Ridecamp: [RC] how to fall in a hole, fall off a cliff, and crash a jump

Hooray for Megan and Brenda!! They said it first, but I second their 
comments.

Any dressage rider or jumper knows that you don't look in front of the 
horse's ears to make that perfect circle or clear that high jump, you have 
to have "soft eyes" and look beyond.

The old adage of watching where you're going doesn't work here, you have to 
watch where you want to go.

A cranky old cowboy from the Seven Devils Mountains in Idaho told me to 
never look off the cliff, look up the trail, and nobody gets hurt. I've 
noticed all the horses I ride, even the first-time colts, tend to center 
themselves better on the trail that way. In addition, I don't watch the 
holes and rocks going cross country. And believe me, we have HOLES and ROCKS 
here in the Southwest Idaho desert area. My job is to set the direction and 
speed, and the horse's job is to watch his feet. Even green colts respond to 
this attitude. I've always noticed that people who ride with me and steer 
their horse around every hole have horses that don't watch their feet and 
fall in the holes. I trust my horses in the roughest country--of course that 
doesn't mean the Arabs can walk down a flat gravel road without tripping and 
looking like spastics! :P

The other bonus to riding with your eyes on the horizon line is a horse that 
learns to travel in a straight line cross country instead of weaving all 
over the territory. With experienced cow horses and cross country horses is 
that you can look up the mountain or down a gully, turn your horse loose, 
and he'll  find a deer trail or an overgrown sheep/cow trail to follow. I've 
gotten a lot better over the years at spotting faint trails because I let my 
horses show me where they are.

The same thing applies to the dogs that go with me--their job is to get 
outta MY way, I don't steer around them. People who steer and brake for dogs 
that get in the way have dogs that ALWAYS get in the way.

Megan, you're absolutely right about horses coming through in a pinch. I've 
ridden idiots that should have blow apart high, wide and handsome act like 
they were taking care of me when the situation was critical and someone 
could have been badly hurt, and then come unglued over a white rock another 
day when it didn't matter.

The only problem with doing this cross country stuff is that friends tend to 
only go exploring with me ONCE, and then they find all sorts of excuses not 
to ride with me. Hmmmmmmm, I wonder why?

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