Doug Payne is a talented eventer and social media genius so I suppose we can forgive him for perhaps not being the world’s best outrider. Doug is competing at the Stuart Horse Trials this weekend and he was kind enough to share the story of how he helped stop a loose pony by riding it into a pond. For much more from Doug check out his website and follow @dpequestrian.
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From Doug:
Stuart has a 15′ wide walkway leading out to the dressage with woods on one side and the pond on the other. I was just walking out to the dressage aboard Leo, a 5 yr old, when I heard some screaming coming from the hill in front of me. BN was running cross-country and it was tough out there. So I figured another loose one…this is where it gets interesting. Over the hill came a loose pony moving along quickly, but not as quickly as a poor girl and her horse on a gallop in front of it. I’m not sure where she started but she was at the buckle pulling as hard as she could and going 800m/m+. So I’m thinking this is a bad situation for me, pinned on this path, it was the woods or the pond. I tried my best to wedge myself in the woods as the first girl blew by me. At which time Leo spun and bolted.
Now it’s the girl, me and the loose pony running down the walk way. I got Leo back to a trot and just was stepping into a walk. He’s 18hh so he does a good job of slowing run away ponies. I begin to look back, expecting to grab the pony’s reins and, as ponies do, he figured he’d just go around me by stepping in the water. Little did he or I know but that pond gets very deep very quickly. So down it goes, completely submerged. It comes up gasping for air and floundering. At first I thought his leg was caught in the running, but somehow he got it out. So I jump off expecting to have to help the pony out of the water, but luckily he managed to flounder out. He seemed unhurt, but the poor girls tack had certainly seen better days.
