Ridecamp: Re: [Fwd: Re: [RC] riding in the rain]

On Sat, 14 Dec 2002 22:34:23 -0500, Truman Prevatt
<tprevatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>I remember hearing about that one. May have been why Teddy stopped 
>running the ride. It got quite dangerous and a RM's nightmare having to 
>worry about horses getting flushed into the Ohio river and ending up in 
>New Orleans:-).  

One of the Black Warrior rides in Bankhead Forest I was RM and
believed (for a while) we'd lost a horse and rider.

There were torrential rains overnight, and the creeks flash-flooded.
At the first crossing Jim Barnett tried to cross, but as soon as his
horse stepped off the bank he was in raging water up to his neck.  His
horse barely managed to scramble back up onto the bank.  So we
redirected the ride down the roads (and across bridges).

But flash-flooded creeks can go down as fast as they come up, so at
the halfway point we told the riders to "follow the ribbons unless a
spotter re-directs you."  Then I went out to check the next creek
crossing.  It was still raging water six feet deep, so I placed a
spotter at the road to turn the riders.  Alas, the spotter got the
wrong count of riders, and left with one still coming.

She (the rider) got to the creek, assumed everyone else had come that
way and crossed, and rode into the creek.  When she didn't show at the
vet check, I checked the creek and saw one set of horse prints going
to the bank, but none returning or coming out the other side.  I
believed the worst, that she had been swept away and drowned.

I went back to camp and just as I was getting ready to go for the
sherriff, here she came down the road!  She told her story ... when
she rode into the creek the horse was swept off its feet and she was
swept off the horse, but managed to grab the mane and hang on.  The
horse was able to scramble out on the far side, at a place where water
was running into the creek, which erased his tracks.  She found her
way back by the road.

I've never been so relieved as when I saw her come down that road.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@xxxxxxxx
http://www.rnbw.com




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