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Re: [RC] biting and attacking are two different things - Truman PrevattI someone said, "my horse bits" as you walked very close passed a stall door with a horse in it - would you assume they didn't mean it would not bite you? If you did and the horse was John Henry you might end up with a big wound - but you were warned.You are making an assumption as to what the person meant rather than what the person said. If the report is correct the person said my horse bites - they didn't say my horse bites other horses, nor did they say my horse bites horses but not people. They said my horse bites - the rest was the interpretation of the person that got bit. When warned - there is a responsibility of the person warned to take action based on it and if the chose to ignore it they accept some risk. Reading minds is a very imprecise science - the English language is quite precise. I seems to me to be preferable to listen to what is said than to try to read their mind and assume what they said. Truman Sheila_Larsen@xxxxxxx wrote: I tried really hard not not get wrapped up on this issue but while I normally think Truman is right on I and I admit that if one really analyzes what he says he may still be right on. However, I do believe that a reasonable person would construe the comment that "my horse bites" to mean that it bites other horses and please keep your horse a reasonable distanct away. Saying "my horse bites" is not the same as "my horse will bite you, a person, if you stand within lunging distance." With that logic we could all say "my horse bites" because after all horses bite carrots, grass, apples. The reason that this person got attacked was that she reasonably construed (imo) that the biting horse would bite the other horse, not her. A horse biting a person that is a reasonable distance away and not interacting with the horse is not a common occurence. In addition, because of the harm that could be inflicted to a person by this horse I believe it is the responsibility of the handler to clearly state exactly what that horse is capable of doing. I realize that all horses capable of injuring another person but this behavior is well out of the norm of what one would reasonably expect. I am all for taking responsibility for one's actions and I believe that the bitee in this case was doing that given the information she was given. -- “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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