Wow, those stories make my trail riding stories seem boring! The craziest thing that has ever happened to me has been broken tack. Once the Chicago screws come off my reins while I was galloping down the trail. It's kind of scary to pull back on the reins to slow down your horse and have nothing happen. Why? Because the reins are no longer attached to the bit.
wow all of your stories are so scary! I'm sure that I hope that I will never encounter what you guys did. However, from now on, I will always wear a helmet. I was trail riding with my instructor out on the road. We were walking along nicely until we decided we wanted to canter a bit. Well we did. Or at least, his horse did. I got my horse to canter one stride before I somersaulted off its back and my head landed on a rock. You're probably thinking I was dead by now, but luckily, I had my helmet on! I was even thinking of ditching the helmet that day because it was such a hot day. Luckily, all I got was a sore butt and arms that week!
Such great stories you guys all have!! I guess my trail riding stories don't compare!! My only problem so far on a trail ride??A STUBBORN horse...lol!
well i have quite a few scary trail stories. here is one. i was riding a stubborn, crazy, rather young horse named rum when he decided to back under a tree and start bucking (i wasn't wearing a helmet)
I've been riding with my friend - who was on her Arab gelding - and her mom, who was on her Clydesdale stallion. I was riding my young Quarter Horse/Mustang mare when suddenly she started hiding behind trees and hopping around like she didn't know how to buck! Me and my friend were both bareback, and once her Arab saw my mare acting funny, he decided he would get jiggy as well. Then, my friend looked up and saw a mountain lion watching us from higher up on the hill! We all got home just fine, and naturally the Clydes was the only horse who was completely unshaken, but that was a bit of excitement I might not ever forget.
i used to lease a handsome arabian gelding, who had been trained by his first tme horse owner. he was alright, but he bucked and reared. one day, on my second ride with him, he took off with me. i am very accustom to horses freaking out, so i was on yelling whoa and pulling him back while he plunged at a cliff! when he got there, he stopped suddenly and lowered his neck! i rolled off the side so i wouldn't fall off the cliff! it was sooo scary! other times, when i was riding bareback, he would buck and rear, so now i can stay on anything, and training my new horse is no problem! I actually like spirited high strung horses now, and i get bored on horses who are actually easy riders.
One of my most memorable trail rides was last summer when I flew out to CA for dressage lessons at Vigne Farms. Some cow ponies were boarded there and after meeting the owner, she said any time I was out I could take a freind and trail ride them. So me and my good "English sass" buddy would ride down the steep fire route trails on these good Western cow ponies and we just had a ball! My friend was most DEFINATELY the arena rider but she couln't get enough of how relaxing just a simple Western trail ride was when she's so used to all the physical Dressage dicipline. I think we'd both like a little more of each other's worlds!
Once my sister and I were trail riding our horses in an area that also has a rental string. We were riding along and heard, "Whoa! WHOA!" and looked up and way in the distance we saw this guy just being galloped off with by one of the rental horses. There wasn't anything we could do except just stare and hope he got the horse stopped. It had to be about 20 minutes later when we were further down the trail and we hear again, "Whoa! WHOOOOAAAA!!!!" Yup, it was the same guy, on the same galloping horse, only going down a different trail. The horse seemed to be having some fun. But I don't think the guy was enjoying his horseback ride.
You guys all have good stories! I'm on the same boat with the person who said that she likes the spirited high-strung horses and can stay on anything. I'm not positive about the second part, but at least I have enough confidence, and I'm the one told to "ride out" misbehaving horses for lesson students and less experienced riders. I have several trail riding stories I could share, but I'll tell one that happened last summer. I was teaching Advanced Camp at the stable I work at, and we do mostly trail riding. The four year old gelding was on (who is an AMAZING horse and for sale on HorseTopia- Two socks Dun, or Red, as we call him) decided to rub his head on a dead tree. I turned around to warn the girls behind me, because the last time he did that it fell right in front of his nose, and even if he didn't do anything, who knew where this one would fall. The words were barely out of my mouth when the whole top of the tree came crashing down...on nothing other than my own head! I started laughing, then laughed harder when I saw the looks of shock on the girls' faces. They kept asking me if I was OK- I guess they mustn't have fully understood how thick and protective helmets really are!
One day me and my instructor were taking a trail ride. It was the middle of winter and the horses were frisky.