|
I've got to admit it, but
I'm with Howard on this one. My husband claims he once clocked my horse
going 35+ miles an hour (he was behind me in a truck. The horse was 5
years younger than now, and I was 40 pounds lighter, and there were horse eating
holsteins (cows) in the pastures on both sides of us.). He wasn't running
away, either, because he was still responding to me. ANYWAY, I can't
imagine jumping off my horse on my 42 year old knees. Yeah, I played
around with "emergency dismounts" when I was a kid, riding bareback on my
ponies and landing on grass in the yard or hayfield. That was when my
knees still had synovial fluid in the joints. But I firmly believe that
the safest place on a runaway is on top of them, at least in Michigan where we
don't have cliffs. If you have the time to pick a landing place devoid of
trees, metal junk, and large rocks, clear your feet from the stirrups, untangle
your hands from the reins, have the strength and coordination to push
yourself off the pommel to clear the horse, AND do all this while
traveling a bumpy 30 miles an hour in a direction you are NOT choosing,
surely you have the time to hunker down, hang on, and pray. The first year
or two I had him, Revvy ran away a lot - a true runaway - as fast as he could
go, without regard to his surroundings or the potential for harming
himself, and totally oblivious to me up there. By "a lot" I mean maybe 5
or 6 times. Trust me ONE true runaway is terrifying, and no, you don't get
used to them. I ride mostly on open country roads, and after 1-2 miles he
would slow down and stop. Then we would trot back up the road to whatever
had scared him and repeat it at a less mind numbing speed. My point is, on
a totally open road he would run himself out in 2-3 minutes. That was
enough to save his short grass plains ancestors from the asiatic lions, and
after that, his three brain cells would start making synaptic connections
again. I would be interested in hearing from those who HAD bailed
out. Was the horse more likely to run away again? Did they get
hurt? Would they do it again?
|
