Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

hi all,  lots of good input on this one. i am one of those people who just happens to be in the right place at the right time on lots of occasions.  i have stopped my share of runaway horses, but the advice is good to just stay out of the way and hope the horse calms down and stops on its own.  trying to stop them is a good way to get hurt.  that said,  you cant beat an ounce of prevention.  just about all of us who handle horses have, at one time or another done things that are somewhat risky, and gotten away with it, others have not.  i like what jim holland said about groundwork.  you just cant do too much groundwork.  spend time desensitizing your horse to ropes, tack, everything!  it can prevent panic and runaways.  you can argue all day long about the best way to tie, not tie, bridle, halter or whatever, but the fact is, spending time working with your horse, so that the horse will not panic and run off is better than spending money on equiment. i will even go so far as t
o say that if you spend the time doing groundwork and desensitizing, your horse will even tolerate having the saddle slip under its belly and just stand there.  we all know, "horse stuff happens", we just need to do our part to be prepared when it does.     ed