It Could Happen Just About Anywhere...

You just never know when you need to stop your horse in a hurry and for the craziest things! (I can imagine everyone reading this all nodding their head in agreement right now.)

Pheasants jumping out of the bush suddenly causing your horse to freak out,

Big scary plastic, waving in the breeze, that your horse is sure that it's going to eat 'em.

A rider loosing control of their horse and the horse takes off into the 'wild blue yonder' - 'whoa... whoa', you hear them scream...

You know... stuff like that.

We all deal with it. We're either the spectator or the participant.

I'm sure people have lots of stories to tell. And this article is one of mine. It has a very happy ending.
 

Flex To An Emergency Stop (E1RS)

In my opinion, that's the time to do a Flex To An Emergency Stop.
An Emergency One Rein Stop.
All Horsemanship people have one - and for a very good reason. (I've already written lots about it on this website. Please see side bar. As I always say: "don't leave home without it"!)

 

Clinton Anderson calls it his 'emergency handbrake'. Quite an appropriate name, don't you think?

 

Here's my recent story to prove my point...

 

Bucking Horse At Team Penning

My student Leslie and I had gone to a team penning recently to work cattle and to try Leslie's new horse on cattle to see if it might have some cow sense. She would love to be able to use the horse to round up cattle at home and try her hand at team penning. (photo of Leslie flexing her new horse just after mounting.) The horse turned out to be great at team penning.
 

The team penning was going along smoothly and Leslie's new horse Sandy was showing great potential. I had decided to go and help to change cattle in between rounds. Leslie decided to hang back with a bunch of other riders waiting their turn to pen.
 

Out of nowhere, there came a bucking horse heading straight for Leslie and her horse. With quick thinking, Leslie flexed her horse and held on. Trying to keep Sandy calm as other horses became tense and startled as the bucking horse approached.
 

The bucking horse eventually stopped as it came to a fence and instantly all was quiet again. Just another day for most of the horses and riders.
 

When I looked over to see what all the commotion was about, I saw the bucking horse, got worried and quickly scanned the crowd to find Leslie! I could see the bucking horse as it stopped about 10 feet from Leslie. I was so glad and relieved! to see that Leslie had control of her horse and that nothing had gone wrong for Leslie. This was her first experience on her new horse.

She told me later that she was SO GLAD to know how to flex her horse to a stop or she thought she would've been thrown for sure; picking herself up off the ground.
 

What a relief to her and me! I'm sure she will always remember that day as long as she lives! And I'm glad no harm came to her or her new horse.

And that's why it's the 1st thing I teach my students and horses.

You just never know when you need it...

Putting my spin on The Emergency One Rein Stop (E1RS)

Reinersue

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