ridecamp@endurance.net: what to do with drivers...

what to do with drivers...

Gwen Dluehosh (dluehosh@vt.edu)
Fri, 14 Feb 1997 01:22:28 +0500

HOwdy...
A few years ago I had a boarder who did some endurance and she told me what
she didi when a fast inconsiderate driver came by- she always carried a few
small pebbles and if someone drove by too fast, she'd chuck the stones at
the car and make sure they hit... not good for paint but the person
wouldprobably think it was from the horse kicking up rocks... And not do it
again...
I haven't done this as it seems rather uncalled for and most of the drivers
around here are pretty good with horses.
My stallion saw some horses out in the field one day - down the street, and
decided the middle of the road was a good place to be in spite of my aids-
he ended up going in many circles VERY fast and getting thumped on the
outside and hollered at. He doesn't do that anymore, (gee wonder why!) but
the funny thing was, there were NO cars on the road until I had to
discipline him- then there were about 5 all at once from both directions!!!
THey all pretty well stopped in a hurry when they saw what he was doing.
Dangerous, but that's the risk I have to take to get to my trails. He goes
along fine now.
I have been very surprised with most of my greenies- I really haven't seen
them act stupid for the most part with traffic, but like most everyone else
I like to get someone else to go with me a few times on a solid horse for
company. It works. SChool buses are probably the worst, but only if there
are fifty kids in it yelling...

As far as highways go, we have a very busy one here that I sometimes cross
(Kasey learned about this one!) and I WILL NOT ever ride a horse on the
shoulder there. There is too much risk of the horse sidestepping out into
the road at the wrong time- you know, like when an 18 wheeler is flying down
hill. THey can't stop and I can just imagine the mess it would cause. I get
off and lead if we go anywhere near that road. THe horses are very well
ground trained and know to come along when I say so. This is one of the FEW
applications that halter training has that is GOOD. They come when you say
so! IF I have a sluggish one I get the second rider to get behind and whack
the slow one in the behind to move along. It works pretty well. (I am not as
mean as I sound- but if it's him or me, it's going to be HIM! :) )
I also ride facing traffic and ride on the outside of curves if I can,
otherwise if I have to stay to the inside of the curve, and I trot really
fast through it to get to the straightaway.
If you ride at night/ dusk on the side of the road facing traffic, be
careful not to have headlights on your helmet when traffice is coming on a
DARK road. We scared a driver badly one night- they thought they were coming
on the wrong side of the road and started to swerve TOWARD us to get back on
the "right" side of the road. Luckily they realized the error in time and
corrected it. We were almost horsemeat and people meat.
Gwen

Gwen Dluehosh
Desert Storm Arabians
1156 Hightop Rd, #89
Blacksburg, VA 24060
540/953-1792

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