimes when he feels pressure when he picks his head up and leans back, he panics.  There is no rhyme or reason as to when he does this, but today was going to be one of those days.

So he goes from standing quietly eating hay, to HOLY SHIT I MUST ESCAPE and pulls back on the lead rope.  I stand back, talk sweetly to him and anticipate the leather halter breaking in .5 seconds.

Only it doesn’t break.

He is not thrashing or anything crazy, just pulling back.

And it still doesn’t break.

Until the lead rope does.

With all that built up momentum, Simon didn’t just step backwards like a normal horse… he kinda toppled over in slow motion.  So he was pulling back, then all of a sudden sitting on the ground like a dog… and the momentum kept going.  He went from sitting down to having his butt on the ground, his front legs in the air and then he just rolled over to the side.

We all kind of stood there with our jaws open.  It was the most slow motion unable to do anything to stop it horse accident I’ve ever seen in my life.

After he fell over, he stood up and just looked at me like ‘uh what the fuck just happened here?!?’

Then I went over to him, petted him, and proceeded to take off the bell boots without tying him up to the trailer.

Beats anything I have ever seen, seriously.

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