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[RC] agile arab at Swanton Pacific - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: Nancy Corbelletta nancy.corbelletta@xxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== At the Swanton Pacific 75 ride last weekend I was going up a steep narrow uphill switch backed trail and was about half way up the mountain. Suddenly my Arab gelding Steele just stopped and started sliding backward. His front legs were up and well extended since the hill was about a 40 degree grade at that point. To our left was the side of the mountain even steeper than what was ahead of us, to our right was a hundred plus foot drop off and the whole trail was only 2-3 feet wide in most places. At first it felt like he was going to fall over backwards. Somehow while standing on his hind legs with his front feet up in the air like the Lone Ranger?s horse Silver he managed to pivot to the right on his hind legs. At the 90 degree point he had hind feet on the trail and his front legs up in the air like a dog sitting up begging for a bone. At this point my brain was telling me to bale off the horse but when I looked down and saw nothing but air decided that we would both be dying together. At that point my screams became even louder and sounded more terrified (if possible). Steele continued to make a turn on the haunches scooting his hind legs in place and keeping them somehow on the trail and continuing with his right handed circle until some how he placed his front legs back down again on the trail facing down hill (180 degrees) from our starting point. We were now sliding down the trail and he was scrambling with all four legs to stay on the trail. We finally came to a stop with me sitting half in the saddle and half on Steele?s neck and one foot still in the stirrup. I hopped off on the up hill side holding on to the horse so I wouldn?t slide under him and off the trail. At this point I thought we may live and started to hear Carl Bruno further up the trail asking if I was alright. Steele stood their shaking and I did the same. I thought he must have had some major medical problem to have this happen and started looking him over. Then I saw his breast collar tie-down strap dangling between his front legs. The brass snap that attaches it to the girth had broken in two and his saddle slid back making it impossible for him to move his back legs up the steep incline. After correcting the saddle placement and reattaching the breast collar strap with a spare snap he wanted to turn around and continue while I wanted to hand walk down the hill and regroup. We compromised at a turn of the switch back which was slightly wider and he turned into the hillside and was again in the correct direction to continue. I still was pretty shook up but mounted and he continued up that steep grade without any hesitation. Later when I caught up with Carl he described how he looked back when he heard my screams and saw Steele reared up on two feet and thought that we would go over the edge. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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