Ms. Smith's Post

[Patricia Henslee <henslee@triax.com>]

I was hoping this would not deteriorate down to specifics, but since it
has I will take time to answer.  Heidi brought up the kicking
incident--I was not present at the time of the supposed incident.  I
still am finding it difficult to believe that a horse can kick three
times and the two people holding him not be aware of it.  I know they
weren't completely in outer space, and surely there must have been a
commotion of some type.  I have no answer for that. Neither ride vet was
aware of a kicking incident.  Why did he kick?  I had just pulled him as
he had a "hot" nail, was lame and hurting, so maybe he was protecting
himself and his territory.  The rider, who knew he was a stallion,
passed  behind him.

The only time Heidi has had contact with my horse was when she vetted
two rides he was on.  There were no incidents on either ride; on the
last one, the person I was riding with was not aware he was a stallion
and later commented on how well-behaved he was.  As to his
misbehaving--he had dropped. It was the end of the ride, we were off by
ourselves and there were no other people nor horses around.  He'd had a
hard ride and was relaxing--I really didn't care at the time if he
dropped, but guess I could have beat him for "flashing."  Actually,
noone had ever told me it was a no, no.  As far as that goes, noone ever
bother to say anything.  It was two years before I even knew which
person was the ride manager at one of the rides.    That's how concerned
she was.

As Heidi stated, she has known these ride managers for years, they are
all old friends and riding buddies.  In the past three years we have
ridden thousands of miles with no incidents.  My horse is not a habitual
kicker, biter, etc. I firmly believe the liability issue was a cover for
other things.  When one of the involved ride managers faxes a copy of
the letter to the ride manager of another region to try to get  you
barred from a ride they know you're headed to, in my book that comes
down to the heading of "personal."

However, it's over and done and it's time we moved on to other things.
So let's let it drop, okay, because nothing we say is going to change
anything.

Patricia