I managed to wrangle a computer for a few minutes because you all just had to see this video. Have at ‘er, while I call child services.
Well, it appears they’ve now made that video private. Here’s another video of the same child on another horse at a different event. This time she manages to stay in the saddle. In the first video she was whiplashing back and forth in the saddle and at the third barrel tumbled off the side of the horse, got hung up in the stirrup briefly before hitting the ground. The horse backed up a bit, but quickly came to a standstill and waited for the father to come pick the girl up and put her back in the saddle (then handwalked the horse out of the arena).
Hooves 
Nothing came up… ARG!! I want to see it!!
It’s just taking me straight to YouTube’s homepage!
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Unrelated but still horsie, I could use your guys’ help! I have a scavenger hunt I need your help on. The BO at my barn used to have a stunning Lipizzaner stallion named Sig who was a complete sweet-heart and SO well-trained. Well Sig passed and her most prized possession as a memoriam is the magazine he modeled for.
I believe it was a Horse Illustrated, but I don’t remember completely. It would be “vintage” by now. He was cover model as well as the centerfold. The centerfold would have been a side shot of a Lipizzan stallion in Stonehenge.
If anyone happens to have this magazine, I’d love it if you’d be willing to scan it for me? That poor old magazine is falling apart (it’s on its last leg, really), and he was her once-in-a-lifetime horse. I’m pretty sure he was the entire barn’s once-in-a-lifetime horse. I’d like to see about digitally restoring it for her.
Please let me know if you have the year of the Horse Illustrated. I have some old copies is storage, and will try to look through them in the next few weeks. And Sig was on the cover?.
As far as the video goes, this is just another example of ignorant people who have watched to many “horsie movies” combined with wanting their offspring to reflect glory on them. Hope the kid lives to grow up.
Ya, I managed to see the second video before it went private, and my goodness. I feel bad for the horse and I guess all we can hope for is, by some miracle, the little girl grows up and gets some sense.
As for the year, I don’t know 😦 He died about 8 years ago. If I were to guess, late 80’s to early 90’s.
He’s on the cover, if I’m remembering properly the cover was just a head shot of him. The centerfold will be a full-body side shot of him standing on the stone in the center of Stonehenge. The centerfold is what I need..Thank you so much for taking the time to look!
I didn’t find it, but – I thought I had a lot more copies. I either gave most of them away long ago, or they are buried somewhere. This summer I will be going thru a lot of stuff – I will let you know if I turn it up.
Ok, thank you so much for trying though 🙂
Could you contact the magazine directly for back copies?? Might be worth asking anyway. Good luck!
yeah the link is not working for me either. I was looking forward to it 😦
I could not see it either, until I messed around with the URL. You have to just use this in your browser:
I think that is the one Mercedes meant. The title is “Amazing Horse saves 5-year old”
It worked for me. WTH!!!! is the matter with people? Amazing horse, little girl nowhere ready to be doing this FFS.
Well, I’m glad someone else got to see it before the owner made it private. But I’ve found another video of the same child on a different horse to give everyone else an idea of what’s going on.
They say that the little girl’s belt got caught on the saddle horn and that is why she was flopping all around. This is the case of this horse being so well trained that he just goes and does the pattern by himself.
I’ll say here what I said to them:
“Good grief, that horse is a saint. Getting its back slammed and its mouth cranked on like that. Get that kid a helmet and proper riding lessons. She has no business competing, or being on anything bigger or faster than a fat old school pony.”
sorry but that new video is also private 😦
The video is on other forums and they’re bound to have seen loads of hits and negative comments so have altered he privacy settings.
It was absolutely shocking! The 2nd video too! Seems also the horse had a heart attack and died not long after.
Kid was flopping around like a rag doll…saw the vid on Facebook before they made it private. No idea why parents would not want their kid to learn to ride PROPERLY rather than just hanging on. Poor horse, he was an angel, worth his weight in gold. That could have turned out a LOT worse had he bolted.
I fail to understand why any child under the age of twelve should be allowed to compete in this sort of event. The speed and quick movements of the horse demand a level of strength and coordination that a young child simply does not have — especially at the age of five.
This kid should be on a friendly, well-trained pony on a lead, or walking under observation in an arena if she insists on riding (which is really more of being a passenger at this stage, not real riding). Generally, around 7 or 8, kids have developed the attention span, interest, balance, and coordination to start proper lessons and learn to use the aids of hands, seat, and legs to truly ride a horse.
This video– which I am unable to view but can easily imagine — shows not only parents that are appallingly willing to put their child at risk, but also show a lack of interest in the horse’s well-being. Besides getting a horse that’s safe for your child, you should educate a child to be safe for the horse.
Our seven year old was doing “first ridden” classes (I think the equivalent would be roughly “walk/trot) off lead, and also a few gymkhana events, but, tbh, she was happier when led by her brother in these classes as they got a bit hectic and he could whip her out of trouble if it came- she was a very competent rider, riding out with me off lead and jumping on her own in the field, she had been riding off lead for around four years by that time, but all her ponies were saints, and all her ponies, incidentally, actually fitted her, starting with a 36” Shetland, progressing to an 11 hand Sec B show mare and thence to a 13.2hh jumping pony. It is actually simple to find a good pony, if you are actually LOOKING for a good pony and not just trying to prove all ponies are bad!! We went through a lot of dross before we found the Sec B, but, in spite of the fact that she was riding my Arab mare (14.2hh) very competently, not once did we consider this as her riding animal. She was over horses on the 11 hand pony (she was minute, like her Mum!) so she looked like a pea up on the Arab and we had no desire to show off in the way these people appear to. Remember the little girl who was so tragically killed by her “dead quiet” 14.2hh pony??? When a peson says “Oh s/he will not ride the “pony” any more s/he insists on riding a Big Horse like Mommy/Daddy ” and the child is four, suspect parental influence!!!!
*Sigh* The people who do this sort of thing will defend it loudly to the heavens, but are quick to remove the ‘evidence’ in the face of negative reactions. That always seemed contradictory to me: if it is so acceptable and totally OK, why hide it?
The same sort tend to think there is no more to riding than staying on and just doing it. Lessons of any kind are out of the question. Ask me how I know.
One of the prime defenses is that nothing permanent has happened (yet), OR that *they* did the same and *they* are just fine. (I’d like to tell them that seems to be debatable!) I will never understand why people continue to play ‘Russian roulette’ with their kids’ well being.
My thoughts exactly! If the parents *really* thought what they were doing was okay, then negative feedback would not cause them to privatize the videos after the fact. They know they are morons, just misjudged the rest of the population as being equally moronic.
I also want to know who on that show committee thought it was okay?! They should never be allowed to organize or run another show.
…and all shows carry insurance coverage. Blows my mind that insurance companies are hyper vigilant about farms that have horses but so lax about horse shows: I would think they’d be all over the safety aspect, but clearly they are not.
I wonder if the insurance would cover a total lack of parental responsibility like this?? Insurance only goes so far and if this child had been killed I actually doubt the insurance would pay up…..
How do you know???
LOL kirri: I have a small riding school and I am surrounded by those who think lessons are completely unnecessary. To the extent that they heckle their friends and relations who are my students (“You must be pretty bad if you need lessons” and so on). They really think that all there is to know is that you put one leg on each side. The rest is up to the horse being well enough trained.
I absolutely don’t agree that children under 12 shouldn’t be allowed to compete per se.
But common sense and basic standards of competence and safety need to apply.
I think can chasing by youngsters is perfectly fine and in a competitive environment, provided the child is on a size appropriate pony and decked out in protective gear. The 5 year old in these videos is not even wearing a helmet and is on a full-size horse and does not have the body strength to even stay in time with the horse’s movement, let alone extract herself from being hung up on the horn. Indeed, the very fact she can’t stay with the horse is why she got hung up on the horse. I’m not even sure the saddle is a child sized…of course can’t check because it appears all video previously available on this child are now blocked.
I think, since there obviously is no evidence of common sense being present in these events, that maybe an age limit of seven or eight would be appropriate, and obviously with helmets as mandatory and I should like to see body protectors too! Maybe specially devised, junior classes? I am not at all certain, since we have nothing like this, exactly what the child is learning form such an experience- if the child is not learning anything, and none of them appear to be having a good time either, they all look scared to death, what is the point?
After all the ‘rag doll’ descriptions, I am stuck with chunks of Aerosmith running through my head…
Rag Doll, livin’ in a movie
Hot tramp, Daddy’s little cutie
…Yes, I’m movin’, Yes I’m movin’
get ready for the big time
Tap dancing on a land mine
Yes I’m movin’, Yes I’m movin’
Old tin lizzy, do it till you’re dizzy
Give it all ya got until you’re put out of your misery
Even without seeing these videos I’ve been to enough horse shows to imagine it! I completely agree that young riders have no place in speed events (english or western). It should all be about control and safety at that age (or any age I suppose!).