Of course, the comments on that video that Arabians have been bred to be crazy and the breed has been ruined by that type of breeding also pushed my buttons in a big way. While some breeders have bred for characteristics that are not desirable to everyone, there are plenty of responsible breeders in the Arabian industry. The breed has continued to improve over the years and the great disposition the Arabian horse is known for has not been compromised by current breeding practices. There are many breeders who consider producing a good minded horse to be an important part of their breeding decisions.
I got started in this industry fairly late in my life and sure wouldn't have wasted my time with a horse that wasn't worth that effort. I have NO TIME for stupid mistakes or crazy horses and I wasn't sucked in by either. I expect Arabian horses to be both beautiful and kind. I have rarely been disappointed.
I've come across a couple stallions in my journey that were real buggers, but it's people who turned them into those angry horses, not their breeding. Such things do happen to horses of any breed.
I've never met an Arabian horse that is downright crazy although I did met an older thoroughbred mare that was pretty darn close. Again, people made her that way. She was too old to fix at that point but still her behavior doesn't mean all thoroughbreds are crazy. It means there are reasons for this behavior....and it's usually people.
There were also,lots of comments on this video about how poorly the people in the ring handled the situation. However, when I looked at the video that's not what it looked like to me. Sure things were confusing. That's what happens when things get out of control.
As a show manager I can tell you when sh*t happens, you don't really have time to think about what you're going to do. Reactions are instantaneous and hopefully appropriate but that's not always the case. You try things and hope they work. If they don't you try something else.
The bigger the wreck, the more difficult it is to get things under control. The more horses, the more people involved the risk factors go up exponentially. All you can really do is give it your best shot and hope it works.
In this case there was a lot going on. Originally there were seven horses and carts in that arena, three judges, one announcer, one ring steward, probably only one scorer and a photographer probably with an assistant. When the timeout was called because the horse was out of control, other people slipped into the ring to assist. You can bet there was probably one additional person per horse and those were probably the trainers of those horses since this was an amateur driving class.
In all that's a lot of people trying to solve a problem no one has the time to discuss, thinking on your feet is the only way. Mostly you have people working individually trying to do what each thinks will work. While it may not be the most effective, it's still better than expecting someone else to fix the problem. It takes courage to step in to such a situation and try to help.
Some basic understanding of a horse's behavior under such circumstances would be important to know to determine the "right" thing to do. And, of course, there really is no "right" thing because each horse will respond differently to the stimuli. You might have a general idea of what might work but it's a guess at best.
In this case the horse was being "driven" forward by the cart or harness trailing behind. That's one of the things that makes driving classes so dangerous. When things go wrong, they go really wrong fast because the equipment used to help keep the driver and horse safe in the first place actually become part of the problem once things go wrong. The terrified horse can't see what's after him/her but can feel the drag adding to it's terror.
The horse's primal response is to escape pressure and that's exactly what it was trying to do. All other stimuli is secondary in such cases and may not even get noticed at all if the horse is "spooked enough." Attempts by the people to control this horse's movements were futile but the men were talking among themselves changing up things trying to find something that would work.
Since this horse couldn't immediately be stopped, obviously controlling the movement of the horse would be ideal. Accomplishing that goal is another matter. Wanting to keep the spooked horse against the rail was a great plan, but none of the spooking horses in this case really responded to attempts to accomplish that goal.
In the course of events the original spooking horse caused two other horses to break loose from handlers and spook. Someone managed to grab that second horse pretty quickly so it didn't cause even more mayhem. The third horse that took off dumped its handicapped rider out of the cart onto the ground. An onlooker drug the handicapped driver back towards the gazebo area getting her out of the open. However, she was later knocked off of her chair by her horse again because none of these loose horses respected the "barrier" that was that center ring gazebo., further testament to how out of control and unpredictable these horses were.
People were criticized for jumping out in front of the terrified horses. Yet, a horse wearing blinders only has that limited field of vision that is mostly to the front. How else did people expect anyone to affect a change in the horse's momentum without getting seen by the horse. All movement to the side of a horse wearing blinders is useless when it comes to controlling the movement of a loose horse. A change of direction, a break in stride, things like that are usually accomplished by breaking the horse's field of vision with some kind of barrier. Normally galloping horses can be turned or slowed when their path is intersected. That didn't happen here.
And yes, some people called the men trying to grab the spooked horse by the bridle crazy. Others would call them heroes. Many a spooked cart horse has been stopped by just such a man. And more importantly from what I know, that's usually the way those horses get stopped. Rarely does the horse get run down and quit on its own.
I know the horse that spooked at the show when I was manager was stopped by the ring steward who grabbed the horse thus saving the driver and the horse from a bad wreck. The ring steward injured his shoulder but he'll do it again, I can assure you.
Having the horse run itself down and get tired enough to quit would be good if the horse would stay in that outside area. But as you see on this video, these horses headed straight into the center ring gazebo, over carts, people and other horses. The unpredictability of these horses' behavior dictates some kind of intervention.
In this wreck the first horse was grabbed at unsuccessfully several times before someone was finally successful. The point is.........someone finally was successful thus removing this horse from the mix. Someone managed to catch that second horse very quickly before it even made an entire lap around the arena. I'm pretty sure that played a big role in this whole thing not ending much worse.
From the video there's no way to tell whose idea it was to rope that last horse but however it was, was brilliant in my book. I've looked over and over at that clip of the rope flying and bringing that horse down. All the time thinking there would never even been someone at one of my shows that good with a rope let alone in the right place at the right time. You can bet no one called the show office on the phone requesting the guy with the rope come show up and save the day. Talk about luck!
But then that's my point. You do what you have to do. Those who have the heart to try jump in there and give it all they've got. Those that don't sit back and criticize. In the end, no one was seriously hurt...........neither human nor horse. Considering the way this thing looks, it's a miracle but that miracle happened because those horses were finally stopped.........all three of them.
