Ardall Safety Rider - give it some thought...

Bellemz

Hi all,

Most of you reading this will not be involved in the breaking in of young horses but I thought I'd just put some friendly advice out there.

After years of being taught all the common sense in the world by a man who I can only describe as magic when it comes to breaking in and dealing with difficult horses, I went abroad to do some showjumping with an Olympic rider. He ended up asking me to do a breaker, which I was very comfortable with, sack of potatoes and the likes. I'd always been kept safe by my 'on the ground person' in the past.

Turns out Mr. Olympic Showjumper was trying his hand at this and I was guinea pig number 2. By the time I found this out, he had already turned said breaker over on top of me, breaking my back and leaving me partially paralysed. Silly me.

I've since heard about this Ardall 'dummy' and to be honest I could be a poster child for the thing, it really is built to keep us riders safe in a multitude of situations... I cannot say enough good things about it. I am not selling it, I just thought I'd spread the word in the hope of keeping fellow equestrians from ending up in my situation (it sucks, believe me).

Spare a thought for all the times we riders put ourselves and even our children/clients/friends at risk and how valuable our equestrian careers (not to mention normal life) are to all of us.

Safety first

Give it a look: www.ardall.com

Ave Sodalis

Seen this before alright and had a good giggle at it.

Have to say though, it's a bit on the pricey side and wouldn't be worth buying unless you break a number of horses.
Plus, it's not usable for very long. You would still have to get the horse used to mounting and dismounting yourself and begin to school the horse yourself i.e. basic walk, trot and canter including leg aids.

Miss_F

sup_dude wrote: »

Seen this before alright and had a good giggle at it.

Have to say though, it's a bit on the pricey side and wouldn't be worth buying unless you break a number of horses.
Plus, it's not usable for very long. You would still have to get the horse used to mounting and dismounting yourself and begin to school the horse yourself i.e. basic walk, trot and canter including leg aids.

have to agreed with this have seen it in action and to be honest unless you have money to burn id find an alternative, like they say the old methods are often the best. I have a home made one (dummy) which has a few more benefits than that of the ardall, holds the reins legs move etc and plus it was a lot cheaper!! Yes it is a good idea if your breaking a large number of horses but otherwise its not practical to spend that much on something you will use 4-5 times a year for two days in my opinion.

strik

Lads if you need one of these.. either give the horse to someone who can break horses or pack it in!!

I have assisted in breaking horses for 10 years and since then have broken over 100 horses myself and not 1 has bucked with a rider on..... Dougell will only make things worse.... I'd say it frightens the crap out of them initially?

JimDeChamp

I know a man that made his own for breaking ponies and a couple of racehorses and I must say their a good job to a certain extent......! But when it comes down to it all and your backing a horse, the man on the ground, you have to trust him with your life.. When I was breaking with two other guys we broke about 100 yearlings a year and none of us ever got buried...

twomeys

Built by a Kerryman!! We know the man involved and this is a credit to him. Its going to make him a great living and hopefully save lives and reduce accidents.

As for its too expensive and the old ways are the best. Its like this. Insurance companies decide how all our businesses are run now. In time I imagine breaking yards wont be covered for personal accidents and I also dont think life cover will apply if you "break" professionally. So this unit may eventually be your only option.

Anyways I rather have a dummy do the job than someone I care about..

convert

twomeys wrote: »

As for its too expensive and the old ways are the best. Its like this. Insurance companies decide how all our businesses are run now. In time I imagine breaking yards wont be covered for personal accidents and I also dont think life cover will apply if you "break" professionally. So this unit may eventually be your only option.

Don't be giving them ideas, now! :eek:

As someone who would break a young horse every few years, I think they can be great to a certain extent (I won't include the 'depending on how they're used' and 'depending on the skill of the individual breaking') but eventually someone is going to have to sit on the horse eventually and it's going to be very different for a young horse to experience a person on them compared with a dummy - different movement, etc., not to mention the fact that the dummy doesn't have legs to wrap around them or squeeze or kick their sides. A horse who reacts perfectly fine with the dummy could freak out when a real person gets up on them. Then there's the issue of actually getting the dummy up on the horse (much easier to put someone lying across the withers, where they can stay low and hop off quickly, then get a dummy up).

I'm not saying it's not a good idea, I'm just pointing out some scenarios where a real person can be better than a dummy.

And if they start removing insurance for breakers, then I think they need to look at eventing, which has a very high death rate in comparison to other equestrian activities. But sure, why stop there, let's not insure anyone working with horses, or, even better, let's not insure anybody at all - it'd be considerably less risky! :rolleyes: