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    Re: [RC] Bailing off a runaway horse - Debbie T.


    The older I get, the harder  and farther away that ground gets.  I HATE falling off.  I'm with Howard, I'm staying on if I can, and no cliff or  tree branch awaits us!
    Debbie Trimble
    ----- Original Message -----
    Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2002 12:45 PM
    Subject: RE: [RC] Bailing off a runaway horse

    A few years back in my infancy as a trail rider, my trusted steed and I were out on Eglin AFB's reservation in FL panhandle (thousands of miles of trails) doing our LSD training. We had gone a good ways and were doing a nice working canter, nice and aerobic. Well, I had my sponge clipped onto my saddle and suddenly began accelerating for no known reason with great intensity. I really started to panic because he wasn't responding to my hand control. Once I looked around a little I saw my sponge flying in the breeze out to my side and realized what had happened. Sabian saw the green sponge bugger trying to catch him floating in our air speed in his peripheral vision. It's amazing how quickly thoughts of what your options are in a case like this come flooding through you mind and I was tempted to bail off his back into a large sand burm, but quickly passed it by realizing I would have a long road to walk home and I would have to find my horse as well. The thought of my getting hurt if I bailed never crossed my mind, because I am pretty good at coming off horses when I least expect it, having done hundreds of spills + the sand I would be landing in would be cushy landing.  Once I grabbed the sponge and secured it to the saddle, he started to come back to my hands and all was well again.
     
    That's the closest I've ever been to a runaway situation and it was scary while I was going through scenarios to deal with it.
     
    Happy Tails,
     
    Susan & Fly Bye - who's tried to runaway in nose controlled tack during races, but was yanked from the fray before disaster could happen. BITS REIGN!
    -----Original Message-----
    From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Mike & Laurie Hilyard
    Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2002 8:11 AM
    To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Subject: [RC] Bailing off a runaway horse

    I've got to admit it, but I'm with Howard on this one.  My husband claims he once clocked my horse going 35+ miles an hour (he was behind me in a truck.  The horse was 5 years younger than now, and I was 40 pounds lighter, and there were horse eating holsteins (cows) in the pastures on both sides of us.).  He wasn't running away, either, because he was still responding to me.  ANYWAY, I can't imagine jumping off my horse on my 42 year old knees.  Yeah, I played around with "emergency dismounts" when I was a kid, riding bareback on my ponies and landing on grass in the yard or hayfield.  That was when my knees still had synovial fluid in the joints.  But I firmly believe that the safest place on a runaway is on top of them, at least in Michigan where we don't have cliffs.  If you have the time to pick a landing place devoid of trees, metal junk, and large rocks, clear your feet from the stirrups, untangle your hands from the reins,  have the strength and coordination to push yourself off the pommel  to clear the horse, AND do all this while traveling a bumpy 30 miles an hour in a direction you are NOT choosing, surely you have the time to hunker down, hang on, and pray.  The first year or two I had him, Revvy ran away a lot - a true runaway - as fast as he could go,  without regard to his surroundings or the potential for harming himself, and totally oblivious to me up there.  By "a lot" I mean maybe 5 or 6 times.  Trust me ONE true runaway is terrifying, and no, you don't get used to them.  I ride mostly on open country roads, and after 1-2 miles he would slow down and stop.  Then we would trot back up the road to whatever had scared him and repeat it at a less mind numbing speed.  My point is, on a totally open road he would run himself out in 2-3 minutes.  That was enough to save his short grass plains ancestors from the asiatic lions, and after that, his three brain cells would start making synaptic connections again.  I would be interested in hearing from those who HAD bailed out.  Was the horse more likely to run away again?  Did they get hurt?  Would they do it again?

    Replies
    RE: [RC] Bailing off a runaway horse, Jerry & Susan Milam