Equestrian sport: high risk, low control

Many horses weigh their riders over a thousand pounds; one quick move can land you in trouble.

Source: Janet Jones

Equestrian sports are high risk, and riders, trainers and parents must understand this. What’s worse is that they have little control over the situation. Riders work with predatory animals: shy, agile, super-fast and huge. The average horse weighs 1,200 pounds, more than a nine-foot-long concert grand piano. Even well-trained horses can become hysterical in the blink of an eye, and it happens for reasons that most people will never notice.

Equestrians are more likely to end up in hospital than motorcyclists, skiers or football players. On average, motorcyclists are seriously injured once every 7,000 hours of riding. The average incidence of serious injury in equestrians is one every 350 hours. In other words, riding a horse is 20 times more dangerous than riding a motorcycle. And the number one reason is related to sports. traumatic brain injuries? You guessed it: horse riding.

One of the reasons for the high rates of injury and mortality when working with horses is a lack of control, something we don’t often consider when assessing risk. For example, when you jump off a cliff while attached to a bungee cord, you gain incredible control. You can watch other people of different heights and weights jump from the same location on the same length of cord in the same weather with the same instructions. You can check all the carabiners, look for frayed ropes, and time your jump to your liking.

These observations allow you to predict your own trajectory in advance, evaluate the safety of equipment, take into account any location or weather features in advance, and take a deep breath before throwing yourself into the air. While waiting in line, you might even Google statistics on your phone and discover that only 1 in 500,000 people die while bungee jumping. 50 out of every 500,000 people die in equestrian sports.

The problem—and great fun—with horses is that the “equipment” has a mind of its own. All animals are unpredictable, but prey species are especially unpredictable. And 1,200 pounds of skittish, unpredictable muscle is cause for pause. People worry about falling, but that should be the least of their worries. Excellent racers throughout their lives can be confused or confused by the force of a rocket thrown into the dirt. Horses sometimes panic and race blindly at 40 mph through buildings and forests full of obstacles, over their heads but not over yours. Every rider’s nightmare is getting our foot stuck in the stirrup and dragging it while four hooves beat on our torso.

The chances of injury or death to a rider are much greater when we are stepped on, trampled, squeezed, bitten, kicked, front-kicked, crushed or knocked down by an animal whose brain is unable to appreciate the consequences. or a feeling of regret. She doesn’t intentionally hurt you; she’s big and scared and your body is just in the way.

These events occur instantly, without warning and without the possibility of control. We cannot watch other people do the same thing to the same horse that we plan to do, because horses sense the slightest difference in the behavior of one person and another. They smell the cortisol and adrenaline in our sweat, knowing if we are afraid. If so, then the horse’s mind tells him that he should be afraid too. When both parties are afraid, accidents get worse.

In any high-risk, low-control activity, skill is critical. We can wear helmets and air vests, check equipment for safety, choose well-trained horses and ride on soft sand. But staying safe around horses takes years of training and practice, and even the most experienced and careful among us still get injured. Too many people in the horse industry and outside of it simply do not understand the need for horse safety. They put themselves, their horses and all of us at even greater risk by downplaying the importance of basic rules.

One of the reasons people don’t take the necessary precautions around horses is because we think of animals as being like us. The giant rogue wave in the ocean is not like us; Mount Everest above base camp does not resemble a cozy human living room; Bungee jumping from the world’s highest bridge feels foreign. But riding a horse? Well, a horse has a face and a body, just like us. He has eyes and ears somewhat similar to ours. He has a voice and horse friends, he is playful and warm, he walks and runs, works and rests, eats and sleeps, just like us. It has a mind – and too many people think it’s like a human mind. So there is a psychological force that makes us trust unknown horses more than we should, especially when we know little about how to handle them. Containing this psychological force can be important for your health.