Hmmm - makes me remember why I quit riding with my dog, many years ago. At that time I had Shadow (horse), and River (dog). River was pretty dumb about horses - I remember once he literally walked into Shadow, because he was busy looking at something else and somehow didn't see the grazing horse in his path. Shadow, on the other hand, seemed to understand this, and did the watching for both of them. He would be tearing around the round pen full speed, and River (racing the horse) would cut through it right in front of him. Shadow would do a sliding stop and spin the other way.
Bad enough in that situation, but River used to do that on trails, too. He would be trotting along in front of Shadow, then smell something and do an abrupt stop and turn. I decided the accident factor was way too high, and started leaving him at home when I went on rides.
As for the round pen antics - River learned his lesson the day he tried cutting through the pen when another boarder was lunging their horse ... one that didn't care if there was a dog in its path, and cantered right over him .. thump, bump, yelp! He wasn't hurt, but he got rolled and bumped -- and he never did it again. :)
Hope your injury heals, but it's likely to be a while. Maybe the doctor can suggest some kind of support that would allow you to go back to work on at least the 'easy' horses?
On Jul 22, 2009, at 2:30 PM, Valerie Jaques wrote:
I was "racing" my fastest dog, a Catahoula/Cattle Dog cross named Mac, downhill on the dirt road. .... I had time to realize I was in deep doodoo when he cut in front of me and I hit him just in front of his back legs.
