Score one for the Mt. Bikers

[Kathy Myers <magnumsmom@aol.com>]

... or "Magnum's Big Day Out"
... or "How we got Magnum out of the Tree"

:)  :)  :)

Well I hope everyone out there is having a good holiday
season with lots of fun riding.  Here we've had unusually
warm and dry weather, even for California.  Record highs.
Oh, and the trails are all dry.  Yesterday couldn't have
been a better day to go for a nice ride.  Especially
since I finally have 2 sound horses again and a friend
to ride with.

Since they are both really out of shape, my friend Gale
(who some of you might remember rode Blue on Barbara
McCrary's Castle Rock 50 last May) and I just figured
we'd go for an easy mostly flat ride.  Not far, only
about 7 miles total.  I'd taken all the "stuff" off
the saddles so we had no packs, no extra lead ropes,
no water, no knife and no first aid kit, and no easy
boot.  Gale prefers Magnum's leather bridle, so she
put that on instead of his biothane halter/bridle
combo.  At the last minute I did hook my cellphone to
the waistband of my breaches, but I almost left it at
the barn.  (Is this good foreshadowing or what?)  After
all, we weren't going on a training ride or anything.
We weren't going up the mountain.  Just a nice easy stroll.
I rode Blue this time since last week he drove poor Gale
crazy jigging the whole way out and back while Magnum
the-best-horse-in-the-whole-wide-world was an angel.
So Gale was riding the comfy TB.  We'd done some ground
work on a whim just before we left the ranch, more for
fun than anything else.  That was one of our better ideas.

We were just about heading home with Blue and I in
the lead when they both spooked at a cypress tree
which had been 1/2 cut in two.  Silly horses never
spook at anything that might actually harm them,
just trees and rocks and stuff.  The large dead tree-trunk
size branches were on the down slope side of the wide
old road bed and had been there for a couple years.
They were almost completely covered by leaves and debris.
Neither Gale or Magnum realized the ground was not solid
as he side stepped around the scary tree.  All the sudden
his rear end disappeared!  This was closely followed by
his front end.  Lucky for both, Magnum is agile and atleast
smart enough to land on his feet heading down hill.  Plunk.
There they were in a horse sized hole, 5 feet down on 3
sides, and that tree trunk sized branch right at his
chest.  The trail had been erroded away underneath the
last couple years between El Nino 2 years ago and La Nina
last year.

The good news is Magnum just stood there, bless his
big bay TB heart.  Gale scrambled off of him, but she
had to step up from the saddle to get back onto solid
ground.  I've never been so happy to have cellphone
coverage!  Not that it did us any good.  No one answered
the phones!  So we tied Blue to the tree, I stayed with
Magnum at his head to keep him from scrambling, and
Gale went down the mountain in search of help.  Several
people came by on the trail and asked if they could
help, but since none of them could bench press 1100
pounds, there was not much to do.  Except for one Mt.
Biker who didn't say much, just put his bike aside
and started helping me clear every branch we could
away from Magnum.  He just pitched in an helped, and
he stayed with me as company.  What a great thing!

Gale brought the ranger's wife (also a horse owner)
who brought a saw.  She was able to raise the lifeguard
on my cellphone.  He had a truck with a winch.  We
all worked to clear the dead branches away so Magnum
could move around.  There were branches between his
back legs, branches between his front legs, branches
under his belly, branches poking straight at him from
every angle.  I would have liked to have done the close
leg work myself as it did not look safe, but when I
tried to leave his head, he got very nervous.  So I
stayed with him, he stayed calm, and we let people help
us.  Gale took the risks to clear the branches from
his legs.  He never moved.  Good boy.

The lifeguard and the ranger showed up and were able to
winch the large branch away from his chest.  Once he had
room to move, I had to make sure he didn't try to scramble
the wrong way over the side of the trail.  He could have
tumbled the rest of the way down the hill, and there is
an old rusty barbed wire fence 1/2 way down...

He just stood there for Gale and I until I could work my
way back around to the trail side of his head.  I called
to everyone to step back incase he came out of there like
a kid heading for the tree on Christmas morning, but still
he just stood there.  To get him in position, I asked him
to take one single step forward towards the trail, and he
did, he took just that one step.  And then when I asked
him to move up the bank back onto solid ground, he scrambled
up, but calmly... not in a panic.  It could have been so
much worse!

I went to ask the Mountain Bike guy who he was, but he was
already heading back out on his ride so I could only call
"Thank you!" which he answered with a wave.  I hope that's
enough.  It doesn't seem like it.  Especically since
the dead debris was intertwinned with poison oak.  Ugh.

The ranger and his wife and the lifeguard assured us that
people routinely get into much bigger jams than Magnum
managed yesterday.  That was nice of them.  They offered
to trailer him home, but he is fine.  Amazingly enough,
he came out not only sound, but without a scratch!  He
didn't even lose any hair on his legs.  No point in
thinking off all the things that could have happened...

The thing that comes to mind is how important it is to
have trail equipment *every time* you go riding.  While
we were fine, I could have used Magnum's biothane halter
/bridle.  I could have stood at a safer distance if I
had reins that could double as a leadrope, and a bridle
that was also a halter.  Blue could have easily broken
his reins while tied to the tree, but he didn't.  He
stayed where he was.  He knows how to tie.  We could
have used a leadrope, something that is so easy to tie
around the horse's neck, incase Blue decided he wasn't
going to tie anymore.  Just one between the two of us
would have helped a lot.  We could have used some water,
we should have had a first aid kit and an easyboot.  We
didn't need them, but we could have.  And I almost left
that cellphone at the ranch!

Anyways, we wish you safe riding!  Be nice to mountain
bikers.  You never know when they might be the only
people around to help you, or bring you help.  Remember
to ride prepared for anything, even if you are just going
out for a short easy one.  Remember to take the time to
reinforce your ground manners now and then as you never
know when you might need them.  And stay well away from
the edge.  It might be closer than it appears.

:) - Kathy Myers
in No. Cal. with Magnum the TB ex-racer
and Mr Maajistic... resident Endurance Arab



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