Horses Running Free in Central London

[Melontree]

I just saw this breaking piece. One of the horses is bleeding/has blood on it. They're both saddled and bridled - I can't imagine what's happened here. I'm sure there'll be an explanation at some point, but I truly hope the horses and riders are okay.

Anyone in the area seen/heard anything?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/24/horses-on-loose-central-london

Horses can be unpredictable and stuff that they’re fine with can still give them a fright.

My daughter’s pony is at a livery yard that has had building works next to it for a few weeks. Pony should be used to the noise, and on the whole she is. Until she isn’t. She’s fine with cars, buses and massive lorries, but push bikes can spook her. Spring grass, bit of a windy day and she spooks at her own farts so I don’t find anything odd about it.

I did have my heart in my mouth when I saw the reports earlier. I’ve had to grab a couple of loose horses and it’s not fun, but I’m glad they’re all caught and I hope no one is too badly hurt.

The blood on the grey did look bad, but as a grey horse owner, it does sometimes look worse than it is. I remember finding mine in her field one day with blood all down her front and legs. Panicked, called out the emergency vet, but by the time she’d been cleaned up it was a fairly small cut on her chest so fingers crossed it turns out not to be too bad

I would really like to know about the police who caught and calmed the two that made it as far as Limehouse. How would you even go about doing that? (Not a horse person myself.) Or would they have probably run out of steam by that point?

Probably a combination of both. I’ve caught loose horses several times but am very used to horses. If you act quickly and confidently and talk to them they’ll usually calm down very quickly.

The grey is clearly lame but yes, a little blood can go a long way on a sweaty galloping horse so hopefully it looks worse than it is.

Animas can really run when scared and the fear can catching. My dad keeps cattle and sheep and I remember night a field of cattle got spooked by the noise of passing lorries and wind (this is a noise they hear a lot) and broke thought the fence and ran - they ran for miles and miles.

People saying they’re trained/desensitised etc - they are still animals at the end of the day. They’ve not signed anything to say they promise never to spook at a particular noise.

Poor things. I hope they aren’t too badly injured and also that any people hurt are ok too.

I've ridden at multiple stables in the Thames Valley and met several retired police and army horses. Some were older and had retired for a quieter life, others had become less reliable so had moved on to be riding school horses or owned by private owners. Lovely big horses with bags of personality who were spoiled rotten. So long as they can recover from their injuries they'll have long and happy lives.

A cow got out of a field near us. It roamed for hours. Eventually the police decided running it over and killing it was the best decision 😕. It was really sad and the community were really angry. I was worried something like that might happen to those poor horses. Thank goodness they are safe now.

Who wants tanks when you can have horses. Not sure I'd prefer a tank for crowd control...

Anyhow by the looks of that bus, it's built like a tank!

All three horses were caught in Limehouse and are being seen by vets.

I think that something got into their feed. Possibly but unlikely that something was put in but more likely that a weed in their hay that affected them. To run onto a large stationary object suggests that it was more than just being spooked.

I am not even a horse person but I actually felt like crying watching those poor terrified animals running through the streets covered in blood. I hope that they are okay now with the vet and can be cured.

I've been on a horse when it bolted - I was riding in a small group and it was one of the others which spooked (still don't know why) and all the horses shot off together - it was old, old instinct of a prey animal in full flight and sticking with its herd. Just running as hard as it possibly could, covering ground as fast as possible; tunnel vision - not caring where it was going just as long as it put the perceived danger as far behind it as quickly as possible.

I was on a pony that was fairly armchair/schoolmaster type, but I have never felt such power underneath me before or since (and I've ridden strong ex-racehorses and flighty ex-polo ponies).

You cannot do anything about it. Nothing. Just try to stay on board. In the first madness, you can't even steer. But they will run out of steam, and as a rider you will feel that happen (you can begin to steer, pace drops to normal gallop, then you can start getting it back). How long they can go in the first uncontrollable bolt depends only on how fit the horse is.

I am astounded at 5 miles across central London. But yes, after a distance I would expect the adrenaline rush to be abating, the horse to become more aware of its surroundings, and to become catchable by someone who knows what they're doing. (Emphasis on the last few words - an injured horse can be difficult to handle, even if otherwise exhausted)

Poor things. Yes they are trained but ultimately they are still horses and their response to a scare is to run away, fast. My daughter’s pony was once deliberately spooked by a twat on a motorcycle and bolted off with her still on his back. He was usually the calmest, laziest pony you could wish for but something about the way that rider rev’d his engine set the pony off. I found them half a mile back down the road - pony had finally stopped when DD fell off. Luckily both mostly unhurt but it could have been much worse.

spooking and bolting is my worst fear - the horse has basically switched its brain into ‘run away’ mode and it takes a while for them to see sense again. They can really hurt themselves (and others) in the process.

Poor horses, hope all are ok.

They must have been absolutely petrified poor things... but I have to say it must have been pretty traumatic and scary for the motorists and cyclists too, especially those involved in the collisions.
I know people don't always take suitable precautions near horses but horses travelling at speed into (presumably quite slow moving) traffic isn't neccessarily something that you could take evasive action against.

There’s a video on BBC live feed now of one of the black ones standing in front of the damaged bus being held and comforted by passers by - the accompanying text saying it appeared to be calm - and then a lady in a riding helmet runs up to join them.

I don’t know a huge amount about horses, but it does appear ‘calm’, it’s doing that thing where they rest a back foot. But maybe it’s in shock?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-london-68888725?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=6628f8168d515b3cbbd02b15%26Watch%3A%20People%20calm%20horse%20near%20smashed%20tour%20bus%262024-04-24T12%3A25%3A05.484Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:77bff911-9202-4128-b1e1-429135b923b4&pinned_post_asset_id=6628f8168d515b3cbbd02b15&pinned_post_type=share

I’ve caught a couple that have got loose - the adrenaline starts to wear off so they’re starting to tire, whatever spooked them and caused the flight response is now probably far enough away that they’re already starting to calm down a bit. Be quick, big but not flappy or arm wavy if that makes sense, confident, firm but quiet and calm.

That initial spook though is just like tunnel vision, there’s not much you can do as you just can’t break through that panic/flight response.

This is awful 😢

Poor horses. I hope they will all recover from their injuries.

Military horses are retired all the time, either when they’re getting on the old side, had injuries or proven “unsuitable” for military service. I was in the rehoming list for a while, some of them sounded like complete fruitloops! But they get thousands of applicants for each one, because of the training they’re very highly sought after.

I used to walk near a traveller site very early in the morning on my way to work , and one morning a loose horse suddenly appeared on the street and shot off past me down the road. I assume it came from the site as there aren’t usually random horses wandering around Hackney. It was followed by several people so I think it was caught again quite quickly. It was quite frightening, and the London incident must also have been frightening to see, those Cavalry horses are huge beasts. I hope they are all uninjured and that the rider is ok too.

I've watched some of the videos online

Those poor beautiful horses

I'm glad they've been caught and are now safe

It was good to see the man who approached one of the horses who'd just stopped in the middle of the road.

The man took the reins and gently moved the horses hoof from where it got caught up. A few other people came up to pay and calm the horse. Probably too many but I guess no one knows who has experience of horses in London so they were clearly just concerned to help in an unusual situation

The horses did swerve from unsuspecting cyclists who pulled out side roads into their way although why on earth these motorcyclists and cyclists didn't look right to see 2 huge horses galloping towards them is a mystery

Actually it's really not a mystery because they don't really look properly because and then complain when a vehicle ploughs into them.

Which was clearly shown as 3 cyclists all pull out in front of the galloping horses not one bothered to look right first