Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Tevis

At 07:30 PM 7/22/02, Barbara McCrary wrote:
> I would love to know why a trail dangerous enough for horses to fall off of
> is presented to the public for a competitive event.

Actually the places I *personally* know of where horses have fallen off the 
trail aren't all that dangerous in themselves - they're not necessarily 
narrow or rocky or steep.  However, each time a horse has gone off a trail 
*in my presence* it's been on trails that are traversing very steep 
hillsides.  These trails don't have any place to go but down if a horse 
steps off the side of the trail.

One year I actually saw a horse go off a trail I'd just ridden over.  I'm 
guessing the trail, which was flat at that point, was 4' wide, but it also 
zigg-zagged around to follow the contours of the hill it was 
traversing.  The horse no doubt went straight when it should have zigged or 
zagged.  It only fell about 15' but it was still scary.

I myself am so scared of doing just that - having my horse step too close 
to the edge or off the edge and falling all the way down to the bottom - 
that I hug the inside of the trails.  One year, in the dark, this caused me 
to be caught on the neck by a really thick tree limb that wouldn't have 
touched me if I'd been anywhere near the middle of the trail where I should 
have been.  I had to bend back over the cantle of the saddle to avoid being 
decapitated and had a really bad bruise on my spine from that - but better 
a bruise on my back than fall down to the river!

Anyway, my point is that if you look at any horse trail, you'll almost 
always see some hoof prints where horses do step off the edges.  A trail 
can be flat, wide and solid but if that trail is going across the face of a 
hill, a horse can still fall off of it if the horse is stepping on the edge.
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