Re: RC: RE: Re: Re: gophers

[Trishmare7@aol.com]

In a past editorial in "Equus" Matthew Mackey-Smith made the same 
observation: horses and gophers have been around together a long time, and 
horses have a knack for avoiding such pitfalls.  He said that equestrians 
have an unreasonable fear of gopher (or, in the east, woodchuck) holes--which 
in his opinion are rarely, if ever, any kind of a genuine threat to 
horses--and that in the very rare instance that a horse did injure themselves 
in one, it was probably "rider interference" that was at fault, not the horse 
nor the gopher.

Trish & King David
Grand Blanc, Michigan

<< Hi Marlene
 I wonder what the statistics are on broken legs from gopher holes.
 Gophers have been around for a very long time and they seem to seek out
 my pastures no matter where we have lived. My friend and breeder once
 laughed at me when I was worried about the holes and pointed out horses
 are smart and have three other legs to catch their balance on--- I know
 the one broken leg I had (Halynov's) was a freak accident totally
 unrelated to gophers. Has ANYONE on ridecamp had a horse break his leg
 in a gopher hole? There are 1000 members here I understand. It would be
 interesting to know just how real this danger is.
 Bette (who kind of likes their cutsy little faces but also has wrestled
 with the best way to eliminate them--- BTW those sonic sound things
 don't work :-) Just moves them down a few feet!) >>