Evening mn
After some advice
I was walking my friends dog in a group of 4 very well behaved horsey yard dogs.
We met a rider (without a hat on) riding and leading a pony.
As the ponies approached I put my friends dog on the lead - one of those slip leads and held him close to me on the edge of the path.
As a rider myself I joked to the rider that she'd lost the rider for the pony she was leading, she replied "oh no, no one wants to get on this one"
With that she passed (she didn't see this happen) and as I went to walk off the pony kicked out at the dog I had hold of and caught him on the end of the nose (luckily wasn't shod) but the force sent the dog flying. He was yelping while laying on the ground for a good 15sec, I was comforting him and just trying my best to calm him down, the rider at this point had jumped off and was apologising profusely saying how bad she felt.
nothing spooked the pony, the dog didn't do anything other than begin to walk off from my side while still on lead. I was closest to the pony at the point with a good metre or two between us.
Anyway, we continued our walk and the dog seemed to be ok.
I thought I'd seen the rider before and had a feeling I knew where the ponies were kept.
Later this evening I dropped dog back to owners (they weren't in) I decided to go and see the rider and explain that I think it's best I pass her details onto the owner just in case anything serious has happened to the dog.
I found her and her sister, firstly they lied about knowing what ponies I was looking for, then the sister was telling/shouting (who wasn't there) how I was a irresponsible dog owner. Even though the dog didn't do anything, literally nothing, I was stood still at the edge of the path with the dog on a short lead.
I have horses myself and the dog has been around mine all weekend and has been fine.
She said that she wasnt going to take responsibility for the accident and if the owner makes a claim for £££ potential vet fees she won't accept it was her fault.
I called round again to the owners house but they weren't in, left a couple of voice calls and texts but no reply yet.
I'm tossing and turning worrying now about the poor dog, he's such a sweetheart and it was so horrible to see him on the floor in shock and then for the rider to verbally attack me when I went to see her/them.
I just would like other people's opinions, I can't stress enough that the dog didn't do anything.
The rider had her back to us as she went pass and only heard the dog yelp so didn't actually see what happened. I was with two other people and they are horrified to the point of tears.
There was no cuts or anything significant, no teeth were knocked out , once we were back to my house the bruising was starting to show under his nose but he ate his lunch and had a little play with the others, he genuinely seemed ok.