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A few
years back in my infancy as a trail rider, my trusted steed and I were out on
Eglin AFB's reservation in FL panhandle (thousands of miles of trails)
doing our LSD training. We had gone a good ways and were doing a nice working
canter, nice and aerobic. Well, I had my sponge clipped onto my saddle and
suddenly began accelerating for no known reason with great intensity. I really
started to panic because he wasn't responding to my hand control. Once I looked
around a little I saw my sponge flying in the breeze out to my side and realized
what had happened. Sabian saw the green sponge bugger trying to catch him
floating in our air speed in his peripheral vision. It's amazing how quickly
thoughts of what your options are in a case like this come flooding through you
mind and I was tempted to bail off his back into a large sand burm, but quickly
passed it by realizing I would have a long road to walk home and I would
have to find my horse as well. The thought of my getting hurt if I bailed never
crossed my mind, because I am pretty good at coming off horses when I least
expect it, having done hundreds of spills + the sand I would be landing in would
be cushy landing. Once I grabbed the sponge and secured it to the
saddle, he started to come back to my hands and all was well
again.
That's
the closest I've ever been to a runaway situation and it was scary while I was
going through scenarios to deal with it.
Happy
Tails,
Susan
& Fly Bye - who's tried to runaway in nose controlled tack during races, but
was yanked from the fray before disaster could happen. BITS
REIGN!
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?
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