RE:RC: MALIBU RIDE AND TRAIL INCIDENT

[guest@endurance.net]

Dorann LaPerch Bonnfyrefarms@yahoo.com
As a full time lurker on RIDECAMP I decided I had to post on this topic.
You see I was the person whos' horse was deliberately kicked by a rider-
as the junior rider was encouraged to "Hurry up come on" by her sponsor
who had galloped up the hill way ahead of her group.

The ride had just started, and basically the trail was a tire track trail,
with one of the tracks being a rut.  My mare was essentially on the single
track trail. The first junior rider of this group having been encouraged
by her sponsor, proceeded to blaze her own trail through four foot high
grass. As she came along side my horse she took her foot and BOOTED my
mare in the side essentially moving her over.  I then heard a shout from
my riding partner who was now two horses behind me yell "Watch out Missy"
(Missy being my mares nickname) as another of the juniors was apprently
almost on top of my mare. She then started to repeat the previous juniors
move of coming along in an area that was not the trail at which point I
started swinging my rein on that side and yelled at her not to even THINK
of getting that close to my horse, she did veer wide enough not to
interfere with my mare.  I was truly aghast at this behavior.

I heard about the mountain bike incident from Debbie, who was an
eyewitness. I was horrified, as our ride manager had told us at the ride
meeting to PLEASE treat the bikers and hikers with utmost respect.

I approached the ride manager after the ride about this incident and said
that if she heard from any irate mountain bike rider that I knew who was
responsible. I also told her about the junior having deliberately kicked
my horse. Her reply to me was that as a close personal friend to this
adult rider that "I can not talk to her about this". I certainly saw it
was prudent to drop the subject.

This same group has been at several rides. They are the kind of people
that give Limited Distance a bad rap. This group in my humble opinion is
DANGEROUS with their total lack of courtesy and no care of trail
etiquette. I am sorry the juniors are being given this as an example, as
it has nothing to do with sportsmanship or even more importantly
horsemanship.

Malibu is a beautiful albeit very technically tough ride. I would hate to
see horse use curtailed at Malibu State Park because of the bad behavior
of a very few.