This message is from: Marsha Jo Hannah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > "kate charboneau" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >�My family�agreed to go on a trail ride with another couple, had agreed upon > "trail ride rules" since I was worried about the man's idea of safe & > smart.� He immediately forgot about our agreements; I ended up being > bucked off my AQHA gelding when�neither he nor I�could handle the antics > of our trail-ride partners. [...] > Since then, I have never gone on a trail ride with anyone besides > immediate family.� What do others do when�a trail ride gets dangerous?
Yeah, been there. We had had our Fjord geldings for a few years, and had done a lot of trail rides with a neighbor on nearby Open Space lands. So, when an e-acquaintance suggested meeting her near where she boarded, to go on a "wildflower" ride, I agreed---with the understanding that we were strictly walk-trot riders. We arrived to find that the "outing" had escallated---our hostess had invited her boyfriend and another e-acquaintance, who brought her husband and a friend---so our 2 Fjords were outnumbered by 3 Pasos, a TB, and an Arab. My gelding, Sleepy, was rather tense about being with all the stranger horses (we later figured out that he has "translation" problems with horses that have "expressive" body language); my husband's gelding, Rom, became super-tense when he discovered that the lake we were riding near was "infested" with numerous power boats and jet-skis (Rom has always had "issues" about small engine noise). When we got to the first hill, the other horses all got excited---they were used to blowing off steam by cantering up it. In deference to us, the other riders tried to keep their horses at the trot, which mostly meant that there were a lot of horse/human arguments going on about the preferred gait, with the Pasos doing a lot of gaiting, the unfamiliarity of which served to make our Fjords even more tense. Things came to a head when our hostess's Arab mare did a bunch of nose-flip protests, whereupon Sleepy shied violently---sideways about 6' with a 90-degree turn. I ended up well up his neck and a bit off to the side; fortunately, his packhorse training kicked in, and he froze long enough for me to get back in the middle of him. I announced, "That does it---end of ride!"; my husband and I dismounted, bid our hostess good-day, and led our horses back to our trailer. In retrospect, our calm, quiet Fjords had led us to overestimate our riding skills. The fact that we always rode on the same, quiet, familiar trails near home, with the same few horses, meant that our boys weren't used to figuring out "new" places and horses. And, our boys had both been in Fjord-only homes for most of their lives, i.e. were "reading" normal expressive hot-horse body language as extreme threats (which they would be, if one Fjord "said" that to another). Fortunately, that day, I realized that things had escallated beyond my ability to control my horse and to ride-through what he was doing, plus that he was at the limit of his ability to control himself. At that point, self-preservation kicked in, so we got ourselves back in control (on the ground) and got away from as much of the problem as we could (the other horses). We still had to cope with the jet-ski sound and the unfamiliar surroundings, but at least we and our Fjords could concentrate on each other and work thru it. Afterwards, we discussed it with our neighbor/trainer, then started doing more "away" rides, adding others of her family to the group when possible. However, we never worked back up to doing rides with large groups, or in "busy" parks. Turns out, we're really hermits at heart, and enjoy our quiet solitude---as, apparently, do our horses. Marsha Jo Hannah Murphy must have been a horseman-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] anything that can go wrong, will! 15 mi SW of Roseburg, Oregon The FjordHorse List archives can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw
