Recently at the barn where I board my horses at a horse was turned out in the pasture and he died supposedly by rough housing and breaking his neck. The farrier got done with the horse he was shoeing and put it back in the same pasture as the dead horse. The farrier saw that the horse was dead and ran for help. There is physical evidence that it appears that the horse snapped his neck. The barn owner thinks he was rough housing with another horse and he fell down and snapped his neck. Has anybody heard of this happening before? I think it is really odd.
2006-09-29 15:16:45 · 9 answers · asked by apha_barrelracer 3 in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
yes this does happen although it is not a common problem it does happen when i was a little girl my dad had bought me a horse, and the horse was in the barn and something spooked him and he tried to jump thru a small window in the barn, and the horse broke his neck and smacked his head really bad, he died instantly...it was really freaky..i have also seen a couple of rodeo horses this has happend to...
2006-09-29 17:20:08 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
No... I have never heard of a horse that was rough housing to break his neck. I heard of horses sometimes breaking their legs... but that's not even very common. Very strange that a horse would snap it's neck at all. I mean it's understandable to have the horse snap it's neck in a trailer... we've even had a few do that... although that's extremely odd. Either way, it's an odd way for a horse to die.
Andy
2006-09-29 15:49:22 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, a horse can snap its neck, just as a human or any other animal could from impact in the right location.
As far as horses committing suicide, its ridiculous. Animals have a very strong self-preservation instinct. Human beings are the only living things corrupt enough to intentionally take their own lives.
2006-09-29 17:09:28 · answer #3 · answered by reblcwgrl 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've never heard of that before. I think its a false statement. there are other ways a horse could nap its neck. but it would have to be done on accident. no one in this world id strong enough to snap a horses neck.
2006-09-29 15:23:51 · answer #4 · answered by .Forever Young. 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's so sad because I love horses, but yes there are many witnessed accounts of horses committing suicide. You have to remember that we used to put horses through hell, they are cannon fodder in war, they were beaten so much by their owners to work before the tractor and humans used to drive them beyond their endurance when we used them for transportation. Remember the book "Black Beauty" by Seaton? The largest number horse suicides happened during the Klondike gold rush. Horses were forced by greedy owners to climb real steep mountains without any rest and were beaten all the way so their owner could get to the area in time to stake a claim before supposedly all the good ones were gone. Hundreds of horses were overloaded beyond their ability and driven as fast as they could be driven often jumped off cliffs on purpose. They would be stopped or unhitched so the owner could readjust the load on the horse or on the wagon and many people saw horses walk to the edge of a cliff, look down and jump off. Other horses, no matter how much the driver tried to reign them in, would fight every inch of the way to get to the edge of the cliff and jump off still carrying their load and/or wagon with them.
2006-09-29 15:37:12 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Well, if he was playing around and took a tumble, he could theoretically break his neck doing it. After all, there's 1000 lbs of horse meat tumbling onto it's neck!
2006-09-29 15:25:10 · answer #6 · answered by Screwball 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've had two weird cases myself. The first is kinda close to yours. This was a perchon/appy who was meaner than dirt. Pretty though. Huge black spots on a white coat with two crystal blue eyes. Still mean though.
When traded him due to his attitude and later we heard he was put with 2 mares. He hated one and kicked it so bad it nearly died. The other he was okay with. He was with our little welsh pony the whole time we had that crazy horse and he never hurt him. Glad we traded him.
The other thing was we used to rescue horse from slaughter houses and gave them a good home until they died. (they were normally older)
This mare bonded with a gelding and his hip went out and we had to put him down. He wanted to live so bad he fought the vet. Only the vet. He was darn near the perfect horse except his ailments.
Then 2 months later our mare lost her appetite. She would lay down and refuse to get up. We put water in front of her and she would drink like crazy! But she refused to get up on her own. We put her in our back yard and then she kept going down. She was lonely and I think her heart broke when we put the gelding down. I think she had just had enough and was ready. She fought us (so unlike her), but when the vet came she was a perfect angel. Weird and not really like your story, but it was a weird thing.
2006-09-29 17:28:08 · answer #7 · answered by troll05 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i own horses and its never happenned to ours but my older brother says yes he was at a rodeo and a horse went down and snapped its neck he was very upset it coulda been prevented
2006-09-29 15:55:56 · answer #8 · answered by little_outlaw_angel 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, it news to me. I have heard (and saw) a race horse jump a metal fence, and become impaled on it. Poor thing. It was my first (and LAST) time going to the horse races.
2006-09-29 15:21:41 · answer #9 · answered by Rhonda 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋