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Awesome job by you and Baron to stop that runaway wagon! It's a good thing you two were there or the story could have had a very unhappy ending. That sort of thing is exactly why horses are banned from many parades now, which is a real shame. I anticipate that by the time I'm old, horses will be a very rare sight in most parades because of liability.
I still maintain that a team that bolts from a broken doubletree has no business being anywhere near a parade. You can't blame the engagement of a safety feature (yoke fixed to pole) when poor training is the culprit. A panicked team of Belgians bolting through a crowd of people is extremely dangerous even without the wagon. If, say, the wind had blown an empty trash barrel, baby stroller, umbrella, etc. into the back of them the result would have been no different. Those horses weren't desensitized to having something unexpectedly hit their back legs. Parade horses need to be pretty well "bomb-proof" and trust and obey the driver when he pulls the reins and says, "Whoa!" Had they done that in the first place, the doubletree would have flopped to the ground and stopped bothering them. I spent a good deal of time making my team pull the doubletree around the pasture before I hooked it to anything. I wanted them used to having that noisy, floppy, unwieldy thing bouncing behind them. Sometimes one end would go over a bump and hit one of the horses in the hind leg. They got used to it after a while.
Horses that work in public have to be prepared for the worst because idiots do stupid things to set horses off, sometimes even on purpose. I've seen people throw water bombs, and I once had a kid run up and smack my horse in the butt with his skateboard (one of the few times I wished I my horse kicked!). I had motorcycles speed up close behind and rev up as loud as possible as they passed. I had cars swipe in close to the hindquarters and honk. My team was attacked by a loose dog that came in at their heels snarling and biting while the owner just stood there and watched (I whacked that dog hard with the carriage whip and he left us alone after that). Once a guy set his 2-year-old down on the ground as he walked by my horses and the kid took off like a rocket and ran smack into the back heels of my off horse and startled him (that time I was overjoyed that my horse didn't kick!). I once saw someone on a bike in a parade who was flirting with girls, circling around the parade route, not paying attention to where he was going, and he crashed his bicycle into a team and wagon. It's perfectly natural for horses to shy at stuff like this, but if the team is well-trained then these spooks should not escalate into runaway situations. Having the horses "One stride from a runaway" may not be a big deal in an arena at a show, but it's downright dangerous and irresponsible when you're out on crowded streets. This is why insurance companies keep pressing to get horses banned from parades.
I still maintain that a team that bolts from a broken doubletree has no business being anywhere near a parade. You can't blame the engagement of a safety feature (yoke fixed to pole) when poor training is the culprit. A panicked team of Belgians bolting through a crowd of people is extremely dangerous even without the wagon. If, say, the wind had blown an empty trash barrel, baby stroller, umbrella, etc. into the back of them the result would have been no different. Those horses weren't desensitized to having something unexpectedly hit their back legs. Parade horses need to be pretty well "bomb-proof" and trust and obey the driver when he pulls the reins and says, "Whoa!" Had they done that in the first place, the doubletree would have flopped to the ground and stopped bothering them. I spent a good deal of time making my team pull the doubletree around the pasture before I hooked it to anything. I wanted them used to having that noisy, floppy, unwieldy thing bouncing behind them. Sometimes one end would go over a bump and hit one of the horses in the hind leg. They got used to it after a while.
Horses that work in public have to be prepared for the worst because idiots do stupid things to set horses off, sometimes even on purpose. I've seen people throw water bombs, and I once had a kid run up and smack my horse in the butt with his skateboard (one of the few times I wished I my horse kicked!). I had motorcycles speed up close behind and rev up as loud as possible as they passed. I had cars swipe in close to the hindquarters and honk. My team was attacked by a loose dog that came in at their heels snarling and biting while the owner just stood there and watched (I whacked that dog hard with the carriage whip and he left us alone after that). Once a guy set his 2-year-old down on the ground as he walked by my horses and the kid took off like a rocket and ran smack into the back heels of my off horse and startled him (that time I was overjoyed that my horse didn't kick!). I once saw someone on a bike in a parade who was flirting with girls, circling around the parade route, not paying attention to where he was going, and he crashed his bicycle into a team and wagon. It's perfectly natural for horses to shy at stuff like this, but if the team is well-trained then these spooks should not escalate into runaway situations. Having the horses "One stride from a runaway" may not be a big deal in an arena at a show, but it's downright dangerous and irresponsible when you're out on crowded streets. This is why insurance companies keep pressing to get horses banned from parades.