7-Month-Old Amish Girl Dies After Pony Kick During Wagon Ride (Minnesota)

Just a tragic and sad story. A 7-month-old Amish girl has died after a pony kicked her in the head during a wagon ride at a home near Harmony, Minnesota.

A relative of the girl reached out to let me know about it. The girl is not identified as Amish in the report, but based on what I’ve been told I can confirm this would be an Amish family in that community. Keep them in your prayers. Hard to imagine anything much sadder than losing a little girl so young.

This was an accident that happened while the girl was riding with an adult relative. It happened around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6. The Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office gave details to KTTC:

HARMONY, Minn. (KTTC) – A 7-month-old girl has died from injuries after being kicked in the head by a pony at a home in Harmony, the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office told KTTC.

It happened on October 6th around 2 p.m.

According to the initial investigation, the child and an adult family member were both riding in a wagon pulled by a pony when the animal spooked and kicked the child. The child did not survive.

Multiple emergency response departments came to the scene, but sadly nothing could be done for her.

At that young age, I would assume she was being held by the adult family member. This is a reminder that the animals who the Amish depend on for transport also pose a danger.

And being a Swartzentruber Amish settlement, this is a group which would be more dependent on horse-powered travel than some others, because they don’t permit the hiring of Amish taxis, like most other communities do. However, this to me sounds like an incident that may have happened while using a small cart on the property.

That’s because this accident was described as happening “at a home” in the community, and due to the animal being a pony, rather than a horse, which would indicate a full-sized buggy. Amish children ride together in pony carts often as a form of recreation.

That’s just speculation, but if I had to guess it is what it sounds like. Just a tragic thing to go out with a child one afternoon to ride in a cart, and to have something like this happen. The report indicates that authorities are “still looking into the situation.”

Harmony and neighboring Canton, in Fillmore County in the southeast corner of the state, are home to Minnesota’s largest Amish settlement, with over 700 people.

Hat tip to Rachel at Amish Restoration Ministries for letting us know about this story, and condolences for the loss of her very young relative.