Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Snakes and Bears....that's what you'll see in VA!   You won't see them, but they are out there.  A friend of mine who lives in VA has only run across the bears a couple of times...they run away before she gets close and the horse knows they are there before she ever even noticed.  The snakes.....she carries a gun and kills them.  ;)

 

I'm like you Dawn...I actually like the snakes.  Raised them and kept them as pets.  Spiders...EEEEEEEEEEEEK.....can't touch them either.  Just like you, they freak me out!

 

Stacy

Dawn Carrie <rdcarrie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Chrystal,

I don't think you'll have to worry about seeing many snakes on trail.  I live in East Texas, and we have TONS of snakes here.  I love snakes, and am usually watching for them, hoping to see a neat one, and I almost never see one.  :(  I think I saw two in all of the miles I rode last year, and one of those was a small Texas rat snake laying off in the grass and hard to see.  As far as horses' reactions to them, don't believe all the movies you see where horses see a snake and rear in panic.  Our horses have zero reaction to them.  The other snake I saw on trail was a copperhead that my husband rode right over without seeing, and his horse never even saw it.  I swerved around it, and my horse didn't react at all.  A couple of years ago, an Eastern Coachwhip (a very fast black snake) shot across the trail right in front of my horse, and my horse just glanced down and kept on going.  It was just the movement that caught his eye, not the fact that it was a snake. 

 

Everyone has their phobia...mine is spiders.  Uggh!

 

Dawn in East Texas (who loves snakes, but will freak out at contacting a spider web)

 

On 2/13/07, Chrystal Woodhouse <Chrystal@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Ugh- o.k. my daughter who is a reptile lover got very excited this a.m . when she realized  that Virginia might have more to offer in the reptile department than Ontario ( Canada) . ( I was asking her if she wants to come down with me in April for the No Frills ride) she just got off the internet and happily informed me that there are TWENTY kinds of snakes in Virginia ( though she assured me only 4 of them are poisonous) here lies the problem, I am absolutely terrified of snakes, they are in fact the only thing that really scare me.... as a matter of fact if you asked me to list the top three best things about living in Canada number 1 or 2 would be the fact that we have almost no snake population, and no poisonous little creatures, this is a huge selling point as far as I am concerned. :-)
So what I want to know is how likely is it that we will see a snake in the ridecamp or on trail in Virginia? I am hoping that I am overreacting and am being kinda like a tourist  who thinks as soon as they cross over the border they will see an igloo!? Anyway please, please tell me I am being silly and that the chances of me seeing a snake are as good as you finding an igloo?
AND I bet my horse has never seen a snake !! She is pretty calm ( now :-) ) but what is a horses general reaction to snakes? AND before you make fun of me , I do know and can and have handled bears on trail, but snakes???? AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!:-(
Chrystal
P.S> Anyone who is going to be at the No Frills Ride and actually likes snakes , would you email me? I know my daughter is going to be all over the place looking for some and right after my fear of actually seeing one is my second one that my daughter will find one and it will be poisonous!:-( However I would love for her to find a nonpoisonous one , it would make her year! ( as long as she finds it far, far away from me. :-))