Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> Several of us have discussed training for "defensive riding." 
I dunno about some of this. I'm just wondering who wants to volunteer to
be the first to slam into the kickers rear end to "desensitize" him?
People talking about taking their horse to a parade "with baby strollers"
all around to *train* them...so I assume they're not already trained, so
what happens if they bolt through a crowd of kids? It's kind of a vicious
circle but at least if you're desensitizing your horse at a horse show
you're supposedly around people who know how to act around horses, unlike
people at a parade.  We talk about being totally responsible for our own
horse, but that's kind of like being totally responsible for my own
driving....no matter how good I am it doesn't protect me from somebody
who crosses the center line and hits me head on.  I haven't ridden with
any of the people who are posting on this subject of perfectly trained
horses today, but I've ridden with  people who talk on-line about their
perfectly trained horses  and they seemed to be acting an awful lot like
my self proclaimed "Psycho idiot". I wonder if we're not just making some
really careful people out there think they can't bring their horse to a
ride because it can't do crowd control at a European Soccer Championship.
My reaction to it all is going to be to just assume horses will be
horses, and if I want to be careful I can avoid what I consider
unnecessarily dangerous places.  

We went to the beach recently and there was a flag system that warned
swimmers when it was unsafe to be in the water. The red flag meant there
were dangerous rip tides and nobody should swim. Without fail there were
people who went well out from the shore on  "red flag" days and every
night there was a report of some poor person who had drowned on the local
news. We've gotten used to being STOPPED from doing things that are that
dangerous and assume that if someone doesn't physically stop us from
doing it it's OK. But nature couldn't care less and will kick your butt
if you don't respect her. So, I am taking responsibility for my own
safety and won't expect somebody else to do it for me.  However, I truly
appreciate the "red flag" put out to inform me. You guys who know the
trail have let it be known that you feel that's a very dangerous section
to have at the beginning of a ride. I think it's your responsibility to
make that very clear to the uninformed. It should be on the entry and
mentioned at the ride meeting. If I don't find out about it until I'm in
the middle of a bunch of trotting horses on a switchback it's too late
for me to take control of my own ride, I'm caught up in the tide. Just
warn them would be my advice.

Angie

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