17/12/2019
I did have something quite nice to post today, but instead I am going to rant!!
Today I hacked Billy up the road, about 45 minutes out on the loop a dog (Billy is not afraid of dogs or barking) runs into the hedge barking at us, Billy spooked, slipped on the road, and fell on me!
At this point there was two vans behind me, neither of which bothered to stop to see if I was ok, or help me catch my horse. Billy ran off down the lane (and must have gone the wrong way), I ran after him and a different van stopped me and told me to jump in, he’s just tried to catch Billy but couldn’t!
We decided that he probably would have gone home, but when we got to the yard he wasn’t there. I thanked the man for his help, and got some stuff before heading off on my own. By this time I could see him trotting on the lane from the Yard, so waited for him on the drive.
We were so lucky that neither one of us was badly hurt (I’m a bit shaken and bruised, and Billy came away with only a couple of scrapes) and that Billy didn’t end up through someone’s windscreen!
I wanted to put this out there, because if you have a dog that barks at horses, and you love in an area that people ride in, (this particular house has equine properties on either side of it and is 300 yards away from a racing stable) don’t put your dog outside! My horse and I could have been killed today, just because you don’t mind you dog barking at everything going past!
I’m not a person to go off like this, but when something devastating could have happened, I feel something needs to be said!
I live in a village that people ride along the road in, and if I had a dog that barked I wouldn’t just leave it in the front garden! This incident has just thrown 18 months of work getting Billy to be confident on the road down the drain! I’ll never get him to hack in that direction now!
•
•
@ Mountfield, East Sussex