How safe is your barn?

"But non-threatening questions can often reveal that several accidents have often occurred in the same place, or that people can say in retrospect, 'I could see that coming.' I hope to help people eliminate those occurrences," she said.

But the truth is, most of these issues are far more complex than these simplistic responses. Greene feels most people don't understand the implications of people accepting and understanding that horses are inherently dangerous. If your state has an Equine Activity Statute, you should read it carefully to understand where the phrase "inherently dangerous" ends and your liability begins. If your state doesn't have an Equine Activity Statute, then start organizing your fellow horseman to get your state legislature to create one. Also, no statute will cover negligence, which can be understood as the difference between the inherently dangerous nature of horses, and knowing a given horse has a dangerous propensity and failing to warn a participant about that. Things like providing faulty tack and equipment would also be considered a negligent behavior not covered by a statute.

Release forms can be a far more challenging item to correctly create than most people choose to believe. Generally, something is better than nothing, but to have a truly good release that will stand up to legal scrutiny, it's best to bite the bullet and pay for an attorney to help you draft it. Additional issues can be who signs the release-legally it should be the custodial parent, so what happens if Grandma or a non-custodial parent brings Susie to her riding lessons? Additionally, so many people just sign the form without reading, then later claim they didn't understand what they were signing. Greene suggests adding an initial box above the signature that says "I have read and understood all the information in this form."

When it comes to children not being supervised properly by their parents around horses and getting injured, the problem is that in most states horses are considered an "attractive nuisance" and you are responsible for keeping some distance between the horse and the child than rather than the other way around. Children are not considered legally capable of keeping themselves from danger, and a horse draws a kid in to the danger zone. This is why many private facilities choose to prevent anyone from coming on to their property or getting near their horses-sadly, it is a necessity in our litigious society. But for a public facility, it is more difficult to keep the public and the horses separate. Some make parents sign strict releases for their non-riding children. Others ban them all together. Only with careful consideration and scrutiny can you decide the best way to handle it for your given situation.

Horses that get loose and cause damage or injury can be a point of negligence or not depending on the given state's statutes. Most states have laws that outline what the minimal acceptable fence for containing a horse isÑthe good news is that if your fence meets these guidelines, and doesn't have a history of escaping, you can't usually be held liable for any damage or injuries caused when he is loose. However, if your fence doesn't meet the requirements, you are sitting on a lawsuit waiting to happen. The only exception to this rule is if your state is a so-called "free range" stateÑprimarily the rural, Western states where large numbers of cattle and sheep graze on open lands. Though free-range rules are meant to protect the cattle and sheep farmers, horses and their owners are also protected under these statutes.

Full lists of various statutes relating to equine activities, as well as examples of winning and losing court cases can be found in the extensive database complied by University of Texas law professor Dr. Bob Dawson at www.law.utexas.edu/dawson/. Examples of the kinds of cases which have made it to courtÑincluding a county trash picker bitten by a horse over a fence, a show manager in New York who was trampled by a horse and rider in the warm up ring, and advanced rider kicked in the head while grooming a friend's horse, and a farrier kicked by a horse with a known propensity for kicking.

Greene says one of the biggest battles with horseman is what she calls the "Yabuts." "Yeah but, my clients love me and would never sue me. (Yes, but do you want to stake your business on it). Yeah but, we've never had a serious accident here. (Just lots of small ones). Yeah but, we have bombproof school horses. (No horse is bombproof). Yeah but, if I make them wear hot, uncomfortable helmets, they won't want to ride (and adjunct of this is that "safety doesn't sell"Ñit's hard to convince folks to ride if the safety precautions make them feel like they are doing something dangerous. Oh well)."

In conjunction with the American Association of Horsemanship Safety, Greene has created a booklet about "Identification [of problems] and pro-active changes without passing judgment. It's an opportunity to look at your facility with new eyes.

"Every barn has issues," continued Greene. "Usually having to do with functionality for clients, horses, and employees. Hot spots to check for include public traffic areas, horse traffic areas, and riding areas. Also horse housing and ventilation issues, and emergency information, procedures and protection can be a problem in many facilities."

The booklet is broken up in to sections covering such issues as Entrances and Parking Areas, The Barn, and Office and Stable procedures, among others. There are also sections especially for the private facility owners, as well as the public facility owner. Each section has a series of yes/no questions designed to pinpoint potential problem areas, as well as text with general suggestions for avoiding problems. Each section is followed by a bold, red "key point" which sums up the most important point for a given facility section.

Greene also recommends that when deciding how to run a facility, each person must prioritize for emergency procedures-horses first, humans first, or facility first. A small example of this is the use of cross ties with panic snaps on them. If you are prioritizing humans first, you put the panic snaps on the wall, so a person can release them without getting too close to the flailing horse. If you prioritize your horses, then you put the panic snap near the horse, so when they are set free they don't have a crosstie dangling from their head and whipping around to injure them.

People also need to look at each given situation for the complete breadth and width of experience of those people and horses experiencing it. For advanced riders, having jump standards and poles stacked in the arena is an easy to avoid obstacle, but for green riders and green horses, it becomes a potential hazard as they may not possess the skill to avoid it in a panic situation.

When you identify a problem, Greene says you have four ways to fix it. You can change your facility (removing a dangerous gate, installing a new type of stall door, repairing a hole in wall), change behavior (not allowing clients to ride without helmets, or not letting horses be turned out unsupervised in an indoor ring), change traffic patterns (close off a dangerous door to traffic, use landscaping to send traffic in a different direction), or simply limiting client access (such as not letting them in the hay loft, ever).

"The keys," said Greene. "are good observational skills, appropriate behavior, or walking the talk, having and following standard operating procedures, and having strong attention to details.

"After all," said Greene. "Prevention is cheaper and less painful."

Dr. Betsy Greene was presenting her findings at the United States Eventing Association annual convention in Cleveland in December, 2002. Greene, in association with Jan Dawson of the American Association for Horsemanship Safety Inc. has produced a book called the "Self Guided Horse Facility Analysis" to help horseman determine how they can improve safety in their facilities.