I finally had a mishap behind the lines. I've been extremely lucky, and a lot of that is because I try to do everything in my power to consider safety. Well, sometimes things just happen.
We were just walking down the road, and then it happened. In one horrible sweep, Rachael took away my ability to use my left line. As she was walking, she lowered her head as low as the check would allow, and then she raised it up quickly and swung her head to the right. Well, when she dropped her head, her cross-check line went under the end of the pole, and so when she raised her head and swung it out, it pulled hard on the cross-check line and pulled the cross-check buckle through the ring of the spreader.
I saw it instantly, and pulled on the left line to try and pull the buckle back through, but it would not come. It jammed in the ring, which basically kept me from being able to put any pressure on the left bit of either horse. BAD!
I started saying Woah and I pulled on both lines, hoping I could get a little pressure on that left side of the bit, but I couldn't. What ended up happening, was the girls turned right. They ended up stepping down into a ditch, but then stopped before going up the other side. I handed my son the lines and told him to to keep them tight and I jumped off and quickly grabbed lead lines. Whew. I then fixed the lines, and led Pam to the left, out of the ditch. Rachael followed perfectly, and only one wheel dipped into it as we straightened out.
So ... this leads to a question that I am pursuing now. How do you keep this from happening??? What trick is there to keep the buckle from sucking all the way through those spreading rings? I'll post anything I learn. This seems like it would be a common problem and that there would be a solution for it. If anyone knows, please feel free to post a comment here and let me know.
Tim, I thinki was taught this solution even though I never used it. Before you run the lines through the spreader, first run them through a larger loose ring, and then through the spreader ring. I thinknyou run the lines through the big ring , each from a different side. This big ring will not pass through the smaller rings. I may not have thisnright, I'll look tomorrow through my books.
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