I can be a slow learner. Saturday at SoCo god smacked me upside the head with the "use a crupper" cluebat. Tanzaknight has needed a crupper but with a forward cinch rigging and getting off for steep downhills it did not seem critical and I was nervous that if he took offense when it engaged down a hill I'd get launched because he is such a strong athletic horse.
So Saturday we had gone down some gradual hills and not climbed anything steep enough to get the saddle back to centered. We are going down a logging road riding on the downhill side of the road. Tanza stumbled, could not recover and went to his knees and then to his side with his feet pointed up the hill. I bailed off as he was falling. A very scary 3 minutes when he could not get up with trail companions trying to pull his head up towards the road wondering if he had a wrecked leg or something. I decided he had room to get back to the road if he got up facing downhill and Dana then pulled on his tail to help him and he got up. I led him a mile down to the Doubloon ranch headquarters and he was walking fine by the time we got there, thank GOD. Ride vet was there and checked him out, no hanging pulse, moving normally so I opted to lead him the couple miles back to ride camp to pull, no need to arrange a trailer for him.
Tanza didn't get the memo that he was pulled and about a mile from camp he was getting so impatient and tossing his head wanting to hurry along that I got on him and rode the last bit in. He did not get stiff and sore standing in camp with just a few walking breaks and as I was reflecting on "why did he stumble" I finally thought 'the forward saddle is throwing off his center of balance, especially when I pitch forward a bit during a stumble.' So I tried the crupper I had in the trailer on him, taking just a short ride and reaching back to pull on the crupper since I didn't go downhill enough for it to engage on its own, with no issues. Vetted him properly for the RO pull and Sunday pre-exam and the vets did a morning trot out check before the Sunday ride start. Vet saw a mild hitch in his left hind at the first vet check so after the first couple miles of the second loop, having told the person I was riding with that I'd back off the pace on the downhills I got off and lead Tanza down the section where he had fallen on Saturday so he was all by himself and no herd instinct to rush his pace and he finished the ride strong.
It was a wonderful course for the 3rd day. No long climbs up the peaks but some technical sections where the horses had to walk on both the 2nd and 3rd loops. Second loop had some really fun new trail to add mileage. I can not express sufficient thanks to Tennessee, the Lane family, and their neighboring landowners for putting on this ride, sharing their wonderful scenic area with us endurance riders.
Moral of the story: If your saddle works forward you NEED a crupper.
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