Montana Jones

Horse tales

He:

I don't know how those wranglers do it. I couldn't do it. M_ was telling me that she keeps seeing all those people at the end of their ride just barely hanging on and leaning way over in the saddle. Just tipped over like this. They must have those saddles cinched down really tight.

She:

Ha. And it makes you so sore to. I bet those people are just uncomfortable at the end of the day.

He:

And then there are the ones that fall off. I guess M_ had to help someone the other day that fell and hit their head.

Me:

I had an incident a few years back where a lady fell. Hit her head, got a concussion and alert had to fly her out.

She:

Oh god, what happened?

Me:

Well the official story is that someone up ahead dropped a water bottle and that made her horse misstep and buck her off. But you know what really happened is that she was tired. They were at the end of a three, four hour ride and she was tired and not paying attention and maybe there was a bottle and a misstep, but the lady just wasn't paying enough attention to stay on the horse.

He:

Or that one last summer where the kids got heat stroke and couldn't stay on.

Me:

I heard about that. Isn't that the incident where the dad or whoever told his kids not to drink any water because they were going to be on the horses for so long and he didn't want them to have to get off and pee. They ended up with heat stroke.

She:

Heat stroke. Oh god. Because they couldn't drink water?

He:

Yeah, I was there when they were leaving. I like to hold my horse as the group goes by. It's usually no big thing, but sometimes something can spook them, so I like to be there just in case. And I stood there and watched them get everyone saddled and ready and it was just crazy.

They would get someone up on the horse and then move on to the next one and meanwhile the first horse wanders off and starts eating grass or whatever and so eventually you have all these horses just scattered around with riders that don't know anything. And so they finally got everyone up and ready and the wrangler is all "So do you remember who you followed? Does everyone know where you belong in the line?" and they were all "yeah, we think so." Because the horses get used to following a certain animal and you can get them confused when you do it different.

So the wrangler gets saddled up on his lead horse and everyone works their way into line and as they are about to get going this one kid calls out "I need some water." The wrangler yells back that you all have canteens on your saddle there and the kid says again "I need water now." And then he topples over. Falls right off, fainted.

She:

Oh god.

He:

Yeah, they had been standing out in the sun for like twenty or thirty minutes, out in the heat getting saddled up and this is after spending all day without drinking any water. Gave him heat stroke.

So the wrangler gets off his horse to go back and deal with it and then his horse starts wandering off and of course the whole line of horses starts following him. So I go and hold that lead horse before it becomes even more of a circus. They got that kid taken care of. It was another half hour before they could get started down the trail. I don't know how those wranglers do it. I couldn't do it.

Labels: banter, concussion, conversation, falling, heat stroke, horse, horse ride, incident, stories, wranglers

Posted by: Montana Jones / 7:22 AM