The Incident and the Hunting

I should have lunged first. But the arena was busy and I decided to take my chances on the trail. Some recent snow made the footing better so we trotted out for a nice solo ride. I was feeling pretty chill on the first afternoon of my holiday break and enjoying the warm weather that had the snow on the treetops melting into raindrops. It was nice.

I head down the ravine and take a picture of the lovely scene before we head up the hill. In that blind turn ahead a walker appears. A nice older gentleman I have seen before. We share smiles and pleasantries and cross paths. Ten feet later as I start heading up the steep hill on the left at the apex of the blind turn, a loose dog pops out.

I didn’t see much as everything else happened in a flash. It seemed like a medium size tan dog. Q did a 180 and galloped down the ravine, across the bridge and up the ravine. I lost my stirrup in the process and was pulling on reins and screaming whoa. Somewhere by the bridge I realized he wasnt going to stop, so I just went with it. We got to the top of the ravine and he finally stopped, pumping and blowing and jigging in place.

I hung out at the top of the ravine waiting for the walker or jogger with the loose dog to do the walk of shame. Eventually the older gentleman made his way up and smiled at me saying how impressed he was at the speed of our turn. I had a chuckle and said that I had lost my stirrup but was ok. I asked him about the loose dog, and he said “yes, but the rider turned around and went back the other way”.

What???

A horseback-rider?, I asked. Well, I continued, that merits an investigation.

I then worked a bit to convince my horse to go back down the ravine and we took off in full pursuit of this delinquent rider. I turned my horse into a hunter and he was all business. We went down the main trail but saw nothing. We turned down the main horse trail and still nothing. I was running out of options but had one last section to explore. Yep, in plain sight, with the loose dog bouncing all over the woods was a rider on a chesnut horse going on to a narrow trail.

I trotted up behind and let out a big friendly hello and followed her down the long narrow trail. She had no escape. The conversation was comical. I started by telling her I was all right. She didn’t understand. I repeated. And then after a funny change in language (I had started in French but she was English) I asked her if this was not the dog that I just saw in the ravine which sent my horse on a bolting gallop? Yes, she said, I decided to not go that way. Well, I returned, I just wanted you to know I was ok. She feigned ignorance of course. Ignorance as she was riding a friends horse and no, she didn’t have a trail pass, and no, she didn’t know loose dogs were not allowed, and no, she didn’t know that she left me in the middle of an incident and she was oooh so apologetic. 

So I took pictures while carrying on with a most pleasant conversation and suggested she would want to get a trail pass for 2021 because this was an absolutely fabulous time of year to ride and she would have great fun. I explained the importance of being a member for insurance purposes, and how the volunteers did an amazing job grooming the horse trails. And in the end, after multiple more apologies, she thanked me for being kind.

And I thanked my horse for calming down after a galloping scare, and becoming the hunter.