Another Close Call…

I don’t know if it will make you feel any better, but I did the same thing last month while helping Sam clean up a sugarbush, but I was lucky that I just twisted my ankle and the wood missed me. I had already brought a few poles through but my foot found a hollow spot in the ground and I went down, the lines escaped my hands, the mare hesitated at my whoa, but when she felt the lines loose she just kept going, blazed her own exit trail behind the ice cream stand, safely crossed the state highway and stopped when she made it back to the barn. She is what we refer to as a union horse, when that end of the work day whistle blows in her head she is done with work, I am the 4th person she has done this to in some way or another.

Some one had unhitched her by the time I caught up with her and told me it was no use and that I would not “win.” But I had a job to finish, so I hitched back up and twitched a couple more sticks out of the sugar bush. Sam finished when my ankle said I was done and she tried to walk off on him, but failed when she hit the end of the lines tied to a sapling while he was bucking up a log. She is a good horse, but certainly thinks nothing of taking her own initiative now and then. I think that we ended up “winning” just because we got the job done in the end.

I am glad that you and JD are reasonably well after that incident, they certainly keep us on our toes don’t they. I hope that your knee heals fast and our “union horses” do better at following safety standards in the work place, even if the whistle blows 🙂

stuff happens. but why such a light load.you could have stopped to let him blow on the way to the landing.that is a big horse his load looks mighty light to my way of thinking.

hi jen,
sorry to hear about you bumps and bruises. i seem to remember that the third day out is or seems to be the worst.

thanks for telling your story. i have to go through the same dance here soon. i sold two really good twitch horses this past year, and now have to split up a strong young team of geldings that have teamed together their whole lives. if i want a single that is. i have been putting it off and twitching with them as a team. its overkill for sure, and a little clumsy but they go well together. its easy to forget what can happen when things go different out here, so thanks for the heads up, even if it wasn’t meant that way. hope you are on the mend and feel better soon. mitch

Sorry Jen, I know about sore knees too.

I offer this observation for what it’s worth.

I notice in one picture you hold the extra reins clasped in your hand in kind of a bundle, and I know you prefer to hold the reins in your fist, the live end coming out of the bottom.

I like to hold my lines between pointer and index finger. Then I can hold a coil of lines between thumb and pointer, so that I can uncoil them easily if the horse starts to move faster than I can, and let the lines slide through my hands.

I have found that positioning yourself so that your feet need to move as soon as the horse moves can be a problem. I also like to move myself up alongside the horse, and out of the way, and start the horse while standing still letting the lines slide through my hands, sometimes for as many as 10 feet.

It may be more than expected to change your preferred hold, but think about practicing letting the lines slide while standing still, especially starting the load. In some conditions it is the only way to keep from getting tangled up.

Slack-line whoa is a good way to assist in those situations where the lines drop. I have dropped the lines many times, but the slack being my signal for whoa has saved me almost :eek:every time.

But of course, as has been said, shit happens, to even the best prepared. I’m sorry you are in pain, but I’m glad you could recover the day, and your knee will recover too.

Carl