Re: Horses at the fire

["hn.heather" <hn.heather@wanadoo.fr>]

there were
> severe thunderstorms before the start.  There was a barn where tables
> with food had been set up.  Quite a few people took refuge from the
> storm there.  Then, two people brought their horses into that area
> with them

I agree in principle with this.  However friendly & people- orientated a
horse is he's still a horse and if something spooks him his instinct to to
move and to move fast.  If there's something or someone in his way he may
not be able to help himself walking over them.

In 1992 I competed in the first (and last, so far) multi-day ride in France.
400kms over 5 days.  The horses were housed in portable stables, the
riders/crew in tents & we had breakfast and dinner in a "big top" tent.
The first night found us at 1600m and despite being July it was very cold &
very wet.  The ride organisers were still feeling their feet & there were
delays getting the stables up because of mechanical probs with the trucks
bringing in the stables.  The guys were building the stables & as fast as
one was built someone who'd arrived & vetted nabbed it.
Inevitably demand outstripped supply & then it started to snow.  The ride
organisers suggested (only the French could suggest something as crazy) that
those of us who'd vetted but didn't have stables might like to bring our
horses in the main tent.
Inside the main tent were benches and tables set up in a circle with folks
eating their supper.  Eventually there were something like 30 horses in the
main tent, including at least 5 stallions!  Some folks just tied their horse
to the bench & sat down and ate dinner.
At the time we didn't give it a thought and I remember thinking "how nice
and what a good advert for endurance horses".
These were exceptional circumstances and it doesn't take much imagination to
think what could have happened if someone's stallion took a fancy to
someone's mare that wasn't in season.  Flying hooves and people.  Ouch!
Anyway as the days went by the weather got better, the stable building got
slicker and the so the horses stayed out of the big top.
The tents for the riders/crew were little igloo type things which came as
part of the ride entry package.  That first night I made the mistake of
touching the inside of the tent and realised that it was as wet inside as
outside.  Sort of put me off camping for life!
Heather & SAMARANG (yeah, that was me doing that ride, 400kms, can you
imagine it?  Thank goodness I'm retired now and the hardest thing I do is
give pleasure to the ladies!!)


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