Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> >     The CYA rump rugs are wonderfully convenient, but don't leave 
> > those bungees hanging! This fall at the Grand Canyon XP ride, my 
> > gelding was trotting at a good pace up a narrow bushy trail. 
> > Suddenly he was making all the usual trotting motions but we were 
> > going absolutely nowhere - sort of like flying in a dream. The 
> > horses behind us piled up, not anticipating our unexplained halt. 
> > Then I heard a sharp rip, and a shriek, and lots of commotion.
> >     Our rump rug bungee cord had wrapped around a bush, stopping 
> > my horse's forward motion until the rump rug tore off the saddle 
> > D-rings. The black rug (with part of a thorny bush hanging from 
> > it) flew onto the head of the horse directly behind us, covering 
> > his eyes and thrusting him into unexpected darkness in the middle 
> > of a bright afternoon. Fortunately his very talented rider was 
> > able to remain seated on her dancing mount as she reached forward 
> > to unwrap the thing and through it off. The rump rug was totaled 
> > but we got a good laugh out of it.

A few years back we were doing something to a Holsteiner mare we had in our
escape-proof cross-ties made from thick posts and two 5 foot long 5/8 thick
bungees.  She decided to haul back for some reason known only to God and
warmbloods.

As the cords stretched to around 10 feet I braced myself for 1200 lbs of
meat to come slingshoting back into place.  At 15 feet I thought I'd better
run for cover but before I could get up from my front row seat there was
a loud pop and one of the cords let loose followed immediately by the other
one and the horse was free and looking for choice blades of grass.

Bob went and got her and started her back toward the destroyed cross tie
and I noticed blood dripping from her mouth.  There was a large hole through
the center of her lower lip on a Sunday emergency vet farm call afternoon.

We spent an interesting afternoon doing some major emergency surgery
in the barnyard.  In addition to the hole and a good sized tear, the bungee
had blown the back out of one of the lower incisors and took a diagonal
chunk out of one of top incisors.  The interesting part was listening to the
eye opening accounts of successful and unsuccessful bungee cases she
had worked on.

Marv "Celebrating 2133 days, 9 hours, 32 minutes, 18...19...20...21...22...
23...24...25...26... seconds, of bungee sobriety." Walker
Horse Info & Training DVDs ~ http://MarvWalker.com 



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