Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Are you *sure* your horse didn't know that *something* was out there? You know, your horse won't just always bolt all of a sudden, or stop and stare, or turn around and say to you "hey! Do you know there's something coming!?). When I ride the local UWF trails which has heavy bike traffic on narrow, windy trails, I learned to watch my horses ears to see if they are pricked in a certain intently and directly for more than usual and see if he seems to be staring somewhat intently in a certain direction. That's when I know he knows they are out there, even before I hear or see it. In the beginning, he wouldn't jump until *I* heard or saw the biker and they popped around the corner, and I was caught off guard.

 

In NATRC CTR rides, some judges love to hide in the woods. These judges would tell the riders at the awards ceremony that the horses always saw/smelled/heard him, but out of allt he riders, maybe only 1 or 2 riders paid enough attention to their horses ears, posture, and head to look around the area themselves to see what their horse was so intent on. Keep in mind the judge was so close that he could overhear riders conversations (if they were riding with someone else) and write down what they said on their rider cards, or what they were doing (drinking from their water bottle, etc.)

<rhndlev@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> People have been talking about horses knowing that bikes are there. I don't 
> know about this. Twice I've had horses not notice bikers.