Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I put up 3 photo albums from the Color Country 3-day Pioneer ride this past 
weekend.  I had never done this ride before and decided to go since 
Gambler's had been cancelled.  I was really happy that I did go as this was 
a very nice ride!  The trail was very well marked, there was lots of water, 
the scenery was gorgeous, the weather for the most part was terrific and my 
horse finally seems to have learned to center his ears properly for the 
ear-cam shots! <g>  This ride has been in existence for 30 years and 
attracts a real nice group of riders.  Of course, I have yet to do a ride 
in Southern Utah that isn't absolutely wonderful.

One day I was riding along and a tourist drives by and asks where the 
dinosaur tracks are.  So I tell them where I think they are, and then Les 
Carr tells me that they just need to go till they see a couple really big 
dinosaurs and the tracks are sure to be nearby.  :+P  Dang, I hope not cuz 
this horse I'm riding ain't all that fast!  lol

On the first day I have a great story about why people should use breast 
collars, regardless of how  perfect their horses conformation is. :+)  I am 
riding along by myself at a nice trot when suddenly Chief stops and is very 
alert, he hears something coming towards us up the canyon.  We are in a 
windy riverbed with sides and suddenly around the bend I see a horses head 
-- first the ears, then the head, neck, now I can see the back and the 
horse has no rider.  Is it a wild horse?  Wow, it's sure galloping fast 
towards us...oh but wait....it's got a saddle wrapped around it's 
BELLY!  Oh man....so, I do what any endurance rider would do (wouldn't 
they?) and immediately hop off of my horse and start waving my arms and 
pretending like I'm going to stop this totally freaked out galloping mass 
coming my way......well as the horse approached it wasn't slowing 
down.....eeeegads......finally it decides it had to at least slow down in 
order to keep from hitting me (ughhhhh, what was I thinking?) and it does 
and this allows me the opportunity to grab the reins. (I was really glad 
that I had gloves on when I grabbed this horse)  This poor horse is totally 
freaked out, shaking and in a complete panic.   Not only that but it's so 
hot steam is coming off of it and it feels like an oven.  It's still 
jumping and spinning around me totally out of control and scared half out 
of it's mind, shaking with sweat flying every direction.  The saddle 
underneath has blood and the horse is all skinned up and bleeding, but 
nothing seriously wrong.  I finally realized that oh yeah, I've got a horse 
in the other hand too, as Chief calmly puts his head down and sniffs the 
other horses nose, which seemed to calm her down.  She stood there shaking 
and quivering.  I tried to get the saddle off, but it was so tight I 
couldn't even loosen it and the horse was not cooperating.  I couldn't hold 
both horses by myself (heck, the one out of control one was  too much as it 
was), so I just stood there trying to calm this poor little horse down 
until other riders caught up to us.  Finally they did and when they did the 
first rider knew right away whose horse it belonged to and helped me get 
the saddle off, calm the horse, and get the saddle back on.  In the 
meantime other riders rode up behind us and I have to say that these were 
all the nicest most considerate group of riders I have encountered in a 
long time.  They all patiently stopped and kept their distance and waited 
until this poor horse calmed down instead of just going around like I've 
seen other riders do in similar situations at other rides.  So, we finally 
got the situation under control and then we decided I would ride ahead to 
see if anybody had been hurt as there was still nobody coming for the horse 
-- the other person who helped me (Annie G.) was going to walk the 
horse.  I rode for quite some distance before finding the person and 
everything was allright.  No wonder that horse was so hot, it galloped 
quite a ways like that!  This is exactly why people should use breast 
collars and/or cruppers.  I've purposely taught all of my horses to accept 
having their saddles fall under their bellies in a controlled situation and 
also use a breast collar and a crupper on them.  The life you save might 
not be your own, but somebody elses.  This horse running as blindly and 
scared and panicked as she was could have very easily mowed down several 
people.  Come to think of it, I've been almost mowed down twice before by a 
horse running out of control with it's saddle around it's belly.  These 
horses need more training and proper equipment.

Here are the photos (I hope):

http://community.webshots.com/user/nvrider2  hit reload twice if it won't 
load the first time.

Happy trails,
Karen
in NV
& Granite Chief, who got his first 1000 miles on the 2nd day :-)



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The air of heaven is that which blows between a horse`s ears. 
~  Arabian Proverb

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