Re: RC: The horse that hit Jim Oury

[jlong@mti.net (Joe Long)]

On Mon, 4 Oct 1999 15:45:12 -0700, "guest@endurance.net"
<guest@endurance.net> wrote:

>Let's just look at this horse for one second.
>Most horses will do anything to avoid a collision.

They will try, *if they can.*

>Even at high speeds, they'll jump something on the
>ground, and we all know they can turn on a dime
>or do a 180 at just about any speed *IF* they can
>see where they're going or not running crazed.

1000 pounds of horse and rider cannot make sudden changes in direction
"on a dime."

>That horse to me wasn't just *racing* to the finish
>that horse was running blind. 

Speculation.  The horse may have tried its best to avoid the collision
but was unable to do so.  You are making unwarranted assumptions.

>(And hearing that the horse stepped on his chest after
>knocking him down, really drives it home to me that this
>horse didn't even know he'd HAD a collision.)

Sorry, that's not right.  The time I had my accident, when a spooked
horse backed into Kahlil's path, we were racing at full speed for the
finish line.  Kahlil was fully in control, I had just checked him up a
moment before, then put him back into full sprint.  When I was pulled
off onto the  ground by the collision one of his back hooves landed on
me -- although I know he did his best to avoid stepping on me, it
couldn't be helped.  Kahlil knew without a doubt that he'd just had a
collision!

To give a few more details of that accident for anyone who's
interested, I was racing in with another rider about 100 feet behind
me.  I saw a lady leading a reluctant horse out of camp, and they were
blocking the trail to the finish line.  I started pulling Kahlil up,
and he was collecting nicely, when she led the horse off the trail and
opened a clear path to the finish line.  So, I opened Kahlil back to
full sprint -- and then her horse spooked and backed into our path at
the last second.

Oh, BTW, the horse behind us jumped over me and went on to finish 1st
place.  I spend five days in the hospital with potentially
life-threatening internal injuries (we did finish in second place,
though -- I asked the people who had rushed up to help to get me back
on Kahlil so that we could cross the finish line).

Accidents happen.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
http://www.mti.net     Business
http://www.rnbw.com    Personal


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