4 ms·
> So cars are roughly 10 times safer than riding horses? Well, all of that refers to injury -- which may be serious, but may also be very mild. A sprained ank
by A_D_E_P_T 3y ago
> So cars are roughly 10 times safer than riding horses?
Well, all of that refers to injury -- which may be serious, but may also be very mild. A sprained ankle is an injury. Horseback riding is a lot like a contact sport; it's very easy to pick up musculoskeletal injuries from getting pulled or thrown (or kicked, which has also happened to me once,) but only a very small proportion of those lead to serious and lasting disability.
If we look solely at fatalities, a different picture might emerge. Automobile injuries are, I surmise, more likely to be very serious or fatal. And, of course, motorcycles are in a different plane of existence entirely.
- zarzavat 3y agoThe problem with horses is that you tend to fall on your back from a moderate height, which makes them very good at causing paralysis.
- lazide 3y agoAlso, even the sketchiest car is far more predictable than a cranky or barn sour horse.
- hutzlibu 3y agoI had a brake failure once (which did not caused damage due to luck and reaction). It was a old car, but it was checked before.
- lazide 3y agoThat’s pretty hard to do. Out of curiosity - how old, and how did the brakes fail?
- hutzlibu 3y ago20 years old and the break strings(?) just snapped. I suppose the mechanic did a sloppy job before (never went there again). It was flat where it happened, but we have mamy quite steep roads here as well. So could have ended badly. (So it was just a allmost crash)
- AlbertCory 3y agoBy contrast, the sketchiest horse will avoid collisions with other horses.
- defrost 3y agoFor the record, the sketchiest horse will suddenly kick out hard at the head height of a 12 year old if they approach it 'wrong' (that's a dice roll). Horses are more dangerous than you might credit them to be.
- AlbertCory 3y agoGranted. The claim was only about other-horse collisions.
- Spooky23 3y agoYes and no. If my 70 year old mother is thrown from a horse, she’s in real trouble, probably worse than most accidents in modern cars.