My situation is much the same with my mare....She does not like horses
riding her butt or flank on the trail. She's a dominant mare who also
tends to be very much race-brained and reacts very strongly to horses
close in beside her. Especailly near the start I let people know to keep
a polite distance between their horse and mine.
I don't care where you are with your horse, it is NOT polite to invade
my/my horses personal space. I view "tailgating" and the consequences on
the trail in the same way as the DMV does. If you rear-ended me, then
you were following too close/were not in control etc. I've only had this
issue once. 2nd day of Wild west, single track near the beginning, up a
hill. A long string of riders and we were stop starting. I was
leaving plenty of room between me and the next horse. The rider behind
me continually was in my space. I warned her several times. The
5th time she slammed into the back of my mare, the mare kicked her horse in
the chest.
I guess that is the biggest mood breaker at the beginning of a ride for
me - me asking (very politely, with a smile) for a little more room and
getting that nasty look.... *sigh* however I'll do it for the sanity of my
mare.
Melinda
------------------------------------------------------------ From:
"sherman" <sherman@xxxxxxxxxxx> Subject:
[RC] Permission not to pass...
Portion of quoted
text:
I try to pay attention to what's going on all around, just like
driving. = So if I feel someone gaining steadily, I'll ask if they
want to pass, and = look for a safe place to pull over. If they don't
want to pass but their = presence is annoying my horse (my mare is
particularly bothered by boys behind = her) then I'll announce "I'm
going to pull over so you can pass because my = horse is bothered,
blah, blah, blah. If they want to stay together, then I ask them to stay
at least 3-4 horse lengths behind (or whatever is required = for my
horse to stop her "I'm really annoyed" behavior), and explain that
my horse doesn't like unknown horses close behind. I've never had anyone
= not cooperate when I was the one in front that needed some rear end
cushion. = I wouldn't tolerate someone riding our tail that didn't
want to pass and = have never had anyone continue to ride close when
I've explained my
= situation.
