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Re: [RC] Tailing - rides2farOk that was Jim's training method which is so organized and good At least that's how he *claims* he does it. >eg< I can remember in my teens when we'd go to the little local horse auction and the dealers just loved to pull the horse's tails for ya to show how gentle they were. Seems to just make most horses lean forward and pull back to keep their balance. I've had two experiences with tailing. First, in my 2nd 50 at Tellico we were at the top of the BIG mountain when a riderless chestnut horse came galloping up on us. We caught it and tied it up. The rider appeared and said she'd been tailing when her totally dependable very experienced CT horse hit bees and decided it was "every man/horse for himself". Lesson learned: if you don't have time to unhook a rein, you don't have time to tail. 2nd experience. I decided to try it myself. Got off the big App/TB cross I was riding on the steep side of the same mountain (different year) and since he was perfectly willing to keep following the horses up ahead I just drifted back to his rump and grabbed his tail. Figured it was too steep for him to want to kick and he didn't seem to care at all that I hung on. Well...you know how some horses sort of like to canter/lunge up a steep grade? Well, that's what he decided it was time to do not long after that. I held onto his tail and I think my feet were touching the ground about every 20' or so. I stayed right side up and it turned out to be pretty fun...the sort of thing you'd pay for at an amusement park, kinda like the moonwalk but when I imagined what it would have been like if I'd fallen down at any point it didn't seem so fun. The people you've really got to watch out for are the ones who get off their horse to climb a mountain on foot, want to *lead* their horse and reach out to grab *your* horse's tail. Hu-uh! Angie ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! ============================================================ At the end of the day maybe the definition of endurance isn't the length of the ride but rather the spirit in which it is ridden. ~ Maryanne Stroud Gabani ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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