an idle question for the experienced trail riders - local endurance rider told me and a friend that if you have to swim your horse across a river, you need to loosen the girth or the horse will drown, the reasoning was that horses inflate there lungs to swim. Now considering horses inflate their lungs pretty well to gallop under saddle I thought it seemed a bit odd. Not a big deal for me as I ride english so I can just drop my girth a notch without getting off, but more work for my friend in her western saddle. Unlikely to ever come up with the areas we ride in but any truth to it?
I’ll add that one to my collection of “myths about horses”.
Horses don’t have special flotation bladders in their lungs which activate and help keep them afloat while swimming. And yes, as you surmised, the normal lung expansion happens the same in the water as it does on land.
The only piece of tack that needs attention when swimming a horse is any type of tie-down or martingale, which can drown a horse if it’s restricting his head and neck and so should be removed.
[QUOTE=sherian;8059635]
Unlikely to ever come up with the areas we ride in but any truth to it?[/QUOTE]
No. None at all.
It’s someone’s nonsense masquerading as “real”.
Having been swimming many times with horses decades ago as a youngster, ONE of the closest times I’ve had of killing myself (and the pony) was with a horse swimming while saddled.
We were galloping on the sandbars near home in Victoria, BC. The sand bar we were on was long, with the tip of it not far from the shore. Rather than gallop the whole way back to go around, my friend and I decided it would be easier to cross the water. We had been swimming many times, and felt that IF it got that deep, we could swim for a bit if necessary. So started across.
It got deep, and quickly. My friend’s horse started to swim, no problem. My pony, who normally swam just fine, took a few strokes, then stopped. And sank. She sank until she touched bottom, vertically. When she got to the bottom, she rocketed straight up, launching skyward. I had one hand locked into her mane, so was towed skyward at that point. But she was right under water, gone entirely under the water before she hit bottom and started the rocket ride. My head was still just above water, but I was reaching straight down to keep the grip on her mane. Once up on top of the water, she would take a few strokes of swimming, then start to sink again. She repeated this action for the duration of the crossing.
The sand bar had a huge undertow, which we, as children, did not know about. It was kind of famous actually, for this undertow, which eroded the end of that sandbar as the tide was turning. I think some divers were killed there at one point, when the point of the sandbar collapsed on top of them. So we were pretty lucky that day, me even more so since the pony “forgot” how to swim. When we crawled out onto the shore, both stirrups were pulled off the stirrup bars (I guess I had my feet in them to start with) and were dragging on the ground behind us, still hooked into the leather keepers on the flaps of the saddle.
The only difference between this escapade and many other swimming sessions was that the pony was wearing the saddle. My friend’s horse was also saddled, and did not have this problem, swam just fine, just like normal. So I can’t say if it was related or not, but have always wondered about it.
Perhaps the feeling of constriction of the girth comes more into play during swimming with some horses, sometimes.
Since I’m not fond of blowing bubbles from underneath a swimming horse, I’d leave my girth right where it was.
Miss Rocket Launch might have decided that was simpler than just plain swimming. She is not invited to play in my pool! :no:
