Re: RC: downhill at speed

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/9/00 6:40:13 PM Pacific Standard Time, laneyh@mbay.net 
writes:

<< Dot Wiggins suggestion to watch "Man from Snow River"reminded me of a 
local trail we call "the Snowy River trail" because it includes a VERY steep 
(i.e., almost vertical) slope about 50' long (forest loam, no rocks but it 
does have one sharp turn). >>

Reminds me of a ride we used to have in this area called The Dam Ride.  Gene 
Nance used to put it on.  When he first started it, I still lived in Idaho, 
and he said he had a bet on that NO ONE would ride down one section of the 
trail.  I told him I would, but it was three years before I got over to that 
ride.  I asked him if the bet was still on, and he said "NO WAY for you, 
because I've SEEN you ride downhill!"  Sure enough, I rode down it and picked 
up about 15 places in the process.  That was on my old stallion Surrabu.  I 
also watched The Man From Snowy River in the theater with Gene and 
Marney--when the downhill scene came on, Gene leaned over to me and 
whispered, "Where did they find a Surrabu son to play that part??"  Gene had 
bought two Surrabu daughters from me (full sisters to Junior), and they went 
downhill like greased eels, too.

Surrabu fractured a sesamoid in a front leg when he was 16.  He eventually 
healed sound but always had a bit of a limited range of motion in that leg.  
He came back at 18 to do 5 rides, all Top Tens, and one win.  The one place 
that he was not impaired at all was going downhill, which was what originally 
made me really start to think that the old concept that there was more 
breakover and stress in the front was bunk if the horse really got under 
himself.  His one win at 18 came on a really nasty, rainy 60-miler--we left 
several horses at the last vet check and got out with a lead due to a fast 
pulse recovery, but had a younger, more flexible critter make a run at us 
right at the end.  The younger horse had passed us by about 3 lengths on a 
logging road when the trail dove off of a wet clay bank to hook up with an 
old skid trail.  The other horse hesitated, and Surrabu literally shouldered 
around him, flung himself out into space and hit the clay bank halfway down, 
perfectly level in the back with his rear under him, and slid all the way to 
the bottom like a QH stopping in an arena.  Then he took off at a run down 
this slippery, slidy little skid trail, "pole-bending" through the new 
growth.  The finish timer said that Bu kept opening up more and more of a 
lead on that sweet young thing all the way to the finish--I think we ended up 
winning by about 100 yards.  Once he hit those downhills, that old front leg 
ceased to be a limiting factor...

Heidi

PS:  Yes, Tom, there are likely "safer" pastimes, and I'm not sure I'd have 
the cojones to do that now--OTOH, as I recall, I didn't have much choice in 
the matter, and I figured at the time that trying to stop him was about as 
safe as slamming on the brakes on black ice...  Golly, that was back before I 
owned a helmet, too!


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