Ridecamp: RE: [RC] Tevis

Just catching up on my email (300 from Ridecamp!) and Tevis after a week of
the flu and working misery. Where I ride we have no hills but the trails are
paths along fields and almost always have irrigation ditches on at least one
side. I've had a couple of my horses take a wrong step, usually with a hind
leg, and slide into the canal when the embankment gives way under them.
REALLY not fun when you consider that the bugs living in the mud and water
are fairly gross and usually require a week of medicine to prevent unwanted
changes to one's body. Luckily, so far no one has ever been hurt beyond
their dignity and possible mud stains, but I'm beginning to believe in spurs
to help teach foot positioning. You can fall off a flat trail....and I have
one gelding that I would NEVER take to Tevis (not that I could afford the
cost anyway).  Last night I thought for sure I was going swimming because
some genius in the irrigation maintenance department decided to take
advantage of a full moon and the light on a back hoe to dredge a canal along
one of our trails. We got to within 100 yds when the horses noticed a long
yellow arm that creaked, groaned, reached out and pulled back just ahead in
the trees. I knew it was a back hoe...they figured it was something else and
definitely carnivorous. We opted to turn back but it was hard to ride a
horse that kept trying to walk sideways to check that the monster wasn't
coming after him....this on a trail that is relatively wide, like 6 feet?.
When you end up in a canal, the phrase "S%$& happens" takes on new meaning.
<G>

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ratbusters.net

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.
_____________________________________________________
Lif Strand STRAND ENTERPRISES http://www.fasterhorses.com
Quemado NM  USA



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