Re: RC: RE: Trail Riding Safety

[Lucy C Trumbull <elsie@foothill.net>]

Bob Morris wrote:
> 
> Marv:
> 
> You cannot stress enough the importance of wearing a helmet designed for
> equestrian activities....

The normal non-helmet-wearing person's comment is "But I look
stupid in a helmet", to which, of course, the correct response 
is "you'll look stupider with a permanent head injury".

My quickie list for avoiding incidents on the trail:

* remove your martingale when taking the horse in the river
  to prevent drowning when he trips and hooks himself up in
  it and can't get his head above water
* make sure the horse has a halter/halter-bridle on, so that
  if you need to tie during an emergency, you can
* don't tie the horse to something he can uproot/drag away if 
  you do have to tie. Things not to tie to include skinny/dead 
  tree limbs, twigs/ large buckets of water, bales of hay, rickety 
  fences, other horses, etc.
* don't crowd the back end of other horses - ESP. ones you don't
  know well (I just heard three stories this weekend of horses/
  riders being kicked from crowding other horses)
* make sure all members of the party are comfortable with the 
  pace - don't just take off galloping, leaving your friends 
  with bolting/bucking horses 

-- 
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Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@foothill.net
Repotted english person in Garden Valley (Sierra Foothills), CA 
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