Pony bolted :'( daughter in hospital

[LoobyLou2709]

Ok, I'm sat here stressed as hell wondering where I go from here and after some advise! .. please be kind as I'm feeling terrible, helpless, guilty and sick in my stomach of what could have happened!
Brief back story!.. new pony purchased October for my 10 year old daughter, pony ticked all the boxes a proper first ridden, safe as houses, had references, loads of videos of pony ridden by very novice girls, viewed twice, had 5 stage vetting, he wasn't cheap! I'm experienced but admit I've been out of the buying market for a while! my daughter is a polite neat little rider and is keen but not brave, so stressed it had to be a very safe more woah than go type etc, we have been gradually getting to know him over the last 3 months, and apart from a few annoying things that we have managed to deal with, he's been ok. today riding in the field, (was told he's amazing in open spaces, saw videos etc) he full on bolted with her, flat out there was not a hope in hell he was going to slow down or stop! It was like a switch went off in his head, My daughter managed to stay on (I don't know how!) and he came back to a walk, I then walked slowly over to him and he fuc*ed off again before I got there, sending my daughter flying in to a post and rail fence and landing on her head knocking her unconscious for a few seconds. 6 hours, lots of bruising and a CT scan later they are keeping her in hospital for obs, I'm distraught, I feel likes it's my fault and kicking myself thinking what I could have done to prevent it happening, I feel physically sick to think how much worse it could have been. I don't know what I'm asking really, just wanted to vent, my first thing is to get his teeth and back etc checked to rule out pain but I honestly don't think I'm going to let my daughter get back on him, would you contact the previous owner? I know she'll just deny it happed with them, I'm just feeling numb and helpless right now :'(

I'd say get his back and teeth checked before anything else. That kind of behaviour suggests something might be hurting.

Once he's had the all clear then start on lunging. If he's really fresh as he's used to more work then you'll have to taper him down to where you want him with lunging or getting someone more experienced to ride him.

Falls are part of riding. They just are. I've been bolted with, dumped in hedges and ditches out hunting, all sorts. Some ended up with both broken bones and bruised kidneys and all sorts but did I get straight back on as soon as I could. Course I did.

A true bolter is very rare. A spooker or a horse in pain is 99.9 percent likely to be the issue.

How is your daughter now OP? Feeling better?

Sadly I don't think there is any such thing as a completely safe horse. They're living animals with minds of their own.

I got thrown from my school horse the other week. I've ridden him every lesson for months, he's a totally chilled, nearly 20 year old schoolmaster who takes much encouragement to actually enter the room and doesn't seem to give a toss about anything happening around him.

One of the other horses kicked their stable door and he absolutely shat himself, shied away and spun and I ate sand. Completely winded, landed flat on my back.

When I finally managed to breathe he was stood next to me looking somewhat sheepish and embarrassed.

He hasn't done it again since. I don't think you'll ever be able to guarantee that any horse or pony will never have an out of character spook or bolt or do something dangerous. Its a risk we take when we decide to climb onto the back of a flighty prey animal.

This is what I would be doing
id only contact previous owner to sus out pony’s old routine to compare with yours. How scary for you sending you a big hug sounds like nobody’s fault just an unfortunate accident. Your daughter did an excellent job of ‘waggoning’ it when it bolted its unfortunately just un balanced her whipping round when it saw you heading over.