Dangerous Trail

["Nancy Mitts" <mitts_n@hotmail.com>]

Exactly what constitutes a "dangerous" trail will likely always differ from 
person to person, based on their own past experiences & fears. Riders are 
usually the most comfortable on terrain they're used to.
I have ridden some stretchs of trail I definately thought were extremely 
dangerous because a horse could get it's leg stuck between the rocks & break 
it. As a ride manager I've always tried to consider what amount of risk is 
acceptable.
Sometimes, there just isn't any other way to get where the trail needs to 
go. You do the best you can with what you've got. That's a risk riders have 
to learn to deal with. Or, if you think it was unnecessarily dangerous, vote 
with your feet & don't go back to those rides. And let management know why.
A good endurance horse should be able to negotiate a wide variety of natural 
trail obstacles.
The idea I DON'T like to hear about is that of using "leg buster" trails 
(when there IS a better trail) to slow riders down & prevent metabolic 
problems. Monte says "A ballbat to the rider's head is much kinder to the 
horse." Yes, metabolic crashes are immediately devastating to the horse, and 
upsetting to see. But lame horses don't always get happily retired to 
pasture, living out their days in comfort.  They usually get sold. 
Somewhere. Use your imagination. We just don't see it at the ride.
To say that some rides "should" only have a 50% completion rate strikes me a 
bit odd. That's like saying we shouldn't learn how to select, train, feed, 
or ride our horses better. I think a Championship caliber horse and rider 
should have a HIGHER ability to finish rides! (And indeed, this past NC ride 
did seem to have a relatively good completion rate.) And so if overall the 
horses and riders do improve, what, we should club every other horse in the 
legs or something??

Nancy Mitts


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