Re: [RC] Bombproofing clinic

[Laurie Durgin]

This sounds like my average trail ride. We go past the "dumps", bed springs, mattresses, refrigerators , washer, dryers, couches, . Then we have the dirt bikes and four wheelers,(Rascals so used to me getting him off the trail when we hear one coming, that he anticipates.He starts heading  for the woods and I start to rein him back, going "what are your doing?", then I hear it, Oh, his hearing is better than mine.)Then we have the hunters in fall and winter and the average gun practice inthe summer. My neighbor has a gun range  and practices regularly. Then we had the dumped tent in the trail one day.After getting him past it , I finally decided after the amount of time it took to get off and move it 5 feet.(there is a dropoff on the other side. Then we have the leaping deer, the turkey flocks. . . My kids occasionally bring their bikes. And my "hunter, eventer" daughter, wonders why I don'e ride in an english all purpose saddle.  But. . . there was the light blue trash bag. We'd passed it 50 times last fall. This year after a layoff, won't pass it, I tried the circles getting closer thing(john Lyons) but this isn't the west(where you have plenty of space), this is Georgia logging trails and power easements very hilly. Finally for lack of time I did what is the last resort . Get off and lead him. He will go with me onthe ground like a puppy, but not mounted, not pass that blue trash bag. Like he hadn't seen a trash bag before,(but it was light blue.) Well the price was right, free. Anyone want to despook your horse. I''ll charge .1.50$ to dome ride at my place on a Saturday late afternoon, did I mention the downed trees, 3 creeks to cross, overhanging branches.. .   Laurie and Rascal (with the bald spots still)   ----- Original Message ----- From: C. Eyler Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 8:12 PM To: Ridecamp Subject: [RC] Bombproofing clinic   Took my gelding on Saturday to a bombproofing clinic run by two mounted cops from the Washington D.C. Park Police.  Verrrry interesting. One of the first things they had us do was to move around the arena with the horses very close together.  Told us we should be almost touching stirrups when side by side, and we were to leave very little space in between one horse's rump and another's nose.  (Couldn't help remembering the discussion here on Ridecamp about leaving a safe space between horses.)  The point being to desensitize our horses to close contact with one another. We left a bit more space when taking them over mattresses, past road flares, through paths of plastic bottles, a curtain of styrofoam noodles, and a gauntlet of waving mylar balloons, etc., but we sure were close together when milling around the smoke bombs, gradually getting each of our horses closer to the source. I did notice that we left a bit of space between the horses while the gunfire was going off.  No problem when the gun was fired form the opposite end of the arena, but my guy got a *bit* more reactive when the cop firing the gun moved closer.  Oooh, that was fun. Cindy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com