25/08/2024
*** DOG WALKERS: PLEASE KEEP YOUR DOGS UNDER CONTROL AROUND HORSES, FOR YOUR DOGS’ SAKE ***
One kick from a shod horse to a dog’s head will most likely be fatal. It will be you that has to see your dog’s skull in pieces on the road or path. One kick from a shod horse to your dog’s abdomen may be fatal; at best, your dog will probably have internal bleeding, organ damage, and need surgery. This will not be the horse’s fault if you allowed your dog to run around a horse loose, with absolutely zero control of your dog. It will be YOUR fault.
Today I was out on the country lanes on Mabel, who was in a horrible mood, and spent most of the ride napping (refusing to go forwards and spinning around) and spooking. We safely passed many walkers and cyclists, so there was no issue with standing still or walking past people, but she is a big horse and was in an unpredictable mood.
As we got close to home, a dog leapt out of some woods and ran straight into the road behind Mabel. It was very windy today, so perhaps the dog does normally have some self preservation and would have heard a vehicle. I can but hope. I understand that sometimes dogs run off away from their owner, but this chap is a repeat offender and his dogs are always running loose all over the roads. Yes, they are very quiet country lanes, but he’s often not within their sight. Today, he was nowhere to be seen. The dog was up behind Mabel’s hind legs, trying to dodge to get past her. Mabel will kick out if she feels threatened and I will never discourage that l, I’m afraid. She happily walks past dogs under control, or dogs walking quietly next to their owners, but I wouldn’t blame her for lashing out at something that had just run up behind her. I shouted several times at the dog to “stay back”, which seemed to work, as it kept the dog away from Mabel’s legs (we were only walking). The owner then finally came into view, and started shouting at ME not to scare his dog?!! I said that the dog would get kicked if it carried on like that, to which he replied, “no, she won’t”. There really is no helping some people, but please don’t own animals if you want to approach life with that kind of attitude. It clearly wasn’t attacking Mabel, so I was trying to keep it away from her legs purely in the interest of keeping the dog safe.
Horses have an enormous reach when they kick out, and can also “cow kick”, which is when they swipe their hind leg forwards and then quickly sideways. If their shod foot hit a dog in a cow kick, it would be a mess. Most horses don’t mean to kick, but as a prey species, it is their natural instinct when they feel under attack by something suddenly approaching them, especially from the side or behind, as they haven’t had a chance to see what this threat is. It’s basic common sense to not allow your dog to run off into wooded areas by a road, to be honest, but I hope this post may be of use to any non-horsey dog owners who think it’s perfectly safe to allow their dogs to run up behind/close to horses they don’t know.
Obviously this post isn’t much help to most of my followers, but please share with any non horsey dog owners. We aren’t telling your dog to stay out of the way for our sake; it’s for your dog’s safety.
For the record, if this gentleman continues to walk his dogs off leads on the lanes, I will actually get on and report him to the police, as it is indeed a criminal offence to walk dogs off leads on public roads. I was trying to live and let live, but not after today. Well done to Mabel for managing to keep her cool when it leapt out of the woods behind her, as she was a witch for most of the rest of the ride! She was also absolutely 100% in the traffic on the busy road, yet again, so not all bad!
Recycled photo of Mabel, but it shows the hind legs you really don’t want your dog to be running up behind….