| Vol 1 - Issue 6 | February 1997 |
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Watch Where you Step A Note About Our Cover By Bill Mattson It was a beautiful day at Lake Castiac. Since it was still a bit early, our boats were beached in a small bay while we waited for the wind to pick up. Along come a couple of "working" folks. I use the term loosely, since they were riding along the shoreline on horseback. Not what I would consider "working", at least as the term applies to my sitting in my office most of the day. But the two L.A. County Sheriff's deputies where on the job, none the less, and I'm sure the duty had its moments of less than enjoyable work at times. |
| As we sat in our lawn chairs about 50 yards away, we watched the deputies approach our two Hobie 16s to take a look. While next to the boats, however, the wind picked up and rattled the main halyards against the masts. This spooked the horses a bit, and the riders quickly corrected their movements as best they could. |
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After watching this behavior for a while, it became clear that some training was going on. The horses would
approach the boats, the wind would pick up, the halyards would rattle, and the horses would start jumping around.
This sequence repeated itself a few times. |
| I must admit, I was a bit uneasy about the whole thing. The boats were only about 20 feet apart, and the horses where jumping around them a bit close when the halyard rattled. I quickly grabbed a camera. The thought of a horse stepping through Frank's trampoline and thrashing about was something I thought would |
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make interesting
entertainment, and should be captured on film. The thought of this happening to my boat was significantly less
entertaining (to me anyway), but I figured it should also be captured on film for my insurance agent.
We took a walk down to greet the deputies and figured that the statement "Get your animal the heck away
from my boat!" would be an inappropriate greeting to law enforcement authorities. (The thought of Frank getting
a "shakedown" with both hands on the side of a horse would be another choice "photo op"). Anyway, the deputies were
very friendly, and we spoke for quite a while. They were indeed trying to get the horses used to sudden
noises, and our halyards were a new test. It appeared everything was under control, however. With their
permission, I took a few shots with the camera. I told them I thought they had a nice job, and they told me
where I could take a test. While it's not something I would consider doing, it's a nice feeling to have these
folks around. Just an extra margin of safety while we are out playing on the water.
Bill Mattson mattson@earthlink.net Back to Features |