Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

FW: [RC] Canal Diving (long) - Mike Sherrell

Most excellent story. Thank you.

I have read of two other occasions where horses fell into water when banks
gave way -- I think it happened to Babar, in fact. I think it's a standard
hazard you have to learn to look out for, like wire hidden in grass or
gopher tunnels.

Mike Sherrell
Grizzly Analytical (USA)
707 887 2919/fax 707 887 9834
www.grizzlyanalytical.com


-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Maryanne Stroud
Gabbani
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 10:41 AM
To: Equine-L; Ridecamp
Subject: [RC] Canal Diving (long)


Well, I suppose that it's only fitting that one of these days I had to
write about something other than idyllic rides through mango and date
groves or early morning desert rides in a t-shirt under sunny skies in
December. It's tough living somewhere with a great climate, but
someone's gotta do it, and it's easier to take on a snowy morning when
you know that there is a down side.  So here's my down side:

My lovely daughter finally took off for New York and the halls of
higher education, monkey sex and old bones (an anthropology major, not
kinky!) at 3 am Saturday morning. Saturday was, needless to say, an
utter write-off since it is an hour each way to the airport from my
house, so sleep was in extremely short supply. That probably had a lot
to do with my Sunday evening ride.

Yesterday I had the house to myself, got it cleaned, started the
organisation job after 2 months of college students, and about 7:30 I
decided to go out for a ride with Dory.  By 7:30 the horses have had
their evening meal and it's getting dark, but living just outside a
city of 20 million people darkness is relative. The moon was only about
half full (can't actually recall seeing it) so it wasn't much help, but
the light from the villas and farms was good and the sky looked like it
was just before dawn...the way it does all night long here. They say
that the Nile Valley is one of the brightest spots on earth and I can
believe it.

I've been riding alone in the countryside at night for years and have
never had any qualms about it. I know my neighbours and they know me.
My horses ride these trails all the time and know their way home from
almost anywhere. Dory in particular is my favourite choice for riding
alone at night because she knows EVERYTHING and isn't afraid of
anything. I always feel safe with her, so she was my partner last night.

We started out taking a 12 inch wide trail across the fields near the
paddocks. They were irrigating some of the fields and the trail was
broken in spots with the irrigation ditches filled with running water.
Most Arabs in this neck of the woods regard running water much the same
way that ghouls and witches do...not to be crossed....but with Dory, no
problem. She hopped over without missing a beat, which was good since I
didn't even see a couple of the ditches until we were on top of them. I
was very proud of her. Midway down the trail she stopped to snitch some
leaves from a farmer's corn crop and sneakily tried to turn around for
home, like maybe I just wouldn't remember which direction we were
taking.  Hah!  But she managed a 360 degree circle without stepping off
the path.  Very good.

On a dirt road a bit further on, we caught up with a boy on a donkey.
He got a bit competitive and Dory decided to show her heels lest the
donkey get delusions of grandeur.  Lovely canter to the village and
then the obligatory walk among the dogs, kids, and resting mothers. At
that point, this ride looked like we were going to have a ball. Dory
was really into it, I was really into it. This was great. Cross the
road, over the bridge and down a dirt road where the dredge had been
piling canal mud up on the edge of the canal. A pickup truck was
approaching and we had a rather tight fit between the truck (which
kindly stopped) and the canal. But we passed. Score another one for
our team.

The next stretch of trail was really dark and Dory saw the donkeys and
the fully laden cart before I did. But she figured that a cart full of
forage was just a meal delivery rather than an obstacle. The owner of
the cart didn't see it the same way so I edged her around to pass.
Another road to cross and things started to get interesting as we
jetted on down a dirt road at Dory's weird not-quite-trot that flies
along. I suspect that it's some other "gait" but no one here has the
slightest idea how to tell me what. I do love it though.

We cut a right at an intersection onto a road that would narrow into a
trail along a minor canal and then widen into a dirt road again. I
figured that we'd take that and then loop home. The first thing that we
saw were a group of men and boys fishing with blue/purple
glow-in-the-dark bobbers in the canal. Neither of us had ever seen
anything like it and Dory was fascinated by these glowing lights flying
around in the air as they cast out into the canal. But there was a look
and a snort, but no spook.  The road ahead was crowded with trucks and
cars, so one of the villas that we passed just before the trail
narrowed was having a party or something. This turned out to be A Very
Good Thing.

On we cruised, to the trail, only to find that someone had planted corn
right to the edge of the canal and our trail was nowhere to be
seen...not that seeing a trail in a cornfield in the dark is a high
probability anyway. Dory wisely decided that this was not the right
direction and turned away from the canal to do one of her tiny turns
when the bank of the canal, which had been undercut by the dredge, gave
way under her hindquarters. I jumped off on her left to allow her the
freedom to clamber up to safety, figuring that I'd land on dirt, but
the same undercut bank got me and I landed up to my armpits in the
canal.

Now there are canals and canals.  I've seen clean canals with sandy
bottoms and then there are Nile Valley canals. My first thought (after
relief that Dorika wasn't in the water with me) was "Thank God it's
night and I can't see anything in the water" because canals here can
contain such enticing objects as dead animals along with the usual
fish, crayfish, and schistosomiasis flukes....not to mention the
chemical run off from fields. But then I began to consider just how I
would get out. There were no bushes along the bank, not even any sturdy
grass to grab and pull and no slope since the dredge had undercut the
bank. I looked about 50 feet or so down the path back to the villa with
the party and saw some people coming out to the trucks. So I started
yelling in Arabic the usual sorts of things that one would say to
entice someone to pull one out of a stinking canal.  Actually it was
pretty full, which cuts down a lot on the odorous attributes.

I shouted for what seemed like ages with no one responding or seeming
to hear me. Dory was standing next to the canal waiting patiently for
me to come to my senses and emerge from the waters like Aphrodite, but
she wasn't even close enough that I could try to pull myself out by
hanging on to one of her legs. If she had been, I might have tried it
as I'm pretty sure that she'd have stood still for me. Instead she
ambled down to the trucks and just stood there under a gate light in
her saddle and bridle waiting for someone to notice her and realise
that there should be a rider somewhere close, which, ilhamdulilah, they
finally did. One last shout and some of the men came running, grabbed
my hands and hauled me up on dry land.

Once I was on my feet, the people offered me a hot drink (when it's 30
degrees out?), a shower (what was the point since I still had to get
home?) and all sorts of help.  I declined all offers leaving them
convinced that I was utterly mad, hopped on my mare and high-tailed it
for home. Riding in wet pants, boots, and half-chaps leaves a lot to be
desired, even in our climate and I was so glad to get back to the
paddocks. We hosed down Dory's muddy legs to check for scratches and
cuts, thankfully finding none, and I headed home for a hot shower and a
change of clothes. The water in the shower ran black, and that was
AFTER I'd removed the clothes and boots.  The next step was a
prophylactic dose of praziquantel to kill anything that I might have
picked up while investigating the irrigation ditch.

Today I'm feeling rather stiff due to banging on the bank as I fell
into the water and being dragged willy-nilly out on the dirt by my
saviours, and Dory took the day off to relax too. I have no idea
whether she would have continued down the road to home if the people
hadn't seen her (she's gone home from places before but never if
there's been an accident), but I like to think that she orchestrated my
rescue.  Okay, so I'm grateful that she decided to go home in a
direction where there were people at least.

Now I'm curtailing any canal-side trails at night an sticking to the
nice wide dirt roads where I can be relatively sure that I will stay on
dry land. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
www.alsorat.com

"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and
you miss all you are traveling for"  Louis L'Amour


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=