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Re: [RC] Safe??? - Sisu West Ranch".. 1) The trail is scouted, marked, and obviously dangerous places
are routed around.
2) Road crossings have crossing guards if there is a high
probability of a collision in their absence..."These kinds of "duties" are what lawsuits are made of. Lawsuits about how safe is safe have been lost enough times that all over our country folk become very reluctant to have anything to do with certain activities. In WI it got bad enough that the legislature enacted two laws. One limited the liability of equine professionals (as defined in the law an RM or even a person leading a trail ride is an equine professional.) The other limited the liability of persons who let someone on to their land for "recreational" activities. If I remember correctly, a farmer was sued (successfully?) when a snowmobiler hit a barbed wire fence at night and most farmers stopped allowing snowmobile trails to cross their fields. I would personally be very reluctant to be a RM again if I felt that I was charged with making sure that the trail was "safe" to a strict liability standards. For example, I would hate to have to explain to 12 city dwellers that it was safe to route horses along the edge of a canyon, like Steph and John, do so the riders could see the beautiful view when a "safety expert" had just explained that the trail could have been moved 100 yards away from the canyon and thus prevented the horse from shying over the cliff. If our society desires that its members be completely protected from all dangers, we will find that we will be under more and more restrictions, until everything except from watching TV, and perhaps exercising in a gym under supervision of instructors, medical professionals, and safety experts is banned. By the way, I have no knowledge of the practical effect of either equine liability or recreation liability laws. When tested in the courts, they may or may not work as intended. An example of this is that right now a part of our constitution, which to my way of thinking is crystal clear, is before the Supreme Court. Ed Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower Road Victor, MT 59875 (406) 642-9640 ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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