outoftheboxstall
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change-Wayne Dyer
What Could Rodeo Teach Us About Safety? Maybe More Than You Realize.
I have lots of hopes and dreams for this blog, not the least of which is to have guest bloggers who can change our perspective on certain things, or at least provide food for thought. As luck would have it, there are lots of those kinds of people in the world! So I’m happy to introduce my first guest blogger, one very special cowboy, Max LaMee! (PS: He’s also a great show announcer for hire, if you need one. maxlamee@gmail.com)
The equine industry is a huge industry with a lot of different niches. There are small things different disciplines do that their counterparts don’t. However there is often a lot of crossover between these disciplines that often gets overlooked because we horse people are very opinionated. I was one of those stubborn people myself, generally falling into the rodeo category I thought “what in the world can I learn from English pleasure.” It turned out there were a lot of things. Not everyone gets to look behind the scenes of rodeo so I’ll share some things that could be helpful to riders of other disciplines as well.
Keep your equipment as clean and functional as possible. Your tack is generally the physical link between you and your equine partner. It will make you and the horse more comfortable. I don’t like to wear dirty clothes that don’t fit well so I figure horses don’t either.
Stretch, if you go to a rodeo you will see competitors stretching. Stretches don’t take much time and they prevent injury. You warm your horse up, why shouldn’t you get ready to compete as well? Another thing you might see at a rodeo is a horse in the chutes and a cowboy holding onto a mane pulling a horses neck back and forth. This is to loosen the horse up, they get nervous just like us. Horses will lock up their jaws and necks when they get nervous. Getting the jaw or neck to release that tension will often relax the horse.
From a personal safety perspective, rodeos have an increasingly growing number of helmets being worn nowadays. One thing rodeo contestants have been doing for years though is wearing mouth guards. Sure it helps protect your teeth but they also may help prevent concussions that can lead to brain damage. It’s a mouth guard, cheap, easy to use, and some will even come with insurance if your teeth are injured wearing them. Also your boot soles should be taken into account. For safety PRCA rules require competitors to wear leather soles to prevent getting hung up in stirrups. The leather slides easier than rubber soled boots. Hopefully you never get hung up in a stirrup but it happens. If you find yourself hung up try to tun onto your stomach, this will turn your foot allowing you to get free.
Our disciplines can be very different but there are amazing horses and humans in every one of them.
outoftheboxstall 
Recent Comments