Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

RE: Does anyone have any pictures of them in their high-vis gear?  Do most endurance riders even think about this.  I know I was thinking about it last year when riding up in Sly Park, close to private land, and hearing gun shots. 

 

I ride a brown/blackish horse and a bay horse so I worry about this.  Especially because I almost always ride alone for my training rides (anyone in the central valley/Turlock, CA want a riding buddy?).  Here's some of the things I have done:

 

1.  I'm making my own rump rugs (actually fairly easy) so I made sure at least one is bright orange fleece.  Boy, it's almost flouresncent!  (its going to be a "double-sider".  One side will be the bright orange, the other zebra stripes :) 

 

2.  For my tack color I chose red because it matched both horses, but it has the added visibility benefit. 

 

3.  I also chose a light colored helmet.  It's amazing how visible a white helmet is on the trail!

 

4.  Gunfire.  I take the time to desentize my horses to gun fire.  That way if I ever get in a situation, how they are going to react to gunfire is one less thing that I have to think about.

 

I almost got shot a couple of years ago.  A couple of really stupid guys (2 of them), with a gun each, exclaimed as a rounded a corner and met them "Oh, we thought you were a bear!.......".  I went back to my trailer and a couple of minutes later a runner who had been on the same trail told me that 2 guys had pointed a rifle at him. 

 

Melinda