Are you afraid of snakes?

My sister and I would catch them when we were youngsters. I have caught a few for my classrooms. I have only encountered one venomous snake...a copperhead next to a golf-cart path in Charleston. I picked it up with a club and tossed it into the woods so nobody would step on it.

 

  And of course they are very dangerous to horses, are they not?
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Australia has the highest number of lethally venomous snakes in the world. They are the most dangerous during the summer months and at dusk when they're the most active and reactive.

In my area there are only two species. 

The shingleback is 100% lethal to horses. It's an ambush predator - lies camouflaged amid leaf litter and strikes when stepped upon. They're most common around the canefields. If I choose to ride there I stay on the green grassy margins.

Snakes are often attracted to horsey areas because stores of horse feeds attract mice and rats. Fortunately, brown snakes will smell and stay away from pythons.

The brown snake is about 50% lethal. It has a range of venoms with different sized molecules. Each snake's venom has different proportions of these neurotoxins, so if the horse gets bitten one can never be sure whether it will survive or whether it will fully recover. The first risk is allergic reaction and shock. First aid is two  6" long x ¾" diam. clear plastic tubes, softened and rounded at the ends. Stick the tubes into the horse's nostrils to prevent them swelling shut. Step two, get the horse into shade, keep it calm, and keep swathing it with cool water to get it's temperature down. Call the vet. If the horse survives the first 24 hours, its chances of recovery are good.
Brown snakes love to live in rockeries or large piles of twigs and logs. They are territorial and the females are especially aggressive during the mating season and while guarding eggs.  They can also tend to move about hidden in long grass, hunting for quail, eggs, and small marsupials. They don't usually attack unless they feel threatened. Leaving them alone is usually sufficient to avoid problems.
Unfortunately, sometimes a horse gets curious if it sees a snake, puts it's head down to sniff and investigate. The snake sees this as a threat and strikes the nose.
The best safety strategy is to keep the grass slashed to 4" or less.

My best beloved horse died of a brown snake bite at a friend's place. The odd thing was he'd always been very wary of snakes - had always smelled them and stopped 20 meters short. 
I was visiting and had the horse in my friend's paddock. There was a large log pile. By the time we discovered Sadhu had been bitten it was too late. The nostrils had already swollen and foamed white froth. He sweated profusely. Lying stretched out on his side, he shook, vibrated and gasped. His eyes were open. He knew I was there and could hear my voice trying to soothe him. I kept washing and cooling him. But he died before the vet got there. I still feel grief about it, even years later. My friend planted a jacarandah over his burial site.

Snakes are also attracted to chickens, again because of the rodents going after the feed - and tiger snakes are also egg-stealers. We had those, eastern and king browns, death adders and black snakes in the Blue Mountains where I spent my childhood. All of those can kill you. The red-bellied black snake, more common than the black, doesn't pack a lethal bite but can still make you very ill. When my brothers and I went fishing for yabbies (freshwater crayfish), we had to keep an eye out. The snakes are not usually aggressive but will bite if they feel threatened.