04/18/2026
Some time ago I learned of a pretty well-known horseman who died after the horse he was in the process of mounting threw its head up and made direct contact with his skull. The blow killed him.
The horse he was mounting was being held by the owner so it would stay still for him to climb aboard.
There are a lot of things we do with horses that I consider the practice of to be "cheating death". Not necessarily because doing these things are a sure way to get yourself killed or seriously hurt (although some of them certainly fall into that category) but because they are an obvious indication that the horse is not okay with what we're doing, and the more not-okay the horse is, the more likely we are to wind up with a poor outcome. The problem is in that the practice has become so normalized and accepted as a reasonable thing to do that the part about the horse not being okay gets completely glossed over. We just do what we want to do anyway and go on about our day.
Getting on a horse that won't stand still for you to get on him is one of these. A horse that won't help you climb on is a horse that is not confident about having someone on him. I want the horse to have no change of facial expression whether I'm standing beside him or sitting astride. That, to me, is a confident horse, at least insofar as mounting is concerned.
Horses that aren't good to have their feet handled is another. I've noticed a correlation over the years between horses who aren't great at having their feet handled and those that struggle with anxiety under saddle. They tend to fall into the same category. A horse who can't be alright with a foot being taken away for a few moments is probably also not going to want to allow a person to direct where his feet go while being ridden. He's protecting his ability to put them where HE feels he needs them. Or he might not know how to balance comfortably without all of his limbs where he feels they ought to be.
Then there's horses who have "no fly" zones on their body. Maybe it's the sheath/groin area. Maybe it's the tail head. Maybe it's the face or ears or the muzzle. I once met a mare who was really fussy about having her elbow on her left side touched. When a horse won't let me respectfully come in and touch a part of their body, that gives me pause. Sometimes it's a matter of simple exposure and conscientious handling can fix that. Other times there is a physical root cause creating discomfort that may or may not be able to be remediated.
These are just a few examples but they are incredibly common ones. Are they guaranteed to see you to your grave? No. But they represent spots where corners in that horse's education have been cut. Where we're cutting one corner, we're usually cutting others. The more corners cut, the more likely it is that one day "something happens" and now we've had a wreck.
I can't control the "somethings" that might happen in the world, but I can sure prepare my horse to the best of my ability to be able to handle them should they come to pass.
