Is the rider actually ever in control?

robinph

Just curious as to how much control a rider would actually have over their horse.

I was taking part in the Man v Horse marathon in Wales last weekend. Was a good fun event but slightly scary when running along a narrow path up a hill side and you hear the loud panting and steps of a horse coming up behind you. Thankfully I was only overtaken on sections that were on fairly wide paths.

Watching the later runners and riders come into the finish afterwards though we saw someone get literally knocked over the line by a horse. See pictures 3-7 on this page:

http://www.equinepix.co.uk/pages/events.php?gall_id=174&page_no=12

The line of sand across the grass is the finish line which is very wide and loads of room for everyone to get by. The runner was the only one that didn't know what was about to happen due to the noise from the crowd so he won't have heard them approaching. But why did the horse just keep running at him, or can the rider not actually steer away from him? It seemed as if the horse that hit him just wanted to keep running next to the other horse. Was it down to both riders needing to work together to get the horses to go a different way?

In defense of the horse it had just covered 22 country miles up and down some very muddy hills and through rivers so will have been a bit knackered, but so had the runner and I think he'd have still been able to avoid running into things.

He seemed to be uninjured thankfully and got straight back up and went charging after the horse before giving that idea up as a bad one.

Ave Sodalis

By the looks of it, the rider didn't see the runner until the last minute as she didn't start pulling away until she was nearly upon him. A horse wouldn't run over someone if they can avoid it but if the horse has enough trust in the rider, it would if the rider was still pushing him on. You can see the horse trying to jump over him as opposed to run into him.

robinph

There wasn't much of a push being put in by most of the riders coming into the finish as far as my uneducated eye could tell, they seemed to be just letting the horses do whatever speed they felt like and the horses seemed happy to stop. Was only the runners that would be running eyeballs out to the line for the sake of a second on the clock.

Good to know that the horse wouldn't just try and run you over.

Ave Sodalis

robinph wrote: »

There wasn't much of a push being put in by most of the riders coming into the finish as far as my uneducated eye could tell, they seemed to be just letting the horses do whatever speed they felt like and the horses seemed happy to stop. Was only the runners that would be running eyeballs out to the line for the sake of a second on the clock.

Good to know that the horse wouldn't just try and run you over.

That's the thing about horse riding, a good rider knows the small commands and shifts in weight can make a huge difference. Most disciplines aren't like racing, where the push isn't as obvious. She could have simply gave the horse a few more inches of rein or moved her arms a bit forward, allowing the horse to move faster and that's all the push needed Even an educated eye mightn't notice the difference :P

Esroh

Robinph.
I take it the finishing position mattered among the riding competitors.
Looking at the footfall pattern from the pics the Black horse is cantering to catch the grey and rider should have seen the runner(clearly visable in the 1st pic). Reins are to long by the time he reacts to the horse drifting towards the grey.
I would class this as lack of control.
It is bad riding and would not reflect what would be expected. I would think rider would have been repremanded. You would be if you hit another horse like that

jfh

HI Robinph, that looks like good craic, how did you get on?
what kind of times were the front runners coming in at, horse v man?

robinph

The position matters for personal pride of course. The horses were coming in mid field (19th and 20th of 38), the runner coming in 23rd of 245 finishers for the full distance runners. I'd not noticed that the horse was lifting it's front legs as it hit the runner, I guess he was as surprised as the rest of us as to why he was being told to run at the bloke.

I now know the prizes were not really worth racing for. I know the 3rd placed woman and she got £20 of William Hill vouchers which she was not too impressed with. But I was certainly putting in as much effort as I could to try and catch the 3rd placed relay team when I came in to finish, missed out on it by a few seconds.

robinph

jfh wrote: »

HI Robinph, that looks like good craic, how did you get on?
what kind of times were the front runners coming in at, horse v man?

It was great fun, but I'm not too keen on the idea of running up hills so chickened out of the full race and only did the last leg of the relay event. I put a write up on it on the Athletics/ Running/ Triathlon forum here, please excuse the waffling.

The "man" who won did the 22 miles in 2:25 and the first horse in 2:00. The man had finished third in the Cork marathon 5 days before as well though. He was also the first of only two people who have ever beaten the horses back in 2004 I think it was. The ground was very, very muddy so made it tough going for the runners, I disappeared half way up to my legs in a bog at one point.

later12

Esroh wrote: »

Robinph.
I take it the finishing position mattered among the riding competitors.
Looking at the footfall pattern from the pics the Black horse is cantering to catch the grey and rider should have seen the runner(clearly visable in the 1st pic). Reins are to long by the time he reacts to the horse drifting towards the grey.
I would class this as lack of control.
It is bad riding and would not reflect what would be expected. I would think rider would have been repremanded. You would be if you hit another horse like that

I'd strongly agree with this. The second rider's reins are far too long in the shot right before she hit the runner; she seems to have been assuming that her mount would dash around the runner of his own accord, which was a fairly elementary mistake. Simply a case of bad riding and lack of attention to others' safety.

To answer your question OP, is the rider ever in control: yes, most definitely. A good rider can control a well trained horse with remarkable precision, this pursuit occupies very much of the mind and goals of every rider in every field of equestrianism. Unfortunately, it was certainly not evident in the case above.