Well, reader Art Tuma gave a shot at answering the torts non-hypo below. Here’s his answer:
That Texas statute is surprisingly broad—it seems to preclude any liability due to negligence on the part of the operator. Unless there is some general standard of responsibility under Texas law, plaintiffs don’t have much of a case. Absent this statute, the operators were negligent in putting an inexperienced leader in charge—being able to ride well does not necessarily mean that one is able to take care of other riders. The leader, who is, interestingly, not named as a defendant, was negligent in failing to determine the quality of the plaitniff’s riding experience (“fifteen years ago” could mean a tethered pony ride at the county fair.) She also failed to maintain the equipment properly (that’s not quite right, but I can’t think of a better term here)—not that the saddles weren’t secured properly at the start, but that she (apparently) didn’t check them after a few minutes of riding.
A creative plaintiff could allege a number of other potential failures by the defendant: poor trail maintenance (what sort of surface did the defendant fall onto?); poor equipment maintenance (an over-used girth that tends to slip, for instance); bad choice of horse, or not informing the rider of the horse’s behaviors (“... did you warn my client that Dobbin was prone to abrupt stops?”)
Defendants seem to be covered by item 5 in the statute’s list of exclusions, particularly the last phrase (“... not acting within the participant’s ability”.) It’s clear to me that the plaintiff reined his horse to a stop much faster than he had the ability to handle—an experienced rider would be able to handle that sort of stop without difficulty. You could also argue for the first phrase (“... failing to maintain control over the equine...”), since over-reining is as much bad control as under-reining.
So, I would find for the defendant based on that. Disclosure: I taught basic horse care and safety to new riders at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center for several years. My lecture started out, effectively, with “This is a horse. This end bites and this end kicks. If either happens it’s your fault.”
Choice of venue in the case under consideration would be very interesting. Did plaintiff file in an urban jurisdiction or rural? In a rural jurisdiction, I would think that voi dire would be very tough for the plaintiff, since they would most likely want to avoid jurors with much riding experience.
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