Horse Events Should Equal a Dog Free Zone
Yesterday I watched a video from MARS Badminton Horse Trials. In the video the horse Commando VG and his rider Aistis Vitkauskas from Lithunia were chased by a dog through a fence on the cross country course.
The comments that followed in which a lot of people justified for dogs being allowed on cross country day were from another planet.
Two types of “pro dog” comments stuck out more than others:
It was warm outside the dogs would have fried in the cars.
Yes, it is true one should never leave a dog in a car. Question is, why would you even bring your dog to an event like cross country day at MARS Badminton Horse Trials or any other kind of festival in the first place?
If you leave your dog(s) at home you will never have to worry about the temperature in the car.
Second of all if the dogs are left home they don’t have to walk around in a jungle of human legs all day..
Horse people have dogs.
Yes a lot of them do. Horse people also have horses, cats, chickens, bunnies and goats but don’t insist to bring them along for cross country day.
Cause they don’t belong there, it is that simple!
The €1000 ransom incident
On the other side of the spectrum one person suggested that the dog owners should be fined a 100GBP, about €120, and pay the entry fees etc. for the rider if their dog gets loose.
That is more like it.
At another five star event, just before the lockdowns a German Shepard got loose and chased one of the combinations down the track.
After it was caught rumours had it that the event organisers put a €1000 bond on the dog to be paid before released to its owners.
Money the owner didn’t have…
I honestly don’t know the ending of that story. I don’t even know if the €1000 was accurate or an urban legend taking off.
Even so, loose dogs on any kind of track does risk the lives of horses and riders.
A run away dog can also be the one reason penalty points are picked up along the way, which in itself is totally ruining all the hard work that the rider have put in to get to the event in the first place.
Remember now, everybody has their own top level of sport.
For a lucky few that would be events like MARS Badminton Horse Trials is their top. But for most other people their top level is way lower than that.
Still, for an amateur rider getting to their first and maybe only international event could mean the world to them and so on.
Which makes me wonder how the pro dog people would feel if a dog on the run ruined their own competition, no matter the level.
It can also go the other way around, as during one of the FEI European Championships for ponies, where a dog chasing a pony and rider along the cross country track.
Eventually the pony got fed up and did what ponies do and kicked. The dog got seriously injured. Case closed.
I am in total agreement, and I'm so glad you had the guts to post this. It's true, most horse people have dogs. But as you pointed out, they should be left at home if attending any type of horse event. And yes, the dog owner should definitely be fined if damage is caused. I had a horse that was chased through a fence and suffered grievous injury, so this hits close to home. And yes, I would love to see how dog exhibitors would react if a horse got loose and chased their animals at a competition grounds. Bottom line is: horse events should be DOG FREE.