[RC] biker story - AprilYesterday I was out riding Tanna. Along our roads near home. We have a route that we do along the roads. I got to a turn around point where I often let Tanna graze for a bit. Helps with his impulsion away from home if he knows he gets to stop and eat when we get to "the spot." Anyway, we had just done and started back towards home. I keep an eye on traffic, of course. I was glancing behind me and noticed a biker coming along the road. Tanna is generally ok with pretty much any type of vehicle flying past him just a few feet away (he didn't come that way, we ride on the road a LOT), but bikes are kinda hard to hear above the other noise of traffic and he was heading home and fighting me to canter or even gallop runaway so he wasn't paying attention. I spun him to face the biker (while the biker was still a hundred yards away). The biker politely crossed the road, but if there had been traffic, she wouldn't have been able to, so I wanted my horse to see her coming and not spook horribly from lack of notice. After the biker passed us, I spun Tanna back toward home again and we took off at a brisk trot. We crossed the road to get to the wider shoulder and had to wait on some traffic, but Tanna had his eye on that biker. As soon as I let him, he flew after her as fast as I would let him. She was a great rabbit for my horse. He followed her until we caught up with her. I exchanged pleasantries with her and pulled past her. She passed me when I had to drop back to a trot on pavement and we followed her again for awhile. We never did catch her again due to terrain and I thought Tanna needed a trotting breather, but she was in sight for awhile and Tanna was just sure we were racing her. ;-) Now if I can just get the biker to ride with me on all my training rides. :-) April Nashville ===========================================================They're athletes! This is a partnership between horse and rider - we don't have any jockeys out there, just pals and partners. We'd allow a rider with a broken foot, a sore back and a nasty cold to compete - but we would never let a horse in a similiar condition hit the trail. ~ Dr. Barney Flemming DVM ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ===========================================================
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