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A good cinch

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I have a friend who years ago was working for an outfitter in the River of No Return wilderness. He was crossing the Salmon River with a pack string. Something happened and the entire string went down in the river. He went to cutting cinches and latigoes to get them back on their feet. Got the horses and mules out of the river and back on dry ground. Drug the pack saddles out of the river. And then had to figure out how to lash thing back on while in the middle of no where with the only help was a couple hunters who knew nothing about horses.
 
I don't think a person would/could pack enough extra gear to prepare yourself for something like that.
No doubt a memorable trip.
 
We were riding across the Powder River, those crossings changed from day to day and you had to be careful. It was like rubber on top and boggy underneath. You could jiggle it and make a wave going away from you. You sure didn't want to break through that rubber crust. In order to keep from breaking through, we always spread out and didn't follow another rider; except we had a kid with us this particular day that was pretty unconscious. He didn't pay attention and he followed another rider. He broke through the crust and
bogged his horse down really good. He managed to get off and the owner of the ranch (a really salty cowboy) told him to get the saddle off the horse. He couldn't seem to do that so the owner waded in and got the saddle off the horse. The horse was panicky and lunged to get out of the bog, and was really close to stepping on the owners spurs on the way out. I saw the whole thing and held my breath that everything would turn out okay.
So they got the horse out and put the saddle back on. The owner told the kid that there was a stock tank not far away and when we got there he was to clean the mud off the saddle. That kid unsaddled the horse and THREW the saddle into the stock tank!! The owner was so HOT, he told the kid, "when we get back to the house, you are going to take that saddle apart and find out what it's made from and CLEAN IT UP. "
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So when I saw this clip of the horse bogged down so bad, my first thought was "why don't they get the saddle off?" I suppose maybe they couldn't get to the cinches...he was in pretty deep. Sure glad he made it out.
 
Faster horses said:
We were riding across the Powder River, those crossings changed from day to day and you had to be careful. It was like rubber on top and boggy underneath. You could jiggle it and make a wave going away from you. You sure didn't want to break through that rubber crust. In order to keep from breaking through, we always spread out and didn't follow another rider; except we had a kid with us this particular day that was pretty unconscious. He didn't pay attention and he followed another rider. He broke through the crust and
bogged his horse down really good. He managed to get off and the owner of the ranch (a really salty cowboy) told him to get the saddle off the horse. He couldn't seem to do that so the owner waded in and got the saddle off the horse. The horse was panicky and lunged to get out of the bog, and was really close to stepping on the owners spurs on the way out. I saw the whole thing and held my breath that everything would turn out okay.
So they got the horse out and put the saddle back on. The owner told the kid that there was a stock tank not far away and when we got there he was to clean the mud off the saddle. That kid unsaddled the horse and THREW the saddle into the stock tank!! The owner was so HOT, he told the kid, "when we get back to the house, you are going to take that saddle apart and find out what it's made from and CLEAN IT UP. "
----------------------
So when I saw this clip of the horse bogged down so bad, my first thought was "why don't they get the saddle off?" I suppose maybe they couldn't get to the cinches...he was in pretty deep. Sure glad he made it out.
Click to expand...
That kid was living on borrowed time.
One of the comments I read made it sound like it was a 6' foot hole with an underground pipe feeding into it. Hard to say exactly why, Sounded like something that should be fenced off.. It read like the guy riding the horse was by himself, and was hanging onto the horses head to keep the horse from drowning when they found him.
When I first watched it seemed like it was an hour from start to finish, but the video was only about 15 minutes long. They did a good job of lifting him out.
 

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