Last Friday my wife and I joined about thirty other people - wranglers and guests - on the 2005 Red's Meadow Fall Horse Drive. We spent three days bringing about 100 horses and mules from Mammoth Lakes to Bishop - about 50 miles away - for the Winter.

I'll have more pictures to post in the near future, but to begin with, here's one of me atop Goliath, the horse I rode for three days. He stands somewhere between 17.2 hands and 18 hands (that's 5'10" - 6'0" at the withers - the highest point of the backbone just below the neck) and weighs, I suspect, somewhat North of 2,000 lbs.

Goliath is quite herd-bound, so pulling him out of the herd to chase down a stray horse was quite a chore; it's not easy to push around one ton of recalcitrant horseflesh. He reared up six or eight times during the trip, and almost flipped over backward on me once. One of the wranglers commented afterward, "Nice riding."

 

jus' a lil pony ya got there.

J/K, that's a big horse.

 

Holy cow, that's a big horse.

Nice helmet.

 

My trainer says he's likely close to 2,500 lbs.

When my wife fell from our youngest Arabian in March a helmet just like mine helped her avoid, at the very least, a concussion. Nice? Indeed!

 

Oh, believe me, I'd wear a helmet too. I just know it looks funny.

You should see me with a helmet on (anything less than a full-face, at least) - I look ridiculous. Not sure why - I normally don't look ridiculous.

 

Goliath is my kind of horse - just love the big horses. I have a draft-x (3 YO) that will probably be about as tall as Goliath, but probably not as heavy. I also have a 16+ quarter horse.

I ALWAYS ride with a helmet. If you don't have anything to protect, then don't protect it. In other words if you don't have much of a brain to begin with you don't need a helmet. Since I make my living with my brain, I protect it.

I have seen too many people get thrown and avoid serious concussions by wearing a helmet (my wife) and too many people get thrown without helmets and end up in the hospital for 3 or 4 days with concussions (my horse trainer).

I gave up a long time ago on not doing smart things because they make me look like a dork. I figured that I was going to look like a dork anyway, so I might as well do it safely.

 

Yesterday and today I was back to riding Khaleel and Boris, two of our three 14.3-hand Arabs.

When you're ready to dismount it's nice not needing a telescope to find the ground.

 

That's a large horse.