Road to Tevis #35: The dangers of riding in rocky terrain

The dangers of riding in rocky terrain are certainly not specific to preparing for the Tevis Cup, but most of the warnings I’ve received from experienced Tevis riders concern rocks. Going over them (especially Cougar Rock). Slipping down them. Stepping on them. Falling on them.

Been there, done that. It’s inevitable that you’re going to encounter lots of rocks if you ride in the Sierra Nevada and foothills. (See my post on prerequisites for riding the Sierra Nevada.) Ever since mid-January, when my second horse, Beroni, fell on a rock, I’ve been meaning to write this post. Because it will be short, I’m doing it now, when I am very busy with juggling work and going to a series of endurance rides.

Beroni’s fall

Beroni spent most of his life living in show barns. He retired at around 12 to groomed pastures in relatively flat Oklahoma. I took him on some trail rides there, but the biggest hill was a tenth of the smallest slope we have around here. And there are no rocks to speak of. (Or cattle!)

Of course, he’s afraid of certain kinds of rocks… small flat-topped boulders, for some reason. He went straight up an almost vertical slope the first day I rode him on the trail. (This told me I have a good endurance prospect!) He’s figured out he is not, in fact, a mountain goat. Now he just wheels.

He wasn’t afraid of large slick-rock (or as close to slick-rock as we get).

Unfortunately, I asked him to walk on one. I had followed the same path with Fantazia more than once, but she’s shod and savvy. Beroni is neither. We fell. He slid down the rocks, I stayed at the top of the little slope. Despite the abundance of black hairs left on the rock (Beroni is dark brown), we were both fine. My stirrup was not.

• 

• 

Of course, Beroni –who was already a bit nervous about this whole outdoors adventure thing– took this as a sign he needs to be on high alert whenever we go out on the trail. But he’s getting better, slowly. Yes, they can be dangerous, but rocks are also great training aides.

The dangers of riding in rocky terrain are mitigated by the advantages

When I am saddle-breaking a young horse, I get it out on the trail as soon as I can. The trail provides obstacles, which help the horse make sense of the aides I am using to teach it cues associated with direction and speed, etc. Trees are good, rocks are better, because they encourage the horse to pay attention to its feet. My general goal with any horse is to control exactly where it places each foot, when it does so, and how fast it moves. I’ve used rocks to help me do this ever since I was a teenager growing up in the Land of Plenty Rocks.

For a trail horse or endurance prospect, the goal has a step 2: teach the horse to navigate rocks on its own, on a long rein, without me micromanaging it.

The only way to turn your horse into a surefooted, smart rock-negotiator under saddle is to ride over and through lots of rocks. Ideally, the horse will also live in a rocky hilly environment, but of course, most of us do not have hundreds of acres of Sierra Nevada foothills to turn our horses loose on.

Fortunately, I can at least ride through rocks. We’ve got rocks everywhere.

Hoof protection can help

Yes, it does help to have shoes or boots on your horse. They provide traction… provided that they are not too used. In the case of steel shoes, rimmed shoes (I prefer concaves) give the most traction. All steel shoes get slick with use, so pay attention. If your horse’s shoes are starting to resemble slick knives, avoid rocks that she cannot avoid stopping on.

but it’s mainly about experience…

Fantazia didn’t fall where Beroni did because she’s negotiated a lot of rocks. She is cautious. I always tell my boyfriend, getting hurt on the trail is not on Fantazia’s agenda! She has learned that when she feels a foot slip, she should put her weight on another foot. Fantazia is fully 4-wheel drive at this point. Actually, she’s more like the modern all-wheel drives where the car spins each wheel according to relative traction. This is great, and can only be achieved by riding in rocky terrain in all conditions.

Rocks encountered in other enviroments

It’s actually more dangerous to encounter a stone on an otherwise smooth surface than to ride through many rocks. Most of us slow down when its clearly important to do so, but it can be easy to go fast when we aren’t expecting danger. I’ve never had a horse get a stone bruise on the trail, or even (yet) in an endurance ride. But I’ve had plenty on the racetrack (supposedly groomed) in Spain. Fantazia got a bad stone bruise when I was riding her years ago (see the story of when I met Fantazia) in the arena. She was off for months.

• 

• 

That’s all I’ve got! If you have a fun (or scary) story about the dangers of riding in rocky terrain, please share it a comment!

• 

• 

• 

•