Re: American River 50 - ride story

[Katja Halfmeyer <halfmeyer@cc.ucsf.edu>]

Karen:

I'm sorry, but since you have not seen the situation happening, how can you
judge on WHO is to be punished? To be fair, I already mentioned that we
bumped into the horse ONCE accidently, but from my understanding and
experience with horses, a well controlled and well ridden horse has A LOT
more patience with things happening around his/her butt than the one I'm
talking about.
I never said that I was in a great spot, but as I said, it was single track
and a sudden stop. For the health of everybody else a rider HAS to be able
to distract a horse's attention and prevent serious kicking whenever possible.
 This rider in front of me almost came off the horse when the horse did his
full blow kick <talking about "control" here> without serious warning and
as I said, did not even BOTHER to turn around and see if we were alive!!!
Do you think this is sportsmanship? From the seat of the rider I could tell
that he was hanging on for dear life at a moderate trot, of course he had
no influence on what the horse's hind feet were doing......

THREE miles into the ride I see the same horse do the same thing to another
horse, while the other rider tries to PASS that guy on an open road, I'm
really sorry, but from my point of view those horses and riders do NOT
belong in a ride as long as they are out of control. They are a hazard!!

Whatever goes on in your area I sure hope it will work out on a fair level,
but please don't try to color black and white, every situation should be
considered individually......


Katja & Mario ..."and I HAVE been sooo good..."   





At 06:46 AM 4/30/98 -0600, you wrote:
>>Soon after a nice, controlled start <bad point: my horse got kicked after
>>we had accidently bumped into the horse in front of us, due to traffic jam
>>on single track, the rider did not even bother to turn around and see if we
>>were okay, nor did he punish his horse, nor did the horse wear a red
>>ribbon....different story!> Mario
>
>I don't think a horse that has been "bumped into" should be disciplined for
>kicking.  The horse/rider that does the bumping is the offender in this
>instance.  Here in the Northwest, there is a big controversy about denying
>entry to horses that repeatedly have caused problems at rides.  One is a
>tailgater that runs into horses in front of him.  The other is a kicker that
>goes out of her way to nail people and horses (no bumping required).  It is
>a very serious issue that has the potential to shut down rides in our area.
>It should not be confused with clearly provoked incidents like the one you
>described.
>
>Karen Steenhof
>Boise, Idaho
>steenhof@cyberhighway.net
>
>