Necessary Skillz

I just watched the new movie, Out of the Wild, based on the book by Mark Rashid, produced and directed by Mark Rashid and just released on both DVD (Amazon) or electronic (iTunes). It was very, very good and I highly recommend it. I love old cowboys, and horses, and romantic love stories and this movie hit all of the high points. Go buy it and download it on iTunes to watch. Then buy the book and read it (I absolutely loved the book - better than the movie, even).

There was a scene that really resonated with me in the last part of that movie. Henry is leading a string of horses, each of them in a halter with the lead rope tied in a loop around the horse in front of them. Henry was holding the lead rope of the first ponied horse in his hand. He had a string of five or six horses following without issue behind him.

Rope around the horse in front like so, with a non-slip knot

(From the interwebs)

Flash to this morning when I was watching a newscast from southern California, where a news reporter was at a ranch that they were trying to evacuate. There were flames shooting high into the air in the background and you could barely see because of the rolling walls of smoke. I wanted to teleport into the scene, throw a saddle on one of the horses, link five or six behind me and lead them to safety. I wanted to scream at people to start rescuing the horses. (The good news is someone updated that all of the horses were rescued.)

From the interwebs

One of the big issues with any kind of evacuation is that not every horse owner has a rig to move their horse. Barn owners might have a trailer to move their own horses, or to help boarders moving in or out, other boarders might also have personal trailers, but there never seems to be enough trailers or trucks to haul out the trailers that are available. Not only that, but what if the road in and out of a ranch is blocked and impossible to haul a trailer down? It seems to me that grabbing a group and heading out on horseback makes more sense then just turning the horses loose. Part of the problem with turning horses loose is the prevalence of fences and barbed wire. This is why it is also important to carry a pair of wire cutters in your carry bag. 

I've decided to put "ponying multiple horses" on my list of skills to be learned. Ashke needs to know how to do it from both the ponied horse position as well as the being ponied horse position. We have ponied Eddy in the past, but I want to do other horses as well, in order to develop the skillz to handle any group at a time. I think it is an important skill set for both you and your horse to have.

In Colorado, we face flood and fire on a regular basis. It is good to have options to get the horses to safety.