A Horse Saves The Day.....

I went to the Live Oak International  show today......  with plenty of batteries, that were full.   I got a slew of amazing pictures.  This first set I am posting is honor of all the brave horses who rode their hearts out, inspire of their riders.
     
Top left: the horse sees the distance isn't right...  he has put his front feet out as if to slide to a stop.  The rider's job is to rate the horse and get it to the correct distance to jump cleanly and safely.  The horse is worried....

Bot tomLeft..  both of front are on the ground, but the momentum is carrying the horse forward.  The rider is in a forward position, not able to check the stride, which would have shortened the distance, enough........

The horse can't hold the momentum... he has to lift his front end as he comes in under the distance and rocks back on his fetlocks.  This will allow the horse to jump, but without the power to clear the 6' fence.  

Up, front end clear......    but as he clears the front end, you can see the back end is missing the powerful thrust of the hind quarter, the hind legs are too close to the rail, he won't have time to tuck them up and clear.....
The back legs rap the rail and sends them flying in front of him.
Amazingly this good horse manages to clear all the rails and stride on without stepping on a one.  The rider must sit, regroup, gather reins, collect his horse, and look where he is going because the next jump is only 6 strides away........
This was a fine effort by the horse to fix rider error and not have either go down.  
As a  person on the side lines I gasped with all the other spectators hoping for a good ending.

It was a great day, I have several great shots that I will post tomorrow.  The horses were grand, the weather was beautiful,  The grounds were terrific!  
And, all the batteries worked great!  :-)