“Pants were not invented until the horse was domesticated. They (pants) were necessary to straddle the horses back.”
I thought it was so you had something to poop into when your horse tenses up and you know he/she is about to explode.
It has taken me 1.5 years to MOSTLY recover from an Arabian mare spooking over a two-stroke engine. I’ve also gone sideways down streets because of wind chimes and a bicyclist clad in purple...the latter kind of scared me too! I still haven’t figured out how an animal can have 1000 pounds of solid muscle and still be terrified of a piece of paper.
It took me about a year around horses to realize that you either accept the risk of injury, or get rid of them. Prayers for the spectators, almost none of whom realize that horse & danger go together. Always.
For my Arabian/Appaloosa it was rock mailboxes and pieces of carpet. Couldn’t figure the carpet thing but those mailboxes are spooky. My Arabian/Morgan would bolt at anything. I was riding him one day on our farm and we rode into one of our hay fields the farthest from the house, and ran right smack into a black bear. He stood straight up on his back feet and in the same movement turned completely around and took off. We made it back to the house in record time. :-)
Horses are wonderful creatures and I love them. But they’re not exactly reflective and are entirely emotional in their responses to anything, and they are animals of prey so mostly their responses are “run away, run away.”
Injury is, like it or not, a given of being around horses.
I have always thought people on parade routes should be told to stand back and be a little careful, however. I have seen people with small children walk up and stand right in front of Clydes and Percherons (who could crush you in an instant without meaning it if they got nervous) and it always makes me anxious. I have seen the drivers or handlers tell people to step back. Horses aren’t vicious, generally, but there’s a lot of weight there and when 1000+ pounds comes your way, you’re not going to win.