A rider who found herself dangling head-down with her boot attached to her horse’s headcollar has spoken up in hopes of protecting others from the same fate.
Deborah Neve told H&H she can now see the humour in what happened after the clip of her cob’s lead rope attached itself to the strap on her wellington – but that she was immensely lucky not to have been trampled, kicked or otherwise badly injured.
“I can laugh about it now, but I actually thought I was going to die,” she said. “I thought he was going to drag me. If he’d panicked and galloped off, I would have been a goner, I think.”
Deborah explained that she was hand-grazing her 13.2hh cob Hondo with her foot close to his head, and when he raised his head, the clip of the rope snapped on.
“It felt like I was dangling for ever,” she said. “I managed to reach my foot but my welly had crumpled down and I couldn’t get my hand in easily. Then I managed to get my hand in. But the buckle has a little plastic lever, and on the end of the strap there’s a stopper, which won’t pass through the buckle so it won’t come undone.
“I managed to reach the clip but couldn’t unclip it because he was pulling back. I think I unclipped the throatlash of his headcollar and tried to pull it over his ears but it was too tight. He looked round – I was on my bum – and I thought ‘He’s going to take off’.”
But Hondo went back to the grass and when his head was down, Deborah managed to pull her foot free from the boot.
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“He was really frightened,” Deborah said. “I’m just so lucky he was listening to my voice, because he was making his frightened noises, and he couldn’t understand – and there was no one at the yard.
“Time stands still when there’s something awful going on. It’s funny but I was just wedged. My foot was at a really weird angle under his chin and the welly was almost like a 1980s leg warmer; I couldn’t pull my foot out. Thank goodness for my beloved saint of a calm coblet who thinks with his stomach.”
Deborah has cut the stoppers off her boot straps, and contacted the manufacturers to make them aware of the potential risk.
“I’d never given any thought to buckles getting caught on anything,” she said. “But you could get caught on a stile, bit hooks or your trailer and get dragged. Farmers wear these, and cows wear milking collars. Hondo’s only a small cob but he still managed to lift me off the ground.
“Most people I’ve told have laughed but I’ve said ‘Look at the video’. I’m really lucky – and what if that had happened to a child? Or if it had been a young horse who’d taken off. It’s something I’d never thought about but it’s really dangerous.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
