Of Bulls and Romance-A Tale of Woe…

I always flinch when I see someone walk close behind a horse. I've known so many people over the years who thought they knew horses and made one mistake by walking behind a horse. They can kick so fast with one or both of those rear legs. They are sometimes pretty bad about biting as well. I never trust a horse.

Ted

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by tedln

I always flinch when I see someone walk close behind a horse. I've known so many people over the years who thought they knew horses and made one mistake by walking behind a horse. They can kick so fast with one or both of those rear legs. They are sometimes pretty bad about biting as well. I never trust a horse.

Ted

Mules are worse...double-jointed kicking machines! You can be standing by a mules shoulder and that SOB can kick the crappola out of you with a hind leg...Getting kicked is one of the worst horse/mule injuries for humans. I cannot recall off the top of my head exactly but it is something like 1500 to 2000 PSI in a horse kick. Crack your femur like a twig...And it is also no picnic being kicked by a cow or bull (milk cows get pretty darn good at kicking the heck out of you...)

[dustdevil]

Being a breeder and collecting "samples" seems to have brought out the worst in the animals you handled Mary.

I never was kicked or bitten by our family farm animals. If an animal had an uncureable attitude problem, it was sold off. A farrier won't shoe a horse that isn't friendly to handle. Milk cows are gentle as a lamb when they know you. When you milk them twice a day, you know each others mood to a T. Rewards of apples, carrots, etc. cements your friendship with horses. Cleaning, brushing, and grooming your animals teaches them that they can trust you. When you regularly ride your horses, there is a bond between horse and rider. Veal is the name of a bull on most farms...

Sorry to hear you lost so many plants to an unforseen circumstance.

[brokenbar]

I am going to write a reply to your post without making a big deal of it and trying very hard not to hurt your feelings.

I am a retired equine reproductive veterinarian. We stood 9 stallions and bred between 250 to 400 mares per year as well as shipping semen to another couple hundred around the world. We operated a working cattle ranch running between 750 to 1000 head at any given time. I was born and raised on a cattle ranch and spent 18 years working, being around and handling cattle and horses before going off to college. What I have just written is in explanation for what I feel is my expertise on the subject of handling very large animals.

Humans tend to anthropomorphize animals giving them human feelings, thought processes and the ability to reason. Unfortunately, it’s just not true. Each animal varies and some are certainly smarter than others but the bottom line is that animals, and for the sake of this post, I am speaking of cattle and horses, ARE dangerous if you based it on nothing else except their size.

People get seriously injured when they forget that cattle and horses survival is based on their ability to fight back, run or escape what they perceive as a threat and that is a telling sentence “what they perceive as a threat”. I have seen a 1200 pound horse fling itself off a cliff because a piece of newspaper flew into its leg. If you happened to be on that horse, I guarantee you, he did not give you one moment of thought. His desire to flee from a threat overrides all else.

No one loves animals more than I. However, there is a caveat…they are animals…not people and that makes their behavior very unpredictable (behavior is unpredictable enough in humans!) And when human beings interact with large animals, injuries both minor as well as life threatening, are going to occur and it is the 160 lb human who is going to lose in a scuffle with a 1200 (or more) pound animal with or without horns.

Get between a bull and a cow or a stud and a mare and see just how quickly you become irrelevant.

My list of serious injuries over the years, requiring medical intervention, would fill two pages…no exaggeration.

And now, I need to finish packing as we are leaving for Denmark tonight. (ugh…I have no interest in Scandinavian countries, and no offense to anyone from those countries!) We are meeting friends of my Husband so I gotta go…”wife”stuff what's a gal to do?

[cythaenopsis]

I am so shocked to hear about what happened to your garden, brokenbar. Never heard anything quite like that before. The way you write, it sounds like you're taking this all very well. My condolences for the loss of all that hard work and how sad that those needy neighbors won't get the benefit of your crop this year.

I have read a little on bulls (knowing nothing compared to you though) and I just nodded my head reading what you wrote. Seriously dangerous animals. That man's son became too acclimated to them, not feeling the concern or fear about containment. I certainly hope he learned his lesson. In fact, that boy should help clean up the mess!

Try to enjoy Denmark and take your mind off things... and if you need a diversion pay a visit to Malmo in Sweden. Beautiful little city.

[Axixic]

Originally Posted by brokenbar

Iun or escape what they perceive as a threat and that is a telling sentence “what they perceive as a threat”. I have seen a 1200 pound horse fling itself off a cliff because a piece of newspaper flew into its leg. If you happened to be on that horse, I guarantee you, he did not give you one moment of thought. His desire to flee from a threat overrides all else.


My list of serious injuries over the years, requiring medical intervention, would fill two pages…no exaggeration.

Your explanation is why I, as a Texan, learned very young not to ride a horse that had the energy to throw me off. My favorite horse to ride was a swayback, 20 year old mare named Millie. Millie would stop to take a short nap every 100 feet or so when we went for a ride which was OK with me. At least she was too old to throw me off as several before her had done.

I love all animals but I don't trust anything that big with a brain that small.

For the people who don't know, Mary's story of the bulls entering her field is not too uncommon here in Mexico. When I walk my dogs in the afternoon, I have sheep and goats follow my Mastiff. They love my Mastiff. It was unnerving at first because Billy Goats do have dangerous horns. When I see loose cattle I try to walk the dogs in the opposite direction. I don't want to confront a bull who thinks he is protecting his cows.

It's funny here. We have to be careful driving on roads because cattle, horses or a drunk Mexican might wander onto a highway. Some of the life here gets on my nerves but the animals are a hoot and I wouldn't want to go back to the sterile life in the U.S.

As a young boy, growing up in the Texas panhandle; I enjoyed the rent a horse operation in Palo Duro Canyon. I don't think they had a horse under twenty years old and they were all swaybacked. Those horses proved to me the old maxim that wisdom and knowledge is acquired with age. Those horses only had one thought in their little pea sized brains as they were being ridden. That thought was "I want to return to the stable and get this fool off my back". You had to keep a tight rein on them to keep them pointed in the direction you wanted to go and when you did give them free rein to head home, you had to exit their backs quickly on arrival. If you didn't get off quickly, they would find the lowest entrance into the stable to literally wipe you off their backs. All those horses were two speed horses. They could only reach two miles per hour leaving the stable, but they could hit twenty miles per hour returning to the stable. If you ever got off the horse in the canyon to look at a rock or pick up an arrow head, you had to tie them securely to something substantial. If you didn't tie them well, you faced a long walk back to the stable and a happy horse grinning at you as you walked up.

Ted

[Axixic]

That does bring back memories of the riding stable horses and you are right on about their speed.