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Re: Stallions in endurance riding



For all I've always said about how stallions are used and trained here, I think that these stories both boil down to some advice that was first given to me by one of my riding buddies in Alexandria, a Navy dentist who played polo, and later in another version by my husband.
 
Mustafa told me that if I came to the stable with a slight headache or feeling ANYTHING but 100%, I should play with my horses or something but not ride....because that would be the time a bad accident would occur. That applied to deciding what to do with the horses as well. If I couldn't feel ABSOLUTELY sure about what I was doing, don't do it until I was sure. 
 
Later when my husband took up flying, he told me that no air accident has one cause...there is always a string of mistakes, the first one of which might simply being stepping into the plane on that day, and a pilot could only stay alive by never forgetting that and by listening to that quiet little voice that says "This is one of those mistakes."  however trivial the act may seem at the time. I wish he'd been better at following his own advice.
 
I have 5 rideable horses and not enough time to ride, so I often enjoy scooping up a bunch of friends to go for a ramble. As I match horses and riders, I always think of Mustafa and Diaa. Stallions can be wonderful or horrible, like any big animal. Riders and pilots can't afford not to listen to the little voice, we both land too hard. People say riding is the art of keeping the ground between you and your horse and flying is the art of aiming at the ground and missing...sounds a lot alike. Discretion is always the better part of valour.
 
 

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@ratbusters.net 
www.ratbusters.net

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen Sullivan [mailto:greymare@jps.net]
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2001 9:39 PM
To: Susan Garlinghouse; ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: Re: Re: Re: Stallions in endurance riding

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Susan Garlinghouse
I hadn't thought of this until I read this post, but now I'll throw it in for the FWIW category.  Many years ago when I had my horses in Burbank (CA), there was a father who let his teenage son ride their stallion.  The stallion was fairly well-behaved, ie could normally go out with other groups of horses and you wouldn't automatically realize he was a stud.
 
There was also another family who had just bought their first horse, a chubby lil pony mare that their five year old daughter could sit on and wander around the arena on.  One particular day, the teenage boy was riding the stallion and the little girl was in the arena on the pony mare, who happened to be in standing estrus.  The stallion decided to take a detour, the boy couldn't stop him, the stallion promptly tried to mount the mare and one of his front feet caught the little girl in the head and killed her.
 
 
*This is one I just had to reply to....becuase it has deeply affected two things in my horse life.
One, I will never ride with a person on a stallion again.  This doesn't mean I think they should be banned from rides, it just means I will politely decline to ride with you, if you are on a stallion!
 
Second, I learned never to let anyone talk me into doing something with horses that I think is a bad idea, or that I don't feel I have the skills to do!
 
Here is MY story.  I was at the ranch with a friend.....we had finished freshmen year at college.  She was majoring in animal husbandry and had been riding horses all her life.  She was the type of person that was extremely competent and forceful (not in a bad way), and horses just didn't give her problems!
She took over their stallion breeding program, and in fact I had been helping her by bringing in the mares.
One day we went riding, with her on the stallion, and me bareback on their mare (that had been bred that morning).  I thought it was a bad idea but my friend convinced me she could handle the stallion.  We did a nice ride up in the hilly pasture and then went down to the arena area where we were talking to folks.
 Both horses were standing quietly,  but I remember the stallion started talking to the mare.....then out of the corner of my left eye saw him just, in a flash, charge up and over the mare.  I instantly balied off to the right....getting his right front hoof on my hip.  I had a nasty horseshoe scrape/bruise that lasted for several years.  When that stallion decided to mount the mare, there was NOTHING my friend could have done.
I was badly bruised, but no broken bones...
 
Anyway, that story reminds me to stay careful; not push myself, children, friends OR green horses into situaitons they aren't prepared for, and to always remember that no matter how well trained and gentle horses can be-they are stilll big animals ruled by instincts.
 
Karen
they are


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