Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> Good points Angie.  And in the same sense, what are
> you doing to the training of the tailgating horse,
> while you're "desensitizing" that other horse?
> You're teaching a horse to behave in a crowd, but also
> encouraging another horse to tailgate?  sounds like a
> catch 22.
One need not ram into a horse to teach him tolerance.  Try riding through
a herd of cows or sheep.  Ride a lot in congested situations where the
horse behind is apt to be close, even if he is polite.

And no, one need not have ALL of this training accomplished when going to
a ride--but one needs to be cognizant of the fact that one does NOT have
it all accomplished, and ride accordingly.  This is part of what I mean
when I talk about "defensive riding."  It includes such things as going to
a ride on a green stallion and waiting at a water tank until 15 other
people have watered their horses because your horse does not yet have his
manners glued on sufficiently.  It does not matter that it is "your
turn"--you still wait until you have an appropriate opening.  (After all,
what's the rush with a green horse anyway?)  Defensive riding means
LOOKING AHEAD and seeing that horses ahead of you are putting on the
brakes or getting into trouble so that you can slow down BEFORE you slew
into them.  It means looking ahead and seeing a potential bottleneck, and
realizing that there are 5 yahoos coming on strong 100 yards back, so you
step off the trail BEFORE you get into that jamming situation, and let
them go by, even if it means standing there for a few minutes while they
catch up to you.

One has to be AWARE--aware of what one's own horse can or cannot do, aware
of what horses around you (and ahead of and behind you) are doing, aware
of where the trail is about to go, etc.

Another illustrative incident stands out in my mind.  I was riding with
another lady, hell bent for election on the heels of three other riders,
all of us intent on snagging places in the Top Ten.  The other three were
ahead of us and riding abreast down a USFS dirt road.  All of a sudden the
trail pinched off into a single-file wooded trail with no "give" on either
side of it.  I started the "pulling up" process IMMEDIATELY upon seeing
the other three horses enter the woods.  The lady with me failed to see it
coming, and it was quick enough that I couldn't get the words out to warn
her.  She ended up on the rump of the third horse of the previous group
going too fast to stop, her horse veered off to try to avoid a collision,
and went tail over teakettle over a down log, catapulting her into the
trees.  Thankfully no one was hurt--and since I HAD pulled up, I was in a
position to catch her horse before he could get ideas about departing. 
She dusted herself off and we proceeded a bit more sedately down the
trail--and sure enough later got to a downhill where the other three
stopped to get off, where we could safely get by them, and we never saw
them again until the finish line.  (And yes, we were 8th and 9th, so two
of them did not make the Top Ten.)

What I'm talking about here is the same thing that you do when you are
driving on the freeway.  You watch the cars several cars ahead of you, and
you react when THEY alter their speed--you don't wait until the car ahead
of you is already involved.  Riding in a group is no different.

And Angie, you are right that you can't always protect yourself from an
idiot.  BUT--if you ARE staying alert and reading the body language of the
horses around you, frequently you CAN see that there is an "issue"
building and get yourself out of harm's way.  Not always--but hey, most of
the time is better than not at all.

Heidi



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