Let’s Cover It - Loose Horse at an Event

This article is from the January 2021 Horse Deals magazine.

At many venues around Australia that stage horse events, there are no permanent or temporary yards, let alone stables. Where do participants keep their horses at such venues? In Australia, it is tradition to tie a horse next to a float or truck. It’s an important consideration because a horse on the loose can cause serious personal injury and death to someone in its way. It’s also important from a legal perspective because the risk of harm to someone from a horse in this situation is foreseeable by any reasonable person.

Not only is the risk of harm to someone from a loose horse foreseeable: it can, mostly, be avoidable. Reasonable precautions against the foreseeable risk of harm to someone at a venue are required by the law of ‘duty of care.’ In the absence of horse stables and yards, what precautions does the law require horse riders to take against the risk of personal injury including death from a horse that has got loose?

Let’s consider what practices have evolved to keep a horse at one of these venues. A most common sight is a horse tethered by twine to a ring fixed to the side of float or truck. Riders both rest and tack their horses restrained in this fashion: They expect their horses to submit, and most do, without incident.

But a horse that is young and unaccustomed to this practice, a horse that is fractious by nature and a horse that is prone to kick, should be supervised by someone if it is tied up in this way. Immediate human intervention is necessary to calm or placate the horse if it is scared, anxious or misbehaving, and to ensure no-one comes too close. But all horses, even placid ones, can be spooked or take fright, and being creatures of flight, attempt to break loose from their restraint. It is fair to say that the law would require a reasonable person to take the precaution of supervising such a horse. Riders, or someone responsible on their behalf, should do so. Horses should not be unattended by anyone.

The use of twine is commonplace. It is thought better for a horse to break free if it exerts enough force rather than hurt itself in a struggle. Indeed, a horse could move a small float, even topple one, or otherwise cause property damage if it really fought hard against the restraint. The use of twine is not the problem: rather it is the failure of anyone to supervise the horse and control the situation at the first sign of trouble, or proceed immediately to capture the loose horse.

If a horse has a vice of pulling back or is known to be unsettled standing beside a float or truck, supervision is arguably an inadequate response to the risk of the horse’s reactions, getting loose and of causing harm to someone. The reasonable person in this situation would arguably have not taken the horse to the venue at all, or not until it was better educated, alternatively kept the horse in the float or truck until it was time to tack the horse for the show or competition. Outside Australia, it is commonplace for horses at events and competitions to remain inside the float or truck where it is tacked and untacked and rested after performing. This custom has not evolved in Australia, perhaps because of our climate and the greater availability of space. For inexperienced and difficult horses, the law probably requires of the rider that he or she contains their movement in this fashion, given the greater risk of its escape and potential for harm.

A welcome development is the practice of erecting a portable yard around a horse tethered to the side of the float or truck. This is a sensible and reasonable precaution for the rider to take to mitigate the possibility of the horse breaking free and causing harm. More riders should take up this practice, and event organisers should encourage its adoption.

Property damage claims resulting from a horse knocking or striking a vehicle are not infrequent. Vehicles are invariably privately insured so its owner is not out of pocket. The greater the indemnity payout, however, the greater the likelihood the insurer will investigate the potential for recovery of the payout from the horse rider or owner if he or she is considered at fault. Tow vehicles, floats and trucks should be parked a sufficient distance away from other vehicles to allow room for tethered horses. Event organisers require spectators’ vehicles to be parked in designated areas away from horse traffic.

The risk of personal injury from a horse struggling to break free, from galloping freely at a venue (whether it has escaped restraint or lost its rider) and from attempts to recapture it, are naturally obvious risks for riders in the saddle or on the ground and spectators who are horse educated. Personal harm resulting from the materialisation of an obvious risk is not compensable in most parts of Australia, so proper attention must be paid around horses, and vigilance exercised for horses that might get loose at a venue. But the public at a venue will include adults and children who possess much less (even no) experience and knowledge of horses, so the risks that we are discussing won’t be obvious to them. Horse riders owe a legal duty of care, especially to these people to take reasonable precautions against the risk of harm from a loose horse by securing the horse appropriately and
monitoring it.

7 December 2020
© 2020 Michael Mackinnon, Solicitor & Independent Counsel
Horseforce.com.au

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