Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

On Jun 26, 2008, at 10:33 AM, k s swigart wrote:
> People riding horses that have problems with other horses behind them
> are the ones with the responsibility to let others on the trail know
> that their horse has this problem.  I do NOT consider it the
> responsiblity of everybody in the ride who might come up behind me to
> ascertain whether the my horse who they are sharing the trail with has a
> problem with sharing the trail.

I don't see riding behind as a problem, if it is at least one or two horse lengths (the distance the following horse needs to be back to be able to see the trail rather than my horse's butt, anyway).  My objection is with tailgaiting.  One of my worst experiences was being half way down a very narrow knife edge ridge trail at a ride, going at a moderate gait through the rocks, when some riders ran down behind me, almost slamming into my horse, and then just stayed on my horse's butt, despite my screaming at them to stay back until we got to a wider spot.  There was obviously no place for me to pull off (or them to go around . . . or they would have) so I had a quarter mile of trying to keep my horse from baling off down the slope, or stumbling over the rocks she was two agitated to pay attention to, or kicking at the closest  tailgaiter and probably putting us over the edge.


Lynn Kinsky, Santa Ynez, CA
ranch:  http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky/