Horse riding operator fined $90,000 after children injured in falls

Timothy Wood Holdings Pty Ltd, trading as Blazing Saddles, was sentenced in the Geelong Magistrates' Court on 8 August. The company pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to ensure people other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks, and was ordered to pay $4,451 in costs.

In January 2022, a 10-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother joined their father and another participant on a ride to learn to canter in the Great Otway National Park. One guide supervised the four riders. Before setting out, the company did not formally assess their riding abilities, provide a demonstration or riding instructions, or check that their helmets fitted correctly. Although the siblings had previously completed the company's walk-to-trot ride, they needed more instruction from the guide before cantering.

When the horses slowed to a trot, the girl lost her balance, slipped sideways and fell, striking her head and briefly losing consciousness. The guide and her father dismounted to help her and call for assistance, while the other two participants remained on horseback. All five horses then became spooked and bolted. The boy fell almost immediately and two horses went over him. He was airlifted to hospital and stayed there for about a month with a broken jaw and an acquired brain injury. The other participant avoided injury by jumping from her horse as it approached a road and would not stop.

A week earlier, a 10-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl suffered minor injuries during a beginners' walk and trot ride. The court heard participants received a brief demonstration, but their riding abilities were not formally assessed and only some helmets were checked. The girl had never ridden before, but neither of the two guides led her horse to help her control it. Both children fell after their horses followed another horse that had bolted.

WorkSafe's investigation found Blazing Saddles had no safe system of work for its trail rides, including risk assessments and assessments of participants' riding abilities for each ride. Its supervision ratio of one guide to six riders did not account for riders' ages, abilities or experience.

Reasonably practicable measures included formally assessing riders and restricting them to rides they could safely complete, providing at least two guides on every trail ride, and ensuring helmets fitted well and were properly secured. Rides could also have been limited to participants aged 10 and over, or inexperienced younger riders could have been led by a guide.

It was also reasonably practicable to give guides information, instruction and training on responding to a fall. This included having other participants dismount and securing all horses while the fallen rider received assistance.

WorkSafe Executive Director of Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said businesses working with animals were responsible for protecting people who came into contact with them. "Sadly, a young boy's life has been turned upside down because of this company's failure to put the most basic of controls in place to reduce the risk to their customers," Mr Jenkin said. "These incidents show the importance of employers having the systems in place to manage the inherent risks, particularly to young children and the inexperienced, that come from working with animals that by their very nature can be unpredictable."

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