Re: RC: downhill at speed

[Laney Humphrey <laneyh@mbay.net>]

I've seen ads for videos of cavalry training films (at least I'm assuming that's
what they are) in "Western Horseman" - the photos show a horse coming down a
vertical - has anyone seen these?  Are they any good?
    I have a Monte Foreman video which shows him putting a (QH) into a sliding
stop with no pressure on the bit.  Not showring pretty but that horse is really
under itself!
Laney

CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 1/9/00 6:40:13 PM Pacific Standard Time, laneyh@mbay.net
> writes:
>
> << Dot Wiggins suggestion to watch "Man from Snow River"reminded me of a
> local trail we call "the Snowy River trail" because it includes a VERY steep
> (i.e., almost vertical) slope about 50' long (forest loam, no rocks but it
> does have one sharp turn). >>
>
> Reminds me of a ride we used to have in this area called The Dam Ride.  Gene
> Nance used to put it on.  When he first started it, I still lived in Idaho,
> and he said he had a bet on that NO ONE would ride down one section of the
> trail.  I told him I would, but it was three years before I got over to that
> ride.  I asked him if the bet was still on, and he said "NO WAY for you,
> because I've SEEN you ride downhill!"  Sure enough, I rode down it and picked
> up about 15 places in the process.  That was on my old stallion Surrabu.  I
> also watched The Man From Snowy River in the theater with Gene and
> Marney--when the downhill scene came on, Gene leaned over to me and
> whispered, "Where did they find a Surrabu son to play that part??"  Gene had
> bought two Surrabu daughters from me (full sisters to Junior), and they went
> downhill like greased eels, too.
>
> Surrabu fractured a sesamoid in a front leg when he was 16.  He eventually
> healed sound but always had a bit of a limited range of motion in that leg.
> He came back at 18 to do 5 rides, all Top Tens, and one win.  The one place
> that he was not impaired at all was going downhill, which was what originally
> made me really start to think that the old concept that there was more
> breakover and stress in the front was bunk if the horse really got under
> himself.  His one win at 18 came on a really nasty, rainy 60-miler--we left
> several horses at the last vet check and got out with a lead due to a fast
> pulse recovery, but had a younger, more flexible critter make a run at us
> right at the end.  The younger horse had passed us by about 3 lengths on a
> logging road when the trail dove off of a wet clay bank to hook up with an
> old skid trail.  The other horse hesitated, and Surrabu literally shouldered
> around him, flung himself out into space and hit the clay bank halfway down,
> perfectly level in the back with his rear under him, and slid all the way to
> the bottom like a QH stopping in an arena.  Then he took off at a run down
> this slippery, slidy little skid trail, "pole-bending" through the new
> growth.  The finish timer said that Bu kept opening up more and more of a
> lead on that sweet young thing all the way to the finish--I think we ended up
> winning by about 100 yards.  Once he hit those downhills, that old front leg
> ceased to be a limiting factor...
>
> Heidi
>
> PS:  Yes, Tom, there are likely "safer" pastimes, and I'm not sure I'd have
> the cojones to do that now--OTOH, as I recall, I didn't have much choice in
> the matter, and I figured at the time that trying to stop him was about as
> safe as slamming on the brakes on black ice...  Golly, that was back before I
> owned a helmet, too!


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