TWENTY TIPS FOR SAFE TRAIL TRAVEL

 

 

 

TWENTY TIPS
FOR SAFE TRAIL TRAVEL

    

    Ah, the good old days. That was the time when someone said, “I think that horse might buck.” And you said, “I’ll ride ‘im.” Secretly, you hoped it would buck. You had been bored for the last twenty minutes and it was time for some excitement. Besides, you had been bounced several times before, with nary a scratch, and you missed that flying feeling. Well, things change. For those of us who have had our teeth floated a few times we do not bounce like we used to. Now it’s just a dull ‘thud’ and, later, doc explains the injuries.
    New age revelations and revolutions have given us horse whispering, the round pen, and equine partners. What this means for trail riders is a prognosis of happy times well spent on the trail with a trusted trail partner. It means enjoying the sights and smells of the woods without worrying if the sound of our lunch wrapper or a grouse busting will send us into a wreck. It means love, not war; no battles or tense rides, just stress slipping away, like horsehair in the spring.
    Once, back in the late sixties (or was it early seventies)? I was camp boy for a central Yukon outfitter. A rough string of twenty-odd horses, picked up from horse sales, was unloaded at our remote Canol road camp. The horses were roped, sacked out, bucked out, thrown, shod, and a few days later, pointed down a trail. I clearly remember promptly and violently getting bucked off onto a hard, rocky trail - the price I paid for trying to put on a noisy rain slicker when a northern drizzle kicked up. I remember living in a tense and constant fear that my horse, who was wound tighter than a bucking bronc, would explode at the sight of a candy wrapper or a grouse.
Those were the good old days. Cowboys absorbed great quantities of physical abuse and rarely heard the word ‘insurance’. We are softer but wiser now. We expect to live the good life past the age of fifty, and we expect the same for our children.
    For experienced riders, safety is not really a twenty-step procedure but the result of a number of factors including common sense and experience. Experience tells us what to do or not to do. Our safety depends on the horse that we ride, our abilities, trail conditions, and good or bad luck.
    On the trail you will be pulling out noisy lunch wrappers, have noisy rain gear flapping about, reading paper maps, taking pictures, having hats blow off your head, and face hikers, bikers and vehicles coming around corners – all while on the back of your trusty steed. Your horse must be trusty! Desensitized! Rope broke! Stand still! Etc!
    It is true that trail riding keeps us feeling younger and alive. Here are some tips to keep us that way, in no particular order:
1. Be proactive with your trail horse. Always lots of touch and constant de-sensitizing. Both you and your horse need to be comfortable as you repeatedly go in and out of the horse’s space to work with and contact the horse.
2. Be vocal when approaching and walking around horses, especially approaching their backsides. Horses that are dozing or feeling threatened may kick out if startled. Never unexpectedly touch the backside of a horse that cannot see you.
3. When you are working with a horse and you need to walk its rear end to the other side, maintain hand contact on the horses back from the mid-section and stay close. We have never seen a horse kick at a person this way, and if it did, you would be pushed away rather than kicked at a distance. If the horse is extremely fearful, nervous, or dangerous, then walk around well out of striking range.
4. Never allow a horse to crowd your space. This means the horse choosing to put his face or rear end into your space. You can invite the horse into your space or go into the horse’s space at will, which means you can pat him and be as affectionate as you want but be very careful about letting the horse into your space – it needs to be invited into your space – always. Giving treats then later letting your horse come into you for more is a huge mistake. Your safety on the trail depends on this. When your horse pushes his face into you, immediately shove it back where it belongs or aggressively rub his nose until it goes back where it belongs.
5. Check your headstall and saddle rigging for breaks, worn areas, loose screws, etc.
6. Be sure your cinches are snug to prevent slipping. Unlike a roping or rodeo horse, trail horses need to have the rear cinch snug at all times so that sticks do not get caught and jammed into the horses’ gut.
7. Stirrup hood covers not only keep your feet drier, warmer, and protected, they prevent sticks from getting jammed into the stirrup and into the horse’s ribs, preventing serious wrecks and injuries.
8. Never stick your foot all the way into the stirrup, only to the ball of your foot. Practice losing and finding your stirrup as getting your foot in or out quickly may be important, even critical, in difficult moments.
9. Trail horses that move off or turn circles as you mount cause all types of grief. Be sure that your horse stands calmly as you mount and dismount, and not move out until you give the command. This is for a number of reasons including you are around other horses, and they will move off if yours does, so you need to keep things calm, and because a turning horse will cause the rope of the horse that you are leading to get jammed under your horse’s tail.
10. Trail horses may find themselves dragging lead ropes or loose lash ropes wrapped around their feet and legs. Be sure your trail horse is completely desensitized to ropes around feet, legs, groin area and under the tail.
11. Freely being able to handle feet is critical for trail horses as they need to be hobbled, shod, and have feet checked for stones, cuts, bruises or sprains. A trail horse that gives its feet willingly is also telling you that it gives you his mind willingly and will likely be a willing partner for the many demands of the trail.
12. When you are leading your trail horse a short distance, walk alongside the horse’s head. Hold the lead rope close to the halter with your arm straight. It feels odd to have your arm straight at first but in a short time it becomes easy habit, like riding a bicycle. If you do not do this, you will get your feet stepped on.
13. When you walk down a trail ahead of your horse stay well out in front, with about a foot of the end of the lead rope dangling from your hand. If your horse crowds your space snap him back, on the nose, with a flick of the dangling rope. When crossing mud, logs, or small ditches stay off to the side as the horse may jump forward and injure you.
14. Never tie the lead rope from the horse you are leading to your saddle horn, simply hold on to it or give it one dally around the horn. A fixed rope can lock you in the saddle in the middle of a wreck.
15. Riding or bicycle type helmets are an important safety item. You may have heard stories when a helmet or a lack of one made the difference between life and death. Several years back the horse that my wife and daughter rode along a remote mountain stream toppled down a dozen feet to the boulders below when a dirt bank gave way. Aside from a broken femur that my wife sustained, my daughter’s helmet cracked as well as had a large dent from a blow on a rock. I believe the helmet saved her life. This was the only serious injury that has occurred with the use of our horses in more than thirty years.
16. Get off and walk. When trails peter out, debris or bogs cross your path, trails get close to a drop off, walking down steep slopes, or you get in tight or lost circumstance, play it safe and walk. Cowboys who believe they must live in the saddle as if it’s a God given right often do not make good wilderness traveler’s, not good for them or the horse.
17. Avoid crossing water with a soft bottom, no matter how deep. Horses panic when feet sink and they lose purchase.
18. Try to avoid trips where you may have to cross dangerous water. It takes experience to search for safe crossings including avoiding large boulders, swift water, dangerous downstream holes and debris, and poor places to emerge. Never allow children to cross water on small horses or ponies. They will roll sooner and are better off seated behind an adult on a sturdy saddle horse.
19. An eleven-foot lead rope for trail riding is safer than an eight-foot rope. It gives you the space you need to pony horses, lead horses while on foot, tie to trees, and, in a pinch, to be used as a short lunge line to discipline unwanted behavior.
20. Learn your quick release knot and bowline knot well. There are times when you need to quickly tie up or untie, and being too slow can cause problems.
    We were deep in the remote north- west corner of British Columbia and I edged my saddle horse and pack horse down what appeared to be a steep beaver run, into a smaller, peaceful river, maybe two/three feet deep. I had warned Marlene, at least twice, not to tie the lead rope of the packhorse she led to her saddle horn, especially since our five-year-old daughter Aaron, shared her saddle. I looked back. Sure enough, the lead was looped tight to the horn, and then they hesitated at the top of the bank. The pack horse behind them stepped on the too long lead, Marlene’s horse stepped off the bank and down the steep beaver run. Her lead tied tight to the saddle horn pulled on the pack horse behind, who hauled back, and their riding horse, now in the river, flipped right over backwards, and they all crashed down in the river. Marlene and Aaron submerged for a moment then came up spitting water. I was nearly across the river and in a panic, I jumped off my horse and splashed back toward them. All the horses including loose packhorses between Marlene and I, panicked, horses charging forward heading straight across to my horses, and straight toward me, and then in the middle deeper section I slipped on a rock, fell back, completely submerged. In a second the horses were on me. Me, staring up through clear water at what seemed a dozen hooves about to crush me. Incredibly they passed right over me with hardly a touch.
It felt like a miracle.
    Someone once said that if you are down just still, don’t move, and horses will try to avoid you. It worked. It’s those little things that get you in trouble when it comes to horses. Always keep that third eye open!

When ponying, NEVER tie a fixed loop and place it over the horn, just dally the lead in hand or dally halfway around the horn and hold.

Keep a straight arm when walking short distances. Use 10-to-12-foot leads for trail riding, as opposed to 8-foot leads – better for ponying, tying packhorses to each other, tying up to trees and brush, and for walking out in front of your horse, and on the trail lunging.

Seems simple, but we all forget, and live with busted reins and the horse with a hurt mouth – keep reins around horn and tied, not loose on the neck.

When walking around the back of a horse one side to the other, maintain hand and arm contact from about middle of the horse around to middle of the other side. I have personally never seen a horse kick a person this way, even a scary horse. Or, walkway around, out of striking range.
   I got blasted once, both hooves, one on each breast. Sailed through the air, piled up on the ground. I knew I was dying, no heart beating, as I faded to nothing. Then I was re-born, laying on the ground sometime later, I had no idea who, or what, or where, I was – born again. It was a beautiful experience - until the pain hit. I think the story is in the Common Man book.